.hack Gu is a game that has great concepts but it's definitely a product of its time. I think the story is pretty interesting and while some of the characters are a bit grating at first they do develop over time. Something I really like about .hack is the level of immersion that you feel throughout the trilogy, it's as if your right in the boots of Haseo as he's flipping through forum pages and reading his emails. The soundtrack is really good and I love the overall aesthetic. The gameplay though can be a slog, it's extremely repetitive and not all that dynamic, there was just certain points in the game where I dreaded fighting enemies not because they were difficult, but that I had to engage in the games combat system. I do think these games (along with the infection trilogy) deserve an actual remake to really make this series shine, as I do believe the .hack franchise is overall criminally underrated.

A really fun collection of the three main .hack//G.U. games previously released on the PS2 I definitely had a hell of a fun time playing this and slowly seeing the series improve.

The story is legitimately gripping stuff and although Haseo isn't really all that pleasant of a main character at first, I did quickly grow to like him a lot at the end. I wasn't quite sold on the gameplay at first and though it would grow repetitive but even that got improved overtime as well.

And as a big ol' Brucie bonus, we get a fourth mini-instalment that acts as essentially a epilogue to the entire series as Haseo goes off to find Ovan and the climax is just fantastic stuff. It's short but it's legitimately sweet stuff and helps to perfectly round off a great HD remaster of these three games. (Really impressive how they got pretty much everyone back to reprise their roles for this and all of them sound like they haven't missed a beat since they last voiced them in 2007.)

And if you still didn't get enough, you even get some comedy redub clips with Yuri Lowenthal and the cast goofing off and a recap of the prior .hack games. What more could you want really?

Objectively speaking, I wouldn't say this game is a 10; it has flaws: the combat lacks a bit more complexity and the level design is really basic and repetitive, there's not much challenge as long as you level up enough and the game makes you walk a lot, which is boring.

My rating is a subjective one. This is one of my favorite games of all time. It's very unique and it just got me hooked in a way that few other titles could. The characters are really memorable, I love the story and it got me very emotionally engaged and thrilled. Combat is really fun, though it could have a little more mobility and variety. The audiovisual feedback from connecting hits and skills feels very satisfying to me, and winning battles that had a stake on the story felt meaningful. Outside the main questline, I also felt motivated to grind for better weapons and skills. The desktop system and the game setting as a whole are incredibly immersive imo. I usually don't like reading non-essential stuff inside any game but, in this case, exploring the lore was very engaging, especially in the forum system.

I think the biggest reason why I find this game so good and immersive is that everything you do feels deeply connected to the story. Gameplay and progression feels meaningful because every step you take brings Haseo closer to his goals; even just grinding levels is an essential part of his journey to get his former power back. Nothing feels like a waste of time in this game. It's an amazing experience if you let yourself get immersed in The World.

.hack//G.U. Last Recode is a very… unique game. It’s actually a remastered collection of 3 early PS2 games based on .hack//G.U. with some additional content, including a 3 hour epilogue.

The story is mostly standalone, but it is a sequel to the anime it’s based on, so some characters and plot points show up and the game assumes you are intimately familiar with these elements.

Characters are somewhat well written and voice acted, but a good chunk of the dialogue is weird, with characters often talking in a way that normal humans would never do.

Combat is pretty simple, but gradually adds more and more mechanics throughout the games. But it’s so easy to over level without even trying that you don’t even need to use most of them.

My favorite thing though, is all the meta stuff you can do. You see, you’re not playing a game, you’re playing as someone else playing an online game. You can log out of the online game to send emails to your friends, play an auto-battle card game, read news articles, browse the forums, and look at fan art. There’s a lot of cool character and world building in this side content, some of it not even being really relevant to the main story.

If you like not so distant future sci-fi or video game based stories, it’s definitely worth a playthrough.

Bit of a rough one to revisit. It held up a lot better in my nostalgia fueled memory than it did to replay it. I think the concept is still pretty solid between playing the MMO but still interacting with the forums and the 'real world' all while trying to solve the mystery of the game.

But it's a pretty slow start and Haseo can be a bit annoying the way he acts given his history, but him and the rest of the characters have pretty good arcs. Music is good overall, it has some great opening tracks.

Gameplay is kind of where it falls apart, it's pretty grindy and repetitive visiting randomly generated dungeons with similar environments and enemies over and over again. It's also very very easy with you mostly using skills/mashing attack. The cutscenes of the game still hold up well but the actual in game assets are pretty bland now a days.

