The best things in life are free, or so we were told by famous people as we were growing up. Sadly, this fact of life has failed to be proven true. Maybe it alluded to love and relationships, but who really knows. I was in love once, but it was not with any person. I was playing a free MMO until it was yanked away from me by the devilish compaeriany that published it.
Now, I am not a spiteful person, so I would have been okay with this situation if I had been given some warning ahead of time that I might be losing my game. In my past experience with free to play publishers, there was immense amounts of communication. They knew that it was important to communicate with their paying customers. Oh yes, I paid almost one thousand dollars over four months playing a free game. What kind of gratitude did I receive? Nothing at all. I was rewarded with weeks of no maintenance and an unannounced server shutdown to remove the item mall. Why was this unnancounced?
Because the publisher was in a rush to cover its tracks because someone leaked the information that they were planning a server shut down. In fact, they had been planning this discontinuation for over three weeks, but they did not tell any of the players, so everyone continued to spend their hard earned money. Was this beneficial for anyone? No it was not. The entire community of this game has been in an uproar for weeks, and now the publisher rewards them with false information in a poor attempt to cover up their scandal.
In fact, numerous employees of this company have publically admitted that they were forced to lie and cheat out honest people from their money. This comes as no surprise to me as such a shadily run company tries to cover its tracks. Would you like to hear what they did on the day that they forced everyone out of the servers because they had a leak?
Those of us who wished to spread the word began to post in numerous forums about the appalling behavior of this publisher. What did the publisher do? They found ways to get ALL of the posts removed in order to restore order. This to me does not sound like something a company should do just to avoid bad press. Sure maybe a fortune 500 should, but not a measly game publisher. In the end, cowardice to face scrutiny is what doomed this company.

Hello, all you happy people.

The Bluntasaur has returned to The Orange Comet.

As you may or may not already know, I’ve quit Pangya

Read all the gory details here.

Anywho, now that I’m taking a semi-permanant vacation from Pangya, I’ve moved on to other things.  Which are as follows……

I’ve started playing Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online after an extended hiatus.  (An old friend of mine hooked me up with a new clan that’s turning out to be awesome)

I’ve started playing Persona 3 on PS2 again.  I’m still pretty early in the game, but it’s got me hooked.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

Working my way through Kamen Rider Kiva.  (Awesome series, BTW.  Go check it out if you have a chance)  I’ve almost finished the second disk, and the story’s REALLY starting to get GOOD.

Catching up on Sugar Sugar Rune.  It’s an anime I discovered by accident at a con one year, and I like it.

And of course, getting back into Pokémon!

And a quick list of stuff I’m doing that don’t really need their own pictures……

*Following current tokusatsu series

*Playing PBR and Super Swing Golf on my Wii

*Checking out some of the new anime coming out this year to see if it’s worth my time.

*Hoping to eventually start writing my fanfic again.

So, that’s everything in a nutshell.  Make sure to come back and visit often.  I’ll have a LOT to talk about.

P.S.; I know about the latest event in Pangya.  Just so you all know now, I’ll be logging in to get my yams and my cards, and THAT’S IT.  I won’t be going into the lobby or playing or anything, and I won’t be logged on for more than five minutes.

]]> http://exploringwar.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/shin-megami-tensei-one-year-old/ Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:14:59 +0000 warhammermer http://exploringwar.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/shin-megami-tensei-one-year-old/

They are giving some extra XP for the celebration.

3x Experience Period:
START: Jan. 16, 2010 @ 8am PST (5pm GMT)
END: Jan. 17th, 2010 @ 8am PST (5pm GMT)

2x Expertise Period:
START: Jan. 16th, 2010 @ 10am PST (7pm GMT)
END: Jan. 17th, 2010 @ 10am PST (7pm GMT)

You also can get a free new demon Joyful Alice.

