Just finished Infection after killing the final boss, bonus boss, and moving my save to the 2nd game(Mutation). As the first game in the series, it immerses you into its story and world with its early 2000s Internet interface menus and message boards taking you along for the ride through it combat mechanics, leveling, story characters you meet long the way and party gearing. There's alot of bad I can talk about like the constant menuing in later parts of the game, the empty overworld, the lack of difficulty, but as for the first game in the series I think I can look past those things for what the devs were going for .What do you think of the first game and others in the series?
The most soulless episodic multimedia milking jRPG that has ever been conceived.
>>3870897Don't expect the menuing to get any better unless you play G.U. since IMOQ is all on the same engine. It's an honestly impressive attempt at simulating an MMO along with a 'community' so to speak, but obviously the gameplay was one of the last things on the list of priorities during development. I think the story is good enough to warrant playing them anyway, and G.U. definitely addresses some of those gameplay issues, although it still has it's flaws as well. The franchise can be confusing to get into and a big time investment, but I hope anyone who plays IMOQ at least watches the bundled OVA after each game because I think it adds a lot to the experience. As much as I love IMOQ and G.U., Link was probably one of the worst games I've ever completed and I don't recommend that anyone play it. It had a couple good character designs and songs but the story and gameplay were really bad
I've made so many attempts at the series, but I make it halfway through Infection and just lose interest every time. I appreciate a lot of what it tries to do, but the combat and meat of the gameplay are just not compelling enough, and I can't imagine how much padding there is to have stretched it over 3 more games.
>>3870897The other games are the same thing. Like the exact same thing. If it was released today it would be one game that's 80 hours instead of 4 20 hour gamesIt is very charming, I think it does a really cool job with its setting and atmosphere, but if you are looking for better combat / dungeoning - you will not get it. Also you better have taken Piros to the Skeith fight
>>3870897The games themselves are bad...HOWEVER they're the only media that even comes close to capturing the essence of the internet in Y2K. Playing them gives me Vietnam-style flashbacks to EverQuest. It's also the rare game series that would actually benefit from a remake that fixes up the gameplay but keeps almost everything else intact.
>>3871094>the only media that even comes close to capturing the essence of the internet in Y2KJap anime MMOs were not the essence of the internet in y2k. People keep repeating this, but it's just nonsense. Shit is a chopped up anime tie-in.
>>3870897IMOQ are dogshit games with 10/10 atmosphere. I think they're worth playing, but I wouldn't call them good by any means. The GU games have better gameplay, but are otherwise very bland and generic.
>>3870897IMOQ series takes me back, my very first paycheck from working part time bought me my infection copy.>What do you think of the first game and others in the series?I do like how the series raises the stakes with each game, I do think that full price the games are not worth the replay value you get from them but chapters are divided up extremely well. Unfortunately I do think the game suffers a bit as the issues with stuff like menuing, combat slowdown, etc all get more glaring as the series proceeds on. I do like how Kite "grows up" in a sense throughout the game and was kind of blown away with how much empathy and ability to read others was shown from him even though in game he's like a 14 year old.The game really does the early 2000s mmorpg simulation stuff well. The general mystery of the game and its connection to RL are all fascinating stuff and I like seeing it fleshed out. Also the OST is amazingly good and the Mac Anu theme will always have a spot in my heart. Fully agree that the game would serve a remaster well, only changing up combat and leaving the story alone.
>>3871095>the message board>the way the NPCs talk to you and message you>the way some of them are unavailable due to IRL stuff>the general feeling of interacting with peopleit's very close to how it felt to play EverQuest and use the EQ-related internet as a teenager in 2000-2001. It's only missing more random encounters with people in the field and a website similar to Allakhazam.
>>3871372I was 24 when this game came out, it felt nothing like how MMOs played or the communities interacted. It felt like a sanitized anime version of some vague future MMO, just like SAO.
>>3871095>Jap anime MMOs were not the essence of the internet in y2k.SOMETHING AWFUL DOT COMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZiPnaf0QyU
>>3870897>they skipped the first quartet to remaster .hack//G.U. trilogy insteadWhy?
>>3871588i think the gu trilogy had better reception in NA and JP and it was after hack/signs came out so people are a lot more familiar with it. also im a huge imoq fan but the gameplay doesnt hold a candle to GU, comparatively speaking
>>3871095you weren't there.
>>3871666Wrong, you were just too young to really engage with the reality of early 2000 era internet. I had already been on the internet many years by then.
