So will you be online and playing SMT when Conficker/Downandup virus supposedly hits?

I've been debating this last night as I reread multiple warning e-mails from friends as to whether I should log on at midnight tonight as April Fool's looms closer to the countdown kicks off on this supposedly massive and potently harmful virus will begin.

I say supposedly since electronic doomsayers say it's affected 10 to 12 million computers and even Microsoft themselves have offered a quarter of a million dollars to anti-hackers and independent computer tech teams to stop this virus.

But this is not the first time it's happened. 5 years ago in 2004 a similar even took place with the Mydoom worm virus. The virus' primary role was to simply infect millions of computers and all start attacking sco.com and microsoft.com by having them all log on to their respective sites and pretty much cause traffic bandwidth overload. And of course all premeditated attacks against the said companies in protest.

This new gem that's been gradually and discreetly "worm"-ing it's way (pardon the pun) into our computers since 2008 according to the experts is a quite nasty piece of work. Version A (yes this bugger has 3 versions of itself) embeds and copies itself by exploiting a vulnerability in Windows Server Service and acts like a harmless background service application. Version B will attach itself to Admin access points and copies itself over a network. And version B will infect removable media like USB's and use the Autorun feature to upload itself in another computer.

And the supposed initial result when April Fool's kicks in:
-Resets System Restore Points
-Disables important Windows system services like Windows Automatic update/error reporting, Windows Defender and Windows Security Center
-Prevents access to antivirus sites
-Account lockout being reset
-Large amount of traffic on LAN's

Well that's a lot of info to summarize, but if you're interested in more and take on preventative measures here's a wiki link that's keeping tabs on the current situation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker

As for me, I'm still double checking my laptop and hopefully find myself worm free and be able to enjoy Megaten later after the initial virus launch. Good luck all and start checking your computers.

Hardcore Gaming101. Guys that know their old school with new school flair

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/

Why I posted these guys? They have a very concise and in-depth article on the ORIGINAL SMT 1 & 2. Plus they explain the differences between SMT's spin-offs and other SMT related stuff. Once you get your fill, you can also read other articles of classic and last gen gaming to the obscure and sometimes under appreciated Japanese titles. Happy reading!

A great place for scans of SMT and more

http://www.dokuganryu.com/

Great visual resource for SMT and other scans from games, anime and manga. Be nice to these folks when you request and ask their permission before using these images they have so generously scanned.

The joys of a wireless on the go connection

Doing this little post during my break at work via that little wonderful wireless device I just bought from my ISP. Anyways I've included a third set of links that may be of use to you guys.

http://finella.nemissa.info/

She's the closest you can get when it comes to a more concise and unbiased view of the Japanese version of Megaten (which has been sorely lacking lately due to the lack of content and the developers reneging on their promises) Despite her infamy with certain players who constantly troll her blog, I tend to believe her opinions and outlook on Megaten more than most self-proclaimed "experts".

I'll also be adding more resources to all you aspiring and veteran DB players, but now I gotta get back to work.

Another random moment Caramelldansen with a Megaten twist

Sadly no Imagine version so enjoy a P3 version. Got this silly song in my head a few hours ago when I went out with a few friends today and her player had this song on a drive to an all-you-can-eat buffet. I enjoyed this more than eating subpar buffet food XD

Finished Act 16 and displaying the spoils of war

Well not exactly...Just stuff earned by doing the story and the trophy from Ogami, her Kotetsu II.

To mark this event for myself, I've put on Kuroe's cracked FMD Snipe, Snakeman's COMP and bringing out the ever trusty Cerberus.

(Yeah yeah, I know y'all know I'm a Gunner, but I'll be stowing these away as memorabilia in storage anyways XD)

Thanks to mog, Emmer, Crius and Hyato for tagging along. Looking forward to doing more Acts and Demon Busting in future patches (and hopefully Chapters) in SMT: Imagine

Why new players should never skip tutorials

I guess this is a semi-rant. But it's a valid rant nonetheless...

We all hate tutorials. Especially when creating a new character and having to go through all the rigmarole of "learning" all too familiar game mechanics. But it has it's advantages, and in SMT Imagine it's no exception.

