.hack games

[Souj]

Ive always kinda sorta wanted to play the games, but 4 games for 1 game put me off of it.
are the games worth getting and playing? both the 1st series and GU?
and which of the 2 is better?
Ive watched //sign and oddly enough liked it despite the lack of almost any action in the series.
also watched roots, which I didnt really like as much. (hated Haseo).

[Insanecyclone]

I never played the current ones with Haseo but I played the originals with Kite and others.

[Kaisha]

I only played through parts 1 & 2 of the first series, and all I can say is, I'd recommend steering clear of it.

Once the game gets going, there's barely any story segments, and it's all primarily grinding through boring monotonous randomly generated levels (until you hit a preset piece for a story segment), and rinse and repeat. The monotony of the game got even worse in #2 for me when you were forced to go around the game farming specific types of ....whatever the game called them, to allow you to progress, and from what I've heard from others, that got even worse in 3 & 4 as means of artificially lengthening the game.

If it was the one game, it may have been worth the bother, but them having charged full price (back then) for four action-RPGs that clearly were meant to be a single title was a waste of cash.

As for the GU follow-up series, I've no idea as I just didn't want to go through the 'one game split across multiple purchases' setup once I learned it was a 3-parter.

[killerx]

G.U was pretty good alot of us on BG had a good thread going through all the games.

[Kuya]

G.U. was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the first ones. I don't think you need to play infection and so forth to get G.U. so i would suggest you at least rent the first volume. It's less grindy, but that aspect is still there. Thankfully the fighting is more entertaining.

[Wintermute]

The first series was alright but nothing special. As said it's kind of slow and a bit of a grind. Probably really shows its age by now considering when it was released.

I actually made it to the 4th game (part) of the Infection series but about 30min in it forces you to go and grind mobs for specific hacking pieces that refuse to drop and it totally ruined the whole series for me.

[MoogleAura]

I almost made it through the 3rd game then I just gave up... The 4th one is still sitting here, never played either. ~_~ It gets very repetitive, even though I loved .hack//SIGN, the games just really kill the enthusiasm.

[izembo]

play GU, dont worry about the first series

[Elcura]

I actually made it to the 4th game (part) of the Infection series but about 30min in it forces you to go and grind mobs for specific hacking pieces that refuse to drop and it totally ruined the whole series for me.

Thank god I wasn't the only one! I loved infection, decent gameplay, good story and great atmosphere (loved the final boss) but after that it just got really boring and I was playing through just for the story trying to get past really shit mechanics...

[Demni]

I imported the first 4 and GU part 1 when GU part1 was was released.

I was interested in GU at the time but my friend had recently got the first 4 used and since they were still sold over seas in 2 packs i bought thoese. The series is overall fun i wouldn't play the imports again since they left out content they added into the NA version(wepaons/abilities) that made it much more of a grind fest. mechanics aren't that great either.

battles are alot better in G.U. once you get past the jp angsty teen life that is the main character.

in all honesty the best part of the franchise is that it all ties together from the anime to the games to the manga, and both main storylines tie in as well.

[RavenwindX]

I remember watching .hack//SIGN when it first aired on Cartoon Network - instantly was hooked and had to watch all the episodes instead of waiting. Truly a good serious. Sure, may not be a lot of action in it but it's beautifully designed and has a strong story-arc with an added bonus of being carried over through the manga, animes, and video games. I think I almost "squee'd" when I discovered the flashback scenes linking the games to the series. Definitely agree with Demni about the best part is the link between mediums.

Unfortunately though I've only had the pleasure of playing the first and second games. Tried getting into the third one but a combination of being under trained for it (and what felt like over trained for #2) and starting college distracted me.
Going to have to go back and play the originals again then try the G.U. as I'm quite curious to see how far the story has progressed between the show and games.

Anyone know if the MMO version in JP is still going and if there's any hope for it reaching the US?

[Katlan]

I played the first 4... it had a good concept but was just very repetitive. Worst thing was that you kept having to pause the combat to change stuff around. I liked the characters and the story was decent, had a lot of collecting stuff also. Overall I enjoyed the games more then the negatives, but it is kinda grindy and repetitive. The concept of an offline mmo was the allure to the titles, I <3's the cities lol

[Demni]

Anyone know if the MMO version in JP is still going and if there's any hope for it reaching the US?

Fragment right.

If you mean fragment somewhere in the back of my mind I remember hearing service being discontinued but I could be wrong. It was based of "The World" form the first 4 games which makes it pretty dated.

Also if anyone been keeping up I think the next game come out in japan this year, no US info yet. Its for PSP and based off the current manga .hack//LINK.
and features characters from A.I buster to Sign to G.U. etc. seems interesting. I'm always glad to see PSP get some loving.

[Ragnus]

I made it to the 4th game in the original series before quitting. Losing a party member I've had in my party since the first game really brought my will to play the game down a bunch since I hated all the other characters that were the same class. Not to mention I didn't feel like farming gear to catch them up to kinda almost close to her level of performance. I know it's supposed to mimic an MMO where people can up and quit but jeez, that was a dick move imo. -.-

I never played the new series but it did look good from what trailers I saw.

[Souj]

so, avoid the 1st series, and try the 1st game of the second to see if I like it? I hope Haseo doesnt piss me off as much as he did in the anime.
and in regards to the 1st series, when you say "grind", are we talking FF11 type grind, or worse?

[Exoduso]

GU is great, the first .hack series was shitty though.

[Akiyama]

They need a .hack MMO. Maybe make it like PSO where there's a lobby system where it's got a few different 'towns' and then you create a game for 4-6 people or something? I'd definitely play that.

[Kuya]

Haseo becomes less of a shit head as the game progresses. It's actually funny, since you see actual character progression.

edit: maybe in the second game he's less of a bitch.

edit: not as grindy as FXI. Nevermind, you meant the 1st series and not the second. Well in the 1st you might grind to gain some levels every now and then, but that happens fast. It's the grinding for the virus cores that really gets you. But it's not something that happens all the time, it's just that it forces you to grind for them to progress the story at certain points which is just shitty.

[Seraphise]

so, avoid the 1st series, and try the 1st game of the second to see if I like it? I hope Haseo doesnt piss me off as much as he did in the anime.
and in regards to the 1st series, when you say "grind", are we talking FF11 type grind, or worse?

If you by chance played last remnant, grinding for the virus cores is a lot like grinding for the final weapons, except they force you to do it, and more than once.

[Ayn]

I went back and saw Roots after I played G.U.

I've gotta say, Haseo's a hell of a lot less annoying in the actual games than he is in the anime. G.U. really blows the first series out of the water. There is some repetition going there, but I enjoyed it overall.

If you want to maintain any semblance of challenge, though, you may want to avoid the Doppelganger weapons. There's a Scythe which pretty much has the equivalent of a permanent Blood weapon effect that breaks the second game.