.Hack//GU
 

The Hack games were known for their length, and the fact that you had to buy four games before you could even finish them. Now, a new 3-part series has been announced, with the first volume, Hack//GU: Ressurection being released in Japan on May 18. As of yet, there's no news about a US release, although it'll surely be coming this way.

Below, you'll find most of the important info available, borrowed from www.dothackers.net, the most reliable and best site for anything you want to know about .Hack.

Also be aware that there will be spoilers for the previous games!

The Story
After a fire destroyed CC Corps's main servers, the entire World had to be rebuilt, and the World: R2 was released, quickly growing to be one of the most popular MMORPG's. As a result of the new world, four major Guilds (Kestrel, Lunar Tree, Canard, and Raven) came to power. The clans actions shape 'The World', and most players end up taking one side or another during conflicts. The game follows Haseo, one of the most feared player killers, after his confrontation with Ti-Edge, who somehow possesses the Data Drain Ability.

Characters


The Guilds:


The battle system

• Enemy AI: Like the previous games, enemy A.I. will be able to detect a party and attack members in real time. I think that they'll keep the field and dungeon system from the first game.New in //G.U is the ability to launch suprise attacks on enemies. Launching surprise attacks will increase the amount of damage Haseo does to monsters in a battle.
  
  
• Skill Triggers:An R1 button icon displayed over Haseo's head in battle signals a chance for a skill trigger. Pressing R1 will stop time and allow a player to enter the selected buttons to complete a skill trigger.
  
  
• Party Attacks:Multiple hit-combos on an enemy will give users a chance to use a party attack with Haseo. The attack creates damage much higher than some skill triggers.
  
  
• In addition to standard monster battles, [.hack//G.U.] will also offer versus battles against Player Killers. On the field map, certain spots titled "Battle Area" are visible. Once a player approaches these zones, he will automatically be drawn into battle. Players who are being attacked by a foe might call for help. Successfully aiding them in battle and taking down their opponents will be rewarded by discounts at guild shops.

Other Information

• Scans can be found here
• Trailers can be found here
• Offical website

This is exciting news, i have been a fan of the .hack series since the start.

I would love to play this game especially with those 4 guilds, man the story would be awesome.

This is incredible! I loved the .hack series. This time, the main character actually looks damn cool. Great that they added new features.

Okay, it's probably just me, but I find those character designs absolutely terrible.

The main character makes me feel prickly all over just looking at him. It's like the director of the game was shouting "MORE SPIKES, ADD MORE YOU FOOL! AND MAKE HIM BLACK AND RED AND GIVE HIM A SCYTHE. HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE BADASS!" to the character designer. And the guy with the sealed arm? That thing's freakin' gigantic, and it's not even a weapon! How can he walk around and not look stupid? And this is supposed to be a MMORPG, what's he doing with a "sealed arm"? Did he MAKE his character like that?

So lame.

I was asking myself the same thing. -_-

I'll play this sooner or later, since I enjoy the .hack universe overall. The guild system seems interesting, too.

JazzFlight: Common sense actually. It's a game in a game. You're playing an invisible guy that's playing an MMORPG. Look at FFXI's dark knight for example. Typical design. The needed a "forced" design to remind the players that's a MMORPG in a game. These characters already look better than the recent ToL char.

EDIT: Also, I'm sure they could think of a good way for him to move around with a huge ass scythe.

If you really can't stand the design then don't play it. =\

Ovan could also have a character hack. In .Hack//Sign Macha, the cat person, was originally thought to just be a hacked character design so it isn't that uncommon and could be allowed in The World: R2. Seems like an odd thing to do to his character though; I thought it was an enormous gatling gun or club weapon. Speaking of the character hacks though, I find it interesting that no group representing the System Admin. has been mentioned. I figured that one of the 4 guilds would be something like the Crimson/Cobalt Knights in previous incarnations.

I can't wait for this to be released. I loved the first 4 games, and I've watched the trailer for GU a dozen times. Nice to finally hear all this new news though, since nothing had been said for awhile. Personally, I think the character designs are pretty damn spiffy. Kite started off really lame and gradually became cooler, but it does seem interesting to play as a character who already has a reputation this time.

