Among gaming's most dedicated enthusiasts, the Megami Tensei series is an especially cherished franchise. Spanning over twenty years and dozens of titles across several spin-off franchises, "MegaTen," as it is frequently abbreviated, has a loyal following among hardcore gamers. Once largely the domain of importers, MegaTen's various games have seen a recent surge in popularity among Western gamers, thanks to localized releases of titles from the Digital Devil Saga and Persona series. Japanese RPGs may be a niche genre among American gamers, but there is something special about MegaTen games, as evidenced by the growing enthusiasm over the upcoming release of Persona 4, and over the mad rush to purchase Atlus' re-release of Persona 2, which sold out in under an hour on Amazon.
With MegaTen holding such a high place in gamers' hearts, one of the series' main drawbacks has been its relative rarity; the games typically see a limited printing in the US, and though re-releases do occur on occasion, they are few and far between. So, when Aeria Games announced that they would be publishing the American localization of the MegaTen MMO, a game explicitly intended for a "massive" audience, we took notice -- and then they added that the game would be free. We recently had occasion to visit Aeria Games in person, and take a guided tour of the MegaTen world, entitled Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online.
The game, referred to by the Aeria team as merely MegaTen or Imagine, is not exactly a new title: The MMO has been up and running in Japan for over a year. Aeria Games has simply licensed Imagine for US publication, and is spearheading the localization process for domestic gamers. Mike Stevens, who is heading up Imagine's localization at Aeria, stressed to me the importance of making sure the translations are handled properly -- by no less than three separate companies.
"Cave, which is the developer, has full, professional translation teams," explained Stevens. "Atlus USA is also looking over the translations, and I am, as well." Stevens had many things to say about his own devotion to the MegaTen franchise, including the vast array of titles he has personally played through from the Digital Devil and Persona series. "I'm pretty sure no one in your reading audience knows me from Adam, but I'm a die-hard fan of the series... I want to ensure that when you play Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, you're going to get a full, authentic Shin Megami Tensei experience."
The poor localization included in many Asian free-to-play (F2P) titles attaches a stigma to any new entry to the genre, presenting an obstacle that must be overcome in order to satisfy many American gamers. Aeria let us know that they were very cognizant of this issue, and were keeping a constant vigil over Imagine's quality. Spencer Chi, the game's producer, told me the Aeria team has been working on the issue since day one: "When we were launching the game, we were reading through our forums, and players were expressing concern that, during the localization, we might botch up the game. Some games that are carried over from Asian countries, you see a lot of 'Engrish,' and things like that, that might detract from it. We made that one of our really big concerns, and we made sure we put the right people on the teams to get that done."
In addition, Chi reminded me, since Imagine is an MMO, it will naturally have a fluid, ongoing development process -- any mistakes that remain in the game after launch can easily be patched in, after the fact. Of course, in order to impress their initial audience, Aeria will want to have the job as completely done as possible, and Stevens and Chi know what's at stake: Chi noted to me that the original Imagine contains over a million Japanese characters of text, but with three companies going over every translation, they hope not to miss much.
As for the authentic MegaTen experience, my hands-on time with the game was quite promising. At first glance, Imagine looks and plays like any number of MMORPGs, with simple WASD/click-to-move navigation, NPCs with color-coded floating names, and numbered action bar full of attacks, spells, and other handy maneuvers. Of course, a brief exploration of the game world revealed a safe zone full of cyberpunk structures alongside dark, occult shrines -- and more importantly, a population of young Japanese adventurers running around with colorful, fearsome demons in tow. My own experience with the MegaTen universe is limited, but I instantly recognized quite a few of the demons on display; seasoned franchise veterans will note that Imagine clearly makes use of the series' pre-established roster of creatures and their artwork.
The story, too, is designed with experienced fans in mind, acting as a "continuation" of the RPGs' storyline: Imagine takes place between Shin Megami Tensei 1 and 2, according to Chi, who promised a rich narrative to accompany the game. Imagine's plot will not simply be told through static text boxes, said the team -- from a scene-setting introductory sequence to fully-animated cut-scenes at key points in the game, Aeria is hoping to deliver an engaging story in the tradition of MegaTen's cherished titles.
