It sucks that this video was such a long-time coming. A lot of personal stuff happened, including a lot of travel for work. Hopefully you won't have to wait as long for my next review, which should be covering Xenogears! :)
For those who plan to play this games, i recommend that you DONT watch Roots before playing the games. Roots has some contradictions with the games and it spoils one of the mayor plot twists of the second game.
I would argue that you should contradictions aside it establishes haseo's relationship with the others and the characters who both appear later in the game and don't come back at all.
Ohh, good that I didn’t watch it yet. Eventho I feel like there is a missing important setup for the intro of the first game tho.. lol Like I don’t really feel like it’s Haseo’s second time leveling up? I know it is, but it doesn’t feel like it
Ik this was two years ago but could I start with this game then? I'm into jrpgs & this series always looked cool on the ps2 but never got into it. Well with quarantine let's just say I've been playing too many jrpgs lol was looking at this series as something causal to play
Doug E Unfortunately Absolute Zero productions cancelled their fan translations of Tales of Destiny Director's Cut,Tales of Destiny 2 and Tales of Rebirth.
I can agree with almost everything. As a non english speaker, I switched to japanese dubs tho. The male voice talents can be pretty good, but the females are too high pitched and can be a lil too annoying for my taste. I played the game to 100% on both, ps2 and ps4, and yes, this game get's very tedious once you hit max level and do the hours long end dungeon. Luckily they made the ride a LOT more enjoyable with all the small changes. Episode 4 is pretty much all about Fanservice. There are 2 weird things about it. 1. The character models have a higher geometry level. It seems like they used the models for the cutscenes, which look a bit better overall. I really don't know why they didn't do it for the entire collection. 2. You already mentioned it. The cutscenes are now done by the 3D CG anime Studio Orange, instead of the in house fluid ones for the previous games. That means all of them run in 8fps, which is common practice for japanese 3D anime Studios, to recreate the feeling of 2D Animation... But I have to say, that I liked them equaly. The new ones have their own charm/ look and at times good cinematography, instead of the really quick and fast paced ones.
Dude, this is definitely one of the best reviews I've seen from you. You have always done great, but you really stepped above and beyond for this review. It was fun to watch. Thanks man.
I've been loving this game. I can agree that it has it's flaws such as Haseo being a sociopath which made the game hard to get into initially (like Tales of the Abyss). Once I got into it I got addicted to it and I can see the character slowly care about his friends. The part I don't agree with however is you make it seem like you NEED to play the original series first and you NEED to watch the anime which probably scares some people away by making it look too daunting of a task when you don't really need to watch or play anything prior. Sure playing Dot Hack//Infection helped but sure isn't mandatory. G.U. is like the Dragonball Z of the Dot Hack series as you can start with it and don't nescessarily need to play the other games first or watch the anime which aren't as easy to access these days.
I wish they'd remaster Abyss I loved that game. I haven't played the handheld Tales games but Abyss is my favorite. Playing Berseria now loving it a lot but it's got some shoes to fill lol. Never played a dot hack game, trying to make up my mind between it or Shining Resonance
one thing that's really cool about G.U. but easy to overlook is how many connections it has to the original 4 games. if you're perceptive you'll notice that a lot of characters playing The World R2 have the same player name as characters that appeared in IMOQ/ Liminality/ Sign. there is a clear connecting thread for why they are all in G.U. in the roles that they're in, and it has a lot to do with the consequences that came about as a result of the events of the previous games.
Great review! It's on sale digitally for Black Friday on PS4 C: I'm a huge SAO fan so you can see why I'm interested in this. I also don't mind the laggy frames on Episode 4 since all of the SAO games do the same thing with their scenes.
Hey Derek. As someone who recently discovered your channel, I love it! I wanna recommend Radiant Historia as your next project. It's honestly one of my favorite RPGs of all time and what a good time to play it since it just got rereleased on the 3DS with extra goodies.
Great! Now we just need an HD port of the original 4 games and for Bandai Namco to use some of their other IPs too. Would love an actual better console version of LINK
Ever Since i finished the vol.1 i havent returned to play vol2.while i was watching your video an urge came to me to play for 5 hours straight like i did in the first volume :D Great video keep up the good work love youuuuu
Awesome review dude,you explained the problems,and good things about the game gives people a extremely good option of deciding to buy it 200/100 dude lol
For those that don't know - Haseo's sociopathic personality has a perfect reason for it. His personality should be very familiar in the franchise's very beginning - .hack Sign. He is Sora - grown up IRL, after getting messed up by Morgana in the .Hack Sign timeline that made him forget his past as Sora.
I know this might be a little late but Haseo's player actually appears in .hack//SIGN... His character name is Sora and he has his first encounter with Skeith then...
Great review Derek. I have seen some other reviews of .hack//G.U. Last Recode here on youtube but this one really convinced me to pick this game up. Keep up the good work!
