.Hack//Quarantine is the fourth of a series of four games, titled .hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, and .hack//Quarantine, features a "game within a game"; a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called The World which does not require the player to connect to the Internet. Players may transfer their characters and data between games in the series. Each game comes with an extra DVD containing an episode of .hack//Liminality, the accompanying original video animation series which details fictional events that occur concurrently with the games. The games are part of a multimedia franchise called Project .hack which explores the mysterious origins of The World. Set after the events of the anime series .hack//Sign, the games focus on a player named Kite and his quest to discover why some users have become comatose as a result of playing The World. The search evolves into a deeper investigation of The World and its effects on the stability of the Internet.
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This rating/review is for the entire IMOQ tetralogy, since they are by all accounts one single game across four discs.
The best part of these games is how well they simulate the old-school MMO experience, and I mean that both inside the game and out. Quests are given in emails and on forum posts, you get to know more about characters' lives outside the game the more you build their affinity, and gear can be acquired through trading with other "players." Along the way, you'll definitely want to consult some real-life forums and FAQs to help you with the Virus Core grind and some of the more well-hidden secrets. I think it succeeded in delivering what it was like to participate in a late-90s/early-00s MMORPG.
The gameplay loop is essentially checking your email/forums to accept new quests, going to a new dungeon, fighting a boss/watching a cutscene (or both), repeat. It's repetitive, but engaging enough both because of how engrossing the world is and how fun the combat is. Combat is similar to Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3, where you control the main character and the other two are AI, and you can pause at any time to perform actions and use items. The biggest difference is that you don't have to build any meters, and you can set more specific commands to party members. You can also just use the general whole-party "Skills!" command and they will be smart enough to hit enemy weaknesses provided they have those actions available. Most of the time, this works well enough, so you don't have to be super precise with your commands until you fight 4+ enemies at once or bosses. An important thing to keep in mind is that all Skills and Scrolls animation-lock you, whereas items don't. This creates a compelling risk-reward system where, for example, casting healing spells proactively can mitigate incoming damage, while items can help out in a pinch, but you can only carry a limited supply. 99 of each item sounds like a lot, but you can burn through them very quickly in a long dungeon if you aren't playing efficiently. This battle system may appear slow due to all the menu pausing, but in reality this is a system where you can win or lose in mere seconds. You always have to be ready to heal, buff, debuff, attack, etc., because enemies can take you down in just a few hits. If you aren't hitting enemy weaknesses fast enough, you'll be forced to use items to heal in reaction to massive damage.
One of the most interesting things is how actions are tied to equipment, which makes gear much less of a simple numbers comparison. The Lv. 19 Blades of Bond may have significantly less physical attack power than the Lv. 74 Raian, but you also get a lot more elemental resistances and slightly higher magic attack. This is just one example of dozens. What this means is that, although Kite is always a Twin Blade, you don't have to gear him up to be one. There are plenty of options for gearing him as a caster, healer, or even something more tanky, though your options are limited there since you can't equip heavy armor.
It's a pretty interesting RPG system, all things considered, but there are a few small changes that I think would really elevate it. Hotkeys would be nice, and could work similarly to FF14, using the shoulder buttons. The camera reset and zoom buttons could be remapped to R3 and L1+R3, respectively (also like FF14), since those buttons currently aren't used. Opening hotkeys would still pause the game just like the normal command menu, so it would just cut down on the amount of needless scrolling.
The other change I think would help is the inclusion of gear sets, which you could save multiple of for each character and, crucially, are not counted in your 40-item type limit inventory. This would promote the idea of switching gear on a per-encounter basis (which is already encouraged) while still limiting how much loot you can hold in your dungeon runs. I think this would help the strengths of the battle system come through more. Overall though, this is a solid gameplay system that rewards proper setup and experimentation. It's definitely never boring to fight things in this game; you always have to pay attention.
On top of the interesting world and battle system, there's also a pretty good soundtrack, and great character and enemy design. The boss designs in particularly are a highlight, both aesthetically and mechanically.
So far, we have some great ingredients for a cool MMO-inspired dungeon crawler. Unfortunately, there are some pretty glaring issues.
First off is the dungeons themselves. These work fine enough, but considering the main story alone requires you to trek through ~50 of these, I think there should have been at least double the visual themes, music tracks, and room layouts. No, I don't think there needs to be puzzles or traps or anything stupid like that, but I'd like the dungeons to be at least as aesthetically interesting as the towns.
