Released near the end of 1999, Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator is a western RPG styled after a Japanese RPG. Like many JRPGs it features a fairly linear story with semi-real time combat similar to Final Fantasy.
What I liked:
Interesting universe, good atmosphere and solid writing- The entire world feels very unique and interesting with a future medievel style very similar to Final Fantasy in a good way.
What I disliked:
Combat and combat skills- The combat system is problematic primarily because everything just takes too long. Waiting around in games like Final Fantasy can be aggravating enough but in this game, killing enemies seems to take forever.
What's worse is the fact that most skills have to be acquired by finding cards. Unfortunately these cards are extremely card to find. Based on the walkthrough, I was half way through the game and my characters still had only 1 or 2 skills to select.
Lack of side quests at the start- These are suppose to reward you with experience and points but because they appear at the middle and late game it makes the game feel padded and too drawn out.
Difficulty- The lack of skills makes it difficult to fight certain enemies causing more frustration as you have to grind to beat enemy bosses.
Conclusion
Great story, great atmosphere but shallow difficult combat meant that I ended up cheating, eventually lost interest and never finished the game. Overall great idea, great isometric graphics but very poor execution. I think if they had made the game smaller and focused on making combat more fun, cards/skills easier to find and side quests more accessible it would have been great. Unfortunately I believe the studio went bust shortly after which is a shame.
