Still haven’t finished Conception II (spoilers)

34 hours in and still not done with Conception II. TBH I haven’t had much time to play in the past two weeks and the dungeons are so boring I often don’t feel like playing even when I do have the time. If not for the girls and their promised endings, I would have dropped the game by now. I press on for the sake of Serina. And Ellie. And Fuuko.

But I do feel a strong temptation to drop it and move on, which is why I tried to power through to the end of the game this weekend. Using Detailed Maps to head straight for the exit on every floor worked pretty well until I got to the end of the Pride dungeon. I beat the Dusk Spawner easily. Then the true boss showed up and began cackling about how we had been doing his will along mwahaha thanks suckers, you never saw it coming mwahaha.

Nah, I knew it all along bro. It’s always like this with these Collect MacGuffin storylines. Either the boss wants you to collect them or he’s going to run off with them as soon as you’re done. I don’t even blame the baddies by now. The stupid hero had it coming for hardly asking any questions and just going along with what people told him because they seemed to know what they were doing.

Why are you gathering Dusk Spawners, what has your research revealed so far, how is sealing them going to help if we don’t know the cause of the Dusk Circles, and so on and so forth? To Giles’ credit he does push back a bit here and there, but he backs down too easily. As the unique God’s Gift, he should be in a stronger position to demand some answers. Maybe if Conception II was a more serious RPG and not a waifu simulator we might have gotten what I wanted. Then again maybe not, that’s just how JRPGs work.

Anyway, a few minutes after the bad guy revealed himself, I ran into a boss battle I couldn’t win and had to retreat. A tactical retreat, mind you. Giving up is still tempting, b-but muh waifus… And I can’t leave poor **** like that anyway, I hope I can save him somehow.

My proposed strategy is to grind up a bit on the Sagitta enemies and farm a few Multi-Potions to cope with the boss’s heavy attacks. Who on earth said Conception II was easy?! …Actually it really is, it’s just this one boss and that one other boss. And maybe the last boss might be a pain as well, I’ll let you know when I get there. See you when I finally finish Conception II and start something else!

Conception II progress update – Had to grind to beat the Wrath boss

20 hours in. Just hit chapter 6. Conception II was easy-peasy all the way through… until suddenly it wasn’t. Damn you, Satanael. For the first time since I started, I had to think about my party composition (mainly ditching weaklings and switching Torri for Feene) and run around the 12th floor looking for Mabusagitta enemies to wallop for massive EXP.

It took about an hour of grinding and a lot of Mana Stones, but I managed to level all my kids up two or three times each so they had enough HP to survive the boss. Then I unleashed my strongest attacks on Satanael while healing with Multi-Potions and it was business as usual. TBH I don’t really like grinding but it was great having a challenging battle for a change. These waifu games often have good battle systems but they just won’t let you use them to their full limits.

Enough about that, how is Giles getting on with the girls? I like all of them more or less and can’t bring myself to focus on just one, so I’m slowly progressing with all 7. I’ve almost maxed out the affection bar for Serina and gotten quite close to Chloe, so now I can trimate with them. I only just got my first trimated child but her base stats seem pretty high so I’m testing her out in the Envy dungeon right now. Good times.

Having played a few more hours, my character ranking has changed a bit and now looks like this: Ellie (meh) < Torri (cute, but too childish) < Chloe (too soft for a teacher) < Narika (she’s aight, looking forward to the twist) < Fuuko (the ghost storyline is moderately interesing) < Feene (really sweet girl but boring route) <<<<<< Serina (mai waifu).

The plan is to progress through the dungeons and story normally, romancing the girls whenever I come up for air. Then I’ll view whichever endings are ready by the time I unlock the last boss. I’m estimating another 10 hours if I don’t dilly-dally. I’m already getting restless so let’s finish this quickly.

Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars – Good dinner game

Most video games keep my hands so busy I can’t even grab a snack while playing, but since I auto all the battles in Conception II except boss fights, I can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner without missing a beat. I just leave the 3DS beside me on the table. Run into an enemy, let the kids do their thing. Run into the next enemy, repeat. It’s a very convenient game. See, I said something nice about Conception II’s combat. That’s the only nice thing I have to say about combat and dungeon exploration in this game, the rest is crap.

Everything else is good, from the character designs to the voice acting to the bright happy colors. And the little children as as cute as ever. As with the original Conception, the sequel too is a good dating sim and a bad dungeon crawler. If anything the sim parts are even better but the dungeon crawler parts are even worse because there’s no excuse this time.