>>3871588It was easier, simple as. Remastering IMOQ would take more work and likely wouldn't sell as well.
>>3870897Just to let you know, //IMOQ work as a single game divided on 4 discs rather than as 4 different games. They are all exactly the same in that sense. That´s why there is a lvl cap for each game. Back in the day the multimedia experience felt pretty interesting to me, like read a novel, watch an anime, play these games, watch these ovas... it was pretty unique, maybe because it was pretty obscure too. It wasn´t something everyone was committed to do or even knew about and every piece of media explored different aspects of the world. However, as an adult, i now feel that approach to be cumbersome. I really don´t have the time to do all that stuff, specially when most IPs that do that these days aren´t really trying to build up nothing, it´s just cashgrabbing.
>>3871725>Just to let you know, //IMOQ work as a single game divided on 4 discs rather than as 4 different gamesExactly it was a conscious choice to give this barebones uniform experience and create a multimedia franchise along with it. I'm sure the whole thing was conceived in a Bandai Namco boardroom. It's the definition of a cashgrab. Any soul detected is by children who weren't old enough to understand the man behind the curtain.
>>3870897>What do you think of the first game and others in the series?Waste of a nice setup/world to milk 4 games that all play exactly the same that could frankly have been condensed into 2 parts. They handled it a bit better with GU though its still padded and could also have been just 2 games if it had to be split at all.If you can get immersed into the setting, the message boards, news articles etc. then its not terrible but the grind of the gameplay never changes really, i just skipped doing anything optional beyond maxing out characters after the 1st game once i saw it just repeats itself each time
>>3871735>cashgrab>soul>childrensmells like a /v/ tourist
>>3871928>semantic concerns>overall vacuity>no real responseTastes like a concession.
>>3871725>work as a single game divided on 4 discs rather than as 4 different games. I'm aware, to me if released today it would be the equivalent of one of those story games that would release a new chapter every few months with updates or an early access title split into pieces given how the games were released afew months from each other back in the day and internet game distribution wasn't a big thing yet.The thing about multimedia projects is you don't really have to experience the whole project if you dont have the time, I myself watched all the anime there are for dothack which adds a load of context to the games and world, yet I haven't come to touch the manga or books yet not that I have the time it just isn't a priority of interest yet.
>>3872302>The thing about multimedia projects isthey are soulless anti-creations. Purease buy card game and novel and toy and book and anime and game split into 4. We no make coherent experience, we milk.I will never stop being amazed at people defending this shit. Crazytown.
>>3870937>Don't expect the menuing to get any better unless you play G.U. since IMOQ is all on the same engine.afew hours into mutation and you are right, I have gotten into the habit of just menuing (woops got to switch my weapons for that elemental crit bonus,got to heal my tank because she just got 10hp from getting crit and my healer cant heal for full hp yet and now I have to be thrown back into action to pause again to do the next thing) shifting to the next target and position just to menu again, stop time before the monsters can even do anything while my party blows them up. It would be cool if I could actually see the replay of the encounter or something to what it actually looks like in real time without the menus lol.I dont think the gameplay was the last thing but looking at Cyberconnect2s catalog, dothack was their first Jrpg project and it really shows,they get more confident with the towns design to be big and mmoish but the shops for example are so far to walk to between each other it becomes tedious to go from shop to shop when you need something.
>>3871372Does it have the part where you listen to a 32-year-old woman in your guild tell you about her ongoing divorce when you're 14?
>>3872302The manga and novels are of varying quality but if you ever take the time, I thought AI Buster was pretty good>>3872323Glad to see you've gotten a handle of the combat, you can get by a lot of easier encounters mashing basic attack with a wavemaster in your party but certain bosses and enemies basically require you to be good at navigating the menus. Being able to see a replay would be an awesome feature cause some of those fights get pretty intense. I never thought about it that way that even though they proved themselves capable of making good gameplay with their PS1 titles, it was their first JRPG. Based on what was in the art book it seems as though the game underwent several major revisions before reaching the final product, so it's not like they just lazily threw something out there>>3872355In G.U. you team up with a 28 year old woman (that the main character refers to as an old hag) who vents about her problems such as being too beautiful IRL for men to approach her. You can choose to marry her at the end of Vol. 3
Just starting infection any tips ?
