.hack//FF>ME (Part 3)

    .hack is far from perfect but that’s where some of it’s charm comes from. To play a game that’s quite flawed but still draws you in is something that happens less and less nowadays. Many gamers choose what to spend their limited time playing based on reviews. Games that scored low or didn’t have enough money or time put into their marketing often slip through the cracks. It’s hard to say whether the .hack series had enough time or money, but there’s no doubt it was made with lots of love.

    When I first began writing about .hack I wanted to talk about how it was one of the first games to succeed with a multidisc story arc. Mass Effect is definitely the pinnacle of multidisc story arcs, but it certainly wasn’t the first.

If you own any of these, you're automatically a collector.

    Looking back, one of the many problems the .hack series faced was that each installment of the game played out more like an episode of a show. By the end of a .hack game, one of the reasons you wanted to play the next one so badly was because there was little conclusion. After finishing .hack Part 1 and Part 2, I didn’t feel as if anything was really resolved yet. I’ll compare it to an episode of Lost. Every episode of that show ended on a cliffhanger. I may be exaggerating there, but I think it’s understood what I’m trying to say. Hopefully by the end of Part 4, I’ll feel as if the .hack story wraps up.

Imagine watching Season 3 first. Now imagine playing Mutation first. Same thing.

    In Mass Effect, you never felt compelled to finish subsequent releases in order to complete the story arc. After finishing the original Mass Effect, I wanted to play Mass Effect 2 in order to get more out of the characters and the world. I didn’t need to play Mass Effect 2. The original Mass Effect story reached a rewarding conclusion. I’ve even heard that people playing the Mass Effect series out of order still enjoy it. People playing .hack for the first time that picked it up out of order would probably be disappointed. I imagine they might be taken aback by the mystery of the world, but certainly to enjoy it they would have to track down previous games and play them first.

I wish .hack would have a compilation.

    Rather than comparing the .hack series to Mass Effect, I think it’s more appropriate to compare it to the Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy became one of the first multidisc story arc games. The difference being that you got all the discs at the same time. After finishing disc 1 of Final Fantasy VII you would certainly need to play the next 2 discs in order to reach any resolution. There was no conclusion before changing discs. Final Fantasy simply needed many discs because the game was too big for just one cd-rom.

I own this game on PSN. If only .hack was available there too.

    I don’t know if the .hack series released the way it did because of storage limitations, but it might have been a better game, and better received, if all the parts were originally released as one. If they couldn’t do that, it would have been nice if the separate games would have finished with stronger conclusions. As the series stands, sometimes it feels like they made the entire game, then just decided to ship parts of it every 6 months. Again, I don’t see anything wrong with this, but none of the games felt like seasons. They all felt like episodes. You absolutely needed the next installment to make sense of the first one and vice versa.

    I wanted to applaud .hack as being one of the first games that carries over saved data. I wanted to compare it to Mass Effect, but thematically, it just doesn’t compare. .hack is more comparable to a Final Fantasy game that chose to release and sell their games separately. It’s still a very rewarding experience, but certainly not an easy one to have.

    In the next article of this 4 part series I’ll be looking at the future of the franchise. Stay tuned for next Friday!

- lvl 99

.hack//Love (Part 2)

    If you look back on the reviews that the .hack series received you’ll see that it garnered less than average scores. But if you look at the user reviews you’ll see that they tell a much more positive tale. I don’t like .hack because it’s a perfect game. It has many flaws; some of which just make the game hard to play. Sadly, not many were fixed in successive installments. But sometimes art can transcend that. .hack is one of these rare gems that contains something better than itself.

    Story:

    The story of Dot Hack was quite original when it first came out, but by now has been copied many times over. Basically, you play as the Twin Blade Kite, a teen playing his first MMORPG. You’re friend Orca leads your first foray in the game world, conspicuously dubbed “The World.” While adventuring with Orca in a dungeon you run into Skeith, a mysterious NPC that “Data Drains” Orca. Skeith’s Data Drain not only destroys Orca’s high level character but also leaves his real life person in a coma. This isn’t Skeith’s first victim. You find out that other people playing the game have experienced a similar reaction. Kite then receives a “Twilight Bracelet” that allows him to use Data Drain as well. Bugs begin to appear in the game and it’s up to Kite and his friends to discover the mystery behind them. They must also find a cure for the comas and dodge enemies: Data Bugs like Skeith and other players that believe Kite is to blame.

    Characters:

    .hack has one of the craziest cast of characters. First off, there are 15+ characters that will join your friends list allowing you to party with them whenever they are online. You don’t directly get to play as them, but you do get to tell them what to do while they’re in your party. I’m going to list some of my favorites. Not all of these characters join your team.

    BlackRose is your main sidekick throughout the game. She starts as a newbie at the same time as you and becomes your first friend after losing Orca. She’s a Heavy Blade character that is cute and very strong. She seems to questions the weird goings-on more so than Kite.

    Mia is a sketchy character that hacked “The World” so that her avatar would look like a cat. She’s a Blademaster who helps you solve some of the mysteries of the Twilight Bracelet. Mia is always after Aromatic grass though we may never know why.

    Elk is Mia’s sidekick, and is essentially what you are to BlackRose. He is a Wavemaster who stutters a lot and seems unsure of himself. It’s clear he is in love with Mia though it’s also clear she doesn’t feel the same way. Elk is always after the elusive item, Aromatic Grass. Seemingly, so that he can give it to Mia.

    Balmung of the Azure Sky is one of the Descendants of Fianna. He received this special title by conquering a special one time event called The One Sin, alongside Orca. He’s a Blademaster and one of the most powerful characters in the game. He suspects Kite of being responsible for Orca’s coma as well as other problems going on in The World.

    Helba is a Wavemaster with an unprecedented ability to hack. Somehow, she is always one step ahead of Kite and other characters in the game. She seems to know more than she lets on.

    Aura is one of the reasons things get complicated in The World. She is a ghostly girl avatar that eludes Kite’s every move as he tries to track her down. She seems to hold the key to solving the mysteries of the game.

    MMORPG Simulation:

     .hack does a great job of making you feel like you’re playing an online game. First off when you first load your saved file your brought to the desktop of your PC. This is where you can read and reply to emails. You can also use the internet to read headlining news.

uploaded picture of checking mail

    When you click the icon for The World you’re sent to the login screen for the game. This is where you can read the forums before beginning play. They’re quite active and generally have something new to read every time. Many tips can be found here from other players.

    Once you login to The World you’re ported to one of the servers. These servers have Root Towns which are basically the gathering spot before you set out into dungeons. It was fun talking to all the random player characters. Some of them talk about special events in game or reflect what’s currently happening in the story. Some of them break the fourth wall and talk about their real life. You can even trade with the player characters. Most of my good armor I recieved by doing this.

uploaded picture of me trading

    All player characters are aware that Kite is actually just an avatar for the actual player. Occasionally the players you talk to will break the fourth wall and address you directly. This further immerses the player because it reminds you that even though you’re playing Kite, he is not the “main” character. You are.

    During battle, characters will talk with bubbles over their heads to let you know what they’re thinking. It makes it feel as if they're actually real people, frantically typing while they're playing. And since they’re real people, you can’t directly control them. This proves to make battles frustrating sometimes, but it ultimately creates a better sense of mood.

    The fighting system in this game isn’t super deep or even that fun, but it basically plays out exactly like MMO’s do. You spam auto attack at close range and cast a spell from time to time.

    When you get into a bugged dungeon the screen will tear every once in a while to remind you that it’s unstably coded.

    Immersion:

    This is the part of the game that trumps all the design problems. .hack lives and breathes. There’s a sense of happening while you’re away from the game. In a real MMORPG, when you save your character and quit the game, the world you’re playing in doesn’t just freeze in place. It continues to grow and change without you there. .hack emulates this using tactics such as the ones I mentioned above. This immersion also creates a sense of mystery because you don’t know what certain characters are doing while you’re away from the game. Every time I play .hack, it feels like I’m stepping into a crime scene and trying to figure out how everything went wrong. Something happened while I was away and I’m the only one who can figure it out and make it right.

    In the next article of this 4 part series I’ll be explaining a major down fall of the games. Stay tuned for next Friday!


- lvl 99