11:41 As someone who has spent the last few months ripping the models and other assets of the game along with data mining all the other data, this is wrong for Cut Scene models. They are completely redone models that much higher poly and detail levels. The hands along can attest to this as the cut scene models have full workable fingers compared to the games "normal/battle" models and their club hands. The only place this isn't true in is Volume 4, as the "normal/battle" models for anything new like the 5th form and Kusabira models are on par with the cut scene models of vol 1 to 3. This is most likely due to the new cut scene method for volume 4 being actual animation. Also another cool thing I found about volume 1 to 3, is that all the cut scenes are actually in-game renders using models, such as the field Haseo is found in after the Rebirth is used. It is actual a fully detailed and modeled area. I've found that along with the White version of Haseo/Skeith and other special areas only shown in cut scenes for like a second. I've found this be a common thing in all the ps2 era .hack games as such copy of IMOQ had about 9 or 10 versions of Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground for cut scenes, along with a very basic model of Lia Fail, the last server you were suppose to unlock but was lost due to the network crisis, causing you to instead unlock Netslum. All in all though, another great review of another part of the .hack series, hope this one didn't wear you as much as SIGN and IMOQ did. Can't wait to catch whatever you review next! If you ever wanna check out the root towns and special areas in great detail, I suggest checking out all the worlds/avatars another user named CasuallyNoted and I have put up on VRChat! If you need help or anything, feel free to leave a message and I'll provide the use to website we have to quickly get to the worlds as they are private uploads currently.
I’m actually really excited to play this again I got it for Christmas.hack is usually one of the only reasons I bring up my PS2 but besides that I never finish the third part lol
My favorite characters in the first trilogy are Helba and Gardenia. I don't care about the other characters like Balmung and Orca. My favorite characters from the second trilogy are Zelkova from the Moon Tree Guild. Second is Pi from Raven/G.U. guild. I find other characters too that are pretty likeable to me from the second trilogy like Hiiragi and Alkaid. The main problem I have with .hack games in general is if you maxed out your character's level, you can pretty much 1 hit kill everyone. Also it has incredible music, probably one of best music in all of anime and video games can be found in this series. It has also lots of incredible environment although the game doesn't want us to interact with lots of these. Which to me is a wasted asset.
always wanted to start this series... this game is up for sale on the psn. Downloading the demo atm, but i'm curious should i start here? Should i go for the animes first?
They're totally different games. There's some very slight crossover, like recurring characters. But even if you played the first you would miss them unless you were paying super close attention to everything... So yeah don't worry about playing the original series. :)
I just got done beating it and yes it's highly recommended you play the game before roots as it'll make it even more satisfying 10 out of 10 truly and I kept it on japanese language with english subtitles..the voice fits haseo and the characters more while making it more intense,emotional and just all pulls you in..now only if they could remake the originals..I can't even find them anymore as its either incomplete or way too expensive but this game....really...truly...worth every dollar.I bought recode that as you mentioned is a remaster and comes with the volumes.I wanted something that was like me watching more anime than a gameplay but still wanted bit of gameplay and well...I got what I was looking for.:).Especially how it all ends in the last volume.
This is my first video i watched introducing me to your channel. Your great and i subscribed. Im looking for a great action rpg and im very torn. I dont know what to get!?
Im months late but i have to ask, how was finding out Haseo's player is actually the same player as Sora from Signs suffering from amnesia about the events of The World R:1?
It really didn't hit me until just now that he was an infamous PKer in R1 and after losing his memory he ended up a PKKer. Very interesting character dynamic. :)
@@SuperDerek When you think about it, he was 10 during R1 so Sora childish antics make sense in context, he was a shit kid, though he's a more mature adult now as Haseo and losing those memories of R1 basically robbed him of his childishness. It also explains why Skeith is Haseo since Sora, after being data drained by Skeith, was fused to Skeith during R:1 but thats explained in the novels, you could chalk up his loss of "innocence" and "childishness" due to being data drained and having his counsciousness stolen by Skeith and having it end up as part of IT which is hinted at by the scene of the Xth job extension where Haseo meets himself, or rather his old self, though he's not aware of it.
This gave me flashbacks to how bored I got playing the original .hack//GU games. First one was good, second was way too similar to the first, third was ridiculous. Another fighting tournament? Same old dungeons? Finding that damn robot 100 more times? No thanks!
i am fairly certain there was far more demand for a xenosaga hd remaster and yet bandai-namco decided to give us this instead? very frustrating... xenosaga even has a petition with over 10,000 signatures... very sad to see the series treated in this way.
