.hack//G.U.

.hack//G.U. is a series of single-player action role-playing games for the PlayStation 2, developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai Namco Games. The series contains three games: .hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth (再誕, Saitan, lit. "Resurrection"), .hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce (君思う声, Kimi Omou Koe, lit. "The Voice that Thinks of You") and .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption (歩くような速さで, Aruku you na Hayasa de, lit. "At a Walking Pace"). As in the previous .hack games, .hack//G.U. simulates a massively multiplayer online role-playing game as the player controls a character who starts playing it.

The story focuses on a player named Haseo who hunts a player nicknamed Tri-Edge who defeated his friend Shino and left her in a coma in real life. Haseo comes into contact with other players who know of Tri-Edge and wish to stop him. The reason for Shino and several other players falling into a coma is connected with AIDA, a mysterious computer anomaly that infects the characters. During the release of the games in Japan, Bee Train produced an anime titled .hack//Roots that tells Haseo's first days in The World. The series has also been adapted into a manga, a light novel and a CGI film.

Critical reception to the games has been lukewarm with reviewers commenting on how the developers dealt with the issues regarding the previous .hack games and the execution of the storyline across the three titles. The first game got higher scores, critics praised the addition of new gameplay features while parts from the story have been labeled as fillers.

Gameplay

The player's party, consisting of Haseo, Endrance, and Kuhn, is battling Sirius, another player. The pink color of Sirius' target box indicates that a Rengeki may be performed on him.

.hack//G.U. simulates a massively multiplayer online role-playing game; players assume the role of a participant in a fictional game called The World. While in The World, the player controls the on-screen player character, Haseo, from a third-person person perspective (with optional first-person mode).^[1] The player may control the camera using the game controller's right analog stick. Within the fictional game, players explore monster-infested fields and dungeons as well as "Root Towns" that are free of combat. They also can "log-off" from the game and return to a computer desktop interface which includes in-game e-mail, news, and message boards, as well as desktop and background music customization options.^[2] In Reminisce, an optional card game called "Crimson VS" becomes available. The player may save the game to a memory card both from the desktop and within The World at a Save Shop. After the player completes the game, a Data Flag appears on the save file, which allows the transfer of all aspects of the player character and party members to the next game in the series. This can also be applied to previous games if the player first finished the Reminisce or Redemption.^[3]

Players can attack monsters in real time. However, the action pauses whenever the menu is opened in order to select magic to cast, items to use, or skills to perform. The player only directly controls Haseo, while the other characters are controlled by artificial intelligence. The player may either provide guidelines ("Free Will", "Rage", "Life", etc.) or issue direct commands (for example, to cast a particular magic at a particular enemy) to the computer-controlled characters. Monsters roam the environments freely or guard treasure chests. Once combat is initiated, via a "surprise attack" or the player being spotted, a wall erects around the combat area to prevent escape. Weapons give the player access to the Skill Trigger feature which allows them to perform a powerful attack at the cost of losing SPs. As an adept rogue character, Haseo can wield multiple weapons for close combat. Although Haseo can only use one weapon per battle, during Reminisce the player can change weapons in the middle of Skill Triggers. Under certain conditions, the player may execute an enhanced type of Skill Trigger called "Rengeki".^[1] These attacks deal greater damage and fill a Morale gauge, which allows the player and his team members to use a combination attack. Certain plot-related fights, called "Avatar battles", use a different interface which incorporates shoot 'em up gameplay elements. After depleting the opponent's health, players must charge up a "Data Drain" to end the battle.^[2]

Root Towns are non-combat areas in The World. The player may restock on items, buy equipment, or chat and trade with other "players" of The World. The player may also undertake optional quests and visit guilds.^[2] A key feature of all towns is the Chaos Gate. This blue portal is used to travel between towns (called "servers") as well as access the fields and dungeons where battles take place.^[1] A password system controls the characteristics of each area. Depending on the characteristics of each word in the three word phrase, the resulting area may have different attributes such as prevalence of monsters or items, among other features.

Plot

Setting

.hack//G.U. takes place in an alternate version of Earth in the year 2017. As depicted in the first .hack game series, the "2nd Network Crisis" was an incident that occurred seven years ago in which many computer systems across Japan malfunctioned.^[4] Through the efforts of those games' hero, Kite, the incident resulted in the birth of Aura, the ultimate artificial intelligence (AI), capable of making decisions for itself.^[5] Under the guidance of Aura, The World, the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game at the time, flourishes and the events of .hack//Legend of the Twilight occur during this four-year period.^[6]