There wasn't time to personally sample much of the story during my visit, but I was able to experience the basic gameplay that will drive the Imagine experience, leading my character out into a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, swarming with fearsome demons. Combat started off as a relatively familiar affair, executed by selecting a foe and repeatedly mashing the "attack" command. With some instruction, however, I was shown that Imagine's fighting engine contained many real-time elements, keeping players on their toes to keep things from becoming overly grind-based. Instead of being a purely statistics-based battle, several attacks must be deployed on a reactionary basis, including techniques like dodges, counter-attacks, and so forth. Many games employ defensive maneuvers as just another function of the math, providing players with a percent-based chance to dodge any given attack. Imagine, however, allows players to specifically execute a dodge or a counter-attack by hand when they see an enemy rushing in for a hit. If deployed early enough, these maneuvers will keep the enemy from seizing control of the fight, allowing a sharp player to follow up with an offensive combo of their own, with real-time elements such as knockback and stun thrown into the mix for good measure.
My character was experienced enough to physically mop the floor with any enemy that came his way, but my demo guide leaned in and switched my action bar over to another set of commands, this time including several devastating magic spells. Similar to the original RPGs, the enemies in Imagine tend to have a rock-paper-scissors system of elemental weaknesses that clever players will know to exploit -- my fireball spell wasn't too much help against a group of scary flying dogs, but it provided some very satisfying one-hit-kills against some extremely flammable slimes. From there, my UI was switched yet again, to a series of commands based around a technologically advanced ranged weapon. Imagine's combat archetypes fall into these three categories -- fighter, magician, and gunner -- but, as I had just been shown, any character can dabble in all three systems. There are no pre-set character classes in Imagine, merely a series of "expertise" areas that can be purchased via the player's all-purpose skill points. The Aeria team did warn, however, that no single character can utterly master all three systems, and cautioned players against spreading themselves too thin.
In any areas where a player character comes up short, however, there will be someone else along to pick up the slack: MegaTen's ubiquitous demons. With a quick "summon" command, my character called a massive hellhound to his side, and a second action bar appeared in the UI, filled with my demon's available moves. Beyond being able to dabble in the three combat archetypes, Aeria explained, the addition of demons would also let every single player make use of the "pet class" from common MMORPG systems, as well as adhere to the MegaTen tradition of demon-assisted battle. Players' demons can have their AI adjusted to handle aggressive or defensive tasks, but players with the ability to multitask will be able to take complete control over their companions' moves, all in real-time -- essentially allowing them to control two PCs at once. With some practice, I found myself able to bash away at an enemy creature and then backpedal, leading it right into my hellhound, who had prepared a massive charge move for the incoming foe.
Taking further elements from MegaTen's gameplay, the demons in Imagine involve collection, affinity, and fusion. Players can bring half a dozen demons with them into battle (though only one may be active at a time), and store many more back in the game's safe zones, but it's not simply a matter of automatically acquiring new demons once you reach a certain level. No, most of Imagine's demons -- roughly 200 in all -- must be plucked out of the game world itself.
As my guide demonstrated, I wasn't obligated to attack every demon I encountered in the ruins of Tokyo: A series of social commands, including options like "Greeting" or "Threat," allowed me to try and interact with a demon through words, rather than explosive magic and swords. Of course, this isn't a guaranteed course of action -- based on factors like the demon's level, type, and your own social prowess, a simple "Hello there!" might be met with the demon equivalent of "Hi, I hate you!" followed by violence. But, when executed properly, these commands will allow players to add members to their personal demon roster, as I learned by offering a friendly hello to an unholy version of Puss in Boots. The sword-wielding cat suggested that we ought to be friends, and one contract later, another fantastic creature was bound to my service.
Once caught, a demon can gain experience and level up, just as another PC might, and if you treat them well (e.g. praise their efforts or treat them to gifts), they will bond with you more effectively, learning more powerful attacks and building stronger stats. Beyond making them more useful in combat, this will also help to prepare your demons for fusion -- another staple of the MegaTen universe. Once a player has a few demons in his employ, he can bring them to the local Cathedral of Shadows, where a wizened old man will, for a fee, attempt to join them together into a new, more powerful demon. In this way, players can fuse their way to more entries on the 200 demon roster, with the fused offspring inheriting some of the strengths and feats of its "parents." Apparently, as I discovered, if you cross a Puss in Boots with something resembling Tinkerbell, you get a scary hovering manta ray creature. Who knew?
Although the varied combat systems and the "gotta catch 'em all" demon collection will drive the primary gameplay, I asked how Imagine will be mixing things up for its players. Relentless grinding, after all, is often the major drawback of any MMORPG, not just the F2P ones, and I asked what sort of quests Imagine players could expect beyond "Go to location X and kill 10 of enemy Y." Chi reminded me that the demon collection and character customization will certainly play a large role in setting Imagine apart from other games, but Stevens also pointed out how vital the story was going to be for Imagine players.
