[PS2] .Hack Games

Heya,

I'm an anime and RPG fan... and someone told me that perhaps I should look into the .hack games... I asked him if they were good - he said they were different (not sure what that means but sounds neat)

So that caught my interest... now I'm looking and I see XXXXXXX games out there and I'm confused!!!! Can someone actually list them in order of story or whatever way works that can possibly sort/organize it... I'm guessing some are linked

Also how would you rate this game? Story-wise, character-wise, length of games... are there voice overs etc?

I see ratings that are decent but ones that are like around 5-6 (which is low) ranked on gamespot. Anywayz I'm gonna start looking into places where I can find this game.... not keeping my fingers crossed as it does seem like a pretty old series (doubt I'll find it easily).

They look weird like a action-rpg type of game... never watched the anime related to it either. I'm interested in what people who played it have to say.

Thanks

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

While we're on the topic of .Hack, what about the animes like SIGN? Do those fit into the timeline, or are they part of a different story altogether?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I've played through (and read) the entire first series now and I can say, unless you're prepared to put a lot of money and time into this (for not a lot of outcome), then don't bother.

It's a great premise (mysterious happenings in an MMORPG), but since it's covered by so many different mediums (books, manga, anime, game), each medium is afraid to take any big steps in storytelling. This is because if one author writes something out of the established storyline, the people who haven't read that particular item will miss out on something important. Unfortunately, that means as you play/read/watch a particular game/book/anime, you get the feeling that you're just wasting time.

I don't particularly regret watching SIGN, playing through all the first series of games, watching each Liminality episode, reading each associated novel (1-4), the AI Buster novels, and the Key of the Twilight manga, but it really just felt "empty" to me. It's as if the mystery that's encapsulated in this entire conglomerate of merchandise is barely enough to fit in a full paragraph.

I only made it halfway through the Dusk anime (since it's so damn stupid), and I haven't started on the second series of merchandise... and I don't know if I will.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I completed INFECTION and MUTATION, but after that I felt no desire to finish the other two games in the first series.

I picked up the GU series at a friend's insistence, but haven't taken the shrink wrap off them yet.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?