In late 2014, Aura disappears, resulting in the slow decay of The World and the Internet as a whole. In response, the company that administrates The World, CC Corp, sets up "Project G.U." and tasks them with remedying the problem. They come up with the "Restore Aura (RA) Plan", in which they attempt to retrieve the fragments of Morganna—an AI that served as Aura's "mother"—and seal them into player characters (PCs) of The World.^[7] In theory, this would allow the Project G.U. programmers to manipulate the Morganna program to recreate Aura. Only certain "chosen" players could control these special "Epitaph PCs".^[8]

After locating candidates to operate the Epitaph PCs, the team proceeds to test the RA Plan despite concerns over "anti-existences" that might damage the Internet. The program fails catastrophically and destroys over 80% of the data for The World.^[9] Instead of trying to salvage the data, CC Corp develops The World R:2 and releases it to a new generation of players.^[10] However, this new game is less popular than its predecessor and becomes plagued by "player killers" (PKs), players who target other players for fun and sport. The Epitaph PCs which had been lost during the RA Plan disaster resurface in the new version, attached to certain players of interest.^[11]

Characters

The main characters of the series: (left to right) Endrance, Ovan, Atoli, Yata, Haseo, Pi (above), Bo and Saku, and Kuhn

The main playable character of .hack//G.U. is Haseo, a player of The World whose friend Shino fell into a coma after being attacked by a PK named "Tri-Edge" within the game. As a result, Haseo becomes obsessed with becoming strong enough to defeat Tri-Edge and save Shino—he earns the nickname "Terror of Death" for his relentless hunting of PKs. As an Epitaph PC, Haseo is recruited into the new incarnation of Project G.U., which now handles debugging of The World. Yata, who played a key role in the events of .hack under the name Wiseman, leads Project G.U., while other Epitaph PCs including Kuhn and Pi comprise the rest of the group. Haseo's hostile nature attracts the attention of Atoli, a member of the peace-loving Moon Tree guild, who resolves to befriend him. Haseo is also searching for Ovan, Haseo's and Shino's former guildmaster who disappeared during .hack//Roots under mysterious circumstances.

Story

Vol. 1: Rebirth

The story starts with Haseo who, eight months after starting playing in The World, has become a powerful player killer killer or PKK and searches for Tri-Edge, responsible for killing his friend Shino's character and leaving the player behind her in a coma.^[12] Tri-Edge uses an illegal skill on Haseo, which resets his character data to level one.^[13] Lacking the strength he once had, Haseo is mistaken for a newbie player by Silabus and Gaspard, who invite him to join their guild, Canard, eventually becoming its Guild Master.^[14] During this, he is approached by Kuhn and Pi, two players associated with G.U., a group run by Yata who works for CC Corp, and is investigating AIDA, a bizarre computer anomaly that is appearing in the game. Yata requests Haseo's help as he is an Epitaph User, and is one of the eight players who can use an Avatar, the only vehicle to combat AIDA.^[15] Haseo agrees on the condition that Yata find Tri-Edge for him, which Yata agrees with.

During this time he is repeatedly contacted by Atoli, a gentle healer that tries to convince Haseo to enjoy the game and its world more, though Haseo is annoyed by her resemblance to Shino.^[16] Haseo also watches an arena match between Endrance, Arena Emperor, and a challenger, and is startled to see Endrance, a player he saw with AIDA, use an Avatar. Determined to learn more, he joins the arena and eventually defeats Endrance. After winning, Atoli, on advice from Ovan, finds a Tri-Edge sign, a red carving, and transports to a region outside the normal game parameters, determined to get Haseo to see her as valuable. Realizing she is in great danger, Haseo, Pi, and Kuhn locate her struggling to open a locker. After distracting her, Tri-Edge appears, and is defeated by Haseo. After doing so, an AIDA attacks Atoli's character.

Vol. 2: Reminisce

In Reminisce, Haseo and the G.U. staff find themselves trapped inside the game, physically unable to leave or log out, or remove their hardware. Atoli recovers, but is rendered mute, able to communicate only through instant messages. Yata explains that AIDA has copied The World's server, trapping everyone inside to experiment on them. After cracking into the administrative control area, they transfer everyone back to CC Corp's servers. Shortly afterwards, Haseo is approached by Alkaid, concerned for Sirius, a player infected with AIDA.^[17] They enter into a tournament to fight Sirius, but Alkaid is ambushed by the AIDA-infected player Bordeaux, who leaves her in a coma. After learning that Sakubo is another Epitaph user, Haseo requests Endrance's assistance for the rest of the tournament. They defeat Sirius and purge him of his AIDA infection that contained Atoli's Epitaph.^[18]

