Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator

I've beaten this game several times over the years, and I keep reinstalling it and starting over again after a while. It's like a really good book, that you want to read over and over again, and even its shortcomings (there are the expected places where you have some repetitive battles to experience farm in order to level enough to make it past certain opponents) do not detract from the fantastic playing experience. Also, I have worked in interface design and I have to say this game has one of the best-thought out, most seamlessly usable interfaces I've ever seen in a game. I just wish there was more.

Septerra Core is REALLY an overlooked masterpiece. Character creation is perfect, there are no 2 same characters in the game. While I speak obviously about playing characters, the same can be propably said about all other personas we meet. Every part of the world is extremelly different also, devided into 7 shells, which also have nothing in common with each other. Simply put, the variety of characters and world around them is very big and changes all the time as you progress, making it impossible to bore you. And that is even before we actually add in the great plot, full of twists and constructed in such a way, that it blends with the world and seems very real (doesn't feel like those 'generic' stories from other jRPGs or cRPGs). Character progression kind of "happens" and you can influence it by simply fighting, hunting equipment and cards, that allow us to use magic and summon powerfull beings. The game is simply must-have and while I hate hate hate replaying ANY games (besides heroes3 and fallout 2 maybe) this one I played 3 times... And since it's not really random... That means it must be rich in content and fun, trust me :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp2JorEBQfg When this game was released initially on 1999 it was pretty impressive - it having voice acting on time when there wasn't that much going around, plus you had pretty decent graphics and tons of hours for gameplay. There are some issues getting the game to run, but ive explained how to fix it on my video (The fixes aren't total salvation, there is still the fact that cinematics can't be played plus the dialogue on speeches might rewind itself a bit) The game has rather cool characters and they have these nice interactions with each NPC on the game, which shows how much efffort has been put into dialogue. There is some cool sidestories and side quests you can do and the main story is pretty long too, so you can expect 30-45h of gameplay in total In terms of customization or changing windowed mode and stuff like that, there is some limitation due to it being pretty old game. There is autosave system however and manual one as well. Biggest downfall for the game probably is the combat, its pretty fun for while, but it might get bit boring and frustrating after while if you don't like grinding and slow phased combat. The Story is rather decent, nothing groundbreaking, but really isn't super stereotype either, the world has some really cool distinctive elements to it and landscape changes alot between the zones/acts of the game. For its price i think its pretty good deal if you can look past some of the small issues and bit repetitive combat system

I love this game for its world building, its quirky anime-inspired characters, the mostly OK voice acting, and the music (however few and far between the tracks are). This game sets a mood that keeps me coming back to it every few years despite its limitations. Gameplay-wise, it's like a JRPG played with the mouse. Basically, the first half of this game deserves 5 stars, but after that the story-to-grind ratio becomes ridiculously skewed in the favour of trash mobs. The later levels are wrought with so many of them, and combat is so slow, even when your party is overpowered it takes forever. I recommend you buy it on sale, play the first ten hours with tutorials handy. Then, if you feel up to it, see how far you make it into the end game before you quit due to boredom.

Have this game since its release, in the early 2000s , and never managed to finish it , despite going back to it every once in a while. The game is a kinda 'long' JRPG made by western devs. I say 'long' because the 'lenght' is basically backtracking and doing the same fights multiple times. Overall i do appreciate the game and remember good times with it and its story ( sort of original, at least at the time ) but cannot deny the fact it can get tedious.. i think it's more about the genre than the game itself though.