SMT Imagine.....Loved Or Hated???

[True Hollow Demon Kira]

i was reading the review and sounded very good to me, but then i looked a other peoples comments and alot seem like they won't play this game...

http://kotaku.com/5048368/shin-megami-tensei-mmo-hitting-north-america-and-europe

[jeffx]

I don't care what others say, I'll play the game and form my own opinion. Then I'll tell you if I love it or hate it.

[Kakizaki]

Let's also wait until we have more to go off of.....i.e. the full English version.

[Fuyukaze]

The game initialy got very bad reviews when it was first released in Japan. Players felt it had to little to offer and over all were not impresed. It still has ALOT of room to expand to even be close to a great game though.

[leeman27534]

There is a company called Aeria games who is doing the english translation for SMT: Imagine if you are a fan of the game, and speak both English and Japanese, could you help them out by doing some translations?
http://forums.aeriagames.com/viewtopic.php?t=176274 is the site to contact them, you will need to translate a simple message to prove you know Japanese

[furix]

I played the Japanese version back then and loved it! But, I was restricted to a few English guilds and the language barrier sort of held me back a bit.

Now that it's out in English I finally found my MMO. I can't keep playing an MMO for longer than 2 months before I get bored. D:

But, Imagine was just perfect.

[FangzV]

I wouldn't really take the comments as "This game will suck".
They're all just "This is awesome" "My first MMO" "I don't know about Aeria Games since they've only published crap" and people questioning the street.
Pretty much all the criticism is based on "Very good but not for me" and the fact Aeria's publishing it.

[Killrig]

Hey, at least it is free!

-- Killrig

[evilmegaman]

I can't believe there's a SMT MMO.


I hate MMORPG's But I can't resist my favorite little minions :(



consider me signed up lol. Doubt I'll play much of it though. I play games for story. Just what I do. They're like interactive books for me. at this point practically movies. But nonetheless, Can't go wrong with SMT.

[FangzV]

I can't believe there's a SMT MMO.


I hate MMORPG's But I can't resist my favorite little minions :(



consider me signed up lol. Doubt I'll play much of it though. I play games for story. Just what I do. They're like interactive books for me. at this point practically movies. But nonetheless, Can't go wrong with SMT.

Well I haven't gotten past the tutorial, so don't take my word on this, but from the trailers it looks like it has some sort of story.

Besides, you can always make up your own story. I've done that with MMOs a lot before.

[Sakubo]

I tried this game and didnt care much for it. Basically it was like playing nocture or something only as an mmo. Im sorry those games are fun as console games but creating a direct port like they did doesnt play well as an mmo. Also the controls bugged me. The fact that 1280 x 1024 was the max res was annoying etc etc. Just alot of little things that made me not really want to play it.

[evilmegaman]

I can't believe there's a SMT MMO.


I hate MMORPG's But I can't resist my favorite little minions :(



consider me signed up lol. Doubt I'll play much of it though. I play games for story. Just what I do. They're like interactive books for me. at this point practically movies. But nonetheless, Can't go wrong with SMT.

Well I haven't gotten past the tutorial, so don't take my word on this, but from the trailers it looks like it has some sort of story.

Besides, you can always make up your own story. I've done that with MMOs a lot before.

I'm just gonna wait for the NA version. I just don't like dealing with fetch quests with groups of people. loot aint my thing. ;)

What's the battle system like?

[Zambatoh]

SMT: Imagine is different from most MMOs and gets incredibly hard by the time you hit Act 4 in the story. However it is a refreshing change of pace as I've played alot of MMOs that feel the same. At least it faithfully captures the game mechanics from the single player games, except the real time battle system. Its kinda like playing PSO over again.

What's the battle system like?.

Its like a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors except its like Attack, Dodge and Counter.

[Megedo Incubus]

I agree, Zambatoh. I love the nostalgia that the mmo is bringing me.

The controls still need a little tweaking but so far I think it is a pretty good addition to the SMT series. It isn't so easy that you can just fly through it, which is alway good. Any RPG needs to be challenging in order for it to truely be enjoyable. SMT has always strived to do that. Imagine is no different.

