SEPTERRA CORE: LEGACY OF THE CREATOR - Games - http://maxpages.com/strategyforum/Septerra

OVERALL: 81%

Introduction:
Creating a role playing game nowadays seems to be more challenging, with everyone trying to outdo everyone else. Septerra Core is a console RPG game that has a developmental past much like a soap opera. When the game was being developed, there were many behind the scenes antics, people coming and going, at one point, everyone was working for free before moving on to other ventures. Monolith took the bull by the horn, and acquired the game and brought everyone back to continue developing the game with the original team. Of course, one wonders why someone would go to such lengths picking up a title with a troubled past. Final fantasy VII, a game so technicaly flawed, still managed to open the PC door for the console role-playing games with story, rather than movement as the focus. Septerra Core, hopes to grasp this emerging style of console-RPG gameplay and take it one step further.

The Basics:
The game is set on a planet that has seven continents orbiting one on top of the other, centered around a compute core. When I first read this, I was intrigued with the notion of a continents one on top of the other. I thought, what an ingenues way to create a world. The use of the seven floating continents allows for larger environments in which to travel. The lower you descend, the harsher, and less sophisticated the environment becomes. The game isn't restricted to a typical fantasy or sci-fi environments, and the mixing of typical settings in order to create new ones seems to be well done. The graphics are very well done, both in backdrops, and effects like shadows, rain, and snow.

Game Play:
One of Septerra Cores strength's seems to be in its gameplay. Fluid movement to the complex combat and magic system, which by the way, is not all that hard to learn. As with most console RPG's, you navigate through the worlds using your mouse. Just point and click your way around the map. (double click to run.) The movement is smooth, though there were times during the game that I felt that the characters walked along a predetermined path with the way some turns were made. Making your way through the world is quite easy as a lot of the action takes place in specified zones, and you use the world map to help you navigate through these zones. There are a lot of NPC's through out the and they are found on every continent. These are essential in the completion of the game. One of the interesting points in this game is the magic, innovative as it is, you use what's called, "Fate Cards" to cast your spells. There are numerous fate cards scattered through out the world, each casting a powerful spell. Here's the cool part, you can combine these cards in battle with your group, to cast some pretty nasty spells. Creatively woven into the gameplay is the interface; confusing at first, but lessens as you familiarize your self with it. By moving your mouse to the bottom of the screen, you access the subscreen, view/use items in your inventory, healing items, and core items. Key items will also be kept here, but in it's own separate inventory section. You can also view your characters skills, fate cards, armor, and weapons.

Combat in Septerra Core is rather easy, each character has its own "endurance bar" and using items is pretty easy in that you only have to have one character with one section of its endurance bar filled, you can then use whatever item you have in your inventory. The endurance bar is split up into three different sections. The bar fills up as battle begins, you can decide to attack after one of the sections has filed up, you can do a medium attack, or you can wait till the bar is completely filled and use the strongest attack. Using items during combat is easy as well, as you only have o have one character with one section of its endurance bar filled before using what ever item you have in your inventory. Two drawbacks in doing battle is that most of the battles seem to take for ever in high traffic areas, and you could not see the enemies stats at all.

Graphics:
One thing this is not, is a 3D accelerated game. But you really can't tell. In certain places with the 16- bit backgrounds and the 3D models, with one exception: The World Map... the world map is lacking in this area. You see your party moving from zone to zone as little sprites, and the quality of these just doesn't fit in with the graphics of the game. Thankfully, your not using the world map that much so it really doesn't effect the game, but still, sour eye candy is not a tasty treat!

The anime 3D models is really well crafted. One thing that bothered me was the "robot" like motion of the NPC's. As beautifully crafted as they are, it was disappointing to see the same movements, and facial expressions over and over again with different characters. I also noticed that the models used the same basic facial structures, just with different hair, voice, and beards.

I can understand this as I would not want to sit down and create hundreds of different models when you can use a template to save time and space. The game its self was done very well, but by no means, will you need a screaming 3D card to play this game.

Audio:
Bad sound, or even bad music can totally withdraw you from a game. Thankfully, not in this case.

Every RPG needs good music, crisp, clear sound, as well as speech, that really bring you into the game. Nothing gets you more excited in a big battle than a really sweet sounding battle music to get your blood pumping, and Septerra Core has them both! In my opinion, the sounds and music match those of Drakan: Order of the Flame... Outstanding!

Final Thoughts:
I was impressed the use of Anime like characters implemented in the game. There were a few drawbacks for me. The AI seemed a bit boring, and the models of the computer AI characters could have been worked on more. Their movements seemed to be repetitive in their jesters and expressions. There were a few places where the main character got stuck in where as the third-person view made it so I was looking at her back, rather than the map. So I felt lost and confused a few times when this happened. Over all, the graphics are very well done, though I would have liked to have more music to enhance the atmosphere of the game. The sounds were well thought out, and realistic. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy, or console style RGP's, then Septerra Core will suit you just fine.

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