.Hack

[StoneKnightMan]

Before namco bandai was making the sword art online games for the PS4, they were making these games on the ps2
.hack (actual title, pronounced dot hack)

Is an rpg created by namco bandai. The company behind Pac-man, tekken, etc.

If your familiar with kite, blackrose, haseo, and skieth from project x zone, this is the video game series that they come from.

The games was really great and had lots of fans. And even had it own animes.

Here's the opening for .hack//sign

And also, I have great news. A remaster of .hack//gu has been confirmed for ps4 and steam in celebration to the series' 15th anniversary

 

[Chill Fam]

Ahh, .Hack. I remember watching the anime [and by watching I mean skipping the actual episodes to listen to the openings and endings numerous times because the plot confused the hell out of younger me ]

It's cool that they're making a remaster for GU. Guess I should check it out.

 

[Coster]

Kudos to someone for putting a thread up for .hack, I wanted a place to sperg about it but didn't feel like making a thread.

I've been a fan of .hack from the first moment they had SIGN play on Toonami. When I saw the announcement for G.U. Last Recode I flipped my shit, it came completely out of left field and lit my spergy heart up with joy. I really look forward to replaying the G.U. trilogy, especially with all of the improvements they've said they've added.

Here's hoping for a remake for the original tetralogy. I get why they decided to remaster G.U. because that was as simple as bundling them together and really just tweaking small things (they have definitely gone above and beyond my expectations for a remaster), and as much as I love IMOQ it's just aged super poorly because of how early in the PS2's lifespan it came out. G.U. has the better gameplay but the narrative of IMOQ was just completely unbeatable.

 

[RJ MacReady]

While I never played any of the games, I found Sign fascinating back in the day and in hindsight it's a great example of what anime can be when a correct balance of ideas are behind it. Slower, psychological narratives are a big risk and they pulled it off in a way that was watchable and marketable. Anime in general has a problem with either being excessive, pretentious and gory or lazy otaku bait. I wasn't into Legend of the Twilight because it felt like a mass market shonen adventure that dispensed with Sign's maturity. I'm actually not very familiar with G.U. or .hack Conglomerate in general (The World R:2 and the events leading up to it confuse me) so I might pick up the G.U. remake for PC.

 

[Coster]

While I never played any of the games, I found Sign fascinating back in the day and in hindsight it's a great example of what anime can be when a correct balance of ideas are behind it. Slower, psychological narratives are a big risk and they pulled it off in a way that was watchable and marketable. Anime in general has a problem with either being excessive, pretentious and gory or lazy otaku bait. I wasn't into Legend of the Twilight because it felt like a mass market shonen adventure that dispensed with Sign's maturity. I'm actually not very familiar with G.U. or .hack Conglomerate in general (The World R:2 and the events leading up to it confuse me) so I might pick up the G.U. remake for PC.

Legend of the Twilight is easily the worst anime associated with .hack. As for the G.U. trilogy, part of the things that'll come with it is the Terminal Disk which was originally a preorder bonus that explains a lot of the stuff that happened in-between IMOQ and G.U. from the perspective of Jun Bansyoya, a man who worked for CC Corp. That'll really help with bridging the gap between the Conglomerate and G.U.

 

[RJ MacReady]

Legend of the Twilight is easily the worst anime associated with .hack. As for the G.U. trilogy, part of the things that'll come with it is the Terminal Disk which was originally a preorder bonus that explains a lot of the stuff that happened in-between IMOQ and G.U. from the perspective of Jun Bansyoya, a man who worked for CC Corp. That'll really help with bridging the gap between the Conglomerate and G.U.

That reminds me: Does Sign take place before IMOQ or concurrently? I've heard it both ways over the years and it confuses the fuck out of me. I know Twilight happens in between IMOQ and G.U.

 

[Coster]

That reminds me: Does Sign take place before IMOQ or concurrently? I've heard it both ways over the years and it confuses the fuck out of me. I know Twilight happens in between IMOQ and G.U.

SIGN takes place prior to IMOQ, except for the very last episode (literally post-final episode of SIGN) Returner which takes place after IMOQ. Legend of the Twilight happens after the both of them when The World is still R:1. The World R:2 is what G.U. and its surrounding media takes place in.

 

[Jan_Hus]

I collect ps2 games... these motherfuckers are expensive as hell.

 

[StoneKnightMan]

If your wondering why .hack//gu wasn't released in all 3 parts together. It was likely because of the ps2's hardware limitations.

With ps4, this will probably mean there won't be separated parts.

And also. The anime .hack//roots had its first few episodes on the game in vol 2 I think. If they put all of roots episodes on the remaster, I'll buy this game in full.

 

[MysticMisty]

While I never played any of the games, I found Sign fascinating back in the day and in hindsight it's a great example of what anime can be when a correct balance of ideas are behind it. Slower, psychological narratives are a big risk and they pulled it off in a way that was watchable and marketable. Anime in general has a problem with either being excessive, pretentious and gory or lazy otaku bait. I wasn't into Legend of the Twilight because it felt like a mass market shonen adventure that dispensed with Sign's maturity. I'm actually not very familiar with G.U. or .hack Conglomerate in general (The World R:2 and the events leading up to it confuse me) so I might pick up the G.U. remake for PC.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a lot of people into watching Sign specifically because of it's slower pace and being very story oriented. I was always told they tried watching some random episode this one time but got confused and quit at the first commercial break.

