So if you are on the Atlus email list they sent out beta keys for Shin Megami Tensei Online. So I figured why no try it. It's pretty cool so far in my little trial run.
One of the things I like is that compared to WoW or WAR the way it's set up engages you in the story more. It seems in most American MMOs there is lots of story and text to read, but it isn't presented in and engaging way and isn't to ignore so most of the time I skip over it. In this game you can't ignore it. My only complaint when you talk to an NPC is that the chat box to talk to other player's disappears.
Game play is pretty action oriented, I guess I could say game play is more like Phantasy Star Online then WoW. But I can't say much because I never really played all that much Phantasy Star Online.
Also what makes it more Megaten then just plain old MMO is the fact you and recruit demons, which works a bit different then in the console games but it's still cool. It's more like a little mini game then a real conversation.
Now what's really cool, is you can control your own stats, you are given points each level and you put them in what stats you want. This is something I have been looking for in an MMO, it always kind of irked me everyone has the same basic stats in MMOs.
You can also customize your skills, there are not real set classes, there are some they suggest. But you are pretty free from what I can tell you can be a fighter who might also be really good at fire magic.
There is also alignment, which depending on some of the action you take will make you go Law or Chaos. Some demons you can get depend on your alignment.
Other things of note is it seems at least so far it only supports to screen resolutions 1024x768 an 1280x1024. I use a wide screen monitor so not having the game at full screen is a bit wacky to me but not a big deal. The game also looks like Nocturne, it uses a lot of the same models and such, so that's the graphics level it's at.
I haven't gotten to far so I don't have much else to say. But once the beta is over I do think it's worth checking out, it's free so you can't go wrong.
You can sign up for beta here -
http://megaten.aeriagames.com/