>>3872443>certain bosses and enemies basically require you to be good at navigating the menus.picrel, this boss right here is exactly what you are talking about lol. Honestly the more I play this series the more I think it should have been some kind of Srpg with the amount of pausing going on.>AI BusterI'll have to look through the manga some time just to see how Balmung and Orca got their titles, surprised this wasn't made into an OVA or something, maybe a starting point for a new dothack would be nice.>>38745481.carry multiple twinblades for big elemental coverage damage2. have a wavemaster for heals3. always upgrade your parties gear by trading with NPCs when necessary, mainly blackrose since she'll be with you alot4.learn how to use your party members abilities in the menus during battle
>>3874583Its okay when Cubia does it since he's cool.
>>3872302Well, i don´t think it was a bad thing back in the day. As i said, it was pretty unique back then and every piece of media served to expand the world, in that sense i don´t think it was a cashgrab either. It made one feel that that world really existed and one was part of it. Most multimedia projects aren´t like that and contemporary ones are, indeed, just meaningless cashgrabs that don´t really build toward anything. They just keep going forever. Though if we are being honest one could say the same of everything after the original project. At some point they just lost what made the whole thing special.
>>3874583also before you dive into a dungeon makes sure you are able to kill the stuff on the overworld because once you go down there you can easily get party wiped if you aren't prepared,atleast up top you can run away with a speed scroll and gate out to safety and not lose xp.
>>3874548You need to accept going in that these games are a fucking slog to get through. Try to pace yourself, its very easy to get burnt out since you have 4 games to get through.
>>3874593>Most multimedia projects aren´t like that and contemporary ones are, indeed, just meaningless cashgrabs that don´t really build toward anythingThis is exactly what .hack was from the very beginning.
>>3874585nah screw Cubia,he's the hardest boss aside from the final boss in the first game so far
>>3874548don't bother trying to do anything involving gruntys organically. Look up a guide. Save yourself the hassle. Use save states for the racing. If you want all 3 prizes, you have to beat the high score 3 times - what that means is that if you get an exceptional score the first time you beat it, you're going to have to do even better to get the rewards. try and beat the time only by a little bit each instance.
>>3874548Oh and I disagree with >>3874583 on >2. have a wavemaster for healsHealing through spells is long, slow and not great. Wavemasters are kinda bad. You're going to get much better value out of classes that can actually do basic attacks (Remember you have to turn on your teammates ability to use skills via menu. Every fight. It resets. - this means that wavemasters do literally nothing until you do this). Healing items are incredibly cheap and just by going through dungeons you'll also pick up hundreds of them for free. They also don't have the spellcasting delay of magic. Just carry 99 healing items. It's honestly more convenient.
>>3874693>Healing through spells is long, slow and not great.it's meant for when each encounter is over so you don't waste money early just on healing drinks and pots since your healer's mana recharges anyway, it's your party's AOE nuker otherwise.Late in infection and the start of mutation, you are pretty much are the healer for your party with pots if things go bad.>Every fight. It resets.I hate this it's tedious but whatever, just get used to using weaken, skills magic or attack the first few seconds of a encounter
>Firstperson view battling>just command party memeber actions>go in for the killActually pretty playable desu, still wish I was a wavemaster though or let me atleast change my class
>>3876252>Blackrose>Just die already!I mean it's nice that I hear Haruhi, but it's also really evident that I'm hearing Haruhi all the time
>>3870897This series is goated and has such wonderful vibes on top of sign being one of my favorite anime. G.U. was kinda bland in comparison. I love the characters and world in this. Wish there was more world diversity but considering console limitations it's incredible how much they did with what they had.Also love the esoteric secrets like finding a world name hidden in the dub of liminality
>>3870897Been itching to replay this series after 20 or so long years then I see this thread. I was never one to give a shit about the dated gameplay. Just running dungeons in this game was comfy as fuck. Was finishing up Dark Cloud 1 and all I kept thing about was wanting to replay .hack even though the games aren't similar except for mindless dungeon running in 5th and 6th gen graphics, which is all I'm looking for.>>3871588If I remember right, IMOQ needed a complete remake which would have took longer. Something about how difficult it was to code the original games back in the early PS2 days.
