評論

• gamedeal user

  Nov 9, 2021

  First time I've played Septerra Core with my older brothers, we got stuck on Shell 3 (we were kids, so you must forgive our past selves). On my second playthrough, I got much further, but still haven't finished the damn thing. And now finally, after 100+ hours of battling and solving puzzles, I saw the ending screen. Although I have mixed feelings about how the plot ended, I am far from regretting dusting off this title. The story was solid, the combat, even if there was too much of it, was fun (especially combining different cards to gain various attacks), but the true icing on the cake were the main characters. We had a party of 9 people from all Shells, shapes and sizes, who had their own intentions, personality and grudges against one another. Our main protagonist - Maya, wasn't some kind of The Chosen One™ character, but just a young woman who wanted to protect her loved ones, and gradually she took the responsibilty of saving the world. I am saddened that Septerra Core never got the recognition it deserves. Especially after seeing the FFVII remake, I can't help but imagine what the game would look like if it was released now (or got that sequel hinted in the ending). Still, it is worth giving a chance even after all those years since its release. So give Septerra Core a chance and play it yourself :)
• gamedeal user

  Mar 1, 2022

  For the first 20% of Septerra Core I thought, wow, this is a forgotten gem, even though I don't usually like JRPGs. The looks and the combat system are certainly JRPG inspired. But, at first, Septerra Core doesn't have annoying random encounters and grinding. It's full of nice little touches. The story is captivating. The cast of characters, although not very well written, at least varied. But after a while Septerra Core turns into a chore. You go into a maze, pull levers, kill respawning monsters. And those mazes aren't really mazes. You don't navigate well designed dungeons with pressure plates, teleporters, traps, etc. You just walk around and pull levers, sometimes pull them again to go back where you came from. Some of these mazes are very large and after you complete your missions there, you need to retrace your steps back to the world map. If the maze has several areas, the monsters respawn when you re-enter one. This is not one of those games where you complete an area and a shortcut opens in the end. Since the enemies are mostly palette-swapped with a few different attacks, the combat is never really that exciting. The magic system is good on paper but the high mana cost and the fact that you don't get all the spells until near the very end turns things sour. But at least it's possible in Septerra Core to kill something that's pretty much a demilich with a loaf of bread. The other serious flaw of Septerra Core is its quest. The game has very few side-quests and role-play opportunities. And the main quest is a nightmare. The items you require to progress and how to get them are usually pretty nonsensical. At first,you can go around, talk to everyone and check everything if they are clickable if you don't know what to do. But then, when you acquire means to travel between cores the number of permutations skyrocket. If you manage to deduce what you really need (there is one quest about crossing a body of water and the solution is super stupid, despite the small hint you get hours before you reach that part of the game) to manipulate or fix something, there is still the possibility that you find yourself at the end of a maze, unable to do anything because only a certain party member can do the required thing (there are two really bad examples of this). If you really want to brave the horrors of this game, I recommend using a guide. In conclusion, I think Septerra Core could have been a really great game. But the things that make it special are overwhelmed by its flaws. Not recommended.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 20, 2014

  This JRPG style game isn't bad but it's held back by several flaws. THE GOOD : the voice acting for the main characters, especially Maya is outstanding. The spell cards are fun to combine and the graphics for the time are pretty good. The character models aren't the best but I did like the backgrounds and lighting effects. What music is there is good although there's mainly over world and battle themes. Dungeons are generally silent. Sound effects are pretty good as well and satisfying to hear. The story isn't bad either. Sometimes you have to bring a certain character to an NPC to get them to say something specific or get a key item. Think about which character might be useful with a certain NPC or on what shell. Your battle attack/spells have 3 levels of power leading to some strategy involved. Enemies can potentially be bypassed as in games like Earthbound and Chrono Trigger and there are no random battles, enemies are on screen almost always. THE BAD: The dungeons get monotonous really fast, mainly because it's mostly about flipping switches to open doors that often lead to more switches. You're either opening doors or making new pathways and at the end you find a key item or fight a boss. Then you have to usually backtrack out of the dungeon manually which can get annoying if you just want to get out of there and don't care about exp and gold. An option to teleport out would have been helpful. There's also a lot of backtracking, and clues to what needs to be done next can sometimes be confusing to figure out. Again, bringing the right character along on the right shell can be a big help in this aspect. Another major glaring problem for me was the slow animations during battle and the sound effects often took even longer, still playing even when the animations were done. This is especially a problem with the zombie enemies. I found myself using machine gun characters when I could, just because their attacks are faster. Characters take one turn at a time or combine turns during spells. You can't input commands usually until the character is done with their attack or spell/item usage unlike say a Final Fantasy game. This stuff is a bigger problem during the first half of the game, once you get a spell card that lets you attack all enemies it helps cut down on this some, but it's still a problem. I found myself running away from battles towards the end, just to get to the end of the game. Overall I enjoyed Septerra Core for the voice acting and story/setting. The battle system isn't BAD as an idea, and the card concept is neat, it's just feels slow as heck, at least for me. The switch flipping and backtracking got on my nerves fast. If the battle system was just faster, I might not have minded the rest, because that's mainly what made the dungeons more of a chore than anything else. If you're the patient type you might find the battles less grating than I did. I got it on sale here for a buck so it was worth the price. I'd give Septerra Core a 7/10. I'm going to overall recommend the game. Just be aware of the issues above if you decide to play.
• Hailfyre