Story: The hero (I named mine Giles Verdi) has special powers that allow him to create “Star Children” – adorable summon creatures that fight with him against monsters in mysterious new dungeons. Gildes is assisted in combat and in baby-making by seven lovely ladies, most of whom I really like so I can’t decide which one to get. What to do, what to do…. That’s the hardest part of the game.

Game progression: Enter a dungeon, fight a bit, defeat the boss, come out and watch some story segments, create new Star Children, go to the next dungeon, etc etc. It’s pretty much the same as the first game. Except there’s no horrible perverted sidekick like Mana to ruin the fun. Instead you have two bros named Alec and Chlotz who don’t really get in your way. The sleazy cutouts during Classmating are still present, but there’s waaaay less innuendo and the game goes out of its way to explain that you’re just holding hands and thinking of England each other.

Since I auto most battles there’s no need to talk about the battle system. The dungeons are still the same old box-corridor-box-corridor format as before. Spike Chunsoft added some extra treasure chests and some traps because I complained last time, but that’s about it. So let’s turn to a more important topic, which girl’s route should I pick? I’m only going to play Conception II once so I’ve gotta make it count.

Narika – Easiest elimination because she doesn’t have anything going for her. She’s nice and all but pretty colorless outside the “shy girl always needing a rescue” gimmick.

Fuuko – Chlotz’s childhood friend. Also nice enough and I would definitely get her if I were to do multiple runs. But she lacks a little pizzazz for a one-and-done playthrough.

Ellie – She’s cute. I like the little stars in her eyes. And I’m curious about her shared past with Giles and whatever she’s up to for the church. But curious enough to devote a playthrough to her? Nah.

Chloe – Giles’ homeroom teacher and Chlotz’s older sister. I started out dating her as a way to stick it to Chlotz, but he’s surprisingly cool with it. Disappointing! Plus Chloe’s “I’m just too perfect and everybody likes me” issues are like a whole route full of stealth-bragging. I’ve gotten pretty far with her events so it would be easy to keep going and get her ending but the last three contestants are pretty fierce competition. Maybe if I ever replay the game.

Feene – I like Feene, she’s nice. Very polite and willing to help. I just got to chapter 4 and met her so nothing much has happened yet. She might turn out to be boring, she might turn out to be great. Either way I like her looks and her background so I’ll play with her a little more.

Torri – Raised in a lab or something so she doesn’t know much about the outside world. Her black-and-white hair design is different, which is pprobably why she has the largest portrait on the cover. I also like her enthusiam for everything that happens, it’s very cute.

Serina – My number one contestant. TBH I like Torri a little better but Serina is much more fun to tease. Tsunderes usually are. The only thing is… she’s a tsundere. There’s like 23,000 other tsunderes in other visual novels, do I really want to chase one here? Actually I kind of do.

So Feene, Torri or Serina? Feene, Torri or Serina? Or create 3 save points and get them all? Nnghhh, if only the gameplay were a little better. These Conception games do so well at creating nice characters, but the combat is so horribly boring! I’ll chat them all up for another chapter and make my final decision.

As for why I’m playing Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars when I said I would play Sakura Taisen 4 last time, it’s because the ST girls are too high-maintenance and I don’t feel like dealing with their moods right now. And as boring as the combat in Conception II is, at least it makes a nice break from the tons of reading you normally have to do in a dating sim. So I’m going to finish this first and then if I haven’t had my fill of romance games I’ll move on to ST4.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse – Almost finished but ran out of steam (endgame spoilers)

All through the game I was coached to go fight against Krishna and the Divine Powers. So I killed them. Vishnu-Flynn was tough, but manageable. Watching Krishna’s final meltdown was glorious. I was ready to watch my ending sequence and call it a day. Then some dude shows up, “No wait, you have to fight Necron this other guy first.” Yeah no, I don’t have to do anything. If you want YHVH gone so badly, go kill him yourself. I’m through being tossed to about by random dudes. I hereby declare Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse finished after 61 hours, hurray!

