The SMT IMAGINE Lawsuit Explained
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- čas přidán 4. 10. 2022
- Sorry for the minimal editing, I simply don't have the time I used to, plus I didn't really enjoy this project at all and that'll show through.
In this video I explain the SMT Imagine private server drama, the lawsuit and this is the most accurate content explaining the events as I've spoken to nearly all parties involved.
Imagine is alive, look it up.
thumbnail art by Nawell:
/ nuzme
/ potionem
Sources:
megatenonline.proboards.com/
Chinese server
megatenonline.proboards.com/t...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Me...
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9C%...
://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20020922/atlus.htm
www.google.com/search?q=akaed...
Steam db
steamdb.info/app/1625750/hist...
#atlus #larrue #smtimagine - Hry
Hi,
Thanks for covering this, I'm still blown away in shock cause I recognized this person.
I knew Rayshen, once upon a time. Met him when he was just starting the game, and joined his clan. Him and a friend I introduced him to got together, all that jazz. Even as my life got hectic, he was extremely dedicated to playing the game. It's a blur for me, I was just getting out of high school and in a dark cloud in my life so we lost touch. I only knew he had a private Gmod server and his girlfriend at the time gave me some updates.
In short, we have a bit of history. He contacted me about my minecraft account since I let his girlfriend use it. That's how I learned she passed and we got back in contact again. What I could understand of him is, he feels like he's stuck in the past. From the way he talks to how I invited him to my art server, he just looking to find "friends" to connect with. It feels like he's out of touch with reality because all his friends are moving on with their lives, but he can't. Which does align with how "scatter brain" maybe? It was in and out this past year and these topics popped up last convo. Which ironically was just a week or so until this lawsuit dropped. I mentioned he should play the Re-Imagine server (I dabbled playing it and was friendly with some people plus a GM before getting busy again).
When you mention how he does not like them, the amount of venom he oozed out when he told me they were in his words, "reimagine is trash heep of a pserver everyone is so alienated by the staff they just kiss there ass and get by" Yes he typed this. Then he compares his server saying, "only reason i mad my server is for ppl who have a brain not to take re shit anymore"
I'm mostly just ashamed and disappointed in him. I thought he was smarter than that, but maybe time hasn't been so kind to him. I do feel a bit of guilt cause it feels like if I didn't get him and my friend to meet, maybe things would be different? It was her and another friend I won't name that convinced him to make it from what he told me.
Anyway, thank you for clarifying the rest I wasn't aware of cause it was a lot worse than I thought.
all vet know azu/gm handling re is shit, sorry if the truth hurts
Oh boy, I'm in a very similar boat to you. I never knew it was ray who screwed up, but I totally believe it. it's like he's stuck in 2009, he's never really changed from those times whenever I talk to him.
I had a lot of good times on RE:imagine, i will never forget the late nights in recent years trying to figure out the game with friends. this all happened right before i was gonna reinstall to play some more. Such a fun game to play on the private server and a sad end for this community.
I found out because I wanted to reinstall
Same thing, here.
Just tried to get back on and play, today. 😕
So basically the servers ended up getting killed because some smoothbrain developer thought it would be a fantastic idea to plagiarize an official Atlus website and log the project's info into the Steam Database as if it was an official release?
Yeah, then they snitched about another server they had beef with.
@@Larruei hope someone kicks that smoothbrains ass cause now I won’t be able to play it unless theres another way
Started playing reimagine just a couple weeks before this all happened.
Life is pain.
play new order, we moved over there
@@dadouka2491 Is it any good? I quite liked the play to win aspect of ReImagine. is New Order similar at all? What are the differences?
@@bhume7535 I've played reimagine for a year and a half before the closure and I've gotten back about all of my progress in about a week and some days. That fast progress might scare some people off but some things to consider
-a lot of people flooded from re and are either partying up or getting carried by older players so catching up isn't too difficult
-about all gear you need is in shop
-game is still play to win you earn CP the same way you did in re albeit some new ways to earn include diaspora
-theres custom stuff that they have that make it a bit interesting such as having dmc Dante as a boss/demon companion
Overall I like it so far. I miss re for the memories made but a good chunk of players moved over and it seems okay for now
@@dadouka2491 Awesome thanks! I've got it downloading and I asked a few questions in the discord also.
