So, why're updates taking forever again after we had that speedy time of updates every day or two? Well, the title explains it. I got into the SMT:Imagine Closed Beta(Not really so closed beta as you just have to go to FileFront for your CD key.) Now, I hate RPG's, along with MMO's, and anime. So, then, why am I playing an anime-like MMORPG? I don't know. It's really fun is about all I can come up with. In no way does it bring anything new to the MMO, muchless the RPG field, unless you hadn't played a previous SMT game(for the RPG element) or Phantasy Star Online (for the fighting element). I guess that's why I like this game, it playes just like PSO. Now, the closed beta has been open for a good 3-5 days now and there's some major issues with the server. See, the first two days the server ran perfect. There was only like 100 people, if that, and no lag or anything. Now that FileFront started to give out CD keys the servers are crashing like mad crazy and there's lag like you couldn't believe. The server's really aren't meant to handle this many people yet, and they really need to fix it, and fast. Now, the game's introduction pisses me off. Why? Because there's no voice actors for the opening movie. That kinda bugs me as SMT is known for it's good voice actors. Plus, you go through a prolouge, then you go through aditional training where they explain how to walk and attack, after you've walked a full dungeon and killed about 15 monsters. Plus, the prologue ends with you dying! ARGH! It ends with you getting raped by a giant demon, and yet you're still a live, and they later prove it's not a dream. Kinda bugged the hell out of me and my friend. The monster taming system's pretty cool. Any moster you can fight you can tame to be your pet. It's nice, but very annoying. Another annoying feature is that random monsters that are usually peacful will come up and attack you at random only when you have a pet, or they'll kill your pet out of no where. Your pets do become very useful as they help you kill monsters and heal you. The EXP system is nice aswell in this one. I remember in Lord of the Rings Online I was working hard as hell to level up, in this one in a matter of a day and a half I was level 8. The community is okay. Some people are cool, most people don't kill steal or item steal like in other games (Ragnarok Online). The problem with making an MMO off a game, or it's series, is that people who've played the game forever or made the game their life act so stuck up. That's always unavoidable because people want to make them selves feel so much better for a wasted life. Also the way you earn skills is a little bit on the odd side. You have to open up an expertise menu and tell it which ones you want it to collect XP for, but you're allowed so many expertise XP points. You only get the XP points by using something of that type. So I want to be a mage, so the more spells I use the more they get XP. It's a nice feature so you don't waste time leveling skills, but the fact that you have a cap on expertise XP really limits what you can do. Also the character customization is crap, as with any MMO that first starts, but still I expected a little bit more better. They could've used some of the character models from past SMT games and allowed you to mix them around and such for more options. Then the bugs are fun to exploit. There's currently a leveling up bug where when your EXP reaches above 100% it'll show that ammount. For instance, mine was 113.7% and when it finally caught on I had killed a monster so I got the free 13.7%+ the ammount of EXP % I should've got at the lower level. There's also a buy, sell, and repair exploit that when you do such action there's a chance you'll get your money back. I had repaired my weapon then it said,"Action could not be preformed." and I got my sword repaired along with the money back. Then there's the bug how when you pick up items they don't stack, so you have to manually stack them together. Also, the money takes up an item slot. Overall, I do reccommend this game. It doesn't put anything new to the table, but if you liked Phantasy Star Online it's for you. It's one of those free games where people who donate cash get special items. Also, the game has a really amazing sound track. Oh, the thing that pisses me off the most is the fucking update client. It checks every file everytime you start it to see if you have them. Sure, that's nice, but from when the game first came out there's 1800+ files. With updates there will eventually be 3000+. So everytime I load the game I have to wait like 7 minutes before I can play because it checks every file to see if you have it, or if it was modified. I guess that's good for hacker prevention. I say give it a shot, no problem trying it out since it's free, but it's currently pretty buggy and laggy, but what MMO doesn't during it's first 3 years?
Also, I will plan on doing game reviews once I get some stuff set up, this is the first of them.
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