The unsurpassed things in lifetime are available, or so we were told by famous grouping as we were development up. Sadly, this fact of sprightliness has failed to be proven truthful. Maybe it alluded to copulate and relationships, but who truly knows. I was in know erst, but it was not with any someone. I was activity a unconfined MMO until it was yanked forth from me by the playful accompany that publicized it.
Now, I am not a spiteful being, so I would jazz been alright with this state if I had been supposal any warning foshaiyarward of dimension that I power be losing my fearless. In my ago participate with loose to measure publishers, there was brobdingnagian amounts of act. They knew that it was strategic to convey with their salaried customers. Oh yes, I salaried virtually one cardinal dollars over figure months activity a unfixed gallinacean. What sort of gratitude did I compre
Because the {publisher was in a displace to enclothe its tracks because someone leaked the info that they were intellection a computer prevent kill. In fact, they had been intellection this ending for over triplet weeks, but they did not archer any of the players, so everyone continuing to spend their difficult attained money. Was this healthful for anyone? No it was not. The intact accord of this business has been in an uproar for weeks, and now the owner rewards them with pretended info in a slummy endeavor to meet up their trouble.
In fact, numerous employees of this band make publically admitted that they were unscheduled to lie and chouse out downright group from their money. This comes as no assail to me as much a shadily run accompany tries to contact its tracks. Would you equivalent to focus what they did on the day that they forced everyone out of the servers because they had a disclosure?
Those of us who wished to distribute the evince began to call in numerous forums nigh the appalling activity of this proprietor. What did the house do? They recovered shipway to get ALL of the posts separate in impose to alter prescript. This to me does not enunciate like something a assort should do conscionable to desist bad counsel. Careful maybe a fortune 500 should, but not a meagerly game firm. In the end, cowardice to braving scrutiny is what sure this circle.

The primo things in sentence are supply, or so we were told by famous people as we were healthy up. Sadly, this fact of sentence has unsuccessful to be proven avowedly. Maybe it alluded to enjoy and relationships, but who really knows. I was in sex formerly, but it was not with any person. I was playing a loose MMO until it was yanked forth from me by the devilish traeria gamesoupe that published it.
Now, I am not a spiteful organism, so I would person been okay with this place if I had been assumption several warning forward of dimension that I might be losing my gallinacean. In my then have with clear to modification publishers, there was immense amounts of connexion. They knew that it was useful to pass with their remunerative customers. Oh yes, I remunerated near one chiliad dollars over quadruplet months activity a extricated job. What benignant of gratitude did I receive was in a hie to guarantee its tracks because someone leaked the assemblage that they were thought a server prevent plume. In fact, they had been thinking this discontinuation for over troika weeks, but they did not swan any of the players, so everyone continued to pass their marmorean attained money. Was this healthful for anyone? No it was not. The entire dominion of this brave has been in an brouhaha for weeks, and now the house rewards them with artificial message in a unfruitful endeavour to handle up their outrage.
In fact, numerous employees of this companion eff publically admitted that they were unnatural to lie and trickster out straight people from their money. This comes as no assail to me as such a shadily run assort tries to concealing its tracks. Would you suchlike to examine what they did on the day that they unnatural everyone out of the servers because they had a discharge?
Those of us who wished to travel the show began to stake in numerous forums most the appalling doings of this house. What did the firm do? They pioneer slipway to get ALL of the posts distant in organisation to rejuvenate status. This to me does not fit same something a organization should do meet to avoid bad count. Reliable maybe a chance 500 should, but not a miserable mettlesome house. In the end, spirit to braving investigating is what unfortunate this consort.

Woot! Major Megaten Day

I went up 5 levels, all in Suginami Tunnel Gold runs, thanks to the NDP and x2 Exp event! Woot!

Mum and I were going to go shopping…but she got caught up in the garden an I, on megaten. Wow, I’m a gamer girl!

I shall now show you my stats.. That I can remember:

IGN: – (I don’t want in game stalkers)
Stats (from memory): STR: 23
Magic: 10
Speed: 28
INT: 31
Luck: can’t remember LOL
Class: Gunner (Soon to be Enhancer/Gunner)
Level: 34
Clan: -

Woot! I think I’m doing pretty good so far, hopefully I’ll be able to get on tomorrow quicky and level up more <3

I'm really relaxed these holidays, I think it's because I haven't seen anyone, just me. I feel looser, heaps better.

