Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars

 PlayStation Vita
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release Date: Apr 15, 2014
  • Also On: 3DS, PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 105 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 105
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 105
  3. Negative: 17 out of 105
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Anxa
    Apr 16, 2014
    4
    Spike Chunsoft and Atlus have been real winners for me in the past, having been involved in my #2 and #1 favorite games respectively. It's too bad then that such breeding grounds for talent produced such a mediocre game. While the art direction is solid, the dungeon crawling is boring and uninspired. The only saving grace would be the classmating system, a dating sim clearly trying toSpike Chunsoft and Atlus have been real winners for me in the past, having been involved in my #2 and #1 favorite games respectively. It's too bad then that such breeding grounds for talent produced such a mediocre game. While the art direction is solid, the dungeon crawling is boring and uninspired. The only saving grace would be the classmating system, a dating sim clearly trying to remind us of Persona but falling short on milquetoast characters and tired tropes.

    This game clearly *wants* to be edgy, but in the end it feels like lazy pandering to an increasingly irrelevant audience.    … Expand
  2. RadioactiveMoth
    May 31, 2014
    0
    The game is a dating sim, with easy, and monotonous, gameplay. Most scenes are meant to simply arouse the undoubtedly teenage player with shots of the females' undergarments, and breasts. Coupled with poor, and awkward writing, it makes the game unbearable for anyone who would rather simply watch adult videos instead of playing a game to get hard.
  3. ryuzaki57
    May 11, 2014
    4
    A true gaming UFO, Conception II had seduced me by its attractive character design. 40 hours and a western release later, it's time for a frank verdict

    In Conception II, a deep-rooted evil force sends to the world armies of monsters via seven «labyrinths of sin», threatening mankind's future. Only a few chosen ones called 聖徒 (roughly «sacred children», kinda rings a bell) have to power    A true gaming UFO, Conception II had seduced me by its attractive character design. 40 hours and a western release later, it's time for a frank verdict

    In Conception II, a deep-rooted evil force sends to the world armies of monsters via seven «labyrinths of sin», threatening mankind's future. Only a few chosen ones called 聖徒 (roughly «sacred children», kinda rings a bell) have to power to seal them. And that's actually one dude (you) and seven girls. This ultra-generic and highly cliché setting being an excuse to throw you in the progression system of this game that consists in dating and make children (!).

    Therefore, you have to choose a girlfriend. Well actually you don't have to, because you can have several at the same time. The first phase consists in dating your classmates to raise your friend level. Those mini-events are rather well done : the girls look pretty cute and funny, character modeling and animation are very nice. Even if only a limited part of the dialogs is dubbed, the little conversations you have with your mates are really enjoyable as the Japanese voice actresses delivered their best. In particular, Rorona's voice actress Mai Kadowaki does a wonderful job as Toori who is adorable. Unfortunately for you guys, you won't be able to experience that since Atlus USA scrapped the Japanese voices. Sadly, there are not that many of those events, or least not enough to last 40h without regularly repeating the same ones. While talking you'll often be prompted to choose between several answers, but as far as I noticed the impact on the gameplay is nil. After that you go directly to the church, not for the marriage, but to give birth to your children directly (!). No need to panic though, everything's done by a simple hand contact between the main protagonist and his partner (!). Your kid get immediately off his egg (!!!) and you now just have to assign him some job (Lancer, Gunner, Healer, etc.) before going down the mazes with him. Because in clear violation of International Labour laws, you'll have your kids do most of the fighting against the demonic creatures standing on your way.

    That's where everything begins to collapse : the battle system allows you to attack the enemy from 4 sides, a bit like Atelier Ayesha but in far less complex or interesting. Unlike Atelier where you have to master a variety of alchemy items and skills, in Conception II you just have to spam your most powerful attack to progress. Buffs and debuffs exist but in 40h I haven't seen a single moment where they could be important. In the same way, the specialty of the children hardly matter in general. There's Also a «chain» system to push back the enemy in the timeline, but it's far from efficient (at least it gives you extra exp. points). Adding to an already tiresome battle system, the game has some stupid difficulty spikes, especially at the end when the sixth boss of the last dungeon flattened my team while I had met little resistance so far. Seriously, being robbed of the ending trophies after hours of boring fights is unacceptable.

