Having just beaten this game for the... I don't know... fourth or fifth time, a few things come to mind. First of all, this game has an amazing and intriguing story, worthy of several hearings. Second, the game-play is, simply put, some of the most entertaining turn-based virtual combat ever committed to a video-game. Third, final, and unfortunate: the game is just(ever-so-slightly) too long. By the end of it, you're not so much happy at having beaten it, as relieved that it's over, I'm sorry to say(because I really, really enjoyed playing this through, each time, hence my returning to it). Around 90-95 percent through the game, it starts feeling as if it will never actually end, and that feeling never disappears. That is the biggest problem with this. With that out of the way, I will now return to the story... it's simply great. The writers created this whole world for the player to delve into and explore the richly designed and many areas of, including an entire mythology complete with deities, angels and demons. The characters are equally well-written, with as many different personalities and back-stories as there are major characters. The tone is perhaps mature, without much violence, and in spite of the latter, it's still awesome. There's a good mix of fantasy and sci-fi. The player starts out controlling just the main character, but soon two more joins, making for a full team of three characters controlled at a time. Throughout the game, more characters join, and in the end, there's a total of nine to form your team of(which is always limited to three at a time). All of them are different, with different attacks, stats and advantages, making it essential to choose wisely when putting together the team for next mission. Each character has at least a few unique attacks, and there isn't a single one of them that aren't worth having on your team. No matter your fighting style, you'll find characters that are good choices, and fun to use. Now, returning to the game-play... it's incredibly entertaining. The three members of your team face off with the enemies, usually the same amount, more weaker enemies or fewer strong ones. Everyone then 'loads up' power, allowing for stronger attacks the longer you wait(which also means time that your enemy can spend attacking... strategy), and more power for alternate attacks. Throughout the game, you get more and more of said alternate attacks, six in total per character, coupled with the three standard ones, making for a total of nine attacks. The alternate attacks drain your power source, the so-called Core Power. Core Power also powers your so-called Fate Cards. This is where the game-play really shines. Each of your team members can use a card at a time, meaning you can combine cards for special kinds of magic. There are magic cards for each of the four main elements of nature, and cards for almost every favorable or harmful magic effect in the game. I won't give detailed descriptions of their effects here, but I'll name my three favorite combined magic effects: Destroyer, Big Bang and Black Hole. Feel free to imagine what they do, or, better still, play it for yourself and see and enjoy the enemy-destroying, graphically dazzling and wickedly cool effects for yourself. You can Summon the deity of your choice, with the right combination. There's even a card that will reverse the effect of any other card... a quick example would be reversing Resurrect making Instant Death. The graphics are very nice, with 3D-rendered backgrounds in a 2D game, and quite good detail for the resolution and camera angle(basically a close-to-medium bird's eye view, with the camera dynamically following the character you control). The various effects are colorful and well-done, and the animation is pretty smooth, with few exceptions. The sound is very good, if a tad repetitive and limited(the same sounds are used multiple places). Music is grand. The voice acting is mostly good. Boss-fights can be interesting. The game mainly consists of running around, looking for the way further on, and fighting enemies every couple of seconds, in aforementioned turn-based fashion. Another problem is that a lot of the time, you have no idea where to go... you just have to try out everything, until you hit the right thing. Sometimes, it does make fairly good sense, and there is a general feeling of working towards a goal throughout the game. The map helps a bit, when trying to find your way, though its design is simple... but once you figure it out, it's of marvelous aid, better than quite a few. Now, it should be noted that this is a story-driven game; there are a handful of things that you can choose to do or not, but the vast majority of the game is entirely set in stone, with a more or less definite order to do everything in, who to talk to, what to do and how to do it. This didn't bother me personally, but I know that there are other RPG's that allow greater freedom of choice, so if you are used to such, know that this doesn't feature that(nor MP). Septerra Core is about the story, the mythology, the experience of this world and the creatures and creations that inhabit it. The story-telling partly takes place through scripted scenes in the game's engine, coupled with a few beautifully rendered 3D animated movie sequences. The adventure portion, the player having to find things and combine them is fairly simple, but can still prove to be hard, at times even frustratingly so. You don't get an awful lot of help with it, and I have to admit I found myself checking walkthroughs many times. Still, magnificent game, one of the best(though I haven't played many). I recommend this to fans of RPG games, adventure, and turn-based fighting with a wide array of attacks/actions. If you like one/more of the aforementioned, you're unlikely to be disappointed. 8/10