God, I tense up just thinking of just how much Im going to stress out when I start seeing my friends again.

Ugh. I hate the thought already.

Oh! I got my report as well.

English: D
Society and Environment: A
Math: B
Science: B
Art: A
Digital Photography: A
Japanese: B
Health: B
Sport: C

All in all a pretty god report. Ignoring English, since my English teacher is a total fuck, who looses my assignments. -.-

Sigh.

I managed to bring my Science up from semester 2 as well, which is megaly awesome. I was also pleasently surprised with my math grade. Since on my last test I got 28%. I can't help but wonder if my teacher just took pity on me, but oh well.

Heh I have megaten on my mind again!

I hope that the x2 + NDP is still on after my shower tomorrow. It will be awesome if I get to lvl 40 though I may be pushing my luck, men, a bitch can hope.

Forty, forty, forty

Another repost of something that’s gone missing over at MMO Hub. This impressions piece on MegaTen went up in June 2009 and presented here is a minimally edited version for portfolio purposes and your amusement.

Maybe it isn’t the best thing to admit off the bat, but it’s been a while since I played a massively multiplayer online game. Well, unless you count the MMO I played this week which I’m going to talk about, or the fairly obscure Football Manager Live, which I played earlier this year. The last real MMO I played was World of Warcraft ­– just to be different. The last time my level 62 blood elf mage saw the light of Azerothian day was in October 2007. After a year of WoW and a similar amount of time in Everquest II, I had to break free of the MMO genre. It wasn’t that I was addicted to WoW – I was still eating, sleeping, and venturing outdoors on special occasions – but more that I’d stopped playing other video games – an issue for a guy planning to write about them for a living. It’s the easier option to dedicate oneself to just one game, and MMOs try hardest of all to be that one game. So, for right or wrong, whether weak or strong, 18 months ago I said goodbye to WoW and MMOs, unsure of whether I would ever make my return.

Yet here I am. The reality is that I’ve missed MMOs. I’ve longed for the expanse, the freedom, and the community that comes with a well-made MMO – well, maybe not all of the community. Still, the MMO genre is gaming’s most exciting area regards future developments. The console market remains untapped by them, the potential for diverse and new experiences in them is staggering, and even now there are MMOs on offer that are do distinctive and exclusive, if not yet perfected.

Also, I love playing as female characters and dressing them up in sexy gear. Maybe that’s another thing I shouldn’t admit so readily.

The game I’ve been playing this week is Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online (aka MegaTen), and those experienced with the Shin Megami Tensei series will not be surprised to learn that as such, there’ll be more on sexily-clad girls in this piece. First, though: why MegaTen? Well, the hope was that it would aid my transition into MMOS, mainly because I’ve recently been playing Japanese role-playing games like Disgaea 3 and Lost Odyssey. The theory was that a Japanese MMORPG set in the Shin Megami Tensei J-RPG universe would act as a bridge back to MMOs. This actually proved to be apt, even if it didn’t necessarily seem so at first.

MegaTen is set in 202X, a familiar future in which numbers are replaced by letters. Somehow unsurprisingly, MegaTen’s world is post-apocalyptic, one where Earth has been overrun by demons. This was all explained in the introductory video and when that ended I was thrown into the tutorial. Apparently, I was taking up the role of Trainee Demon Buster in this bleak, desolate world, with the long corridors of a dangerous concrete site known as Home II awaiting me. This, with the jarring complement of vibrant anime characters on display, was making MegaTen feel like Final Fantasy VII, which was a good thing. Sadly, the opening proved not to be quite as epic as FFVII’s was.

While it attempted to throw me straight into the action, and basic commands were explained fairly well, the drab, grey walls of the lifeless Home II, and the meager exposition on offer, did nothing to create any immediate atmosphere. And let’s face it, MMOs are all about atmosphere; a player needs to want to be within a game world. MegaTen had not gotten off to the best of starts.

