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God's Gift to women. Yes, that is what they call him.
Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars is an RPG/Dating Sim hybrid created by Spike Chunsoft (of Danganronpa and Zero Escape fame) released in Japan for the Play Station Vita and the Nintendo 3DS in 2013 and in America in 2014. It is the second entry of the Conception series following Conception: Please Give Birth to My Child!.

You play as a newcomer to a private academy (default name Wake Archus) who turns out to be the God's Gift: A being with a large supply of ether energy who has the power to perfectly conceive Star Children and enter the Dusk Circles - nests of monsters who terrorize the whole world of Aterra. It's up to you, along with seven girls you can "Classmate" with, to stop those Dusk Circles.

The gameplay is a dungeon crawler similar to the likes of Persona 3 and Persona 4, as in you explore several random-generated labyrinths along with the heroine of your choice and nine of your chosen star children. During the dungeon explorations, you will find items, weapons and armor to help you combat the enemies.

The other thing about the game is the Classmating system. By strengthening your bonds with each of the heroines, you create stronger star children who can assist you and help you progress in the game.

Despite being the second entry, it is not necessary to play the first game because the stories are not related.

This game contains examples of:

  • A-Cup Angst: Serina, due to her petite nature.
  • A God Am I: Enzea.
  • Aborted Arc: Wake mentions to Torri that his late mother's soup recipe requires a rare herb, she risks her life to get him some, and then it's never mentioned again.
  • The Ace: Played straight with Alec and subverted with the hero. Wake is initially admitted to the Academy as a Rank A Elite, rather than Rank S. It's his insanely high ether level that earns him the title of God's Gift. He still proves to be pretty dang good with a sword right away, though.
    • On the heroine side: Chloe Genus for her intellect, and Feene for her combat recognition.
  • Affably Evil: Even after his scheme is revealed, Enzea is still remarkably polite towards Wake. He even thanks his father for giving life to him before getting Clau to kill him.
  • Affectionate Parody: Of harem anime and dating sim games. It doesn't take itself seriously at all. Until later, at least.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The monsters of the Dusk Circles, who seem to have no mind or instincts except to attack the real world and kill anyone they come across.
  • Always Someone Better: Despite being regarded as the top S-Rank and shown to be better in a scrap, Alec feels inferior to Wake because he is God's Gift, especially so when the latter shows he has become just as a good a swordsman as Alec in a short amount of time.
    • Serina is trying to get out from under her sister's shadow.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Done with the cut-ins. This is especially noticeable with Torri, as the white half of her hair is always facing the camera.
  • And That's Terrible: Inverted. After Torri says Wake is nice, she says that's a good thing.
  • And Your Reward Is Parenthood: The game's central mechanic is about creating "Star Children" with the various love interests, with their strength determined based on your Relationship Values with those girls. Despite being magically-created children, they still call Wake "Dad" and seem to love him regardless.
  • Anime Hair: Torri, whose hair is somehow half black and half white — as in the hair on the right side of her hair is black, while the left side is white. Any Star Children she births inherit this trait from their mother.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Chlotz to Chloe.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: Several.
    • If an enemy mob is significantly weaker than you, you can plough through it without needing to go through the tedium of the battle, and still gain the appropriate rewards.
    • Most notable is the way the save system works: Using 2-3 save slots, it's possible to get all nine endings while defeating the final boss only once, and at least 1.5 runs of the game to get the Platinum trophy.
    • Your auto-battle settings are preserved between battles in the dungeon, allowing you to blaze through weak mobs. However, when you engage a boss or miniboss, the game automatically reverts you to manual control to prevent accidental wastage of turns.
  • Anti-Grinding: Star Children have a level cap depending on Wake's affection with the mother at the time of conception, and Wake's affection with each heroine has a cap that's raised by progressing the plot, meaning it's impossible to grossly overlevel Star Children. Wake and the heroines themselves have a level cap of 99 at all times, but level up much slower, and one team out of four being powerful is only going to do you so much good.
  • Artificial Brilliance: Some enemies won't bother chasing you down in the rooms, they'll simply go block the doors so you have to fight them. They may also go stand over any chests. Of course, they'll do this even if they're so far below you in power that they trigger "God's Poke."
    • The AI during Auto-Play is often pretty smart with its tactics, too: A strong team will usually aim for a One-Hit Kill against an enemy, while the weaker teams will gang up against another opponent and move away from any remaining enemies, forcing the straggler to waste its turn moving into position.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Torri gets this way when it comes to birds.
  • Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: A weird example in that some things seem to have been put in solely to bump up the rating. However, it likely would've been rated T if these things were removed, which doesn't make as much sense due to the selling restrictions with M games.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Chlotz and Chloe.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • The bonus weapons given as DLC for the first four heroines. They have increased power, but decrease the Speed stat of whomever is using it. Considering speed is almost the One Stat to Rule Them All, this is a big issue.
    • Feene, despite being the most popular heroine, also suffers from this due to being Dark element. This is a huge issue, since Dark is weak to Light and Non-Elemental. The latter is practically nonexistent by the time she is introduced, but the final dungeons are crawling with the former.
  • BFG: Torri wields one that's as big as she is!
  • Babies Ever After: Fuuko's ending features Wake and her having a daughter.
  • Badass Adorable: The Star Children. Although some of the heroines count, too.
  • Badass Biker: The Stillbloods use specialized motorbikes called X-Machinas to track down and break through the Heretic's barriers.
  • Badass Normal: Wake, surprisingly, in Ellie's arc. Despite not being a Stillblood, he's able to function perfectly fine inside a barrier, which would have serious effects on a non-Stillblood.
  • Badass Teacher: Chloe.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: The heroines during the classmating and transformation cutscenes.
  • Battle Ballgown: Feene's labyrinth uniform.
  • Battle Couple: Wake with any of the heroines. In Ellie's epilogue, she and Wake remain this.
  • Beach Episode: After Chapter 4.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Fuuko's ending. It takes place at least 5 years after the game, she's given birth to a child, and yet she still looks exactly the same.
  • Berserk Button: Do NOT make fun of Serina's size (height or chest).
  • Big Bad: Enzea.
  • Big-Breast Pride: Chief Ruby.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Chlotz is very protective of Chloe, despite being her younger brother, and Ellie, who he openly states he would love to have as a little sister.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Interestingly, the harem ending, due to everyone being sucked into Ellie's job of hunting Heretics. While Ellie (and to a lesser extent, Wake) can hunt Heretics, the other girls are a liability at best due to the effects a barrier has on a normal human. While they say they don't mind, they either need to travel the world regularly, or see Ellie and possibly Wake leave every so often for a fair amount of time to have them kill people.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Fuuko is afraid of ghosts. And bugs. And ghost bugs!
  • Break the Cutie: Luce, when she learns that you killed Alec. Also Ruby, when she finds out that Enzea killed Mark.
  • But Thou Must!: During your first trip into the dungeon, you encounter the first boss early, and Ruby orders you to flee. Your options are "No", "I won't run from an enemy", and "To Hell with that". It works because Wake has much more personality than the usual lead for these games, and this gives the player a look into his thought process.
    • When Chlotz asks if Wake wants a sip of his drink, the choices are "No thanks", "I'm not sharing your spit", and "We're not girls, you know."
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Rhiod is stabbed and killed by Clau, Alec turns into a monster that Wake is forced to kill, and Enzea reveals his true intentions and proceeds to screw everything up.
  • Character Development: Used as a gameplay mechanic. The further a heroine progresses in her character arc and works to overcome the problems she faces, along with developing a stronger bond with Wake, the better she gets at birthing strong Star Children.
  • Cheerful Child: The Star Children tend to be eager, enthusiastic and optimistic in their dungeon banter.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The device Mark gives to Wake.
  • The Chessmaster: Enzea, who ended up manipulating all sides to forward his plan to open Pandora's Labyrinth: Getting Wake's team to collect each Dusk Circle's spawner, distributing the Trigger drug to get people used to infusing themselves with Dusk energy, leading the development of the technology and weapons he would need, and convincing his father to continue the funding of said technology. All in all, the only group in-game he isn't involved with is the Heretics.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Unlucky Luce. She's known Alec since they were kids and wants to start a relationship with him, but Alec only sees her as a friend. Chlotz eventually persuades Alec to take Luce to the Star Conception Festival, but he is killed before he can. Feene's childhood friend Raul also counts.
  • Child Soldiers:
    • All Disciples are teenagers, as it's stated that they lose the ability to generate and use star energy when they grow up.
    • Taken to the Logical Extreme with the star children, who are literally Infant Soldiers created through magic.
  • The Chosen One: Wake's ether levels are 30 times the male average, allowing him to be the only human able to enter Dusk Labyrinths and have a 100% success rate when conceiving Star Children with S Rank female Disciples. The title given to him is God's Gift.
  • Cleavage Window: Narika's battle outfit sports a translucent version.
  • Co-Dragons: Rus and Clau are this to Enzea.
