How much time to complete the series

Discuss the original .hack video games: Vol. 1 and 2

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kamisama
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How much time to complete the series

Post by kamisama »

Hello there,

I just recently re-discovered the .hack//sign anime and as the ending felt quite lackluster i was curious about the games as well.

I started Infection and it seems an ok game (not as good as Final Fantasy or Tales of Symphonia sadly), but one of my concerns is that completing all the 4 games will take forever, so how long do you think it takes for an experienced rpg player to complete everything (avoiding grinding and side-stuff) Is it worthy at all to get myself into this endeavour or should i simply go on wikipedia to read what the plot is about (or watch a LP maybe) ?
For now the game say i spent only 4 hours playing Infection but already the game feels quite repetitive, and i'm just interested in the story of the series.
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Kuukai
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by Kuukai »

It shouldn't take that long relative to other RPGs (less than 20 hours per game?), but if you want to watch a summary instead, look up the Terminal Disc online. That's the official recap of what happened.
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kamisama
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by kamisama »

Thanks !

I guess i'll finish the first game since i hate drop something when i started, but if all 4 games are mostly the same (this is what i read on some reviews) gameplay wise it might become quite boring by the third and fourth :p

I'll lookup Terminal Disc.
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by (Phantom) Thief »

Are you moving through the entire a series as a whole or just the first season?
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by Kim_Hyral »

If you complete the four games you'll unlock special movies on Terminal Disc that have mostly of secrets behind the storyline.
Also, the gameplay is the same, but you'll get many friends and stuffs that make your journey more fun.

I was planning to play it one more time, the challenge against cursed wave is epic!

Oh i almost forgotten, use the data flag from Infection, Mutation, Outbreak and Quarentine (you have to complete them) to unlock the secret features on Terminal Disc. And of course, to do it, you'll have to face and destroy the cursed wave, you don't need to complete the side quests and the book of rewards (if you want), just beat the game ;)
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kamisama
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by kamisama »

(Phantom) Thief wrote:Are you moving through the entire a series as a whole or just the first season?
Well i'll probably watch //root after that, but i'm not sure about the rest.
If you complete the four games you'll unlock special movies on Terminal Disc that have mostly of secrets behind the storyline.
Also, the gameplay is the same, but you'll get many friends and stuffs that make your journey more fun.
Well the gameplay is not bad per se, but 80 hours of Door/monster/chest (with crappy magic scroll inside :lol: ) sameness might be too much to bear. Basically it could have been just one game, but someone at CC wanted money badly and so they did 4 times the same game xD
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by TheSorrow »

kamisama wrote:Basically it could have been just one game, but someone at CC wanted money badly and so they did 4 times the same game xD
Yeah, pretty much. This whole series is basicly one single game cut up in 4 pieces and sold separately D: And the G.U. series is the same, sadly, though that one is just 3 games. lol
However, it's not entirely 80 hours of door/monster/chest...or else you could say that Final Fantasy is just 80 hours of wandering around a map full of random battles. There are GREAT things involving the story, the enemies you face, special areas, etc., that make those "80 hours of random battles" not boring or tedious at all. And it's the same way in IMOQ...you might spend most of your time killing monsters and opening chests in dungeons, but it's every other detail like the story, the AMAZING bosses, the special areas you get to see, the way events develop and change The World, and even the News and Forums you get to see in-game that'll make you fall in love with the game, and the whole dungeon hunting will be the least issue you'd be thinking about. So, if you think that this game might get boring or tedious simply because of the dungeons, then trust me, it won't :P
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by (Phantom) Thief »

kamisama wrote:
(Phantom) Thief wrote:Are you moving through the entire a series as a whole or just the first season?
Well i'll probably watch //root after that, but i'm not sure about the rest.
If you complete the four games you'll unlock special movies on Terminal Disc that have mostly of secrets behind the storyline.
Also, the gameplay is the same, but you'll get many friends and stuffs that make your journey more fun.
Well the gameplay is not bad per se, but 80 hours of Door/monster/chest (with crappy magic scroll inside :lol: ) sameness might be too much to bear. Basically it could have been just one game, but someone at CC wanted money badly and so they did 4 times the same game xD
Hmm. Each set adds a little bit more to game play. However the story for the first PS2 games are too much to convert into one disc. G.U. exceeded that. That said If you want to understand the overall plot of the whole 1st and 2nd series you might want to start with .hack//Link. I think aside from that that you can also read .hack//Another Birth and .hack//G.U. at the library.