With Atoli's Epitaph returning, she also recovers.^[19] However, her superior from the guild Moon Tree, Sakaki, causes Atoli to slide into a depressed fugue, and be used again by AIDA. Sakaki attacks his own guild, Moon Tree, in order to drive Atoli to the point where she will utilize her Avatar to actively support the AIDA infestation in order to control the real world through the Net, using AIDA as a cat's paw. Haseo liberates Atoli, removing her infection, and driving off Sakaki.^[20] Tracking Sakaki, Haseo defeats him after he purposely infects himself with AIDA in a last-ditch effort to gain control of the network.^[21] Following this, Ovan appears and reveals that he is Tri-Edge, infected in his left arm with AIDA.^[22] The enemy that Haseo believed was Tri-Edge was actually Azure Kite, one of three AIs that Aura had created to destroy the AIDAs.^[23]

Vol. 3: Redemption

By Redemption Yata is forcibly removed from the Serpent of Lore by CC Corp Executives and replaced with Sakaki, after promising CC Corp to remove the threat of AIDA against the greater networks. Sakaki forces Haseo into a PK tournament that is corrupted by AIDA. Haseo has no choice but to fight in the tournament and defeat Sakaki. Later, Haseo and the others find Yata who is revealed as the seventh Epitaph user with Ovan being the eighth.

Bo meets Ovan's sister, Aina, which leads Ovan to inviting Haseo to another fight. Haseo goes to the area with G.U. and defeat him. After the battle Ovan uses his Avatar's special ability known as "The Rebirth" and completely resets the Internet and cleanse it of AIDA.^[24] The G.U. members are saved by Zelkova, leader of Moon Tree, who reveals that Ovan's actions caused several comatose players to wake up. The other unconscious player's minds still lie within The World and Yata discovers a creature named Cubia that is trying to devour the game, resulting in the death of all players.^[25]

Haseo uses his Avatar powers to summon the goddess Aura who hints to them that the key to defeating Cubia is the eight Avatars. Since Haseo has defeated all of the others Avatars in battle, he possesses the key to defeat Cubia who starts destroying The World. Haseo requests all the players' help to defeat Cubia's remnants as G.U. and Zelkova locate the main body. Fighting Cubia, Haseo uses all of his Avatar's powers to destroy Cubia and is aided by the mysterious short reappearance of Ovan.

With Cubia destroyed, all the remaining comatose players awake with Haseo meeting Shino once again. Upon meeting her, Shino motivates Haseo to be more honest with his feelings which causes him to pursue Atoli who believed that Haseo would stay with Shino. A new ending is unlocked by passing the Forest of Pain sidequest in which Haseo is conceded the wish of having another conversation with Ovan; he later states Ovan will return.

Development

Development for .hack//G.U. began in October 2002, towards the end of the first .hack series' production cycle, with CyberConnect2's president Hiroshi Matsuyama as director.^[26] It was first announced in June 2004 under the title of "Project G.U." with little information about it.^[27] Rather than making a direct sequel, Cyberconnect2 developed .hack//G.U. as an independent series connected with the first .hack series.^[28] As in the previous games, Matsuyama also appears as a character that the player meets, this time being Piros the 3rd.^[29] CyberConnect2 listened to people's feedback regarding the .hack series when creating .hack//G.U.. As a result, .hack//G.U. was composed of less games than .hack, series that was criticized for being split in four games. The first game's release date was delayed in order to coincide with the start of its manga adaptation and anime series.^[30] Matsuyama has stated that the acronym "G.U." has twelve meanings related to the plot of the games but the central theme is "growing up" in many respects.^[26][31] In order to attract Graphically and technologically, the game is an improvement on the original .hack series. Personally, Haseo grows up as a character, developing his inter-personal skills and his worldliness. As a series, the setting and concept presented in the games are darker and more mature than before.^[31]

In terms of gameplay, .hack//G.U. was made more action-oriented than the first .hack games with Haseo being able to connect combos with other characters from the party.^[28] The interactions between the characters outside The World was expanded to further simulate the idea the player is going through a MMO. This was based on the last game .hack and the .hack//SIGN anime in which the characters' had to leave The World in order to take care of "real life events."^[32] Matsuyama claimed that Rebirth was longer than the four games of the first series combined and that the three .hack//G.U. games would not be "three parts to the same game".^[33] Unlike the previous series where the animated tie-in .hack//Liminality was included as a bonus DVD, the development team opted to integrate the animated story into webisodes available in-game.^[34] Bandai also released a "Terminal Disc" with the special edition of Rebirth, which further expands the franchise's backstory and bridges the gap between the two game series.^[35]

Reception

The series has received a lukewarm reception, but positive sales figures. CyberConnect2 announced that sales of the .hack games exceeded 2.8 million combining both the first .hack series and the .hack//G.U. series.^[39] Patrick Gann of RPGFan recognized the development team's efforts to address the problems of the first .hack series, succeeding in some respects and failing in others.^[40] Like the first series, .hack//G.U. goes to great lengths to preserve the illusion of playing an online game, through in-game message boards and news reports, and Gann found that these elements gave more depth to the future world he was experiencing. He found fault in the formulaic progression between dungeon, checking email to find the next dungeon, but the battle mechanics were a marked improvement over the original series. Although the graphics were "spectacular", Gann criticized the limited and repetitive dungeon designs.^[40]