Annoyingly they made fun of me for asking if the language barrier was an issue, which I feel is a valid question for a server that isn't English first as far as I am aware. The general channel is Russian ffs, why is it weird to ask that?
@@bhume7535 hello there,in ru most people talk english even their gm can speak english, theres channel for spanish and portugal people to talk too, but mostly in game its english language typer, as for gear they are 1000% more better than you can get in re, i hope you give it a try
Thank you for making this. I played the official servers with a lot of love and was an enthusiastic tourist and supporter of the private servers as a player. I am uh. Sad. Really sad. But thank you for making this and I'm sorry for the conduct of the community.
Lol, I'm trying to not let the silly drama affect my ability to enjoy playing in the private server!
If the other routes are so good, why aren't there Chaossuits and Neutralsuits?
Because is Law is business, Chaos is casual, and Neutral is business-casual.
Thank you for going into more detail of this.
I just want ReImagine to be fully translated and being able to play by myself at least, really wanted to get into it
We need an Imagine 2, honestly, don't know how well it would do as the MMO market is a dying one, but I'd kill for that.
@@MitsurugiR no, it would be trash and I'm not paying Atlus anymore, just need translation for this and im happy. The atmosphere this game gives would never match with a new one.
@@MitsurugiR Considering how Atlus handled it in the past that would be the worst outcome unless they continued the story. And on NA side the game was stupid buggy and unfinished.
honestly IMAGINE has some really interesting lore and it sucks that the later stuff never got translated
@@DVo-fe8ew this is how i feel too never again will we be blessed with these vibes again AND THAT FUCKING SOUNDTRACK THO?
Larrue is officially 8 years old
I remember playing this game every day when I was a kid, and migrating to the Japanese server, and then playing private servers. it really feels like I lost a part of myself here. Thanks so much for reporting about this and clearing up a ton of confusion. ❤️
I KNOW YOU! my name was MightyDucky
Imagine citing marsh as a source
Why would I? He didn't provide any of the information I used in this video.
@@Larrue those gaming journalist did. they did not do their research well
Oh gotcha, I thought this was critical of me somehow, sorry!
@@Larrue cite me next time
@@MarshSMT Yo. Love ya marsh, all the smt channels
Im glad you did a follow up to the previous video cause it annoyed me on how many of the articles got information so wrong that they made it seem like the makers of ReImagine were the ones getting sued instead of Reiku. Honestly Im still pissed that all my progress and digi's are gone for the 2nd time counting the prewipe and remember the day when I was doing Ueno mirage with my clannies and friends to farm apples in WildCat and then got the message of saying "see you on the other side" from the game announcements which lasted 2-3 seconds before the game kicked everyone and the discord server deleted its tabs.
IMAGINE this game actually sticking around to gain it's fan base back or a bigger one.
no way you are 8 years old????
Yeah that's why I'm so childish
The day I was going to jump into ReImagine ended up being the day it was shut down. (re)Imagine my disappointment at this news.
Sounds like a big deja vu when it came to the official servers with newer megaten fans
Well, thats pretty disappointing. Thanks for doing the research. I kept putting off getting into SMT Imagine just because I haven't felt up for mmo since playing Jp servers for Phantasy Star 2. If anything hope this tells atlus there is still a portion of people interested in an online megaten game (even if it's less likely they would make another game like imagine.)
We just can't have nice things, can we?
I miss the good old days while Aeriagames was hosting the server. I was really active back then, made it to the level cap, the game was a grindfest but really had fun joining the random people and spammed Jikokuten at Ichigaya....
Thank you, Rekuiemu, for going out of your way to take out another SMT imagine server.
You guys are so cool, ruining the experience for everybody.
game is back
I actually play on Local server and it's fun to play in local server. I'm feeling bad for ReIMAGINE...