There are licensing issues concerning publishing rights to the Xeno series. For all intents and purposes they are currently owned by Nintendo, not Bandai Namco
how so? the games were published by namco at the time so they own the ip outright. nintendo purchased monolithsoft, but it's not like they got to take the xenosaga franchise with them. i think you are incorrect on this. don't confuse the recent "xenoblade" games to be affiliated with "xenosaga". they are not related except in theme to some extent.
mogwai_for_sale lol I think HACK is the better game but technically speaking digimon got waaay more signatures in there petition with over 50,000. That's why we got digimon now
most people didn't even play the .hack games... they are more obscure than the three xenosaga games no doubt. can't say i agree with you on this one... xenosaga series possibly has the most layered and intricately woven story of any jrpg to date, other than xenogears of course. monolithsoft has since dropped the ball in the story department... their games have progressively gotten worse since being owned by nintendo.
If I had to guess, I'd bet they're testing the waters for reviving the franchise in the West. Maybe even with a PSVR tie-in. But I could be wrong. I do know that .hack was trending on Twitter a few days back, and there seem to be some rumblings coming from the creators. I wouldn't be surprised. Also, I think they're talking about remaking the original 4 games soon as well.
@SuperDerek RPGs I would just LOVE it if you reviewed the ORIGinal .Hack trilogy... Then again considering you finish the games before reviewing (which means watching those abysmal anime episodes bundled with it) that may be a death sentence I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! I bought all of them in mint condition with the DVD's and manuals from Canada for what I thought was a steal! That is until I tried to play the 1st game... I was sandbagged!
I enjoyed it. It was simply and from what I remember its all about the deck construction. And it's really auto play. You pic your cards and you see how they match up with your opponent. And it continues to have matches while your playing the main game. It's not all that in depth as far as gameplay but it's a nice little break.
I enjoyed the game but had to use a speed hack whit cheat engine to make dialogue scenes go faster because the game wont let you press x to advance the dialogue if you are a fast reader for majority of the games scenes. Ironically i also ended up using it to rush thru story dungeons that are way below my level. In case anyone is wondering what i am talking about its the same principle as the turbo button on Emulators. Assuming the games engine supports it it woks fine.
Haseo is a whiny teen not a sociopath. Spoiler kinda he lost years of his life and was never told that by his parents who kinda swept it under the rug. Also Haseo is 17 he’s just an edgy 17 year old guys.
Maybe for the next dot hack games, they need to grounded the heroes like .hack link protagonist on psp who act like isekai anime protagonist. Naive and young. Unlike haseo or kite
Kite is naive and young at the start. He is a newbie to the game. Haseo in the anime is also naive as he's a newbie when the games happen he's had a year or so of playing the game. So he's a veteran who had his character restarted to level 1. It's why he's annoyed at the Canard boys trying to teach him the game when he already knows.
Glad to see you back, Derek! Can't wait to see what you thought on the unbalanced but excellent game that is Xenogears! As an added question, can you understand the story of .hack G.U. if you haven't shelled out hundreds of dollars on the first 4 games?
Thanks Chrono Pat! And yes you can! There are nods to previous entries, but they're not directly related in terms of plot. Not to a large degree anyway.
Derek already replied, but I'll add to his answer. It's more like, you can understand the G.U. story without having played IMOQ, but if you manage to play those first there's a lot that'll have an even deeper meaning, especially considering the idea that the characters are all avatars in an MMORPG and therefore any person in the series can have more than one or two characters in "The World," but that's all I'll say xD
if there are features that are re-release only why didn't you talk about them? if they are so good as to make an argument for buying the game you would thing they would at least get a run down!
As a huge .hack fan I absolutely could not pick up the original GU games when they came out purely because of Haseo's english voice. It's absolutely atrocious and I wasn't the only fan pointing this out at that time. When I thought about being with this character for more than 80 hours, I just.... I couldn't. I always felt horrible for leaving a series I love so much. And then LAST RECODE CAME OUT!!! WITH JAPANESE VOICES! And finally, everyone sounds exactly as their character. What a relief, seriously. I finally got to pick up the story again and get back on track with the francise.
@@Kurasai56 i don't think he's a good fit for Haseo at all. I thought his voice was very generic and his performance flat. Plus, I sort of understood what kind of character Haseo was while I was following the development of the games. He needs a wide range of vocal emotion, from power hungry egocentric (when he activates hia avatar) to helpless desperation (when it goes berserk) to tough guy shyness (when he bonds with Atolli). I just didn't get this from the English voice actor and it ruins the character for me. Very happy to have the game with the Japanese voices.
LumyTheQueen ok those are all fair points, is there anyone that you know of in the voice acting community that in your opinion would’ve made a better Voice for Haseo?
i have to say the story they told across 3 games could have easily been told in a single game. even 2 games wouldn't be so drawn out but 3 games is ridiculous. the story is literally them repeating the words "AIDA", "epitaph" and Haceo screaming "skieeetthhhh" over and over again and then fighting predictable battles in the arena. literally every game is just winning an arena tournament to be crownded emperor and fighting a boss fight thats also super predictable. this same formula is on repeat for 3 full games its ridiculous.