Legend of the Twilight just flat out sucks and honestly I'm not sure if very many .hack fans actually like it. I never could track down the manga it was based off of, but I know that manga has an entirely different plot and sounds a lot better (whether or not it is I have no idea).

That reminds me: Does Sign take place before IMOQ or concurrently? I've heard it both ways over the years and it confuses the fuck out of me. I know Twilight happens in between IMOQ and G.U.

Before. If I remember correctly the first episode occurs roughly a year before the start of the games and the last regular episode about six months before the first game.

 

[Coster]

If your wondering why .hack//gu wasn't released in all 3 parts together. It was likely because of the ps2's hardware limitations.

With ps4, this will probably mean there won't be separated parts.

Nah, I think they could've fit all three volumes on one disk. Volume 3 has almost all of the content from the previous 2, they just released each part separately to maximize profits at the time. Last Recode has been confirmed to encompass all three parts of .hack//G.U. in one.

And also. The anime .hack//roots had its first few episodes on the game in vol 2 I think. If they put all of roots episodes on the remaster, I'll buy this game in full.

I don't think they will. Roots is only a pale shadow of what SIGN was though, it's pretty good until Ovan disappears and after that it gets really pointless and scatterbrained.

Legend of the Twilight just flat out sucks and honestly I'm not sure if very many .hack fans actually like it. I never could track down the manga it was based off of, but I know that manga has an entirely different plot and sounds a lot better (whether or not it is I have no idea).

The manga is better than the anime in the same way that solid turds are better than diarrhea. It's way less convoluted than the anime and actually bridges the gap between that and IMOQ better (Blackrose's little brother, Kazu, shows up as a major character and is slightly older), but it's still not that good compared to the rest of the series. Back in the day I owned all three manga volumes for it, the reason it's so difficult to get now is that it was licensed by Tokyopop and they went under a long while ago.

Really the only good thing to come out of Legend of the Twilight was Kamui, but even then the full extent of her character and what she actually is isn't fleshed out until the AI Buster novels, where it's revealed how she worked with Albireo at CC Corp, and why there's almost no presence from system administrators in SIGN.

 

[ES 148]

Oddly enough, my first .hack experience was with a light novel detailing events from BlackRose's point of view. Then I read a manga which summated the same things except this time it was Kite, and then I read the .hack//GU manga. The entire time I had no idea it was based on a video game. Only learned that a year or so ago, actually, when I picked up Project X Zone.

 

[Coster]

Oddly enough, my first .hack experience was with a light novel detailing events from BlackRose's point of view. Then I read a manga which summated the same things except this time it was Kite, and then I read the .hack//GU manga. The entire time I had no idea it was based on a video game. Only learned that a year or so ago, actually, when I picked up Project X Zone.

That's Another Birth, really good read honestly. Blackrose was already a decently compelling female protagonist, the books just simply flesh her out quite a lot in really cool ways. The other one is .hack//XXXX, which was pretty good but is dubious as to whether or not it's canon, but because of a character that only appeared in XXXX appears in .hack//Link, it's technically canon which is kind of paradoxical. G.U.+ was also pretty good, I liked the art a lot, but the entire thing with Kazumi and the Dummy Epitaph factor wasn't canon and was kind of unnecessary because it leads into the same story/conclusion as the games.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

That scene after defeating the final boss in the 4th game still sticks with me as damn awesome.

 

[Cubanodun]

I hope the remaster come with dual audio, i buyed the original G.U but did not like the dub, thankfully some sperg undub it back in the day

Legend of the Twilight

Lol that thing was broadcasted here in Animax Latin America, but people did not get into the franchise until G.U just because the MC was a edgelord, i still think Quantum was the worst .Hack anime

Bonus plus: when the remake was announced tons of idiots appeared in twitter and youtube saying that is a blatant copy of SAO, cyber bowling ensues

 

[StoneKnightMan]

I bring news. .hack//gu recode will be released on November 3rd

And the game will contain a 4th episode as well.

 

[Coster]

I bring news. .hack//gu recode will be released on November 3rd

And the game will contain a 4th episode as well.

Spoiler: Haseo's new form, big image

The broadsword is called the Gate of Ouroborus and can split apart into a whip.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Spoiler: Haseo's new form, big image

The broadsword is called the Gate of Ouroborus and can split apart into a whip.

The stick is pretty damn well earned, yeah.

I've heard the original series may be rerelease as well

 

[GethN7]

I'm considering hunting this series down, how horribly lost would I be if I decided to skip the anime and just play the games?

 

[Coster]

I'm considering hunting this series down, how horribly lost would I be if I decided to skip the anime and just play the games?

Not all that lost but you'll miss some parts. SIGN is really good and I recommend watching it before playing the tetralogy, but Roots is kind of meh but has some decently interesting (but not overall important) information for G.U. Skip Legend of the Twilight at all costs, it's cancer.

The stick is pretty damn well earned, yeah.

I've heard the original series may be rerelease as well

My money would eject from my wallet at the word of a rerelease for IMOQ. The issue with that though is that they're releasing the Terminal Disc with G.U. Last Recode, which includes an entire synopsis for the original tetralogy, so it kind of makes me feel bad for people who get into the series with Last Recode.