.hack: Welcome to "The World"

[patapi]

Okay. Here is the deal. I started .hack//G.U. Vol 1 Rebirth less than a week ago, and now I am already 10 hours into Vol 2 Reminisce.

When the original quad was released, I wasn't too thrilled to try them out due to the sheer ridicule of purchasing 4 games to complete a single storyline. Those games didn't get good reviews among hardcore and casual gamers alike, discounting the series' deep-rooted fans. Generally, they said that the story was top-notch, but the repetitiveness for (on average, apparently) 120 hours of gameplay is probably too much.

For me, G.U. is surprisingly addictive. It's my premier entry into the .hack franchise, and it has made me hopeful for the vast array of materials that BandaiNamco are putting out to build a multimedia series out of the premise of glitched simulated MMORPG...

... Imagine what it'd be if Konami actually put this kind of elaborate effort into expanding its wonderous Suikoden world and lores.

With that out of the way, have any of you gotten into any of the .hack materials yet? What did you like, what did you not? For someone who enjoyed GU so much, would you recommend the original IMOQ?

[Spiraling Entropy]

I've played through all of the first and part of second of the original series. It's a fun game and all, but I just lost interest in it.

[mhatter106]

i played thru just a little bit of .hack infection which i think is the firts in the series. i didnt like it all that much. it was ok i guess maybe ill revisit it after im done with the 30-40 other games on my to-play list. screw the "replaying" games thread. i have enuff games i have played thru for the first time.

[KFCrispy]

i played the first game out of the series but it was too uninteresting for me. the story is short because you're supposed to buy the next like 6 games all for $50, and the item collecting / dungeon-crawling doesn't interest me. there's no real skills system, at least in the original series, it's just getting equipment and "hacking" away at enemies.... not much strategy other than speeding yourself up to run faster and attack faster. the story may be deep but i don't want to play 8 or so different games to get the whole thing. but seriously, someone is corrupting a MMORPG world, so i honestly couldn't care. you're trying to save a game that exists on some servers.... they're called PROGRAMMERS.
the G.U. series does seem to have a much more interesting battle system, however.

[Chaco]

I really liek the story, the game is fun and addicting. I lOVE the idea of a desktop and AIDA. I think though that if we were able to make our own characters and have an online version that would be pretty cool, Then an offline game like Phantasy Star Universe has.

[27x4=108]

the hack games and the g.u. games are diferent only in the battles i think, they messed so much in the 4 first games, and in g.u. the battles are better, more interesting and adictive

the order of the story ( for interested ppl ) i think is ( correct me if i make any mistake )

hack sign ( anime )
hack ( 4 games )
hack dusk ( anime and manga )

hack roots ( anime )
hack g.u. ( games )

[Chaco]

Haseo is Sora from .Hack//Sign.

[Tanrim]

With that out of the way, have any of you gotten into any of the .hack materials yet? What did you like, what did you not? For someone who enjoyed GU so much, would you recommend the original IMOQ?

I'm a bit of a .hack freak myself. Seen all three shows, played and own the first four games as well as the three GU games. Even have a couple of the novels.

There's not much I didn't like except the equipment based skills of IMOQ, I suppose. That system, espically after GU, is pretty annoying. Still, are the games worth giving a try? I think they are. The story is pretty interesting, in my opinion. If you liked GU it's worth a look for sure. It will give you a lot of insight that you might not have about what happened before.