ShaolinGamer lots of over emotional characters and an overly complicated way of telling what is a pretty shallow story, probably to give it more depth, that being said it's a fun game if not taking the story too seriously.
I'd take a Tail Concerto/Solatorobo remake over this crap any day! Since you've sold your soul to Bandai/Namco Games, use your newfound capital to make it happen, Derek. I must also disagree with you on this game having "phenomenal" voice acting, at least judging from what you showcased here. Maybe I'm just not into that weeby anime dub style, but I'd say something like Lost Odyssey had pretty phenomenal voicework, which it doesn't seem to get much credit for...but I guess that's neither here nor there. Lost Odyssey, you should play that.
I'm not sure that I'm ready to bump up my party to four, aka, getting my "final" fantasy on, but I suppose I could add you and kick out that bitch Derek, since he doesn't reply to anything in which he perceives could be remotely seen as "not positive," so fuck 'im, me, you, and nasty Uncle Dubious are having a filthy, disgusting RPorGy.
It sucks that this video was such a long-time coming. A lot of personal stuff happened, including a lot of travel for work. Hopefully you won't have to wait as long for my next review, which should be covering Xenogears! :)
SuperDerek RPGs I speak for all humans when I say we would rather have a good and thorough review than a rushed and shallow "IGN" one.
No worries. I planned a video review just like this one and still haven't got to it. I probably won't do it now that I've seen yours lol. Great work!
That will be so awesome 😭
Xenogears! Can't wait. Life gets in the way don't feel you owe us anything. We appreciate your review whenever they release
Btw Derek, you goofed. There's 7 others that have Avatars not 11
For those who plan to play this games, i recommend that you DONT watch Roots before playing the games. Roots has some contradictions with the games and it spoils one of the mayor plot twists of the second game.
That's a good point that I overlooked. I actually watched the anime as I played through the games, and just happened to not get spoiled.
I would argue that you should contradictions aside it establishes haseo's relationship with the others and the characters who both appear later in the game and don't come back at all.
I heard it's okay to watch roots and not get spoiled after finishing the first two games and then play the third after that. Is this true?
Ohh, good that I didn’t watch it yet.
Eventho I feel like there is a missing important setup for the intro of the first game tho.. lol
Like I don’t really feel like it’s Haseo’s second time leveling up? I know it is, but it doesn’t feel like it
Ik this was two years ago but could I start with this game then? I'm into jrpgs & this series always looked cool on the ps2 but never got into it. Well with quarantine let's just say I've been playing too many jrpgs lol was looking at this series as something causal to play
Bandai Namco now just needs to localize all the Tales games the west never got. And also that .Hack game on the psp.
Michael Lewis you don't want links, trust me
DeathgGod Okay I played a fan translation of .Hack//Link and that can stay in Japan along with Tales of the Temptest.
Char Aznable for the tales games I really reaaaallly want at least tales of rebirth to finally be brought here.
Doug E Unfortunately Absolute Zero productions cancelled their fan translations of Tales of Destiny Director's Cut,Tales of Destiny 2 and Tales of Rebirth.
@@Chelaxim aw man that stinks i was looking forward to those ouch
These games were my childhood. They’re still badass to this day.
proper order for experiencing the GU saga would be: Vol 1->Vol 2->Roots->Vol 3->Roots OVA (episode 27, the last episode of the anime)-> Vol 4
I can agree with almost everything. As a non english speaker, I switched to japanese dubs tho. The male voice talents can be pretty good, but the females are too high pitched and can be a lil too annoying for my taste.
I played the game to 100% on both, ps2 and ps4, and yes, this game get's very tedious once you hit max level and do the hours long end dungeon. Luckily they made the ride a LOT more enjoyable with all the small changes.
Episode 4 is pretty much all about Fanservice. There are 2 weird things about it.
1. The character models have a higher geometry level. It seems like they used the models for the cutscenes, which look a bit better overall. I really don't know why they didn't do it for the entire collection.
2. You already mentioned it. The cutscenes are now done by the 3D CG anime Studio Orange, instead of the in house fluid ones for the previous games. That means all of them run in 8fps, which is common practice for japanese 3D anime Studios, to recreate the feeling of 2D Animation... But I have to say, that I liked them equaly. The new ones have their own charm/ look and at times good cinematography, instead of the really quick and fast paced ones.
for new people watching, Last Recode is also on Switch now 😊
goes on sales often too. great deal. definitely pick it up from the eshop
Dude, this is definitely one of the best reviews I've seen from you. You have always done great, but you really stepped above and beyond for this review. It was fun to watch. Thanks man.
.hack!!!!! Omg! This just kicked me in the teen hood feels! X’3 man, i miss this franchise.
