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I switched hosting for the blog awhile back, just honestly haven't gotten around to doing much work on the site. Expect less trollposting (because frankly I'm getting too old for this shit) and probably less updates than usual.

See you in hell, Blogspot :B

I'm such a card.

-Image pending-

Moar Edit: Because apparently lvl 91 0 rebirth default skills inex Uriel is a touchy subject d'awwww :<.

Still a pun in teh labels.

Since Aeria can't run J-Server events...

I swear, it seems like every single time I update the blog, something else post-worthy happens. Who knows, maybe Aeria's logic is bad press > no press...

Anyway, after yesterday's broken promise, Aeria's Producers and Cave (see also: the new scapegoats... inb4 "my dog calls the shots on how content is released" comments) decided they weren't giving the community the shaft enough, so they decided to go above and beyond the call of asshattery.

Aeria Staff: The community seems to sincerely dislike our mystery boxes.

Aeria Producer: Well you all had better find a way to sell these things.

Aeria Staff: What if we did something like this?

Aeria Producer: FUCKING GENIUS! Have my secretary hold my calls, I'll be pleasuring myself in my office.

And there you have it. Mystery box solution = putting a mystery box inside of a mystery box. As if you had a chance of actually winning the top prize in these boxes, now you have an even less of a chance of actually getting the Summon PG you want. It prints fucking money.

Here's where all the vouchers originally came from:

Demon Voucher 1: Joyful Alice

• 2008/2009 1-Year Anniversary 

Demon Voucher 2: Inexperienced Elf/Inexperienced Succubus/Inexperienced Jikokuten

• I'm unsure on the specifics of this one since there's no campaign page (that I've found yet), but pro-tool Google Translator says "Campaign GW reward for perfect attendance"

Demon Voucher 3: Inexperienced Lilim/Inexperienced Andras/Inexperienced Hathor

• Imagine Summer Festival 2007
  Create a new character and reach Lvl 11 during the duration of the event.

Summon PG-- Fuji: Shining Shishimai Frost

• 2008 Christmas Event
  

Summon PG-- Electric Shock: Shocking Cait Sith

• OnlineGames Collaboration (inb4 D.O.G. Costume is top spender/raffle)

Voucher ( Demon Helper ): Fresh Poltergeist/Fresh Archangel/Fresh Harpy

• Unsure of specifics again, quoted: "Goo or OCN GAME Game Start Campaign"

Summon PG-- Inexperienced Thoth: Inexperienced Thoth 

• Valentine's Day 2009 Event

Summon PG-- Inexperienced Okuninushi: Inexperienced Okuninushi

• Valentine's Day 2009 Event
  

Summon PG-- Hawk: Shishimai Frost

• 2008 Christmas Event
  

Summon PG-- Eggplant: Inexperienced Shishimai Frost 

• Part III of the 2008 Christmas Event (that we never saw) 

I find it ironic that Aeria states we're not the J-Server and can't run J-Server events, yet they have time to make up the "Bad Acts" series. How hard is it to make up smaller monthly/seasonal events with the same prizes from the J-Server?

Edit: 
Am I the only person who was disappointed with the Kuchinawa Cave email? Oh 200AP and non-repairable Frost Cameo Ring... how my heart races for you~

Since Bleach doesn't understand how devils work...

So in today's patch we received the update with the AP Alpha Hack. Aeria at one point stated that it was not in their business model to release the plug-ins for these devils in this fashion. I pointed this out via forums (which was locked faster than I had hoped for) which resulted in Bleach basically admitting he's the biggest idiot on the server.

First off, I'd like to say I sincerely dislike Evilbleachman.

Now that that's out of the way, I really fail to see how someone who doesn't understand the mechanics of the game is a GameSage. It's a well known fact that's the only demons that Bleach ever summons are his Little Demon Lilim and Nightmare Jack Frost. .That alone should show exactly how little he knows about devils... but he felt the need to further prove he knows shit-all about the subject by implying demons obtained from vouchers are the same thing as plug-ins. So I'd like to take this opportunity to explain the difference between a devil that comes from a Demon Voucher and a devil that's made from Demon Fusion. I wasn't aware this was a hard concept to grasp, but apparently for our beloved GameSage it's a tricky subject.

