Recollection: .Hack GU// Last Recode

So I haven't posted in a while, truth is that I just haven't been really motivated to make a new blog, particularly because I haven't played Pokémon Black for some time and also haven't really finished any new games recently. So as a form of bi-weekly check in I'm going to do some blogs about what I've been playing recently (who could have seen that, eh?), but maybe some other bits and bobs like manga or anime or music, or whatever the hell?

So let's start with today's topic: .HACK GU// Last Recode, specifically Volume 1 and 2. My first thought is, "why did they remaster the sequel series before the original series?" for those who don't know, .Hack got started as a weird hybrid multimedia franchise, in which there was an anime prequel series, followed by four PS2 games (those of which were paired with another anime OVA series) and then a bunch of other spin-offs and stuff to expand the lore, before eventually leading to the sequel series .Hack GU

It's honestly a pretty cool concept to make 5this series have some pretty neat lore stuff and for being invested in the characters and what not. But, as this series kinda quioet down during the late 2000s and early 2010s with no easy access to the original games (minus emulation), jumping to the sequel series to remaster is an odd choice to me. Supposedly, the reason from the devs/publisher was that the sequel series has less gameplay QoL that needed to be implemented to match it up to modern standards. Which just begs to question "Why not do the original series and have it match the quality of the sequel games?"

Oh well, anyways, not that it matters now, there was an announcement not too long ago for a new .hack game, which I'm personally looking forward to.

Now as for my personal history with the series prior to my recent playthrough of .hack GU is fairly minimal. Mainly working through one of the spin-off series (I think it was called Mystery of the Twilight?) + playing Project X Zone, which had characters from the games as playable units. I decided to start playing the game on Switch 2, as I was in the mood of playing an ARPG on Switch, but I was trying to play one that could play at 60 FPS, but it was just non-stop with games having crap performance. Tales of games? 30 Fps cap, Ys Games? Rough 30fps, FFVII Remake games? also 30fps, Kingdom Hearts? Overpriced as fuck.

Eventually, I gave up and settled with .hack GU. Well, actually, I brought Ys 8 originally, but that fell through.

So now to talk about my thoughts on the damn game. So far it's been a fairly cozy ride, like aesthetically speaking. You can tell that this is just a touch-up of a later PS2 game, compared to some other JRPGs on the console like SMT Nocturne or FFX. It's less inspired, but I still enjoy how a lot of the environments look. My only real critique is all the fog during dungeons, I get that it's mainly there to mask performance and having the enemies load in and what not, but even in enclosed environments where there really shouldn't be any fog, just massive blank white sheets just covering your view from like 15 steps in front of your character. It's unfortunate, because other areas in the games like the towns or some story important locations don't have this issue and they look nice, I really like the town you end staying in the second game when your guild gets upgraded.

Something I wasn't a huge fan of is the difficulty, to my knowledge, the remaster really tried to make the game less grindy, which is admirable to be fair, but they didn't compensate by maybe making the enemies a bit more tricky to kill or reduce item drops or something. There was, admittedly, a couple soft caps towards the end of the game with the last handful of bosses, because the vast amount of damage calculation wouldn't be surprising if it was level-based, so I'll be like 3 or 4 levels under the boss and get smoked, but then being 1 or 2 levels over and then I kill them in like 5 hits.

It creates really annoying story moments where I end up defeating the enemies in like 10 seconds. The fight halts and ends up looking like Haseo was jobbing out.

Magic also felt like a pretty needless inclusion. Unlike skills, which is a quick select menu, magic spells is a quick menu. You still need to have to go into your pause menu to make a command and then try to find what you're looking for. Even then, said spells aren't particularly useful. It's shit like "Light Fire damage" magic or "Cure this status ailment." Mind you, you need a certain amount of Not-Devil Trigger to use skills or items, whereas, regular combat skills tend to be way better. You don't need Not-Ripper Mode to use them, it actively builds Not-Umbran Climax meter when executed during an enemy's stun period, and they just flatout do more damage, and you unlock more melee skills by constantly using them and strengthening your weapon skill during combat. Spells were clearly designed for the other party members in mind, but even then, I seldom let any magic damage party members tag along if I can help it, it's far more useful to bring a healer and another physical attacker.

One aspect that I liked in theory was how you can back out from the in-game game, and onto the in-game OS. I like it in theory because it is just nice to take a break from the action, and it offers some really neat in-universe world building, you can check both an official and unofficial versions of like forums or rumors boards, you can check emails, and in the second game, a feature that was blocked off in the first entry becomes available and you can play an auto-deck battler in the background while you go and do quests. Even stuff like being able to change the wallpaper or the music that plays while you're on the OS, it's some real cozy shit. My only issue is that the game really kicks you out of the main gameplay loop too often, I'm fine when it's every once in awhile, but I swear it's like you do like one main mission, and then you need to log out, read one singular email, before jumping back in to continue the game. Just kinda pacebreaking.

If I'm being honest with myself, reading this review back to myself, I haven't been particular positive, have I? A bit of behind the curtains for this review, I actually started writing this piece some time ago, about a month and a half I want to say. At the time, I'd gladly would have said I enjoyed my time with the games, and even now, I would like to jump back into Last Recode and at least finish Volume 3. But I think the biggest issue with the games, is that they're just kinda mechanically repetitive, you do unlock new weapon types and skills throughout the games, and your progress carries over between entries, which I fucking awesome, I love it when games do that, I find it really lame in some other series where your progress resets for no reason even though by the end of the first game, you should at least be stronger than you are now. But the actual combat itself, it's just a button masher but not even a particularly entertaining one if that makes sense? Story and character wise, look, I will be upfront, I did really try with these two games, my friends know that I have quite a bit of a negative opinion on stories and writing in video games, my whole philosophy essentially being John Carmack's "Story in games is like a story in porn" statement and the whole "Most video game stories would get laughed out of cinemas and libraries" but with this game, I did try to pay attention but after awhile, I just kinda resented like all the characters and the story eventually just turning into "doing plot twists and deaths for the sake of having them" which is just a cheap and shit way of trying to make your story seem more important than it really is. By the time I hit halfway through the second game, I just threw my hands up and went "fuck this, none of this shit matters and the writers were probably huffing paint and their own farts."

>s-so did you like the game?

I guess it did kinda do the trick of giving me an ARPG to play on the switch, but I think you're better off with some other options out there, especially nowadays, I would recommend checking out really any of the Ys games or Xenoblade (though you don't really do much "action" in those games.) But it goes on sale for pretty cheap, I picked up my copy on the eShop for like 13AUD which is a decent price for what you're getting. I think if you can stomach repetition and a pretty mid story, you'll more than likely enjoy .Hack for it's charms and just being a light and easy going dungeon crawling action game.