It's an interesting experience but honestly after replaying the games it would be kind of hard for me to recommend vs many other RPG titles. I think it would be a good candidate for a real remake though, smooth out some of the plot points. Fix and improve the gameplay so it feels fresher and more dynamic and tone down the grind. Then you may have something pretty serviceable.

Unique MMORPG simulation that has a strong immersive core but desperately needed to be condensed into a single focused experience rather than stay as 3 separate, mind-numbingly repetitive games with awkward save transfers.
+ heavenly melancholic soundtrack
+ great main character arc involving serious personality growth
+ insane amount of lore to read about in constantly updating message and news boards
+ some really impressive action cutscenes (for its time)
+/- clear directions for any and all objectives
- relies on having watched the previous anime series for context
- repeatedly copy-pasted "boss fights" that pose no challenge and still show instructions every time
- slow walking speed not helped by the clunky vehicle
- ubiquitous static conversations that can't be sped up
- cryptic story which only gets interesting after dozens of hours
- trivial difficulty until the third volume where lots of grinding is needed
- no NPC interactions outside of the main plot (even party compositions are ignored)
- basic action combat that can't support the large amount of unavoidable fighting and often gets frustrating due to utterly absurd stun locks
- very low number of boring dungeons and quests reused over and over (and over...) again

Es complicado para mi hablar de esta obra prescindiendo de la subjetividad que implica la manera en que su relato me moldeó en la juventud y que ahora me hizo entrar en retrospectiva sobre ello.

La tetralogía de ".hack//G.U." es el perfecto ejemplo de lo que la industria del JRPG puede conseguir sin grandes logros en la jugabilidad. Estos juegos son sencillos en sus mecánicas de combate, repetitivos y vacuos en los planteamientos del contenido secundario, así como notablemente deficientes en el diseño de niveles. Sin embargo, el encanto del mundo y sus personajes es innegable. Haseo recorre un largo camino para comprender que la verdadera fortaleza reside en los vínculos que componen al ser humano, una amalgama de nociones individualistas y colectivistas que dan forma a lo que es una historia difícil de olvidar.

El hecho de que todo se sostenga considerablemente en lo construido con ".hack//IMOQ" reafirma el interés de este universo por trazar historias verosímiles emocionalmente, lo cual constituye un éxito rotundo. Al final del día, uno no quiere abandonar The World.

This is pretty much going to be a review of the .hack G.U. series as a whole, seeing as I've given each game in this compilation its own review on their own game page, and yeah despite the ratings on each of those games being higher than this I can wholeheartedly say that G.U. is significantly less than the sum of its parts. I wasn't the biggest fan of .hack R1, but after playing through this saga I really didn't realize how good I had it.

My biggest qualms with the .hack R1 series was mostly its hands-off approach to its plot, as the games were mostly one part to a greater whole so things didn't have to be very story-heavy as the greater plot can be experienced through the supplementary content like the .hack Sign anime or the manga/light novels/probably some drama cds in there somewhere too. I rated IMOQ quite low for that given I had only been playing one part in a greater whole at that point, and doing things that way felt really underwhelming. Doing things that way at the very least meant that the focus of R1 was on the overall setting and worldbuilding, as the different tales all told in various ways through the different media forms all take place in the same concrete fictional MMO, essentially making the mysteries behind said world the real meat of the series. After watching .hack sign, I was able to see this bigger picture more clearly and retroactively look back on R1 much more fondly than I did when I had only just played the games. This all serves as important context as for what G.U. tries to differentiate and evolve from, and most importantly, how it sucks!

G.U. forsakes having the world be the focus to instead focus on the characters. Both the game series and the tie-in anime (which I learned from my past mistakes and decided to watch simultaneously with playing) focus around the same particular group of characters, namely the main protagonist, Haseo, and Ovan, the man most closely connected to the grander mysteries of the plot. Pretty much everything that happens in any form of G.U. media centers around one of these two characters, and their relationships with other players in The World. On the good side of things, the more condensed narrative focus makes the games much more story-driven, and the unification of all forms of .hack media onto one plot makes things more focused. On the bad side of things, they made a teensy tiny oopsie and forgot to write any of the characters well! Which is certainly a problem when they are your brand new main focus!!!