I've been loving this game. I can agree that it has it's flaws such as Haseo being a sociopath which made the game hard to get into initially (like Tales of the Abyss). Once I got into it I got addicted to it and I can see the character slowly care about his friends. The part I don't agree with however is you make it seem like you NEED to play the original series first and you NEED to watch the anime which probably scares some people away by making it look too daunting of a task when you don't really need to watch or play anything prior. Sure playing Dot Hack//Infection helped but sure isn't mandatory. G.U. is like the Dragonball Z of the Dot Hack series as you can start with it and don't nescessarily need to play the other games first or watch the anime which aren't as easy to access these days.
I wish they'd remaster Abyss I loved that game. I haven't played the handheld Tales games but Abyss is my favorite. Playing Berseria now loving it a lot but it's got some shoes to fill lol. Never played a dot hack game, trying to make up my mind between it or Shining Resonance
one thing that's really cool about G.U. but easy to overlook is how many connections it has to the original 4 games. if you're perceptive you'll notice that a lot of characters playing The World R2 have the same player name as characters that appeared in IMOQ/ Liminality/ Sign. there is a clear connecting thread for why they are all in G.U. in the roles that they're in, and it has a lot to do with the consequences that came about as a result of the events of the previous games.
I wish they would do the original series too. Quarantine is soooooo expensive.
I know it's like over 100 dollars and too so long for me to find it.
Quarantine is expensive indeed. 2020
@@Jbayz free lol
As a Xenosaga fan, I know your struggle
@@keeysOST Whoa! XS III shot up huh? I remember being able to grab it new off Amazon around 2015 for $40-ish
Great review! It's on sale digitally for Black Friday on PS4 C: I'm a huge SAO fan so you can see why I'm interested in this. I also don't mind the laggy frames on Episode 4 since all of the SAO games do the same thing with their scenes.
Man, I need to get around to buying this.
if you haven't, now might be the time with the 50% off on steam; only reason i'm browsing for the nitpick awards on youtube right now..
If you still haven't bought it it's now 16.49 on Indie Gala browsing for the same reason as Clanner Jake .....FROM THE FUTURE!
14.99 on steam.right now
@@joshua7426 Should have waited a month dang!
@@wereflipper you still playing? Worth adding to library?
Hey Derek. As someone who recently discovered your channel, I love it! I wanna recommend Radiant Historia as your next project. It's honestly one of my favorite RPGs of all time and what a good time to play it since it just got rereleased on the 3DS with extra goodies.
Great! Now we just need an HD port of the original 4 games and for Bandai Namco to use some of their other IPs too. Would love an actual better console version of LINK
I LOVE this entire franchise! Sooo underrated.
great review as always man!!!!!!!!!!!
Ever Since i finished the vol.1 i havent returned to play vol2.while i was watching your video an urge came to me to play for 5 hours straight like i did in the first volume :D Great video keep up the good work love youuuuu
Awesome review dude,you explained the problems,and good things about the game gives people a extremely good option of deciding to buy it 200/100 dude lol
For those that don't know - Haseo's sociopathic personality has a perfect reason for it. His personality should be very familiar in the franchise's very beginning - .hack Sign.
He is Sora - grown up IRL, after getting messed up by Morgana in the .Hack Sign timeline that made him forget his past as Sora.
I know this might be a little late but Haseo's player actually appears in .hack//SIGN... His character name is Sora and he has his first encounter with Skeith then...
What is the name of the song that is playing in the background when you are talking about Last Recode near the end of the video?
Thanks for covering this and bringing the HD remakes to my attention. Looks like I'll need to make a place in my Steam collection :)
YOU are Super Derek! Can’t wait for hopefully more regular videos again
Excellent review, I appreciate it.
Man for some reason ur video did now show up on my sub. Damn missed so many videos
Outstanding review! Thanks my friend.
Good to know, you enjoyed the game, as much as i did too :D
Great review Derek. I have seen some other reviews of .hack//G.U. Last Recode here on youtube but this one really convinced me to pick this game up. Keep up the good work!
Thanks man, I hope you have fun with it! :)
With all the rpg games I need to buy and beat I really don’t need another one... but your review made me want it!!!
(Makes grabby hands) 😫😫
11:41 As someone who has spent the last few months ripping the models and other assets of the game along with data mining all the other data, this is wrong for Cut Scene models. They are completely redone models that much higher poly and detail levels. The hands along can attest to this as the cut scene models have full workable fingers compared to the games "normal/battle" models and their club hands. The only place this isn't true in is Volume 4, as the "normal/battle" models for anything new like the 5th form and Kusabira models are on par with the cut scene models of vol 1 to 3. This is most likely due to the new cut scene method for volume 4 being actual animation.