Let's look at the 1-Year Anniversary Joyful Alice versus the Alpha Hack Plug-in Alice:

Joyful Alice:

Base Level: 1

Base Skills: Death Touch, Hell's Eye, Defensive Stance, Makarakarn

Learned Skills: Counter (2), Mudo (5), Dormina (9) Petra Eyes (15), Eternal Sleep (20), Vamp Cyclone (25), Magic Tea Party (30), Mahatarunda (36), Megido (43), Absolute Zero (50), Void Death (58), 30 Percent Life Boost (66), Bufudyne (74), Anti-Fire (83), Megidora (92), Megidoraon (99)
*Cannot fuse with other demons*
 

Alice: 

Base Level: 35
Base Skills: Death Touch, Hell's Eye, Defensive Stance, Mudo 
Learned Skills: Counter (36), Mahamudo (37), Dormina (38), Petra Eyes (39), Eternal Sleep (40), Vamp Cyclone (43), Magic Tea Party (45), Mahatarunda (48), Megido (50), Absolute Zero (52), Void Death (55), 30 Percent MP Boost (58), Bufudyne (62), Anti-Fire (65), Megidora (70), Megidoraon (80)

*Can fuse with other demons*

Inb4 GSiBleach says: "But Joyful Alice learns skills at lower levels! Why would you want to fuse away your Alice?! She's so kawaii-dess~"

In comparison, they have similar skillsets. However, for those of us who actually play the game and aren't trapped-in-the-closet fashionistas, having a fuseable demon with the Void Death skill would be very handy. Sure, there is always Loa who learns Void Death at 93, but that's a totally different story. There's also the Alice fanboys (also see: pedos) who might want to make their own Alice with their own skillset with moves she doesn't learn on her own. The same goes for the Little Demon Lilim. 

Apparently the latter half of the Bleach discussion was deleted, but the term "vanity" was thrown around in regards to Mara. Let's take a look at Mara for a moment:

Mara:

Base Level: 95

Base Skills: Body Slam, Rampage, Fierce Counter, Vamp Cyclone, Soul Suck, Megidora, Anti-Death, Anti-Expel

Learned Skills: Dekaja (96), Mahamudoon (96), Megidoraon (96), Sexy Eyes (97), Void Ice (97), Mazandyne (97)

Features: 

• Technician: -30% cooldown to all skills
  
• Acme of Wit: 0 MP Cost to all skills
  
• Fruits of Labor: 0 HP Cost to all skills
  
• Force Boost: +50% damage to Force-based skills
  

Resists:

---Physical Resistance---

Slash	130%	Pierce	Resist 50%	Blunt	130%
Handgun	130%	Rifle	130%	Shotgun	100%

---Other Resistance---

Fire	Resist 50%	Ice	Resist 50%	Electric	70%
Force	Resist 20% (Reflect 100%)	Expel	Resist 50%	Death	Resist 50%
Magic	100% (Reflect 100%)	Nerve	Resist 50% (Void 100%)	Mind	Resist 50% (Void 100%)
Almighty	100%	Special	100%	Suicide	100%
Curative	100%	Support	100%	Kotodama	100%

I don't know about you all, but I think Mara doesn't seem that "vanity" to me, and it shouldn't to anyone else (unless you have a fetish for dick-demons). Sure there's better demons out there, but defaulting with Anti-Death (previously only attainable on our server via leveling Thoth to 92) and Anti-Expel (previously unavailable) makes him a bit more useful than a Nightmare Jack Frost. Mara is also currently the only way of obtaining Mahamudoon, the AoE verison of Mudoon (10% chance of inflicting instant-death).

So Bleach, I challenge you to actually do something other than collect clothes and pretend like you used to be good at this game. At this point the whole server is laughing at how much of a complete failure you are.

Non-Imagine Update

Over the last two weeks it's been nice to take a bit of a break (regardless of it being forced or not) from Imagine. I've had the opportunity to catch up on some other games, got my bass playing chops back up to speed and a few other things. A few highlights include:

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony

For all intents and purposes, Lunar is the Star Wars of RPGs for me. There's other RPGs that may have been more "cutting edge," had a "better story" or whatever; but this was the game that won me over as an RPG fan. This marks the 4th edition of the original game in the series (Sega CD, Sega Saturn/PSX, Gameboy Advance, and now PSP). This version sees yet another graphical update, Alex (the main character) actually has a decent amount of dialogue now, all the original voice actors have been redubbed and all the songs have completely redone lyrics. Personally, I loved the voice cast from the Working Designs releases (as well as the original song lyrics), and it takes a lot out of the game for me as a fan of the originals. There's also a new playable opening that  focuses on the Four Heros. While this is fairly cool for a backstory aspect, I would have much rather seen an actual prequel with the Four Heroes instead (and let's just all pretend that Lunar: Dragon Song does not exist). The special abilites from the Gameboy Advance version have found their way onto this release as well, which is a nice added bonus.

