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Septerra Core has had a rocky history. For some time, it was unknown whether it would ever get published. Thankfully, its potential was seen, and Monolith has published it in the United States.

At first glance, Septerra Core may scare away hard-core RPG players, who have experienced console RPG titles that were "dumbed down" for an American audience. Septerra Core does look like a console RPG, but it is certainly not dumbed down. It provides enough of a challenge to satisfy anyone willing to give it a fair amount of time. Exactly what that amount of time is is open to question, as I'm about 50 hours in and still not quite through the game. However, I felt it would be prudent to get this review up, so here it is.

What makes Septerra Core worth your time? Read on.

The heart of any RPG is its story, and Septerra Core does not disappoint here. The world of Septerra gets its name from the seven shell-like sets of islands that orbit the core of the planet. Your main character throughout the game is Maya, a junk scavenger from Shell 2, though you will eventually get help from a character from most of the other shells. The political situation between the different shells is not exactly stable, and leads to some interesting dialogues and interactions between the characters in your party, as well as with the NPCs. For instance, it's generally not the wisest idea to march the general of an army into a town full of the people they've been repressing. However, the game does provide ways for at least the opposing characters in your party to reconcile with each other, through side quests.

There's plenty of side quests in Septerra Core, too, or at least it seems that way. Some of what may seem like side quests actually have quite a bearing on the main plot. Also, in one of the game's few but noticeable flaws, parts of the main quest can be avoided or done in the wrong order, which screws up the story arc and can lead to you being unable to complete the game. A patch for these issues is being worked on as of press time.

However, this was probably inevitable, given how much freedom of movement you are eventually given in Septerra Core. I wish it was like that through the whole game. Unfortunately, the beginning of the game is entirely too linear. You don't really have much of a choice in what to do until you obtain your own form of transportation, which is a full third of the way through the game. And then, sometimes you have a little TOO much freedom...it's good to take notes on the plot, or you can forget what you should be doing! I like this, in some ways. If you get stuck, though, try talking to the wiser inhabitants of Septerra, as they can usually guide you on your way.

Battle sequences are sometimes avoidable, and it can be to your advantage to do so. You can end up several areas away from the nearest inn at some points in the game, and battles wear down valuable HP and MP which are not so easy to come by in this game. Stock up on healing items every chance you get, because Septerra Core is no cakewalk.

If you do get into battle, it works on a sort of turn-based system. Each character and enemy has three levels of power that they can attack at. Their power builds up based on their speed rating. Once they've reached the first level, their power meter will light and you can select the character to start an attack. This pauses the action so you can think. While an attack is being drawn, you can select another character to go immediately afterwards, which is handy for eliminating fast opponents. The problem with these battles is that they're numerous, lengthy, and not all that visually impressive. In other words, some areas that are particularly battle-laden can be really boring. It's not as bad when the battles are avoidable, but some of them aren't. The monsters just appear out of nowhere and attack. Don't let this turn you off to the game, just be aware that it's a time-consuming one.

Septerra Core is fairly linear at first, but opens way up once you acquire a ship. There's easily 40 hours of playtime in this game for anyone. I've found several sidequests so far, which have nothing to do with the main story arc but are nonetheless cool. However, I don't see anyone wanting to go through 40+ hours more than once...a general problem with most console RPGs.

Everything in the game can be done with either the mouse or the keyboard, which is quite nice. Movement is accomplished either through clicking on the intended destination or through using the arrow keys. Item and spell use is similarly easy. I noticed a couple occasions where Maya would get "stuck" trying to go through a doorway, but switching to keyboard movement overcame that. The controls overall work well and I have no other complaints with them.

I'll address one of the oddly prevalent concerns I've seen regarding Septerra Core right off the bat: There is no 3D acceleration, but the game really doesn't need it. It baffles me as to why this is seen as a minus by some people. Next they'll be demanding 3D accelerated Zork.

The graphics have a distinct anime feel to them. This helps to make console players feel right at home. In most areas, the non-hostile NPCs are distinct enough that you can tell them apart by sight, and they all have different face portraits when you talk to them. The effects aren't anything horribly special or worth writing home about...they serve a purpose but aren't flashy. The summon spells in particular suffer from the same cartooniness that seems to plague all recent RPG releases. Summoning the fire elemental from a pit of lava ought to look frightening in some way. Instead, it just looks goofy. Outside of that, though, there's some nice looking graphics in the game. Several of the monsters, in particular, are well-drawn. And in a nice touch, character shadows actually increase and decrease in size as you move closer or farther away from a light source. This without 3D! Very nice indeed.

The FMVs are not bad at all, and help to enhance the storytelling experience without getting distracting. While they don't have the seamless integration found in Final Fantasy VIII, neither do they make you reach immediately for the Escape key.

Each dungeon and town has a unique look to it. From the junk heaps on shell 2 to the prehistoric mutant jungles on shell 7, there's enough different things to look at that you'll not get bored.

Septerra Core is set above from its console counterparts in this major way - the voice acting actually doesn't suck! In fact, I'd go so far as to say it actually enhances the game. Unlike some titles where it sounds like they grabbed random people off the street and had them read cue cards, Septerra Core's speech is more akin to a professional script reading.

The sound effects are well done also, with excellent background effects and event sounds. Something which I can only attribute to a bug crops up in combat, though, as Led and Grubb's attack sounds play somewhat lagged. The animation of them swinging will appear, and then afterwards the appropriate sound will play. Some of the combat sounds are good, while others sound rather cartoony, so it's a mixed bag.

The music, however, is remarkable in its complete absence through much of the game. When I'm running through an enemy palace trying to stop a power-mad general in an RPG, I tend to expect some sort of inspiring music in the background. Septerra Core provides...dead silence. Background sounds, but no music. There is background music on all of the overworld maps, and in some of the towns and dungeons, but the lack of a soundtrack accompanying Maya through all the areas is unfortunate, and drags down my sound score.

I had no problems installing Septerra Core, and I have yet to get it to crash on my system. The maximum footprint is 550 MB, which includes the movie files. I recommend this install because it allows you to put another CD in the drive and provide background music for those places which oddly seem to lack it (see above...)

Septerra Core is a great bridge between the console and computer RPG worlds. The plot is fresh and keeps you wanting more, which is very important to this sort of game. The speech is outstanding, further enhancing the storytelling. Kudos go out to Monolith for realizing the potential of this game, and to Valkyrie Studios for making the game live up to it.