[PS2] .Hack Games

The .Hack games aren't for everyone, so don't trust reviews. A lot of people hate them for spanning so many games and having fairly lackluster gameplay, but the story and characters redeemed it all completely for me. That being said, I'm a complete .Hack nut.

The combat in the first series of games is incredibly generic for the most part. Most of it is just hitting the X button to attack, but items and skills are necessary for bosses. Quarantine and Outbreak have a lot of enemies that are immune to physical or magic attacks, forcing you start using skills a lot more. The biggest problem with GU, the second series, is the disparity between levels. A few levels below an enemy and you can barely touch them, but a few levels above and you're a god. The combat system is greatly improved, though.

As for a timeline:

- AI Buster (novels)
- Sign (anime)
- Infection
- Mutation
- Outbreak
- Quarantine
- Liminality (anime that comes with the PS2 games and happens simultaneously)
- Dusk/Key of the Twilight (anime/manga)
- Roots (anime)
- GU: Rebirth
- GU: Reminisce
- GU: Redemption

Avoid .Hack//Roots, though. 90% of the show is pointless filler, and the remaining 10% contradicts a lot of stuff in GU even though it's supposed to be the introduction to it.

There's also the Terminal Disc that came as a Gamestop preorder bonus for GU: Rebirth in America. It has very in-depth reviews of all four original games (enough that you really wouldn't even need to play them) and uncovers a lot of the story behind GU that your clear data from each of the three games unlocks. Good luck finding one though.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

SIGN ends right where Infection begins. The SIGN characters don't really show up much in the games, though you can talk to some of their "ghosts" in Outbreak and some join as playable characters after you beat the final boss. Sora and Macha are the only ones that actually show up as important to the story.

None of the .Hacks are outside of the timeline, but some do occur at the same time. The only exception is that Key of the Twilight (manga) and Dusk (anime) are the same thing with two completely different endings. Nothing that happens in it is really important though, so it doesn't matter which one you prefer.

There's nowhere I can't reach.