In short, this is not the definitive version of Lunar. It's a fantastic release nonetheless and I highly suggest it if you're craving an oldschool RPG. However, if you have a PSX and really want to experience the magic of Lunar, I can't recommend Silver Star Story: Complete enough.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

I'm only 16 hours into the game so far, so giving an actual review is a little unfair at this point. What I've played up to this point has been fun. It's a pretty standard SMT game, with a few new additional things like the Demon Co-Op Attack System, Demon Sources, and the Analyze System. Personally I'm slightly disappointed in a few things being taken out (i.e. the Heretic Mansion is gone, no towns, no world map, and I really miss the Press-Turn battle system), but I think most of it was taken out at the sake of portability. I can't complain too much, at least it's not another Persona/Avatar Tuner game. I would have preferred the original Devil Summoner or Soul Hackers to get a US release instead.The story/gameplay feels like a biproduct of what would happen if you put Shin Megami Tensei, John Carpenter's The Thing and Metroid Fusion in a blender. I'm also waiting for Arthur to go HAL 9000 on me a la 2001: A Space Odyseey. 
Words of the wise: Save Often

Kämpfer

Let it be known, I don't watch a whole lot of anime. I picked up Kämpfer last week after a few people told me to check it out, and despite all the bad press it recieved, I loved it. It's a hybrid harem/magical girl/gender-bender anime (think Rosario + Vampire meets Ranma 1/2). There's nothing groundbreaking here, just lots of laugh-out-loud humor and a likeable cast of characters (minus Sakura, what a bitch). My favorite character hands down was Akane, close second being Shizuku... and you can't help but love the Entrails Animals. I really hope this show gets picked up for a second season, as this season was only 12 episodes, and it really felt like they were merely setting the stage for things to come. If you enjoy mildly perverted humor and mutilated stuffed animals, I say check it's worth Kämpfer out.

Foxy Shazam

Last Sunday Foxy Shazam came to San Antonio, and as usual they put on one hell of a live performance. I actually went to school with their keyboardist Sky White, so whenever they're in town they typically come by my place to hang out and stay the night. They have a new album coming out on April 13th. I have to be honest, I really don't like their new material every much. It's hard to believe that after experimental and spastic albums like The Flamingo Trigger and Introducing, they're following it all up with area rock that sounds like a modern-day Queen. It's not bad, but it certainly isn't the Foxy Shazam I've spent 5 years listening to. Their live show hasn't suffered one bit though. They still have several tour dates left, and if they're coming to your town it'll be a show you'll never forget.

Obligatory Plasma QQ Post?

Nah, just wanted to point something out I found utterly ironic. 

If any of you all have been keeping up with the lolplasma threads for the past 2-3 weeks, you'd know that Alcadeiass has been preaching about how this patch is a good thing (and agreeably it is), and how people need to learn how to make money properly.

Fastforward to today.

Pearz is officially calling it quits on SMT, so she's giving out all her old gears/consumables/random items left on her character and in her depository. She made a blog post about it with High Tier and Low Tier items, and at the tail end of the post, she stated:

O ya reward for first person seeing this post (IE, most frequent /lucky viewer, 1 high tier prize, respond first comment)

 And guess who the first vulture was:

I hope you realize you just rendered every argument you made over the past month completely invalid. Were the diamonds and rubies from Jiko & Friends not enough for you? You seemed to act like you made a fortune doing so; did something happen? I dare you to tell other players how to make money again, when your source of income = leeching off players and their accomplishments.

Way to look like a total hypocrite (^-^

Inb4 Alca starts playing again... 

STEALTH-EDITZ?

Destiny will  no longer be disbanding. 
I'll see you all on the 29th ;o

Strange Journey

Got my copy today, fuck you imagine!

/hiatus

Status Update

For those of you unaware of my current situation (or want to confirm the rumors), yes I am banned from Megaten.

