The
Top Shelf:
Septerra Core
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Vol.
2, Issue 5
December 9, 1999
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As far as
the rest of the gameplay goes, I think the developers did a fair
job. The UI itself is pretty simple (you can do most things with
your mouse and the left mouse button – and nothing else). Some
parts of the adventuring are fun – and all will be reminiscent
of past console RPG’s. Most things here rely on tried-and-true
designs from the past; doing little innovation, but maintaining
the “it worked before, so it should still be okay now”
stance. Characters can be controlled and swapped – so your
party members will change as you progress through the game, and
spells (using “fate cards”, which I’ll talk more
about in a minute...) can be combined for unique attacks between
multiple characters. Does this ring a bell for anyone? If not, you
probably never played Chrono Trigger – a classic in
the console RPG world. Unfortunately, the combat system tends to
(in my opinion) cripple this a little bit; making it less effective
or fun than in Chrono Trigger. I’ve been down a lot
on this game to this point, and I do have more issues with it that
I’ll explain in a moment – but I wanted to pause and make
sure that the reader understands that this game does have
positive aspects. Some of those tried-and-true RPG methods are still
fun; and the CG sequences are really pretty.
There are,
however, a few gameplay choices that the developers made that irk
me – for example, the fact that one of your first tasks is
to find your class at some temple. I must’ve wandered the city
you start in for an hour, before finding out that the city
had an exit to a larger map area (in the game, buildings have obvious
entrances and exits; but there are no such signs for exiting from
larger areas, unless you happen to pass your mouse over the area
of the screen that forms the exit). then, after finding no
Temple around this larger map near the area of the city, I decided
to charge into a wasteland area that I just knew would have
monsters in it. After combating one of them, I made my way through
to the large map again – and lo and behold, there was
the Temple! Now, pardon me for being a little overly analytical
of a game... but what rational parents would send their kids
to school (children of all ages attend this temple/school), if it
meant trekking through a monster-infested area each way, every day?
Another
bothersome situation arose later when I was just trying to complete
an errand, and got thrust into combat against 3 men with swords!
I had no options in this. The moment I entered this area from the
larger map, a sequence played out and I was dumped into this situation...
forced to kill people I didn’t want to, or might’ve explained
my way out of. Instead, I died. Which is another issue I have: no
difficulty settings in the game. There’s one way through this
game, and if you can’t master it, you’re S.O.L.
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