  Dec 11, 2022

  Old school western JRPG that still has charm + Unique world, locations, and lore that you can experience throughout the game + Fully voiced and mostly well acted dialogue + Fun and interesting roster that have dialogue options with the world around them + Pretty big world with a bunch of hidden locations and side quests + Generally well written and has good ideas Has not aged well - Pretty big world BUT most of it are seemingly endless mazes of dungeons that can quickly become frightfully boring - Prepare to backtrack. A lot - Combat is buggy (melee attacks sometimes do 0 damage, random enemy is suddenly able to summon the most damaging spell against your party that may cause a wipe), tedious (pacing is glacial), and frustrating (accuracy values are a mess and especially atrocious on certain characters) - Gameplay systems are rudimentary and have little depth. Progression just consists of grinding exp and buying the latest gear from shops as they refresh - Storytelling has some jank to it. Requires some suspension of disbelief - Missed opportunity with characters. Little to no actual character development on a lot of major characters - Pretty predictable story, ending was especially egregious Notes & High nostalgia value. Definitely worth picking up if you've played it once and want a trip down memory lane & Used a 3rd party launcher so I could play in Windowed mode, didn't like the way the game hogs fullscreen by default but switched back for some boss fights as it would crash otherwise (which is why my hours clocked are low - game takes roughly 40 hours to complete)
• gamedeal user

  Nov 14, 2014

  Still a great game like it was during the Win 95/98 era. The same bugs persist but these are easily fixable. The Steam version is only 1.02v though when the final patch for the game is 1.04v. You can however still patch it yourself to run the 1.04v version. The cutscenes didn't work at first but installing the version of QuickTime that comes with the game and tunring off the DirectX boxes (not the circle) in the QuickTime options has fixed this issue. (I"m running Windows 7) Other then that running the game in Windows XP SP2 compatability and I've had 0 issues since. This game is a gem for its price with minor flaws. Don't expect anymore patches though because like I stated earlier this is a Windows 95/98 era game and the only real flaw left is sometimes how fast the text plays during minor moments.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 25, 2015

  Septerra Core is a great game. Even the original was cursed with numerous glitches and bugs. The Steam edition does nothing to fix any of them, instead I ended up noticing new glitches that I never encountered in the original. The cinematics do not seem to work and the audio goes on and off. In addition to the glitches that plagued the original. I hate to say this about a great game like Septerra Core, but unless they patch it and give it the treatment it deserves, dont bother with it.
• gamedeal user

  May 17, 2015

  So, Septerra Core. Here we are. FINALLY! I've started this game 4 times (thanks to a lot of PC crashes). The first time was back in the day, when this game was fairly new (sooo, around 2000/2001? maybe?). 15th of May 2015 I finally finished it. Did I like it as much as I did back when I was roughly 12 years old? Well... kinda. The thing is: the game AGED ♥♥♥♥ING TERRIBLE!!!!! I don't know what my favorite feature is. Maybe the fact that everything is soooooooo slow. You're basically waiting for EVERYTHING. Wait for the fight to start. Wait until your action bar is filled up to the level you want. Wait for the enemy to finish attacking because it is their turn EVERY ♥♥♥♥ING TIME EXACTLY BEFORE YOUR ACTION BAR IS ALMOST FULL!!!! Wait for the attack animation to start! Wait for the attack animation to end! It takes ♥♥♥♥ing forever to get ♥♥♥♥ done in this game. And that's not talking about interacting with ♥♥♥♥ing objects. (Why Maya, why are you thinking so long about that order I just gave you? Pull the ♥♥♥♥ing lever!!!) Or maybe it is the TERRIBLE DUNGEON DESIGN that stretches the game about at least a third. Enter a ♥♥♥♥ING HUGE dungeon WHICH CONTAINS (apart from some items) NOTHING BUT LEVERS THAT OPEN DOORS AT THE OTHER END OF THE MAP. (Backtracking, Hooray!!!) Add to that the fact that you visit a lot of dungeons AT LEAST TWICE. Multiple times if you by chance don't have a specific item or a specific party member. That's right, most of the game is also a giant fetch quest of "use that item nobody told you about to progress". Get random item no.1 from place x to get random item no.2 that you might need 12 hours later at place y. Don't have item no.2 when you are IN THE ♥♥♥♥ING HUGE ♥♥♥ DUNGEON Y? WELL ♥♥♥♥ YOU, GO BACK TO X AND GET IT!!!! Thank god, that leaving one dungeon and entering a different one doesn't take ages...ohwait. I could probably continue, but I rather say that I really liked the world and the characters and back in 1999 all of these features/problems were probably not as much a pain in the ♥♥♥ as they are nowadays. The game even has some smart ideas like the 3-level-attack-bars and the spell casting system. Unfortunately, video games have moved on and kind of left Septerra Core behind. There are probably many other old games that have aged better. So, do I recommend Septerra Core. Well, obviously I ♥♥♥♥ing do because it is a really charming game that always has a special place in my heart. Also, I am now officially done with it and never have to think back like: "Why did I never finish Septerra Core? That game was kickass back then!" In my opinion, everyone should experience the sensation that is Septerra Core in its entirety. And if you didn't back then, well, sucks to be you because nowadays the game is horrible, tedious, physical pain. But I still love you, Septerra Core. I do love you! <3<3<3<3<3
• gamedeal user

  Sep 28, 2013

  Can't believe that this awesome game is re-released! It's slightly buggy on Windows 7 and 8 and misses the 1.4 patch that solves a bug that could happen in rare cases but it is still very awesome and an all time favourite!
• gamedeal user

  Jan 31, 2016

  Nice, really old school RPG. I remember loving it as a child. We're talking Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment era so the pace is a bit slow and the graphics while not horrible haven't aged nicely. Very unique story and setting.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 1, 2018

  One of the first JRPG type games I ever played on my PC from my teenage era, this surely brings back the good memories again :) The Steam version runs well on my Windows 7, just need to reinstall QuickTime again (because apparently the first time game run unattended installation doesn't install QT properly) then set the options according to v1.04 update note to make sure the videos/cinematic play properly.