Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator

The game has two main levels at which the game is played - the global map for moving around locations and the locations themselves, on which the interaction between characters and battles takes place. The player controls a group of three characters who travel the game world, complete buildings, interact with non-player characters and engage in battles. In certain places, the player is given the opportunity to reform the group and choose which of the available characters to take with them ^[4] .

Battles

When meeting with enemies, the game goes into battle mode. All characters, including enemies, have an endurance scale, which is filled in real time. The scale consists of three divisions, which correspond to three types of attacks: strong, medium and weak. Strong attacks do the most damage, but require filling in three divisions of the scale, medium ones - two divisions, and weak ones - one division. As soon as the player selects a character, time stops and you are given the opportunity to make one of the available attacks, cast a spell using a faith card, or take some other action, for example, use an item from your inventory. When a character runs out of health points, he falls to the ground unconscious, but does not die. At the end of the battle, he will recover with one health point. If all characters run out of health points during the battle, the game ends ^{[4] [9]} .

Cards of Faith

The game’s magic system is based on “ Fate cards ” that the player finds during the game. Faith cards offer various magical abilities, and up to three cards can be combined together to create a multiple attack. Using cards requires a waste of core energy. Each character has his own energy indicator, which is added to the energy reserve common for the whole group, available for use by all characters ^{[4] [10]} .

Equipment

The game has many items that can be purchased by buying them in a store, stealing, receiving a reward for winning a battle, or finding in an environment. Items are divided into ordinary and key, which are necessary for completing quests. For all non-edged weapons in the game, core energy is needed. Unlike magic cards, it does not waste the character’s energy, but requires nuclear engines. The damage caused by a weapon depends on engine power ^[11] .

Game World

The game takes place on a planet called Septerra ( Eng. Septerra ), which consists of a core and seven continents soaring around it, called the "shells of the world" ( Eng. World shells ). Continents are located one above the other and are connected by a “spine”, a living axis around which they rotate. The core of the planet is a huge biocomputer that runs on energy from the rotation of the continents. It radiates excess energy into the space around itself and is used by the inhabitants of the shells ^{[1] [12]} . According to in-game mythology, an ancient hero and demigod named Marduk hid the Gift of Heaven relic in the core of the planet so that he would not fall into the hands of evil. According to legend, this artifact will be able to get a descendant of Marduk. Having taken possession of the “Gift of heaven”, he will gain the knowledge of the creator and become a god. Once every 100 years, the shells rise in such a way that a ray of light reaches the core. At this point, the core is activated and can be opened using the "twin keys" ^[4] .

Characters

In Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator, the player can control nine characters:

• Maya ( born Maya ) is the main character and protagonist of the game. A resident of the second shell, originally from the Oasis. It is engaged in collecting garbage falling from the outer shell. She grew up and was raised in fear of the Chosen. Fifteen years before the gaming events, a war broke out between the Chosen, which affected the second shell. Oasisk was destroyed during this war, and Maya's parents were killed ^[13] .
• Grubb is a resident of the second shell, a mechanic and inventor, as well as Maya's best friend. Prefers to spend time in his workshop, which is located south of the Oasis ^[14] .
• Runner is a companion robot created by Grubb. Its behavior resembles a dog ^[15] .
• Corgan is a resident of the third shell, one of the last members of the sacred guard of Wind City. Fanatically devoted to his city and poorly aware of how the rest of the world lives ^[16] .
• Ice ( Eng. Led ) - a resident of the fifth shell, mechanic and pilot, daughter of Campbell, General Ankara. Her father sent her to a half-abandoned base to protect her from danger. Ice is very shy of its cybernetic legs ^[17] .
• Selina ( English Selina ) - the chosen one, a resident of the first shell. At the beginning of the game, she is Doskias's accomplice and lover, but soon realizes that he needs to be stopped ^[18] .
• Araim ( born Araym ) is a bounty hunter from the fourth shell. In the past, he was an expert in explosives on the fifth shell, but as a result of an accident lost both hands and decided to change his occupation ^[19] .
• Badu is a representative of the inhuman race that lived in the forests of the seventh shell, until the elect enslaved them for use as labor in mines. Like other representatives of his race, does not have vision ^[20] .
• Lobo ( born Lobo ) - a former combat cyborg, reprogrammed and "educated" by man. Sentimental and full of sympathy. He wants revenge on the pirate Connor, who killed his adoptive father ^[21] .

History

The game begins shortly before the next coincidence of the continents. The power-loving descendant of Marduk Doskias ( English Doskias ), guided by an ancient prophecy, decides to receive the power of God and directs his ships to the center of the planet ^{[22] [23]} .

The main character of the game is Maya, a resident of the second shell, collecting garbage falling from the outer shell on which the "chosen ones" live. Having learned about the plan of Doskias, she decides to stop it, protect her native land and save the inhabitants of the inner shells ^{[4] [12] [24]} .

