Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online
 

GFF Member - Character Name
Chaotic - Wolf
Dark Nation - Shinra
Inhert - Barzahd
KrelEN - Haughm
Lacerta - Lacerta
ZeroSlash - ArOne

It's apparently been out in Japan since last March. Can't say I think it'll be a shoe-in for the western market, but I'm looking forward to trying it out (even though I've never played a megaten game).

A friend of mine had already been playing the Japanese language version. There's a lot of content that needs to be paid for, but the combat system is different from what we normally see... but it goes off timed button presses. Paper theory nerds on your mark for that one.

Edit: I will be playing this.

Sounds interesting! SMT is a cool universe, and the fact that it's shmup-veterans Cave who developed it is crazy (and maybe awesome). Since it's free to play with a micro-transaction model means that at least it's worth giving a fair go.

Bunch of screens and videos:
Shin Megami Tensei MMORPG goes international | RPG Land

From what I've read, it's not exactly a popular game in Japan or Korea. No official confirmed reason yet as to why that is, speculation falls on it either not being grindy enough or lacking many of the traditional MMO conventions most folks associate with these games. That may not be a bad thing depending on your tastes.

grinding and MMO conventions are stupid, so to me that's a good thing for sure. However, if it's too empty, that would be boring.

Some of the screenshots look butt-ugly, and some look fantastic, so it's a bit weird. It's to be expected that the graphical quality is inconsistent, that usually happens with MMOs, but this is pretty extreme.

That was another point of contention, as content seems to be sparse from a few observers. Source? A few posters at SomethingAwful and Nickoten from here who's actually played the game. Nick liked it, but I'm not sure how deep he went because he admitted to a language barrier interfering with things.

Gonna? I've been playing it. :p
It's a bit difficult at times since everything is in Japanese.

I'm kinda glad there isn't that much grinding in the game, where it focuses more on the usage of your abilities. Took a little while to get capturing down, due to some enemies being aggressive, and others just plain kicking your ass if you mess up.

I'll give it a go since it's free and the SMT universe is always a spiffy setting. How much do you actually have to pay for with these microtransactions? Surely you can pick up decent enough equipment and items from enemies and dungeons.

You can. You actually get decent equipment just from the shopkeepers around in the towns. The combat system is like turn based/action in a way. You can combo moves, however, if you don't guard in time, the enemy can knock you back with their combos.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...an/imagine.jpg

updating...ever...so slowly. Will get to playing the japanese server either today or tonite, there's a wonderful wiki page that helped me out :
Megami Tensei Online: IMAGINE - Scratchpad Wiki Labs - Free wikis from Wikia


Also, it seems the translation group thats working on the english version is really...iffy. If you check out the Aeria games forums it seems like its all being done by amateurs. Nothing against them of course, they are awesome, but I was hoping to see professionals working on it =\

Hey, if anyone is still interested in this, there's beta sign-ups going on for the game:

SIGN UP FOR BETA | Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online

I registered for it just a little while ago. I'm still pretty interested in this.

So, Open Beta started for this game. They started sending out invites yesterday.

I didn't get one, but FileFront has 20,000 keys available to anyone who wants to try the game.

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online: Shin Megami Tensei Online Beta Invites Are Go

Check it out. Looks good so far.

I'm going to wait until the official english server is up. By then I'll have my tower updated as well to actually be able to play it.
But I will! If we get enough people together we should try to do a gamingforce guild :<

It's kind of fun.

They just got finished with maintenance (and they still let you play during if you were logged on, even) to fix the major issue right off the bat where running the patcher could cause the game to corrupt and force you to re-install and have to just run the exe instead.

Combat so far is very simplistic, and I somehow don't see it getting any more complex, ever. If you're familiar with the creatures of the SMT universe you kind of have an idea of what attacks they will use and their strengths and weaknesses, so you can have the proper attack strategy ready when the need arrives. It also helps to have a good team (both in your partner and your party) so the weaknesses you have are covered. Would suck to go to an area where you have to kill x amount of (insert thing) where said thing just so happens to be Strong/Immune to or Reflect your main damage source.

I find it funny (since I decided to spec a Mage) that Guns and Swords give more +Spell than actual Rods. Although I find myself relying more on my Persona Devil Demon more than myself for casting spells.