Tonight instead of lying down for sleep after helping several clanmates finish acts and getting some bonus EXP for the time, I decided to hop on my unlisted alt and just care/mooch off my nakama. As I was about to log off the SHOUT box flared, and decided to check it out. A new player was pleading for help and was vastly ignored with some occasional flaming due to his "noobish"-ness. And as my fatigued mind and neck was screaming for the comfort of a pillow, I decided to help.

Thus started an hour and a half of pretty much reiterating what Snakeman would normally teach you...but this fella just decided to run for the exit and ignore Snakeman and the VB Girl in favor of bludgeoning passive Hua Po's till he got taken down by the more aggressive occasional spawns of an Inexperienced Orthus and Cait Sith's prowling around.

So pretty much I verbally (but nicely) dragged him back to the VB Room after resurrecting his pixel corpse outside Home 3 and told him do the training again. He/she whines that there's no point since he's already done Act Zero, wherein I explicitly explained he was wrong and there are benefits for doing so,and still insisted on him doing the VB Training.

15 mins later he had some macca to buy some gear and starting magnetite courtesy of the training, I provided some meager hand-me-downs and proceeded to show the more subtle complexities of SMT. Expounding more sagely advice in our Party chat and helping them up to Act 3, I bid farewell to the new Licence-less DB and added another name to an ever growing Friends list.

Granted this is probably a normal reaction for the vast majority of the more experienced players to help out, but the slim fraction out there don't tend to bother to be helpful. And this sometimes detract from a new player's experience in enjoying SMT. But it's also a new players perogative to just take in a few minutes to explore and speak with NPC's and check their Quest Logs and also to be respectful and not spam the Shout chat with inane questions or beg for items and not show any appreciation. But it's a quite common aspect in all MMO's for most newcomers. It's all just the matter for most us to be patient (unless they're real jerks that don't warrant any attention/help).

Thankfully this player wasn't. And the last thing he asked was:

*player name withheld for privacy*
"Thanks for the help. How can I pay you back for the time you spent?"

Me:
"Just do the same thing I did for you. Remember, we were all noobs once. It's the attitude that will separate you from a good player or an elitist noob."

Now where's my pillow...

Giving some recognition to my clanmates (and random players)

I've decided to post some bi-monthly recognition to online clanmates and friends, because SMT: Imagine can never be a fun game without them around (that excludes plasma farming)

Anyways say hello to Jakell, because of his epic look as an Arcadian Temple Knight and his kick ass nakama Ubelluris. And Jake's quite handy with his REALLY big drill when mowing down mobs in Suginami XD

So to encourage interaction with the Megaten community just send me a PM in game and post a comment/message for you screenie link of your in game character and partner and why you're so awesome. Easy enough ne?

And another random moment

Well not really, it was brought to my attention by a fellow friend. It combines two of several of my personality quirks: Cuteness and violence. All courtesy from the Land of the Rising Sun XD




Big credit to Lomgrey(Big Steve) for bringing this to my attention!

AP Items and some insight to their future

Undoubtedly AP items are the crème de la crème of status in SMT.

Due to all the items' exclusiveness and such they are highly prized and traded for high sums of macca or other important items from those who are AP-less. But how far can such a trend go for these items that serve to keep our beloved Megaten servers working and give visual and in-game distinction of the AP elite from the masses? Read on...

I was reading a Japanese players' blog from a SMT:Imagine fansite and I was very surprised at how far-reaching the consequences (and potential disparity for our version) could cause. With the advent of PvP in the JP version, a lot of the monthly/special event AP items have been used not only for the look, but they also harbor the potential for severe imbalance in PvE and PvP.

Now imagine Synthed/Crafted/Taroted gear slotted with items that grant immunity to most or ALL bad status and/or the ability to critical hit players/monsters with 999 max damage and pretty much make a PvE dungeon run a cakewalk with such gear. Granted it'll take a lot of time, dedication and a dutifully paid off credit card to maintain it, but what the bloggers' complaint was wouldn't this be taking "tweaking" to a whole new level in Megaten?

As I pondered his/her point further and taking in what I could translate roughly I asked myself: How would this be any different from any MMO? I mean most MMO's like the ever omnipresent MMO colossus like WoW, where better gear with experience and competent play style equates to a more "fun" experience (if you're the Min/Max type of player) but then considering that this version of Megaten has already (and progressively) been evolving the current and potential meta for the PvE and PvP aspects of the JP version. Will this potential rift with AP item tweaking polarize the Have's and Have Not camps of players?