As far as the specifics of everything, I'll divulge all that information in due time. For now all I will say is this, as a warning to every other clan in the game:

Be extremely careful of who you let in your clan.

Aeria is now allowing players to change their IGNs.

This has already proven to cause problems, and should not be allowed under any circumstances. Aeria is obviously blind to issues that something like this can cause. This also directly allows players to violate the Terms of Service:

(c) Impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, an AGE official, forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;

In turn, this allows any player to attain a new alias simply stating they have "account issues" allowing them to:

(j) "Stalk" or otherwise harass another;

I'm currently fighting for my account, so far I've managed to gain access to my account once again; I can log in the forums as well as log on other Aeria-hosted games (i.e. Grand Fantasia), but my access to Megaten is prohibited. I have 3 RTs (all with different issues) and a email to the Admin Team all going on 72 hours with no reply. I find it ironic that sending in an RT with a compliment or something positive takes less than 2 hours to reply to, but when it's something that requires actual attention it goes completely ignored. With each passing day I think Aeria runs less like a company, and more like the set where they're filming The Real World: Santa Clara.

Inb4 GMs read my blog before my RTs...

Beating a dead horse already but...

What eats babies all day long...
and is only level 48

Proof that leveling is a joke...

I think I probably already regret posting this. Inb4 a thousand people ask me how to do this...

New Clan Events!

Members, please be sure to check the Clan Destiny Thread on Aeria forums for information regarding the upcoming Clan Photo as well as the Video Contest and Field Boss Frenzy.

Edit:
If you want to be an author on the clan blog (and obviously are in Destiny), please get in touch with me and send me your e-mail address. I'll add you to the roster. Lielle is obviously dead in Brazil somewhere.

I can haz updatez too QQ

Well since Royce thinks no one else updates I guess I'll post my recent updates too.
I wasn't planning on posting them for another week or so but I'm taking a few days off Megaten so might as well do so now.
So like Royce I've been relatively busy lately for once, I've started up my enhancer again, and though I can't do much about it expertise-wise I have all my gear and crystals done, and it's demon in the making. Yes, just like Royce I've been rebirthing a demon to hell and back. So at the moment here is where he stands.

The stats are those from when summoned on my enhancer, and fully buffed.

In any case, I'd say I'm about halfway done, hopefully I can finish him up sometime next week depending how busy I am.

In other news, I actually leveled Azuno` this weekend, for the first time since I hit 90. I'd been gaining exp from rebirthing Nyar without using any incense and had hit 55% and this weekend 2x came on and I just decided "Ah what the hell I'll finish up" and yeah 2 hours later I was 91. I forgot how much gaining exp with 10x is a joke. I have no plans to hit 92 anything soon though, even though Lilith tempts me.

Also, for some who have noticed, I don't PvP anymore. I lost complete interest suddenly and even my rank seems pointless to bother with, so it's slowly disappearing day by day. Maybe my interest will spark back up when the magical "No incense patch" is actually finished, who knows.

In non-MegaTen news, I picked up White Knight Chronicles a few days ago. I haven't had too much time to play it but it's a DECENT game, it's nothing ground-shaking but it should keep anyone who actually enjoyed FFXII's gameplay entertained til XIII comes out 3 weeks from now. Do not, however, play WKC if you're looking for a good story, within the first 3 hours you'll find the story to be the most cliche'd thing ever, it's been done, re-done, and done over and over again. If anything, the story will have you laughing at how predictable and stupid it is. Atleast that's how I'm managing to keep playing.

Welp, til next update~

I'm Starting To Think I'm The Only One Who Updates...

So after finishing Rhuki last month I decided to pick Phacia back up. Initially she was planned as a Rapid/Enhancer/CotW, but awhile back I ended up lething her completely and made her into a Magic-Bullet/Sharpshooter/CotW. I know this is the second time I've rerolled a character now; and it will be my last. There was a time when every character I was going to make was going to have enhancement; flash forward to now, I feel like pure-builds are more fun and more efficient. The build I use for Royce is able to hybrid as much as it does because it just works that way. Not every class is meant to do that though. Plus, I feel that Rhuki's 47-KO PvP excursion is a prime example of 2 pures working together as a team. Anyway, after a couple weeks of casual playing Phacia is already lvl 82. As I've pointed out before, leveling is a total joke with 5x and 10x being as abundant as they are. Is it bad that I'm more exicted for level 90 just to have class 4 Demonology than I am about finishing my build? I started a pure melee (Xenobia`) a couple weeks ago as well. I have no intentions of PvPing on this character-- I just really wanna try full Thor tarots and Mjolnir.

