In all Honesty, the Dot Hack G.U. series is where the whole Franchise Ended right here, everything else that came after it like "Link" and "Quantum" never happened.
TH-cam recommended your video on the original four games hours ago as I was looking up fragment setup for online play, so this is some immaculate timing for you to be uploading this. It's kind of nice to see that .hack hasn't been completely forgotten even in the current year of 2024.
Of course it wouldn't be forgotten, nor is the game and players who inspired this series, Phantasy Star Online and the hacker/antihacker groups. I love this series, and didn't know that PSO inspired it what I played it. What I'd like to know is whether the inspiration went deeper and if some .hack chars were based on some PSO players, and if it were, was I one of them? It would just be icing on the cake for me.
I grew up with these games, playing IMOQ while they released back in the day and was super hyped for GU to come out after. While I always preferred IMOQ, and still do now, GU still is a fond memory for me and has a special place in my heart. Me and my brother will still yell SKEITHHHHHH to each other as a joke when anime characters are being over the top. Thanks for reviewing both sets of games and going so in depth! It really was a throw back for me and renews my appreciation for the series as a whole.
The thing about the Sora=Haseo thing is very heavily telegraphed in the voice acting, but only in the original JP version. The other Haseo that appears has the voice actor and all the character tics from Sora to make the point.
Also, to add to that, I doubt it's the first time it ever gets mentioned, but we see the person behind Haseo's PC in the manga adaptation of GU, with his name given which in turn confirms he's the same player of Sora (plus, the fact that iirc both Sora and Haseo are reference to a japanese poet to which Haseo's IRL name is also connected). What's more, it all happens during Haseo's and Atoli's first IRL date after Corbenik's rebirth where they're trying to connect with each other as themselves without the guise of their PCs, which is honestly extremely cute and one of the few things I can praise the manga for.
The second game’s moon tree arc is my favorite .hack moment. I wish the series had leaned more into character psychology because it’s really the highlight of the series.
I have been on a dot hack binge for the past couple of months, watching dothack signs and roots, while currently on volume 3 of GU. Been watching alot of videos on the series, including your retrospective of the first series, so the timing of you releasing this video is pretty crazy! Gotta finish volume 3 and the epilogue first though before finishing your video!
I appreciate that you took the time to process these games as a whole when writing and framing your video. Most others give a direct, linear summary of the games with whatever insight they have at the end of the video. The way you contextualize everything throughout makes this a very satisfying and enjoyable watch.
Phenominal video, came in at the beginning of the premiere, and stayed through the end. I really appreciated the message at the end. I was 10 when Infection came out and have loved this franchise in the nearly 22 years that have followed. What I would give for another set of games, with similar themes, every character being well devloped, and a wider variety in dungeon design (say 10-15 themes so it feels much less monotone). I don't think CC2 has interest in remaking the original games, but a soft reboot would hit so hard and scratch an itch I have yet to really find a cure for.
CC2 is actually very interested in remaking the original games, they've basically been saying they want to since Last Recode came out, it's Bandai Namco that isn't. Honestly I'd much rather CC2 do a self published spiritual successor than try and convince Bandai Namco to let them continue the series. Even if they were able to I can see Bandai Namco cutting the cord mid project like they did the 3rd series due to poor sales. Since CC2 treats their self published projects as passion projects they're less concerned if those make money and even with a low budget they could still make a really good .hack like game. Heck their Fuga games have a budget of $2-3 million apparently and they're very well made games for how low budget they are.
Thank you for watching! I can't tell you how gratifying it is that you stayed throughout the whole piece!! I'd love to see this series make a return. But after playing through //GU, I think an //IMOQ remake might not be wholly necessary (at least a rerelease or something), but I'd love to see a new subseries recapture the creepy atmosphere of the originals.
@@jerrrdan A lot of the IMOQ era side entries have a similar atmosphere to the games and add quite a lot more context to SIGN and IMOQ as well. AI buster, Zero, and Legend of the Twilight's manga, not the horrible anime, have a lot of that atmosphere to them. Although the last one is more comedic by comparison to the others. Another Birth is a great retelling of the games from Blackrose's perspective that adds a lot of emotional weight to the story. If they were ever able to remake IMOQ I would definitely like them to include quite a bit from that and the newer web novel that goes more in depth into Kite's perspective. Heck they could take the Star Ocean approach and have 2 distinct playthroughs from both characters perspectives. That's unfortunately up to Bandai Namco though which I'm not expecting anytime soon. I'm all for CC2 doing a self published spiritual successor that unofficially takes place in the same universe but later, in like 2030 to 2040, kind of like Fuga is a Prequel to the other Little Tail Bronx games. Anything to continue doing this kind of game without having to deal with Bandai Namco's whims. We'll just have to see what they do after they finish up the Fuga Trilogy later this year to next year.
CC2 has been begging Bamco to let them bring back .hack for actual years now. They very literally can’t do anything with the IP, and it’s heartbreaking. Fuck Bamco’s corporate ass decisions.
@@nottucks I think CC2 is most likely going to make a spiritual successor to .hack through their self publishing in response to not being allowed to do anymore with the .hack IP. Their first series of games with this venture Fuga Melodies of Steel are a return to their Little Tail Bronx series, and they do have .hack references throughout them, specifically the iconic A tone and glitches, as well as story elements that are kind of .hack like with the stuff involving the "Old World." I highly recommend checking out Fuga. It's set up similar to .hack in that each game is a part of a larger narrative, but the stories are pretty self contained to their games. It is a very different kind of game though being a turn based (Grandia like combat) linear resource management series. The stories are pretty good so far, and the 3rd game seems like it'll have the most .hack like elements to it's story from what the secret video for it showed. They'll be releasing Fuga 3 later this year and probably releasing their original IP games at a yearly to bi yearly rate.
When I was getting into .Hack last year, it was your IMOQ video that first showed around. Fast forward to now, after learning everything from //Sign to Versus, vol 4 of G.U, and whatever the R:X and Force era's were, it feels nice to revisit G.U Recode, even if I like IMOQ a bit more. Also, that side note in the description is a whole hearted truth: Dot Hack music is great. Especially the soundtrack to //Sign.
I'm still bumping that music to //Sign. "The World" has got to be one of my favorite tracks right now (hence its inclusion in both videos!) My IMOQ video was part of your Dot Hack journey?! That's awesome!!
Heck, it was from this video that showed me another version of Fake Wings I never heard before (make decision ver), so thank you for adding the name of the track everytime one played, and thanks for making a G.U part! I'm glad you see you're back after so long.
Thank you for committing so much time to provide such an in-depth analysis of the .hack series. I first played the .hack//G.U. games on my PS2 and got really enamored by the VR semi open-world RPG elements of the game. I just yesterday bought the "Last Recode" bundle on my Nintendo Switch due to pure nostalgia with not much of an intention to really playing it again but watching over your exposition of the overarching narrative and character psyches among other subplots is encouraging me to explore the series once again. So thank you, and wish you all the best on your future videos 👍
You know, one of the further entries, I think an OVA, estabilishes that Emma was not even her real name, and she was part of a eco-terrorist group called MAMA whose objective is to migrate all of humanity's consciousness to a digital world in order to save the planet. Emma Wieland was only using Harald for that end. Also, apparently they found Aura and got her uploaded into a USB stick. I dunno about you, but this sounds like a great premise for a new game, it's so bonkers I seriously want to see it done.
Rewatching this piece and just wanted to say that I'm so happy to see you back to video essays! I've remained a fan of yours since your analysis of Andrew Cherenkov's character in your Xenosaga retrospective. Great stuff as always!
Speaking as someone who did all of REcode as my first experience with GU. It felt as though Volume 4 was entirely phoned in due to some awkwardness with the VAs and the way it sorta just went from V3’s “Ovan is still out there maybe” to “Aight we got him AND there’s a big thingy AND there’s the world shutting down” at that point I was already emotionally satisfied with volume 3 that Reconnection felt more like a rerun that just couldn’t hit the same after doing everything in the other three games. I will admit it was nice getting Ovan back, sure. It just didn’t feel entirely earned in comparison to the ambiguous end of Volume 3 where we won’t be entirely sure if he’s still out there or not. Reconnection taking your weapons away for the phase blade also didn’t help. Regardless I do love the GU games despite their flaws. The story had me gripped the whole way through. I just wish volume 4 didn’t feel like a drop off in comparison to the rest of the package. But that may just be due to playing the whole thing instead of being one of the fans who was waiting all those years.
