Posted on: June 25, 2012

Renjabert

Gry: 1074 Opinie: 2

An Epic RPG... In Fits (2.5 Stars)

When I first started playing Septerra Core, I found myself immediately engaged. The game begins like a point-and-click adventure with combat, and the stakes, with only one low-level character setting out into the badlands, were just right. Many, many hours on, I can easily say the adventure elements, though sparse, are well done. Most of the objectives and puzzles, though simple and usually inventory-based, are clearly explained; the voice acting was VERY good for the time, and is just fine even now (many of the voice actors were also hired for the Halo and Mass Effect series, if that gives you an idea); the pathfinding is good enough (except for a few doorways where you'll have to be very gentle); and the visual style is more a tribute than stale ripoff of JRPGs. So, why give it only a 50%? Almost every problem the game has can be traced to the combat, which is what you'll be doing for probably 85% of the 45+ hour game, and the main reason the game is so long. Nothing's broken... It's just damned slow. The larger, more labyrinthine dungeons near the end of the game will take hours simply because of the enemy encounters which, in any other game, would seem correctly spaced on the map. If there were nuances to the battle system that took time and effort to master, that'd be one thing, but you'll learn almost everything you need to know by the first few hours... Which is about the time the music gets old as well. Most of the sound design of the game has gone into some nice washes of ambient effects, but there are only a few variations on the battle theme you hear in your first encounter. You can turn the music off, but that also wipes out the environmental sound effects, so you'll have to weigh the consequences yourself. The bottom line for me has been the last several hours. I feel for the most part like I'm just going through the motions; I start up a podcast, load up my game, turn off the sound (your preferences are reset with every session), and clear out the dungeon I'm on while I'm distracted by something else before switching the sound back on for the dialog sequences. I'm interested to see the ending; I'm just not sure I want to deal with the tedium of getting there.

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Posted on: September 19, 2012

Ometecuhtli

Zweryfikowany użytkownik

Gry: 310 Opinie: 9

Not what I expected

I remember seeing the ads for the game back in 1998, about how the developer (Valkyrie Studios) was left without a distributor, and how it was picked by Monolith. Well, I didn't remember all the details but I needed little refreshment (still has the mags and all). I think Septerra Core is best summarized as an RPG that tries to be Japanese in style, with a cool (albeit too cliché) story of some sort of superhuman beings ruling over a struggling, diverse population of humans, human-like colored reptiles, robots, et cetera. The world is divided in 7 layers, each one with their one government, their own motives and aspirations (or lack of), and of course their own problems. The settings are pretty nice, and seem to have aged well (this game is about 13 years old, mind you). You play as Maya, a blue hair woman, who at the beginning is a nobody, as usual, looking for your younger brother, and you learn a little bit about the past battles that severely affected your world (or shell, in this case). I think it serves well to set the pace of the game and get you hooked for awhile. You learn to battle, of the three different levels of attacks, about core energy, which let you cast the usual array of spells, and from there the story develops itself. It doesn't break any rules, it doesn't raise the bar for gameplay, it's your standard out of the mill JRPG wannabe. Problems I found with this game, the battles get too repetitive, too formulaic, and, depending on your stats and equipment, too darn long. When the enemies start cloacking themselves and you have nothing to counterattack that, you're so out of luck, because you're gonna be battling for as long as an hour (no kidding), praying they just get out of mana -core energy, which I think never really occurs-, or a HDD crash happens. There's hardly a way to loose (if you aren't overpowered that much), so to make up for the lack of AI you're confronted with an irksome script which consists of putting barrier - setting your spells - attack - miss - miss again - heal party - miss ... Then an hour later you reach your destination only to find out the guy who knows how to get through it isn't in your party so you need to go back to the entrance, rearrange your party, and do the same battles, again! That way of substituting bad AI with this you-got-to-be-kidding-me "battle system" was acceptable on a NES, and is no longer acceptable on a PC, despite this game's age. Another thing is the game's linearity, which I doubt in RPGs is ever a good thing, and that's why they do so much to try to conceal it. Not in Septerra Core. Here you find yourself searching for colored keys just because you have to, and it doesn't make much sense the same thing applies for a palace, a forest, or a prison. Couldn't instead they put a quest giver or a notorious baddie be left guarding for which you needed a special item or weapon to pass? But they chose to make you traverse dungeon after dungeon, which gets tiresome pretty quickly, just because "you have to". And last thing I didn't like, as you traverse the worlds, you don't feel like these universe teem with too much life. People and creatures from all the shells are not that different, despite the potential for truly unique civilizations. Their worlds are quite different, and I think that remains a good thing, but when you get to the cities, they all have basically the same facilities, and when they don't, you wish they would! Because it's such a hassle to find out you can't get core energy in a world and you need to get back just after arriving. This, of course, is just my opinion, and if you're not bothered by the things I didn't like about this game (or probably know you might be able to look at them from a different, more positive perspective) you might as well like this game. Sadly, for me, it wasn't what I expected.

Czy to było pomocne?

Posted on: June 10, 2019

michiel1982

Zweryfikowany użytkownik

Gry: 143 Opinie: 4

Great game, nice adventure

This is a steal in sale. I loved the adventure and story when I first played this game on a pentium 2. I didn't use a guide then and remember getting lost in the story somewhere. I recommend using a guide when you play. The order for doing things is not always strict. Sometimes you can choose. You will have more and more characters to choose from during the game. In some occasions you want to bring brute force and in others a mechanic (sort of mage). I have not finished the story yet as it is quite long, but i will soon.

Czy to było pomocne?

Posted on: January 18, 2025

urut

Zweryfikowany użytkownik

Gry: 249 Opinie: 3

One of the best stories in RPG games

The story is great and the world is really interesting and well built. Combat system is interesting and entertaining. The only downside in my opinion is the imense amaounts of trash combat.

Czy to było pomocne?

Posted on: June 29, 2025

shiningaquas_8123

Gry: 1 Opinie: 1

Nostalgic, fascinating, and flawed

Classic, by the books turn-based RPG with a few novel mechanics/systems and a great use of the Active Time System that Final Fantasy rode to nominal success through the 90's. The world is so evocative by its very design and the story compliments it well in many places. Navigating it is more burdensome than it should be, and the level/map design leave a lot to be desired. Some of the puzzles are laborious to a fault, and tedious in a bad way; while the solutions reward attentiveness and world engagement here and there, the game still 'feels long' due to the excessive backtracking and maze-like stage layout, amplified by combat that is fun but lengthy and somewhat repetitive (like many turn-based RPG's of the time). There's a lot to love about Septerra Core, but outside of the conceit of its setting and the overall texture of its world, it may fail to impress a modern audience. If you like exploring the ruins of old RPG game design, this is a worthwhile gem to polish...just watch out for all the rough edges.

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