Some random things of note I suppose:

• Wounded Cerberus is a good Demon but I would not rely on him forever (especially since it's a Quest Demon so you can't even fuse him to something super)
• Brave Garm is a Unique Demon given to you by Snakeman for talking to him after completing something (completing the Virtual Battle?), you could raise it and then fuse it to pass on some of its great skills or just use it (LV10 requirement). It merely starts off learning late, but gets the end skills much earlier than the other variations of Garm.
• I hate Cait Siths.
• Trying to get a Demon to join you can be so annoying. Talk -> "Hi!" -> Talk -> "Hi!" -> Talk -> "FUCK YOU GO AWAY" *SKULL SMASH*

Ooh, I forgot all about it, but I should try this! I have been moving to another country, so I guess I need MMO-escapism like I need gangrene in my legs, but what the hell, I'll just limit myself to the weekend.

I got into the Closed Beta as well, downloading the client/game as I type :)

Been playing for a little while as well.

I'm always getting lost. ;_;

Installing as I'm typing this. I'm hoping it runs well on my PC.

I'll probably update the first post with everyone's names and stuff, so I simply ask:

What's your in-game name?

Mine's Wolf.

I'll tell you once I get the bloody Installer to actually run without freezing on me.

So does anyone else have an extremely frustrating time befriending demons in this game or is it just me?

Expertise -> Talk

Higher Ranks // Class in Talk increases the Negotiation Rate.

Of course, it's also annoying as heck to get something unless you're just that damn lucky.

Well I solved the problem of the installer not working, so now I'm in the game (Freakin finally...).

So, In-game name: Shinra

Am downloading as I type this, will be trying this out as soon as I get everything installed and etc.

Of course, with my oftentimes lousy Internet connection god knows how good/crap the experience will be, but hey, it's SMT. Worth a try anyway.

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/2775/2737it6.jpg

I'm content (although curious as to why she's suddenly weak to Fire, although being resistant to all the other elements makes up for it).

Not the ultimate newbie partner, but is okay for random Bufula.

I had the same problem. I'm not sure why. Something tells me it was Vista's UAC making it lock up, because it installed fine after I disabled it.

My name is Haughm.

Played through the tutorial sections. Going to give it a bit longer before I decide what I think.

Started playing last night. Just got the leader fairy and now training it up for the quest.

My name's ArOne.

I've been looking at the tree for the various magics I decided to attempt to pick up. It seems like picking up Curative really is a waste, at least to go all out in it, since the demons really can do it much better. Most likely will just stop at Media or so because area heal is nice.

Seems like Destruction Magic kind of forces you to either split your path or make one side really strong. It's not too bad when you can eventually make it so the demon you use can make up for what you don't grab, but they would not be able to do it as good as you.

The obvious differences between the elements:

• Flame is the strongest (out of the four elements you have access to that is, Megido still laughs at it)
• Freeze has the longest cooldown and whatnot but longest range and lowest MP cost
• Electric is just Electric lololol
• Force is the quickest but has shortest range and greatest MP cost

Freeze -- Flame -- Electric -- Force -- (Enemy here) in terms of range.

The split is between Flame and Freeze, and Electric and Force. Although it just lets you cast a lower version of the spell twice in succession while increasing the cost (aka when you are at the Agilao and Bufula range, you can cast Agi or Bufu twice in a row) so it might not be that big of a change unless you're having a hard time deciding on the area versions.

Support and Curse appear useless unless you are going to Chain-Expertise a Gun type >_>

I'll still pick up some random buff anyway since the Demon can't do it all.

Oh wait till you get to the late end demons. I died so many times trying to negotiate with them, though for the dialogue in the game was in Japanese which didn't help at all. :tpg:

Current Status~

Disconnecting too much to really advance past the end of episode 1.

Just building up funds so I can upgrade to the best possible armor from Shinjuku Babel and move onward.

Damn, Lace.

1. I knew I saw you when I had to collect those Soul Shards. I figured it was you.
2. Garms are awesome.
3. I have some catching up to do. :(

Yeah when I saw that fellow walk by I told Taco and Karistar "That seems like someone from GFF"

Garms are okay, Brave Garm is awesome since at 25 he gets the area version of Tarukaja, so PATK+ for everyone~

I finally figured out how to raise Curse and Support magic and I feel like an idiot for not noticing it sooner.

Wishing the DC didn't have to have one entry but tabs for all the variations.

I was wondering who you were partied up with as well... Time to go make that first post of mine useful.

Servers are way too unstable to do any dungeon running. Getting kind of annoying.

I just started, character name Barzahd.

