Gamespot must be crazy with a rating like that. This game is a must play.
Let's look at the facts.
By the end of the game, a few million people have died horrible painful deaths. I think that pretty much beats every RPG ever made. Although Sin did kill a lot of people, those killings seemed random and pointless and just to be used to convey suffering. In SC, people die because there were in the way. The world of Septerra is a world where **** die and the strong rise up. Good thing Maya is a bum whooping blue haired chick with a gun from the shell above and inadequate armor. Of course we could look at Led who had no legs but was still dressed to please. On that note, this game screams Japanese! Got to love Grubb though, I wish I had a hair cut like that. Once a friend saw me playing it and thought it was some girly game, because he saw the characters I had. I was using, Maya, Led, Corgan. Three people with long hair, and Corgan's hair does look like a girl's hair.
But on to game play.
This game has unfortunately, very little replay value, unless you're like me and actually accidentally skipped a few levels and key conversations.
How did I do that you might ask, read the end of the review.
The story is very decent, but I never realized how similar it is to Christian religion until a super religious friend of mine pointed it out. The ancient city of Babylon, etc. Marduk, The creators only begotten son. The list goes on and on. It's like straight out of the bible.
But that doesn't make the story any less fun.
And the levels are beautiful. Do as I did, this game is really meant to be played without using the map feature. SO no matter what, don't use it. That’s what I did (primarily because I didn't know of the map feature the first 10 times I played the game). There is a certain satisfaction to being anywhere in the level, and not being lost. Or finding a secrete spot hidden under some trees. Or find the perfect route though the Mold Forest (of which I know hehehehehehe).
If you haven't played this game, you should.
It's too bad gamespot didn't really give this game a real good look, because it's also not stable.
Unpatched, you have the following issues.
You can skip the core keys mission (which is what I did the first few times I played it, its odd how you get the core keys and learn the prophecy without ever going to the core hahah. It really made the game confusing for me the first few times through)
When fighting the mining helgak. Every time he hits you with his special attack, you gain experience. And the battle doesn’t end right. To end the battle, and do some huge leveling up (assuming you spent about an hour of your time letting the thing hit you) use an item like a soul stone or core sphere and you should go up 3 or 4 levels per character. The next 2 shells will be super easy.
Don't talk to the brown haired lady in Wind City with Corgan, it will lock the game.
There was another one of those but I can't remember where (goes back and plays Septerra core)
In the prison, stay away from the upper walls in some rooms, occasionally enemies will see you through the walls and make you jump the walls. The problem here is it can take you to a place that is locked, and guess what; the key isn’t on that side!
When you beat the game. Immediately make a new one. Don't close the game, just click new game and save.
Your characters (except for Maya, Grubb, and Runner) will all have the same equipment they had when you beat the game. You just can't see it or unequip it in some cases. Not until you actually get the item. You can consider this like a new game + like in CT and CC. And before Grubb and Runner level up for the first time, they will have huge stats as well. But they disappear when they level up, for the other characters they do not disappear. So the trick, get Maya to a very high level, I usually stop when she has over 100 HP (I forget what level that is). Do this by fighting the Red wolf in the middle left side of the Bad Lands. Just keep killing the wolves it summons. You will get 150 EXP every battle. You should be able to one hit kill the brown wolves on your weakest attack before you get grub and runner in your team.
To get through most of the mold forest without a battle, run along the bottom of the level, stay hidden under trees. No enemies look down there.
You can actually rob the armor store on shell 6 partially before the shop keep actually leaves. Go behind him and check the shelf. You can get some pretty sweet boots. You can’t get the magic armor yet though.
You can actually beat Lock, the guy with the key in the Ill Repute. I've done it, it is possible, but it really makes the game funny. And no I didn't cheat; I just beat him with summons. Not sure how I did it, I guess I was a good battler, just not a good RPG'er back then. Because I always wondered what the explosives were for.
Well that’s all I'm going to tell you. Now go out, buy and enjoy this great game.