[Soushi_Grapple]

Im playing this on a labtop since my PC died and its difficult without a mouse; once I get the mouse hooked up I plan to see whats beyond basic training, which I finished recently. =) Looking to join clan Atlus and make some friends XD

[Lestat]

the game wasnt too bad, bit laggy and hard to get on at all times but it wasnt a horrible game by any means.

[daemons8]

the game wasnt too bad, bit laggy and hard to get on at all times but it wasnt a horrible game by any means.

I agree. Now that there are a lot more people playing there will be LAG, lots of it. If your looking for a mmo to play I will suggest imagine.

[Eddie Van Helsing]

It's a Windows-only MMORPG, so count me out.

[sagamaru_93]

very fun mmo i play the closed beta test everyday until p4 hits my mailbox

[cj iwakura]

The story is really good, but unfortunately, it doesn't have much time to go anywhere. I guess being an MMO kind of locks it into a static state, but it does have some very interesting characters, namely Ogami, Snakeman, and the Innocent siblings(Asura and her brother whose name I can't remember).

Also, beautiful environments. Nakano and Arcadia are particularly well done.

[daemons8]

For all those who don't already know, Imagine is like SMT 1.5. So if you have played the first 2 then you can if you want to play this.

Loved or hated?
I'm kinda hated cause I'm a noob and the wiki and all that other stuff is still in progress so you can screw up a lot.

[Jack Bros. Power Hour]

I haven't played it much truthfully, but I love the demon selection. I thought it was great how they brought back guys like Camazotz (even if I hate Bat forever), Cait Sith and Knocker.

[Ishiro]

Like the game but its a bit slow and the item mechanics kinda annoyed me specially the money which takes a lot of your inventory having a 50k limit then takes another slot for another 50k and so on... cant even make people rich cause they spend their money to save some space...

[nadeshiiko]

it's an mmo you'll love from the start... but after maybe a month? you'll get irritated with. it will take you long hours of grinding just to get the demon you want... i wanted a surt and i needed to grind like hell to do so.

i liked some of the costumes... especially my skull jacket. rocks! xD

play it to see it...

uh... yeah... it lacks something very important when you get to a high level... you'll see what it is xP

mii not telling!!!! xD

and uh? what the heck? what happened to my number of posts?! xC

[Greyhawk]

Very much a love/hate thing for me. Love the setting, the graphics, the storyline, available customization. Hate the excessive grinding at upper levels and the reliance on a cash shop spending for events (rewarding players who spend X amount of cash shop points with Y prizes).

Currently, I play, but I don't know how long I'll stay.

[Chidori Boy Uchiha]

anybody still plays this game? i mean is it worth downloading?

[comorbid]

I have my gripes, but I'm also finding other aspects that make up for almost all of those gripes. That's pretty much how it is with any game I keep coming back to.

And I think my High Pixie is even more hardcore than my player character; I actually find myself cheering her on after I die (which thankfully isn't as often after 2 months - yay, learning!)… and then I realize she can't rez me. And I'm soloing a dungeon. And then I go back to being sad about dying again. :/

[emperorzorn]

Its a MMO.
Although I always wonder what a Persona MMO would be like,
I dont think that it will be any good for the series.

The sole idea of a Persona MMO is fun though.
Imagine it would have the same date/season as in the real world
and you can attend school once each day, and raise 3 social links each day
max (easier for casual players too).

You could enter the tv world as much as you like, and it would be instanced:
that means its only you and your friends in a party - not 500 players grinding
shadows.
You could work on jobs as much as you like too, but the jobs would be
minigames where you actually have to do something to earn money.

But the main problem or blessing of every MMO is its playerbase.
The best Persona MMO wouldnt be any good if its full of strafejumping,
"LOLZ MOMMY MAKE ME A SANDWICH" characters.

What would be really neat though is if every player was able to select an arcana,
and killing a boss monster would raise your social link with the arcanas of the
players in your party.
Also arcanas could affect your main personas "class" and abilities,
dividing the arcanas into subclasses.

Ahhh..too much MMO talk !

