Septerra Core is a game I've always been fond of. It has its issues - namely combat that's a lot slower than it should be, a strange lack of music in many cases, and things taking too long to really get rolling - but it provides a really well-realized world to explore with a lot of interesting lore and good voice acting to support it. You can tell that a lot of thought and care went into designing this place - the way it looks, its inhabitants, its history, the different cultures, the technology... there's a lot of great world building on display here. It's unfortunate that this was Valkyrie Studios' only game because I think, despite its flaws, Septerra Core has a lot going for it and I would have liked to have seen what else these guys could have done if they'd had more time to come into their own as developers. In any case, it's an interesting game that's worth checking out especially if you have any appreciation for old school JRPGs; Septerra Core is essentially a western studio's take on that genre, which I think is partly to blame for its lack of success - it made it quite an oddity on PC at the time and I think maybe they had a hard time finding an audience. This same fate befell the wonderful Anachronox (one of my favorite games of all time, actually) only two years later (though it had a host of issues preventing it from finding purchase, unorthodox genre trappings for the platform only being one of them). I'm glad that these titles went on to garner something of a cult following with time. Check it (and Anachronox for that matter) out!
Definitive Edition Patch Features:
- Patches the game to use the static recompiled version of Septerra Core (improves compatibility with modern OSes and hardware)
- Fixes cutscenes in Steam version (which don't work at all in that version) and improves the quality of the cutscenes in the GOG version
- Allows the game to correctly run in its native resolution with bilinear scaling to your native resolution as opposed to forcing it to run at your native resolution with nearest neighbor (which looks terrible) as it does in the GOG version
- Custom controller support via Antimicro
- Reshade support with my own custom presets, options (can be modified through the Launcher), and custom bezel (which can be disabled)
- A high quality 600dpi scan of my personal copy of the manual - ASuite for easy configuration of Reshade and some game options, access to the manual, and this readme
The controller mapping (based on a 360/XB1 controller) and keyboard controls are as follows:
Left Stick | Arrow Keys = Move
Right Stick | Mouse = Move cursor
LT = Right mouse button
RT = Left mouse button
D-pad Up | Q = Select first party member (in combat)
D-pad Left | A = Select first party member (in combat)
D-pad Down | Z = Select first party member (in combat)
B | ESC = Cancel/Back/Skip Cutscene
Y | Space = Activate subscreen
Back | Tab = Activate map
Start | X = Activate options screen
X + RB | F5= Quicksave
X + LB | F8 = Quickload
Note that the game itself is not included with this patch. You must install the GOG or Steam versions first. Unlike previous patches which pipe the needed files into a new folder and allow portable functionality, Septerra Core seems to hard code the save location to an absolute path on install (i.e. it's not relative and as such isn't portable). This means that in this case the patch is a drop-in and overwrite affair. Simply extract the contents into your Septerra Core folder, overwrite when prompted and you'll be all set. Now open the Definitive Edition folder and you can start “Launcher and Settings.exe” for access to the settings configuration and launcher UI or you can start “Septerra Core.exe” to start the game.
It should be noted that I experienced occasional crashes on loading saved games but I don't think this is the result of this patch as I experience this same behavior while playing the game in its original state. If I manage to determine the underlying cause of this, I'll release an updated patch.
Have fun!