Also another cool thing I found about volume 1 to 3, is that all the cut scenes are actually in-game renders using models, such as the field Haseo is found in after the Rebirth is used. It is actual a fully detailed and modeled area. I've found that along with the White version of Haseo/Skeith and other special areas only shown in cut scenes for like a second. I've found this be a common thing in all the ps2 era .hack games as such copy of IMOQ had about 9 or 10 versions of Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground for cut scenes, along with a very basic model of Lia Fail, the last server you were suppose to unlock but was lost due to the network crisis, causing you to instead unlock Netslum.
All in all though, another great review of another part of the .hack series, hope this one didn't wear you as much as SIGN and IMOQ did. Can't wait to catch whatever you review next! If you ever wanna check out the root towns and special areas in great detail, I suggest checking out all the worlds/avatars another user named CasuallyNoted and I have put up on VRChat! If you need help or anything, feel free to leave a message and I'll provide the use to website we have to quickly get to the worlds as they are private uploads currently.
Great review! I wish we could get the first 4 games remastered as well
I've heard rumors that may be happening. We'll see!
Interesting fact, the player for haseo was also the player for the character sprain .hack sign and the IMOQ games
I’m actually really excited to play this again I got it for Christmas.hack is usually one of the only reasons I bring up my PS2 but besides that I never finish the third part lol
Good to hear that there is Dual Audio.
Great review, a pity that I probably won't play because of lack of time and other gaming priorities
Hmm.. The real thing that sold me was the music.. Gave me chills every single time.. I could never got that experience ever again.
Aright you convinced me to get it
Last Recode is 10 bucks right now, y'all!
My favorite characters in the first trilogy are Helba and Gardenia. I don't care about the other characters like Balmung and Orca. My favorite characters from the second trilogy are Zelkova from the Moon Tree Guild. Second is Pi from Raven/G.U. guild. I find other characters too that are pretty likeable to me from the second trilogy like Hiiragi and Alkaid. The main problem I have with .hack games in general is if you maxed out your character's level, you can pretty much 1 hit kill everyone. Also it has incredible music, probably one of best music in all of anime and video games can be found in this series. It has also lots of incredible environment although the game doesn't want us to interact with lots of these. Which to me is a wasted asset.
ive wanted to go back to .hack//gu since i rented it back in ~2005
the soundtracks are the best thing on the series!
always wanted to start this series... this game is up for sale on the psn. Downloading the demo atm, but i'm curious should i start here? Should i go for the animes first?
They basically took the character progression from tales of the abyss along with the voice actors?
you have a new subscriber. i appreciate your effort and i like your content. i don't know anything about .hack can i still play this game ?
Yeah, even without any previous knowledge of the series, G.U. is very newcomer-friendly. :)
Your reviews are the best! This was very helpful.
Can i play this whithout playing the originals that you reviewed in the last video? If they are indeed different games?
They're totally different games. There's some very slight crossover, like recurring characters. But even if you played the first you would miss them unless you were paying super close attention to everything... So yeah don't worry about playing the original series. :)
I just got done beating it and yes it's highly recommended you play the game before roots as it'll make it even more satisfying 10 out of 10 truly and I kept it on japanese language with english subtitles..the voice fits haseo and the characters more while making it more intense,emotional and just all pulls you in..now only if they could remake the originals..I can't even find them anymore as its either incomplete or way too expensive but this game....really...truly...worth every dollar.I bought recode that as you mentioned is a remaster and comes with the volumes.I wanted something that was like me watching more anime than a gameplay but still wanted bit of gameplay and well...I got what I was looking for.:).Especially how it all ends in the last volume.
This is my first video i watched introducing me to your channel. Your great and i subscribed. Im looking for a great action rpg and im very torn. I dont know what to get!?
Can anyone tell me if I have to be familiar with .hack to understand this game/s?
I'd say no, not really for the G.U. games. :)
Im months late but i have to ask, how was finding out Haseo's player is actually the same player as Sora from Signs suffering from amnesia about the events of The World R:1?
Talk about Karma biting him in the ass for his Player Killing days.
It really didn't hit me until just now that he was an infamous PKer in R1 and after losing his memory he ended up a PKKer. Very interesting character dynamic. :)
@@SuperDerek When you think about it, he was 10 during R1 so Sora childish antics make sense in context, he was a shit kid, though he's a more mature adult now as Haseo and losing those memories of R1 basically robbed him of his childishness.
It also explains why Skeith is Haseo since Sora, after being data drained by Skeith, was fused to Skeith during R:1 but thats explained in the novels, you could chalk up his loss of "innocence" and "childishness" due to being data drained and having his counsciousness stolen by Skeith and having it end up as part of IT which is hinted at by the scene of the Xth job extension where Haseo meets himself, or rather his old self, though he's not aware of it.
This gave me flashbacks to how bored I got playing the original .hack//GU games. First one was good, second was way too similar to the first, third was ridiculous. Another fighting tournament? Same old dungeons? Finding that damn robot 100 more times? No thanks!