Brief final thoughts

  • I was pretty happy until the last dungeon sapped all my energy. That Cosmic Egg thing was way too big, way too ugly, way too empty of any interesting features. I’m not an expert or anything, but I’ve played my fair share of RPG final dungeons and I know how easy it is to lose focus and give up before the last boss when the last stages are too boring or unpleasant. The Cosmic Egg nearly did me in, but I soldiered on thinking I was almost done, just one more step, I just have to kill Krishna and… now you want to tell me I’m not actually done? LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

  • I kinda liked this horse guy thingy

    I made two saves before the big choice where you pick whether to destroy the Cosmic Egg or side with Dagda. Destroying the egg is obviously the “correct” decision that will get all your buddies to give you high fives while squealing about the power of friendship, but I derived a certain perverse pleasure from reloading my save so I could kill them all one by one. As a bonus, Asahi stays dead on that route, woo hoo! I haven’t had this much fun doing the ‘wrong’ thing since Elvandia Story’s Dark route. But I didn’t pursue Dagda’s route beyond that point because it doesn’t feel right being his little lapdog forever. Oh I’ll carve my own path alright, Dagda. Right through your smug little face.

  • Too cute!

    All in all Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse was a good game that I really enjoyed playing. Play play play, battery runs out, charge, play some more. It’s been a looong time since I played a game that avidly. Nanashi also made it up to level 95 and it’s been a loooong time since I even came close to capping my levels in a video game. This game is a lot smoother and easier to play than the original, especially when it comes to map navigation and ease of progression. You can tell they incorporated a lot of feedback from the first game.

  • This is where I would normally say “But…” and introduce some negatives but, eh, it wasn’t bad at all. The characters were a bit annoying but I’ve seen worse. Being able to kill them if I really want to makes everything okay. My biggest problem was that the end game dragged on too long. If things had ended with destroying the Egg I would have had the energy to say more. As it is I enjoyed SMTIV: A but I’m also tired and ready to move on. I’ve seen enough.

Move on to what? Ummmm……………… I want to play La Corda d’Oro again! It’s because I was reading a manga about their post-game university days where Kaho is in a “Not My Boyfriend” situation with Yunoki, Tsukimori and Tsuchiura. You hussy, just pick one and let me have the others already *grumble grumble*.

No but seriously, what should I play next? Tokyo Xanadu feels too similar to SMT. It’s too soon for me to play Atelier Meruru. Demon Gaze? I’ve played with too many demons just now. I don’t feel like picking up Legend of Legacy or Sorcery Saga where I left off. Octopath Traveller won’t be out for another two weeks and I won’t have the Switch till August anyway…

Let me look at my resolutions list… Oh! Sakura Taisen 4! Okay, we’ll go with that. I’ve gotta catch up before the newest game comes out anyway. Welp, see you guys later!

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse – Longer than I’d thought (spoilers)

40 hours in. Chapter 4 out of 8 (?). Just finished yet another battle against a certain repeating boss who refuses to stay dead. Eh, I guess I could spoil a little bit. The boss is a giant snake called Shesha, annoying like all repetitive bosses tend to be but luckily not very strong. Actually I haven’t met any really strong bosses in SMTIV:A so far, but I’m only halfway in. Very easy game, TBH. But not so easy that I want to switch to the Hard setting, haha.

I was building a Phys-based main character, but after putting 200 points in Strength and only 50 or so in Magic I realized that -dyne magic was murdering the enemies much faster and more consistently than physical attacks. You also get access to -dyne magic much faster than Heavy physical attacks become available. Magic misses far less often, and gives you extra turns more easily than relying on criticals that may or may not come. If only I could reset my stat distributions to focus on Magic instead. It’s not too late though, so that’s what I’m working on now.

I made a silly mistake though. Somehow my eyes glossed over that Skill Slot+ option in the apps. I’ve been going through the whole game with only 4 skills on my main character, wondering when at all new skill slots will unlock. Level 20? Level 30? 40? It’s only when I hit level 60 and nothing unlocked that I took a second look at the App list. GAAAHHHHHHH…. Well, as I said Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is a really easy game so it doesn’t matter anyway. I can think of it as an accidental challenge run or something.

Current Story – Everyone’s about to launch an all-out attack on the supposed Big Bads of the game. Except we’re only in chapter 4 of 8 so they’re doomed to failure. Either that or an even Bigger Bad will show up and make things worse. To be honest it feels like I’ve been playing SMTIV:A for a really long time now, so I’m ready for it to end so I can start something new. At the same time, gathering and fusing demons is still fun enough that I can keep going for a while now. If it ends around the 60-hour mark that will be good enough for me.