I'm not gonna sugarcoat things, I thought that the characters were written horribly and had a difficult time caring about any of them. Haseo is an edgy gamer man that erratically changes from brooding edgelord to anti-heroic dogooder back to brooding edgelord, all while the plot tries its hardest to constantly remind me "haseo grew as a person throughout all the trials and tribulations he went through" when I can clearly see from the characters actions that he didn't grow shit. I am convinced that the writers have very interesting things to say about women, because every female character in this game fails the goddamn bechdel test. Characters like Atoli or Youko are for some reason head-over-heels infactuated with haseo despite him being like the literal most unlikeable mfer in history. This guy basically spends his time being self-centered and focused on solely his own goals, yet for some reason everyone is attracted to him??? Then there's Ovan, who spends 90% of his screentime just being mysterious for the sake of being mysterious, only for his overall motives to be quite underwhelming once the game finally pulls the curtains for his greater plans. Pretty much every other party member feels dully one-note and tropey. The writing for the whole games plot is just messy and boring, focusing solely on characters that feel more like NPCs than the actual meta-NPCs in the fake MMO.

As for the actual act of playing the game, even that is a bit of a downgrade from IMOQ. The same keyword system is in place, but gone are the overworlds, as now everything is a dungeon consisting of the most boring repeated hallways to slowly run through. Combat is now much more action-y, but the large amount of hitstun on enemies makes it incredibly easy to perform infinites on certain enemies and once you figure that out things become braindead as every encounter ends with the same result of you pushing the X button and sometimes even the R1 button the exact same way with no deviance or variation. Another thing to note is just how absolutely streamlined and linear everything is; dungeons are hallways, and while there's nothing like the virus core grinding in IMOQ here, at least the item farming gave a reason to integrate actual player freedom and exploration with the keyword system to find their own dungeons to grind through. Here, the game constantly tells you exactly where to go to do exactly what you need with no time for any form of deviation. Characters will just email you saying random shit like "hey haseo, we gotta do the big chicken hunt quest! see ya there!" and then you have to do that quest with that particular party member to progress, only then once that's done a different character will be like "im underlevelled, lets go to Σ flattened ballsacks remorse to level up a bit!" and then you have to go there and so on and so forth. The lack of player freedom plus the hallway-ass dungeons and braindead combat just make this series incredibly boring to play through. Hours feel four times as long when playing G.U., and while there IS a few side-quests to do, what's honestly the point when they are no different than the main stuff the game is trying to railroad you down anyways??? Apparently one of the cyberconnect2 USA developers mentioned how Last Recode actually nerfs the balance in order to weaken enemies and give more EXP in combat compared to the original in order to make the pacing of the game smoother and less grindy, which on one hand definitely doesn't solve the underlying problems, but on the other I can't imagine having to also level grind on top of all that sensory deprivation.

Overall, yeah. Individually each game isn't the worst in the series, but as a whole it's really not something I could recommend to anyone. If you really want to play .hack, just try playing IMOQ or watching sign. If either of those filter you then don't bother continuing. I've sunk over 50 hours between all 3 games and the tie-in anime and I definitely would have had a better time playing any other JRPG methinks. I wouldn't say G.U. has zero redeeming qualities, but the good parts are so few and far between that it's not worth the time and sanity investment. I still think that .hack as a concept is cool, and R1 actually is a very unique and cool vibe, I'm just relieved that I am now free of the G.U.-lag.

Ebbene, dopo aver concluso anche il terzo e, bene o male, ultimo volume della serie .hack//G.U. posso finalmente, con cognizione di causa dire:

Come cazzo ha fatto .hack//G.U. a diventare un cult?

Questa serie parte da buoni premesse, ai tempi credo anche molto originali. Il mondo nel quale The World è diventato l'MMORPG più giocato è descritto con minuzia e paurosa prescienza, affiancandosi in questo specifico aspetto a capolavori come Metal Gear Solid 2 o The Silver Case. In .hack//G.U. è lasciato molto spazio alle notizie sull'arte, sulla politica e sulla tecnologia contemporanea, nel gioco sono addirittura presenti dei piccoli corti d'animazione riguardanti diverse notizie e una serie di video più lunghi dedicati al giornalista di inchiesta Salvador Aihara (il Gabibbo di .hack).
Le notizie sono persino commentate su forum dedicati, dove diversi utenti, che ho pure imparato a riconoscere, essendo sorprendentemente caratterizzati, parlano di The World, delle News, di leggende metropolitane e del TCG virtuale del momento. Esiste persino una piattaforma dedicata alle fanart dove disegnatori amatoriali ritraggono i giocatori più famosi o loro stessi dando la possibilità di utilizzare le loro creazioni come sfondi per il desktop virtuale.
Il desktop virtuale appunto è tutto ciò di cui ho scritto finora, perché è l'unica parte del gioco che ho apprezzato!
Già che ci sono cito anche il Crimson VS, gioco di carte collezionabili automatico abbastanza divertente e con artwork davvero carini.