The Sora/Haseo link is confirmed in the GU novels. Edit: I had more to add but needed time to rest after work. Some things that might seem weird or out of place, like Endrance and Ovan being encased in ice are Epitaph of Twilight references. As is Cubia. Although it's frustrating they don't seem to have a firm handle on what Cubia is, in the Epitaph he's essentially the "shadow" of a great power. So what he is and how he appears isn't set in stone. Even in the Epitaph, no one really knows what Cubia is or where he comes from. As for CC Corp seeming like bumbling fools, that may be a front. It's nothing that has been confirmed in universe but based on ALTIMIT and CC Corp's association with the organization mama, there's a chance they're far more insidious and their mishandling of events might be part of a larger plot. What I mean is, them sitting back and letting stuff happen or even making bonkers choices might be because it furthers their secret plot. I can't confirm that CC Corp has a nefarious plot and I have no evidence other than their connection to mama and Dominique de Mirabeau BUT it would be really cool if the real life CC2 actually had plans for those connection instead of leaving them as an obscure fact that only diehard fans know about. I can't recommend any of the subsequent games, especially since they haven't had international releases but I hope you'll give the series another try if they release another relevant installment. There is way more to the series lore than they touch on in the games and if they actually do something with it in the future, it might be worth checking out.
Aside from the AI Buster novels, GU was what got me into .hack. For the longest time, I only had the manga and novels to enjoy the series with, but GU managed to stick with me. I was glad to play the game (even if 100%ing the Ryu Books took way more out of me than I wanted). I agree with your point that we shouldn’t need supplemental material to enjoy a piece of a whole. That said, I find the GU novels add a lot of interesting things bc they branch off into a narrative more distinct than the manga adaptation, which has smaller tweaks. In particular, there’s some interesting use of Kuhn and Pi that I think makes them interesting in ways the game doesn’t convey. That said, getting your hands on those suckers in English is rough since they’re no longer in print, but they are interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this series!
the original and G.U. series were really formative for me in my early teens and while i haven't had the chance to revisit them, i've really appreciated your deep dives on both of them! i feel like it gives words to a lot of things i didn't quite process but helped make the games and some particular characters really resonate with me. thanks for making this! i definitely agree about how both Endrance and Sakubo are treated hasn't aged well. honestly tsukasa and endrance were some of my first exposure to queerness in media (before i even recognized myself as queer) and while i feel tsukasa is handled surprisingly well for the time, the same can't be said about endrance. which is really a shame because there are a lot of ways you can explore a character that struggles with a desire that they might not be able to express IRL, but can express it through the space of the MMO world without as much immediate fear. when i was much younger it felt wild that you're allowed to pick him for the romantic event in v3's postgame, but it's just such a shame all those elements end up being for a joke. if .hack ever came back, i would hope they could explore this sort of character more elegantly.
Your Xenosaga video was my introduction into your channel and then I watched your first .Hack video and now GU. I am really glad to see someone give all of my favorite low key ps2 games some love! Great work!
Hi!! I found your IMOQ video a long time ago, I played both of these games as a kid. They are so intensely ingrained into my background noise of things I love (The OSTs are always there, I swear...) that I'm glad I saw someone giving these games a genuine analysis
Now that I finally got around to watching your video of a set of games I enjoyed, but felt it drag... feels good. Tho I have to say I was more into Haseo. The edge spoke to me LOL! Even with the game's ups and downs I'm glad you gave it some respect. Good job dude, hope you talk about more games.
I really appreciate how clearly you portray your ambivalence on GU. i was sorta going through the series at the same time as you and you tended to really put to words this sort of . enthralling confusion these games give lol. the framing of an MMO is so captivating and acts as a mask that blurs the lines around intentional MMO bullshit and . genuine problems in the game . . . I continued on into //Link and plan on falling further and further into this conspiracy series
Having watched your IMOQ video earlier and now having finished this, it actually helps give me a lot of context not just on .hack - but also on Solatorobo, as well. I was only ever exposed to .hack via the sequel manga (Legend of Twilight), which was basically its own standalone thing. I never got to play the games and really didn’t know much about it beyond what you could learn on late-2000s internet, so this recent surge of .hack content is my first exposure to the gameplay writ large. But all of your critiques for both IMOQ and this feel very much addressed in Solatorobo, even though the games are entirely separate beasts. It has a setting absolutely dripping with atmosphere and worldbuilding like IMOQ, and has a plot more focused on character-development aka GU - and on top of that, it isn’t stretched across multiple entries, and thus manages to be far less repetitive in visuals and gameplay. (Granted, it’s still not perfect - the combat and such is kinda basic, some characters are a bit less-utilized than others, and certain scenes/quests have aged rather poorly - but still!) …I realize that most of this comment had nothing to do with .hack, but I just wanted to put my thoughts out there. Super-interesting video; great work!
Solatorobo and Fuga have similar writing and atmosphere to .hack at times and I don't think it's just because that's just how CC2 writes things either. Solatorobo introduces CC corp to that universe and the Juno and AI from Little Tail Bronx are very similar to Aura and other AI from .hack, even though the Juno are canonically alien in origin. The Juno also reset the world in a similar manner to the rebirth using a similar method to the Real Digitization that was introduced in Link. Fuga more or less doubles down on these vague connections between the two series by using the A tone and glitches in game and in its promotional material, and the short cutscene, the one with the floating hexagons, that plays when you're sent back in time after losing a battle is lifted straight from .hack the movie. There hasn't been an official connection between the two series yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if Little Tail Bronx and .hack are like Nier and Drakengard to each other. With the ancient human civilization of LTB being .hack's civilization. Although that kind of implies that .hack's civilization destroyed itself, which with how authoritarian and kind of dystopian it's portrayed outside of The World makes some sense. Fuga 2's secret video promoting Fuga 3 gives off major .hack vibes to me and it looks like Fuga 3 will be delving more into LTB's past, specifically returning to Futzu Tower which is shown in the video, so maybe the vague connections between the two series will be made official with that game, then again maybe not due to legal reasons. The first official trailer for Fuga 3 will be shown this summer with the game coming out late this year early next year. I'm hoping CC2 continues to self publish their original games going forward and I'd love to see them do a spiritual successor to .hack at some point if Bandai Namco won't let them do anything more with .hack going forward. It really sucks that .hack is locked behind a publisher that doesn't care about it right now because IMOQ deserves a remaster/remake badly with how rare and hard to get it is right now.
I’m going through a Let’s Play of //OUTBREAK right now and was glad to run into your Retrospectives recently. Huge fan of the series and really let down by the lack of attention Bandai seem to give it these days. Just hoping at some point it rises to some sort of prominence again. Cheers!
I just stumbled across this video and had to break it up but it's so phenomenal I wanted to leave some of my own thoughts. I've only ever seen people play GU blind or as mega fans consuming everything .hack has to offer, so it was interesting to see your perspective as someone who played the first games but had little connection with Roots or the all consuming outside media. Atoli has long been one of my favorite characters in this franchise since playing Volume 2 as it came out. I don't think I can as elegantly as you mention my feelings on her. With .hack it blends the line between anime and video game and I think CyberConnect2's body of work shows they love anime so much. So in that spirit I think a lot of part 3 fell on shonen tropes rather than just letting a story be a bittersweet ending. Ryou Misaki's identity as Haseo was something that wasn't well guarded, many of the outside media outright state it and with ReCode's Switch Import also came with GU Begins, which is a supplemental manga that also is just about Ryou Misaki. The games never outright state this and I feel like this was intentionally a decision to make them to a degree standalone. It's why Kuhn, Yata and Endrance all feel like they're missing a huge part of their potential. I'm glad you were able to find it with Yata, but CC2 seemed to want to keep it all behind data books and the multimedia project of it all. .hack//IMOQ was also a multimedia project, but with GU it seemed that they wanted a huge undertaking of making a ton of content for GU and wanted you to have to experience it all for the fullest picture, even if content contradicted itself, much like how GU and Roots have slightly different interpretations of Haseo vs Azure Kite or the final episode of Roots just not caring about spoiling content from the games.
