Turns out you don't even get anything for becoming the champion. I just wasted 24 hours. wee!

I wasn't a big fan of the whole deck will fight automatically either. It would have been much better if you could just see the 500 people ranked there, and could slowly fight the way to the top.

There's a rumor going around that Cyberconnect is going to make a .hack game for DS.

so rumor is, 3rd chapter comes out september 10th. wish it was sooner.. but i guess its ok :P

What's the source for this rumor? After the many false leads we got over vol. 2's release I'm wary about placing any trust at all in this. Honestly, I'd be surprised to see a release any sooner than October.

ign/gamefaqs :P

not very good sources i know.. a man can dream though right? oct is to far!

Hey, it looks like your rumored date of September 10th might be right after all!

EB's site has it listed as shipping on 9/10/07, and they were accurate with vol. 2 since they refrained from even adding it to their site until Namco-Bandai gave a real date. That's fantastic news if it's true since like I already said, I was expecting an October release at the earliest.

So ive been thinking about playing this game. Do you guys recommend that I start with the original series?

not really important, G.U is its own story pretty much..

but do try an play Vol 1 & 2 before getting 3

I'm not sure how enjoyable GU would be if you know nothing about the original series, but it's not necessary to play them all. I recommend tracking down a torrent for the Terminal Disc that came with GU vol. 1's special edition. It has fairly comprehensive reviews of the first four games among other things.

I enjoyed them, with really no knowledge of the older .hacks.

I played them when they first came out, but I dont really remember them. *shrug*

Honestly, G.U.'s story isn't enjoyable regardless of whether or not you know the backstory with the original series. They're all hardcore-cheesy in the storyline department. I stopped playing Volume 2 early on because I couldn't take it anymore.

Not to mention that the original games are really starting to show their age (from and graphical and gameplay perspective).

I guess i'm amused to easy.. i liked them :P

Same, I'm not going to be terribly picky about my games since i have a lot of time to play them. I guess people stressed for time would only want to play the 'best', but I can at least enjoy this happily. Now i just have to wait for Vol 3.


I seriously hope they don't make a DS .hack. I'm tired of RPGs on the DS when they could be putting them out on a console.

so any importers play vol. 3? Just wanted to know how long it is, I guess the same as the other 2?

I'd guess it's the same length as the first two volumes, yeah. It could be a bit longer though, since apparently it introduces two new root towns rather than just one more, and there's a 100 level dungeon after you beat it. At least it won't have the same problem as the 15 floor epilogue dungeon from Quarantine, where it forced you to be close to max level or risk random game over from data drain infection with every fight.

Although it pains me to do so, I'll probably go pre-order this tomorrow. Gamestop only got in 2 copies of vol. 2 (I showed up as the delivery truck was leaving), and my Best Buy has been extremely incompetant with release dates lately. I don't want to get stuck waiting an extra week just because EB doesn't like to actually stock merchandise.

Oh god, I remember that dungeon. That was the stupidest dungeon, ever. It all depended on luck, I tried 3 times, and got game over eventually in all 3. I just gave up in the end.

Same here. It was even more frustrating when I found out it was 15 floors and I'd made it to floor 13 on my first try. I finally went back to it last summer in preparation for GU vol. 1, grinded up to level 98-99, and did it fairly easily since your infection rate depended on your level compared to the area's.

Im gonna preorder it this weekend.. I hear something about a poster when you do? I wish it was the disc that i missed out on.. terminal or whatever

Played it for 20 hours and i'm at the end.

If i see another flying monster i'll murder something. Now i'm just powerleveling for the final boss.

20hours? wow, i managed to get 35hours each on the last two volumes. Oh well, I plan to get this soon.. I'm having alot of fun with Wild Arms V at the moment though

Game Defeated.

I have about 70 hours total. I'm 8 levels from max level, have two of three Dopp weapons(I never fought him in vol 1 :( ), and now I just have to work on my affection stuff.... Sadly, the people i DON'T want madly in love with me are, and the ones i like, don't...

Oh and god help me if i try to get 100% Ryu Books, as far as i'm concerned they don't exist. This is the worst anything ever to max out, christ...

Man this is going to take forever :(

Are the Ryu books harder to max out in vol. 3 for some reason? Hell, two of mine maxed out the first time I talked to Death Grunty.

I think I'm maybe about 1/3 of the way through the game now, and I love it as much as the others so far.

That opening song is bone chilling.

I beat the game last night, clocking in at around 30 hours. This game felt a bit shorter than previous installments, but mostly because I spent two days last week playing for about 8 hours. It also didn't spread the story out as much. Usually people are inviting you to various areas and such, but not this time around. I think I only had 2 lucky animals kicked when I finished the game.

Still plenty of stuff left to clean up in the epilogue though.

Overall a great conclusion to the series. I'll miss having a new volume to look forward to, but maybe in a few years we'll get another .Hack series. There's apparently an 80 minute OVA spanning GU's story in the works at the moment.

Do all the new characters start at red with 5 orbs again? I hope not, because some character types are so annoying to get all the way up to pink.