Other characters I still need to start (or finish) that are currently planned:

• Rapid Gunner with C4.5 CotW
• C5 Enhancer with C4.5 CotW
• Swordsmith
• Gunsmith
• C6.2 Synther
  

Also, I (finally) started rebirthing my Lilith this weekend. At the moment I'm trying to finish up all the additional Close-Range stats I care to add (considering it's all for the sake of only one move), that way I can focus on Spell and Long-Range later on. I think I'm gonna have to start hounding Aeria about the Wyrd rebirth being bugged; it seems to have been completely swept under the rug and forgotten about at this point.

I predict March is going to be a verrrry slow month for Imagine (and slow month = uber promos), with several big-name games on the horizon. Final Fantasy XIII is being released for PS3 on March 9th. I have no extreme expectations for FF13 (it's not like we haven't played the same game 12 times before), but I do plan on getting a PS3 in the coming months just to play this and MGS4. This game will also drag away most any and every RPG fan from whatever it is they're currently playing. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey comes out for the Nintendo DS on March 23rd in the US. I plan to be escaping Imagine for a couple of weeks around this time. I'm more excited for this game than I have been for any other SMT game since Nocturne came out. The players FF13 doesn't drag away from Imagine, Strange Journey will certainly succeed in doing so. Also, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony comes out on March 2nd for the PSP. If you're not stoked for this game, you're probably too young to remember it. If you consider yourself to be an RPG fan, by all means pick this up. It's not like three of my four characters are named after Lunar characters for no reason....

One last note; I got to see the Polysics in concert on Friday (any show with a double-encore = instant win). Unfortunately it will be the last time I get to see them with their keyboard player, Kayo, who is retiring from the band following this tour. It's truly a marvelous experience seeing the Polysics live, as it's rare for a band to be so energetic and upbeat in their live shows. The US tour is still in motion, so if you have an opportunity to see them I highly recommend it.

US Server On 2ch?

Browsing around today I stumbled across this thread on 2ch, which seems to chronicle the US Server's happenings fairly accurately... as well as talking about the more well-known/notable/infamous players & clans in particular. I'm a little confused as to why my origin is listed as Revert, considering I was never once in that clan. Oh well, 100% factual or not, it's an entertaining read.

Side Note:
Hit level 90 on Rhuki last night... 90 is much less gratifying the second time around.

Another Side Note:
Can I +ego over this? Please?

Final Edit:
After seeing the 2ch thread degenerate into nothing but ASCII-porn directed at a particular player, I'm choosing not to link the thread anymore. This is clearly a player who came to the US-server and failed, based on how much QQing they've posted. Just proof that some people on the interwebz are truly disturbed (and will undoubtedly never have sex without paying for it). There's a big difference between doramaz for lolz and being some creepy stalker hentai-freak. Have fun fapping to ASCII-art~

P.S. No, the Hamster-picture has nothing to do with this. I just refuse to plug threads that flame people who are good-hearted and kind like the girl you have some perveted obsessed hatred for. I hope the poster in this thread gets over their sexual frustrations someday.

Lrn2Mod pl0x

It seems as though lately more people are having trouble grasping the concept of modding their equipment properly. The tradelist has been littered with gears with improper soul stones or slot-modifications. While it's fun to get a laugh out of other people's ignorance, it's also quite sad and a testament to how poorly educated our server really is. If you're going to take the time to modify/enchant one of your gears, make sure of two things:

1. The piece of equipment you plan to modify/enchant is beneficial to your class/build.
2. The modification/enchant you plan to do is beneficial to your class/build.

As long as you follow these two basic principles (that really shouldn't even have to be pointed out in the first place), you are halfway on your way to success in this game.

Are You Goofus or Gallant?

Gallant modded his Kotetsu II for +15% Slash to become more efficient at destroying vegetables.


Goofus modded his Avalon-24 for +15% Spread because he has no idea what he's doing. He also bathes in the sink.

Please don't be a modification Goofus, otherwise you'll end up on...

The Modification Wall Of Shame
The names have been hidden to save people the embarrassment. These are definite modification failures that would better serve as deconstruction material than the horrible fate these items are suffering.

