.hack. The term brings back memories of high school. A game that felt like an MMO minus the internet connection was such an awesome idea. Plus the storyline of players falling into comas after playing these games was such a cool concept at the time. Without getting into too many details (I plan to reply this series in its entirety), I got as far as the third volume, Outbreak.

I got constant Game Over messages. I remember clearly how difficult it was for me to beat the MU Guardians (I stopped playing knowing I was terrible at the game).

I also remember the anime .hack SIGN and to this day it remains one of the top series I have ever seen.

A few weeks ago there was a sale on .hack//GU Last Recode and I ended up purchasing the game. I fell in love with the GU series. Haseo was a little irritating but it was the side characters that made the series enjoyable. I remember combat was a little easier, albeit a little monotonous. It’s been a while since I played the original though. I recall Endrance (btw, Endrance for life), I remember the arena and having to grind at one of the battles.

I also remember Haseo’s final form, the one with the guns and I remember the final transformation of what I think was the final boss.

So here we are, replaying the series from the beginning. As of typing this I am a little over 9 hours into the game and I am at Level 16. I just reached the arena and Haseo just snapped at poor Atoli.

Part 1: Rebirth is so anime, so over exaggerated, super cringe and I love it. I recall the big appeal of the game was GU (which stood for “Grown Up” or “Grow Up”). They built up Haseo to be this super edgy character that liked to say “DAMNIT” a lot to help counter how normal Kite was. Like I said, cringe. He was like the human version of Shadow the Hedgehog.

Rebirth begins with Haseo’s character being created. He meets some people who kindly show him around the game, then they kill him because they are PKers (Player Killers). We skip ahead 8 months later and Haseo has become a badass and he has evolved into a PKKer (Uh-oh!), which is a Player-Killer-KILLER! Oh, and he’s also after this dude called Tri-Edge, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him? He looks like Kite from the original .hack series but is all edgy and stuff. Also Tri-Edge killed Shino (Haseo’s BFF) and he is out for revenge. Shino is also in a coma.

But wait, what’s happened in these past 8 months, who is Shino, what’s going on here? Well my friend, you have to watch the anime to find out more of the exposition.

Anyway, so Haseo is all of a sudden a badass and gets a tip on Tri-Edge’s whereabouts from an old friend (Ovan). He goes to investigate, meets Tri-Edge, a big battle ensues and Haseo gets his ass handed to him.

Haseo also gets data drained and goes back to Level 1.

We also get a weird message from Ovan that kickstarts the real game.

The characters are exactly how I remembered them. I used Silabus and Gaspard until I got Kuhn and Pi. I remember not liking Pi at first but she got better as the game progressed. Atoli was another favorite character of mine (Shino never replaced her).

I got as far as the introduction to the arena, where we meet Endrance *cough* Elk *cough*. We’re trying to get a mage to join our crew and Haseo burned a bridge by being an ass to Atoli.

Aside from grinding, overpowering my characters and getting crap treasure, I have discovered two things I enjoy most about this game.

• Reading the forums and news articles are so fascinating. It’s like a damn time capsule and it’s fun to see the interactions between these NPCs. The whole appeal of this MMO-non MMO type game made it feel like I was playing alongside the real thing.
• The other thing I enjoy the most is getting in fights with the PKers and just stomping them. I can’t wait until I can start those bounties.
• I’m going to try and 100% this game and I feel like completing the Ryu books are going to be incredibly tedious. I’m going to dread getting all of the equipments and meeting all of the characters in the game. Passing those damn flyers… ugh.

I’ve been keeping away from spoilers because I don’t honestly recall what happens next in the game. I know I’m about to meet Alkaid, which I will get to at a later point.

Anyways, thanks for reading, see you all next time. Next time I will talk about my time in the arena and me forgetting about side quests, thus completing them way over-leveled.