Review | Jin Conception

LifeisXbox’s Jin Conception review | Jin Conception is a social deduction fantasy thriller turn-based JRPG. When three characters enter the Final Layer, two vanish without a trace, and eight playable characters’ stories intertwine! One returns from the Final Layer but claims to have no memory of what went down there. It’s up to you to find out who is lying and who is telling the truth. Who will you trust? In this single-player game, it’s your job to find out who is a friend and who is a foe!

We played Jin Conception for 6 hours on the Nintendo Switch. This game is also available on PC (Steam).

What we liked!

• Graphics and sound | I absolutely LOVE the graphical art style in Jin Conception. It’s so very cute and the use of very vivid colors really brings a lot of life to this game. I’m a big fan of how the characters look and how everyone has a unique style. The environments are all very pretty as well, and they have their own asthetics. I did have a wonderful time traveling through the different biomes! Besides the graphics, the music is also worth mentioning. The soundtrack is a very upbeat and happy tune that does not disappoint. It changes with the gameplay and I definitely enjoyed the accompanying music on my adventure.

Somewhere between

• Combat | The combat reminded me a little of battling in Pokémon, but in Jin Conception, you’ll be battling right on the spot. No switching screen, the action takes place on the field. Battles are very tough in the beginning. I literally died every single time when an enemy threw a single punch at me. But hey, you can escape a battle, which you will find out a little too late, and you will have died a thousand times before knowing this. This is something that should be made clear from the start, but that was not the case. Anyway, moving on. Whilst being in the middle of battle, your opponent can just randomly attack you without waiting their turn. Yes, this brings a little extra challenge, but I experienced it as being rather annoying. I honestly didn’t completely understand battles, because they are not explained in the slightest (just like nothing is, as you’ll read later on). I’m sure this battling system has a lot to offer, I just haven’t seen it yet.

What we disliked

• Story | JRP, social deduction, choosing who is friend or foe. These would indicate a strong story and an even stronger connection with the characters. Unfortunately, this was not the case in Jin Conception. As you are thrown immediately into the gameplay without any introduction, and most importantly, without presenting the characters, I never really felt any sort of connection to the characters. The protagonist, Levi, while looking cute, didn’t do anything for me. The entire story left me untouched and I didn’t feel any engagement, sadly.
• No clear menu or tutorial: I like a bit of challenge as much as the next player, but if you’re just thrown into a game, without ANY kind of guidance, I will immediately have my doubts about a game. I fired up the game, clicked ‘new game’ (because that was literally the only thing I could do), and bam, I had to start playing. I had no direction, no idea what was happening, and apart from a small conversation that was as confusing as everything else in Jin Conception, I had no indication of what the purpose of anything was, or how I had to play. This feeling of ‘being lost’ kind of continues throughout the whole game, I never really had a sense of direction or knew what the hell I had to do. Figuring out the controls is something you’ll have to do on your own as well, as there is no settings menu or anything to be found. You can easily access the Save option (luckily), but that’s about the only useful ‘setting’ you’ll find in the entire game.
• What are those numbers ?! | When pressing ZL and RL on your Nintendo Switch, random little green numbers appear out of nowhere, counting up and down. I still have not figured out what the hell their purpose is.
• Simply too vague and difficult | Jin Conception is basically way too difficult. I get that the developer wanted to add mystery, but this has gone too far. I’m convinced a lot of players will be stuck at the very beginning and a lot of times after they figured out how to recruit their first party member, even though you get a tiny bit of information after this happens. Jin Conception needs more guidance because the lack of information makes the gameplay a pain in the ass.

CONCLUSION

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