>>3876728The vibes you are talking about might be the Celtic influence, the more you play the game more you see everything has a bit of "Stonehenge" in it, the wave symbols on everyone down to the character designs, maps etc. it pretty much very where.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2igOu4R4O4>>3877791>>3871588No idea about the work but it mostly falls in Bandai Namco's hands to decide since they own the IP,if more people buy the G.U remaster game it maybe it would trigger Banco's interests.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KGYuJzFVuUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzGTigyqvc8
>>3870897OP here, Mutation is done only thing left is the last bonus quest which I'm reluctant to do just to see what happens in the next game since it leaves on a huge cliffhanger and things have escalated. The final boss of Mutation, way easier than the first game maybe because I know what I'm doing, or my party was over leveled and has decent gear whatever the case he's a push over and isn't the hardest part of the game. Compared to Infection,mutation has afew QoL updates like party members continuing to strengthen or cast abilities automatically but it’s pretty much the same game. One huge glaring thing between Infection and Mutation I see that would put some players off is the need for Virus cores, the amount of needless grind between getting ones you need and unlocking the next area in order to progress the story. I hit max level ahead of the story before I got the right amount of cores because they weren't dropping, I got gear instead or my infection level was so high to the point I'd just get debuffs for using data drain leading me to repeat dungeons to lower it then do it again but data draining the monsters I needed, abit of a pain in the ass as grinding goes, but it got done. Good things about mutation compare to Infection, Way more party members to choose from, I still use my main picks a lot but there afew cool new ones like Marlo that fills the role of a tank or DPS if you don’t want to use your waifu Blackrose, overall an improvement over Infection.
>>3878318I found Skeith in infection to be the hardest part of the first four games by far. After that it's relatively smooth sailing, outside of trying to data drain certain post-game bosses.Virus cores are definitely a pain. Locking progression behind an RNG aspect wasn't a good idea.
>>3874583>the more I think it should have been some kind of Srpg with the amount of pausing going on.The final fantasy 7 remake battle system is a facelifted version of .hack//g.u.'s combat technically. CC2 was originally hired to work on it, but they were fired and square enix still took their work anyway lol.
>>3878321yeah word of advice to anyone playing, consult a guide for how many virus cores you need in all 4 games and get them as soon as they're available
>>3870897went back and played these games a few years ago and was slightly impressed with the fake news articles and their predictions about stuff like GMO foods and the like. typical near future sci-fi but there wasn't a lot they anticipated wrong
>>3878321>>3878337>using a guideI refuse, and I will play the game like it's 2004,the ingame monster book helps enough.Skeith so far along with Cubia are pretty much a threat I think most players will come to since the menuing intensifies here the most, and after,you are pretty much accustomed to it for the next bosses onward,even the bonus boss for Mutation is menu heavy to fight since it attacks so fast you are drink hp pots 2 at a time to over heal its stupid damage output if you tank for the party.
>>3878318>Way more party members to choose from,to add to this post these are the party members to choose from by the start of Outbreak(game3) if anyone is wondering
>>3879388Balmung shouldn't be there yet at least at the start
>>3879389also ryoko
>>3879387A - 8B - 16C - 4D - 4E - 15F - 9G - 15H - 17I - 10J - 13K - 9L - 3M - 6N - 2O - 6P - 3Q - 3R - 1S - 0T - 1U - 1V - 1W - 1X - 1Y - 1Z - 1Total - 151 cores, 28 of which are given through storyline events or are 100% dropsThere you go, now you don't need to
>>3879387And I'll play the game like its 1995 as god intended.
>>3879409For me, it’s Lord Soths Castle on Happypuppy Games
>>3879404I respect your choice but I raise you an alternative
>>3879412Fair enough however, I like to make my own alternatives.Might try to make a data drain code in Infection if I can find the values
>>3879388Gardenia my beloved wife
>>3879388Love the affection mechanic to get extra emails from them. Gifting them multiple scrolls was the best and fastest way to increase affection.
>>3879542on my second playthrough (never beat the final bonus dungeon on the first one) I just waited and answered all the emails on Quarantine and instant max for everyone but i loved the chain emails too
>>3879365It only took them like 20 years, it's scary how close these are though>>3879427>>3879542what affection level do i need for Gardenia to send lewds?
>>3879388I liked Sanjuro, he was actually pretty chill as a guy.I mean I used all of them, but If I was just picking Randos to come with me, it was some combination of him, Gardenia, BlackRose, and Piros
>>3879846Piros is an all-time worst JRPG character especially with his background music in the fields
>>3879854You take that back you charlatan.
>>3879867PIROPIROPIROSHI-SAAAAN
>>3879854https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUf3ZY9aNfI
>>3879427when blackrose and ryoko were fighting over dart i was like both you bitches are coming second
>>3879854Haha you know his music overrides the Skeith fight? haha
>>3879846>Sanjuro irl is a teacher who does japanese language club stuff after school>primarily teaches kids by watching old samurai movies>tfw there are kids in the .hack universe that reside in South Dakota that talk like old bushido style Japanese, thanks to this guyWholesome and hilarious
>>3879997In another world we could have had Piros theme memes instead of Trombe.
Compare to the other phase bosses (1-3) and Cubia this wasn't so bad, though it did eat through my HP pots, the deduff to elements he casts sometimes annoying(rip Blackrose for dying so much) but not difficult. Overall difficulty so far, the game is getting alittle harder per se with needing to invest more money into HP pots and SP souls or scrolls with are character's hp and sp pools being so high I can't heal with just healing drinks of anymore meaning loot after diving into a dungeon is pretty much vendored to cash unless useful. Inventory space is becoming a problem holding multiple weapons or magic scrolls for max potential damage, so now I either give all my magic scrolls to my wavemaster party members or sell them. Mods are getting tougher with mixed status effects and damage types, I now fear a pack of Deadly Presents more than any single monster in the game, seeing them confuse my party members and myself to kill each other leaving me alone and I can't do shit about it because they just keep recasting it after I just go done removing it lol.
>>3879829Hey I recognize that game.
>>3879846>>3879854>>3879867>>3879873
>Playing Infection>make it to the end chest in dungeon>still 1 more room I haven't cleared>enemy portal with 3 monsters that can cast sleep + 1 monster that can cast confuse>no other portal had this combination of monsters thrown at you>fucking game overI like(hate) how this game has dungeons that truly hate the player.
>>3881105yeah those are trap rooms, don't go into those rooms, they are meant to party wipe or waste time from a lack of a curative resource in your inventory more than how much damage they really do. When you use the Fairy orbs to check the dungeon's layout always keep an eye for thoses when you look for downstairs first, they are usually the huge looking mini boss rooms you don't have to go in.
>>3881105>>3881117They do feel like a waste of time but if you wanna fill out your Ryu book you definitely wanna clear the whole field+dungeon as often as possible.
These games are a big source of FOMO for me, since I've never actually finished all of them. As a kid I only played the first one, and much later I gave up after starting the 4th. They're just absurdly repetitive. Great atmosphere that makes you forget about the flaws years later.Probably one of the best cases for something that could actually benefit from a remake that I can think of. Just watch Sign (or better yet, just listen to the Sign OST) instead.
>>3881150Call me crazy but I like the repetitiveness of these games. Kind of reminds me of old school dungeon crawlers if it was a 3D action rpg and didn't have shitty menu navigating for everything in combat(I guess it'd be the same if you think about it). Gameplay is simple and basic enough to just turn your brain off and tread dungeons all day. Games like this are probably best played on a handheld where repetitiveness and grinding don't feel as bad.
>>3881161I kind of agree, on both points. The repetitiveness is fine if it's something you enjoy. I think I started the 4th game and was getting some virus cores and doing a grunty race and thought to myself "what the fuck am I doing with my time?" when I gave up last time. I'm sure I've tolerated much worse for games that just happened to have better combat. The dungeon generation in those games is actually pretty neat.
>>3881163>and was getting some virus cores and doing a grunty race and thought to myself "what the fuck am I doing with my time?" when I gave up last time.Oh yeah, wasn't thinking about the virus core hunting. That too does bring the game down a bit. Glad I know a bit about actual code hacking. Game is fun when you can use real codes.
Alright you guys convinced me to give this series a try.
>>3881179Give it a go, I would post gameplay webms but this site has retarded ass size limits that I can't seem to fit them under.
>>3881179You can fight dragons
>>3881179if you like the idea of a jrpg with mmo skin over it with a decent story that puts SAO to shame a decade before it, pretty good
>>3881280>a decade before itSAO was written in like 2002.
>>3881179If you arent opposed to reading made up message forums/news articles the game can really suck you in with its setting, at least that's what kept me playing
>>3881282Iv heard this before, they were written around the same time but dothack made it to an anime and game long before anyone even knew, I knew dohack long before i knew SAO in 2012
>>3881285Yeah the dude who wrote SAO did it when he was like 18 or something. He's written other stuff since that's actually decent, but no one gives a fuck about it. I feel kinda bad for him since he's forced to churn out constant SAO slop to pay the bills.
