What the heck is this game (No spoilers please)

[Moynzy]

Hello, I have played a lot JRPGs in my time, I have read tons of manga (none of that Chinese trash), and watched many anime, but what is this game lol?

It's a lot different to many games. I wasn't a vivid gamer when I was younger, so I didn't really play RPG games on the PS2 or Gamecube, but I hear this game is a remake of a PS2 game, correct me if I am wrong, so I will forgive the graphics, game mechanics, ect.

I'm two hours in, and I feel so disconnected. it's about a guy who basically started this MMO, got PKED, became OP as duck, and started PKing Pkers. Now his arch enemy has reverted him back to level 1 and he has to level up to defeat him and get answers about the female protagonist who is in a coma. Is the game worth playing at this point. I love a good story yo, like Tokyo Xanadu eX+, so would it help to watch the anime? or Should i just buckle down and play and enjoy the story.

Cheers gamers.

[Azure Zero]

Cyber Connect (the Developer) tend to make games where they focus more on the story then game play.

Now the game's story is not the best, but is better thought out and has more intelligence in it then most of the trash made currently.
To get more of the game's story it is best to use the Terminal Disk to get an abridged version of the first .hack game series, and Watching .hack Roots will cover the time period between Haseo's PK, and his rise as the feared PKK.

The .hack series covers many media; games, anime, manga, Light Novels, and radio dramas (radio dramas were JP only) and at this point has many eras.

Now to get all the story from the start you'd need to; read AI Buster, watch .hack sign, play the first game series and watch the OVA disks that came with. then watch .hack roots (1-23), play the game until the End of Vol 2, then watch the last 3 eps of Roots, then play the game's last 2 Volumes.

[Moynzy]

My god, That is a lot of content to get through. I never knew this series would have such depth to it.

Thank you very much for the information! I hope the ends justify the means! I just hope i don't burn my self out!

[Kargor]

Personally, I decided to sit through vol 3 and then drop the game with a thumb-down, but that's just me. I have some familiarity with some of the old .hack anime (nothing current, though, and I'm mostly remembering SIGN, although Ovan and the Twilight Brigade was somewhat familiar as well), but the game just felt horrible throughout, in both gameplay and writing.

So, at least for me, I can perfectly understand if someone doesn't like the game...

[Azure Zero]

Originally posted by Moynzy:

My god, That is a lot of content to get through. I never knew this series would have such depth to it.

Thank you very much for the information! I hope the ends justify the means! I just hope i don't burn my self out!

Oh I did forget One thing

Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, came out as both a Manga and a Anime, the Manga is the one that is considered Canon.
You have to read that one after the finishing the first game series as it is before roots, and the other content is AI Buster 2 Light Novel. Those 2 are the last stories of the R1 era.
With Roots and GU starting off the R2 era.

[Moynzy]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Personally, I decided to sit through vol 3 and then drop the game with a thumb-down, but that's just me. I have some familiarity with some of the old .hack anime (nothing current, though, and I'm mostly remembering SIGN, although Ovan and the Twilight Brigade was somewhat familiar as well), but the game just felt horrible throughout, in both gameplay and writing.

So, at least for me, I can perfectly understand if someone doesn't like the game...

thanks for the sharing your experience. I may come to follow it soon. This series isn't for everyone, but a niche audience...i guess.

[Moynzy]

Originally posted by Azure Zero:

Originally posted by Moynzy:

My god, That is a lot of content to get through. I never knew this series would have such depth to it.

Thank you very much for the information! I hope the ends justify the means! I just hope i don't burn my self out!

Oh I did forget One thing

Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, came out as both a Manga and a Anime, the Manga is the one that is considered Canon.
You have to read that one after the finishing the first game series as it is before roots, and the other content is AI Buster 2 Light Novel. Those 2 are the last stories of the R1 era.
With Roots and GU starting off the R2 era.

You must be a devote fan! I am jelouse of your ability to comprehend literature and other forms of media and enjoy them.

[Omega XTR]

I don't know about you having to consume all of the other media to enjoy G.U. tho. Personally I played a bit of the original games on the PS2 and then got a copy of G.U. vol2 and 3 (games were extremely rare where I live, so I couldn't get them all) played them and liked them a lot.

As far as I'm concerned, you'll get a lot more from this game if you consume all of the media, but that can be said from every other franchise like Fate, for example, but most of it will be to understand the bigger picture. I'd say just play it and see for yourself. The story is good, nothing revolutionary, but it develops nicely on it's own and you can always go and consume the other media if you got invested.

[vsavatar]

.hack is not just a game or even a series of games. It is a universe with a story that spans multiple volumes of literature (manga and novels) plus some anime series. Much of what has been published has sadly not been translated into English and may never be. For instance, .hack//Epitaph of Twilight is a two volume Japanese novel that kicks everything off. I own both volumes, but my Japanese isn't good enough to read through it. That book is almost two decades old and will probably never be translated, but I believe it could offer a lot of background into the lore as a whole, which is why it bothers me that it was never translated. There was also an actual MMORPG based on .hack, that has since gone defunct, but supposedly there are still some private servers out there.

You can Google .hack chronology to get an idea of what to read/play and in what order, but I'll warn you that a large chunk of it will be useless to you unless you can read Japanese proficiently. There is a .hack translate site that one guy has been translating various .hack works on for years, but he has barely scratched the surface, given the large amount of literature out there that covers it. His goal is to get through everything, but he's only one person, and thus it takes literally years to get through even one work.

So, when you're playing a .hack game, remember that you're only looking at a small piece of a rather large puzzle, all of which connects together in some way, shape or form, even if it isn't seamless.

[REAVER2310(Aegis)]

What your getting into is a very small FRAGMENT of something much larger.I should know i started watching the anime almost when it came out(i was 11-12 at the time)