On my second day playing this game, I have also encountered this problem. I have restarted the game a few times, I have looked into the game's ini-file (ScaleMode=0, CpuIdle=1; just what the IceBear prescribed), I have used ALT+TAB to leave and return to the game, I have turned on Vertical sync and disabled threaded optimisation. I have tested each change individually and the lot of them together.
The problem persists.
In order to proceed I have to move the mouse around. There appears to be a few locations, near the edges of the viewport, where mouse movement will cause the post-combat routine to "step" forward. Each step moves the camera a little bit, until the post-combat messages show and I can resume gameplay.
System: Win7 64 bit / GeForce GTX 580
EDIT -
Restarted computer. Also did not help.
Mouse movement detail: Moving the mouse across UI elements at the bottom of the screen seems to be a reliable way of advancing the post-combat procedure. -- Or was that a hallucination? The UI elements are not there at that time. Well. It turns out to be a good region for mouse-movement to advance the process anyway.
EDIT -
Sometimes the UI elements show up after combat, before the reward messages. When that happens, moving the mouse across elements produces reliable progress towards the reward messages.
EDIT -
Pressing (and holding) a key is the most reliable "solution" yet. Any key seems to function (possible exception of modifier keys ALT SHIFT CONTROL), although I prefer to use one that has no function in the game.
EDIT - new discoveries
1. I have only had this problem while running another (Windowed) application (such as internet explorer) simultaneously with Septerra Core.
2. There is a second symptom: My party's speed stats has no effect; all bars fill up at the exact same speed (stat range 59 - 75).
I launched the program without any other applications running today, and wondered why the problem was gone. Then I opened a browser, and returned to the game, causing the problem (not progressing at end of combat, speed stat ineffective) to return. Closing the browser made the problem go away again.
Speculation: I am running septerra core with an application specific nvidia setup that enables vsync. Enabling vsync is one of the proposed solutions, but it did not work for me. However, I also observed tearing effects even after vsync was enabled, so I think my system may have had difficulty identifying this application and applying the graphics profile. If so, having another application running might be part of the cause.
Post edited July 30, 2014 by fdari