[comorbid]

Its a MMO.
Although I always wonder what a Persona MMO would be like, I dont think that it will be any good for the series.

It's not a Persona MMO. It's a Megaten MMO. It takes place between SMT 1 & 2, if I'm not mistaken (but I only just woke up 30 minutes ago, so maybe I am) Please do not go in expecting Persona.

The sole idea of a Persona MMO is fun though. Imagine it would have the same date/season as in the real world and you can attend school once each day, and raise 3 social links each day max (easier for casual players too).

The "Care" command is actually a little bit like that. It improves the social link between you and your summoned demon. I'd say it's completely unrelated to arcana, but I don't know, as I haven't actually dealt with the mechanics involving the Tarot in-game yet.

You could enter the tv world as much as you like, and it would be instanced:that means its only you and your friends in a party - not 500 players grinding shadows.

Dungeons.

You could work on jobs as much as you like too, but the jobs would be minigames where you actually have to do something to earn money.

Well, the Bazaar isn't really a minigame, but you get money from running one (if you're selling good stuff).

But the main problem or blessing of every MMO is its playerbase. The best Persona MMO wouldnt be any good if its full of strafejumping, "LOLZ MOMMY MAKE ME A SANDWICH" characters.

Hear, hear! :D

What would be really neat though is if every player was able to select an arcana, and killing a boss monster would raise your social link with the arcanas of the players in your party.
Also arcanas could affect your main personas "class" and abilities, dividing the arcanas into subclasses.

Well, with Imagine, you choose an alignment. Not at character creation, but through decisions made, like in Nocturne (and I would guess, SMT 1 & 2, but since I haven't played those, I'm going with 3). Your alignment affects certain aspects of the game. Demons have features that may or may not help you (or other summoned demons) passively in and outside of combat.

So, overall, similarities and differences to Persona, but it's not. Don't look at it as such. Honestly, Not trying to sell you on the game or anything, I just want to be sure that if you play it and hate it, you don't hate it because "it's nothing like Persona." ;)

[emperorzorn]

So, overall, similarities and differences to Persona, but it's not. Don't look at it as such. Honestly, Not trying to sell you on the game or anything, I just want to be sure that if you play it and hate it, you don't hate it because "it's nothing like Persona." ;)

Oh mate, I was planning to try SMT: Imagine Online anyway. :D

I understand that a lot of SMT veterans are pissed because the Persona
series attracts a lot of mainstream players who have no clue about what SMT
is about, telling them that SMT sucks compared to Persona and whatnot...

I like the SMT games, I just see Persona as my "type" of SMT game.
I'm going to give SMT: Imagine Online a shot without prejudice.

[Latooni11]

I myself like this game quite a lot. For one thing, it is a free to play MMO.
Now there are tons of crappy free MMO's out there, but IMAGINE is of another quality. Imagine has a battle system that is much more in depth than just "Cick the monster to attack!" You have attack, counter, block, and many more skills you can learn.

You character is fairly customizable, the weapon selection is fairly wide. The demons have the same names that people familir with SMT would recognise, the art style is similar, and everything.

Imagine is without a doubt the best free MMO I have ever played.

[Aegis Ages]

I downloaded it and all, but I don't play much.
I think my clan gets messed up when I leave it alone too long.
I've been in like 4 so far, most likely will have to get a new one.
I've had it since closed beta but I'm still a loooooow level.
I need storyline to want to progress.

[MileyWinters]

Well, it's hard to say. BETA is a free game, so you can't expect much of it.
Then again, the design is pretty cool, there are even pre-rendered sequences, there's always someone online and the "Demons" are similar to the SMT-Games.
Too bad only that the controlls aren't that responsive.

[Zacewing]

I personally loved it.

It has some flaws, but that's expected, cause Atlus has never made an MMO before.

[Zeik]

For a free MMO it's actually quite good, but it still suffers the same problems as every other MMO out there, which tend to get boring quickly. Still, I'd much rather play it than something like WoW, since if I'm going to bored of it the same either way I certainly don't want to pay for it.