  • Combination Attack:
    • Seventh Burst is a special skill where Wake works together with the heroines who accompany him to perform a powerful attack. A second tier Seventh Burst will be unlocked when the girls upgrade their weapons with a Supernova chip.
    • Star Children can learn team skills when coupled with specific classes, and all of them have learned the required skills to unlock it.
  • Competence Zone: Enforced, since Disciples get their Star Brand at age 16-17 and lose it around their nineteenth birthday, and their ability to fight effectively goes with it. Adults Are NOT Useless, however; your Mission Control, most of the support staff at Fort City, and the R&D team that provide you with equipment are all highly-educated adults.
  • Cool Big Sis: Feene.
  • Cool Teacher: Chloe.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Monsters. Ones significantly weaker than the party are dark blue, ones on par with the party are purple, ones much stronger than the party are red, and ones that are related to a current quest (either by defeating that monster or obtaining a certain item drop from it) are gold.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Rhiod. While he doesn't actually fuel the creation of the Dusk Circles, he aims to profit from the war against them as much as possible.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Torri, hands down. Her character arc explores this aspect of her.
  • Crash-Into Hello: How Wake meets Serina.
  • Dandere: Feene, to some extent.
  • D-Cup Distress: Narika, who claims her ample bust size is "nothing", much to the chagrin of the smaller girls.
  • Da Chief: Ruby.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: Alec response to Mark's naming of the Supernova Superchip is to say that it's certainly...unique.
  • Darkest Hour: The end of Chapter 7: Alec is dead, Mark is still missing (and is later found dead), Enzea is filling the planet with Dusk Energy to turn everyone into monsters, and there is no way to enter Pandora's Labyrinth to stop him. Then Wake returns to his dorm to find a certain message on how to open the door.
  • Death by Irony: Early in the story, Alec kills a classmate of his who had turned into a monster. Much later in the story, Wake is forced to kill Alec, who has turned into a monster himself.
  • Defrosting Ice King: Alec.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Luce goes into complete denial when she learns Alec is dead, and is still getting over it by the end of the game.
  • Demonic Possession: Narika during her character arc.
  • Dirty Old Man: The high priest of the church, Mattero. Ruby's hated him ever since he hit on her.
  • Disc-One Nuke: Serina and Torri learn skills that hit all enemies fairly early on, and those skills can be used to wipe out most enemy parties up through Chapter 6 in one shot.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: During Classmating, the girls are naked, the poses they do become more suggestive as you progress with their relationships, there's a song with the lyrics "Just wanna make love to you" playing in the background and, when it's over, they are exhausted from the ritual.
    • One of Chloe's events has Wake walk in on her while she's panting heavily and moaning, "No more...!" Turns out she was just exercising and trying to lose weight (but that kind of dialogue is the norm for this game). In a bit of irony, you can give her a food gift she likes during this event and she won't turn it down.
  • Doomed Hometown: At the end of Chapter 1, Wake reveals this already happened.
  • Double Entendre: All over the place, even during the Tear Jerker moment when Wake describes his sister's Heroic Sacrifice for him.
  • Dual Wielding: Wake wields a katana during his introduction scene, but switches to twin swords immediately after. Alec does the same as Wake, using a katana outside the labyrinth, and twin swords in the labyrinth.
    • Rus and Clau are shown to fight with a katana and a gun respectively in each hand during their boss fight.
  • Dump Stat: Tech increases accuracy...in a game where it's entirely possible to never see a single attack miss in multiple playthroughs. Unfortunately, quite a few girls have large natural growth towards the stat.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Feene appears in a CG after beating the second labyrinth.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire -> Wind -> Earth -> Water -> Fire forms the base cycle. Outside of these, Elements -> Non-Elemental -> Light/Dark -> Elements. When pitted against each other, Light beats Dark.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Alec doesn't really enjoy being known to the masses as God's Gift Number Two.
  • Especially Zoidberg: Fuuko comments that Serina, Torrie and Feene all seem pretty different. Especially Feene.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Chloe and Feene.
  • Evil Laugh: Serina has one that is either adorable or downright frightening.
  • Exotic Eye Designs: Ellie's star-shaped pupils.
  • Expy:
    • Feene in her battle outfit bears quite the striking resemblance to Saber.
    • Aside from not having ice powers and Yukianesa, Alec is Jin Kisaragi. They even share the same voice actor!
    • Fuuko, Ellie and Narika are Miku, Rin and Luka, respectively. Fuuko wears a pair of headphones, and Ellie has a very distinctly shaped hair bow.
  • Extreme Doormat: Chloe.