• Exhibit A: The Spingunner

It's a build we all laugh and joke about all the time, but apparently they do exist... and yes, that is a normal Stealth Top, not the reissued ones.

• Exhibit B: Killing Two Mods With One Stone
  

Not that Tanegashimas are "pro guns" to begin with, but here's a good way to make all your modding useless: change the weapon's affinity.

• Exhibit C: Microphone Check?

This Enka has literally passed hands at least 5 times now. It's been on the tradelist under different names for at least 2 months. I offered 5k macca in an attempt to just delete the item to put it out of it's misery, but the current seller didn't like my "noob offer." Guess I'll never be pro without this Enka D:

This seriously made my stomach turn. If you're going to farm the materials for an expensive 5-slotted weapon you plan to mod for fire, please make it a Phantom Star. Seeing this kind of mod would make any Class 10 Destruction Mage lose sleep at night.

Aeria Fails Yet Again~

So up until recently, things had been rolling fairly smoothly with Aeria; content was getting updated more frequently, the tiered spending promos were actually decent equipment for the price-brackets (i.e. LNC sets, Nightmare, Sentinel, SMT: If... sets, etc.), and there'd been an odd air of happiness(?) floating around. Things seemed to be looking up (or at least as good as they were going to get, we'd reached a happy-medium it seemed).

Then 2010 started.

Our current Fortune Cards are literally 2 years old, dating back to January 17th, 2008 and February 7th, 2008. We never recieved either of these FCs up until this point, where none of these gears hold any relevance to today's damage-standards (minus Conviction, which essentially every melee who wants one has one at this point, and I suppose the outfits could be argued they could be Regenerated... but that's beside the point really). What does Aeria do when the FC fails? Promos~

Let's chronicle everything that's happened in the past week:

They clearly already knew the upcoming FC was going to fail, by the release of not only one, but two instances of the Abyss Cloak being putting in their infamous Floating Mystery Box on the web mall. They released the box 2 days back-to-back, with a price increase on the second day.

There was the Re: Chaos Set/Flamehorn raffle, the Demonic Ward/Cups & Melons Mystery Box Promo, the Seeker/Sentinel tiered promo, and now we've had the release of Cross Regenerator Mystery boxes and (again) not only one, but two corresponding raffles to add more insult to injury. Today drops the Warlords tiered promo, which makes no sense... how is a set like Nightmare that adds a general damage boost $50 and a near-statless and completely useless set like General's worth $70? Makes zero sense.

For those unaware, Cross Regenerators were released in this FC on the J-Server. Looks alot better than Mystery Boxes, right? Why was this not released as this week's FC? Instead we get ridiculously outdated crap that no one needs. The Cross Regens were also released on the J-Server's web mall the same day the Fortune Card was released for ¥4980 each.

I find it ironic that the Cross Regen thread was locked promptly after I called Aeria on their bullshit, and expressed they're truly showing no care for their customers at this point. Locking the thread with literally zero response to what I said merely proves my point even further.

It's shocking that Aeria has an A- Rating on the BBB, but then again when you buy your votes from your players anything is possible. If you have a problem with how Aeria Games runs their business-end, I implore you to speak the truth. Makes you wonder just how many of these reviews are buffing that A-. At one point Aeria had a D rating...

EDIT:
I find it quite ironic I point out the fact the +50% expertise handgun is missing, and within 48 hours it's found it's way to our item mall. The GMs apparently didn't know the item existed... and yet that doesn't explain the fact it was clearly taken out of the FC.

URUTORAMAN! URUTORAMAN SEBUN!

Ok, to balance out the somewhat sappy post, here's a video and chatbox lulz:

The only reason I made this was I wanted an excuse to pay homage to Megaman 2:

This is why our Xat box rules:

Memories

Contrary to Azuno's post, I've been working on updating the blog in my spare time at work for like a week now... and I'm too lazy to work on posts at home >.<

It's really hard to believe it's been one year. I find myself slowly drifting into the more casual-player category; but I'm okay with that. I've worked hard for everything I've done, and it was always at my own pace. There's no point in being hardcore about anything when my main doesn't gain XP anymore and we're still waiting on content updates. I spend most of my days hunting the field bosses in Shinjuku Docks, soloing 4 Kings for a challenge, making new demons, testing new ideas and theories out, and of course the occasional PvP match here and there. Last night I decided to start up a swordsmith for fun (I have an old level 57 synther on another account with a macca-hourglass still on it, might as well use it), so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, this entry isn't about anything that's happening now; I wanted to share some memories and pay tribute to some long lost friends as we wrap up our 1st year of Megaten.