[holy_]

Imagine is good MMO imo, but too busy playing other games -.-

[Trucido Umbra]

I love it & got several friends into it, but they have much more time to tear it up than I do, can't even group with them now, bah!!

I need a gaming vacation. XP

[Nimbus]

Overall, I think Imagine is pretty good for what type of game it is. Personally, I'm not too big a fan of MMOs, and given the fact that this is a free one, it is actually quite good!

I gave it a try during the beta, but after they erased all the data, I haven't played it all that much. I like how they used previous SMT music, and the fact that you can recruit demons is pretty cool. Hmm, maybe I'll play it a bit right now...

[djmdma02]

Just my 2 cents :)

I love SMT, I own all the games released here in america, minus persona 1 for psx.

The problem with imagine, is that it is an MMO... I love the idea, but, honestly, i'd much rather play the cell phone persona :)

[Cu Murasame]

I love the game. Everything is fairly great! Well grinding is very annoying without party members.

[DrJonAngus]

This game is kind of glitchy for me because my character runs around the enemy until he decides he wants to actually attack. I had high hopes of enjoying it, but I guess my crappy computer sullied the experience.

[Blackwing Dragon]

I tried it, and it was initially fun, but then it got kind of tedious and confusing VERY quickly. I remember looking for a fairy for 2 hours. I find one just as some special demon comes in and whoops my ass.
NOT HAPPY.
Haven't touched it since.

[seigyukai]

I had high hopes for this one as well, but I'm not big on MMO's in the first place so I didn't give it much of a chance. For some reason my character kept getting stuck in place and I had to quit out to restore his mobility- I reported the bug to Aeria, but [I guess because I couldn't describe it in enough detail that they could replicate it themselves] they never replied (they wanted to know a specific location but my problem happened arbitrarily anywhere. They also wanted a screenshot of the glitch, but my shot just showed my character standing still in a totally open area. I knew he couldn't move but it didn't give them much to go on). From what I could see in the forums no one else had this problem, so I kind of gave up and put my full attention on Nocturne instead. I still keep the shortcut on my desktop though...

[Camanche]

I liked it despite its flaws. My biggest problem was not having a computer that I could play it on 90% of the time.

[Bastet]

I liked it. I started playing during the open beta in December/Jan.

The GMs were incredibly friendly (I have like two on my friends list and they let me bug them alllll the time), and I hardly ever met a rude person. Maybe I was just lucky?

I ended up making three characters, just to try out all the jobs classes (I was unwilling to delete one!).

The events were a little...blah....in the beginning, but got better as time went one. C'mon, a chance to win a demon that you normally have to be level 50 for? Heck yeah! Granted, they usually nerfed the level and whatnot, but still. The events and dungeon runs were well thought out.

The only beef I really had with the game was they didn't really give a good explanation of the game mechanics for each class, so quite a few people had to keep restarting.

I loved the game, loved the people on it, and loved my clan. ('DND' FTW!)

Haven't been on in a looong time though. Hmmm, maybe I'll start playing again....

[boryumugo]

I didn't like it too much while playing it few months back, it seems like an everlasting walking around and not getting to locations until 3 minutes or so has passed. And the first quest getting the pixie...I was talking to all of them, trying to negoitate, instead having to kill 20 of them...well, i hope it will improve a bit more.

[Zacewing]

Eh, after playing it for a while, it got boring really quickly. I would have liked it better if it had used a variation of Raidou Kuzunoha's battle system as opposed to the Mabinogi ripoff system it has now. And running dungeons over and over again gets boring.

Another thing that drags the game down is AeriaGames. They're such awful hosts.

[AmuletCross]

The games to slow almost to the point of not being able to play but its really nice looking for an computer rpg.

[boryumugo]

Another note from me after a few days of playin SMT:Imagine-
Wow, after you get past the newbie areas, the rest of the past is actually pretty nice, I mean, you get to see demons move around and beat you up live lolz, and fusing new demons acquired later is quite interesting. I guess the only problem i have it that i level too slow and dont have enough maginites to summon other demons and no macca for revival orbs...well, i guess i'll be alone for a while.