  • Eye Color Change: Fuuko's eyes changes from teal to pink when she is possessed by Ms. Ghost.
  • Fake Longevity:
    • Late-game labyrinths are Marathon Levels with far more floors than necessary.
    • All your newly-created Star Children start at Level 1. If you want to switch up your team compositions or try out a newly-created Child, this means extra grinding through older labyrinths to bring them up to speed with the rest of your team.
    • Completing all of the sidequests can easily double the length of the game, is mind-meltingly tedious and not even vaguely rewarding. Quests come in three variations: Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest, Rare Random Drop and Luck-Based Mission. The only way to upgrade the heroines' armor is to complete a series of 17 such tasks, in order.
  • Final Boss: Dusk Enzea.
  • Fire-Forged Friends:
    • Wake and Alec begin to get along much better after dueling each other to a draw.
    • Same with Wake and Lucian during Ellie's character arc.
  • Flanderization: Despite only appearing in this game, Serina suffers from it. While her tsundere attitude is originally part of her inferiority complex, she does acknowledge it and apologizes for it. Late in her character arc, she just becomes a generic modern tsundere.
  • Flunky Boss: Many sub-bosses in labyrinths have one or two flunkies to help them. Enzea has some in both of his forms.
  • Fog of War: Played with. One of the dungeon traps doesn't hide the enemy locations, but rather their power levels, preventing you from knowing how strong you are compared to them.
  • Foot Focus: Torri in the Pool Scene.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The question that Alec asks Wake on whether he'd be able to kill a friend who turned into a monster.
    • Neo Ether doesn't affect the girls, with the reason being that they're so used to Wake's Ether that their bodies reject it. Neo Ether is made using Dusk Energy, which is what Wake's Ether counters.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Narika is constantly described as the nicest person anyone could ever meet.
  • Fusion Dance: Star Children have the Mecunite ability, in which all three Star Children in a group combine into a powerful robot with a bevy of special abilities. It's implied this works through The Power of Love, as it costs a heavy tax in Bond Points (which are also used during Classmating) to perform.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: Rarely, when you enter a portal to go to the next floor, or attempt to leave the labyrinth, the game may crash to the home screen. This isn't too much of an issue in the first 3-4 dungeons, as they have less than 10 floors. The real issue comes from the invisible traps that force you to the next floor triggering the crash. Hope you're saving often and using trap visions!
  • G-Rated Drug: Trigger, which has the same effects and repercussions as steroids.
  • G-Rated Sex: Classmating is treated this way in virtually every respect. Naturally, Classmanting just adds new dimensions to it.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: Wake's massive ether levels allow him, a heroine, and up to nine Star Children to enter a dungeon unhindered by protecting them from Dusk Energy. Him being around the girls so much prevents Neo Ether from working on them, due to it being part Dusk Energy.
  • Girl Next Door: Fuuko feels that being the most "normal" of the heroines is a setback for her.
  • Going Commando: Torri in her labyrinth costume.
  • Government Conspiracy: A drunk Ruby hints at this early on. Turns out to really be just drunken rambling.
  • Grand Theft Me: Averted. Fuuko willingly allows Ms. Ghost to possess her, and she never does anything more than flirt with Wake a little.
  • Guide Dang It!: Nearly a quarter of the character classes, and by extension a great many combo skills for the standard classes, are locked behind the use of rare consumable items. Said items are very rarely dropped by specific groups of otherwise generic enemies on specific floors of specific optional dungeons. The game gives zero indication of their existence or where you might find them.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Feene, who is one of the nicest characters in the game. Enzea as well, who is polite and friendly to everyone. At first.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. Serina puts everything she has into being promoted to S Rank before graduating. She succeeds.
    • Also Averted with Chlotz and Wake. He wanted to reach the A rank and succeeds.
  • Happily Married: Wake and Feene in her ending.
  • Healing Factor: Stillbloods can't die unless their bodies are completely destroyed. Doesn't keep it from hurting like hell, though.
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: Spoken word-for-word by Serina to her sister whenever Wake is present.
    • Feene puts it more elegantly after a camera store owner calls her and Wake love birds. "He and I are not love birds or any type of romantic fowl!"
  • The Hero: Wake.
  • Heroic BSoD: Alec falls into one at the start of chapter 3 and fails in trying to hide it.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Wake's sister protecting him from the monsters that destroyed his hometown.
    • And Mark, after leaking information about the Heaven's Door.
  • Hoist by Her Own Petard: Serina invokes this word-for-word after reverting to her small form while wearing a bra for her grown form.
