Does the Game Series Get Better?

[Toki]

I'm playing volume 1 now.
Haseo is trying to recruit Cleric to his party for Arena.

The combat's not exactly amazing.
The item variety and system isn't exactly amazing.
Leveling up isn't exactly amazing.
The game feels pretty meh.
I guess watching cutscenes is somewhat alright.

Does the first game get better?
Are the later games better?

Do they feature more gear slots and do equipment change how the character looks?
Can I rechoose my job? (Adept Rogue -> Something else.)
Do I get better leveling? (So I can make choices instead of leveling being just passive stat boost.)
Does the combat get better? Like more Dark Souls-like or FF12 like or Tales of-like?

[Kazrael]

If you aren't liking it by that point it's probably not for you.

[Toki]

Originally posted by Kaztor Troy:

If you aren't liking it by that point it's probably not for you.

Does any of this stuff happen:

Do they feature more gear slots and do equipment change how the character looks?
Can I rechoose my job? (Adept Rogue -> Something else.)
Do I get better leveling? (So I can make choices instead of leveling being just passive stat boost.)
Does the combat get better? Like more Dark Souls-like or FF12 like or Tales of-like?

[Toki]

Does poison status end up becoming a max hp %-based status instead of 1 dmg per tick apparently.

[KarmaTheAlligator]

One thing to keep in mind is, you're not playing a MMORPG, you're playing a single player simulation of one, so there's no character customisation. You play as Haseo, full stop.

Haseo is an Adept Rogue only, but he eventually gets access to weapons other than the dual swords thanks to job extensions.

Haseo's appearance changes with his job extensions, nothing else.

Levelling up is fixed, no choices.

Combat gets a little better once you get you second weapon (second half of volume 1), and a bit better from volume 2.

Poison is useless. Only useful ailment in volume 1 is sleep.

Item variety gets better from volume 2.

[Mochigase]

Man you're asking a bit too much from an PS2 era JRPG lol

[Toki]

I guess I was spoiled by Persona 2, Phantasy Star Online, Tales of Symphonia, Disgaea 1 and other games of the era which were really good, Dario.

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by Thos:

I guess I was spoiled by Persona 2, Phantasy Star Online, Tales of Symphonia, Disgaea 1 and other games of the era which were really good, Dario.

I can see where you are coming from:
* Persona-series has a huge scala of different zodiacs/persona to collect, level, morph and use
* Disgaea has a huge roster of classes you can collect, level, reincarnate and use
* Phantasy Star has a HUGE collection of achievements you can grind for
* Tales of symphonia had a great story

.//HACk/GU.Recode has a marvelous story (if you're a fan of the anime series or previous itterations of the game and/or anime-series like Sword Art online). Virtually limitless possibilities on WHERE you want to level. A deep combat system once you get past the tutorial (which is basically the entirety of part 1).
The downside is that .//HACK is (and always has been) an extremely slow burn on ALL of these facets.

As for your questions:
* You don't get more gear slots but once you have done a couple of job extentions you get the option (in part 2) to swap your class on the fly and each class will have a distinct playstyle with pro's and con's which will make combat more interesting.
* As stated; you will get more jobs you can swap to via the job-extention system (your first, heavy blade, is just around the corner if you're at the point of trying to get Atoli to join your arena team)
* You get better leveling in terms of the speed at which you want to level but .//HACk has never focussed on level to begin with so don't give that to much thought....it will be VERY hard not to end part 1 around lvl 40-50 and 50 is the cap for part 1. In previous itterations of the game there were mechanics that could PERMANENTLY level you DOWN as well as up, which might give you an idea how important that level is.
* Combat will get better if you don't cheeze it and go for zones perpetually under your own level. Also, combat in part 2 and onwards is much more fast-paced than in part 1 and PK's/PKK's/Arena opponents will actively start using counters and awakenings against you, as well as monsters using status effects or gangrush you (if that's their type, like goblins)

Having said ALL of this:

