[GAME TITLE] Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online
[GENRE] MMORPG
[PUBLISHER] Aeria Games
[DEVELOPER] CAVE
[PLATFORM] PC
[RELEASE DATE] 2009

Shin Megami Tensei Online recently hit the closed beta stage and I was given the honor of testing it out myself and must say, it is good. The long-awaited title is the latest in the Shin Megami Tensei series. It is not only online, but it’s free-to-play also. U.S publishing is being handled by Aeria Games, and they are being very careful not to mess anything up, since this is Atlus’ biggest series. From the second I started up the game I could see a large amount of work was put into translating, there was barely any ‘Engrish’ at all, and as soon as someone found one Aeria went and patched it, excellent work on their side. Aeria is definitely working on making the game as good as it can possibly be before it is released, especially since they expect this game to be their flagship title. Judging by the amount of users who log on everyday, I would agree with them. But enough about Aeria’s hard work, lets get to CAVE’s work.

This Shin Megami Tensei is just like the ones before it; you fight demons, you kill them, or you can talk to, and recruit, them. The game boasts over 200 demons, there are an overwhelming amount of demons, but each of them are revealed at a pace slow enough for you to remember them, and how easily they can kick your buttocks. Luckily recruiting demons helps you not get your butt kicked. To recruit a demon all you have to do is simply talk to him/her/it a few times, and they’ll either want to kill you, leave, give you a present, or turn into an egg that you pick up, making them part of your party, yes, just like Pokemon. You can also receive demons through the story missions, called acts, which do contain unvoiced cut scenes. The only issue with the demons received through the missions is that they are too strong at first, but at around level 20 the demon that was stronger than the rest before, is the worst one to have, leaving you horribly unprepared for what comes ahead, and scrambling for a new partner.