Septerra Core

Has anyone on the Codex played Septerra Core? What were your opinions of the game?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septerra_Core (A link to a description of it if needed)

I have played it a few times and finished it twice (which is an epic committment to say the least) but will reserve my opinions til others have posted about it.

And yes, it is a cRPG... at least it's a Western take on a jRPG format.

 

I've tried to play it a couple of times but I found the combat to be tedious (especially against those giant crabs with 50 HP and you are only ever able to do 1-2HP damage to them every attack) and the story wasn't enough for me to persist. One day I will persist I'm sure!

I did like the world and lore in the game - it was nice to experience something fresh. I also liked the adventure genre puzzles.

So all-in-all, I liked the thought put into the world (or worlds if one thinks of the shells as such) and the adventure elements, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I've played much worse.

 

I's a western made jrpg so you've got not many whiny characters and other emo bullshit. It has an interesting world to explore but combat is typical archaic jrpg fare and the game is extremely linear. I had quite some fun with it, even though it is far from being a classic game.

 

As you said, the combat gets really boring at times. The crabs were nothing compared to those damn Chosen troops with the Cloak spell - almost every attack would miss, even spells, no matter how powerful, so basically until you got the Cloak spell yourself (then you could remove it from enemies) you had to wait until it would run out or waste your attacks over and over again hoping that at least one would hit. Also, the level design is just terrible especially later on, once you've visited all the Shells. The dungeons are extremely long, because you always have to go to one place and activate a switch, then go all the way back and to an another corner of the map and activate a second switch and then go to the next part of the dungeon and do the same thing again. But, I liked the lore and the art direction was interesting. It is the only jRPG I've ever finished, so I guess it deserves some credit.

 

I've always quit right after the Slum shell, mainly because the shell after it doesn't have much flare (no robot war, junkers, medieval place )

It has a very interesting setting, and it's combat is alright, although a bit slow due to the long attack animations. Me and my friend both got the game when we were kids, so it was fun discussing it with him and trying to figure out how to solve some of the puzzels (we were stuck on the invincible bounty hunter part for a looong time). It was also my first real RPG. In all I had a lot of fun with it.

 

I enjoyed it greatly, it's one of the better JRPGs I've played. Make no mistake though, it is most definitely a JRPG in every way, don't expect anything more.

Probably the best thing about it for me was the setting itself, there were some very interesting locations to visit, at least graphically and conceptually. That might seem shallow, but I enjoyed the setting much more than most recent games, enough that I would love to play a sequel. The setting is by far the game's strong point, IMO.

The combat is just okay (JRPG), not borign enough to be a deal breaker, though there is too much of it. The characters are jsut okay as well, again JRPG, and they could have done a lot worse. The overall storyline is pretty good.

Be prepared for lots of dungeon crawling, from start to finish. I remember going through a huge dungeon (which was actually quite interesting thematically, I think it was an above ground forest/swamp on top of a volcanic vent with bioluminescent flora) just to get a small piece of bone, then going out the same way, returning to a village from earlier in the game to get the bone carved into something, then going through the dungeon AGAIN and there was even more dungeon from there. It was a realitively short dungeon too. There were a few dungeons which game a feeling of "whew, what a bitch that was, glad it's over" but also a lot of them that just got damn tiring before I was finished with them. I played it many years ago when I was more accepting of a game's bullshit than I am now, so I don't know if I'd be able to play it all the way through this time. If you have the patience to play a modern crpg then this game shouldn't be too big a problem unless the battle systme repels you.

Last thing, it's single biggest flaw (and its a HUGE one) is that there is no music, except for some short, repetitive battle themes. It gives the game a different feeling to be sure, but I think the atmosphere could have been improved quite significantly with some tunes. This is the perfect game for a fan-made "we fix all the developers fuck ups so the game in question becomes playable 10+ years after the fact" patch.

Anyway, you should all try it out if you like JRPGs, it's worth a shot.

 

JPG garbage, what else needs to be said?

 

It's still a POS.

 

No no, the western-made jrpg comment is well put. And Septerra is very good game for its time. Alas it doesnt age well.

1st, the game is hugely influenced by FF series, specifically FF8. You play and you will see why, how and what. IT's good, though.

The setting, story, background is interesting, no question about it. Storywhore like me should have no complaint whatsoever.

Combat is tedious only if you dont pay attention. Or dont make full use of your arsenal. 1Hp per attack? That's because you use basic 1 bar attacks. Good attack is 2 bar or 3, or use combination magics. each character has a set of unique attack you can learn from weapons/items. Myself? I like using combination magic to summon that water chick to smash them all. Remmind me of Shiva GF. No complaints from me about combat.

Map is the single worst aspect of game design I can mention. We are talking about HUGE map per level here, like the map of Capital of Chosen Ones. There's a command to make map into a bmp image so you can have an offline map, see, and such huge map can freeze weakass cheapo PC of those days right off the bat. Imagine a tunnel like map of ff13, twist and turn multiple times with nooks and cranies.

Encounters based on line of sight. If they see you, they engage and battle happens. THere's a command line allow you seeing their LOS to avoid them and it became a minigame of their own, albeit hidden.

PC and NPCs are numerous, from scavenger scums to Chosen generals, from bounty hunter to criminals, from paupers to princess. Some pair of characters got their own sidequests and stories, or sidescenes if they are in one group. Command is a bit like FF8. And safely to say each is one unique characters. My usual complaints about NPCs: not enough nekkid females. And that is included in Art comments.

Art directions of this game follow stylish realisticism. Desert dwellers wear cloak and full covered clothes, not skimpy. Chosen One generals wear uniforms, so also not skimpy. There's a few female characters but they dont wear skimpy armors, hence my complaints. Back to art. The scenes are well done, memorable, and very beautiful for its day (ff8). From the hotdry deserts to green forests, from hitech cities to barbarism.

I didnt finish the game due to my PC was too weak to run the map of Capital. After I got a better PC, more games attract my interests. So I still havent finished this game yet.

 

It was a p. good game. Sadly, I enoucntered a major gamewstopping bug about 1/4 of the wya in the game and could not proceed further.

 

Not even with bugfix?

 

No jrpg has as much pointless grinding as this imitation. The art direction was ok, I can admit that, but the graphics were horrible. The game was just too fucking tedious for me to keep playing so I've never finished it. It's impossible to sit through SC unless you're a jrpg fanatic

 

A terribly shitty fucking game. Probably made with Macromedia Flash.

 

Pretty much this, I didn't get too far, though the biggest killer for me was the speed. If you're going to have to grind the shit out of a game, why the fuck would you make the battles absolutely slow as shit.

I could only fathom playing the game with some serious fast forward

 

Pfft, a JPG is a JPG even if developed by cameroonians like you.

 

forreal, PNG 4 lyfe

 

Does it have a lot of C&C?

If not, it's better to read a book and watch a movie.

 

Latest patch removes copy protection, and solves that bug. The patch will not repair your saves, thus you might like to start again.

 

Yeah, I love her sensible attitude, her practicality, and all-round usefulness.The real pity, of course, is her practical and sensible neckline and hemline. sigh.

A strong and beautiful female protagonist in the age of heroes.

 

Why were you waiting for others to post their opinion before you posted yours? You're either seeking approval (from the Codex of all places) or you're embarrassed by your own (bad) taste.