 | Album Title: Conception II -Children of the Seven Stars- Original Soundtrack |
| Record Label: Spike Chunsoft (JP Edition); Atlus (NA Edition) | |
| Catalog No.: N/A | |
| Release Date: August 22, 2013; April 15, 2014 | |
| Purchase: Buy Used Copy |
Overview
Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars, developed by Spike Chunsoft, is a very silly game. A follow-up to 2012’s Conception: Please Give Birth to My Child!, Conception II features many of the same gameplay mechanics found in the first game, albeit with a completely unrelated new storyline. It’s basically a mash-up between a visual novel, a dating sim, and a randomized RPG dungeon crawler. The game has a lot of fun elements, some good production values, and even some charm, especially when it attempts to parody itself. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to stop the game from not only becoming a 60-hour-plus grinding slog, but also having its plot boil down to clichéd anime-harem tropes. Despite its ridiculous levels of fan-service, the game was given a full localized release in North America, thanks to the folks at Atlus, and even came bundled with a bonus soundtrack for those who bought the “limited edition.”
The soundtrack to the game was done once again by Masato Kouda, who also composed the first Conception soundtrack and is best known for his work on Monster Hunter. His music contains drama, humor, and light elements that really help the game. However, as expected, the limited edition only contains a handful of tracks from the game, and does not offer the full variety the game has to offer. There’s also some weird decisions about which tracks are in this release. In fact, this ten-track CD can easily be divided into the vocal themes present in the game and some instrumental character themes.
Body
“spicate ~ 7-Colored Celestial Sphere” is off first, featuring the group Phantasmagoric, with lyrics by MARiE. I’ll be completely honest and say I have no idea what “spicate” even means, despite playing through the game, and I can barely make out the broken English-based lyrics. Normally, I’m completely against music like this, but the energy of this standard anime-rock opener is enough that I actually sort of like the song. You can tell that the team was probably having fun when they wrote the song, and it definitely shows. Some of the notes from the song are also repeated throughout the game, making it a functional theme, despite not hearing anything else from this song on the CD.
“Harvest Code,” on the other hand, is a menu theme, usually employed when you select one of the girls to interact with. It features a nice beat and airy feminine vocals. It’s repetitive, but never annoying. In-game, there’s an event called “Classmating,” which involves our main protagonist joining together with a heroine, and producing a “star child.” … it’s exactly what you think it is, and again, is handled almost like a parody. With this context, we come to “At a Breath’s Distance,” the background music during Classmating, featuring a single lyric: “Touch my heart / I just want to make love to you.” It is hilarious, ending with a harp flutter, and giving it such a weird vibe, you can’t help but laugh along with the game. After this event, you get to pick a star child’s class, and “Congratulations!” plays along with the background, again featuring broken English singing by Phantasmagoric. It provides the perfect counterpoint to “At a Breath’s Distance,” despite becoming overly repetitive, thanks to its one-note beat.
Conception II also features several battle themes, which provide a necessary dynamic in-game, despite constant repetition. In the release, however, we only get to listen to one, “Dungeon battle 1 ~ Generic Battle (First Half),” with music again done by Phantasmagoric. I still can only make out a few phrases in the song, but it doesn’t matter. The song has a rollicking energy, a great riff, and some really solid moments that easily make it the best track on the album. It’s just a shame that no other battle theme was represented in this release. Jumping ahead, the last vocal theme on the album is actually the end credits theme of the game, “Eternally ~ Holding Your Hand.” It’s a sweet and romantic theme that features lyrics in Japanese, allowing the lead singer of Phantasmagoric to finally flex her vocals a bit better. The song abruptly goes from being a ballad to a gospel-like song, complete with English lyrics. In fact, the second half of the melody is the main romance theme of Conception II. It’s lovely and it works, despite being somewhat jarring musically and contextually.
The rest of this short soundtrack is dedicated to four of the seven heroines’ character themes, which sadly do not work well overall. With one exception, each of these themes features an obnoxious beat that obfuscates the main melody line, instantly giving them a forgettable quality. “A Piece Of Courage ~ Narika’s Theme” is the only exception, which features a more relaxed beat and a simple but intelligible flute-based melody line, despite still being somewhat generic. Since these themes play out during conversations with the heroines, they serve their downplayed purpose well, despite being completely forgettable in a listening context. It’s weird that not all seven heroine themes are present on the CD, as they could’ve easily fit and given this short disc more running time.
Summary
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that we’ll be getting a full soundtrack release for Conception II. The game didn’t exactly sell well, and it’s been out for more than a year now in Japan with no signs of a full soundtrack. However, for fans of Kouda’s style, a full soundtrack is available for the first Conception, and, in fact, Conception II borrows some tracks from it. In terms of the small soundtrack release we have in North America and Japan, it’s entirely forgettable despite Kouda’s compositions and Phantasmagoric’s performances. It’s all too short, and, like the game itself, it feels just a tad bit too generic. Not bad per se, just generic, and a bit silly.