The F2P model that both Aeria and Cave uses to promote Megaten to garner player interest may potentially lead to that said polarization. Seeing as how I'm in a position to buy AP soon for myself (and some deserving clanmates) I can forsee this causing a bigger divide soon for other players who can't or not wish to spend their hard earned dough on virtual goods, to me it'll be another inevitable wave of head-butting pretty soon on the community forums once we do get more updates for the N. American version. But for now being the generous Samaritan I am, I'm always more than willing to spread the wealth around (looks at credit bill statement) *sigh*...

When that time does come eventually XD

My favored mount.

People always go on about getting a Unicorn, Bicorn or a Decarabia for mounts. Personally I stick to the ever faithful Cerberus. Not because he's quite easy to farm rings for, but because just like the Jack Bros. he's just as important as the other iconic SMT demons. I fondly remember playing with my cousin on the Famicom and creating him by fusing a dog and a demon, and back then I thought "Damn that was cool! I want a dog like that!" XD

Also being that in most SMT he's always been the the main protagonists loyal sidekick from the novels to the old SMT games. You gotta love and respect that staying power with Cerberus, even though he's highly underrated by new school Megaten fans, an old schooler like me will always have a COMP slot for this big demonic lug.

[megaten] clan Quartz round up aka. more screenshot whoring

The title says it all XD

Crius cosplaying Reno from FF7, Suzu the Queen of Quartz powerleveling, Mobile Suit XxZakuroxX, Snowturtle (again-I swear he's stalking around for a photo-op) Kurumu who is hopelessly lost behind me and Random Mistress of Clan Chat Hari during the 72 hr No DP Event.

Getting cushy with Kushi

After fusing a Coatlicue out of Nandi and contracting a Nozuchi, I managed to transfer all my healer's skill to one of my fave Japanese mythological Goddesses, Kushinada-Hime. Now I'm kinda tempted to go all Chaos and get Susano-O XD

Thanks to Shimura for accompanying me at Shinagawa and donating his Gift Melons to make my Kushi happy.

HOLY COW! (Really it is)

After leveling my magnetite sucking whore Freya (which replaced my Kaichi during a fusion), I got the more cost-effective Nandi from the Holy Beast Tribe. Twice as large as Apis (another cow diety) and a big pain in the ass due to it's distracting size, I'll be looking for another Neutral aligned alternative. But for now...*Tips over Nandi*

And my second random illustration-MY SIG!

I'm an avid lover of cats, and Gundam Plamo. So it was only natural to come up with this random gem from my old sketchbook.

Meet MS18E Kampfer Neko =3

Mew!!!!!

(I know it's not Megaten inspired, so sue me, I'm random that way)

A Megaten inspired piece a while back.

It's been a while since I drew. I just started getting back into it after seeing all the art contests in the Aeria forums. Probably once I finish some extra stuff I'm doing on the side I'll post more.

This piece was inspired by my cardinal horoscope, the Earth Dragon. I started a thread back then making custom astrological illustrations with a Megaten twist. Enjoy.

If you want an illustration request in the comment section, and pay in macca! (or AP items =3 )

Fear Team Argama!

Wanting in on a photo-op with a fellow Argama user, me and Snowturtle decided to pair up.

We're such screenshot whores XD

Finally got my Argama Suit!

Home III Sentai! Devil Buster!! Kenzan!!!

May not be as fancy as most of the faction armors, but it's at least durable and suffers no penalties.

After 3 months of screaming silent profanities at the Souhanzan Snacks Salesman my patience was rewarded with the last Mitama Card I needed to complete the set to turn in to the Gaian Card Collector.

Pity it doesn't have a nice helmet to go with it (and I refuse to buy an Aello Helmet, it just doesn't look good to me XD)

Will the real [megaten] please stand up?

Last night during my Giant Cerberus hunting outing, I saw the "Say" tab on my chat log flashing. Clicking on it I assumed it was a player that probably got ganked nearby Inugami Canyon or One-hit killed by Giant Cerb itself...instead I get a CAPS-locked flurry of incoherent, horribly misspelled profanities and bad grammar. A clanless melee player was targeting his anonymous e-fury on me, accusing my clan for removing him from our roster.