  • Homosexual Reproduction: Classmanting. It's actually worth a try, because it produces children that are superior to the ones you get in the normal game, albeit with a lower level cap. Though you can't do it with any in-game characters and need to connect with other players for it.
  • Hot Springs Episode: The end of Serina's character arc.
  • I Am a Monster: Ellie considers herself to be one, due to Stillbloods technically being undead.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Played with. In Serina's case, "normal" means tall and busty.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Fuuko, even though she's an S-Rank, feels like she's too "normal" compared to the character quirks of the other heroines.
  • Improbable Infant Survival: Zig-zagged. On the gameplay side, you cannot die permanently — if Wake's health hits zero, you are returned to the surface and lose a portion of your money, and if your Star Children's health or that of the heroines reaches zero, they revert to matryoshkas and fall unconscious respectively, only to spring back up at very low health once the battle's over. On the story side, however, there are discussions of Disciples who went into the Dusk Circles and never came out, some students are turned into monsters and must be killed, and even the Star Children are not immune to this: the second time Classmanting is tested results in the creation of Star Children, but they are unstable and disperse, and at the end of the game... all the Star Energy in the world returns to the Star God, and the Star Children go with it.
  • Infinity +1 Element: Light. Aside from non-elemental, it's strong against every element in the game. Plus, non-elemental attacks are both few and far in between, and weak to the four basic elements, which are the most common by far.
  • Informed Attribute:
    • Fuuko is constantly described as "average"/"a wallflower" despite being neither. She's also one of very few S-Rank Disciples, causing this to make even less sense. The swim team picks up on this during the school festival, however.
    • Chlotz claims that Torri needs to "Come out of her shell," but she isn't very shy at all. Her main problem with making friends is not that she doesn't want to socialize, but that she really doesn't know how, and ends up saying/doing things that others consider weird.
  • Innocent Innuendo: Any that comes from the main cast rather than the older characters is usually this.
    Fuuko: Just for that, you won't be allowed to taste our juices! (Yes, she's talking about juice boxes.)
    Wake: "My sister's white dress was hanging on her bed when, suddenly, it wasn't white anymore!" (It was red with her blood.)
  • Instant Expert:
    • Chlotz may not be as big an idiot he claims (compared to his sister), as he learns how to use the Lab equipment and become part of Mission Control without actually needing to be taught how to use it.
    • Wake, who was easily defeated by Alec in a fencing match, manages to fight him to a draw after training with Feene in less than a day.
  • I Owe You My Life: Ellie to Wake for saving her life 10 years before the events of the game. Feene to Wake for sterilizing the Dusk Circle next to her hometown after she had spent months at the front lines.
  • Ironic Echo: Sasami's and Narika's words. When Narika points out the flaws in Sasami's plan in the third debate, her words are the exact same as when Sasami pointed out the flaws in Narika's plan in the second debate.
  • Irony: While the innuendo in the game is turned up to eleven, the actual Classmating process simply involves the hero and heroine joining hands and focusing their thoughts on each other (although later cutscenes suggest other slightly more intimate contact such as head-patting). It's actually quite sweet.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Chlotz to Luce.
  • I See Dead People: People that have close connections with a ghost before their deaths can see them, which makes confirming the existence of ghosts quite difficult. However, other people can see ghosts that have no connection with them by keeping physical contact with the ones that can see them. The reason why Fuuko is able to see Ms. Ghost is that she used to be friends with her in middle school.
  • Jerkass:
    • Sasami, the first-year student who belittles Narika and questions her capabilities as an S Rank disciple because she isn't good at public speaking. Subverted, as she was behaving like that because of the pressure from the debates and, in actuality, worships Narika.
    • The Hospital Director from Chloe's character arc who, despite being a former Disciple himself, considers current Disciples as pawns and cannon fodder to be used in the fight against the Dusk.
    • Mr. Watts in Chloe's subarc. While the game tries to say it's just that he's set in the old ways, he constantly blames and belittles Chloe for having a fanclub that won't leave her alone, despite the fact that Chloe finds them extremely annoying herself. He even blames and suspends Chloe from teaching for being sexually harassed and having a dirty picture of her taken despite her not knowing. However...
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Mr. Watts is correct that Chloe's fans need to behave themselves in school instead of forming a mob in the faculty room, or whenever they see her so they can get her autograph or shake her hand.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lucian.
  • Jiggle Physics: It's rather difficult to ignore since it's even in the mostly-static character models that appear during talking sections.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Averted. Wake is shown to have a katana in the opening scene where he saves Chlotz and Fuuko from monsters, but he then opts to Dual Wield inside dungeons. There is also a katana visible on Enzea's sprite, though he never uses it.
