Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine

[Harrison]

Who else gets annoyed when great games get released in Japan and never translated and released in the west?

One of these for me was Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine. An online MMO game based on the Megami Tensei Series. A series I'm a big fan of.

When this game was released at the very end of 2006 it received really good reviews, with many scoring close to 10/10, and so I was really hoping it would see an English translation and a release in the US at least. But sadly this didn't happen.

At least when games do get a US release we can often play them via import or download.

[Demon Cleaner]

At least when games do get a US release we can often play them via import or download.

That's true.

The Shin Megami Tensei series are really cool RPGs, and I'd love to see an online version of one of them. But as you mention, they never get released for the western union, don't know if it's really the market which lacks demand, or if they just don't care.

[Harrison]

I think some of the time that these games are very heavily Japanese orientated in terms of the dialogue and the content, so a lot of work is needed to translate them over, and with an online game it involves much more as servers would need to be setup along with support staff and continued development.

For many online games it definitely still looks like there is a clear divide between the east and the west, with each liking a different style. Most Asian countries seem to still love games that require a lot of grinding and levelling, whereas in the west we prefer them to be more story and content orientated and less repetition. Look at the popularity of Lineage in the east for example.