Terminal Disk:

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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by Kuukai »

In my opinion, .hack//G.U. is the most fun and playable game in the franchise. They pile on features until by the end it's a full-fledged, innovative, engaging action RPG. So if you're an RPG fan that's the one thing I wouldn't skip, actually. The action/QTE game Asura's Wrath got a lot of attention but all of its gameplay is basically a super-watered-down version of G.U.'s, proving that there's really nothing to be improved upon, even half a decade later on a new generation of hardware and with help from Capcom designers.

There isn't that much of a point to plowing through all four games of the first series if you aren't having fun. But, if you haven't done this already, one way to make it more fun and less monotonous is to always use the speed-up buff. That's what it's there for. The most efficient way to do that is to do the Time Attack at any dungeon that begins with "Chronicling", win time armor, give a time armor piece to party members you're always with like BlackRose, and chat>demand buffs whenever you start a stage. I shouldn't need to tell you to use Grunties. And the best way to heal is to give a million healing items to allies and demand healing when your party needs it. If you just hammer square and tell the team USE SPELLS LIKE CRAZY, USE WEAPONS LIKE CRAZY, or HEAL LIKE CRAZY depending on the situation, the battle system is kind of like a precursor to FFXIII.

...Actually, I just blew my own mind with that revelation...
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by nuhkuhl »

God bless the speed charm. I always threw one on Balmung because there was just something really funny about his wings bobbing up and down that fast when he ran. And whenever Kite had one, his natural tendency to 'crouch forward' as he runs looks even more pronounced- and his legs move so fast that he vaguely reminds me of the Road Runner. Oh god...Looney Toons X .hack ........'course, that would just breed another GIFT, but still. Does anyone remember the holy 'Risky Coffee'? My headcanon states that Kite is an avid drinker of said treasure chest concoction; instant speed charm effect with all the horrors of caffeine withdrawal.

In regards to healing in .hack//IMOQ....yeah, buy a ton of items during Infection and Mutation- if you win all the Grunty races, you can get some awesome stat boosters that can make a god out of a character- I threw all the SP boosters on Kite and he quickly outranked any of the Wavemasters in said area. He's a surprisingly decent healer. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TAKE AS MANY HEALING ITEMS FOR YOUR BATTLE WITH SKEITH IF YOU ARE NOT OVER LEVELED....IT WILL DESTROY YOU. Or it'll just float around the arena if you're lucky, but sometimes Skeith's AI gets REALLY aggressive.
Last edited by nuhkuhl on Sat Jan 26, 2013 1:43 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by TheSorrow »

nuhkuhl wrote:Does anyone remember the holy 'Risky Coffee'? My headcanon states that Kite is an avid drinker of said treasure chest concoction; instant speed charm effect with all the horrors of caffeine withdrawal.
That REALLY made me laugh for some reason XDDD I sure remember the Risky Coffee, but i never gave much thought to it, just a funny-ish name and that was it, and i rarely used it since it was hard to find. But your comment totally made me imagine Kite drinking lots of them like crazy and going through withdrawals XD lol
nuhkuhl wrote:but sometimes Skeith's AI gets REALLY aggressive.
Judgment -> Whack -> Judgment
Yes, it CAN happen. I've been witness of it D: Though actually, it's not THAT deadly, just something that could make you scream a few things while giving more respect to such a dangerous enemy.
In fact, it's not that hard to defeat Skeith...or rather, it's hard to LOSE against Skeith. You'll only lose if you brought no more than 10 healing items or if you purposedly refuse to heal. But as long as you keep healing after every attack, you'll be just fine.
Still, Skeith is one of the most difficult, dangerous, and FUN bosses in the game, and for that same reason. You HAVE to heal at every attack. You HAVE to open the menu quickly and change all your orders the moment Skeith lifts a finger. And he's the first REAL boss in the game, nothing compared to all the silly creatures you had faced before. This battle really keeps you on the edge all the time, and it won't be any rare to have Kite as the last character alive with 10HP, against a menacing monster that just flew towards you. Though if you know what you're doing, you'll survive...of course, have Kite attempt to do a final attack instead of healing himself or revive someone else, and you'll be dead. lol
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by Kuukai »