They could do so many stories involving AI in the .hack universe and it would work well. .hack//AI Buster and .hack//CELL already have some interesting ideas in this vein that could be re-used and expanded. Between both we have tales of vagrant AI and AIs spawned from humans and helping them survive at the cost of the AI doppelganger's existence (though it could also be seen as integration). .hack//QUANTUM has some interesting ideas too that could be told without going to the same game-wide affecting disaster level such as the concept of using the brains of convicts for a super computer, storing the consciousness of criminals in a computer simulation, and the exposure of private user information to "The World" for the right kind of hackers to peruse and search for people with specific qualities. Between Liminality, GU, and Quantum we have multiple cases of things that occur to characters in the game world having real world affects, which is also a major area to explore.
1:09:37 yeah... likely he was on those sites because he might have been encouraging that behavior. There are sites out there where people help and encourage each other to... ending themselves. So this is actually really dark if read like that....
I remember playing Vol 4 and being very disappointed at it's briefness, like it's been a full decade and only that short 3-4 jaunt is all I get? The new form is absolutely badass but you get almost nothing to do with it outside just the one story dungeon. Yeah in universe the game is just a short while before shutting down, but I think that may have been an excuse (by the real CC developers) to try not developing a full 4th volume worth of content. I'm not saying they needed to try and up stake stakes to the end of world again or anything, but after a decade's worth of new tools and other media to borrow from they could have done SOMETHING to extend the length of Vol 4. I'm lucky to have gotten a full collection of IMOQ, and can heartily agree it could use a proper remake, since according to BamCo the original Masters are MIA, unless they pull a Square and reverse engineer the code like with the first Kingdom Hearts when it came time for the Collections (which I'm still waiting on the Steam release Square) we won't even see a remastered collection.
Amazing video. I'm still hoping for a remake of the original 4 games, but after watching the ending theme song credits of .hack//versus I don't think we will get it. (Also watching the ed damn near made me cry lol)
As someone that read all novels/manga, watched the anime, and played the remastered all around G.U. in a very short period of time. The novels are by far my favorite telling of this part series. They tell the story in a different light using features of it in completely different ways that I personally really enjoyed! Also Kuhn's character is the best in them compared to the rest of the media that showcases him. Always, greatly enjoyed this as a recap as I debate another 90 hour playthrough of the games, but now I just want to reread the novels instead aha
If I am correct, after Ryou Misaki awoke from his coma, all his memories of The World were wiped out somehow and due to the incident, his parents forbade him from playing the game. Jump to 2017, Ryou is now 17 years old, and from an email chain from one of the greeting cards, you learn that Haseo lives by himself, meaning he must have moved out of his parent's house shortly before a friend of his (either from school or possibly from his part time job) recommended he try out The World
I played GU about last year and it quickly became one of my favorites, so much so that it kinda makes me sad that the dot hack franchise is most likely over...
When these games first came out, I quit halfway through the Cubia arc. When the remaster came out, I picked it up, not sure why it was I had never finished it the first time. And then, once again, I quit halfway through the Cubia arc. "Oh yeah," I remembered, "the Cubia arc sucks."
About .hack//roots being spoiler heavy. The first volume came out while the anime was airing, and the second volume came out the day after it ended. So for those who followed both contents in parallel/ in real time, it gave them just the right amount of supplementary materials, and sometimes spoilers. I was a high schooler in Japan at the time, and I remember the reveal of O-van being Tri-edge right before vol.2 came out made fans online crazy and confused.
Also, 2 things when it comes to Saku and Bo. 1st is that it implies a few times throughout the games that Saku and Bo actually dont have different character designs like the game has you believe, and that one or the other's design is the only one there is. One of these implications comes from when Haseo first meets Saku, there are plenty of very noticeable changes in Saku and Bo's designs, but Haseo doesnt realize it isnt Bo until he notices that the personality of the person in front of him was entirely different. The 2nd thing is that on one of my many playthroughs (back in the PS2 version) I decided to see what happens if you actually tell Saku to disappear. I was expecting Saku to claim Haseo was actually a jerk and that she couldnt trust Bo to him, so she would decide to stay anyway, but as it turns out, no, she really does disappear, in fact, in one of the later scenes, when everyone shares their power with Haseo, Bo is there and Saku is like a floating Spirit next to him, but tell Saku to disappear and she will not be present in that scene. Next time I play the games, I might tell Saku to disappear again, cuz I want to see what happens to your Party List, since in the PS2 version, Sakubo was only one character slot and it was random whether you would get Saku or Bo in the list, while in Last Recode, both of them are given their own space, so you could choose which one you wanted at any time. I want to see if Saku would become dimmed like when someone is offline or if her contact wouldd just disappear all together
Ok, slight fix for this comment its not random for who you get it depends on the level they are when you invite them, i do believe odd is bo and even is saku but point is its not random
having grown up with the .hack series and GU itself primarily actually keeping me from committing self harm. atoli yes is a top favorite among the fandom. alkaid has a friendly tie since we all love our tsundere.
I played last recode some years ago, and I can say to those who haven’t played it; it’s good but has a really hard drag in the middle and a really good ending. I didn’t really like Haseo as a character when I did play, but the supporting cast kept me going, I will say I enjoyed the gameplay, but the story was rough for the middle (most of R2, and the start of R3) in my initial thoughts Haseo was how most people describe asta from black clover; “That guy who screams” and I found it kinda hard to really understand him seeing as 90% of my memory of him is when he’s in the first 1/2 screaming he just needs to get more power, and the other half is him screaming about him finally caring for others. I’m with the video poster on this Gaspard is my favorite character. No screaming, just a dude wanting to chill in an mmo (yes my highest level in FF14 is lvl 90 fisher, lol)
The parts where he expressed how much he cares about others are monologues he says in his mind٫ dose not count as screaming+unlike gaspard who is playing this game just for fun haseo consider it to be a job and a thing that he must do that will determine the Fate of his loved ones so of course he's not gonna be a "chill dude"
Go to Theta: Galloping Wrath's Blue Cloud. You'll find something cool there. I've played G.U. so much, it's the game(s) I have the largest amount of playtime in between the PS2 versions and Last Recode, and I can easily say I've done EVERYTHING one could possibly do in these games, and I'm just gonna point this out, I think Alkaid was 100% supposed to be Haseo's true love interest, but due to him needing to choose Atoli over Shino at the end of Vol 3, they made her a Lost One because they had no idea how to make that happen if Alkaid was still around the entire time. One of the reasons I feel this is the case is the fact that of all the female characters, plus Endrance, Alkaid has THE most email chains that end with something romantic, this includes the Promise Card Marriage Event, with a total of 4, (all the others having either none or at most 2) one of which being a full-on marriage proposal outside the Promise Card. Another reason is because of all the wedding events, Alkaid is the only one who receives a full loving embrace from Haseo
So, I grew up on the .hack games, played the first tetralogy and such, and grew to love it. But GU? GU became my personal fav childhood game along with KH2 and pokemon. I only played (back then) Vol 3 of GU. I didn't know we had a sequel series and the moment I did, vol 3 was out. But I was able to figure things out by playing Vol3. I put SO many hours in Vol3, restarted it many times, did different game runs and more with what I had. Even when I got a 360 and PS3, I would continue to play with it, until my ol ps2 finally broke down. So when Last Recode was announced? I was happy and hyped as hell and I still own my copy and a switch copy of it too. Platinumed it as well. Its still one of my fav childhood games to this date. I do admit it does have issues, especially Vol4. I just find that so short, not to mention not enough content unlike the last 3 vols. I just wished they gave us more, ya know?