When the tutorial ended, I was picked out of Home II’s lifeless grey and placed in the bright sophistication of Home III. Instantly, it reminded of a futuristic shopping centre, except Japanimated – which might be the same thing. It turned out Home III was my new actual Home. Fair enough, then. I mean, it wasn’t really explained why I was suddenly in Home III, but I was just happy to be out of the grey and into something more vibrant and welcoming. Even better, I was led to a second, more elaborate combat tutorial that was presented in a much better fashion.  

MegaTen’s diverse attack system was introduced and its chain attacks proved to be good fun to pull off. Interestingly, different enemies required different tactics right off the bad, something that even World of Warcraft’s infant hours can’t boast of. Even more fundamental to a MMO’s success than atmosphere is the depth of combat and early indications suggested that in this department MegaTen is wealthy enough to please.  

Soon afterwards, I was introduced to the demons – you know, as implied by the Demon Buster thing. What’s cool about the demons is that as well as defeating them, you can in some cases befriend and become allies with them too, similar to the pets Hunters acquire in WoW. Having said that, someone you meet in Home III asks you to collect a demon compendium, does that remind anyone else of certain catch-‘em-all pika-pika franchise? Not that that’s a bad thing, since I’ve been screaming my lungs out for a Pokémon MMO for quite some time. It appears MegaTen could be it. Players even have six slots for their demons. And there’s a Pikachu demon! Ok, there isn’t a Pikachu demon…

As I wandered around Home III, I realized that my Final Fantasy VII comparison was only apt for the external world. The better comparison for the campus vibe would be Final Fantasy VIII and the Persona games. While the Demon Busters are more like soldiers than college students, the youthful atmosphere of FF VIII is definitely there. Everyone is young, sexy and going about in trendy Japanese clothes. Plus, I even overheard two players talking about upcoming Demon buster exams.

So, with elements form Final Fantasy, Persona and Pokémon, it’s clear that the developers had the Japanese console market in mind for MegaTen, no doubt hoping to lure existing SMT fans. Even one of the early outfits you can purchase resembles a fashionable, feminine take on a certain Nintendo icon. Yes, very sexy indeed, but not the first thing to give me confusing thoughts about a girl dressed up as Link. It’s normal for me to think she looks hot dressed like that, right?

Busty babes really do work well in advertising...

Sheesh… I know I promised to update from time to time but I’ve been really busy with work and other stuff that I almost forgot about the existence of this blog. Aaaanyway, I’m still waiting for Runes of Magic PH to go live so I’ve been playing other games to pass the time. What games, you ask? Well, for the PSP there’s Persona 3 Portable and Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2. Both are in Japanese so it can be quite frustrating especially with all the kanji. I’m thinking of buying Dragon Age Origins for the PC but I’ll do that after I upgrade my hardware this month (hopefully).

Speaking of P3P, I’m not sure if most people know this but I’m pretty OC (look it up if you don’t know what that means) with games, especially in RPGs. It’s not really required but I reaaaaally wanted to max out all social links on the first round (I mean without new game+). Since they adjusted the event dates for the PSP version, I also have to plan out my actions to keep up with it. And with the game in Japanese, well, you get the picture. Frustrating, really. I was left looking for my Persona fix. Which leads us to…

Me, my Lilim, and some Lawful Demon Buster...

Shin Megami Tensei – IMAGINE. It has been months since I last played the game and man, was I pleased with the updated content (though it’s not much). I last played the game after grinding skills to get around Class 4 Enhancement and that left me with almost maxed skill points and a really low level (level 9). Bad idea. I was in the game without friends and only a support character at hand. So what did I do? I deleted the character. Yes. After so many hours, no…DAYS of grinding, I clicked the delete button without thinking twice. I created a new one instead with Magic Bullet and Sharpshooter in mind so I can get off to a quick start.

