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Spiritual Mixing: MegaTen cooks up a special update
If engineering has taught us anything, it's that combining two awesome objects via welding or duct tape will most always result in a double-awesome item. Three objects welded together? A thrice-awesome gadget! So whether it's that shark-flamethrower-ninja you've always wanted, or the remote control-Princess Leia gold bikini-pudding cup that will make the neighbors sit up and go "Boy, howdy!", a trio of objects slammed together is a recipe for dreams to come true. It's with this notion that we bow to Aeria Games, which has pushed out a major update for Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online (or MegaTen if you're on a casual first-name basis) that contains a rather unique system of crafting. It's known as Spiritual Mixing, which, despite the name, has nothing to do with religion or Iron Chef. Instead, players can combine up to three pieces of gear to form a new high-level item. There's more info on the nitty gritty details of Spiritual Mixing on Aeria's forums. This hot 'n hearty update also contains a new residential zone, the next chapter of the game's storyline, more quests and dungeon updates. We've appreciated MegaTen for a while now, so head over to the website to check out the game and this oddly-named update.
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine celebrates their first anniversary
Has it really been a year of demon negotiations and devil summoning already? Why yes, it apparently has been. Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine, the online sequel to the acclaimed Digital Devil Saga series has just turned one year old! To celebrate, Aeria Games is offering Imagine players a brand new demon, Joyful Alice, as well as a new dungeon to explore, Celu Tower Gold. Celu Tower is a brand new high level dungeon for players to explore, patched into the game as of yesterday. The tower has a few new demons to contract with, but, more importantly, players can also get the chance to find a special demon plug-in and fuse Thor himself! Otherwise, look forward to being able to wield Mjolnir, Thor's Hammer, as a brand new weapon. To grab yourself a Joyful Alice, either check your e-mail for a special code and instructions (if you're signed up to receive them) or check out the Imagine website for more information on the promotion.
Aeria Games: "If you don't have fun playing, we'll give you a refund"
There aren't many MMO publishers out there who would actually offer refunds for gamers who don't have fun in their titles, but this is exactly what Aeria Games is doing. We did a double take when hearing about this but it's legit. Superman0X is a USA Gamemaster for Aeria Games, and has declared "April is Fun Month at Aeria... GUARANTEED". That's a bold statement. But what does it mean for players of the various Aeria Games MMOs? Superman0X writes, "We are so sure you will have fun we are going to put our AP [Aeria Points] where our mouth is. If any player does not have fun we will refund all their AP purchases for the entire month up to 5000AP." Players who didn't enjoy themselves in April will have a window of opportunity to request a refund from May 1st to May 10th . You can check out the full details in the announcement but we're guessing Aeria has a lot of faith in their titles if they'd even consider making such an offer.
Aion's release date expected for fall 2009
Localization is big, time consuming business, and NCsoft wants to make sure that they get it just right with the release of Aion: The Tower of Eternity. The US community manager, Liv, has just confirmed that NCsoft is seeking a fall 2009 launch date for the Western copy of the game that has already seen success in Korea.The game is undergoing a significant re-write of all of the narrative content instead of being simply translated and pushed out the door. What this should produce is a game without the standard awkward mistranslated phrases, incomplete sentences, and dialogue that doesn't word wrap properly.This style of localization is common amongst recent games that have crossed over into Western culture, such as the Megami Tensei Series and Odin Sphere from Atlus Games. It's more extensive and time consuming, but produces much better results in the long term.For all of the questions and insights Liv has provided to the Aion audience, check out her full letter and note from the producer at the European Aion website.
Real money trade as a convenience to players
Whenever real money trade is mentioned, or the dreaded term "item shop" is brought up, we all seem to get a little twitchy and afraid. Games that were supported by item shops use to denote which games had little content and poor quality, but times are swiftly changing. Games like Runes of Magic, Wizard 101, Mabinogi, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine and others are changing the face of the free to play market and item shop transactions as they begin to combine quality with affordability. Yet, the stigma of the item shop remains in our culture.Saylah at Mystic Worlds has put together a well-written argument in favor of the item shop and RMT system. Instead of looking at it like getting ahead of the players who are "playing the game properly," look at it as customizable service for the user. Item shops should provide convenience for players who are looking to make some of the boring parts of the game move a little faster so the game can fit in their personal timeframe.If any of this sounds interesting, check out her full article as she lays down her opinion and then applies it to her current MMO, Runes of Magic.
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine beta keys now available
If you've played Persona 3 or Digital Devil Saga, then you're already familiar with Atlus Games's Shin Megami Tensei line. While the laurels of that line lie in the many single player games, the Shin Megami Tensei series is going into the MMO realm with the new game, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine.Imagine is being carried in the US region by Aeria Games, the people behind Shaiya and Dream of Mirror Online, and they've just started their beta test via Filefront. Just simply click on the link and you'll be given a key and a download link to the client. The game will be free to play, and supported by a microtransaction system.Also, as a small side note, Aeria is currently having trouble with the ImagineUpdate.exe file. If you download the client, run the ImagineClient.exe file without running the launcher shortcut. Otherwise, if the launcher is run, you corrupt the installation and have to re-install.Otherwise, happy demon hunting![Thanks Tony!]Update: Aeria Games has gotten the launcher back to normal. Double click it and run it to update properly!