I'm lv4 I think and did the first quest after the tutorial (the one with the pixie)

Can someone explain to me how to really contract a demon because I think i did it with luck, All I did is hitting the talk button over and over in hope that she wants to join me. Is that all you need to do?

oh and I think I'll try to be a gunner, is there a place where I can get a decent gun at the starting area or I still need to wait before trying to find one?

That's basically all you need to do to contract demons. Talk to them until it works. Weakening them helps occasionally as well.

Any form of damage actually lowers the chance of negotiations working. This is not Pokeymans.

There are upgrades to Talk later on that skip all the fluff and go straight to one of the 5 end results, but they cost something (like 1000 Macca, or 1000 Magnetite).

Having problems even getting on the server, started to make character and then disconnect.

=[

Well guys, this IS a closed beta. Its to be expected (But no less annoying).

Inhert: Just go to the weapon's shop. They have various guns, at different prices. When you start getting more and more money, you can upgrade.

:(

Well, I managed to get a Cait Sith that way... :gonk:

Still at level 10... Partying up with a friend on the Backloggery... Trying to finish Chapter 1 - Act 3.

They took down the servers because the GM team has been pulling an allnighter to try to figure out what is going on.

They think they have it down now so they put their engineers to work on it.

Apparently they fixed whatever the issue was, because now they're open again.

Apparently it was a lag issue with the servers... After I logged back on, I did notice a huge difference.

Finally hit level 15... Now I just gotta get a demon up to level 12. <_<

I am working on a project to make the ultimate Jack Frost.

Well it probably won't be the ultimate since this is a Beta so I do not feel like getting all the ultimate skills knowing a wipe will eventually roll our way but anyway I'm trying to see what I can and cannot pass on.

Hoping my Jack Frost will Inherit:

• Hama
• Agi
• Zionga
• Dormina
• Media
• Fierce Counter (Does it learn this? I dunno!)

Sad thing is, I know at least half of those do work, even at the higher ends because there are a few players on JP server who trot around with Jack Frost builds like that. I wanted to pass on Agilao but the only thing I have available that would get it won't get it til 73, so forget that.

Now to get hit by Expel / Fire / Electric / Mind / Cure 99999 times to learn them (before I attempt to make a Jack Frost and inevitably fail, hard)!

Are there any user-made Fusion charts up? I'm pretty sure some of the Japanese players made something, but it would all in moon-speak and I don't have the patience to try and translate.

Otherwise, I guess I could make one via Trial-and-Error, tack it all in a Spreadsheet, and fix it up for a .PDF or something.

I've seen a few pictures on the aeriagames forum, by one of the people who helped AeriaGames translate stuff for the closed beta.

JP wiki has a giant table in a spreadsheet format, the problem is figuring out what all the English names for the families are. Also figuring out how to organize what exactly you would get since it's based on the sum of their levels.

Then you factor in the Elementals which force the families to either go UP or DOWN a level due to their erratic nature. Something about their instabilities resulting from combining the same family causing them to force evolutions or de-evolutions in certain families.

I'm guessing for me, since I'm kind of fucked:

Harthor + Nozuch = Pyro Jack (I already tested to see what I would get, 18+14 [default levels] falls within the range of Pyro Jack).

Pyro Jack + Aeros (Fairy x Fairy) = High Pixie
High Pixie + Aeros = Jack Frost

The problem is hoping the skills I want to Inherit will keep passing down along the line.

Well I was talking something simple like just what combos give out other monsters.
I'll leave all the Elemental + Skills Sets + etc., to other, more HARDCORE MegaTen fans.

As far as the English to Japanese or whatever, I dunno, I'm just going by what they're called in the CB.

However for myself, I've gotten the following so far:
Kodoma + Lost Hua Bo = Earthys
Cait Sith + Leader Pixie = Angel
Angel + Inugami = Shiishaa

If no one else wants so, I guess I can whip something up later (Or we can be like the 90s and Collaborate).

Well, here's a list of all the registered Families in Shin Megami Tensei: IMAGINE (according to MegaTen Wiki), which is what I think they are using in the AeriaGames translation:



Here are the fusion tables I've seen as made by Shandrakor over at AeriaGames(only a few families covered):



Level Range is the combined levels of the two demons used in the fusion. Fall within that range and you should get the demon listed. That was kind of translated a while back though and the Japanese sites have a much more intensive (but still a guess in some cases) chart for the level ranges.

I'm trying to keep my head about in the stupid giant table but it's kind of annoying since they use one symbol for everything, and 39x39=massive text of death

Egh... on second thought that sounds like too much work for me. x_x

But thanks for the info. At least now I have something general to go by.