Quindi insomma la parte di .hack//G.U. che ho preferito è la parte in cui non si gioca, perché tra trama, personaggi e gameplay non ho trovato nulla che brillasse e solo molte cose che non mi sono per niente piaciute.

Partendo dal gameplay: il sistema di combattimento è sostanzialmente button mashing di un unico tasto, intervallato da arti à la Tales Of da far partire in alcuni momenti specifici per ottenere massima efficacia. Esiste un sistema di parata statico che si usa praticamente solo nel momento in cui si affrontano attacchi particolarmente pesanti. Nel corso dei primi 3 volumi si utilizzano 4 armi diverse che danno il minimo possibile di varietà d'approccio, ma di fatto quello che varia è la velocità tra una pressione del tasto X e l'altra. Esistono poi tre tipi di "supermosse finali", la prima un power up, la seconda un qte e la terza una normale arte (che però serve a craftare armi leggendarie). C'è un'ampia varietà di oggetti utilizzabili in battaglia ma di fatto sono utili solo in alcune boss fight che richiedono effettivamente di guardare lo schermo mentre si affrontano.

Il loop di gameplay è lo stesso per circa 90/100 ore di gioco per tre giochi. Dungeon crawling di 4 aree ripetute allo sfinimento (Field, in diverse condizioni atmosferiche, la caverna, "il tempio", "la foresta" e gli outer dungeon), gli incontri nell'arena (tre tornei uno per gioco, tutti uguali), la boss fight seguita da un'altra boss fight stile bullet hell.

Il sistema ruolistico è invece abbastanza decente. Ovviamente non ci sono scelte legate all'avanzamento del personaggio ma ottenere equipaggiamenti nuovi e potenziarli è abbastanza soddisfacente ed è molto carina la meccanica di scambio oggetti con gli altri giocatori di The World. Questa feature l'ho anche utilizzata per essere sicuro che tutti i personaggi del party fossero equipaggiati decentemente. Sono poi presenti i classici negozi, compreso uno personale dove si possono vendere i propri oggetti (altra bella idea), più per una questione di spazio nell'inventario che per un bisogno di soldi, considerando che se ne guadagnano davvero tantissimi. L'equipaggiamento è potenziabile e ben personalizzabile e sarebbe tutto fighissimo se non esistesse un gigantesco problema:

La difficoltà. Ho letteralmente giocato a .hack//G.U. sempre avendo occhi su altro (video, stream ecc.) perché la concentrazione richiesta è 0. Avrò fatto 2 game over in 98 ore di gioco. Punto.

Per quanto riguarda trama e personaggi non ho molta voglia di dilungarmi sui dettagli. Praticamente tutti i personaggi ricadono sostanzialmente in cliché classici anime che possono anche essere sufficienti ma non vanno mai oltre a questo, la trama aveva un gran potenziale ma imho non va in nessuna direzione interessante e l'ho trovata anch'essa parecchio stereotipata.
Il problema vero che ho con la narrazione in .hack//G.U. è quanto The World venga considerato importante e "reale" dai personaggi. Ha così tanta importanza essere un PK o un PKK o quanto mi piace combattere piuttosto che guardare i panorami in-game? Perché in nessun momento le persone dietro agli avatar "escono fuori"? Avrei voluto tantissimo un approfondimento su chi haseo fosse nella propria vita o sapere il perché Yata è un adulto (immagino) ma si comporta come un adolescente edgy.
Il fatto è che ci sono anche ripercussioni nel mondo reale in quello che succede in-game ma tutto è trattato in modo veramente superficiale e con reazioni umane inesistenti. Quando alla fine di Vol. 3 succede una cosa veramente impattante sulla vita vera i personaggi non la trattano come tale, mi veniva da pensare se effettivamente stavano capendo cosa stesse succedendo. Perché se ci sono casi di Lost Ones tutti continuano a giocare? Dove sono gli umani dietro a questi personaggi? Chi è dietro la CC? Che senso aveva il piano di Ovan?
Insomma, non me n'è fregato nulla di ciò che succedeva per quasi tutto lo svolgimento della trama, mi è piaciuto giusto giusto qualche "character moment".

Dunque tirando le somme. Il mondo di .hack ha molto fascino, tra l'altro graficamente e a livello di art direction non è stato fatto un brutto lavoro; ci sono anche molte belle idee ma di fatto è tutto sfruttato malissimo creando una storia generica e un gioco mediocre. Mi rendo conto che .hack possa aver avuto grande influenza sia su parecchie opere successive ma non mi è bastato.