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Shin Megami Tensei transferred to Atlus in North America
If you're a fan of the venerable Shin Megami Tensei RPG franchise, you might be pleased to know that Atlus is taking over publishing duties on the Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine online title from California-based Aeria Games. Gamasutra reports that Atlus views the forthcoming April move as a "homecoming" for the game, which was originally released in 2007. Prior to the move, Atlus managed the Japanese servers while Aeria handled the North American operations. Gamasutra says that "all characters and player data will be carried over automatically, although there will be a short period of downtime while this occurs."
Free for All: Five popular cash-shop item types
Over the next few weeks, I would like to take a look at cash shops. Despite many good experiences I have had with them, even my referring to a cash shop can conjure up not-so-happy images for many players. For myself, a cash shop gives me a sense similar to a visit to a toy store -- a toy store where everything is dirt cheap. Good cash shops can not only make you want to spend money, but give you an item or experience that was well worth your cash. Before getting into the heavy-lifting topics, I will go over five of my favorite cash-shop item "types." Bear in mind that there is always some game that features some variant of each of these types. Also remember that there are always more categories, but that these represent what I think are the most popular and make the most money. Feel free to suggest any categories that you think do something similar, or correct me where you think I'm wrong.
Rise and Shiny recap: Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online (longest. name. ever.) is perfect for Rise and Shiny: it is unusual, makes some people uncomfortable, free-to-play, and more "indie" than "AAA." I've played it off and on since its release but never found the time or desire to really push into it. After all, the combat in the game takes patience and knowledge, something that requires, well, patience and knowledge. Over the last week I decided to dive right in, changing my normal procedure of blindly downloading, playing, and socializing. I broke my habit of ignoring the wiki and the information from the playerbase, and I have decided to actually immerse myself into a week-long college course on whatever game it is I am playing at the time. The effort paid off big. The combat became more enjoyable, and the game made more sense. I met some very nice community members, and even found myself wanting to go through an epic hour-and-a-half dungeon experience. The game is not without its frustrating moments, of course. Starting out can feel like a pretty overwhelming experience. While there is a great beginning tutorial to help players understand the complicated combat system, many areas of the game require information that is so hidden that you must simply look it up in a wiki.
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.
Anti-Aliased: Five free to play MMOs that are ahead of the class
Times are tough, the wallet is tight, and you still need a game to play. But what free games can you wrap your hands around that just don't suck, right? That seems to be the trouble with free to play games -- many selections all with very low quality.But the market is not as bad as you might think. There are certainly some gems out there in the free to play market, just waiting for you to wrap your hands around them and play. Finding them however, hasn't always been easy, until now.With the recommendations of my colleagues here at Massively, and my own personal experience, I've complied a list of 5 free to play games that are worthy of your play time. In advance, however, I wish to apologize to Chronicles of Spellborn, Wizard 101, and FusionFall. All three of these games made our favorites list, but I'm skipping them as their focus is more of a "freemium" experience, where massive areas of the games are locked out until a subscription is purchased. This column is only going to concentrate on the free to play, item mall driven games, just to clarify for all of you readers out there.So which games made the best of the free to play list? Continue reading and you'll find out.
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.
Demons ready for summoning, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine goes open beta
Do you wish there was an MMO that allowed you to summon demonic minions under your control in order to restore a post-apocalyptic Tokyo? Well thankfully for you, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine has entered open beta! Now all your world-saving via demonic pet needs can be addressed thanks to Aeria Games' and their hard work.For anyone whose played Persona 3 or the more recently released Persona 4, an MMO set in the world of SMT is a very interesting proposition. The game has all the demon fusing and combat from the other games (beyond even the Persona series) but it's all done in real-time instead of through turn-based combat. We're curious to see how this handles, as our guess is that it's likely more of a quasi-real-time ala standard MMO design in games like World of Warcraft.
Aeria Games gives away five million dollars in points to players
Do you play Last Chaos, Shaiya, Dream of Mirror Online, or any one of the other Aeria Online games? Check your e-mails and spam filters for a nice stocking stuffer of Aeria Points, as the company is sending over five million dollars worth to their player community.Any member of the Aeria Games community is eligible to recieve one of these e-mails, and Aeria will be sending them out from now all the way to Christmas, so keep checking as you might not know when one of these may fly into your inbox. The number of points that each person will get can vary, and so far a limit has not been mentioned on how much you may receive.Good luck for those of you who are members of the Aeria community! We hope you get showered with points! Plus, if you find yourself rich, your favorite news site might like a few points too.[via Allakhazam]
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!