I've been trying to tell people forever that Skeith's "difficulty" is illusory. And if you use the strategy I outlined you're going to instantly recover when he knocks someone out. Healing enemies can be far worse, there's one particular Cubia fight that's basically the only fight of the game you can't take underleveled.
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by nuhkuhl »

Well, in my personal experience, Skeith seems to be a wild card in comparison to the other Phases in terms of difficulty. Sometimes it's easy, and then bam, that whacky AI strikes and all three of your party members are dead within twenty seconds. But I dunno.

Regarding of how long it takes to complete each game, and I hesitate to post anything seeing as this topic has pretty much ended, but I found G.U.'s Rebirth to be the single longest installment of the 7 PS2 games. I've put in the most time with IMOQ's Infection though, since I've replayed through it so many times.
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by kamisama »

Kuukai wrote:In my opinion, .hack//G.U. is the most fun and playable game in the franchise. They pile on features until by the end it's a full-fledged, innovative, engaging action RPG. So if you're an RPG fan that's the one thing I wouldn't skip, actually. The action/QTE game Asura's Wrath got a lot of attention but all of its gameplay is basically a super-watered-down version of G.U.'s, proving that there's really nothing to be improved upon, even half a decade later on a new generation of hardware and with help from Capcom designers.

There isn't that much of a point to plowing through all four games of the first series if you aren't having fun. But, if you haven't done this already, one way to make it more fun and less monotonous is to always use the speed-up buff. That's what it's there for. The most efficient way to do that is to do the Time Attack at any dungeon that begins with "Chronicling", win time armor, give a time armor piece to party members you're always with like BlackRose, and chat>demand buffs whenever you start a stage. I shouldn't need to tell you to use Grunties. And the best way to heal is to give a million healing items to allies and demand healing when your party needs it. If you just hammer square and tell the team USE SPELLS LIKE CRAZY, USE WEAPONS LIKE CRAZY, or HEAL LIKE CRAZY depending on the situation, the battle system is kind of like a precursor to FFXIII.

...Actually, I just blew my own mind with that revelation...

It's not that i'm not having fun, as others pointed out, the characters and overall plot are great, but yeah the gameplay can be a bit dull. I didn't play much overall for now (i must be halfway through Infection), but it gets better as difficulty increase and you're not just bashing random meatbags.

I'll try to use your tips, and yes when i discovered the speed charm, the game just became 10 times less dull :p I'll try to get the time armor too. As for grunties i don't understand yet what purpose they have in the game as feeding them what they want can be a pain. I finally got a "poison grunty" last time i played, i just fed him what i had in my inventory trying to balance the stats, i guess a poison grunty is kind of a failed grunty, but i didn't have time to check how you actually use it in the game.
nuhkuhl wrote:Regarding of how long it takes to complete each game, and I hesitate to post anything
I'm still here don't worry :lol:
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by Kuukai »

Actually a Poison Grunty is a good result. Noble Grunty is a failure. And they're all useful as mounts.
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by nuhkuhl »

I LOVE Poison Grunty- it's actually my favorite next to Aqua Grunty, who I swear looks like something out of Monster Rancher 2.Glub glub!

Image

Purpose wise, the grunties mostly aid you in some way on the field- some can find Chaos Gates, some can lead you directly to a dungeon (uh...that sounded kinky...ewww), and others can help you find more Grunty food. Plus, riding one on the field gives you full immunity against monsters- they'll just ignore you and walk around the grunty. Grunties are fast to boot!

....also, Kite's animation when he rides a grunty makes me laugh even harder then when he has a speed charm. It's just so awesomely goofy.
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Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by Kuukai »

Also the song is awesome, and is remixed in many different ways.
SCP-173

Re: How much time to complete the series

Post by SCP-173 »

I loved examining the enemies whilst on a grunty you get to see what detail the graphincs engineers put in.
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