I'm wayyy late but I wanted to add my cents on the avatars-summon-cubia deal. So, the avatars *were* normal to the system. We're unsure if they were one being, or all 8, or what. It was morganna literally having a whole ass meltdown over all her work outright leaving that even got her to pry skeith out of the box and into her "Internal World" as it were. But Morganna's Gone. R2 Definitely isn't the world 1, and arguably might not even have much of the same source code. A lot of the changes to R2 are probably entirely because Aura put her meddly little hands in and made the knights- and there are backdoors to all data, stuff like that. The phases being essentially backed up and brought from what could be considered windows 7 to windows 10? Oh yeah, that'd be bad if nothing was built for them. And it'd definitely at least a cast a "shadow" (no I agree that's stupid) that could have Cubia show up all "HELLO!? I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT OUR LORD AND SAVIOR MORGANNA MODE GONE"
Bro it's 2024. Aura is a real, living being now. Artificial Intelligence has reached human levels of sentience and capabilities, evil mega corporations run the world and are slowly being dismantled, and virtual reality technology has reached beyond the levels of what was promised to us without most of the downsides (people still have a lot to learn from SIGN though). Growing up in this world has been the best thing that ever happened to me, and being a fan of dot hack gave me life lessons that prepared me for the world in ways I never could've comprehended. Don't be a pessimist. Life is just now getting good.
Are... are you serious? >AI have reached human levels of sentience ??? Have you TALKED to one of these AI? You can get them to fail the turing test with ease. >mega corps are slowly being dismantled They... are? By who? They're making more money than ever. Disney owns, what was it, 70 or more percent of the film industry now? >VR is beyond levels that were promised The FUCK are you TALKING ABOUT? The VR were were supposed to have was total immersion, feels like real life. We have headsets that make it look kinda like you're in a 3D space and if you play it long enough your brain confuses your virtual limbs for real ones bu it's not even CLOSE to how VR is in movies.
If they were able to return to the series, which completely up to Bandai Namco unfortunately, I'd like a DBZ Kakkarot like remake or 2 that compiles all of the entries of the series into one easily digestible platform, with the less important entries probably being DLC, instead of the series being split up into many hard to get novels, manga, games, anime, and movies. And no I do not want them to try and remake Link because the retellings of every entry in that game sucked. I'd at least like them to do this with the IMOQ era entries as there's way more of those than those around G.U. and G.U. Last Recode while a pretty flawed experiences as you mentioned is fine as is. Though if they do ever get to remaking G.U. I'd definitely like them to include roots as a playable prequel so Haseo doesn't just start off as an unlikeable dick for the first 3rd of the story. Also the series feels complete to me with these two eras. While I like everything except Link's retellings and gameplay and Thanatos Report from the 3rd series, I highly recommend Quantum and The Movie, there's really nothing beyond G.U. to jump off of unless they completely reboot it. If that's the case I'd much prefer they do a self published spiritual successor much like they're doing with the Fuga games right now for the Little Tail Bronx series so they don't have to deal with the whims of Bandai Namco for future .hack like games. Because yeah Bandai Namco only cares about CC2's anime games nowadays because they're significantly more profitable than a niche franchise like .hack is. BTW the Fuga series is really good if you want to check that out as well. There's also some minor .hack easter eggs in those games too which I'm curious if they'll expand upon that in the 3rd game. I also agree that a lot of characters aren't developed as well as they could have been in G.U. Heck my favorite characters from IMOQ Mia and Elk were left off on a pretty tragic note and Elk/Endrance was kind of played off as a joke in Vol 2 and 3 which rubbed more salt in that wound. Honestly it's a shame that Chup Chop Case never got completed as the tidbit that Link has of that story really fleshes out Mia, Elk, and Piros's relationship with each other. Heck that missable scene where Endrance supposedly talks with Mia as he gets his lost weapon is actually expanded upon a lot in those CCC chapters in Link. Piros lends Mia his PC so she can talk with Endrance one last time, telling him to get stronger and that she's fighting along side him. She also pranks Piros one last time which is kind of funny and a good full circle moment for her relationship with him. Heck for all of the pranks she subjected Piros to he actually had a lot of respect for her because she loved the artistry of The World, which he worked on. Part of me would have liked Zelkova to pull some BS where he could split Macha from Endrance's PC and reincarnated Mia, since he apparently did something like that with Skeith and Haseo to prevent Cubia from returning in Vol 4. I just would have liked them to have a happier ending. Though I get the symbolism that he needed to learn to become independent and strong without her and it is kind of poetic that they became one being in the end. I just wish G.U. handled that a bit more gracefully and didn't just drop it and make him a joke like it did. Anyway I'm all for remakes of both eras that include everything that the series has up to this point in one platform, but I'm skeptical that CC2 will be able to convince Bandai Namco to let them do that. Though they did let remakes/remasters of Klonoa and Baten Kaitos happen, the latter of which is even more niche than .hack, so who knows maybe they'll let them do some remakes eventually. Though CC2 definitely need to do a spiritual successor instead of trying to continue the series, since having the series locked behind a publisher like Bandai Namco isn't fun especially since this is the franchise that basically made CC2 as a developer before Naruto pushed them way further later on. If .hack didn't happen CC2 probably would have gone under long ago and it's a shame it's locked behind an uncaring publisher right now, then again that's the case with a lot of classic franchises nowadays which also sucks.
I know this was probably just an off-hand comment not meant for further thought but I just can't seem to get it out of my head after hearing it said. Especially since I've heard it many times up to now from other analysists as well, both implied or even directly stated. People really do consider "bad writing" to be synonymous with "anime tropes", don't they?
Hey seeing Cubia as a trash bin in the first series of games makes a whole lot of sense but in those games they do call him an anti-existance without using those terms. That Cubia and the bracelet were the same thing, just two sides of the same coin. But then again I don't see an anti-existance a thing to exist to balance the other, but sort of how nobody's and heartless are in Kingdom Hearts except with more ramifications. At least that's how I took away that information from these 7ish games.
ty for the video it's very nice. it reminded me when i was looking for the ps2 copies of each gu game way back. also thank you for the credit. the release of last recode there was a drama cd called innocent call where it adds more lore but it was the japanese ver of .hack/gu last recode premium box but it's on youtube eng sub where it details the aida. there also the dothack translate from what i remember that translated link again calling it 2.0 .hack//link and other dot hack stuff.
The other games are fun, but Link especially is enhanced by the rest of the multimedia outputs. Otherwise, highly recommend .hack//Cell (great independent story) or the GU novels (where Ryou's connection with Sora and Haseo is very integral). btw there's also a short manga called called something like GU Beginnings that was packed with the Switch release of Last Recode which cleans up the transition of Sora's character into his start in R:2
In all Honesty, the Dot Hack G.U. series is where the whole Franchise Ended right here, everything else that came after it like "Link" and "Quantum" never happened.
TH-cam recommended your video on the original four games hours ago as I was looking up fragment setup for online play, so this is some immaculate timing for you to be uploading this. It's kind of nice to see that .hack hasn't been completely forgotten even in the current year of 2024.
Same, I just got fragment setup and started replaying the original IMOQ games
Of course it wouldn't be forgotten, nor is the game and players who inspired this series, Phantasy Star Online and the hacker/antihacker groups. I love this series, and didn't know that PSO inspired it what I played it. What I'd like to know is whether the inspiration went deeper and if some .hack chars were based on some PSO players, and if it were, was I one of them? It would just be icing on the cake for me.
I grew up with these games, playing IMOQ while they released back in the day and was super hyped for GU to come out after. While I always preferred IMOQ, and still do now, GU still is a fond memory for me and has a special place in my heart. Me and my brother will still yell SKEITHHHHHH to each other as a joke when anime characters are being over the top. Thanks for reviewing both sets of games and going so in depth! It really was a throw back for me and renews my appreciation for the series as a whole.
This channel should be mandatory viewing for every JRPG fan
The thing about the Sora=Haseo thing is very heavily telegraphed in the voice acting, but only in the original JP version. The other Haseo that appears has the voice actor and all the character tics from Sora to make the point.