    Only one half of Conception II is decent : the dating is cool, the dating artworks are cool, the dating music is cool, but combat is really terrible in every aspect. I have a feeling that the fundamental problem about this game is that it's too long. Shorter, the poor battle system would have been less annoying and you wouldn't have had to repeat the same dating events which would have allowed the player the enjoy the character design more serenely (despite some awful kitsch here and there)    … Expand
  4. Trollton47
    Jan 2, 2015
    3
    this game can be easily summed up as "Persona. Minus the good". It is so similar to Persona that it is a waste of time to compare it to anything else. Now there are definitely things that I like about this game. such as the Class mating system (the name of which makes me laugh every time I say it) and the occasional fight does manage to be somewhat entertaining. In addition to all of thisthis game can be easily summed up as "Persona. Minus the good". It is so similar to Persona that it is a waste of time to compare it to anything else. Now there are definitely things that I like about this game. such as the Class mating system (the name of which makes me laugh every time I say it) and the occasional fight does manage to be somewhat entertaining. In addition to all of this the art design is very well done. easily the best part of the game.
    But all of this doesn't even come close to making up for the horrible writing. I would normally forgive it. If it wasn't half the game. Also like persona, the game is half dungeon crawling, half dating sim. a feat which requires very good writing to pull off. Something that this comes nowhere close to doing. The dating sim elements vary from "Hilariously bad" at best to "Painfully dull" at worst. All of girls are such blatant anime stereotypes that I don't believe I ever learned any of their names. I more-or-less just called them "Vanilla, Mature, Tsundere" and so-on.
    And while the dungeon crawling was occasionally interesting. It is typically pretty average, with only a few bosses and the aforementioned "class-mating" mechanic to redeem it. I would give the combat 6/10. But it is completely not worth suffering through the other half.
    As a long-time fan of the persona series. And a visual novel and jrpg enthusiast. This really seems like it should be right up my alley. But I cannot bring myself to like this game. From the above score I can safely assume that some people obviously do.
    I wouldn't be reviewing this game if I didn't think it was for me. But I honestly think I was exactly the person they wanted to play it.    … Expand
  5. Juberberry
    Jun 15, 2014
    2
    This game is terrible.

    I took a chance and bought this game because a number of people claim that if you enjoyed Persona 4 that you will enjoy this. They cannot be more wrong. The relationships developed between characters in this game are so shallow as to be little more that tropes. The sexual euphemisms and imagery are as subtle as penis jokes when eating a hot dog. The combat    This game is terrible.

    I took a chance and bought this game because a number of people claim that if you enjoyed Persona 4 that you will enjoy this. They cannot be more wrong.

    The relationships developed between characters in this game are so shallow as to be little more that tropes. The sexual euphemisms and imagery are as subtle as penis jokes when eating a hot dog.

    The combat is the only thing even slightly interesting and was quite fun, but the intermissions between dungeon crawls made me wretch to badly that my stomach is now located somewhere in the region of my adams apple.    … Expand
  6. deadlysilentbob
    Jan 7, 2015
    1
    Lets NOT make games with teenagers having forced, church ordered 'sex'. This game was creepy to me from the getgo. The seemingly antigravity boobs do it no justice either. Atlus should have used these resources to make another persona/etrian oddyssey game
  7. Bigchill
    Mar 8, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is one of the worst games I have played. I had to create an account just for this pile of garbage. Idk why anyone likes this type of stuff as persona has this as well. So games need this thing to keep players engaged past story that's sprinkled in (virtual novels are an exception.) And oh boy... The gameplay in this is so bad... So repetitive I mean holy hell the most unimaginative thing I have seen. Do not buy this game at all. The story barely carries and this took me years to finally reach this point the massive difficulty spike at the end in the pride dungeon sucks and TF with the enemies having like 3 turns BS anyways I deleted all save data for this crap and will never play it again or anything like it and yes persona gives me that same feel so that's going too. Although that one seems to have a pretty good story. Is this a big rant sure but fair warning you will not like this game or you will at least not be in the majority… Expand

Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Best PS Vita Game of 2014
13
#13 Most Discussed PS Vita Game of 2014
15
#15 Most Shared PS Vita Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 24
  3. Negative: 1 out of 24
  1. SpazioGames
    Jun 24, 2014
    65
    There's both a lot of JRPG and a lot of dating sims better than Conception II out there, especially on PSVita and 3DS, but if you want a taste of both genres in a single game, this is the way to go.
    Read full review
  2. DarkZero
    Jun 20, 2014
    70
    It’s not a great RPG – it’s too easy for starters – but I feel Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars is good enough that I can recommend this B-tier social linking, dungeon crawler to the diehard JRPG fans looking for a unique twist on the genre for their Vita.
    Read full review
  3. Worth Playing
    Jun 2, 2014
    65
    Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars is bland, tedious, and unexceptional.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »