First off, the graphics are good. They're not the best, as Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria and Final Fantasy 12 are slightly newer with better graphics, but they don't completely suck.
Sound is pretty good too, but it gets very repetetive after a few hours of gameplay. The combat sounds are exciting and "pop", but the background music gets on your nerves. Especially the background music when you're in the first town, "Mac Anu", gets stale so fast.
The controls are easy to pick up. The R1 button can now be assigned different skills so, unlike in the first games, you don't have to open several menus just to use an attack skill. Sadly enough, though, you cannot assign healing spells to the R1 button. The camera control is somewhat better than the last game, but I feel it still needs work.
The voice acting is decent at best. Most of the characters show little emotion, or over-react their emotion to the point of making it rediculous. Just wait till you meet Gaspard, and you'll know what I'm talking about... The main hero is also rediculously one sided, getting frustrated at each and every event trigger in the game, and often for stupid reasons. If its supposed to portray how gamers react in an MMORPG, its completely off the ball, at least as far as I've seen (been playing Guild Wars and World of Warcraft for about two years.)
There are TONS of stuff to do in this game too. You can become part of a number of guilds, which opens various options to you as a player, such as special shops that allow you to make creative items, access to a faster mode of transportation, etc. You can also do a number of fun and interesting, if not repetetive, quests. The designers definetely tried to capture the MMORPG feel, but I don't think they accurately got it. Close but no cigar. For example, the towns are bustling with people, but oftentimes you'll see one person, turn a corner, and they'll be there again when they were running the opposite direction a few minutes prior. The town recycles the inhabitants over and over, so no matter how far away you get from a "player", they'll be right there when you go to a different district in town.
The story is o.k. as far as I've been. A lot of it feels forced, like the hero has to do this because the programmers made it that way, not because the hero "wants" to. It started out that way, but quickly took a dive.
I'm not impressed with the grading system after you complete dungeons and fields. You get graded on how many things you kill, sneak up on, boxes or other destructable items you destroy, how many items you collect etc. There is almost no explanation of that system that I've encountered, and I feel its useless. All you can unlock is extra words to create new dungeons and fields and useless items. Literally, I've had 50 health drinks, which is like a potion in other RPGs, since the first couple hours of playtime. I never use them, cause I don't take that much damage ever.
Thats another thing. The game's battles are entirely too easy! No one battle provides any sort of challenge. If you go to an area three levels higher than you, it gets harder, but the difficulty is masked in more hitpoints and damage capability, not true improved AI or anything.
All in all, however, the game is a vast improvement over the previous games. There are tons of unlockable stuff, tons of places to go, and you'll be entertained for hours on end. I would definetely pick this game up if you get the chance!
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If you've played the original .hack games, then you won't be disappointed in this one. If you haven't played the original .hack games and like MMORPG games without the MMO part, then you'll like this game. The OS interface is familiar, yet improved from the first set of games. You still get e-mails and still respond to a few, getting responses back and so on. However, now you have greeting cards and "affection levels" of characters you can call on. The higher their affection level, the better they will fight with you in battle. There are still "message boards" but now there are more of them, both on and off "The World" that can unlock certain events and levels within the game by either reading or responding to them. There's even a section of boards where fans post art that you can download to use as wallpaper on your OS. There's also still a News section, but now it has clickable links to short movies and even sometimes ads, making it seem more like an actual Internet connection.You play as Haseo, who has conveniently been attacked by "Tri-Edge" which resulted in him being leveled down to 1 and having everything reset so you get to begin with starting equipment. Just as if you were starting a new game! One big addition to this game is the ability to kill other players. Those who do are called "Player Killers" or PKers. Now, you can't just rush out and start hacking away at your own party, but if you come across a glowing blue area, that means that someone is fighting inside. If you enter, you can't leave unless you have a smoke bomb or defeat the enemy. Often times it will be a player being attacked by a PKer and your party has the chance to save them. If you do, you get an item from them as thanks. Haseo's character is an "Adept Rogue" which can eventually use multiple weapons and magic, but never to the mastery of the job classes of the ones who ONLY use those weapons. Sort of like the Red Mage of the game. Don't worry though, it doesn't slow you down. Haseo pushes right along, starting off with the familiar twin blades and eventually learns others. It can be difficult at first, but just pay attention to what the other characters are telling you, take breaks from the story to level up every so often, and you'll do fine. Its a great game with interesting character development and unique game play. Plus, when you're done, your saved game data can carry over to the next game, GU Vol. 2. All of your weapons, abilities, e-mails, everything. There are three volumes in all, but no word yet as to when they will all be released in the US. Good luck gaming!
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There were many people who enjoyed the original, 4-game dothack series. I was not one of them. After a good opening, the game immediately fell into dull repetition. The story was so-so (what? a virtual world can feel real, it's inhabitants feeling the effects of game elements in their real lives? How novel!), the graphics were so-so, and the whole experience was incredibly easy (and short I finished the 2nd game in a mere 9 hours). The best part of the original game were the sidequests, often opened after the main game ended (and one of which, the item collection quest, I'm STILL not finished with).Bandai learned. Sidequests are fun? Then let's put a lot of them into the next outing! Graphics are only so-so? Let's spruce them up! Gameplay is a bit repetitive? Let's add a few more dungeon models! (OK, they could have done a lot more with the last one, but still...)
Add it all up, and you get the sold outing, ".hack//G.U.". The original world has been destroyed, the computers which generated it having been lost in an inexplicable fire. CC Corp releases, "The World 2", which has many elements of the original game, but also included the option to "PK", or "Player Kill". Some people love it, some people abhor it. Your character is PK'ed in his first outing, and decides to devote his RPG experience to PKK'ing (I think you can figure this one out yourself). He is an incredibly powerful character ("Haseo, the Terror of Death"), whose motives are obscured. However, while searching for a PK'er by the name of "Tri-Edge", his character is wiped out, and he is forced to start from the beginning.
From here, I'll let you discover the story on your own. No, it isn't great, but it isn't bad either. But this game lives and dies through sidequests. Bounty hunter, Lucky Animals, Mecha Grunties, arena battles all of these and more can be discovered and conquered as you manoeuvre the game simply known as "The World".
For forty bucks, it's not so bad. Happy hunting...
Honest reviews on .hack: G.U., Vol. 1: Rebirth
This is one of the best games i ever played.Its fun from start to finish.And when you finally finish the game,you'll be wanting more of it.In my opinion this game was as good as kingdom hearts 2.
