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INTRO
You know a game is going to be interesting when it starts off with the childhood friend of the main character telling you that she’s pregnant. Enter Conception PLUS: Maidens of the Twelve Stars, a game that follows high school student Itsuki Yuge who finds himself transported to Kingdom of Granvania, a land plagued by impurities that can only be stopped by Itsuki with the help of the 12 star maidens.
STORY
As already stated, the game follows a high school student who is essentially the chosen one that alone has the power to defeat impurities. These impurities were created by the dark desires of people. In the lore of the game, the impurities were sealed away in 12 shrines housed in a labyrinth by the court mage using the power of the 12 star maidens. Every so often, one of the seals wears down and a hero is chosen to team up with a star maiden, forming a strong bond to once again seal the shrine. In the case of this game, all 12 of the shrine seals happened to wear out meaning that Ituski has to seal 12 shrines if he hopes to return home. That means that he will need to get close with all 12 star maidens to deepen their bonds.
CHARACTER/GIMMICKS
The gimmick in this game is that the protagonist will need to partake in classmating with each shrine maiden if he wants to protect the kingdom. Classmating is a sacred ritual where the chosen one and star maiden combine their star energy to create a star child. Star children can be one of 19 classes and, like Itsuki, have the ability to fight and defeat impurities making them vital members of the team. Their strength is limited based on the bond of the star maiden. What this means is that they have a level cap based on the Itsuki’s bond level with a particular maiden. The starting star children you get have a max level of 10. Once they hit that level, they quit growing and no longer gain experience in battle. When this happens, it’s time to send them out into the world. Doing so increases the level of Granvania, adding new things like a daycare to help level up star children and a gift shop where you can buy presents for the maidens. It also frees up your party allowing you to classmate for new stronger star children. You level up the bond with each star maiden by participating in bonding events that feel a little bit like a dating simulator. Each maiden has their own unique personality as well as likes and dislikes that can affect how you bond with each one.
COMBAT/SKILLS
Combat takes place in a giant labyrinth filled with lots of mini ones and is turn-based. Each labyrinth contains 5 floors filled with enemies and a boss at the end of each floor. You can take up to three teams of four star children into a labyrinth to fight with you and can equip your team (Itsuki included) with a weapon, piece of armor and an accessory. Each star child will have different skills depending on their class and a team of them can merge together to form a giant battle robot to deal some serious damage. There is also the option to have your team battle enemies automatically using some preset options like going all out or choosing to attack while conserving MP. Some other things to note are that there are items littered all around the labyrinth that you can collect ranging from gear upgrades to healing items. There are also various hidden traps placed around the labyrinth. They have effects such as dealing 10% damage to your team or sealing your abilities.
PROs/CONs/Recommendation
I felt the story in Conception PLUS was just okay. It was interesting enough to keep me playing but never really grew into anything beyond that. The main focus was on the bonding events with the maidens and for that I enjoyed interacting with about half of them. The other half were basically children and that is just not my thing. Having to cycle out star children regularly got a little tedious because you were always having to level up the newbies but that was made bearable with the automatic battles option. If I’m being nitpicky, I felt that the range to trigger a fight with an enemy was a little inconsistent. There were times when I would be trying to pick up an item only to initiate combat with an enemy that was a good distance away. I also didn’t like that after a fight, the enemies on the map start moving before you are fully loaded in. This allows them to charge at you before you regain control starting another battle. Also the mechanic for being at a disadvantage for being attacking from behind was really wonky. Some enemies would just appear behind you while others would attack from the side, but the game registered them as being behind you. I also felt that there was a massive spike in difficulty between the last and second to last labyrinths that felt a bit unfair. All in all, I enjoyed my time with Conception PLUS and would only recommend it to people who are new to RPGs as it isn’t too hard to pick up and play or those who really like interacting with secondary characters like the maidens.
Click here to try Conception PLUS: Maidens of the Twelve Stars!
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