Can I start with this game?

[Rifa]

I've seen there are a lot of .hack games and I've never played them before. Can I start with this (Last Recode)?

[Ryulightorb]

yes it's standalone but it does have a lot of references kinda hard to play the original trilogy these days :) DO ENJOY

[Aubmaire]

i would recommend it honestly.
then if you can deal with the game play loop and stuff then you'll be okay to play through IMOQ

[Threm Tahei]

You can start from these games but first i suggest to watch .Hack Roots (The anime) It explains the time lapsus from 8 months on the beggening of the game

[Ragnarox]

Yes you can! .hack roots is like a prologue for this game, but if you didnt watch it is also okay. The game is repetitive but if you want to have 100% achievement, but if not its not too grinding. ive played before in ps2 , now im playing for achievements and it's really repetitive.

[JuniperGreen]

I know it's been a couple weeks since you asked this... but please do yourself a favor and watch .Hack//Sign and then play .Hack//IMOQ. I recommend playing it on PC over playing it on the original console, because FPS-turbo x2 speed is a godsend for how slow the game play can feel when running down long corridors in dungeons and stuff, and for how tedious some battles can get. Increasing the speed makes it more enjoyable. (For obvious reasons, I'm going to say you should acquire legitimate physical copies of the games yourself in order to do this.)

Watch each episode of .Hack//Liminality that coincides with each volume of IMOQ.... and then watch .Hack//Roots, and finally... play .Hack//G.U. ((Oh and there is a super short digital manga that released with this new version of the game called ".Hack/G.U. Before", which explains who Haseo was prior to G.U.

You can play the game without doing this... but omfg will you appreciate this game 100x more with all the context. But if you can't be bothered to play the older games, check the YouTube Channel "Hard Mode Activated" and look for his videos titled "Dot Hack// (game-title-here) Full Story."

But honestly for as outdated as IMOQ is... there is something very charming and mesmerising about those old graphics and game-play. I really enjoyed the games.