The development of Septerra Core began at Viacom New Media (VNM), a subsidiary of Viacom that developed games for personal computers. The division was formed in 1993 on the basis of Viacom acquired by , which was founded in early 1980 and was separated by the development of Macintosh games and game consoles . In 1997, Viacom New Media was closed by its parent company. Intellectual property being developed at VNM was sold to its former employees. Part of the Septerra Core development team founded its company Valkyrie Studios to continue development. For some time, work on the game went without a publisher, until in February 1988 Valkyrie entered into an agreement with the German company TopWare Interactive to publish the game. In the fall of that year, Monolith Productions , by agreement with TopWare, became the publisher of Septerra Core in North America. The game officially came out in November 1999 ^{[25] [26] [27]} .

According to the chief designer of the game, Brian Babendererde, Septerra Core was conceived as a "bridge" between the western and eastern RPGs, borrowing the characteristic elements from both. Japanese animation had a great influence on the appearance of the game, but in addition to it, the developers were inspired by classical architecture, French fantasy films, traditional illustration and British cyberpunk ^[28] .

The musical accompaniment and voice acting for the characters was created by and Total Audio. O'Donnell and Salvatori are the authors of all the musical compositions in the game ^[24] . During the work on the soundtrack, in January 1999, a fire broke out in Total Audio studio. O'Donnell got out of the window, saving more than 20 hours of recordings ^{[29] [30]} .

In 2006, the official Septerra Core update was released to version 1.04, which fixes problems with launching the game on new versions of Windows ^[31] . March 31, 2009 updated to the latest version of the game went on sale on the site GOG.com ^[32] . September 27, 2013 the game appeared in the digital distribution service Steam ^[33] .

The game received mixed but generally positive reviews from critics. On the site-aggregator of professional reviews Metacritic , the game has 72 points out of 100 possible ^[37] . On the site Game Rankings - 74.37% ^[38] .

Michael Wolf of the American version of PC Gamer magazine set the game at 86%, saying the game was worth the long wait caused by problems with the game’s publishers. According to him, the strengths of the game are a deeply developed universe, an interesting plot, a convenient interface, interesting characters and a system of magic cards. He drew attention to the similarity of the game to console role-playing games, but he said that Septerra Core looks better than each of them. Wolf cited weaknesses as a result of time-consuming development of graphics and battles, which sometimes become too tedious ^[34] .

IGN reviewer Tel Blaivins gave the game 8 out of 10 points, calling it "the best console game ever since Final Fantasy VII ." He praised the plot, graphics, user-friendly interface, game mechanics and combat system. Of the negative aspects of the game, he called the linearity and lack of multiplayer mode ^[4] .

Jamie Madigan from the GameSpy website gave the game 78 points out of 100 and stated that Septerra Core brought to the PC both the best console RPGs and the worst. Of the positive aspects of the game, he noted a fantastic plot, dialogs, puzzles and graphics. He noted that the game has certain problems, such as boring battles and bugs that interfere with the gameplay ^[6] .

Game Park's Andrew Park wrote a more negative review for the game and scored 6.7 out of 10. He concluded that “interesting characters, a friendly interface, and an intriguing magic system are bogged down in both small and significant problems.” In his opinion, the weak points of the game are the combat system and the linearity of the plot ^[7] .

The observer of the Absolute Games Russian site set the game at 65%, calling it the “clone” of the games in the Final Fantasy series. The main disadvantage of the game, he called a very outdated and low-quality graphics, which greatly loses the release of a year earlier Final Fantasy VII ^[36] .

Brett Todd from Computer Gaming World magazine gave the game a negative review, putting 2 stars out of 5 possible. In his review, he wrote that Septerra Core is not a bad game with an interesting plot, but because of unoriginality, errors in game design, instability, outdated graphics and boring fights, it falls into the category of mediocre games ^[35] .

• Neal Roger Tringham. Science Fiction Video Games. - CRC Press, 2015 .-- S. 189-190. - 536 p. - ISBN 978-1482203882 .
• Paul Schuytema. Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator (Official Strategies & Secrets). - Sybex Inc, 1999 .-- 304 p. - ISBN 978-0782126709 .
• Ronnie Shankland, Kevin Decker-Weiss. Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator . - TopWare Interactive , 1999 .-- 36 p.
• Brett Todd. Prophecy Unfulfiled (Eng.) // Computer Gaming World : magazine. - 2000. - No. 188 . - P. 130 .

• Kat Bailey. These Western-developed JRPGs deserve your time (neopr.) . Joystiq (September 12, 2012). Date of appeal April 15, 2014.
• Peter Zelchenko. 'Game Over' In Chicago? (eng.) . Chicago Tribune (February 12, 1999).
• Monolith Grabs Septerra Core . IGN (November 30, 1998).
• Michael Wolf Septerra Core ( inaccessible link) . PC Gamer (June 2000). Archived March 15, 2006.
• Tal Blevins. Septerra Core IGN (November 11, 1999).
• Jamie Madigan Septerra Core ( inaccessible link) . GameSpy (November 16, 1999). Archived on October 13, 2008.
• Andrew Park. Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator Review . Gamespot (November 23, 1999).
• Veles Game review Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator (neopr.) . Absolute Games (November 10, 1999).
• Taneli Palola. Greatest Video Game Composers: Martin O'Donnell . VG Chartz (2016-19-02).
• Chris Greening. Martin O'Donnell Profile Video Game Music Online (June 2008).