User Reviews (1 - 11 of 28)

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Why only one CD?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: February 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

One of the best stories I have played in years, great movies and good characters. The concept is great, but, this are the things that destroy it in the end:

1. Very few kinds of enemies

2. Very few kinds of friends

3. You have to search in the same maze a lot of times, and every time you leave an area all the enemies you just destroy appear again, making this game boring after a while

4. The concepts of the magic and abilities are great, but the animations of the spells are childish

5. The world is very small

For the next game, at least, put three CDs in the package, and you will have a winner

Have you all lost your minds?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 12
Date: January 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

How can you even think of comparing ff8 to this piece of boring garbage?

Why do I think this game sucks?

1. The peoples faces are the same everyware 2. There are a total of about 15 faces and 16 voices for about 200 people, it reminds me game boy rpg's 3. The loading thing is terrible: you have to wait to enter an area , enter the world map, save, and fight. 4. The characters are stiff. 5. The magic sucks 6. Takes tooo long to do a single task such as in shell 7. 7. The characters are just stiff sprites 8. The only reason i gave this game 2 stars instead of 1 is that the movies are high quality. (But not as good as in ff8)

This game is ...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: November 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The interface to this game is terrible. I spent the first couple of hours of the game trying to figure out where I needed to go, because the game's interface didn't let me realize I could leave the city. More situations like that followed later in the game.

The battle system is absolutely tedious; it involves clicking the same thing over and over again, to the tune of a slow drumbeat which only helps to ensure that you are thoroughly bored. In fact, the severe lack of music is a problem which plagues the game. This would only be forgivable if it weren't for the fact that other RPGs constantly break new ground in game music, making Septerra Core look absolutely pathetic in comparison. It gives the impression that they spent the budget which was supposed to have hired a composer on advertising instead.

The incessant puzzles you have to solve are very contrived, and you never know whether talking to a certain person will be the key, or whether they will blather on about nothing. If I wanted puzzles, I'd play Riven so that they'd at least be well-done.

Finally, during what I have to assume was a 'boss battle' because the battle dragged on longer than usual and had a louder drumbeat, the game crashed. I would have had to start the battle over again, if it weren't for the fact that I uninstalled the game right then and there. It was too late to return the game to the store, but at least I could get my disk space back.

This game is inferior to Square's games in every area; it is nothing but hype. I can understand why some reviewers would give it high marks - after all the hype, I forced myself to hunt for its redeeming features, and for a while convinced myself that I liked it, until I found myself looking in the walkthrough every ten minutes to find the obscure thing I had to click on, and dozing off during the battles.

I' Rather be Sleeping

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: December 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Now don't get me wrong, Septerra Core is a good game. Well, at least for the first hour. After that the gameplay gets so repitive and slow I almost fell asleep. The maker of the game also put in faces while people are talking, much like Grandia. But they try to make it look state of the art by having their lips move, but it looks more like cheap clay animation. They also repeat the faces and NPC models, just cutting off the beard someone has and calling that person a whole new person. And the voice acting, don't even get me started on that. If you must get this lackluster game, you should problaly spring for the Jewel Case that includes the awesome Shogo.

Tedious

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought the game because it had very good hype. But I've learned since then that you should never believe in it. This game ranks in my top five of having a great story. The only problem is that the game advances really slowly. The battles take too long, and even if you have a great character you can't avoid the non-random, almost same monster. Tediousness sets in when you have to backtrack several times without advnacing in the story. Monsters always reapear and they are always the same. Graphics are good, in pseudo-3D. Sound is repetitive. And the magic system, needs some work. Bad graphical effects and almost no benefit for using your precious "mana" points.

Bad Game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game could have been great. The concept was good, the graphics were tolerable. But when it comes to gameplay, septerracore fails. The gameplay is repetitive, the bosses are too easy, the 'wilderness' areas are tedious and all the same, involving pulling many switches that toggle 600 doors/bridges all over the map. The graphics are pretty good, but badly executed (i.e. many graphics have been re-used dozens of times). Don't expect a full half-hour of entertainment out of this game.

Excellent Story... hampered by tedious battles

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: February 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is an odd mixed bag. You have, on one hand, an honest-to-God intriguing story, with original characters and above-average voice-overs. You got side-quests, hidden treasures, and deep background folklore... Everything to please those who like a good book. The graphics are good, except I would have preferred more animation frames on some characters... Oh well...

Then you have the battles. This is where the pain starts. It is somewhat reminiscent of the real-time/turn-based hybrid battle system from the Final Fantasy series, with the added depth of having characters "build-up" three levels of power with time. Like Final Fantasy, battles build up your characters' stats, to prepare for that ultimate final battle against the big boss. Unlike Final Fantasy, the battles aren't that much fun. The creature types are more or less the same, with minor color variations. And you don't feel compelled to fight in the first place. You don't want to fight; you just want to continue with the adventure...

The only thing that (may) push you forward is the top-class story. The Story is what drives this game through, just like a good book. Want to turn to the next page? Well, must fight about 20 creatures 20 times to know what happens next.

This is the problem (for me at least). An excellent story matched with a boring battle system make the final product a game of patience. Recommend you download the demo first! If you feel that you can enjoy this game based on the demo, by all means, buy-it! If you are more of the impatient type, well either buy this game and download cracks or cheats, or look elsewhere.

This game would have been a better adventure game than an RPG.

Too linear

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First off, let me start by saying that I more prefer games like Zork, Myst/Riven, and Monkey Island. While, to some, that may make me an "inferior" game player, I think it's all a matter of taste. I also love Final Fantasy, but I honestly think it's just too slow paced and I lose interest in it quickly, but still love playing it.

That said... I'm rather ambiguous on this one. It has the world-roaming capabilities of FF, yet lacks any real unpredictability. The gameplay itself is all linear; there's only one way to go, or so it seems. The world's small size lends itself to being a more compact game, but even that gets old after a while. I found myself growing bored with, as another player noticed, having to kill monsters again and again whenever I went through the same area.

BUT....

There's just something about games where the dialogue is spoken. :) There are also subtitles to read if for whatever reason you like it that way. The movies were good, if few and far between, and I really like the characters. The story is also a really great one; I honestly picked it up just because it seemed so cool! The gameplay itself is easy to learn, which is good as I tend to have a very limited attention span, but the pace of the game itself... well, there were times when I was desperately searching around for what I'm supposed to do to trigger the next part of the game and get eaten up by monsters because it took so long. Royally sucks.

On a whole, I think it's a good game, but mostly if you're big into RPGs like FFVII. It's got an expansive world, I think, but the linear gameplay isn't for everyone. I suppose it *could* merit four stars, but I don't think it's for everyone, so if you're with me on your game choices I'd wait until this was in the sales rack before picking it up.

Looooooong game gets old after a while

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Septerra Core is a fun game with terrific graphics, a nice plot, and a very good combat system. However, the game is so darn long that it gets REALLY old after a while. As others have complained about, it is really frustrating to have to backtrack and re-fight battles you've seen before. Even when you aren't backtracking, the same opponents appear time and again. The game would be much better if it were a little more like Planescape: Torment -- much less fighting and much more puzzle-type quests. I'm finally pretty close to the end, but I'm thinking of quitting because I can't take the monotony of it any more!

Top drawer RPG

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 17, 1999
Author: Amazon User

One of the best RPG's ever, and definitely the best RPG this year. And to think, we almost didn't get it at all. The story line is excellent, gameplay is superb, and the characters are outstanding, and for the first time the people are actually talking, not just printing their words on the screen.

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