I calmly retorted that he is clearly mistaken, because I have never seen him on our listing. He fell silent for a minute or so, and began apologizing for the mistake realizing our clan tag was spelled differently and was sporting a different clan logo, and went off on his merry way.

Seriously folks, if you're going to point a finger and rag on someone on-line, be prepared first to clarify if you're targetting the right person/organization. Because randomly cussing at a random stranger is not exactly a proper way to endear yourself to the community since you might be alienating yourself from some reasonably nice and helpful people (excluding the jerks and elitists of course)

As for the other clan also called megaten, we've run into a bunch of their members. We've never had any interaction with them other than the random rude comment here and there accusing us of "copying" their clan tag *rolls eyes*

So if any SMT: Imagine players who are reading this blog start verbally abusing/griefing my clan, please look carefully at the clan tag, because you may be pissing off the wrong people who have really done nothing to you to warrant such behaviour.

Say hello to my old friend!

After much pummeling, loss of macca, gems and jewels I finally reacquired the epic tanking abilities of Pa Bil Sag. To celebrate his return I put him through his paces in Ichigaya Gold where epic laughs abound when he pretty much tanked an entire room of Deformed Mamonofu and Qilins...until me and my clanmates decided to tackle the boss room XD

Special thanks to Snowturtle for helping me in Shinagawa. Let's go back there again and get you your Accomplished Archangel friend.

FUSION, FUSION, FUSION!

Welcome to the Cathedral of Shadows where demons congregate...
How may I rip you off of your macca for your fusion today?

-Master of the Cathedral of Shadows-
XD he really doesn't say that folks...

After spending 3 hours trying to remember my damn account/password to my old JP blog...I gave up XD

So I just talked to a couple of my old clanmates on Messenger and pretty much failed to get them to cough up their fusion lists until I found this:

http://129.7.244.30/megaten/

It's a partially concise fusion chart (still missing some more entries) but helpful nonetheless. I'd like to give credit to whomever left this up, so if you're the dilligent soul that happens to read this blog and recognize your handiwork just leave a message comment so credit is given.

Hopefully this helps you other players stumped on some fusions for your unused compendiums, or just to experiment potential fusion chains when you start customizing your demons. But do realize fusion is infinitesimal in regards to combinations so this is not the "uber" fusion list that every Megaten player dreams of. Enjoy.

A new look.

Talking about General Gotou got me nostalgic, so I decided to visit Souhanzan. Checked out the Accessory Store and found a military crew cut. It's probably the closest thing to Gotou's look.

Dashing yes? :p

The canon of where Megaten: Imagine really is. Or is it?...

I've been asked a couple of times by some people who were never familiar with Megaten's story as to where this all originated. Always, a lot of people assume it's another take on the Persona series, but as I point out to their disappointment, it's not.
(Sorry folks NO Metatron or Beelzebub in this one...unless Cave decides to port them)

Players who get treated to the lengthy intro after the Act Zero tutorial may be scratching their heads as to what the relevance of these events are depicted and who are the silhouettes featured in the intro and why are they so important.

*there are slight spoilers here so read at your own risk so don't go flaming me on-line for some revelations*

In the intro, it mentions a freak accident in 199x that involves a teleportation device which brings about demons appearing in the mortal realm. The creator of this particular device is named Steven (the gentleman we saw sitting on a wheelchair). And his relevance? You are looking at the creator of the COMP system that every DB (Devil Buster) player wears on their character. And the teleportation device mentioned is the Terminal System (that revolving pillar in every major town has that is used for teleporting around in most Megaten games)

And you're wondering why he developed it? It was mostly an experiment to help create instantaneous travel between computer networks, but something in the coding caused a rift in the nether-realms or makai. At this time Steven was a perfectly healthy lab tech brainchild of the Terminal system when he and his research team decided to boot up Terminal, until Terminal connected to the makai realm and summoned a demon. That said demon decided to rampage about and pretty much maul Steven leaving him wheelchair bound, and Steven wasn't exactly happy at this grievous misfortune brought upon him, and this was his primary motivation in developing the COMP in the first place. Plus as an added note of trivia, if you can find his artwork, he's clearly a homage to theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

But this particular research didn't go unnoticed, and as you can imagine particular parties were very interested in Terminal. And these parties are the two major factions that are present in SMT: Imagine-The Chaos aligned Gaians and the Law aligned Messians and their respective churches/cities of Arcadia in Shinagawa and Souhanzan in Ueno.