Note: I have pictures to add, but I need to upload them when I get home.

When Imagine was announced that it was being brought to the US, I knew absolutely nothing about MMORPGs. I'd never played one in my life, nor did I have any intentions of playing one. However I never pass up a Shin Megami Tensei game, so I felt obligated to at the very least try it. I only logged in a few times during closed beta, knowing that my character would be wiped I just tested the game out to see if it was even enjoyable. My laptop at the time caused the game to lag a lot (go go Vista), and dungeons were virtually unplayable for me. However I found myself enjoying the game nonetheless. I realized with my current computer there was no way I was getting far, so I wrote it off as something to play if I got a new computer. In the meantime I tried WoW, only to quit after merely 3 days into my 10 day trial (that game is awful), and saw that every preconcieved thought I had about the game was 100% true.

In Februrary I managed to finally get myself a killer desktop for a new DAW (digital audio workstation), and shortly after installing all my recording software I remembered SMT, so I figured I'd give it another run. I forgot my password for my original username, so I started up a new account, made a character, and dove face first into the world of Imagine.

I don't know how many of you know, but Royce is not my original character; originally I was known as Iwata, and actually played a male character *gasp*

I wanted to keep to myself and had no real interest in joining a clan, but I got a random clan invite in the middle of killing Cait Siths for Act III. I can't really say much about them, I was in the clan for like an hour? No one talked the entire time I was there, so I left figuring I'd be better off alone.

I didn't talk to a soul until I ran Act IV, where a Dutch girl named Syardis who was looking for a group of people to run Act IV's Grey plate as well. I offered to come since I needed to do it to, and ended up making my first friend in Megaten. We ended up talking for a long time, running a couple Sugi Bronzes and just overall had fun. Later on that evening I recieved another random clan invitation, this time to Clan Cruxifer, which ended up being my home for the next several months. 15 year-old Ceruben was the leader, who gave me a submaster position based on the fact I was the 2nd highest level in the clan because I "obviously knew what I was doing," which was a total lie... I had every expertise turned on! 18,000 points? No way I'm ever maxing all that out! I had stats in strength, magic and speed because I wanted to be a "jack-of-all-trades"...

Cruxifer ran like pretty much every other clan back in early February; you see a random clanless noob, invite first and ask questions later. Ironically this method wasn't that bad back then, as we got several people that didn't have their head up their ass completely, like Lorant, Ayaki, Senlan, Xerdrick, Nakea, Miyazuki, Kagusashi, Churumelos, Kisarabi and Andraen. We actually had a decent team of people for just a bunch of random invites. We actually started to get a little serious about the game. Around this time is when I retired Iwata at level 34, and decided to try a new class. I had made Royce as my mule (that's right, Royce was initially a storage mule), so I decided to give mage a try. I had a gut feeling that females would get better gear than males, since this is a Japanese MMO after all, and boy was I right. I ended up being a hybrid of mage and melee in the beginning, due to the fact we had no tanks in the clan, plus we had no idea what builds worked and what didn't back in these times. Syardis actually joined the clan around this time on her new character RazorRamon (this time male, playing my opposite again)... 5 bonus points to anyone who gets that reference. EdwinRhys also joined our ranks, who was possibly the best random noob invite ever. Lorant, Edwin and myself were like the Rat Pack of Cruxifer; we did everything together. I still miss those days :/

As the clan grew more serious about actually working together, expanding our clanbase and overall being good at the game, several clan members felt that Ceruben wasn't really fit to be clan master anymore; all he did was ask for people's Jack Frost cards and steal all the loot in dungeons by turning FFA on. I got picked by all the submasters to be the new clanmaster, but asking Cerbuen to step down wasn't something I wanted to do. We didn't want to make it seem like some coup d`etat, but Senlan ended up stonewalling him and Ceruben sort of freaked out, passed master, left the clan, and his 3 irl-friends followed. Cerbuben ended up quitting the game because of this, which was never anyone's intentions. I think we just learned a very valueable lesson that day-- you can't maturely reason with a 15 year old boy.