How? Can you say how you can play in local server?
I'd suggest you to contact me. I can't reply because CZcams is automatically deleting my comment.
Hi, i need to know too
Would you be able to help me play locally too? :)
@@slippy8123 yeah, please contact me as I can't help here.
Man, ty for this video. This whole past week since the news broke has been nothing but misinformed anger over misinformation spread by so many people who either wanted to have even more reason to hate on Atlus or who had no idea what they were talking about.
I played IMAGINE when it was still officially up and I played on ReIMAGINE up until a year ago. I knew some kind of weird-ass drama was going on, but I stayed out of it because it was basically stupid. I really love the game despite its flaws, but I never could have thought that this is how the private servers would go down...all because someone was incompetent enough to give Atlus an actual legit reason to go after them.
Sorry people have been assholes to you over this report. I know Atlus hasn't been on some people's good graces lately (hell, even I'm not pleased with the whole Soul Hackers 2 DLC stuff and Atlus shop prices), but they had legitimate reasons to go through with this. It's disappointing sure, but what actually happened is even more disappointing. 😔
Take care of yourself, Larrue.
bro i was playing on this server years ago, i had to jump through hella hoops to join the server but it was dope, i used to play the hell out of this game and was so bummed out when they ended the servers. i wasnt the only one - MightyDucky
It also makes sense in terms of copy right law. Atlus want to keep imagen out of public domain. It just really sucks. That other team could be that stupid to try to get a steam page. Re imagen had the right idea in posting no money can be earned.
Saddly I wonder how anyone one will ever be able to play reimagined again.
I heard the Russian servers are still up.
Making sure I got this right:
So its a website issue rather than the game itself? Not to mention multiple teams having communication issues?
It's more about the Rekuiemu team claiming to own the game and copypasting an official website and listing their server on steam over the concept of private servers themselves yeah
@@Larrue so the servers don't need to be shut down, they just gotta be clear in saying they don't own the site?
Well like I said in the video Rekuiemu had to shut down according to them. Reimagine shut down out of an abundance of caution because like I said, Rekuiemu people reported the private server to Atlus.
@@Larrue ah so its a combination of factors. Okay I got it. Sorry for making you repeat yourself. I just wanted to make sure I understood what was going on.
@@Larrue So it is legal to operate Private Servers of a dead MMO so long as the IP Owners are accredited? This is all very confusing. If Atlus had discovered these servers and their operation but no laws were broken, would they have taken action?
Thank you for the coverage as always Larrue, wish people were more mature to you man
if youre here from the server could you atleast make like an instagram with everyones new artwork they made for the loading screens? to remember the times yunno
Unrelated but I was in High School when the imagine server came back up in like 2018 and me and my friends spent an entire school night over Discord trying to set it up it was really funny
Ty bruh
Hi mates anyone can give a link for a working server plz I really preciate
Not interested in pointing fingers, just bummed out that I can’t play imagine
Oh you can still play imagine, the russian server is still up and you can play it in english
@@Larrue if I heard correctly, its p2w, but I'd still be somewhat interested in playing it. What's the name of it?
@@sg79453 New Order
@@sg79453 p2w? I thought it was illegal to make profit from an IP you didn't own? How are Russians operating a private server?
@@graycrest806 because it’s Russian
offtopic - i meant i should tweet you... but, has your scans or translations of the smt 5 ost comments come out yet? kthxbye
Happy birthday
Thank you
Is there any way to play it on private server to unlock everything? I really want to play it again
Yeah
RU look it up
@@allenlambert8312 already know, and no thanks, i don't want to play with ppl like that again, that's why I want to play solo
@@leonardoarroyo8695 understandable I can give you my old email and send you the items to make your own if you'd like ? Can run it directly off your PC as a local server.
@@allenlambert8312 of course i would like :) that would be awesome
Okay, not about the drama, but the video of the intro got me curious, so Let me get something straight
The ICBMs dropped in 199X, but Maria, seen in NINE was made first in 1998, implying 199X is after that, also people only moved underground in 2001. Okay, so 2029 is SMT1's later half/NINE. Okay, then...what, 50-60 years pass until SMT 2?
And then...where is IMAGINE in all this?
Some time after 1 but before 2
Nine also happens in two periods: First during the timeskip after the missiles dropped and the other half after the great flood in SMT 1's end.
Also there is a smt i new moon server that opened up.
Well it’s a shame to see re-imagine go and other servers good memories came from that back when I was a kid playing it on the Aeria launcher along with Dynasty Warriors online thankfully before the server went off I managed to beat the game including Satan and Demi
I still have hope, that one day we could get an offline private server...I would love to play it again.
This is technically a thing already. The server files were made available quite a while ago and I personally downloaded them about a year ago so that I could run an offline private server for myself.
@@FalcusDead holy crap! Do you have a link for it or any info where could I get it? 😍😁
Ah, I see. I thought the pull down might've been a officially revival of the severs. As was the case with AM2R to MSRS. It was not.
Metroid 2 got an official remake tho and that was the official stated reason why AM2R got taken down. Return of Samus on 3DS was late in development when AM2R came out and Nintendo didn't want AM2R messing with the sales of their new game due to it's high quality. Nintendo even offered to hire the dev to work at Mercury Steam on Metroid Dread, the next game and follow up to Return of Samus, but he was still salty about his life's work being taken down so he angrily refused. He almost immediately regretted it, but luckily he was able to get a job at Xbox to make up for it and is now a lead developer for the Ori series. Don't know what MSRS is.
@@krimsonkatt Metroid Samus ReturnS, I's imagine.
By some chance, what did you think of that and Dread?
Man this was actually my first non persona SMT game back in the day and I remember playing it on my cheap laptop for months in high school. I started the non persona smt games all cuz of imagine. I had heard about the private servers a while ago and thought maybe I’ll spend a month or two playing them lol but now not anymore. Is the Russian server still running? I bet Atlus suing them definitely wouldn’t stop them at all lol 😂😂😂
Based on the info given, I think the best thing to do here is give everyone a fresh start. Make a new game inspired by Imagine with some extra NON-pay to win MMO features to it. The only things that should be paid for with real cash in this new game would be new textures that have no influence on actual gameplay, like being able to replace a SMT 3 style Loki with either the SMT V or P5 style of Loki! Maybe if we given them something new and possibly better than Imagine, we can get some of these people to stop acting in a way that makes preschoolers seem more mature than them and even start getting along with each other! After all, both sides seem to have one thing in common, they love Atlus and SMT type games!
If people make an SMT fan-game that's an MMO it has to be completely free in every sense or it will be taken down for copyright. MMOs are very expensive to run so unless the creator is a billionaire with basically infinite money there is no way you can run an entire MMO with no stream of income. The only way this can work is if Atlus makes a new megaten MMO or if a spiritual successor to Imagine is made that uses original IP. Using original IP would allow the MMO to make actual money, though even than it would be very hard since MMOs are RARELY ever successful and are a dying genre due to their insane time-sink. Multiplayer games like Splatoon, CoD, and Fortnite are bad enough but MMOs are on a whole other level. You basically need to dedicate your entire life to them or fall massively behind. The only successful one these days is FFXIV since WoW is basically dead (they removed women from the game lmao) and all the other MMOs are either dead/dying (Club Penguin, Webkinz, Monster Moshi, Neopets, etc) or in constant stasis. (RuneScape, EverQuest 2, Adventure Quest Worlds, Animal Jam, Wizard 101, Trove, etc) The only other successful MMOs I can think of are Destiny 2 (which is more of an FPS with MMO elements IMO and is mostly P2W) and Minecraft Skyblock which is fan made, but can make a small profit to keep the servers up because Microsoft is super lineant with the Minecraft IP. You can literally sell Minecraft fan-fiction in official bookstores, get officially published, and make bank all without having the rights.
