.hack

Gonna be without Internet for a few weeks so I'm stocking up on ISOS. Are the original 4 .hacks worth playing or would it be better to go straight to .hack//gu? Im under the impression that the first four are huge grinds of generally the same dungeon with bits of story and bosses sprinkled in every so often and that //gu is a far better series

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boards.fireden.net/v/thread/351585826/
youtube.com/watch?v=uniJ9UBhR9s
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The first four games suck ass and are repetitive as hell but it's all Deepest Lore, so you might be pretty lost if you dont play the first four.

The GU series is much better, but its a really expansive universe you might not understand without the first games. And even if you do play them, its still confusing as hell.

i have great personal love for the original quadrilogy, but i do remember a fair amount of grinding.

Isn't there some sort of recap video for each game? I suppose I should judt give infection a shot and if I hate it get some story recaps and go to //gu

I enjoyed the games but I played them when I was pretty young.

This is an unfortunate side effect as some of the stories for the characters made em feel not as npc like. Never could get into the GU

Games have great atmosphere, characters, immersion, etc. but the gameplay just sucks. If you can slog through it it can be a pretty special experience.

Be sure to also torrent the liminality and SIGN animes too, they fold into the plot

This.

Forget liminality and SIGN though, the animes fucking sucked.

If you are going to play the first 4 you have to do it before gu. gu has a lot of quality of life improvements and it is hard to go back to the original

People who tell you the first four are "boring and repetitive" are idiots

It's literally 3D diablo 2 with vertical progression and a badass story, that's all, the games are great, the things that made it great were lost in GU because they slowed it down into a faux action game, you'll understand when you play them now especially because the better graphics of GU aren't remarkable anymore

youtube Dot Hack GU Terminal Disc, it came with the first copy of G.U. and pretty much covers the events of what happened in the first series

>torrent the liminality

not OP but already doing SIGN
I've looked for a subbed version of Liminality because the dubbing sucks ass, but it's easily find-able through stream

dear god play IMOQ before GU.

This.

I enjoyed the mystery and characters in the original series but they story and gameplay in GU is miles better--plus it feels way more immersive.

Shit I'd love to play these again but I don't have any of the disks any more. Come to think of it, I never played the final games from either set of games.

Whats the torrent/emulation situation on PS2 games like these days? I'm so out of the loop.

IMOQ is god tier level of writing and themes, GU has a shitty power rangers plot filled with otaku pandering and anime tropes, and the speeding lootbox smackdown that made IMOQ's gameplay amazing is completely lost in GU's abysmally slower pace, GU is a great Diablo substitute, but GU is a terrible action game substitute

I've made a lot of my friends play .hack over the years and I've found out that the best way for a person to first play G.U. due to the improved gameplay,mechanics, main story and graphics. The World and it's folklore is more streamlined in G.U. and ties itself more strongly to the narrative.

If you really like G.U., THEN check the original ones. It takes a lot of getting used to the graphics and gameplay, but the world is FAR more fleshed out and amazing, the atmosphere is beyond great and the characters, while more childlike, have a lot more depth to them. Plus I found that playing kite AFTER seeing him only in his Azure Form surprised people wayyy more than it did to me that I played them in order. For my friends it was like playing Big Boss in MGS3

makes me wish the original 4 were remade for the next generation consoles and even PC (because Cyberconnect2 did it with Naruto)

I feel like they can't really follow up after G.U. and they should leave the franchise as is before the attrociety of LINK happens again, but just remaking IMOQ would be so amazing. Great cast and story and atmosphere being better captured and better gameplay mechanics for the PS4/5/PC

Just please save us the trouble and put your remakes in 2 parts only.

