"Another crucifixion, for another holy war!"

Septerra Core, hailed in its advertisements as a game revolutionary to PC RPGing. ''If you loved, FFVII, you'll LOVE Septerra Core.'' Game magazine previews were no less willing to make bold statements of such a nature.

While in the end, Septerra Core was not as hyped as FF7, Chrono Trigger, or many other games it was compared to, it didn't quite live up to the hype it got.

By all means, if you loved Chrono Trigger, go out and buy this game. It's very similar, though not quite as good in any department (barring the obvious fact that the technology, and therefore the graphic quality, is better). However, if you viewed CT as simply a 'good' game (such as I did), you may not want to pick this up.

To get the minor points out of the way, the graphics are dated, seeing as how Septerra Core is a relatively old game. The characters and environments are drawn well enough, and some of the spell effects are flashy, but do NOT expect mind-blazing cinematics like you'd see in FF8/9 or Chrono Cross.

The music in Septerra Core is beneath mediocrity. The reason? Half the time, it's not even -there-. Given the more cinematic style of RPG this game is (as opposed to, say, Fallout), there needs to be a greater level of ambience and atmosphere, both of which are severely restricted by the lack of music.

The voice acting isn't bad. It sounds real enough, or at least close enough to what you might hear on TV, that it generally doesn't detract from the game. The only thing that irks me with the voice acting, is the fact that it's there--it slows down the conversation, and just generally feels unnecessary.

The battle system is what you might see as a hybrid of Chrono Trigger's and its sequel's. It's in the familiar ATB style, but there are now levels of attacks. As the ATB gauge fills, there are marks in it to show the 3 levels. At level 1 (1/3 full), you have access to that character's weakest attacks. At level 3 (completely full), you have access to that character's most powerful attacks. . .and some attacks (most notably the basic attack command) are more powerful.

Equipment, including weapons, is interchangeable between most characters; each piece of equipment is either 'mechanical' or 'classical', and can be used by any character whole appropriate equipment slot will accept it.

For instance, a knight character might only be able to use swords and traditional armor. However, a cyborg knight could use swords, but rather than traditional armor, replacements for his inner mechanics. Likewise, weapons split between swords and 'engines' (power sources for high-tech weapons).

Magic is done by using the appropriate card in battle, though multiple cards can be used at once. . .assuming you have two (or three) ready characters and two (or three) cards that match up well enough. For instance, if you have two characters at 2/3 full in their ATB gauge, you can tell each character to cast a specific card, which will yield results usually combining the effects of the two cards.

The battle system is overall well-balanced, if a bit slowly paced.

The storyline is another area in which one can draw a parallel to CT; the events are the focus of the story, not the characters. Yes, there is some development, yes there is dialogue, etc. etc. However, the inner workings of each character's psyche simply don't seem to be the purpose of the story; the purpose seems to be nothing more than simply telling a tale. To put it succinctly, the characters are less important to the story than the events which they experience.

The story overall is the simple, overused formula of, bad guy tries to take over the world, group of heroes don't like bad guy for their own reasons and save world. Though it is derivative, at least it's fairly well done. Giving any evidence of that would unfortunately require spoilers, however, so I won't be doing so.

Overall, Septerra Core is simply a 'good' game. It has no major flaws, but it doesn't really excel in any areas either. It should be pretty cheap, and your PC can probably run it, so if you like consolish RPGs enough, it's worth the $10-20. Be sure to patch it, though!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/01, Updated 12/13/01