[Gachimayaa]

There is a company called Aeria games who is doing the english translation for SMT: Imagine if you are a fan of the game, and speak both English and Japanese, could you help them out by doing some translations?
http://forums.aeriagames.com/viewtopic.php?t=176274 is the site to contact them, you will need to translate a simple message to prove you know Japanese

How much would I be paid? Hee hee!

No pay often equals VERY inaccurate translations!

[mohankumarg]

i tried this game, but i didn't feel much better, canvas to Age of empires..

[Lennent]

I didn't find this as good as my mates had told me it was. Though, this goes for almost every other free mmo.

[Roy Len]

I love SMT Imagine I play it all day its so fun

[Klyern]

Definitly hated

Their customer apreciation is :bs: and I got more than enough proof.

First let me point out so that there is no confusion, their item mall currency is called AP (aeria points)

The game is an awesome 10/10 but the hatred runs deep inside the customer support, game rules, administration and over all the rip off prices and items in the item mall.


The item mall makes it imposible to realistically rate with a 10, you cant play pvp fairly unless you buy item mall equipment from players or from the item mall yourself, gathering enough macca for items is relatively easy but availability due to AP customers and stock availability sometimes turns out to be quite a problem.

And even when you have the money to buy directly from the item mall its all just a rip off, every two to three months they introduce a new set of armor that makes the last set cost nothing and making the set before last, obsolete, plus all items wheter they are obsolete or not cost an obsene amount of AP (cash), to top it off the cost of items apearing simultaneously in the item mall almost never makes sense.

Lets say weapon A costs 15K AP, weapon A is obsolete because of the type of weapon it is, any veteran would be able to tell you its useless in pvp and there are even better weapons of the same class for pve, wich in fact cost less macca to obtain, then there is weapon B at the same time as weapon A in the item mall, weapon B costs 10K AP, but its really usefull, unlike weapon A wich is obsolete and costs 5K more. Makes sense to you? to me it never did and prices are still like that in the item mall.

One good personal example of this is the first time I got pawned by their item mall's evilness, they broadcasted a message ingame that they were "finally introducing into the item mall the so awaited, awesome White Fang" "get them while they last there are only 5"

I had the game windowed so I imediatedly entered the item mall and there were only 4, I bought one under the impression they wouldnt last since they costed 50 dollars each, and when I get one I check its stats... (at that time they didnt post the stats of items from the item mall -_-)

Well lets just say the White Fang had 1 less slot, and almost the same characteristics as a weapon in the weapon shops that was only 5 dollars. After this I tried raising a comotion about that rip off, an item that costs 10 times the same price as another one with worse stats? wtf?

Suffice to say they didnt not only NOT offer me a swap of item mall items or any other solution, then just about 1 hour after I posted they started an event just to mock my acertation that it was indeed a rip off, they made a top spender event where the prize was 2 White Fangs as if to say why do people participate if it sucks so much. -_-

Give me a **** break, people spend cash on item malls every day and specially when there's a buying event :mad:, sides wtf does the fact say that no one bought the remaining 3 white fangs for a few hours, and the last one lasted more than 2 days (suffice to say anyway, that the point was clear enough after a few people replied calmly in my thread about this :bs:, and about 2 months after that they finally decided to start puting detailed info on the items)

And thats not just a 1 time story either rofl. I got docens of examples on how they like to play with the absurdity of their own prices and other stuff, as for example their poor lack of judgement and apreciation for the users, as if the item mall sets werent enought they first added AP stat boosting items that worked in pvp (incense), and then they added even more stat boosting items that STACKED -_-. (im talking about cards and scyringes, cards they took out but only because of the outrage that the forums became)

To put it shortly their administration sucks hard and it makes most people angry because its truly a perfect game.

Anyway if you ask for my advice, I played in SMTI's US server more than a year and its my honest opinion that while its a cool game to check out, in the end you'll just end up falling for their trap if you have a credit card, and wasting a good amount of money in nothing, basically buying items that end up costing nothing after a few weeks, and you have to face it, if you read the SMTI rules, you'll realise that they dont care, once you ok the transaction, the money is as good as lost.