shinigami’s blog

For reasons that I never bothered to think over, I was less than impressed with .hack//roots (though I did keep watching it, which is more than I can say about .hack//Legend of Twilight Bracelet). Now, I am a Bee Train fan, and a .hack//sign fan. One of the reasons I bought a PS2 was that maybe the .hack games will include some stuff on the Sign characters after all.

Even as I’m typing this I’m listening to the .hack//liminality OST.
But my lack of Wow-ness at Roots was not (all) about music, as I like ALI Project.

No, when I started on Roots, what was wrong was the characters. I’m not saying I outright disliked them, but compared to Sign, they had no charm, no charisma, no mystery. Haseo’s attitude did nothing to draw me in, the random ex-members saying “let’s meet to talk” and then saying nothing was not mysterious, but annoying, and Ovan was too much of a “Kick ass cryptic character with a big gun” to be compelling. Oh, and Tabby The Silly Busty Catgirl sucked.

Had it been anything but the .hack franchise I wouldn’t have endured through all that for the story to kick in. But kick in it did, and though, again, it was no Sign, I decided to pick up .hack//G.U (Ok, and because I was sick for a long time and I wanted something to cheer me up XD).

.hack//G.U. Rebirth:

From the very first moment I was drawn in, as the OP sounds like FF X’s Hymn of the Fayth and the graphics are .hack meets Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne: cel-shaded and darker than the first .hack games.

Unfortunately, unlike the first games, the main character is the same in both the anime and the game, and he looks much better in the anime, but this is a minor issue. What’s more important, his running animation is horrible.

This time there are some anime touches: characters sweatdrop and get other typical graphic elements to indicate mood.

The beginning of the game is loaded with FMVs, including scenes from the anime. There are 3 that I want to mention:
* In the one covering Haseo’s first time up to being PKed and seeing Ovan, Ovan is so much cooler than he was in the anime, lightning effects can make all the difference.
* The one where Haseo fights lots of Pks shows how kick ass this game will be, though probably only in the later instalments when Haseo gets allpowerful again.
* The cathedral scene with Shino had different lines than the sub I saw and also exposed one of the game’s major issues: the dub.

Yes, this time there is only one language track available, and it’s the English dub. Not all games have bad dub, but I’ve played Infection comparing the 2 tracks and the English one was far inferior. In G.U. I don’t know how good the original was, but the dub is not satisfying.

Starting with the 2 PKs that sucker Haseo in the very beginning, going through Haseo himself, the voice acting is mediocre. Pi was okay, but she had a strange accent. But then come the offenders: Gaspard is annoying (maybe this was intended, though >.>), Atoli is a nighmare, her voice is at once screeching and flat.

The tutorial was good, but the way the lines abruptly stopped was lame, and it made it seem an AI tutorial instead of character delivered instructions. Also, especially when going through it again, it would have been nice to be able to skip the lines after reading the subs instead of having to listen to every word.

The offline part is much better than before, with the News section browser-like and with short integrated anime clips (most at around 17 seconds). The forums were so good I wanted to reply. Both the news and the forums covered more topics than the game (the microchip debate and the “outdoors introverts” concept were especially nice). It took me an hour to read the offline sections, and all of it was interesting. For those that care, you can get 11 background images at the start (by downloading them off the specialized forum), and a few more soon afterwards.

Mac Anu is huge. Well, not when compared to, say, a FF XII or Suikoden V town, but bigger than it was in .hack//infection. Unfortunately the size is given by empty alleys, not by anything particularly fun, but still. Nice. There are teleport platforms everywhere, so you don’t have to run around all the alleys unless you want to talk to people who, for some unknown reason, actually do run around in the alleys. Heh.

The battle system is different from the first games.

First of all, you see the opponents in the field. You approach them and you can surprise them (or not, if they notice you first). If you do, you get a free attack. Either way, you get into a “battle area” that looks and acts exactly as the one in Okami, except you can only escape by using an item.

Secondly, you use skills by calling them up with R1 - gone are the many menus - and can only use them when the R1 trigger appears above Haseo’s head, so you can’t spam them even if you have enough SPs.

Thirdly, you have special stuff that activates when certain conditions are met:
* When you damage an opponent enough it will be surrounded in violet (easier to notice is that its name flashes violet) - like data Drain worked - Then you can use Rengeki, which does lots of damage and it will get you a bonus at the end of battle. But you can’t use Rengeki if you can’t activate R1, so this is another reason not to mindlessly spam skills.
* When the party’s morale gauge fills you can press square for an Awakening. There’s 2 of them, one increasing speed and damage, the other allowing the use of magick with no SP consumption.
Though Awakenings are best saved for hard times, Rengeki is very satisfying. ^^

You can customize your equipment by inserting appropriate items in slots. What I got so far allows elemental/status effects attacks (weapons), resistence to various types of damage/status, HP bonus, even a nifty “Counter with poison” (armor), reduced/increased SP cost for magic skills/nonmagic skills (accesory).

Other new stuff:

You get to kick around Chim Chims for Chim Spheres. From time to time (including the first quest you get) you meet a King Chim to kick, and this one actually attacks you. When you have too many of them, kawaii Chim Assassins will attack you, and you get to kick them around too. ^^

There are Lucky and Unlucky Animals to kick for various effects. I only met one Unlucky Animal so far, and it cursed my wallet. lol. And, of course, there is the Lucky Animal that gives you cash (it gave me 2000, which is huge right now). The Lucky Animals are fast, and you really have to chase them, but fortunately they don’t leave the area, so it’s not frustrating.

You also meet a Mecha Grunty you have to feed Chim Spheres, and after you do, it blasts off, then falls a la Team Rocket. It asks for progressively more Chim Spheres every time you meet it, and I’m not sure how many times you have to feed it and why. Not that I care much - Chim Spheres are as easy to get as the Grunty food was.

To meet these you have to explore, but this time you are encouraged to do so by getting a rank at the end and a bonus according to the rank. The S rank (the best) can net you a new word to use in warp combinations.

*scrolls up*

Uh, ok, I’m writing too much. :))

Wrapping it up, .hack//G.U. is enjoyable, very enjoyable so far. I don’t know for how long it will be, though. The combat is just so much button mashing, and I miss FF XII’s Gambit system both to do the button mashing for me and to tell the party members what to do. The G.U. strategy is… lacking. You basically have “Attack!” (using skills, not using skills, and whichever) and “Heal!”. That’s all. What’s more, “Heal” means your support character will keep throwing SP restorative items, unless you keep your other attacker on “No skills”, or switch when his/her SP gets too low. Fun. Also, I’m not entirely sure about this, but it seems that “Heal” makes the support character just run around and never engage the enemy. >.< I would have liked a “Heal HP when necessary, then attack normally/using magic skills (according to class)” setting, as SP gets restored automatically (you don’t even have to run around like in FF XII).

Sure, it’s less of a hassle than the previous .hack, but it’s still button mashing with poor party options. Add repetitive dungeons, repetitive enemies, repetitive BGM… But it’s .hack, so it was to be expected. And, heck, I expect a darn good story to offset all these!

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