Like I said, I was pretty pleased with how the game turned out. There were chained tutorial quests that gave a decent amount of experience and found several repeatable ones I could do while walking around the field. Great. I was having trouble trying to recall how the gameplay works but I’m now back to being able to control both my character and send commands to my demon to ensure I don’t get hit at all. Nice. Now I’m level 25, soloing Silver runs in Suginami Tunnels, and still working on several skills like Talk and Demonology. What I do need right now are suggestions on what demons to take with me. I guess that’ll be something I could think about for the next few days.

It really feels good watching this scene...especially after dying so many times from accidentally pulling all the Cait Sith to your respawn point...

Unfortunately I have already forgotten what categories I set aside for myself to review games by earlier in this blog. So I’m just going to tell you what I think and really, I just made up those categories to bash on FF12.

Shin Megami Tensei if you don’t know is a basically a franchise that is equivalent to demonic god killing pokemon. Typical aspects of the series is collecting/turning into demons (demons that can be anything from Beelzebub to Odin to Vishnu to Metatron), reshaping the world per your character’s choices, and beating up God and/or Lucifer. The series was pretty much born on the controversial side of life and typically has fantastic, thoroughly thought out writing. That said, not all the entries are particularly good.

Devil Survivor I love. Its not for everyone but it is a fantastic game. I have NEVER been this addicted to a handheld game. Oh sure I own plenty of them but most have weak stories with overly simple game mechanics.

The story for Devil Survivor is great, primarily because of all the well done characterization. The story, however, doesn’t really take off until the third day. The first 3 days are all setup and an introduction to an SMT universe. I’m also pretty the brainstorming for this project went something like, “I just saw Battle Royale, lets do that in an SMT universe!” The game is filled with a number of characters, most of whom you can have in your party. The trick is they all have different philosophies on how to solve the game’s crisis and will only help you so much as to attain their goals.

A quick summary of the game’s plot: The government in an attempt to trap a religious sect that summons demons known as the Shomonkai, places a quarantine over a section of Tokyo. The main character and his friends get caught up in the mess by finding demon summoning “COMPs” (which look suspiciously like Nintendo DS’s). Its up to you whether to stay or run.

Gameplay wise this is probably the easiest SMT game I’ve ever played. You fuse demons or buy them at a demon auction. You can only fuse demons up to whatever your main character’s level is. Skills/Magic can be learned by “Skill Cracking”, which translates to: this demon has the skill you want this character to have, so have that character kill it.

The fighting takes place only on a tactics RPG style field of squares. There are a variety of movement skills which make this aspect pretty interesting. Whenever you attack an enemy the fight transitions to a traditional style turn based RPG forum, with your character and their two demons versus three enemies. Getting criticals or hitting the enemies weakness earn characters an extra attack while missing or hitting an enemy with an element it is immune to can lose your character their extra attack. Four characters with their demons can be on the field at once.

The graphics is really where this game gets its bad marks. While all the images are stylized like in the Persona series, there are little to no animations. It was really quite a baffling thing when I realized this a week or two ago. But at the same time, it is a Nintendo DS game. And Nintendo hasn’t been known for their wonderful graphics since the Gamecube (the Gamecube being the technical best designed last gen system).

The music for the game is surprisingly enjoyable. I typically keep the volume knob down on my DS but on this game I find myself turning it up on occasion.

Overall, if you like turn based RPG’s, heavy philosophy and characterization, and own a DS, then go buy this game. If you don’t own a DS…. well there really aren’t that many great games for the DS this one just might make it worth owning one.

A imagem dessa semana é de um wallpaper do remake de um game muito bom: Persona.

Quem já jogou algum game da série Shin Megami Tensei ( MegaTen), sabe que são jogos muito bem feitos e com histórias envolventes, tanto quanto arrepiantes.

Mais a frente, prentendo fazer um post falando sobre Megaten.

If you are looking for the events guide for the MegaTen Halloween Spectacular its on the general forum.

The comic strip competition has already a lot of entry’s up. I was reading some of them.

I’m not interested in the fusing competition, however if you are interested it runs to the 30th.

Also take a look at the in game costume entries. Very cool.