  • Kick Chick: Serina is the only heroine whose weapon doesn't fire some kind of projectile.
  • Killed Off for Real: Rhiod, Rus, Clau, Alec, Mark and Enzea.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Upon seeing Rus and Clau, the game becomes much darker.
  • Lady of War: Feene, whose battle outfit is similar to another blonde lady of war.
  • The Lancer: Alec and Chlotz serve as this to Wake — Alec as a supporting fellow combatant, and Chlotz as Mission Control.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Stillbloods can use forbidden spells to erase memories, keeping the existence of their organization and the Heretics a secret.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: The Hospital Director in Chloe's character arc who gets seriously ill after Chloe's hospital concert when the power of her songs speed up the healing process of the patients therein, while the Director did everything he could to prevent the concert from taking place.
  • Leitmotif: Each heroine has one.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again:
    • Chloe says a variant of this when she accidentally presses her knee against Wake's crotch when he falls on her.
    • Happens again if you choose "I'm the flower fairy! Twinkle!" during the scene where Feene asks you to strike a pose for her.
  • Like a Son to Me: The Star Children are not biological children, but are considered Wake and the Heroines' children in all other respects. They refer to their creators with parental pronouns, and the heroines interact with their own Star Children as such. The Classmating process is referred to by Serina as giving birth, strengthening the G-Rated Sex subtext around Classmating.
  • Lost in Localization: The final line of the Harem ending is actually a near Title Drop of the game's Japanese secondary title, but not so with the US version.
  • Love Makes You Stupid: This happens to Ruby, whose reluctance to believe Enzea is evil ends up getting Mark killed.
  • Love Triangle: Chlotz has a thing for Luce, but she only has eyes for Alec. Chlotz suspects Mark has a thing for Ruby, but she obviously has a crush on Enzea. Even one between Wake, Feene and Aya can be considered.
  • Luminescent Blush: Expect this from the heroines a lot when making the right choices to compliment them. Narika and Fuuko are especially prone to this.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: All human magic, even Dusk-element magic, is created by using Star Power to manipulate Ether particles in the atmosphere. If there's no Ether in the air, nobody can use magic, and everyone will find themselves grossly outmatched by all but the weakest monsters. Wake's ability to flood the area around him with enough Ether particles for his allies to make use of is what makes him so critical.
  • The Magic Goes Away: If a teen receives a Star Brand and becomes a Disciple, it will disappear around his or her 19th birthday. Also played straight in that everyones' Brands disappear after beating the final boss.
  • Magic Music: Curaoke allows the Disciples to recharge their Star Energy. Chloe's singing is also able to heal the sick and wounded at a much faster rate.
  • Magical Girl: Ellie's battle outfit is very reminiscent of one, especially with the large magic staff.
  • Meido: Serina sometimes asks why her battle uniform looks like one. Played completely straight in her ending.
  • Mercy Kill: Wake kills Alec, who was slowly turning into a monster, by the latter's request.
  • Mercy Mode: In the unlikely chance Wake dies, you're given the option to go back to the city without suffering any penalties (apart from a loss of 20% of your money, which can be an issue.)
  • Metal Slime: The Sagitta series of enemies are rather easy to defeat and give out a lot of experience, making them great for leveling up. They also have quests associated with them so they can be singled out from within a group of enemies. That said, if you try to keep them alive to farm a long Chain that would grant a massive experience bonus, the Sagittas can flee the battle and deny you the rewards.
  • Mission Control: Ruby, Mark, and later Chlotz.
  • Modesty Frills: Serina's battle dress doesn't allow for upskirt shots, as seen in her official art.
  • Multiple Endings: There are a total of 9 different endings. One for each of the heroines, another featuring Chlotz and Luce and, of course, a Harem Ending.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: When introducing the Dusk Blasters, Chlotz responds to each girl's comment about their blaster, saying either how it was adjusted or how it fits them...except with Chloe, whom he just says that she doesn't need explaining.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Alec, after realising he'd killed a Disciple that had turned into a monster. He tries to play it off as inevitable, but is deeply affected by it.
    • And, in Chapter 8, Ruby after she discovers her tattling to Enzea led Mark to his death.
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits: Chlotz is very protective of his older sister. He even orders a group of boys about to form a fan club for her to line up so he could punch their teeth out.