I can only dream

No way dude, playing IMOQ first gives GU a lot of context. Plus going to the new battle system in GU is refreshing, I can't imagine it would be easy to go back to IMOQ's battle system.

boards.fireden.net/v/thread/351585826/

hope this helps
tl;dr find yourself a ps2 and mod it, fat is preferable but slim is fine too, and either burn or download the iso files through whatever means

and for the user that wanted a torrent to SIGN since the anime does tie in with part 3 and 4 of the first 4 games here's a magnet link

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:c35f8cbab8f0bafb820b42d540f97feb3155b116&dn=%5bBluDragon%5d%20Dot%20Hack%20Sign%20%5bR1%2c%20x264%2c%20Dual%20Audio%5d&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3a80%2fannounce&tr=http%3a%2f%2fopen.nyaatorrents.info%3a6544%2fannounce

They were fine if you don't have the attention span of an adhd-ridden child.

A fantastic stand-in for hack-n-slash games like Diablo/Torchlight/Path of Exile, but it doesn't seem that way at first. The gameplay style stands on its own just fine, but it has an added layer of depth by basically having a built-in gameshark cheat device that you HAVE to use to beat the game in certain areas, and can use to explore the game in other areas (warping into locked areas, spawning rare loot that can't be found anywhere else, defeating literally Missingno. bosses that have infinite HP)

GU is okay, but the plot is shit. You can tell IMOQ is a cross between the weird religion/mythology basis of Evangelion with the existential head-fuckery of Serial Experiments Lain with the badass robot/cyborg action of Ghost in the Shell, but rarely does it resort to tropes and predictable plot, instead going for a sort of weird cyber-detective idea

GU is fucking filled with terrible anime tropes and people that seem to have zero understanding of MMORPGs. Perfect example of this is in the Sign anime (which is part of the IMOQ series) one of the main characters complains when she is PK'd (player killed) because she lost all of her XP.

In GU a character screams in terror when they die because they are SO AFRAID which makes NO FUCKING SENSE because ITS A GAME RETARDS. People don't scream bloody murder. Jesus.

IMOQ also plays really really fucking fast when you know what you are doing, and you basically go into a trance of grinding when playing it, but its addictive and rewarding, again like the loot pinata games such as Diablo (its more like Diablo II than anything else). GU fucks it all up because it slows down the gameplay to try to seem like ITS AN ACTION GAME GUUUUUYS when its a fucking terrible action game when you compare it to real action games of its day like God of War or Ninja Gaiden, and GU gets rid of the freaky data altering/cheating device aspect of the entire game, and instead opts for some shallow zone of the enders eque bosses

>grind trance
Yeah, it kinda is easier to get into it with IMOQ compared to other RPGs. I think it's because of how seamlessly combat starts and ends.

I feel fortunate I bought all seven .hack games right before they got expensive. I traveled all over my state to get them, felt like hunting down the Dragon Balls. It was worth it.

IMOQ is good in terms of story and atmosphere, but the gameplay is a drag.

G.U is good overall, but play IMOQ before it.

Don't listen to the shallow idiots, play Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine first. The story is in a league of its own and is probably the most original plot to any game ever. It touches on lots of really deep shit while playing as a really fast hack and slash with shit tons of loot that can move at mach-10 when you git gud. It's exhilerating to become so good at the game you move through dungeons in literally 3 minutes, and slay 2 bosses and at the end get phat lootz. But there's more to it than that, because the game is "layered" with exploration that only someone who plays games can understand fully. It's akin to finding glitches in Ocarina of Time and exploring how they change things, except you NEED to do this to overcome quite literally impossible odds to win.

GU just ruins it because it gets rid of all the interesting aspects for what amounts to a charge attack and a block button. What was gained was nothing compared to what was lost in the sequel series. It's pathetic when you realize this, which is very easy going in now because you won't be blown away by the better graphics of GU.

>the one Diablo autist from before samefagging to keep people from playing G.U
The IP count isn't even going up, why are you bothering pretending like you aren't?

Im jealous, I always wanted all of them once they came out but I didn't have a PS2 until part 2 of GU was out, and by then IMOQ were expensive as fuck so I never could get into the series
But hopefully I'll do that soon as well as with Drakengard and other PS2 gems

not him but I understand where he's coming from
if you're going to get into GU you would have a better appreciation if you played the first 4
And even the first 4, from what I hear and assume, seem atmospheric as hell

It's like watching the new Mad Max movie without having seen the Mel Gibson ones, or watching the new Star Wars movie without seeing the original trilogy.It's like watching Once Upon a Time in the West without having seen the Man With No Name trilogy. Sure they're good and stand out on their own, but why so impatient to jump to the more recent accessible stuff. Older things deserve attention too and they also stand well on their own (well only the things I named to my subjective opinion)

>if you're going to get into GU you would have a better appreciation if you played the first 4
I'm not denying that, in fact I agree on that point. The difference is that he just makes out GU to be complete shit and makes it seem like it's not part of the canon or something because he doesn't like it. It gets really ridiculous, especially when you can see how hard he samefags just for that purpose.

.hack is an amazing experience to follow, depraving someone from that joy because of some dumbass bias towards IMOQs is retarded, especially since it's universally seen as one of the major gripes with the games.

there's a -lot- of people who say that .hack is a lot like diablo, its mentioned in like every thread about them

Comparing it to Diablo isn't the issue, it's that there's one guy who enters threads just to shit on GU and praises IMOQ as having some sort of amazing combat system due to it having similarities to Diablo. Not only that but he generally tries to encourage averting yourself from the series after IMOQ because of GU not being a "true sequel" or whatever. It gets obnoxious as fuck, especially when GU is one of the few continuations of a franchises I've seen that actually has proper respect for its predecessor without jerking it off frantically like others tend to.

With the .hacks

I highly suggest buying the latest you can find versions of Gameshark, Code Breaker, Action Replay, and Game Genie for PS2. There's a variety of codes that make the game 100x enjoyable and if you're in it for the long haul/story then using codes is the best option for you.

Trust me bro, the entire series is worth the price. I loved playing it and still do. :)

Maybe it's because quite a few people felt that GU was a self-defeating shit show? Instead of improving what made the original great, they just added a bunch of stupid bullshit to bloat it to fool you into thinking it was an upgrade, when actually the core mechanics were downgraded.

Not even the user you are talking about either.

I liked all the games, but they took so much of my time that it took more than a few weeks to get through all of them.

Doesn't mean they're bad, I liked them a lot. Now, I wish Sony had actually built a solid PS2. I've lost 3 of these things due to disc read errors over the last decade and a half, plus my blue seethrough ps2 controller kicked the bucket very recently too.

>gameshark

Can you elaborate on this, do I really need a gameshark? Do I have to use it in the game and is it included in the game like that one user said?
Or are you both on about two completely different things
Im just wondering since Im emulating it on a console if I'll have to run the extra mile to also put in a gameshark

The combat mechanics of IMOQ were fucking panned hard and still generally are, while one of the appeals of GU that you'll get by virtually any reviewing site or whatever the fuck you take as credible lists the combat as an improvement over IMOQ.

IMOQ was a fucking drag to play as a game. The story and atmosphere were amazing and the main reason to stick with it, but the gameplay itself had little to no appeal, and was vastly improved in terms of pacing and really everything in GU.

The game basically has a built in "cheat device" that you have to use to clear certain things, and can be used to benefit you with powerful items and money and stuff, but you have to be careful when using it often because its "extracting" the viral infection from the game, and if you allow too much of it to accumulate it can have adverse affects, such as leveling you down, or causing a gameover

youtube.com/watch?v=uniJ9UBhR9s

IMOQ hit all the right spots for me with it's creepy urban legend stuff. Like creepy pasta, before they even existed.

I remember the first four games fondly, but could never bring myself to get into the G.U. series. It seemed such a wild departure from everything I knew about the series based on the previous games and the anime. It felt like the Valkyria Chronicles 2 of the franchise, especially when I looked at the main character designs, the cutscenes, etc.