Well dang, that's a really cool detail! Would have been cool to get that in the US version.
Also, to add to that, I doubt it's the first time it ever gets mentioned, but we see the person behind Haseo's PC in the manga adaptation of GU, with his name given which in turn confirms he's the same player of Sora (plus, the fact that iirc both Sora and Haseo are reference to a japanese poet to which Haseo's IRL name is also connected). What's more, it all happens during Haseo's and Atoli's first IRL date after Corbenik's rebirth where they're trying to connect with each other as themselves without the guise of their PCs, which is honestly extremely cute and one of the few things I can praise the manga for.
The second game’s moon tree arc is my favorite .hack moment. I wish the series had leaned more into character psychology because it’s really the highlight of the series.
I have been on a dot hack binge for the past couple of months, watching dothack signs and roots, while currently on volume 3 of GU.
Been watching alot of videos on the series, including your retrospective of the first series, so the timing of you releasing this video is pretty crazy! Gotta finish volume 3 and the epilogue first though before finishing your video!
I appreciate that you took the time to process these games as a whole when writing and framing your video. Most others give a direct, linear summary of the games with whatever insight they have at the end of the video. The way you contextualize everything throughout makes this a very satisfying and enjoyable watch.
Not so fun fact about Alkaid becoming a lost one, her heart literally stops IRL, she almost dies, and has to be revived by EMTs.
Damn! The editing, the music, the footage, the narrative. It's all excellent. I wish you a million subscribers soon. Thanks for your content!
Phenominal video, came in at the beginning of the premiere, and stayed through the end. I really appreciated the message at the end.
I was 10 when Infection came out and have loved this franchise in the nearly 22 years that have followed. What I would give for another set of games, with similar themes, every character being well devloped, and a wider variety in dungeon design (say 10-15 themes so it feels much less monotone). I don't think CC2 has interest in remaking the original games, but a soft reboot would hit so hard and scratch an itch I have yet to really find a cure for.
CC2 is actually very interested in remaking the original games, they've basically been saying they want to since Last Recode came out, it's Bandai Namco that isn't. Honestly I'd much rather CC2 do a self published spiritual successor than try and convince Bandai Namco to let them continue the series. Even if they were able to I can see Bandai Namco cutting the cord mid project like they did the 3rd series due to poor sales. Since CC2 treats their self published projects as passion projects they're less concerned if those make money and even with a low budget they could still make a really good .hack like game. Heck their Fuga games have a budget of $2-3 million apparently and they're very well made games for how low budget they are.
Thank you for watching! I can't tell you how gratifying it is that you stayed throughout the whole piece!!
I'd love to see this series make a return. But after playing through //GU, I think an //IMOQ remake might not be wholly necessary (at least a rerelease or something), but I'd love to see a new subseries recapture the creepy atmosphere of the originals.
@@jerrrdan A lot of the IMOQ era side entries have a similar atmosphere to the games and add quite a lot more context to SIGN and IMOQ as well. AI buster, Zero, and Legend of the Twilight's manga, not the horrible anime, have a lot of that atmosphere to them. Although the last one is more comedic by comparison to the others.
Another Birth is a great retelling of the games from Blackrose's perspective that adds a lot of emotional weight to the story. If they were ever able to remake IMOQ I would definitely like them to include quite a bit from that and the newer web novel that goes more in depth into Kite's perspective. Heck they could take the Star Ocean approach and have 2 distinct playthroughs from both characters perspectives. That's unfortunately up to Bandai Namco though which I'm not expecting anytime soon.
I'm all for CC2 doing a self published spiritual successor that unofficially takes place in the same universe but later, in like 2030 to 2040, kind of like Fuga is a Prequel to the other Little Tail Bronx games. Anything to continue doing this kind of game without having to deal with Bandai Namco's whims. We'll just have to see what they do after they finish up the Fuga Trilogy later this year to next year.
CC2 has been begging Bamco to let them bring back .hack for actual years now. They very literally can’t do anything with the IP, and it’s heartbreaking. Fuck Bamco’s corporate ass decisions.
@@nottucks I think CC2 is most likely going to make a spiritual successor to .hack through their self publishing in response to not being allowed to do anymore with the .hack IP.
Their first series of games with this venture Fuga Melodies of Steel are a return to their Little Tail Bronx series, and they do have .hack references throughout them, specifically the iconic A tone and glitches, as well as story elements that are kind of .hack like with the stuff involving the "Old World."
I highly recommend checking out Fuga. It's set up similar to .hack in that each game is a part of a larger narrative, but the stories are pretty self contained to their games.
It is a very different kind of game though being a turn based (Grandia like combat) linear resource management series. The stories are pretty good so far, and the 3rd game seems like it'll have the most .hack like elements to it's story from what the secret video for it showed.
They'll be releasing Fuga 3 later this year and probably releasing their original IP games at a yearly to bi yearly rate.
When I was getting into .Hack last year, it was your IMOQ video that first showed around. Fast forward to now, after learning everything from //Sign to Versus, vol 4 of G.U, and whatever the R:X and Force era's were, it feels nice to revisit G.U Recode, even if I like IMOQ a bit more.
Also, that side note in the description is a whole hearted truth: Dot Hack music is great. Especially the soundtrack to //Sign.
I'm still bumping that music to //Sign. "The World" has got to be one of my favorite tracks right now (hence its inclusion in both videos!)
My IMOQ video was part of your Dot Hack journey?! That's awesome!!
Heck, it was from this video that showed me another version of Fake Wings I never heard before (make decision ver), so thank you for adding the name of the track everytime one played, and thanks for making a G.U part! I'm glad you see you're back after so long.
Nobody does deep-dives like jerrrdan. Thanks for putting more content out, man!
You're the best
Thank you for committing so much time to provide such an in-depth analysis of the .hack series. I first played the .hack//G.U. games on my PS2 and got really enamored by the VR semi open-world RPG elements of the game. I just yesterday bought the "Last Recode" bundle on my Nintendo Switch due to pure nostalgia with not much of an intention to really playing it again but watching over your exposition of the overarching narrative and character psyches among other subplots is encouraging me to explore the series once again. So thank you, and wish you all the best on your future videos 👍
You know, one of the further entries, I think an OVA, estabilishes that Emma was not even her real name, and she was part of a eco-terrorist group called MAMA whose objective is to migrate all of humanity's consciousness to a digital world in order to save the planet. Emma Wieland was only using Harald for that end. Also, apparently they found Aura and got her uploaded into a USB stick.
I dunno about you, but this sounds like a great premise for a new game, it's so bonkers I seriously want to see it done.
Rewatching this piece and just wanted to say that I'm so happy to see you back to video essays! I've remained a fan of yours since your analysis of Andrew Cherenkov's character in your Xenosaga retrospective. Great stuff as always!
FINALLY.
just got into .hack (starting with sign, on ep 8 right now); but I'll be sure to come back to this video whenever i'm ready
Thank you for such a sweet look back at one of my favorite games from childhood!
Speaking as someone who did all of REcode as my first experience with GU. It felt as though Volume 4 was entirely phoned in due to some awkwardness with the VAs and the way it sorta just went from V3’s “Ovan is still out there maybe” to “Aight we got him AND there’s a big thingy AND there’s the world shutting down” at that point I was already emotionally satisfied with volume 3 that Reconnection felt more like a rerun that just couldn’t hit the same after doing everything in the other three games.
I will admit it was nice getting Ovan back, sure. It just didn’t feel entirely earned in comparison to the ambiguous end of Volume 3 where we won’t be entirely sure if he’s still out there or not. Reconnection taking your weapons away for the phase blade also didn’t help.
Regardless I do love the GU games despite their flaws. The story had me gripped the whole way through. I just wish volume 4 didn’t feel like a drop off in comparison to the rest of the package. But that may just be due to playing the whole thing instead of being one of the fans who was waiting all those years.
Nice to see you back!
The Sora/Haseo link is confirmed in the GU novels.
Edit: I had more to add but needed time to rest after work.