Well, the generic double fusion chart lists only 33 of the 38. Some of them must not have been charted (and one is elemental so it doesn't count), but I'll do my best anyway working on this table thing here.

I noticed the translations are a little different (like, Snake is what this game uses as Dragon Lord or whatever) but it will have to make due, if it even makes sense.

Is it nromal that I don't understand at all those chart?

I would really like to understand it because for now all I did was pure trial and errors...

Fusion Combinations are what make up that particular little group.

Let's go with the Goddess one for example (since I am most familiar with it due to 3849348934 fusions).

You can take Angel (called Divine in the game I believe), and a Fairy to make this fusion, or one of the other types of combinations listed in the picture.

Angel is comprised of all the things in that one image that had Angel on it (Angel, Archangel, so on and so forth), and Fairy is Pixie, Jack Frost, High Pixie, Pyro Jack, you get the idea.

Let's say you take Angel, and Jack Frost. Add their levels (if you use defaults it will be 11 and 11) and you get 22. Harthor's level range is 13~35, so that particular combination (at default levels, that is) will yield a Lv18 Harthor. Now if you used ArchAngel and Pyro Jack (17 and 20) you get 37, which will give you Ameno-Uzume (who comes at Lv24). You could get the same result if you leveled your Angel from 11 to 26, since then that Angel + Jack Frost would give 37.

It's kind of annoying to chart it all out, but basically a certain combination will always yield from a specific family (Divine + Fairy will ALWAYS give from the Goddess), but what you get will be based on the levels used. Variations on demons can contribute to this since they come at either a higher or lower level than the normal

EDIT: I have no clue how useful these are but I made the table.

Double Fusion

It was kind of a rough Find/Replace fest so there might be a few screw ups here and there compared to the original chart (which used shortened forms of everything so it was harder to piece together)

The Megaten Wiki has a list of all the demons in the game it seems, so I guess you could look there to see what demons fall in what.

IMAGINE Demonic Compendium

oh now I understand the level range and all. Thanks Lacerta this was really helpfull. I didn't know that the same demons together could yield different results base on their level range.

and thanks for that chart too, it will be very usefull :)

reach lv 13 today, game is pretty fun, but I'm struggling to get some good demon, for now I manage to do an angel but she seems weak and cost way to many magnetite to summon... anyway I had to sacrifice her for the act4 I think.

I found out that I could fusion an High Pixie, which seem great but I'm not high lv enough yet.

You guys have any good suggestion in term of demons?

The Shiishaa is pretty good, especially against those annoying Cait Siths, I've got that and its lvl 20. The Angel was really good for Healing, but offensively it was pretty piss-poor, so I had no qualms about fusing it.

Oh and for the Act 4 Sacrifice, you could have just captured a Cu Sith and tossed it in there, that's what I did. Most recently I got to lvl 20 thanks to some Teaming up and I'm almost to Act 5 now.

I just started my character and am getting ready to start playing.

Character Name - Lyth

That's why it's a good thing to invest a bit as a gunner. :)
You'd be surprised at the different demons that are weak to gunfire, where Cait Siths are one of them.

At the tutorial level it says i need to do a Rush Attack, How the hell am i supposed to do that. "Just rush"

you have 3 basic attacks in your hotkeys(if not you can look for it in your skills and drag it to your hotkeys) as default most likely one of them is rush, first, it charges for a little bit then it's like you lunge past the monster and hit them for a bit more than normal damage, this breaks the defense skill and can be comboed with normal attacks or a spin right after to finish it off.

Just to give an update on things, but the game has now turned into Open Beta status.

Meaning if you were playing earlier, you're stuff is gone now. However this time around, your stuff will be saved, so think carefully what you want to do this time around. :)

I may actually start up a character now that it's in Open Beta. Closed started in the middle of final exams, and then I really didn't feel like putting effort into something that would be deleted after a few weeks.

I remember almost two years ago when the Japanese open beta was ending I said this would never come to the US so I kept playing it even though I didn't understand a god damn thing. Now that it's finally come I can't bring myself to play it anymore. A lot of the stuff has not been implemented yet, you can even see parts on the maps where a path leading to a new area/dungeon will open eventually. It's too bad because this is probably one of the few MMOs I've really liked.

Edit: I spoke too soon, now I'm hooked again. Aeria Games still need to fix a lot of things, though.

Demon List
 

Does anyone know where to find a working list of demons? I can't figure out which demons respond well to various techniques, and it's getting frustrating. :mad: