Septerra Core... what a game. A console-like RPG on my PC! Cool. Imagine a Final Fantasy/Baldur's Gate hybrid. Think of the look of Baldur's Gate, but with bigger characters and a more anime feel, then toss a Final Fantasy-like story onto that and you have Septerra Core. Yay. Okay, now into the fun fun review stuff.

Storyline 95%: First let me describe the World for you. One World, but 7 Shells. These Shells are floating continents, each one populated with its own distinct people and customs. Each of these Shells is connected to, and orbit around, the Core. Once every 100 years there is a conjunction, where the shells are aligned just the right way to allow a beam of light to hit the Core. If you are there and have the 2 Creator keys you can unlock the Core and gain the Kingdom of Heaven.

Doskias (A Chosen) has stolen the keys, and now is working towards his own Conjunction. I won't go into to much detail (it'd be a crime to ruin the storyline for you) but you start as Maya, a Shell 2 Junker. You live on the Shell right below the Chosen, so they drop their junk onto you. It starts simple enough: you have to find an arms smuggler, but from there hold onto your seats! You visit the other Shells, and basically try to stop Doskias and save the World. Expect to meet 100s of NPC's and talk to EVERYONE you can. Look for interesting places, surprise betrayals, and some great moments. This does indeed become an epic tale.

Sound/Music 80%: Spoken dialogue throughout! Above average voice acting. The music is sparse (World Map, battles, cut Scenes) but what's there is good. The sound effects are immersing, though. When you're in a swamp, you hear frogs and strange birds. When you're in a deserted structure you hear the creaking and groaning of old metal. When you shoot a gun, it rocks!

Gameplay 90%: Very comfortable, familiar. Talk to EVERYONE, get the clues, solve the riddle. Again, I have to mention the Final Fantasy games. It feels very similar to them. If there is a door you can't get into, talk to everyone and you'll get the clue. Follow the clue to its end... and you may find another puzzle.

The best thing about this is, the riddles you run into are tricky, but not frustrating. It's a razor thin line between 'fun tough' and 'frustrating tough' and Septerra Core lands heavily on the "fun tough" side. There are no battles on the World map. When you enter a location, you can see the enemies in there. Some you can run around, but most times you will end up fighting. As for the battle system, it's based on your speed. You have an attack meter that is divided into 3 sections. The first part fills up and you can do a weak attack. The second part fills up and you can do a stronger attack, etc. While you're waiting for your meter to hurry to it's strongest level, the enemies can (and do) attack. But once you do decide to attack, you click the character that you want to attack with, then you have as much time as you want to choose your attack. There are lots of battles, but they seem to go fast, except for the Boss battles which are longer. Here's my favorite part: save ANYWHERE. Well, not mid-battle, but anywhere else though. No looking for that one stupid save spot when you're deep in a dungeon and nature calls.

Control 95%: Now this is one of the smoothest RPGs I've played. Everything is mouse driven. You put the mouse pointer over a box and, if you can open it, the mouse pointer turns into a hand. Or the pointer might become an eye to let you examine the selected object. If you want to look at the sub-menus, just point to the bottom of the screen and click on the Sub-Menu's icon. Up pops a window where you can then save your game, equip your characters, or adjust the options. There are shortcut keys as well. Too lazy to double click the mouse to run? Just hold down the Shift key and click once.

Graphics 98%: Ah, the beauty. From fantastic snow covered mountains, to strange but breathtaking luminous plants, these graphics are superb. They are pre-rendered, but with enough animation to make it look alive. The characters move across this lush landscape as smooth as butter. Even with the minimum required system it will run on, it's smooth, although I would still shoot for the recommended requirements.

The only complaint I have (and it's just a small one) is that it does not change from day to night. Yes, it snows in the mountains, and rains in some of the swamps, but it would be nice to be on one of those white mountains as the snow stopped and the sun set. Ah well. The cut scenes are well done also. They may not be the masterpieces that are in FF8 or Resident Evil 3, but they are good. Plus they are voiced!

Overall 99%: If you like epic console RPGs you can NOT go wrong with this game. Great story, great graphics, great characters. There are, like 70 hours of game play, more or less depending on how fast you move through the game's explorable areas. Personally, I went as slowly as possible, because once you've beaten it... it's over. All this on 1 CD! One CD priced at $39. You can't go wrong.