Some things that might seem weird or out of place, like Endrance and Ovan being encased in ice are Epitaph of Twilight references. As is Cubia. Although it's frustrating they don't seem to have a firm handle on what Cubia is, in the Epitaph he's essentially the "shadow" of a great power. So what he is and how he appears isn't set in stone. Even in the Epitaph, no one really knows what Cubia is or where he comes from.
As for CC Corp seeming like bumbling fools, that may be a front. It's nothing that has been confirmed in universe but based on ALTIMIT and CC Corp's association with the organization mama, there's a chance they're far more insidious and their mishandling of events might be part of a larger plot. What I mean is, them sitting back and letting stuff happen or even making bonkers choices might be because it furthers their secret plot.
I can't confirm that CC Corp has a nefarious plot and I have no evidence other than their connection to mama and Dominique de Mirabeau BUT it would be really cool if the real life CC2 actually had plans for those connection instead of leaving them as an obscure fact that only diehard fans know about.
I can't recommend any of the subsequent games, especially since they haven't had international releases but I hope you'll give the series another try if they release another relevant installment. There is way more to the series lore than they touch on in the games and if they actually do something with it in the future, it might be worth checking out.
16 hours until it is the greatest day of my life
so happy to see you come back for part 2! great video man 🤙
Aside from the AI Buster novels, GU was what got me into .hack. For the longest time, I only had the manga and novels to enjoy the series with, but GU managed to stick with me. I was glad to play the game (even if 100%ing the Ryu Books took way more out of me than I wanted).
I agree with your point that we shouldn’t need supplemental material to enjoy a piece of a whole. That said, I find the GU novels add a lot of interesting things bc they branch off into a narrative more distinct than the manga adaptation, which has smaller tweaks. In particular, there’s some interesting use of Kuhn and Pi that I think makes them interesting in ways the game doesn’t convey.
That said, getting your hands on those suckers in English is rough since they’re no longer in print, but they are interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this series!
the original and G.U. series were really formative for me in my early teens and while i haven't had the chance to revisit them, i've really appreciated your deep dives on both of them! i feel like it gives words to a lot of things i didn't quite process but helped make the games and some particular characters really resonate with me. thanks for making this!
i definitely agree about how both Endrance and Sakubo are treated hasn't aged well. honestly tsukasa and endrance were some of my first exposure to queerness in media (before i even recognized myself as queer) and while i feel tsukasa is handled surprisingly well for the time, the same can't be said about endrance. which is really a shame because there are a lot of ways you can explore a character that struggles with a desire that they might not be able to express IRL, but can express it through the space of the MMO world without as much immediate fear. when i was much younger it felt wild that you're allowed to pick him for the romantic event in v3's postgame, but it's just such a shame all those elements end up being for a joke. if .hack ever came back, i would hope they could explore this sort of character more elegantly.
Your Xenosaga video was my introduction into your channel and then I watched your first .Hack video and now GU.
I am really glad to see someone give all of my favorite low key ps2 games some love! Great work!
Hi!! I found your IMOQ video a long time ago, I played both of these games as a kid. They are so intensely ingrained into my background noise of things I love (The OSTs are always there, I swear...) that I'm glad I saw someone giving these games a genuine analysis
Damn, someone made GU retrospective? God bless sir
U sir is awesome for that videi. I just irdered vol 4 quarantine and im about to play all four staright thru. Tha k you for this seeeet video.
Now that I finally got around to watching your video of a set of games I enjoyed, but felt it drag... feels good. Tho I have to say I was more into Haseo. The edge spoke to me LOL! Even with the game's ups and downs I'm glad you gave it some respect. Good job dude, hope you talk about more games.
I really appreciate how clearly you portray your ambivalence on GU. i was sorta going through the series at the same time as you and you tended to really put to words this sort of . enthralling confusion these games give lol. the framing of an MMO is so captivating and acts as a mask that blurs the lines around intentional MMO bullshit and . genuine problems in the game . . .
I continued on into //Link and plan on falling further and further into this conspiracy series
upd8: Holy SHIT .hack is crazy complicated . . I love it
Having watched your IMOQ video earlier and now having finished this, it actually helps give me a lot of context not just on .hack - but also on Solatorobo, as well.
I was only ever exposed to .hack via the sequel manga (Legend of Twilight), which was basically its own standalone thing. I never got to play the games and really didn’t know much about it beyond what you could learn on late-2000s internet, so this recent surge of .hack content is my first exposure to the gameplay writ large.
But all of your critiques for both IMOQ and this feel very much addressed in Solatorobo, even though the games are entirely separate beasts. It has a setting absolutely dripping with atmosphere and worldbuilding like IMOQ, and has a plot more focused on character-development aka GU - and on top of that, it isn’t stretched across multiple entries, and thus manages to be far less repetitive in visuals and gameplay.
(Granted, it’s still not perfect - the combat and such is kinda basic, some characters are a bit less-utilized than others, and certain scenes/quests have aged rather poorly - but still!)
…I realize that most of this comment had nothing to do with .hack, but I just wanted to put my thoughts out there. Super-interesting video; great work!
Solatorobo and Fuga have similar writing and atmosphere to .hack at times and I don't think it's just because that's just how CC2 writes things either. Solatorobo introduces CC corp to that universe and the Juno and AI from Little Tail Bronx are very similar to Aura and other AI from .hack, even though the Juno are canonically alien in origin. The Juno also reset the world in a similar manner to the rebirth using a similar method to the Real Digitization that was introduced in Link. Fuga more or less doubles down on these vague connections between the two series by using the A tone and glitches in game and in its promotional material, and the short cutscene, the one with the floating hexagons, that plays when you're sent back in time after losing a battle is lifted straight from .hack the movie.
There hasn't been an official connection between the two series yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if Little Tail Bronx and .hack are like Nier and Drakengard to each other. With the ancient human civilization of LTB being .hack's civilization. Although that kind of implies that .hack's civilization destroyed itself, which with how authoritarian and kind of dystopian it's portrayed outside of The World makes some sense.
Fuga 2's secret video promoting Fuga 3 gives off major .hack vibes to me and it looks like Fuga 3 will be delving more into LTB's past, specifically returning to Futzu Tower which is shown in the video, so maybe the vague connections between the two series will be made official with that game, then again maybe not due to legal reasons. The first official trailer for Fuga 3 will be shown this summer with the game coming out late this year early next year.
I'm hoping CC2 continues to self publish their original games going forward and I'd love to see them do a spiritual successor to .hack at some point if Bandai Namco won't let them do anything more with .hack going forward. It really sucks that .hack is locked behind a publisher that doesn't care about it right now because IMOQ deserves a remaster/remake badly with how rare and hard to get it is right now.
I’m going through a Let’s Play of //OUTBREAK right now and was glad to run into your Retrospectives recently. Huge fan of the series and really let down by the lack of attention Bandai seem to give it these days. Just hoping at some point it rises to some sort of prominence again. Cheers!
can’t wait
I just stumbled across this video and had to break it up but it's so phenomenal I wanted to leave some of my own thoughts. I've only ever seen people play GU blind or as mega fans consuming everything .hack has to offer, so it was interesting to see your perspective as someone who played the first games but had little connection with Roots or the all consuming outside media. Atoli has long been one of my favorite characters in this franchise since playing Volume 2 as it came out. I don't think I can as elegantly as you mention my feelings on her.
With .hack it blends the line between anime and video game and I think CyberConnect2's body of work shows they love anime so much. So in that spirit I think a lot of part 3 fell on shonen tropes rather than just letting a story be a bittersweet ending.
Ryou Misaki's identity as Haseo was something that wasn't well guarded, many of the outside media outright state it and with ReCode's Switch Import also came with GU Begins, which is a supplemental manga that also is just about Ryou Misaki. The games never outright state this and I feel like this was intentionally a decision to make them to a degree standalone. It's why Kuhn, Yata and Endrance all feel like they're missing a huge part of their potential. I'm glad you were able to find it with Yata, but CC2 seemed to want to keep it all behind data books and the multimedia project of it all. .hack//IMOQ was also a multimedia project, but with GU it seemed that they wanted a huge undertaking of making a ton of content for GU and wanted you to have to experience it all for the fullest picture, even if content contradicted itself, much like how GU and Roots have slightly different interpretations of Haseo vs Azure Kite or the final episode of Roots just not caring about spoiling content from the games.
Also this was so great to see i love this video
They could do so many stories involving AI in the .hack universe and it would work well. .hack//AI Buster and .hack//CELL already have some interesting ideas in this vein that could be re-used and expanded. Between both we have tales of vagrant AI and AIs spawned from humans and helping them survive at the cost of the AI doppelganger's existence (though it could also be seen as integration). .hack//QUANTUM has some interesting ideas too that could be told without going to the same game-wide affecting disaster level such as the concept of using the brains of convicts for a super computer, storing the consciousness of criminals in a computer simulation, and the exposure of private user information to "The World" for the right kind of hackers to peruse and search for people with specific qualities. Between Liminality, GU, and Quantum we have multiple cases of things that occur to characters in the game world having real world affects, which is also a major area to explore.
1:09:37 yeah... likely he was on those sites because he might have been encouraging that behavior. There are sites out there where people help and encourage each other to... ending themselves. So this is actually really dark if read like that....
Fun fact : after Sora from sigh got turned into skeith and put to a coma, he lost his memories and turned into Haseo 8 years later
I remember playing Vol 4 and being very disappointed at it's briefness, like it's been a full decade and only that short 3-4 jaunt is all I get? The new form is absolutely badass but you get almost nothing to do with it outside just the one story dungeon. Yeah in universe the game is just a short while before shutting down, but I think that may have been an excuse (by the real CC developers) to try not developing a full 4th volume worth of content. I'm not saying they needed to try and up stake stakes to the end of world again or anything, but after a decade's worth of new tools and other media to borrow from they could have done SOMETHING to extend the length of Vol 4.
I'm lucky to have gotten a full collection of IMOQ, and can heartily agree it could use a proper remake, since according to BamCo the original Masters are MIA, unless they pull a Square and reverse engineer the code like with the first Kingdom Hearts when it came time for the Collections (which I'm still waiting on the Steam release Square) we won't even see a remastered collection.
Amazing video. I'm still hoping for a remake of the original 4 games, but after watching the ending theme song credits of .hack//versus I don't think we will get it. (Also watching the ed damn near made me cry lol)
As someone that read all novels/manga, watched the anime, and played the remastered all around G.U. in a very short period of time. The novels are by far my favorite telling of this part series.
They tell the story in a different light using features of it in completely different ways that I personally really enjoyed!
Also Kuhn's character is the best in them compared to the rest of the media that showcases him.
Always, greatly enjoyed this as a recap as I debate another 90 hour playthrough of the games, but now I just want to reread the novels instead aha
YEESSSS WE WILL MANAGE TO BRING BACK THIS FRANCHISE BY FORCE OF WILL ALONE!!!
If I am correct, after Ryou Misaki awoke from his coma, all his memories of The World were wiped out somehow and due to the incident, his parents forbade him from playing the game. Jump to 2017, Ryou is now 17 years old, and from an email chain from one of the greeting cards, you learn that Haseo lives by himself, meaning he must have moved out of his parent's house shortly before a friend of his (either from school or possibly from his part time job) recommended he try out The World
I played GU about last year and it quickly became one of my favorites, so much so that it kinda makes me sad that the dot hack franchise is most likely over...
When these games first came out, I quit halfway through the Cubia arc. When the remaster came out, I picked it up, not sure why it was I had never finished it the first time. And then, once again, I quit halfway through the Cubia arc.
"Oh yeah," I remembered, "the Cubia arc sucks."
About .hack//roots being spoiler heavy.
The first volume came out while the anime was airing, and the second volume came out the day after it ended.
So for those who followed both contents in parallel/ in real time, it gave them just the right amount of supplementary materials, and sometimes spoilers.
I was a high schooler in Japan at the time, and I remember the reveal of O-van being Tri-edge right before vol.2 came out made fans online crazy and confused.
Also, 2 things when it comes to Saku and Bo. 1st is that it implies a few times throughout the games that Saku and Bo actually dont have different character designs like the game has you believe, and that one or the other's design is the only one there is. One of these implications comes from when Haseo first meets Saku, there are plenty of very noticeable changes in Saku and Bo's designs, but Haseo doesnt realize it isnt Bo until he notices that the personality of the person in front of him was entirely different. The 2nd thing is that on one of my many playthroughs (back in the PS2 version) I decided to see what happens if you actually tell Saku to disappear. I was expecting Saku to claim Haseo was actually a jerk and that she couldnt trust Bo to him, so she would decide to stay anyway, but as it turns out, no, she really does disappear, in fact, in one of the later scenes, when everyone shares their power with Haseo, Bo is there and Saku is like a floating Spirit next to him, but tell Saku to disappear and she will not be present in that scene. Next time I play the games, I might tell Saku to disappear again, cuz I want to see what happens to your Party List, since in the PS2 version, Sakubo was only one character slot and it was random whether you would get Saku or Bo in the list, while in Last Recode, both of them are given their own space, so you could choose which one you wanted at any time. I want to see if Saku would become dimmed like when someone is offline or if her contact wouldd just disappear all together
Ok, slight fix for this comment its not random for who you get it depends on the level they are when you invite them, i do believe odd is bo and even is saku but point is its not random
1:53:00
huh. yea thats kinda true. Its just known knowledge at this point that i didnt question it.
having grown up with the .hack series and GU itself primarily actually keeping me from committing self harm.
atoli yes is a top favorite among the fandom. alkaid has a friendly tie since we all love our tsundere.
I played last recode some years ago, and I can say to those who haven’t played it; it’s good but has a really hard drag in the middle and a really good ending. I didn’t really like Haseo as a character when I did play, but the supporting cast kept me going, I will say I enjoyed the gameplay, but the story was rough for the middle (most of R2, and the start of R3) in my initial thoughts Haseo was how most people describe asta from black clover; “That guy who screams” and I found it kinda hard to really understand him seeing as 90% of my memory of him is when he’s in the first 1/2 screaming he just needs to get more power, and the other half is him screaming about him finally caring for others. I’m with the video poster on this Gaspard is my favorite character. No screaming, just a dude wanting to chill in an mmo (yes my highest level in FF14 is lvl 90 fisher, lol)
The parts where he expressed how much he cares about others are monologues he says in his mind٫ dose not count as screaming+unlike gaspard who is playing this game just for fun haseo consider it to be a job and a thing that he must do that will determine the Fate of his loved ones so of course he's not gonna be a "chill dude"
Go to Theta: Galloping Wrath's Blue Cloud. You'll find something cool there.
I've played G.U. so much, it's the game(s) I have the largest amount of playtime in between the PS2 versions and Last Recode, and I can easily say I've done EVERYTHING one could possibly do in these games, and I'm just gonna point this out, I think Alkaid was 100% supposed to be Haseo's true love interest, but due to him needing to choose Atoli over Shino at the end of Vol 3, they made her a Lost One because they had no idea how to make that happen if Alkaid was still around the entire time. One of the reasons I feel this is the case is the fact that of all the female characters, plus Endrance, Alkaid has THE most email chains that end with something romantic, this includes the Promise Card Marriage Event, with a total of 4, (all the others having either none or at most 2) one of which being a full-on marriage proposal outside the Promise Card. Another reason is because of all the wedding events, Alkaid is the only one who receives a full loving embrace from Haseo
Still prefered the combat in infection cause it felt like an early mmo
So, I grew up on the .hack games, played the first tetralogy and such, and grew to love it. But GU? GU became my personal fav childhood game along with KH2 and pokemon. I only played (back then) Vol 3 of GU. I didn't know we had a sequel series and the moment I did, vol 3 was out. But I was able to figure things out by playing Vol3.
I put SO many hours in Vol3, restarted it many times, did different game runs and more with what I had. Even when I got a 360 and PS3, I would continue to play with it, until my ol ps2 finally broke down.