Then there's Data Drain. Data Drain by itself is actually I think a really cool mechanic that creates another risk-reward layer to combat and is another useful way to acquire gear. Losing exp, possibly leveling down, and eventually a chance to game over - these are all cool ways of raising the stakes. My issue is how the game forces you to use this mechanic in ways that don't really mesh well. Grinding for Virus Cores would have been a lot more tolerable if you were guaranteed to get them while your Infection Level is blue, although I think it would have been even better to just elimate the grind and only get Virus Cores from story bosses. The second problem with Data Drain doesn't rear its head until the final two dungeons of Quarantine, where the rooms are littered with Data Bugs that must be Data Drained. There is no way to skip encounters, so unless you're lucky enough to encounter some normal enemies along the way, you're at the mercy of RNG whether you get a game over or not. I still think that the chance of getting a game over is interesting by itself, but there should be a way to circumvent this. For example, the dungeon could always spawn a set amount of normal enemies on specific floors so you can make it through without worry of getting a game over if you take the most efficient path - but if you go after extra treasure, then you'd have to deal with it. As it is now, those last couple dungeons are pretty awful.
Perhaps the largest issue is that the game is simply way too long. You could condense this into one, max two, games and still have all the main story beats, intrigue, and character development in-tact. Too many quests are just going to dungeons only to find that there's nothing there, and you need to go somewhere else instead. The developer interviews included on the OVA DVDs give the impression that they thought of the 4-disc premise first, and then designed the game around it. I'd also have liked to see some extra side content other than Grunties since the towns and fields feel rather underutilized.
So, overall, it's a pretty solid experience. Many of the gameplay concepts here reminded me of Final Fantasy XII, and while I think that game pulls it off better, .hack has plenty of unique and interesting ideas of its own. The OVAs were alright too, although I think the quality falls off after the first one. I have to say though, the penultimate segment of Quarantine left a sour taste in mouth. If it wasn't for the satisfying final boss and ending, I'd rate this lower.
If you want to play it, I'd recommend using PCSX2 so you can crank up the speed, cheat in some Virus Cores (Kite is a hacker too, he would do this), and use savestates for those last two dungeons. The NA release thankfully includes Japanese voices, so no undub patch required if want to play in English.
The best part of these games is how well they simulate the old-school MMO experience, and I mean that both inside the game and out. Quests are given in emails and on forum posts, you get to know more about characters' lives outside the game the more you build their affinity, and gear can be acquired through trading with other "players." Along the way, you'll definitely want to consult some real-life forums and FAQs to help you with the Virus Core grind and some of the more well-hidden secrets. I think it succeeded in delivering what it was like to participate in a late-90s/early-00s MMORPG.
The gameplay loop is essentially checking your email/forums to accept new quests, going to a new dungeon, fighting a boss/watching a cutscene (or both), repeat. It's repetitive, but engaging enough both because of how engrossing the world is and how fun the combat is. Combat is similar to Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3, where you control the main character and the other two are AI, and you can pause at any time to perform actions and use items. The biggest difference is that you don't have to build any meters, and you can set more specific commands to party members. You can also just use the general whole-party "Skills!" command and they will be smart enough to hit enemy weaknesses provided they have those actions available. Most of the time, this works well enough, so you don't have to be super precise with your commands until you fight 4+ enemies at once or bosses. An important thing to keep in mind is that all Skills and Scrolls animation-lock you, whereas items don't. This creates a compelling risk-reward system where, for example, casting healing spells proactively can mitigate incoming damage, while items can help out in a pinch, but you can only carry a limited supply. 99 of each item sounds like a lot, but you can burn through them very quickly in a long dungeon if you aren't playing efficiently. This battle system may appear slow due to all the menu pausing, but in reality this is a system where you can win or lose in mere seconds. You always have to be ready to heal, buff, debuff, attack, etc., because enemies can take you down in just a few hits. If you aren't hitting enemy weaknesses fast enough, you'll be forced to use items to heal in reaction to massive damage.
One of the most interesting things is how actions are tied to equipment, which makes gear much less of a simple numbers comparison. The Lv. 19 Blades of Bond may have significantly less physical attack power than the Lv. 74 Raian, but you also get a lot more elemental resistances and slightly higher magic attack. This is just one example of dozens. What this means is that, although Kite is always a Twin Blade, you don't have to gear him up to be one. There are plenty of options for gearing him as a caster, healer, or even something more tanky, though your options are limited there since you can't equip heavy armor.
It's a pretty interesting RPG system, all things considered, but there are a few small changes that I think would really elevate it. Hotkeys would be nice, and could work similarly to FF14, using the shoulder buttons. The camera reset and zoom buttons could be remapped to R3 and L1+R3, respectively (also like FF14), since those buttons currently aren't used. Opening hotkeys would still pause the game just like the normal command menu, so it would just cut down on the amount of needless scrolling.