    • Possibly averted in the case of Wake, despite issuing him with the same teeth-punching threats earlier in the story. When Chloe is teasing Wake about how Millica, the young girl at the hospital who idolizes Chloe, thinks that he is her boyfriend, Chlotz charges into the room and tells her to get ready for the concert, but doesn't make any comment about the fact that his sister is blushing heavily, talking about Wake being her boyfriend, or that Wake is there in the first place. Really, if Chlotz ever approved of somebody dating his sister, it would be his best friend.
  • New Game Plus: After beating the game, you are able to load from that save file and start from the beginning or Chapter 7.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Or rather, nice job delivering all of the Dusk Spawners to the Big Bad, hero.
  • The Nicknamer: Chlotz immediately declares Feene to be "Miss Beautiful", though she doesn't really care.
  • Not So Stoic: Alec endures serious agony after learning that a monster he killed was once a student, which occasionally slips through.
  • Oblivious to Love:
    • Wake is extremely dense, as few of his dialogue options allow him to pick up on and follow through with the heroines' hints at their love for him.
    • Feene has him beat. Not only does she fail to pick up on several people being attracted to her despite apparently getting a lot of love letters (from both male and female students) on a regular basis, but she even fails to notice why they would be interested in her.
  • Obviously Evil: Rus and Clau. Nobody seems to catch on to this, either. To some, it also seemed pretty obvious that Enzea was evil. It doesn't help that his default expression is a smug grin.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: Played straight but eventually subverted. In their first scene together, Wake accidentally touches Serina's breast when she falls on him at the library. On top of slapping him hard for it and declaring she'll never forgive him, she keeps dredging it back up early on in her bonding events to remind him that she still hasn't. Eventually, though, she gets over it.
  • One-Hit Kill: The effectively named "God's Poke" ability allows Wake's team to instantly win battles against significantly weaker enemies while still earning full experience and money. It won't work if the weak enemies sneak up on him, though.
  • Optional Boss: Monokuma
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Serina. The Star Children too, of course.
  • Power Levels: The average ether count, according to Ruby, is 50. Depending on this level, Disciples have more success of creating a Star Child, and it also affects whether or not a Disciple can survive in Labyrinths. Only the ether count of two characters is revealed in the game: the first is Chlotz, who has an above-average 60; the other is Wake, who has a very above-average 1500. Needless to say, he has a 100% chance of making a Star Child with an S-Rank female, and can enter and explore Labyrinths without any repercussions.
  • Proper Tights with a Skirt: Feene in her school uniform.
  • Punny Name:
    • Chloe Genus, who happens to be a genius. Chlotz Genus, on the other hand, is portrayed as an idiot, but is shown to be rather intelligent when he correctly operates lab equipment without being shown how to.
    • Torri, whose name is similar to the Japanese word for bird, which is "tori". Torri's dream is to fly like a bird.
    • Aterra, when broken up, is "a terra". Terra is another name for the planet Earth.
  • Race for Your Love: Happens late in Feene's sub-arc.
  • Randomly Generated Levels: The layout of each floor is randomly generated within every labyrinth.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: Happens to a priest who hired some thugs to assault Narika after she beat him in a debate.
  • Readings Are Off the Scale: Wake's ether count is so ridiculously high that it causes said scale to explode.
  • Red Baron: God's Gift for Wake.
  • Rei Ayanami Expy: Torri. Her slow speech and lack of socialization skills stems from the fact that she spent all of her life before joining the party living in a lab.
  • Religion of Evil: Heretics are a branch of former church members that have stolen brainwashing spells, and plan to use it to rebel against it.
  • Rescue Romance:
    • Fuuko at the beginning of the game.
    • And Ellie, a young orphan from near Wake's hometown who was almost killed due to her star energy going berserk. Wake's own ether was what cauterized the wound and put her into a coma.
  • Reward for Removal: Star Children you don't need any more can be sent to become workers in the city. This is framed as something they genuinely enjoy doing, and is actually necessary, as they'll upgrade the town's facilities. You can see sprites of them working in town from time to time, showing them hard at work.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Wake's initial motivation for fighting the Dusk.
  • Rocks Fall, Everyone Loses 5% Max HP: One of the dungeon traps. It reaches 10% and 15% as you progress through the game.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Dusk Spawners, the leading monsters residing in each dusk circles, will always revive no matter how many times they are killed. However, they can be captured by a Sealing Matryoshka at the moment they're reborn after you have defeated them.
  • Sensei-chan: Chloe, who is only one year older than most of her students.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: The seven Dusk Circles are named after them.
  • Sexy Surfacing Shot: During the Pool Scene, one of the still images is of Feene climbing the pool ladder in her swimsuit.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Considered, but averted during the Harem Ending. Wake realizes that being invited to the Star Conception Festival by all seven heroines will make it impossible to pick one without crushing the others. His answer to this is to run away, but he changes his mind for the sake of the one he plans to choose.