"It really involves you in the storyline," noted Stevens, reminding me of the animated cut-scenes. "You first start off in the middle of an investigation, and then it becomes a bit of a mystery, as you are put from one strange situation into a stranger situation. You keep going on, and you learn to find your place in the world." Stevens called up one status screen in particular, demonstrating my character's alignment -- not along a traditional good/evil axis, but instead using the order/chaos dichotomy. According to Stevens, the game's story can actually branch out, depending on which path a player follows. "When it comes down to it, you can choose to join the Messiah Church, which is the church of order, or the Gaian Church, which is the chaos group, or stay neutral. There might be some challenges there, but you essentially get to make your own path that way. It's not always guaranteed -- you'll gain some advantages from it and you'll gain some disadvantages from it, but when you carve your own path, it's never easy."
With talk of different in-game factions coming up, I asked if there might be some conflict between the ranks of order and chaos. Thus far, I had only seen humans vs. demons -- would Imagine feature any PvP elements? "The focus is more on cooperative play; there actually is no straight-up PvP," answered Chi. "There are some competitive elements to the game, though: In the dungeons, there's this leaderboard system, where you can buy an item and get a 'goal' for the dungeon." Chi led me to one of the game's many dungeons -- all of which, he mentioned, are instanced for interference-free play with one's group -- and directed me to a merchant at the dungeon's entrance. A player wanting to play the game more competitively could spring for a "stopwatch" item here, which would allow him to attempt a time trial for that particular dungeon, fighting to clear the area in the fastest possible time. Other potential dungeon "goals" were hinted at, as well.
The entire Aeria team agreed that Imagine was gearing up to be one of the company's favorite projects, and that the community was tremendously excited to get into the game. With nine games to its name, and five more on the way -- all of them F2P MMO titles -- Aeria can reasonably boast that it has some experience in managing game communities and providing content based on popular demand. Their plans for Imagine are no different, according to "GM Vicc," one of Imagine's gamemasters.
Vicc told us that players tended to really enjoy events that bolstered the sense of community, including interactive Q&A sessions with gamemasters, hide-and-seek with GMs and community volunteers, and more. In addition, holiday events often proved very popular, along with exclusive limited-time avatar merchandise from the game's item mall. "Looking after the community, seeing how excited they are about this game, I'm just as excited as they are," remarked Vicc. "It's a great game, and I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody that's going to join the community."
Speaking of Imagine's item mall, Chi gave me a few hints as to how Imagine would be making money: As with all Aeria Games, Imagine will be accessible through the company's main game portal, where players can spend their cash on Aeria Points (AP). Spending these points a few at a time in a microtransaction system, this allows them to get new avatars and gear in any of the company's games -- from bat wings and witch hats in Dream of Mirror Online, to faster cars in Project Torque.
AP will remain viable in Imagine as well, and while there will definitely be cosmetic avatar items for sale, Chi told us that a few items will also be available for players who want to level up faster, hinting towards experience boosters, speed boosters, and so forth. Longtime readers will know how I feel about paying more to experience less of a game, but given the ongoing health of the gold-farming and RMT industry, there are plenty of players out there who find it to be an acceptable solution to the level gap problem. Of course, in a game that is otherwise completely free, buying a faster leveling process does seem far more palatable to begin with. Chi assured us, on the other hand, for purists and for gamers on a budget, no actual gameplay features will be locked behind microtransactions -- players can get the full Imagine experience without paying a cent.
My hands-on time with Imagine was over far too soon to render a reasonable verdict -- it's difficult to take the full measure of an epic-length MMORPG in under an hour. Still, the game looked promising on a number of levels, containing demon collection to please completionists, a mind-boggling array of stats and character-building to please MMORPG players, social networking and avatar customization for community fans, and plenty of MegaTen staples for franchise devotees. Judge for yourself, though -- Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online is planning to start its closed beta phase on December 1st, and they're taking sign-ups right now.
We would like to thank Aeria Games for answering our questions.
[...] tuned in this morning to the disaster that is Gamecyte and found a pretty interesting preview of the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei MMO that apparently tons of Asian people and goth, emo losers in [...]
[...] clearly makes use of the series’ pre-established roster of creatures and their artwork." Hands On with Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online | GameCyte [...]
[...] the first and second Shin Megami Tensei games and is told through many cut-scenes, including “fully-animated cut-scenes at key points in the game.” (I can’t confirm that at this point of time). What really sold me about Persona 4 was the [...]