The other change I think would help is the inclusion of gear sets, which you could save multiple of for each character and, crucially, are not counted in your 40-item type limit inventory. This would promote the idea of switching gear on a per-encounter basis (which is already encouraged) while still limiting how much loot you can hold in your dungeon runs. I think this would help the strengths of the battle system come through more. Overall though, this is a solid gameplay system that rewards proper setup and experimentation. It's definitely never boring to fight things in this game; you always have to pay attention.
On top of the interesting world and battle system, there's also a pretty good soundtrack, and great character and enemy design. The boss designs in particularly are a highlight, both aesthetically and mechanically.
So far, we have some great ingredients for a cool MMO-inspired dungeon crawler. Unfortunately, there are some pretty glaring issues.
First off is the dungeons themselves. These work fine enough, but considering the main story alone requires you to trek through ~50 of these, I think there should have been at least double the visual themes, music tracks, and room layouts. No, I don't think there needs to be puzzles or traps or anything stupid like that, but I'd like the dungeons to be at least as aesthetically interesting as the towns.
Then there's Data Drain. Data Drain by itself is actually I think a really cool mechanic that creates another risk-reward layer to combat and is another useful way to acquire gear. Losing exp, possibly leveling down, and eventually a chance to game over - these are all cool ways of raising the stakes. My issue is how the game forces you to use this mechanic in ways that don't really mesh well. Grinding for Virus Cores would have been a lot more tolerable if you were guaranteed to get them while your Infection Level is blue, although I think it would have been even better to just elimate the grind and only get Virus Cores from story bosses. The second problem with Data Drain doesn't rear its head until the final two dungeons of Quarantine, where the rooms are littered with Data Bugs that must be Data Drained. There is no way to skip encounters, so unless you're lucky enough to encounter some normal enemies along the way, you're at the mercy of RNG whether you get a game over or not. I still think that the chance of getting a game over is interesting by itself, but there should be a way to circumvent this. For example, the dungeon could always spawn a set amount of normal enemies on specific floors so you can make it through without worry of getting a game over if you take the most efficient path - but if you go after extra treasure, then you'd have to deal with it. As it is now, those last couple dungeons are pretty awful.
Perhaps the largest issue is that the game is simply way too long. You could condense this into one, max two, games and still have all the main story beats, intrigue, and character development in-tact. Too many quests are just going to dungeons only to find that there's nothing there, and you need to go somewhere else instead. The developer interviews included on the OVA DVDs give the impression that they thought of the 4-disc premise first, and then designed the game around it. I'd also have liked to see some extra side content other than Grunties since the towns and fields feel rather underutilized.
So, overall, it's a pretty solid experience. Many of the gameplay concepts here reminded me of Final Fantasy XII, and while I think that game pulls it off better, .hack has plenty of unique and interesting ideas of its own. The OVAs were alright too, although I think the quality falls off after the first one. I have to say though, the penultimate segment of Quarantine left a sour taste in mouth. If it wasn't for the satisfying final boss and ending, I'd rate this lower.
If you want to play it, I'd recommend using PCSX2 so you can crank up the speed, cheat in some Virus Cores (Kite is a hacker too, he would do this), and use savestates for those last two dungeons. The NA release thankfully includes Japanese voices, so no undub patch required if want to play in English.
i really badly want to like this series, seriously. it has a lot going for it and at times it feels like a generational work for a lot of creatives, especially the kind of legendary kazunori ito and the rest of the patlabor staff. unfortunately, these games just lack the depth one would expect from an 80 hour JRPG. by the end of most of the entries i was praying that the next would be better-paced. but, these games are just a slog of the same content over and over with very little variation. this was the sort of game i definitely enjoyed in spite of its flaws
Garbage. Virus core grinding was already pretty annoying with how the data drain mechanic works but in this game it's particularly brutal. It feels like they ran out of story content and just threw all the grindy crap at the end of the quadrilogy. Combine that with exceptionally annoying encounters with mobs that make use of the most annoying status effects and ya got a real pain in the butt to play.
I find the end to this story to be highly disappointing and uninteresting, which is a shame because the first three did a very good job of capturing my imagination and making me want to see more of this fake MMO world. A complete fumbling of a finale. Worth playing if you played the first three but once you finish it, you may regret your decision to play the quadrilogy. For those nostalgic about fake MMOs or the .hack franchise, stick with the GU remaster.
I find the end to this story to be highly disappointing and uninteresting, which is a shame because the first three did a very good job of capturing my imagination and making me want to see more of this fake MMO world. A complete fumbling of a finale. Worth playing if you played the first three but once you finish it, you may regret your decision to play the quadrilogy. For those nostalgic about fake MMOs or the .hack franchise, stick with the GU remaster.
