Do I need to watch the .hack series to understand the plot?

[totalgamenut9]

The game looks fun mine main concerned is that I would have to watch the series (note I've watched up to .hack legends of the twilight) and played none of the ps2 games more so there pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ expensive. Do I need to finish watching the series and play the older games to understand the .hack gu or is it a different story all together from .hack gu?

[Silamon]

First you can watch Terminal Disk that summarizes the original Infection series that takes place before .hack//gu. This is included with the game or you can just watch it on youtube. Next watch .hack//roots or read a synopsis of the plot (strongly recommend reading the synopsis, that anime is soooo slow. Maybe 2 or 3 major events in 26 episodes....). After that you should be good to go with the game

[sojackedup]

it's a bit confusing dropping into G.U. you're going to miss some finer details, but G.U. is almost completely self contained, ROOTS is connected ( 2 of the months between the tutorial and the "cathedral incident" before you retake control) and IMOQ explains the importance of the statue of a girl at hulle granz, SIGN shows why HASEO has the powers he does. but you don't NEED to watch/read/play the previous stuff to understand and enjoy G.U.