./HACK/Infection, Quarantine, Mutation & Outbreak > .//HACK/GU

I guess they got a whole bunch of negative feedback on how grindy and tough those games were and we were left with the bare bones of all those mechanics EVEN though the earlier 4 parts didn't allow you to multiclass they were MUCH harder to get a decent handle on with enemies completely immune to damage unless you would inflict them with DEFdown or MAGdown to break their barriers (not to mention they would spamjuggle the %^& out of you if you gave them a finger-lengths chance to do so). My first attempt against Skeith (the "final boss" of ./Hack/Infection) had me seriously grind afterwards as he simply wiped the floor with me and the resulting "OS-crash" was scarier than any sanity effect of Perfect Dark. The game would very convincingly emulate a total crash of your PS2, with corruption text, bluescreen and subsequent "reboot"....truly made me almost crap my pants the first time it happened.

[Toki]

Thank you, Overeagerdragon!
That's a great post.

Glad to hear there's stuff to make combat feel different in later games.

[Mahuloq]

I really hope they do a remake of the first series as well.

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by Mahuloq:

I really hope they do a remake of the first series as well.

Same here but, unfortunately, should that happen my review for this game would become a "do not recommend" as G.U.RECODE would simply turn into a poor man's "Liminality" as, IMHO, the older game is just so much deeper, complex and expanded than this one.

[Hitorishizuka]

Originally posted by Thos:

I'm playing volume 1 now.
Haseo is trying to recruit Cleric to his party for Arena.

The combat's not exactly amazing.
The item variety and system isn't exactly amazing.
Leveling up isn't exactly amazing.
The game feels pretty meh.
I guess watching cutscenes is somewhat alright.

Does the first game get better?
Are the later games better?

Do they feature more gear slots and do equipment change how the character looks?
Can I rechoose my job? (Adept Rogue -> Something else.)
Do I get better leveling? (So I can make choices instead of leveling being just passive stat boost.)
Does the combat get better? Like more Dark Souls-like or FF12 like or Tales of-like?

Things get better as you go through the volumes. That said these games are known for story than their gameplay. Vol 1 could be considered a beta compared to Vol 2 and Vol 3. Last Recode does fix up several of Vol 1's problems.

The overall speed of the gameplay is increase starting with Vol 2. Equipment customization really starts to pick up in Vol 2. Things are even better in Vol 3.

[Toki]

Thanks, Hitori. That's good to know!

[Fnord]

Piggybacking on this thread:
Does the main character get better?
I'm a few hours into the first game, and I just can't stand the main character. He's just an unlikable jerk, who seems to attack people for no real reason. Yeah, I know, he lost someone he liked, and he's sad/defensive because of that, not wanting to let anyone else too close because he does not want to get hurt, and so on and so forth. But that still does not make him more likable. And people around him just seem to accept that he's a jerk to them, for no apparent reason.

I'm about 3½h in, and I kind of just want him to go away.

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Originally posted by Fnord:

Piggybacking on this thread:
Does the main character get better?
I'm a few hours into the first game, and I just can't stand the main character. He's just an unlikable jerk, who seems to attack people for no real reason. Yeah, I know, he lost someone he liked, and he's sad/defensive because of that, not wanting to let anyone else too close because he does not want to get hurt, and so on and so forth. But that still does not make him more likable. And people around him just seem to accept that he's a jerk to them, for no apparent reason.

I'm about 3½h in, and I kind of just want him to go away.

He gets better.

[Finn The Inhuman]

Ah, I was wondering about this. Quite deep into vol 1 (got my Job Extension, started fighting with my Avatar) and while I like the story, the combat feels really meh to me. Almost no strategy to speak of, it's hit hit hit until they die, and sometimes use a Rengeki when the chance presents itself. Even if I go for harder areas it only becomes more length, not more difficult, not to mention I end up earning so much EXP I level up a lot so I end up catching up with the area before I finish it. It's really quite simplistic, even for the time. I'd rather have taken turn based FF-style team battles.