And as most players have dealt with these factions on-line, these two radical parties have been fighting each other even before all the events in the original Megaten as the game implies. Gaians believe that Mother Gaia has been neglected by Mankind and the reappearance of demons are reawakened gods brought out by Mother Gaia to protect itself and hopefully repair the damage caused by man. Messians on the other hand believe in the establishment of The Thousand Year Kingdom, a Paradise created by God or His Chosen and only a select few are privy to this Salvation. In the original Megaten there is prominent character that later gets involved in SMT: Imagine.

*spoiler*

As most players know, the main antagonist in SMT:Imagine is the deadly ex-Gaian worshiper Ogami who has been targetting Home shelters and masaccring the artificial humanoid Innocents as sacrifices for The Overseer.

The Overseer that is mentioned during Act 16's cutscene prior to the boss battle of the Possessed Ogami, DB Mikanagi made reference to "a military man of the past". This particular military figure that Mikanagi refers to is the JSDF (Japanese Self Defense Force) General who was responsible for bringing about the Great Destruction-General Gotou. In the original Megaten he instigated a coup d' état when he discovered Steven's Terminal System can help him create a Gaian army of demons to battle Thor (who is disguised is an American Ambassador who sanctions a nuclear strike on Japan to prevent the demons from amassing) and thwart his Messian agenda.

I geeked out when I heard the remixed battle music for Gotou's boss encounter, plus when Possessed Ogami grabbed that katana and saw the black youki that emanated from it, it just reaffirmed my realization that I get to kick his resurrected ass again with a smile.

The other shadows featured in the rest of the intro are the four main protagonists in Megaten, the Neutral Hero Kazuya, The Heroine Yuka, The Law Hero Yuji and my personal fave Chaos Hero Takeshi. (In Kazuma Kaneko's Complete Illustration Works the 3 male heroes were given alternate names, Kazuya was renamed as Futsuo, Yuji was renamed Yoshio and Takeshi was called Waruo) And just like in most Megaten games your choices affect what path the story will take and what alignment, and clearly from the current setting of SMT: Imagine the neutral path was taken...but this is where it gets interesting.

Canonically we should be playing Megaten 2, but it seems we were thrown into a new "what if...?" (maybe) here where us the players are the Chosen, thus seemingly negating the existence of the heroes in SMT 2. Tokyo Millenium is replaced, and we get Shinjuku Babel. The JSDF that should've been obliterated during the events of SMT 1 are brought back under the leadership of Steel-Willed Yamamoto. And instead of a Messian run Tokyo Millenium we get the neutral shelters of Home III. So thus leaving us with an interesting quandary: Was this an oversight on Cave and Atlus' part, or an intentional decision so as to create a fresh take on the original Megaten franchise? Or will the developers follow up in upcoming chapters? Are we playing the 50 year gap between SMT 1 and SMT 2, and probably reveal more events that may lead us to the beginning of SMT 2? Interesting questions to ponder yes?

Anyways, feel free to comment and discuss this. I look forward to your thoughts.

On the road to re-creating my old team

Thanks to the efforts of my clanmates, I got an old nakama back in my line-up, the dreaded Mirror Inugami from Shibuya Quartz.

I know a lot of players may not think highly of this particular demon from the Beast tribe, but it holds a lot sentimental value for me. When I first got this little bugger back then on the JP servers, it was a great bane to magic casting demons on certain dungeons. Only thing I never liked about it was it's incessant demands on certain nakama request quests to kill demons it doesn't like XD

Oh well, what can you expect from it's mythos, since it is considered a malevolent grudge spirit of a murdered dog.

But again, a hearty thanks to PanStrife, Suzuna, Shimura, Snowturtle and XxZakuroxX for a succesful contracting.

Now off to Shinagawa Catacombs!

And for something completely random because I'm tired...

CATGIRLS! MEGATEN STYLE!!

Happy Friday the 13th!

I can smell your fear...kukukukukuku...