I loved the cutscenes. The movements of the characters were very dramatic during fights. I can see early Asura's Wrath-esque punches and such in GU.

That's exactly what bothered me. I love my cuhrayzee, just not in my .hack.

Why are people fighting over which saga is the best and talking shit like one of them is horrible and telling OP not to play it??? Both are amazing and complement each other really well. The only reason people are telling OP to start with G.U. is because it's more friendly towards new modern players, not because it's better than IMOQ.

What if I watch the anime to grasp the story and only play GU? Is that alright?

The anime is not based on the games, but a side along story in the same universe and is a prequel to the games. You're best off watching a lestplay or a collection of the cutscenes.

The very first reply shit on the IMOQ games.

I disagree, I don't think either of them are "inaccessible" or anything like that to new players. They're pretty rudimentary.

The original 4 are better games, and //G.U. is an alternate universe

IMOQ is a game who's story is focused around the mystery, while the side activities in the game reveal more about the characters, the games main focus is "What has happened to Yasuhiko, why are people falling into Coma's, and what can we do to save them before Zero hours?"

GU is, as its subtitle basically says a story about the characters and about "Growing Up" It features a protagonist who was previously a character in SIGN. It shows older characters in the series and how fucked their lives have become, and the focus is more on the players and their messed up lives and how they interact with the MMO world, and not so much "What is AIDA, what created it etc." That's the metaplot in the background, but the story is firmly Haseo's story, Atoli's story and it's about them.

IMOQ isn't about Kite, though he's very much apart of it.

I still don't know why any of these are still not available on PSN?

Now that I'm hearing it. I agree, .Hack IMOQ is very Diablo-like. Must've been why I was so into it when I was a young lad since I remember being very into Diablo 1 and 2 around the same time too.
Also Blackrose is best DotHacker.

>implying the main focus of IMOQ isn't all about Kite growing his massive harem

Why is .hack quarantine so expensive?

FUCKING JUST GIVE ME A VR VERSION WITH SLIGHTLY HD-IFIED GRAFFIX AND ONLINE CAPABILITY AND CONSTANT EVENTS AND I'LL CUM FUCKING MONEY.

More like 3D Diablo 3 vanilla with an even boring loot system. And with more boring combat.

Honestly I don't see the comparison at all. It just tries to emulate MMOs with a storyline attached.

I really just wish IF THEY EVER FUCKING HD IMOQ that they bring the quick-use spells and skills that's in Fragment for some ease of use.
The constant going in and out of menus to rez, debuff, buff, and heal is really a pain.

>Tfw youngfag and poorfag.
>Salivating over amazon pages of Quarantine for $88+.
>Never touched anything past Outbreak. Brother and I rented Mutation from a Blockbuster.
I'm currently emulating them all again and on Outbreak. But I've been putting it off for a bit since I got kinda burnt out after binging the first three parts.
I also have the Another Birth LNs that I need to catch up in.

>Implying they both don't have massive harems.
They even share some grills.

There's 2 series

Project .hack is basically Sign (anime) IMOQ (first 4 games) and Liminality (4 episode OVA that came with each game)

.hack Conglomerate is basically Roots (anime, awful) and GU (okay-ish but a shit story in comparison to IMOQ)

You don't need to experience Project .hack at all to enjoy Conglomerate or vice versa

It's kind of devisive for a lot of people because a lot of people felt that .hack Conglomerate lost the "avante garde" attitude that made Project .hack really stand out from many other anime/video games of its day, but honestly you can just say that that style was unique to Project and its biggest feature, and that Conglomerate just has its own identity. Even if its littered with predictable anime tropes. If you are okay with tropey anime and a great character development arc, GU is still great.

Also this is a Blackrose post. Not because "waifus" or anything, but because she's a 10/10 bro who is most certainly deserving of Kite's sacred boy-cherry. Just sayin.