In his review of Reminisce, Gann noted the relatively good quality of the voice acting, but called the translation script "hit or miss".^[41] Minor changes to the battle system, such as being able to change weapons at any time, made Reminisce's combat more exciting. While Haseo was criticized for his immature personality in the first game, his development in following games has been praised.^[42] He concluded in Redemption that, while not perfect, the three-part format of the series was relatively more worth it than its previous iteration.^[43] Redemption has been praised for its new gameplay featuries although writers lamented that they became available late in the game.^[43][44]

Meghan Sullivan of IGN described the series as an overall improvement over the first series but complained that the Avatar battles were boring and a missed opportunity for a "very cool feature".^[1] She also suggested that the storyline could be streamlined by allowing e-mail access within The World. Despite deriding the "filler" story of Rebirth, Sullivan found Reminisce to be much more enjoyable due to its more mature storyline.^[45] However, she found the new Crimson VS card game to be as "pointless" as the Avatar battles. The overall sentiment conveyed by multiple reviewers was that the new games would appeal to fans of the series, but would have been much better if released as a single game.^[46][47][48]

Music

.hack//G.U. Game Music O.S.T. and .hack//G.U. Game Music O.S.T. 2 are the soundtracks for the .hack//G.U. games. The former contains 62 compositions from Rebirth while the latter contains 58 compositions from Reminisce and Redemption. Both soundtracks come with a third disc with special features, such as game trailers, desktop wallpapers, and voice clips.^[49][50] Chikayo Fukuda composed the music for the series, as well as for the previous set of .hack games. Singer Mitani Tomoyo contributed for the three games by singing each of their main themes.^[3] Patrick Gann of RPGFan commended Fukuda's more mature sound, noting a greater emphasis on vocal tracks than before. He praised the use of piano as a key instrument and found this soundtrack to be more memorable overall.^[49] Gann also appreciated the wide variety of styles from "silly character themes" and "rock-hard battle themes" to "beautiful piano solos".^[50]

The original soundtrack for the film .hack//G.U. Trilogy was released in Japan on March 26, 2008 as .hack//G.U. Trilogy O.S.T. and featured a total of twenty-three themes.^[51]

.hack//G.U. Game O.S.T.

.hack//G.U. Game O.S.T. 2

Related media

As part of a larger multimedia franchise, the games have inspired a variety of subsequent novels, manga, and film. An anime TV series set before the events of .hack//G.U. was produced by Bee Train under the title of .hack//Roots. The series depicts Haseo's first experiences playing The World. It lasted for twenty-six episodes that aired in Japan between April 5 and September 26, 2006. .hack//G.U.+ serves as a manga adaptation of the game's story.^[52] It was published in the .hack//G.U.: The World magazine starting in November 2005 with art by Yuzuka Morita and story by Tatsuya Hamazaki.^[53] It was collected in a total of five tankōbon volumes published by Kadokawa Shoten between June 26, 2006 and March 23, 2009.^[54][55] Tokyopop licensed the series for English publication in June 2007 and released all of its volumes,^[56] from February 12, 2008 to September 1, 2009.^[57][58] Lesley Smith from Newtype wrote ".hack//GU+ is yet another outlet for the story to shine combining a compelling mythology with the manga format."^[52]

A novel series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki and illustrated by Yuzuka Morita of the same name retells the story of the games with slight modifications, such as depicting Epitaphs as weapons instead of physical Avatars and a further exploration Haseo's background who gains a new armor. It is composed of a total of four volumes published by Kadokawa Shoten between April 1, 2007 and August 1, 2008.^[59][60] Tokyopop published the novels in North America between February 10, 2009 and April 26, 2011.^[61][62] Cyberconnect2 also produced .hack//G.U. Trilogy, a computer animated film adaptation of the games that takes numerous liberties with the story. The film was first screened in Japan in a Tokyo theater in December 2007. Bandai Visual later released it in DVD and Blu-ray format on March 25, 2008.^[63] In May 2011, Bandai Entertainment announced that they licensed the film for an English release but only with Japanese audio accompanied by English subtitles on August 18, 2009.^[64][65] Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment, Funimation announced at SDCC 2013, that they have acquired 4 .hack title including G.U. trilogy.^[66] The games' sequel is .hack//Link, a manga series that takes place three years in the future with a new version of The World.

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Official archived website (Japanese)

.hack by CyberConnect2 Video games .hack G.U. Link Anime series Sign episodes Liminality Legend of the Twilight episodes Roots Quantum The Movie Other Characters Haseo List of media Project X Zone Project X Zone 2 Book Category