I was really looking forward to Shin Megami Tensei, I really loved the RPGs upon which the MMO is based, the MMO absolutely nailed the look and feel of the RPGs, the action was smooth and the frame rates high, worked great on my computer. Well, except for the crashing, but it was early beta and they have doubtlessly fixed all that now.

I can’t explain why I am not playing it. It’s a good game!

They sent out an email detailing all the new coolities they’ve added to the game, and I’m feeling a little like maybe this is a game I’d like to come back to.

Their letter of goodies is after the break.
Read the rest of this entry »

Constant disconnects making it impossible to finish any instanced dungeons are getting a little bit aggravating. Talking to other SMT testers while playing DOMO confirms it: It is hard to get a really good sense for the Megaten closed beta when it’s so hard to stay connected in dungeons.

And dungeons (and groups to do them with) are vitally important to advancing in Megaten. The loot dropped there sells for a lot, the experience is 5-10x better than in the outside world, you can gain access to more powerful demons ages before you could get them via fusion… Dungeons are central to SMT, and when they aren’t working, it’s just frustrating.

Especially when it’s clear people are having some success in them. I’m always hearing people calling for groups for the higher level dungeons, and the people in my guild seem to be exclusively running the higher instances.

It’s so easy to tell the uber people apart in this game. They have the best demons, the most impressive looking armor and weapons… SMT is a game where there is the very best, and then there is you, the worm.

That’s the way I feel sometimes :P

This is a particularly disturbing demon, basically a woman with a bushy tail walking on all fours. This one isn’t mine — the greenish dog looking one is mine.

I finally figured out how to capture demons — you just have to keep talking to them until they try to kill you, or agree to join you. You can use other verbal tactics as well, if being pleasant isn’t working for you. Or you can always choose to try the bribes. You know, whatever works for ya.

Fusing two demons causes the new demon to be born possessing some of the skills of its parents, as well as other skills it can learn as the heritage of its particular type. The real risk is fusing a valuable demon and ending up with something which is not going to match your play style.

I love using Rush attacks along with some light spellcasting. So I want my demons to Rush as well. A fusion that gives me a demon that does not Rush is, well, not so useful to me.

But this being closed beta, it doesn’t matter. It’s fun just seeing all the different fusions I can do. There’s even triple fusions — I haven’t done one of those yet — where you get together with two others, and everyone contributes a demon to the mix. Everyone loses their old demons; you get the new demon; and you can set rewards for the other people in the event the fusion works, so they don’t get nothing for giving you their demon.

The game? Dead serious. This is not a game you will want to play casually, I don’t think. If closed beta is any indication of the live game, it will be way too easy to get left behind.

I haven’t decided if I will play SMT when it goes live. I think it will be a lot more fun when they have the connection problems sorted out.

Aeria Games never had me sign a NDA for Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine (or in fact, ever, for any of the games I’ve beta’d), so, given that I’m just barely out of the tutorial, here’s some screen shots. Remember, this is from closed beta and what it looks like now may be 100% different by the time it ships. At least there will likely be less Japanese in the cut scenes… (Who or what is Nizero?)

Character creation — what you see is what you get. Three body sizes, six clothing options, three weapon types. Around 5% of people polled on the Megaten site said they were going to go with blunt weapons, as opposed to slicy or stabby weapons. So I went with the big old two handed hammer.

Like all SMT/Persona games, you start out in a Tokyo that has been destroyed by demons. The remaining residents of Tokyo keep falling back more fortified positions, and at the start of the game, have been forced to abandon Home II for Home III. Only DBs — Demon Busters — can possibly take back Tokyo from the demonic onslaught. And that’s where we come in.

Here, I’m preparing to cook a plucked turkey with an onion head with a fire spell, as kind of a late Thanksgiving. It looks all Tron-y because this is a Virtual Battle simulator used as a tutorial.

Finally out in the grim, post-apocalyptic real world, just outside the gates of Home III. My task here is to find the lair of a bunch of pixies and convince their leader to accompany me back to the refuge.

The world of Shin Megami Tensei is one where technology and magic mix — like the old RPG Shadowrun, magic has returned to the world. Unlike Shadowrun, you aren’t forced into specific roles. SMT uses a skill-based system, so you can learn virtually any skill you like, though there is a limit on the number of skills you can learn, though not the type of skill. The more you do something, the better you get at it.

Combat is very fast paced, and requires you to choose attacks based on how things are going, second-by-second. You might open with three quick attacks, which knock back your opponent, then get into a counter stance if it looks like they are coming right back at you, which will knock them back AGAIN, or a guard stance so you can set up more attacks while blocking their attack, or charge up a rush attack and follow it up with a quick attack if they are taking their time, or instead charge up a fire spell to keep them interested… the sorts of attacks they prefer will greatly affect what attacks you choose. They are shooting or casting spells? Maybe a dodge would be a better idea right at the moment…

With a demon ally, you can switch between both your own character and the demon, coordinating attacks at high speed. I have no idea how that will go, because, I haven’t figured out how to capture a demon yet ><.

(I was going to write about EQ2 today, too… curse these late night beta invites…)

Ever since I first heard that Shin Megami Tensei was being made into an MMO — and that it was coming HERE — I changed my desktop to the SMT: Imagine wallpaper and looked at it every day. Today, I got the golden ticket — I was in!

Probably every Aeria Games player got in if they wanted to, but I don’t care. Installing it right now. I don’t know what this will do to my DOMO career — just joined a guild tonight, too. Oh well.

Since this game is in closed beta, I’m not sure what I can write about it. I didn’t sign any NDA (yet), so if none pops up, I’ll be talking a lot about it right here.

In SMT:Imagine (AKA Megaten), you gain powers by controlling demons, that you can fuse together to make new, more powerful (or new, amazingly weak) demons. With those, your fighting skills, and a dead eye for fashion, Tokyo can once again become safe from demonic (and angelic) interference.

Read about all of that on their features page.

Like many non-western MMOs, your character is as individual as you want to make it. It’s weird, when you think about it, that western MMOs, might as well just come right out and say WoW-like MMOs, are so very inflexible. We can do better, but we don’t.

Megaten is still signing up closed beta testers from registered Aeria Games players.