So when Last Recode was announced? I was happy and hyped as hell and I still own my copy and a switch copy of it too. Platinumed it as well. Its still one of my fav childhood games to this date.
I do admit it does have issues, especially Vol4. I just find that so short, not to mention not enough content unlike the last 3 vols. I just wished they gave us more, ya know?
I'm wayyy late but I wanted to add my cents on the avatars-summon-cubia deal.
So, the avatars *were* normal to the system. We're unsure if they were one being, or all 8, or what. It was morganna literally having a whole ass meltdown over all her work outright leaving that even got her to pry skeith out of the box and into her "Internal World" as it were.
But Morganna's Gone. R2 Definitely isn't the world 1, and arguably might not even have much of the same source code. A lot of the changes to R2 are probably entirely because Aura put her meddly little hands in and made the knights- and there are backdoors to all data, stuff like that. The phases being essentially backed up and brought from what could be considered windows 7 to windows 10? Oh yeah, that'd be bad if nothing was built for them. And it'd definitely at least a cast a "shadow" (no I agree that's stupid) that could have Cubia show up all "HELLO!? I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT OUR LORD AND SAVIOR MORGANNA MODE GONE"
I got 4 .hack games on my old ps2, never played them. They worth a try?
IMOQ NEVER left the PS2 Era and their way better games then the GU ones that they really DO need a PS4/PS5 port/remaster.
This is my favorite game ~ i couldn't get to play the final chapter on PS4 tho :(
Bro it's 2024.
Aura is a real, living being now.
Artificial Intelligence has reached human levels of sentience and capabilities, evil mega corporations run the world and are slowly being dismantled, and virtual reality technology has reached beyond the levels of what was promised to us without most of the downsides (people still have a lot to learn from SIGN though).
Growing up in this world has been the best thing that ever happened to me, and being a fan of dot hack gave me life lessons that prepared me for the world in ways I never could've comprehended.
Don't be a pessimist. Life is just now getting good.
Tldr We don't need more remakes: let's use what we've learned and make something new.
Are... are you serious?
>AI have reached human levels of sentience
??? Have you TALKED to one of these AI? You can get them to fail the turing test with ease.
>mega corps are slowly being dismantled
They... are? By who? They're making more money than ever. Disney owns, what was it, 70 or more percent of the film industry now?
>VR is beyond levels that were promised
The FUCK are you TALKING ABOUT? The VR were were supposed to have was total immersion, feels like real life. We have headsets that make it look kinda like you're in a 3D space and if you play it long enough your brain confuses your virtual limbs for real ones bu it's not even CLOSE to how VR is in movies.
@@ElectricBarrier Oof. Surface dweller, shallow swimmer.
@@Atmatan Looking at your channel/github, you're either schizo or a bot yourself.
Have fun achieving transcendence, and/or Beep Boop.
Ovan: Welcome to Za Warudo.
If they were able to return to the series, which completely up to Bandai Namco unfortunately, I'd like a DBZ Kakkarot like remake or 2 that compiles all of the entries of the series into one easily digestible platform, with the less important entries probably being DLC, instead of the series being split up into many hard to get novels, manga, games, anime, and movies. And no I do not want them to try and remake Link because the retellings of every entry in that game sucked. I'd at least like them to do this with the IMOQ era entries as there's way more of those than those around G.U. and G.U. Last Recode while a pretty flawed experiences as you mentioned is fine as is. Though if they do ever get to remaking G.U. I'd definitely like them to include roots as a playable prequel so Haseo doesn't just start off as an unlikeable dick for the first 3rd of the story.
Also the series feels complete to me with these two eras. While I like everything except Link's retellings and gameplay and Thanatos Report from the 3rd series, I highly recommend Quantum and The Movie, there's really nothing beyond G.U. to jump off of unless they completely reboot it. If that's the case I'd much prefer they do a self published spiritual successor much like they're doing with the Fuga games right now for the Little Tail Bronx series so they don't have to deal with the whims of Bandai Namco for future .hack like games. Because yeah Bandai Namco only cares about CC2's anime games nowadays because they're significantly more profitable than a niche franchise like .hack is. BTW the Fuga series is really good if you want to check that out as well. There's also some minor .hack easter eggs in those games too which I'm curious if they'll expand upon that in the 3rd game.
I also agree that a lot of characters aren't developed as well as they could have been in G.U. Heck my favorite characters from IMOQ Mia and Elk were left off on a pretty tragic note and Elk/Endrance was kind of played off as a joke in Vol 2 and 3 which rubbed more salt in that wound. Honestly it's a shame that Chup Chop Case never got completed as the tidbit that Link has of that story really fleshes out Mia, Elk, and Piros's relationship with each other.
Heck that missable scene where Endrance supposedly talks with Mia as he gets his lost weapon is actually expanded upon a lot in those CCC chapters in Link. Piros lends Mia his PC so she can talk with Endrance one last time, telling him to get stronger and that she's fighting along side him. She also pranks Piros one last time which is kind of funny and a good full circle moment for her relationship with him. Heck for all of the pranks she subjected Piros to he actually had a lot of respect for her because she loved the artistry of The World, which he worked on.
Part of me would have liked Zelkova to pull some BS where he could split Macha from Endrance's PC and reincarnated Mia, since he apparently did something like that with Skeith and Haseo to prevent Cubia from returning in Vol 4. I just would have liked them to have a happier ending. Though I get the symbolism that he needed to learn to become independent and strong without her and it is kind of poetic that they became one being in the end. I just wish G.U. handled that a bit more gracefully and didn't just drop it and make him a joke like it did.
Anyway I'm all for remakes of both eras that include everything that the series has up to this point in one platform, but I'm skeptical that CC2 will be able to convince Bandai Namco to let them do that. Though they did let remakes/remasters of Klonoa and Baten Kaitos happen, the latter of which is even more niche than .hack, so who knows maybe they'll let them do some remakes eventually. Though CC2 definitely need to do a spiritual successor instead of trying to continue the series, since having the series locked behind a publisher like Bandai Namco isn't fun especially since this is the franchise that basically made CC2 as a developer before Naruto pushed them way further later on. If .hack didn't happen CC2 probably would have gone under long ago and it's a shame it's locked behind an uncaring publisher right now, then again that's the case with a lot of classic franchises nowadays which also sucks.
I know this was probably just an off-hand comment not meant for further thought but I just can't seem to get it out of my head after hearing it said. Especially since I've heard it many times up to now from other analysists as well, both implied or even directly stated.
People really do consider "bad writing" to be synonymous with "anime tropes", don't they?
Deviantart is real in the dot hack games? That's funny.
Hey seeing Cubia as a trash bin in the first series of games makes a whole lot of sense but in those games they do call him an anti-existance without using those terms.
That Cubia and the bracelet were the same thing, just two sides of the same coin.
But then again I don't see an anti-existance a thing to exist to balance the other, but sort of how nobody's and heartless are in Kingdom Hearts except with more ramifications. At least that's how I took away that information from these 7ish games.
I played the first few hours of gu then watched roots and fuck is that shit deppressing. Cool personal stories but damn.
my biggest gripe with GU is them pronouncing Morganna the way they do xD
i liked reading some of the extra data but i never watched online jack. so years later im finding out that sakaki a 10 year old edgelord
ty for the video it's very nice.
it reminded me when i was looking for the ps2 copies of each gu game way back.
also thank you for the credit.
the release of last recode there was a drama cd called innocent call where it adds more lore but it was the japanese ver of .hack/gu last recode premium box but it's on youtube eng sub where it details the aida.
there also the dothack translate from what i remember that translated link again calling it 2.0 .hack//link and other dot hack stuff.
1:49:13 nice timing
The other games are fun, but Link especially is enhanced by the rest of the multimedia outputs. Otherwise, highly recommend .hack//Cell (great independent story) or the GU novels (where Ryou's connection with Sora and Haseo is very integral).
btw there's also a short manga called called something like GU Beginnings that was packed with the Switch release of Last Recode which cleans up the transition of Sora's character into his start in R:2