Way too much padding. Game makes you grind for so many virus cores to make the game longer and without that it's easily the shortest game in the IMOQ saga.
Very good ending to the story though, I did enjoy it and the last 3 Cursed Wave bosses are great.
Minus 1000 points for having so little Elk tho.
Very good ending to the story though, I did enjoy it and the last 3 Cursed Wave bosses are great.
Minus 1000 points for having so little Elk tho.
Finally finished, so I can give my conclusive thoughts
This tetralogy is something you have to enjoy the vibe of. The gameplay isn't really amazing and the difficulty can get to be bullshit. However, I love it. It's easily one of the most soulful hidden gems I've ever played
The story is pretty solid. As someone who played G.U. first, I already knew what to expect. Players of The World go into comas because of a mysterious force. Kite goes along to befriend other players, a hacker, and an administrator to discover what went wrong after his own friend gets into a coma. The conclusion in Quarantine is epic, which made playing through a lot of the slow parts prior to this worth it
The gameplay - compared to G.U. (which is all I can really compare it to), I like it a lot more. This game is more about having the right equipment and items. You go into word generated fields. You enter dungeons and typically need to get to the bottom floor to advance the story or grab an item. Fighting enemies can get pretty annoying because you are locked into rooms when fighting them, so you can't run away. The best way to play these games is make Kite a spellcaster healer and just make sure your party is always buffed. Or just make sure you have a shit ton of healing and revival items stocked lol. Overall it's pretty enjoyable, it's definitely a more strategical action RPG which is most similar to the Mana games imo. Only bad thing I'll mention is the virus core grind which can get annoying sometimes
Now for the music - genuinely just peak. Chikayo Fukuda is too good. Not only are there really memorable town themes, all the area themes also have great tunes - and all of the regular area music dynamically transitions into a faster tempo battle version. A lot of them are perfect to sleep to. Can't complain at all here, and I already played G.U. so I knew how good the OST would be
Going to also mention that the art and sound design are right up my alley. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (who also did Evangelion art) worked on this. The character art is just perfect to me. The sound design is top notch, like all the menu and attack sounds, I just love it. If you're gonna make an RPG where I have to menu more than half the time, it better have good sound effects
I don't really have anything else to say. I'd pipe BlackRose. I'd pipe Gardenia. I'd pipe Mistral. I'd pipe Terajima Ryoko. I'd pipe Helba
Peak. Kite is the GOAT
This tetralogy is something you have to enjoy the vibe of. The gameplay isn't really amazing and the difficulty can get to be bullshit. However, I love it. It's easily one of the most soulful hidden gems I've ever played
The story is pretty solid. As someone who played G.U. first, I already knew what to expect. Players of The World go into comas because of a mysterious force. Kite goes along to befriend other players, a hacker, and an administrator to discover what went wrong after his own friend gets into a coma. The conclusion in Quarantine is epic, which made playing through a lot of the slow parts prior to this worth it
The gameplay - compared to G.U. (which is all I can really compare it to), I like it a lot more. This game is more about having the right equipment and items. You go into word generated fields. You enter dungeons and typically need to get to the bottom floor to advance the story or grab an item. Fighting enemies can get pretty annoying because you are locked into rooms when fighting them, so you can't run away. The best way to play these games is make Kite a spellcaster healer and just make sure your party is always buffed. Or just make sure you have a shit ton of healing and revival items stocked lol. Overall it's pretty enjoyable, it's definitely a more strategical action RPG which is most similar to the Mana games imo. Only bad thing I'll mention is the virus core grind which can get annoying sometimes
Now for the music - genuinely just peak. Chikayo Fukuda is too good. Not only are there really memorable town themes, all the area themes also have great tunes - and all of the regular area music dynamically transitions into a faster tempo battle version. A lot of them are perfect to sleep to. Can't complain at all here, and I already played G.U. so I knew how good the OST would be
Going to also mention that the art and sound design are right up my alley. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (who also did Evangelion art) worked on this. The character art is just perfect to me. The sound design is top notch, like all the menu and attack sounds, I just love it. If you're gonna make an RPG where I have to menu more than half the time, it better have good sound effects
I don't really have anything else to say. I'd pipe BlackRose. I'd pipe Gardenia. I'd pipe Mistral. I'd pipe Terajima Ryoko. I'd pipe Helba
Peak. Kite is the GOAT
I don't know how to distinguish between these 20 years later. I absolutely loved this quadrilogy of games that you moved your save between. It was like playing an online MMO with a lot less crap.