>>3878321Skeith felt like an actual foreign threat. He 'played differently' from the rest of the fights.Did you know every IMOQ game was 1 gig? This includes a trash folder which only exists to pad space enough to pass Sony's quality control.Also, hey butt-rice.
>>3878321I rented IMOQ and beat it several times thanks to a rental shop back in the day Grinding gate keys was what made friends drop the game. I don't blame anyone for dropping it. IMOQ had excellent atmosphere, like finding arks in a desert or mercury-like statues of men vomiting.I think I'm at the end of GU part 2. I like the GU series more. Fishing for Rengekis is great especially in overleveled areas and the guild politics/gaslighting/furry bullying/angst induction/weird attachment issues works a lot better in terms of online formality. I like Kite as a soccer chad, but Haseo had a perspective that defined the games. It wasn't one mystery set on you, but a game full of people finding a reason to play and interact in the first place. It goes a bit more into speculative tech sociology.GU also has more shit actually happening per-game, which is a big bonus.
>>3870897Imagine if Yuki Kajiura did the OSTOST was good but Sign was better
>>3882275Technically Yuki Kajiura's music did get to be in a .hack game.
>>3882275She had better things to do at the time. No one in their right mind would choose .hack over Gundam.
>>3870897I remember I played the first one ages ago but wasnt very impressed and not sure If I want to go back.But in case I do:Does the save carry over the name of the protag? I like naming my characters so Id like the game respect the name I chose.Does each game act like each game is self contained? I dont want to replay the first game and would be cool if all versions had tutorials since its been ages.Its the entire 4 games self contained? I dont plan to play the Haseo games but I know the protag of these games seems related.
>>3882399If you aren't willing to replay the 1st one then you honestly shouldn't even bother. The biggest selling point for these games is the atmosphere and you'll be missing out on a good chunk of it if you don't go through it all in one go.To answer your questions:Yes his name even carries over to GUNoMostly. GU is set like 10 years after IMOQ but several of the characters from the original make appearances. Haseo himself is in both IMOQ and the Sign anime under a different name. Sora
>>3882405It was certainly a bold move to make that character a protagonist
>>3882405How long is each game?I wouldn't mind replaying the game if its short.Like 25 hours.
Man I just started GU, but now thinking I should have started with Infection.Will playing the second series ruin the first for me?
>>3882500You still can play GU first. The references are not that big of a deal to know about and you can treat IMOQ as a prequel.
>>3882500No not at all, and I'd say go ahead and watch the Terminal Disc videos from the title screen, they're a pretty neat plot summary of //IMOQ's story so you get all the references in //GU. You can always play //IMOQ after.
>>3882461If you know which virus cores to grind in advance/maxing out the ryu books+side stuff it's like 15 hrs per game
>>3882598>>3882461aren't maxing the ryu books+ side stuff*
>>3882535Thanks Butt Rice
>>3882600Yeah but like the art is cool so you want it
>>3882671Anyt--STOP CALLING ME THAT IT'S OHM RICE LIKE OMURICE
>>3882673Did it for 1 game and that was enough, really drags each game out which is understandable given the window for each game and how short each game is. If you just wanted to do the story you can almost ignore them entirely and get the art online.
How the fuck did they fumble so hard at making a real The World MMO
>>3882687I found it pretty chill. Most of what you need happens naturally, and then whenever I got to the end of the game I’d have to just do a map clear or two and then rush the wells (?)(i forget what they’re called you know what I mean) a couple times using the same keyword that I knew had one. And as I said, i really liked getting the art and music for customizing the homescreen
>>3882690MMOs are both hard to make and expensive to maintain.
>>3882690It's not that surprising. The actual MMO in the game is pretty basic. The plot is always about evil viruses or whatever
>>3882771>The actual MMO in the game is pretty basicHonestly after playing a lot of modern mmos, a basic mmos like the original .hack games feels like a breath of fresh air. Modern MMOs shoot themselves in the foot trying to pander to all the single player bullshit like dailies and weeklies nonsense.
>>3882850It definitely reflects a time where MMOs were more like chatrooms with background RPG mechanics than whatever the hell they are now
>>3882850>>3882852It reminds me a LOT of PSO with the area and dungeon layouts being just slight remixes of a single basic theme.
>>3871095yeah but trying for head on aol messenger, shitposting on totse, and pirating drowning pool on kazaa wouldn't make a very compelling gameplay loop.