Nakama. Human and otherwise...

Just like most MMO's having a partner is always essential to your digital survival, whether it be human or otherwise the demonic magnetite consuming kind that populates Megaten's world.

I was fortunate to have stumbled upon one of my future clan's clan-masters during one of my plasma farming outings which almost ended in disaster when I happened to choose a spot where not only plasma frequently spawn, but it occasionally spits out aggressive accomplished demons too. Long story short he saved my bacon and after a few minutes of conversing I ended up in clan [megaten].

After several act runs and soaking up experience from bonus experience from several of my clanmates' acts, I was at a sufficent level to begin my nakama recruiting and fusion customization.
To date so far my line up consists of a lvl 37 Succubus with 2nd tier nuke spells for primary act runs and Shibuya Quartz runs, a lvl 35 Kai Chi healer and a lvl 34 Lucky Hua Po for those solo Celu Tower sessions. I just have to brave Shinagawa Catacombs again to look for my more valued partner, my personal tank Pa Bil Sag.

I still have a lot to do, plus my last challenge of tackling the final act to complete Chapter 2, which will lead up to probably me grinding away for more levels, more nakama to fill in my DCM and helping out new players that we could recruit for our guild to max out our line up to reap the passive benefits of our full clan bonuses.

But I'm not too worried, I have great allies and friends to get me through all that.

Enter the Gunner

I've always been fascinated by firearms. The day my grandfather showed me his service pistol from World War 2 I was hooked. So it was only natural that I'd gravitate to characters with long range ability. And Megaten never failed in that aspect. Even though it had fantastical firearms I always kept to the more contemporary versions that the game offered.

Plus once the Chain Expertises of Magic Bullet and Sharpshooter are unlocked it just made us Gunner players more potent and versatile, but not without the requisite amount of grind time invested in one of those skills due to the limits of Expertise points and level limits. But nevertheless I was undaunted in my class choice. All that was left was the right nakama to partner with...

Beginning anew...

I was mildly surprised at how active just one server was when I first recreated my in game persona when I first logged in into Aeria's version. The only difference was, with the exclusion of GM's, everyone's not above their lvl 30's yet and sporting fully powered demons (yet) thanks to all the activities and events that Aeria promotes which range from Hide-and Seek, holiday themed events to the ever popular 72 hour No Death Penalty Event (and granted the long road to the max level of 93, it's a virtual godsend to most of those who can't afford the CP/AP items from the in-game shop)

It brings back fond memories of the early patches of the JP version to me, and felt a slight pang of guilt leaving behind my friends, my level 56 sniper and a customized Pa Bil Sag nakama back on the JP servers. But I guess I guess that's where the fun began for me...

Welcome to my views of my Megaten:Imagine experience

Being an old school gamer I've always enjoyed games that break it's boundaries. Megami Tensei was one of them. And as time passed I've always imagined what some of SMT's elements would fare as MMO material.

Back in the day, before Imagine's inception, SMT Nine which was supposed be Atlus' foray into MMO's back then in 2002 was to be an XBox exclusive online game, got canned due to the fact XBox didn't garner enough of a following in that time to be considered and was regarded as a failure to most fans. Thus us hardcore fans waited and just took in whatever form SMT came out in console wise to even some anime spin-offs. But omnipotent probability blessed those who patiently waited in the realm of angels and demons...

5 years later developer Cave in co-operation with Atlus released Imagine. A tie-in to the events that happened after SMT 1. And the magnetite starved hordes of Japanese Megaten fans flocked to this incarnation. Being an F2P game being supported by CP items to generate income to maintain Imagine's cost, it was a big hit to say the least. When I heard about this from an associate of mine from GAMEFaqs, he helped introduce me to this MMO world of Megaten and spent an ungodly amount of time in it's world.

But as fate eventually dictated, it was later picked up for localization a year later by Aeria Games. I decided to migrate to this version as my Japanese based clan went eventually inactive due to the fact that not a lot of us were on enough to maintain a clan there anymore, while others splintered off to create their own clans.

Despite having to start from scratch, it felt fresh again since I wasn't super tweaked to pretty much one-shot kill things with a disgustingly modded rifle and with a nakama that can nuke everything in one go. So let us begin my re-incarnation into the world of the English SMT:Imagine...