I was thinking more like an rpg style, no PvP aspect to it or at least only Pokémon style PvP. No constant updates with new stuff, no true Meta play styles, just people (played by real people) trying to survive against the hordes of demons knocking at the doorstep by either working together or striking out on their own. I do agree a lot of traditional MMOs are going down the tube but that doesn’t mean that the idea itself is dead and shouldn’t be attempted.
I wish ReImagine would've held out
I was 14 when i was playing this
Those "in the know" can still play...
Dude I used to think this game had such original mechanics and then I played Mabinogi
I see why atlus would sue, first off sega is notorious for not caring what fans do with their content as long as it’s not for profit or able to damage their reputation, atlus (a sega branch) most likely would’ve followed the same policies if this dick head didnt use their official closed down site, as an outsider looking in, to me it looks like atlus wanted to prevent fans from raging that their official imagine site was technically up and running even though they closed the servers years ago, on top of the fact that they posted it to steam making it look like an official release, you can’t get any more stupider than that, I remember just 2 years ago one of my discord friends sent me the link to download imagine, it should’ve stayed that way: as a peer to peer in the know kind of sharing, like ever since p5R the amount of atlus fans at least quadrupled and smt v also helped contribute to atlus getting more fans, which I’m guessing based off the sales of both games has to be somewhere between 5-15 million fans and if all those people decided they want to play imagine then their couldve really been huge repercussions for the company, like maybe a change in pace for designing games that currently in production. Etc you know things like that
yeah ok i understand now if you excuse me, I have people to harass :)
6:38 Okay????
I know bruh weebs are annoying
@@KiddRyzeDaGawd Get the fuck out of our hobby, invader.
But...what are the other options to play it?
The Russian server
@@Larrue Is it the only one?
I think there's more, but that's the one with the most support
@@Larrue Dam, i didn't expected to have alive servers for this game in my country 🤣
New Moon is around now, its pretty good.
I know ray and were still in contact. Btw Im that asshile Holy’
In the end, regardless of the drama, Altus is still going to be the bad guy because they’ve effectively become gatekeepers for content that they have no intention of remaking or rereleasing.
It’s worse than abandonware since you can’t play it without an active server.
I still fault the guy claiming to own the IP and then snitching to get another private server shut down.
Luckily there's still at least one server going but that one person ruined a lot for a lot of people and their actions is why atlus acted.
Look ray made a few mistakes but his intentions were good the drama more so over had nothing to do with websites or anything it had to do with seedy back door transactions that the player base was mostly unaware of. I can elaborate on this more if you want to contact me
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@@OniLinkBrazil1993 3
"How could Atlus do this to us? I never saw this coming," people say as they overlook Atlus's joint development on SMTV with Atlus West(global release date was the mother of all warning signs), the ones responsible for the censorship of Persona 5 Royal, and the embarrassing lolcalization(redundant, I know) of Soul Hackers 2.
What does any of that have to do with what this video is about?
@@Larrue Because the Atlus we knew is dead, and this is just the first middle finger of many that people noticed.
That's not what happened, please watch the video as I actually talked to the people involved.
@@Larrue Oh I did, I assure you. Like I said, Atlus wouldn't have gone as far as a full-on lawsuit, if it weren't for their being infiltrated by the hand-clasping marxists of Atlus West.
I could see a C&D, I admit, but the fact that it took selling someone out(for unrelated reasons, admittedly) in order to make Atlus back off THAT much? Yeah, they've lost their way.
*Sega:* allows people to make mods and fan games for Sonic with pretty much no limits, even allowing fan-remakes of Sonic games
*Atlus, which is owned by Sega:* gets upset when someone hosts a fan-server for an online game that they're no longer making money off of.
Well they let people run private servers for years before this one server. The issue was this server claimed ownership and copypasted the official website.
That's what happens when Atlus West sticks their fingers in the pie of the Japanese branch(wrong term, I imagine).
3:05 РОССИЯ! РОССИЯ! В ЭТОМ СЛОВЕ ОГОНЬ И СИЛА!