Get the collection I guess. It's really just 1 jrpg game split into 3 physical releases
Great review.
i am fairly certain there was far more demand for a xenosaga hd remaster and yet bandai-namco decided to give us this instead? very frustrating... xenosaga even has a petition with over 10,000 signatures... very sad to see the series treated in this way.
There are licensing issues concerning publishing rights to the Xeno series. For all intents and purposes they are currently owned by Nintendo, not Bandai Namco
how so? the games were published by namco at the time so they own the ip outright. nintendo purchased monolithsoft, but it's not like they got to take the xenosaga franchise with them. i think you are incorrect on this. don't confuse the recent "xenoblade" games to be affiliated with "xenosaga". they are not related except in theme to some extent.
mogwai_for_sale lol I think HACK is the better game but technically speaking digimon got waaay more signatures in there petition with over 50,000. That's why we got digimon now
most people didn't even play the .hack games... they are more obscure than the three xenosaga games no doubt. can't say i agree with you on this one... xenosaga series possibly has the most layered and intricately woven story of any jrpg to date, other than xenogears of course. monolithsoft has since dropped the ball in the story department... their games have progressively gotten worse since being owned by nintendo.
If I had to guess, I'd bet they're testing the waters for reviving the franchise in the West. Maybe even with a PSVR tie-in. But I could be wrong. I do know that .hack was trending on Twitter a few days back, and there seem to be some rumblings coming from the creators. I wouldn't be surprised. Also, I think they're talking about remaking the original 4 games soon as well.
2:57 "well armed" lol nice
I'm glad *someone* around here can appreciate a solid pun when they hear one! :D
Just bought this on sale on the Switch it’s so damn good 👍.
@SuperDerek RPGs I would just LOVE it if you reviewed the ORIGinal .Hack trilogy... Then again considering you finish the games before reviewing (which means watching those abysmal anime episodes bundled with it) that may be a death sentence I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! I bought all of them in mint condition with the DVD's and manuals from Canada for what I thought was a steal! That is until I tried to play the 1st game... I was sandbagged!
Well you're in luck! I already reviewed those in an earlier video. Check out my review of Project .Hack here: th-cam.com/video/pPZCLD0DvrY/w-d-xo.html
I need you to make a video game collection!
Great review
Thanks Kakashi! :)
About time!!
No kidding!
Youre the best super derek
there was a 4th game for .hack G.U. most hardcore fans Had no idea. even me. I just found out.
I really enjoyed the review. I have a question? Is the card game still on there? I spent hrs just playing that lol
Are you talking about Crimson VS? I think that was it's name, and yes it is! I never dug into the card game much during my playthrough, was it fun? :)
I enjoyed it. It was simply and from what I remember its all about the deck construction. And it's really auto play. You pic your cards and you see how they match up with your opponent. And it continues to have matches while your playing the main game. It's not all that in depth as far as gameplay but it's a nice little break.
In the off chance someone sees this in time you can buy the game for $5 on play station until December second
The story is fine. My only problem is the repetitive nature of this game. Grind, Tournament, Final Boss, Repeat.
Nice I just got this today... Was a big fan of the origina... Going to play this and maybe watch the anime after I beat all of it
i just finished the 3rd volume i really enjoyed it. it was well worth the time and money for me
I enjoyed the game but had to use a speed hack whit cheat engine to make dialogue scenes go faster because the game wont let you press x to advance the dialogue if you are a fast reader for majority of the games scenes. Ironically i also ended up using it to rush thru story dungeons that are way below my level. In case anyone is wondering what i am talking about its the same principle as the turbo button on Emulators. Assuming the games engine supports it it woks fine.
djukor cool story bro
bought it on discount for 9 bucks today (steam)
Are you Zell Dincht?!
Haseo is a whiny teen not a sociopath. Spoiler kinda he lost years of his life and was never told that by his parents who kinda swept it under the rug.
Also Haseo is 17 he’s just an edgy 17 year old guys.
I love your intro and the music. Kicks ass but I prefer the extended version.
Hi Derek..hope you were having good day..this game is one of my favourite series
Hi Paan, thanks! I'm having a pretty good day so far. :)
what carries over between games?
items, levels, skills, currency, character affection?
This game is going to be amazing. I'll be getting it on PC! 🕺
Ahh......Hack.G.U ......what a memory......
Sound interesting, looks ok, ooh team based combat... aaaaaand it's a button masher.
Maybe for the next dot hack games, they need to grounded the heroes like .hack link protagonist on psp who act like isekai anime protagonist. Naive and young. Unlike haseo or kite
Kite is naive and young at the start. He is a newbie to the game. Haseo in the anime is also naive as he's a newbie when the games happen he's had a year or so of playing the game. So he's a veteran who had his character restarted to level 1. It's why he's annoyed at the Canard boys trying to teach him the game when he already knows.