>>3881293>Skeith felt like an actual foreign threat. nta but this is true until you start fighting more bosses and realize he was only hard because as a player you aren't used to fighting bosses and most encounters in the menus yet, that changes pretty much as you go through the games after infection, some bosses add more layers to figure out, but it pretty much boils down to menuing in boss fights.>He 'played differently' from the rest of the fightsnot really
>>3882275I think it would have been a waste of her talents desu her music works for anime i don't think it works here since most of the music is just mood setting.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r8OPAvHmQ8&list=PLD-w-ork8gvSf69qMOW9n00qXeWdDD1sp&index=1
>>3882275she has one song in the 4th game Yasashii Yoake reused from dothacksign
>>3883114she did xenosaga 2 and outdid Yasunori Mitsuda, also SAO is way more of a waste of her time than continuing
>>3882500Here againHaving fun with the game so far, just got past the Avatar tutorial quest. However, I only have one special attack for the greatswords and only two for the dual blades, am I supposed to be doing something else to get new ones or is the progression just that slow? I feel like by level 32 I should have more buttons to press than Tiger Blitz.Also, that's another issue. I seem to be completely overleveled just from doing a couple of side quests that the game pushed on me itself. Like, massively overleveled, nothing stands a chance. I have gone back to the lower level dual blades just to stretch out some fights. But I don't want to miss out on the side stuff either. Are these issues with the game pacing or am I doing something wrong?
>>3883116>Yuki Kaijura for composer>Chiaki Ishikawa for cocalsNo wonder it was heaven to my ears.
>>3883603nah, the xp curve makes the game ridiculously easy
>>3883603I'd hit up Corporal Yano and (I think?) Henako for their skill books. The way skill levels increase is very slow especially in the remaster because of increased exp gain, which ironically means you'll get less skill exp because you're levelling up a bit faster.
>>3883603GU's level scaling is super fucked. If you're 1 level under what the game expects you'll hit bosses for 1 damage, but if you're 1 level above you'll tear through them in seconds.
>>3883606That's what See-Saw was
The design style of these games always reminded me of the Zoids characters
>>3884141Tadashi Sakatsuki probably took inspiration from Sadamoto.
>Playing several missions in a row in GU>Run into a random PKer wanted fucker like 15 levels above me, completely wrecked me, no chance of winning.>would you like to try again?>no, obviously>Game Over>.... realize the remaster doesn't have any kind of autosave like every game and remaster for the last 20 years>lose at least 2 hours of progressI know I only have myself to blame, but I also want to spread that blame to the industry training me to rely on autosaves and checkpoints for half my life now.
>>3884326I always leave those arenas for near the end of each volume specifically because I'm scared of stuff like that happening lol
>>3870897OP here, Outbreak is beat and by far probably the most easy final boss so far,The twins didn't really have any new mechanics besides one being immune to magic but I just had melee party members anyway(Blackrose and Piros), once the one fell it was gg for a data drain, it didn't really feel like a final boss for the game honestly,I was even under leveled so I was expecting to die and try again but that didn’t happen. Also probably one of the shorter games of the 3 so far at like 19 hours taking my time, anyone else would probably do it in like 15 hours. Outbreak is so short in playtime I would have thought it would have been split between Infection and Mutation and not exist but story wise it makes sense to have all 3 so far. All that’s left for me in Outbreak is to fight the bonus boss if there is one, maybe finish up some party member quests I left, but Quarantine awaits.
>>3884365I just finished Infection myself and taking my time finishing all the side stuff before moving on to part 2. Kind of wish I remembered to save all those temp element boosters items for trades. Skeith nearly burn through all my items.
>>3884365Yeah they could have ended Outbreak with the 6th if they'd wanted to, but I understand why they didn't.
>>3884397Elemental defense boosts and stat potions become kinda important in later in specific boss fighters boss fights like this >>3880559. I'd say stock up stat pots,big HP potions, mage souls and resurrects when the time comes and save those elemental defense boosts, though they aren't necessary, often your party members die anyway so they lose the boost it's more for you.
Just finished Rebirth, is there anything good to get or do in Vol 1 before I transfer over to Reminisce?
>>3884445Beat the doppelganger. I think you only have to beat him once in volume 1 and twice in volume 2. Also do the post-game boss, Cernnunos I think. It's part of a quest chain from the forums.Maybe stock up on Beginner's Books/Texts if you want to boost your skill levels once you unlock your next job change.That's it. Unless you want 100% then you could finish all the events like flyers and kicking all the animals but I don't think it's worth it.
