State of shock

It’s not often that a Japanese role-playing game obtains a ‘Mature’ rating from the ESRB, but that’s exactly what the North American classifications board has awarded PlayStation Vita dungeon crawler Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars. While the Nintendo 3DS iteration is the only version to be examined thus far, it stands to reason that the release on Sony’s system will follow the same path.

The company noted fantasy violence – including some gory scenes – as one of the reasons for the adult rating, but also pointed to some raunchy dialogue and sexual themes. “During the course of the game, players are able to engage in a Classmating system, in which two characters interact to create a Star Child,” a summary explained. “These brief sequences do not depict sexual acts, though the female characters shown are often partially nude and placed in suggestive poses.” Hmm.

As the game’s name implies, you’ll need these Star Children to succeed, so there’ll be no escaping the fleeting sensual sections. It’d be interesting if this was being handled in a manner that tallied with the title’s classification, but the ESRB descriptor also mentions the inclusion of “jiggling breasts” and frequent close-ups of “cleavage”. The title sounds more juvenile than mature, then – but still probably not appropriate for youngsters.

[source esrb.org, via siliconera.com]