  • She Is All Grown Up: Played with. Serina discovers a magic spell that allows her to "transform" into a version of herself that is taller, bustier, and has a slightly deeper voice. It comes with the drawback of not allowing her to use her Star Energy, and only lasts up to an hour. However, Wake states multiple times that he prefers Serina more when she's untransformed, despite everyone else liking her more when she is transformed.
  • Shower of Angst: Wake gets all of the shower scenes. It's where he likes to think.
  • Shout-Out: When Fuuko asks Wake to help her investigate a ghost sighting, one of the answers is "I ain't afraid of no ghost!"
  • Shipper on Deck:
    • Chief Ruby. She wants Wake and Chlotz to end up together, really bad. Most of the female students at the Academy count as well—they want Alec and Wake to hook up.
    • In a straight example, Serina's sister, Nazuna, immediately ships Serina with Wake.
    • Chlotz wants Alec and Luce to end up together, despite having feelings for the latter.
    • Wake is very supportive of Chlotz and Luce. He encourages Chlotz to keep trying, despite him already having bowed out to Alec.
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: Torri uses a gatling gun called the "Beehive" to fight monsters.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The human boss battle music is some light pop with English lyrics that make no sense.
  • Spanner in the Works: Mark.
  • The Magic Goes Away: At the end of the game, all the Star Children revert back to Star Energy and return to the Star God.
  • Stars Are Souls: According to Chloe.
  • "Stop Having Fun" Guys: In-universe example. One of Chloe's fellow teachers, Mr. Watts, is a real stickler for the rules, and acts as the primary antagonist of her character arc because she doesn't behave like a "proper" teacher.
  • Stripperific: The girls' transformed clothes are tame for the most part...then there's Chloe's.
  • Tagline: "It's Time for Classmating!"
  • Take a Third Option: During one of Serina's scenes, she asks Wake what he thinks her bra size is. In addition to directly answering the question, there's an option to say that it doesn't matter — Serina is an S-rank, and that's all that matters to him.
  • Teacher/Student Romance: Can happen between Wake and Chloe. Chlotz mentions that his sister is only a year older than him, and it can also be taken that both he and Wake are the same age, so the relationship is more acceptable than most examples due to it having a one year age gap.
  • Teen Genius: Chloe graduated from college at the top of her class, and wrote a strategy manual adopted by the government at age 14.
  • This Cannot Be!: Said by an Original after Lucian and Wake defeat him.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Serina immediately states she'll never forgive Wake for (accidentally) touching her chest.
  • Title Drop: Used in the Japanese harem ending. Attempted in the English version, but due to a title change and the words not being altered, it just makes Wake come off as an ass.
  • Tsundere:
    • Serina. Though it borders on deconstruction, as her tsundere attitude stems from her being self-conscious about her body, and being compared to her older sister. She also acknowledges this, and apologizes whenever she says something unjustified.
    • Feene shows her inner tsun towards her friend Raul when he teases her.
  • Train-Station Goodbye: A bus version during Feene's character arc.
  • Two-Teacher School: At least one of them is a playable character.
  • The Unfought: Rhiod, though not really a villain, is offed by The Dragon.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Buffs and any status moves that don't cause Seal, since your damage output is already good without their help. Seal gets zigzagged, as it's useful against tough enemies, but falls back into this trope against bosses.
  • We Cannot Go On Without You: Considering Wake's Ether is the only thing that allows his team to even enter and survive inside of the labyrinths, it makes sense.
  • We Have Reserves: The attitude of the Hospital Director during Chloe's character arc.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Alec. His main reason for trying to be the best Disciple is for the sake of his father, and so that he will be proud of him.
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack": In Fuuko's ending, she and Wake name their daughter Isana (or Izzy) after the friendly ghost who shows up in Fuuko's character arc.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Aya pretty much disappears from Feene's character arc the moment Raul is introduced. Rus and Clau apparently die at the end of the Labyrinth of Pride, but the game does not make this clear.
  • Yandere: A possessed Narika.
  • You Mean X Mas: The equivalent of Christmas in this world is Starmas.
  • You Were Trying Too Hard: A running theme while interacting with the Heroines. Scenes where they comment on how important it is to improve their relationship tend to only have a small impact on affect and/or no negative influence on mood. Conversations or events when they forget about that and just be friends with Wake lead to more affection and improved moods.

Alternative Title(s): Conception II Children Of The Seven Stars, Conception 2, Conception II

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