>>3884445this is the hack//IMOQ thread
>>3882416>boldnta but it makes no sense and comes out of nowhere, him appearing ingame is like a fan service for those who watched sign, even Mimiru appears and refers to Bear, but it's like again a fan service moment to connect the anime, Haseo being the same player here seems like a cheap string.
>>3884473It worked fine because GU is literally about him growing up from his retarded edgelord persona, but I don't remember a ton of reference to it outside the joke scenes you can watch
>>3884473Remember that .hack was first and foremost a multimedia franchise. Sign ends with Aura waking up and being chased by Skeith which leads directly into Infection. Its honestly surprising that there weren't more references to the anime in there.
>>3884473>>3884478Not to mention Sakaki is a parallel to Haseo.A manipulative genius 10 year old using a ninja/samurai character with long green hair that gets involved with powers beyond his reckoning and suffers because of it. Haseo witnessing that 3rd person demonstrates his growth.
Behold, the greatest OS that ever lived! Microsoft, Linux, and Apple all kneel to the greatness of ALTIMIT! >"b-but I need to multitask"NO YOU DO NOT! ONE PROGRAM RUNNING AT NEAR INFINITE FPS IS ALL YOU NEED!>"b-b-but what about anti-virus program"FUCKING BLOATWARE, VIRUSES CAN'T RUN IF YOU CAN ONLY RUN 1 PIECE OF SOFTWARE AT A TIME! >"but Pluto's Kiss"MORE LIKE PLUTO KISS MY ASS!! MICROSOFT WENT UNDER, STEVE JOBS HUNG HIMSELF AND LINUX IS A BROKEN PIECE OF SHIT. ALL FAILED WHILE ALTIMIT SURVIVED THAT SHIT!
>>3884882In all seriousness i would kill for an operating system with this uiWhy cant real things be designed by artists
>>3884882Is probably better than windows these days
>>3884882>OS that has its own theme music when you start up on loopbased?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsEWZMZStuIMicrosuck could not compete
>>3884365>Quarantine awaits.Ok Quarantine for me so far, I powered leveled to lvl 82 really fast by killing lvl 90 monsters on a random map for like 500exp each kill while I was lvl 70 using Piros and Ryoko(Heavyaxes ftw).it's like fighting minibosses in the open field, this is the last game in this series so level 99 here we come. Mobs in Quarantine at higher levels are pretty brutal with status spammer and groups of magic casting monsters with the addition of one fuck huge monster to fight with physical or magic tolerance, rare element that you the player probably don't cover with your weapons so you'll have to rely on your party members and pray you put that piece of gear on them that has the element you need and they spam status on top of all of that while dumping nukes on you,so that's fun.
In GU, Is there a way to see all the email responses from characters when you choose certain questions? Like can you send another of the same greeting card and choose different options?
>>3885346No. You'll have to save scum, play the game again, or just look up all the response.
Cubia in IMOQ: goated, cool, essential, on themeCubia in G.U.: garbage extra addition at the end, wasn't anywhere near as cool
>>3885663nah I don't agree with that at all.The entire time in //GU I was wondering when he was going to show up.
>>3885663Also the core is literally a penis.
>>3884473>even Mimiru appears and refers to Bear,you can find Mimiru and Bear in the first town sometimes in the Quarantine like any other NPC running around too.
>>3885926Wasn't there some location code to do some Easter egg thing with them in infection too? It's been too long for me to remember any of the details
>>3885828Peak design.
>>3885963Gotta get that Persona audience
Cubia is great in any iteration. In //IMOQ he was the slow killer that kept getting stronger the more Kite data drained and in //G.U he stayed in the back of the player's mind as history repeats itself but he doesn't show, then just as the player thinks Cubia won't show up, he does.
>harasses my bro Piros>gets the digicovoid>suffers memory loss>turns into a boss>gets beat by Piros in the party>dies>goodbye elk-kun x_x Good riddance fuck this character she wasn't even worth giving gear to in the end kek
>>3886846And that's how Elk became the only gay romance option in GU.
>>3886991are you serious?>wiki itkek
>>3886991Elk always looked like a pallet swap of Tsukasa who is just a girl playing a guy, so I always just saw that option as the weird fujo choice
>>3886846>she wasn't even worth giving gear to case and point, even giving gear to Mistral who sits out the end of the game is worth more over Mia.
DAWG are you fucking kidding me...