Oh why don't they just make it a mmo already. I'd seriously play it, look at FFXI's success with playing a game with a controller. Just don't make it like FFXI but still deep enough and it would be fine. I'd love to play a MMO with a controller again...

They did; it's called .Hack//Fragment. The last I checked it has no North American release planned though.

.hack games are probably the only time I'll ever play an MMORPG. Even if it's not even a real MMORPG. I invest soooo much time in the first 4 games and the other media. I just love the whole project, never seen anything like it before. I'm pretty excited for this game even though I'm sure I'll just be confused with the story like I was with the other .hack stories -_-

Haseo's only going to look like that at the beginning. He very quickly loses all those spikes and the other negative aspects that you perceive in Haseo's design.

Haseo's look:


I'd have to disagree with turning Hack in a MMORPG though (even though there's Fragment). The battle system is just rather bland, there doesn't seem to be any main story in the World, and I haven't seen any real player quests. I don't know how fragment works out, but I'm sceptic I guess.

In my opinion turning .Hack into an MMORPG is a great idea, since most people wanted to "Interact" with the sorroundings on .hack, an Mmorpg great because Interact,party and al that will be a nice addiction to the .hack world, and besides MMORPGs doesnt have story, if there would ever be an mmorpg its just constantly doing quest and leveling up for the sake of being famous.

I'll admit that I very much wanted to make my own character in the .hack games (Long Arm, dammit), but as people have said, The World as it's presented in the games just doesn't have a lot to do - you raid dungeons and feed Grunties. Of course, as an actual MMO it might be enough for a casual gamer who just wants to log on and party up with his buddies; I dunno. I started "playing" The World recently, starting .hack//infection over and just taking BlackRose through random dungeons, but that gets boring very quickly.

Having said that, I'd still give Fragment a try if it got released here. *shrug*

It looks like we might be seeing Haseo's "freaky look" sooner than we thought. It turns out that its his "3rd form." Some new scans reveal not only Haseo's 2nd form, but also his ability to transform into Avatar Skeith.

I totally don't like the Skeith form, it just looks so wrong. I wonder if the other members of your party will also be able to transform into one of the 8 waves, since they are nicknamed as such, and how it's exactly triggered.

I'm digging this. Skeith was always my favorite of the 8 (he had the coolest music, sorry), so seeing him back in action is a fanboy ... dream thing. I actually only care about Haseo's chainsaw broadsword. The sooner I get to wail on NPCs with that the better.

I rather like the Player killing concept, although it won't be something to do early in the game. It makes it seem much more like a real MMORPG, if only they would implement some decent sidequests.

I agree, I didn't really like the sidequests in .hack, they were usually alot of trecking through the same thing for a very small reward, like the one with the vine creature that supposedly raised your level by ten. Did anybody really believe that? I would like to see more original characters too, it seemed like most of the people you got in your party just looked different than the others with the same attacks, over and over [I know this is usually what its like in an MMO but still, more variety in attacks would have been very nice and .hack didn't have the MMO like interaction to redeem the mundane repetition of abilities.]

Was that Kite from the trailer? if it was, he changed a lot. Kicking ass now >.>
And this game looks a lot better from their older sequels.

It's actually a character of indeterminate origin named Tri-Edge. His exact relationship to Kite is unknown.

Haseo's not the only one who can transform into an Avatar. The titles of the eight Infinity Characters suddenly make complete sense.

Footage of an Avatar Battle, featuring Skeith

Haseo's ability to transform into or summon Skeith revealed. Reminds me of Zone of the Enders, but with Data Drain. Also looks as though the party is not involved, although Skeith's appearances could strictly be event battles.

oh yeah and for those that dont know each week there is a new video in the official site http://www.cyberconnect2.jp/gu/main.html

Wow, nice video. Somehow it feels kind of like a spoiler, but not so much at the same time.

I wonder if this means you can only control Haseo/Skeith in the Zone of the Ender-esque battles.