Outside of Cruxifer, I'll never forget the other fellow channel 5 people; Clan Arcana people like the perverted Jherek (who was convinced I was a girl irl, even though countless times I said I was a man...), AIice and of course Sekushi. There was also the Clan Aria crew-- Gainshard, Sekh, Eone and shoon (who all ended up helping create Destiny), the Clan Touhou crew-- Looms and Zlito, and the Clan DaraTen crew-- Yreal, Seppoku, and Mewie. Then there's the clanless people where you wonder where they mysteriously vanished, like Verdeman, who seemed to be the only swordsmith for the longest time, then was gone for good in the blink of an eye. There was also Alesa, the clanless enhancer who used to bother Jherek with me. She vanished completely after she unlocked class 5 enhancement, which was all she did at the fountain for weeks; grind expertise and chat.

I was always trying to push the envelope as far as what mages were capable of doing. At the end of April I was the second person (that I know of, at least) to have soloed Tokisada and farmed my own cards for B108 Ichi Gold, the first being Pearz.

I ended up leading Cruxifer from March until the beginning of June, when every just stopped getting along and started being too dramatic and overbearing. SuperBuu3 systematically tried to destroy the clan from the inside by spreading lies about everyone and planting seeds of doubt in everyone's heads... much like he'd done in Clan Trinity and Clan Aria beforehand (this was not some new trend). I couldn't paty with anyone non-clan without being guilt-tripped by the submasters for at least 45 minutes. The fact I was outleveling everyone in the guild by over 10 levels meant that I was "unfaithful to the clan" and "should be helping with newbies on acts" and "powerleveling the clan." I ended up just straight up leaving the clan, as everything I'd worked hard for months to achieve blew up in my face due to other people's jealousy. I'd already felt Lorant and a few others giving me the cold shoulder for like a month, and they moved on to help with SuperBuu3's newly-founded Clan Raziel, and I ended up joining Desire upon the invite from my friends Raid0uKuzunoha and ShinHitoshura.

The Desire-era was short for me (only 2 months), but a strange and interesting one; the clan was almost always dead silent. From what I hear the clan was pretty much already dead when I joined; all the old players had already quit the game. It almost seemed as though no one really liked each other, which was weird coming from Cruxifer where everyone had bonded so well. There were some good times in Desire, like running Ichis with Petrovich and Takemoro, running around Babel acting silly with Sachira, and the crazy 8-10 hour grind sessions I had with Xay. Eventually the clan split into 3 entirely new clans, which brings us to now. Destiny is starting it's 6th month of existence and as strong as ever.

So will it be time for me to hang up my gears and join the ranks of the other retired veterans? Or will I stick it out another year? I can't really say for sure, but I have a feeling I'll be here for awhile still. Perhaps Celu Gold will bring some new life into the game for me. I'm still anxiously awaiting Ueno Snake Cave too. Who knows, maybe the level cap will get raised soon. The past year has been a blast, and it's been really great to meet the friends I have today. It's sad to look at my friends list and see all the old friends I've had who have moved on; it's more like an obituary than a list of active players... and I refuse to delete a single one of them in hopes of them coming back someday.

Even though leveling is a total joke now, it's good to be an older veteran; I actually got to experience the game without hearing words like "sponsor" or "powerleveling" until I was 80+. You really miss out on a lot when you confine yourself to only running Ichi Golds. I wouldn't trade off any these memories for all the 10x in the world.

Updatez?

So it seems like no one wants to post anymore so I'm gonna post an update.
First off, I hit 90 like a week ago? Big whoop, not like it's much of an accomplishment anymore, I just wanted my Megidoroan lawl.

Royce's is better because it has a Nyar tarot, QQ @ U Royce D:

In other news I've been doing Valhalla a lot lately, I've actually gotten up to Valgrind, which honestly isn't very hard it's just long and just takes "massive amounts of noob killing". Hitting Valgrind allows me to go and look at this nice piece of armor:

The thing is godly, but completely unattainable for a longggggg time. 1.2million BP? No thanks.

Now for those getting mad at me for leaving Valhalla when I see a match is stacked, I just have this to say, I don't really care what you think. I'm getting rank for a random reason, once I hit it I'll do all the stacked, unfair, hard to win matches you want. But considering if I lose a match, it takes me 2 to make up for it, I'd rather avoid the hassle. But by all means, if you wish to make Team Valhalla fights PM me I'll arrange for it to happen, I'd love to have a fair match of level 80+