Conception II Review/Commentary

[madimpossibledreamer]

OW OW OW OW OW my heart and soul and brain hurt.
So, I decided to spend my time reading fanfiction today.  And found a Sherlock/Silent Hill crossover by cleo-2010 on Livejournal.  And, man. 

It is beautiful and dark.  Book of Memories (which is the only one I could play, and even then only the demo) certainly didn't prepare me for this.  (I'll talk about Book of Memories later.)  There's enough of the fighting in there, but dear everything good and sane, it's twisted psychological torture.  There's a happy ending, thank goodness, and I'm not even touching the bad ending of the fic.  There is no way I could take it, even with some of the things I write.  (Mostly, original stuff, stuff that therefore I'm not going to publish for free online...probably.)
I think I definitely need to work on some light-hearted fanfiction of my own after that.  A mind-cleanse of sorts.  In the meantime, have the first demo review I've written.  Commentary first, review second.
 

 

Decent, but might be a little too skeevy?

IT’S OVER 9000!

…I like the fighting system, though.

He runs funny.  I’m far too amused by this.

…Um.  I’m sorry.  I broke your machine.

God’s gift?  To wom—oh, no.

This Classmating thing is…weird.

Mmm, yeah, super weird.

I like the art and stuff, but…

On the other hand, you *could* (maybe) judge it by older standards—kinda like an arranged marriage?

Maybe?

…I don’t know.

Cousin?  Sister?

…Is boob jiggle really a necessary animation?  Especially considering the lack of all the other animation…

Narika also got a boob job.  There’s…okay, there’s a very slim chance those are real.

No time limits.  I like that.

No, Mitsuru, that’s not allowed.  (…uh, it’s been a while, I guess it’s the same voice actor/actress, whatever she prefers to be called…)

I like people who use the term a’ok.

What the…that’s the same school store lady as in Gekkoukan.  She’s everywhere.  Like Nurse Joy.  (…I read the wiki page, I’ve only played two bad spinoffs, well, and watched a little of the show last year, don’t hurt me…)

Joseph was pretty much *I’ll kick anyone’s ass* and Caesar was like *I’m counting on you*

Well.  Ghosts do disappear, after all.

The length of this prologue is nuts.  (demo.  Whatever.)

…Nori & Nick are competing.

“Should we go this way?” –LisaLisa

“Whaaaat?  This way’s so much better!” –Joseph

“The atmosphere’s changed again?” –Caesar

Caesar’s a thief, Joseph is a cocky gunslinger

“Alright, we got it!” –Joseph

“Hey, look.  A ghost.”  --Joseph

“Eeek!  That’s not funny!”

“Alright, cleared it!  Let’s keep going!” –Joseph

“Can I play with everyone?” –LisaLisa

Both Nori & Joseph want to be heroes when they grow up.

Caesar: “I’ve leveled up!  My power is limitless.”

Wait.  Nori’s is Frost.  Emeraldo Splashu?

The JJBA peeps are faster than anyone but the MC.

 

Verdict: Not my taste, given that they mention some even more questionable things down the road and I was already a bit uncomfortable with what was shown so far.  I don’t mind a little skin, but I also like outfits.  A lot.  I might honestly have a clothing kink with how fond I am of jackets.  Especially trenchcoats.  Which look really good on girls and guys, but that’s not really the point.

The biggest issue is the Classmating.  I urge you to go through the demo, if you’ve got the space, that is, and are thinking about playing the game.  You’ll probably get enough of a feel for how the Classmating and related stuff goes by playing the demo, so you’ll get the idea of whether or not it’ll bother you in the later game and whether or not you should be playing.

To me, it felt like a forced, cheap harem, and the girls not being sure about it/not wanting to do it or afraid they’re going to mess up…man, that brought up consent issues for me.  Not that they go super skeevy with it.  None of the girls protests outright that they don’t want to do it, and those bits of dialogue are short/rare.  It plays around the edge of the line, but doesn’t (necessarily) cross it.

The pervy headmaster was a bit scarier, though, as was the flirty tech lady (even as her assistant warned her ‘don’t go off on that tangent again’).  Pervs with power are scary because if they decide to act on those thoughts, well.  It might be a little harder to stop them than the average morally deviant jerk.

I even thought about not finishing the demo, but when I wasn’t doing that part of the game it was actually kind of enjoyable.

That’s not to say that the characters aren’t interesting.  Some of them definitely are.  I liked helping Narika out.  I also liked the mysterious girl (…shoot, it’s been long enough I forgot her name).  Fuuko is a little too…normal?  But I ended up having her accompany me into the dungeons the most, given that she was the first available to Classmate with so the most Star Children were hers.

I didn’t particularly like Chloe.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I liked Chloe fine, but having her available to Classmate with made me the most uncomfortable out of everyone.  Only Narika with her “I’m not sure I want to be doing this” bit even came close.  Teacher/student relations has made me uncomfortable even when I was a kid reading the Wild Magic series.  (I liked it, I liked the other books by Tamora Pierce, I even vaguely liked the romance, but the teacher/student thing I guess inherently made me uncomfortable?)

That is not to say that it’s a terrible thing.  I’m sure a mature/thoughtful gamer will be able to get through these issues just fine if they see them as issues.  It’d take a more distant approach, which I can’t quite get.  Hence why I suggest you play the demo for yourself.

The other way, the way that most people who get through the game go for, is by either not seeing this as an issue at all (“dude, it’s just a game, you’re taking it too seriously”) or by seeing it as an issue in society, but really, they’re just here to have fun, not to think.  Which, honestly, I get.  I’m just not always successful at turning off my brain.  ;)  I don’t honestly have a problem with this as long as it’s recognized that this is a game and doesn’t bleed off into the real world.  Because that’s when things get real and there are consequences and people get hurt.  Leave the games where the games were, or learn from them and be better.  Just saiyan.

Okay, the good.  The combat system was interesting.  I didn’t quite play enough to see exactly how deep it was, but it was definitely interesting and there were some strategic decisions, like positioning, to be made.

I included a bunch of stuff about some of the Star Children, I’m sure people noticed.  That was the most fun right there, and the main difference was naming them differently.  I had the JJBA team (Caesar, Joseph, LisaLisa) and hearing them pipe up and say surprisingly somewhat in-character things amused me probably more than it should have.  There was also Nick (which was suggested, but probably ended up being Phoenix in the end) and Nori (Noriaki).  Pity I didn’t think about naming them that way earlier.  Although it made me laugh and be sad when Caesar was talking about the atmosphere of the place changing because it reminded me of Wammu and just, feels.  I wish I’d thought about naming them like that before, so I could’ve enjoyed the goofiness longer.

I like the design.  Not the boob jiggle, the machines, the dialogue bubbles, the menu system.

The music was also cool.

Alec was intriguing, but we definitely didn’t get to see much of him.

…Not sure how to feel about the story.  It’s interesting, but maybe a little cliché?  And the ‘social links’ definitely had potential, but it was also obviously no Persona.

It’s not bad for what it is, but it’s certainly not the best game ever.  If you’re considering it, play the demo.  It’s free, so if you decide it’s awful you haven’t given money to the developers encouraging them to continue.  I think most of the other stuff is forgiveable, so it mainly depends on your feelings about the Classmating thing.