Glad to see you back, Derek! Can't wait to see what you thought on the unbalanced but excellent game that is Xenogears! As an added question, can you understand the story of .hack G.U. if you haven't shelled out hundreds of dollars on the first 4 games?
Thanks Chrono Pat! And yes you can! There are nods to previous entries, but they're not directly related in terms of plot. Not to a large degree anyway.
Derek already replied, but I'll add to his answer. It's more like, you can understand the G.U. story without having played IMOQ, but if you manage to play those first there's a lot that'll have an even deeper meaning, especially considering the idea that the characters are all avatars in an MMORPG and therefore any person in the series can have more than one or two characters in "The World," but that's all I'll say xD
You're actually making it sound very intriging...
I would hope so :3
Great review! It's a shame the story doesn't quite live up to its potential.
Going to assume this is worth $5 in the psn sale...
Super Derek you look like Lucas from earthbound😂😂😂
we need more content
Lol I just beat that giant dog behind gaspard
If only you can download it straight to the PS Vita #psvita
just finished the forest of pain my god was that an ordeal lol
Tri edge is kite?
Yeah check out the hat and hair, the whole outfit screams Kite
Tri Edge is an AI program made in the likeness of Kite to protect and eliminate threats from The World (Aida).
You look like TomSka's brother.
11 other individuals uh check your math there are only 8 avatars the other guys are possesed by aida
ok
Maybe Atoli and Gaspard shouldn't have been written as such unbearably annoying characters then I wouldn't feel for vol 1 and 2 Haseo
Are we done with the dot hack games yet?
yep, all done. :)
Oh cool he's reviewing Dot Hack GU and.............no....OH GOD NO!
You should put a spoiler alert, this video ruined so much on my first play through
if there are features that are re-release only why didn't you talk about them? if they are so good as to make an argument for buying the game you would thing they would at least get a run down!
As a huge .hack fan I absolutely could not pick up the original GU games when they came out purely because of Haseo's english voice. It's absolutely atrocious and I wasn't the only fan pointing this out at that time. When I thought about being with this character for more than 80 hours, I just.... I couldn't. I always felt horrible for leaving a series I love so much. And then LAST RECODE CAME OUT!!! WITH JAPANESE VOICES! And finally, everyone sounds exactly as their character. What a relief, seriously. I finally got to pick up the story again and get back on track with the francise.
LumyTheQueen You don’t like Yuri Lowenthal as Haseo?
@@Kurasai56 i don't think he's a good fit for Haseo at all. I thought his voice was very generic and his performance flat. Plus, I sort of understood what kind of character Haseo was while I was following the development of the games. He needs a wide range of vocal emotion, from power hungry egocentric (when he activates hia avatar) to helpless desperation (when it goes berserk) to tough guy shyness (when he bonds with Atolli). I just didn't get this from the English voice actor and it ruins the character for me. Very happy to have the game with the Japanese voices.
LumyTheQueen ok those are all fair points, is there anyone that you know of in the voice acting community that in your opinion would’ve made a better Voice for Haseo?
dank game series
i have to say the story they told across 3 games could have easily been told in a single game. even 2 games wouldn't be so drawn out but 3 games is ridiculous. the story is literally them repeating the words "AIDA", "epitaph" and Haceo screaming "skieeetthhhh" over and over again and then fighting predictable battles in the arena. literally every game is just winning an arena tournament to be crownded emperor and fighting a boss fight thats also super predictable. this same formula is on repeat for 3 full games its ridiculous.
I still don’t understand the game
It's one of those over-complicated anime plots about.... I don't know.
ShaolinGamer lots of over emotional characters and an overly complicated way of telling what is a pretty shallow story, probably to give it more depth, that being said it's a fun game if not taking the story too seriously.
I'd take a Tail Concerto/Solatorobo remake over this crap any day!
Since you've sold your soul to Bandai/Namco Games, use your newfound capital to make it happen, Derek. I must also disagree with you on this game having "phenomenal" voice acting, at least judging from what you showcased here. Maybe I'm just not into that weeby anime dub style, but I'd say something like Lost Odyssey had pretty phenomenal voicework, which it doesn't seem to get much credit for...but I guess that's neither here nor there. Lost Odyssey, you should play that.
jimmy lets make out in japan.
Duh! Bring that big boy Derek with you and we'll grind for levels all night. Classic RPG party of three, baby.
Party of four, baby!!!! Don't forget meeeee
I'm not sure that I'm ready to bump up my party to four, aka, getting my "final" fantasy on, but I suppose I could add you and kick out that bitch Derek, since he doesn't reply to anything in which he perceives could be remotely seen as "not positive," so fuck 'im, me, you, and nasty Uncle Dubious are having a filthy, disgusting RPorGy.
First!