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Ah, the .hack games. I remember when the first round of games had just started coming out. The anime had been showing on Cartoon Network, and I absolutely adored the concept. An MMORPG player literally trapped in a game and unable to log out. Well, this story didn't really apply to the PS2 games, but the idea in the plot that things that happened in the fictional game could affect the real world was pretty cool to me. Great concept, but unfortunately, the execution ended up being a bit flawed. My general feeling about all the first four games was a resounding "...meh".
And I'm not saying this after only playing each game for maybe a few hours. I played and completed all four games, plus the extra side quests (except for that "find every single item in the game" quest in the fourth game. And the goblin chases. That just got annoying), and also watched the included DVDs to catch the special area words hidden in the subtitles. I paid my dues, thank you. There were some things I liked in the games, but mostly I was just lapsing into tedium when I played.
So now the new series, .hack//G.U., has just released its second game in the U.S. I grabbed up the first one and have been playing it arduously for about a week now. I have a few questions in my mind while doing this: Is there hope that they've fixed enough of the problems that were in the first series that it'll actually be worth my money to buy another two games? Are the side quests, fighting mechanics, dungeon scenery, and characters going be more interesting? ...Do I get extra DVDs again?
The answer? Yes and no. Well, mostly yes where it really counts. How surprised am I to be happily engaged in the game this time around instead of just going through the motions of playing? I can't tell yet if the underlying concept of the new .hack is as intriguing as the first series (one of the few things I really liked about the first .hack games), but the immediate plot is much more interesting. Yeah, yeah, they're reusing the whole "players getting stuck in comas again". But the main character, Haseo, just seems more invested in reviving Shino than Kite seemed about Orca. And despite the fact he's a jerk, I like Haseo as a character more than Kite (I guess I like the anti-heroes better than the ones I know are always going to do the right thing).
And THANK YOU GOD, they've revamped the fighting system. And I don't have to micro-manage every single action my teammates perform in battle. And there's an arena where you can battle other players in the game that's actually fairly challenging. And the dungeons! ...Well, they're still repetitive. But at least they're new, right? And there's little missions in some of them. Okay, that was one thing they didn't fix.
So anyhow, the question: is it worth it to play through these new .hack games? Well, if this game is any indication of how entertaining they are going to be, I'd say heck yeah. I'll buy them and play with gusto. Kicking Chim Chims never gets old.
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