Among gaming's most dedicated enthusiasts, the Megami Tensei series is an especially cherished franchise. Spanning over twenty years and dozens of titles across several spin-off franchises, "MegaTen," as it is frequently abbreviated, has a loyal following among hardcore gamers. Once largely the domain of importers, MegaTen's various games have seen a recent surge in popularity among Western gamers, thanks to localized releases of titles from the Digital Devil Saga and Persona series. Japanese RPGs may be a niche genre among American gamers, but there is something special about MegaTen games, as evidenced by the growing enthusiasm over the upcoming release of Persona 4, and over the mad rush to purchase Atlus' re-release of Persona 2, which sold out in under an hour on Amazon.
"Cave, which is the developer, has full, professional translation teams," explained Stevens. "Atlus USA is also looking over the translations, and I am, as well." Stevens had many things to say about his own devotion to the MegaTen franchise, including the vast array of titles he has personally played through from the Digital Devil and Persona series. "I'm pretty sure no one in your reading audience knows me from Adam, but I'm a die-hard fan of the series... I want to ensure that when you play Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, you're going to get a full, authentic Shin Megami Tensei experience."
As for the authentic MegaTen experience, my hands-on time with the game was quite promising. At first glance, Imagine looks and plays like any number of MMORPGs, with simple WASD/click-to-move navigation, NPCs with color-coded floating names, and numbered action bar full of attacks, spells, and other handy maneuvers. Of course, a brief exploration of the game world revealed a safe zone full of cyberpunk structures alongside dark, occult shrines -- and more importantly, a population of young Japanese adventurers running around with colorful, fearsome demons in tow. My own experience with the MegaTen universe is limited, but I instantly recognized quite a few of the demons on display; seasoned franchise veterans will note that Imagine clearly makes use of the series' pre-established roster of creatures and their artwork.
My character was experienced enough to physically mop the floor with any enemy that came his way, but my demo guide leaned in and switched my action bar over to another set of commands, this time including several devastating magic spells. Similar to the original RPGs, the enemies in Imagine tend to have a rock-paper-scissors system of elemental weaknesses that clever players will know to exploit -- my fireball spell wasn't too much help against a group of scary flying dogs, but it provided some very satisfying one-hit-kills against some extremely flammable slimes. From there, my UI was switched yet again, to a series of commands based around a technologically advanced ranged weapon. Imagine's combat archetypes fall into these three categories -- fighter, magician, and gunner -- but, as I had just been shown, any character can dabble in all three systems. There are no pre-set character classes in Imagine, merely a series of "expertise" areas that can be purchased via the player's all-purpose skill points. The Aeria team did warn, however, that no single character can utterly master all three systems, and cautioned players against spreading themselves too thin.
As my guide demonstrated, I wasn't obligated to attack every demon I encountered in the ruins of Tokyo: A series of social commands, including options like "Greeting" or "Threat," allowed me to try and interact with a demon through words, rather than explosive magic and swords. Of course, this isn't a guaranteed course of action -- based on factors like the demon's level, type, and your own social prowess, a simple "Hello there!" might be met with the demon equivalent of "Hi, I hate you!" followed by violence. But, when executed properly, these commands will allow players to add members to their personal demon roster, as I learned by offering a friendly hello to an unholy version of Puss in Boots. The sword-wielding cat suggested that we ought to be friends, and one contract later, another fantastic creature was bound to my service.
With talk of different in-game factions coming up, I asked if there might be some conflict between the ranks of order and chaos. Thus far, I had only seen humans vs. demons -- would Imagine feature any PvP elements? "The focus is more on cooperative play; there actually is no straight-up PvP," answered Chi. "There are some competitive elements to the game, though: In the dungeons, there's this leaderboard system, where you can buy an item and get a 'goal' for the dungeon." Chi led me to one of the game's many dungeons -- all of which, he mentioned, are instanced for interference-free play with one's group -- and directed me to a merchant at the dungeon's entrance. A player wanting to play the game more competitively could spring for a "stopwatch" item here, which would allow him to attempt a time trial for that particular dungeon, fighting to clear the area in the fastest possible time. Other potential dungeon "goals" were hinted at, as well.
My hands-on time with Imagine was over far too soon to render a reasonable verdict -- it's difficult to take the full measure of an epic-length MMORPG in under an hour. Still, the game looked promising on a number of levels, containing demon collection to please completionists, a mind-boggling array of stats and character-building to please MMORPG players, social networking and avatar customization for community fans, and plenty of MegaTen staples for franchise devotees. Judge for yourself, though -- Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online is planning to start its closed beta phase on December 1st, and they're taking sign-ups right now.
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Here are some pictures we took during the setup process, in the morning before the press arrived:
http://forums.aeriagames.com/viewtopic.php?t=207448
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Continued future success, Mr. Stevens!