When I was a kid, my brother introduced me to the .hack series on the PS2, starting with Infection. I was in utter awe at the idea that you could create entire worlds based on three keywords. I mean, think about it; infinite worlds to explore, numerous monsters to kill, and many dungeons to plunder. What more could you want as a 7-year-old?
As time has gone on, the original .hack series hasn’t aged gracefully, so going back to play those games is rather difficult. I decided to play through the newer GU series and see if I could rekindle those childhood memories in some small way, and see what it’s like to play using the latest Recode collection on PS4. I finished every volume and carried my save files over each time to give myself the best possible experience. This article will evaluate the series as a whole rather than going volume by volume, as each volume plays the exact same with very minor changes.
Story
The story revolves around the popular MMO, ‘The World’. This world is a very popular dungeon crawler-style MMO with PVP and PVE elements. ‘The World’ isn’t actually a real MMO; it just has an MMO setting, so to speak.
The first game revolves around the character Haseo, a popular player who is known for taking out PKers (player killers). He is trying to find one particular PK, known as ‘Tri-Edge’. Tri-Edge is a modified player who kills other players and puts them into real-world comas. Because of this, Haseo is on a journey throughout the game, hunting down Tri-Edge to stop this from happening.
Initially, Haseo is your typical edgy, self-obsessed character who will stop at nothing to accomplish his personal goals. He has no care for anyone else — other than two characters from the anime — and is even toxic when confronted about his behaviour. In the first game, he is horrible. Throughout the rest of the volumes, he grows to be way more caring, which is a big twist on his character; the supporting cast respond rather well, commenting on his growth throughout the game and becoming almost reverent of him by the end of the series.
The story was well done and enjoyable, aside from some rather clunky sections. There are bits of the story that can seem disjointed, and like other aspects of the series, tedious, such as when the game forces you to do in-game quests despite the impending threats the characters face. But overall, it’s well done and worth playing by the end.
Combat
The combat does improve with each volume, though the main structure and dungeon crawling remain largely the same. You will find that features are added and removed depending on which volume you are playing, so bear that in mind.
Combat starts by you bumping into a group of enemies, drawing weapons and then beating them down, either by yourself or with a party of NPCs. It has a simple structure that is straightforward to learn and quite easy to master. Wearing your opponents down allows you to do a ‘Rengeki’, which means that your skills will become stronger and harvest more experience with your enemies staggered. The gameplay has a fast feel, which is nice to see and the polar opposite of the original games. There’s no running through menus to use skills, it’s just what you have mapped at the time.
As you go through each volume, you will use more types of weapons. What I found was that the ‘Twinblades’ are way better than any other weapon type due to their speed and damage being so high. Using anything else feels like a waste and doesn’t feel as fluid. The game does attempt to encourage you to use other gear by stating that each piece has a tactical purpose, however, it’s a wasted effort as the ‘Twinblades’ are way too good not to use.
I found items in this game to be next to useless. I never found myself using healing items or skill scrolls and would get rid of them whenever possible. I’d use them as trade fodder or sell them for the extra money, which by the end of the first game made me laughably rich. I did, however, use tomes and AP restoratives. These were the only useful items, one providing new skills and the other restoring AP so I could use skills.
Overall, the combat is very fun and fast paced, however, it hasn’t aged gracefully, with animations being stiff at times or even downright clunky. Being older games, this is to be expected, so keep that in mind.
Environments and Levels
Much like the games before it, the GU games feature the three-keyword system that allows you to generate a level to play through. You can gather the keyboards through the in-game forums or by taking on quests. The keywords control the level of the enemies, loot level and loot density. Creating a world that works for you is quite easy to do, however, the game doesn’t really encourage you to use this system, as it is really easy to over-level and trivialise most story content. Whilst I am happy a system like this exists, it breaks the flow of the story content when used, which is massively annoying.
These levels consist of two types: fields, which are shorter and faster to complete, and dungeons, which are longer and slower to complete. Fields are more designed for fast EXP grinding, while dungeons are more for gathering loot. Personally, I think that fields are the better of the two, as loot was never really an issue throughout the game. I found that you could buy most of the loot you needed from vendors, so I tried to avoid dungeons whenever possible.
Unfortunately, level layouts in fields and dungeons become rather tedious. It’s kind of a given, seeing as these games have the early versions of what would be random generation. However, it is no less mind-numbing to run through the same bland caves, islands, canyons and forests to finish the same objectives over and over again.
Main Towns and Guilds
The main towns are rather easy to navigate and are well laid out. Mac Anu is a good example of this, as the waypoints allow you to go to different areas very quickly and are located at each end of the map.
Every town has the following:
- Weapon Shops
- Armour Shops
- Save Stations
- Quest Shops
- Bike Shops
- Item Shops
- Guild Shops
- Guild Headquarters
You’ll be using all of these in some way, shape, or form. Guild shops do allow you to purchase late-game gear easily, which saves time trying to find it, so I recommend using them whenever possible. You can ignore the bike shops if you wish; however, if you want to navigate towns and levels faster, it’s recommended that you buy parts and upgrade your bike whenever possible. Quest shops, I chose to ignore, purely because I found the quests boring and tedious.
Guilds allow you to store and upgrade gear as well as put gear up for sale in your guild store. You upgrade the guild by completing milestones with the guild clerk. Completing the milestones will also reward you in other ways, such as money or in-game desktop backgrounds. Whilst it’s worth upgrading the guild, don’t feel bad if you don’t, as it’s unimportant. I finished the series with the guild level at 3, so take that as you wish.
Emails and Forums
Emails break up the game nicely and allow you to interact with NPCs outside of the games world. It allows you to get extra narrative from the characters and find out who they really are outside of the game. Most emails that you read throughout the games will be main-story-based, but you can choose to grow bonds with your fellow players by sending e-postcards.
The forums allow users to gather information about keywords and obtain desktop wallpapers. You can also find extra lore about the games world and players. There’s even a digital news page with videos that talk about the world events outside of the game. It’s always worth checking the forums or the news page after in-game events to see what news is out there.
Final Thoughts
I am rather conflicted as to whether I would recommend the GU series. On one hand, the narrative and combat of the game make it fun to play, but the age of the game has let it down big time; with level design being bland and the amount of repetition in gameplay, it’s hard to recommend by today’s standards. I think the GU series appeals to the gamers of the early 2000s. If you’re used to the way JRPGs were during that time, then you’ll feel at home with the series. However, if you aren’t, I wouldn’t recommend it as it has aged like milk, even with the remastered collection on PS4.
In Europe, we don’t have an option to purchase the volumes separately, as it was only released to American and Japanese audiences. Our only option is the remaster on the PS4, so if you are going to give this a go, you’ll have to buy the full remastered collection. The series generally improves as you play, but don’t expect massive changes between games. As a rule, if you don’t like Volume 1, you aren’t going to enjoy the rest of the series. Each volume took me about 30 hours, aside from the last volume being 2 hours long, but I have no doubt that the series can be done faster, I am pretty slow with games usually.
However, with all that being said, I did enjoy the series for what it was. I was satisfied. Would I kick and scream for a remaster or even a sequel? No, but if one did materialise, I would definitely play it.
Let us know your thoughts on the .hack series! Did you agree with my review, or did you hate it with a passion? Either way, please comment and let us know what you think. Check out our other reviews linked below, and stay tuned for additional content here on the site and on our Twitch page!
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