Massive Spoiler Thread

[Advent_Winter]

Ugh if I recall from CC2:

"The series will start with Aura and end with Aura".

It was bound to happen. But really, I hate how it was executed. Blehhhhhhh!

She was technically defeated by an A.I. so personally, I'd rather have an A.I. defeat her than any other being.

[Ranylyn]

I approve of AuraTwilight's "Crackpot" theory, I don't care what anyone says. If Kite (Sora) is from a new installment of the World in 2024, that basically poves Aura is not gone for good. Unless, in the story, CC Corp managed to create an entirely new game enging completely that did not have either Aura or Harald or the 8 phases of ANYTHING. Which, given their incompetence, I doubt

[|<!73]

Hmm. Aura is dead. I have no doubts about that. But neither do I see that as the end. Aura will return, she won't be the same but I'm more than positive.  And by positive I mean wasn't it already confirmed<.<.?

[salarta]

Just popping in to say that in regard to the current discussion with Aura and all, that regardless of what the company intends with .hack//Link, I will never accept the notion that .hack ends with .hack//Link in terms of the story. It may be the end of the company caring at all about the IP and working on it, and the game itself might be good or even amazing for what it is. But everything about it still reeks of "this is a fanservice game we threw together to end a series we stopped really caring much about so we could move on to doing other things."

The look of the characters in animated cutscenes is just bleh. Many of the Xth forms, though admittedly good-looking of their own accord, don't seem like they fit the personalities of most of the characters, and in some cases don't even change much about them at all. And most obviously, .hack//Link downgrades the series in just about every way. I already mentioned graphics. The gameplay throws out one AI partner for a trade-off of Cross Rengeki when both could have been done with a little more work. I can't comment story-wise because I haven't played it, but based on screens I think it's fairly safe to assume that it's not as developed and interesting as either past series of games. Even the number of discs subtly suggests it; first series of games was on four discs while the second series was on three, whereas this one is just one UMD.

To me, .hack//Link is an AU spinoff title (much like G.U. TRILOGY) based on the .hack world and characters, giving a small and underwhelming farewell to fans of the series so the fans know the company appreciates all the past support even though the company's dropping it to pursue things they actually want to do. They know they've amassed a huge following of people who love the creative world they've built. They know those people want more, and were hoping to see the series provide bigger and better things over the years. That's why they did at least one more thing, even if a HUGE step down from their past work, in hopes of providing closure to those fans. If the company ever comes back to this series and gives it a proper send-off then I might acknowledge that as the end, but as far as I'm concerned the continuity stops at G.U.

One big positive note about the company I haven't stated yet. They may be abandoning the series with a painfully weak send-off, but it's better than the company having so little respect for the fans and their own creation that they whore out awful piles of crap year after year. It's refreshing for a company that doesn't care anymore about a series they've made to simply stop making it rather than butcher it for easy money. For that, I feel they deserve much more respect in turn from consumers than just about every video game company currently in operation.

[Advent_Winter]

Personally, in terms of story, the order of the games should have been like this, with a few changes and modifications added in of course:

.hack//IMOQ ------> .hack//Link -------> .hack//G.U.

At least with G.U., we would have had a decent ending, despite defeating Cubia in some ranodom, power ranger/Deus ex Machina style.

[Virgillius]

I stopped playing because of the language..
Until they announce that this game will not go out in US, I think I will be patient and wait..
If not, then I'll play the Jap version.

Well, got some question about the game, I saw my friend play this game and I notice that there is a timeline in the game, is that how the storyline progress?
who is the final boss in this game?
And will cubia make an appearance again in this game?

[GyppyGirl2021]

Cubia makes an appearance again, yes, as a playable character. I won't go into further detail, but a lot of people have been wondering about that...

And I'd rather not say who the final boss is because you're bound to be extremely disappointed (not to mention it's a huge, albeit rather obvious, spoiler)

[Tolby]

The look of the characters in animated cutscenes is just bleh.

Before I say you don't know what you are talking about, what are you talking about?

[Virgillius]

Cubia as a playable char?
Does that mean it has a player IRL controlling it or it's just an AI?

[GyppyGirl2021]

I'm pretty sure everyone's an AI except for the Schicksal members and Tokio himself, out of the playable characters. As for Cubia, he's always been and always will be an AI, but there was a "PC" form of him in XXXX which has been adopted into a playable form in LINK.

(I think that the PC version of Cubia is a lot more interesting than the "regular" form, to be honest. And he's a lot cuter.)

[Advent_Winter]

I stopped playing because of the language..
Until they announce that this game will not go out in US, I think I will be patient and wait..
If not, then I'll play the Jap version.

Well, got some question about the game, I saw my friend play this game and I notice that there is a timeline in the game, is that how the storyline progress?
who is the final boss in this game?
And will cubia make an appearance again in this game?

Yes. The story progresses through a timeline, ranging in from almost every .hack media. The story is much more linear in this installment, aside from previous ones, which never really "specifically" showed you where to go.

The final boss in this game will be  Aura.

Cubia has made an appearence, however it is his Human form from XXXX that is shown. He is a Flick Reaper, who wields a bone scythe. He is also you're party member. You don't control him. The A.I. does.

[Virgillius]

Ummm, the final boss is.. Intriguing..
Up against one of the "deity" of The World?
Looks like I have a lot of info to catch in this forum...

[salarta]

The look of the characters in animated cutscenes is just bleh.

Before I say you don't know what you are talking about, what are you talking about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Top-W30v4kI

Primarily their faces.

[Tolby]

Those aren't cutscenes. Thats just the opening video. Not even the opening to the story, just when you turn on the system. It vaguely has to do with the game because of the characters and the opposing forces, but really it has nothing to do with it.

Theres actually no real animated cutscenes except a Tokio head perk and some bonus teaser trailers.

Well.. I guess animatedish. Just panels moving and still images moving and sound effect words blinking and stuff. In the style of the rest of the game. Not the opening.

[salarta]

Those aren't cutscenes. Thats just the opening video. Not even the opening to the story, just when you turn on the system. It vaguely has to do with the game because of the characters and the opposing forces, but really it has nothing to do with it.

Theres actually no real animated cutscenes except a Tokio head perk and some bonus teaser trailers.

Well.. I guess animatedish. Just panels moving and still images moving and sound effect words blinking and stuff. In the style of the rest of the game. Not the opening.

That's a little better, but it then raises the issue that they don't even have animated cutscenes of any sort beyond the opening video, which also says a lot about how little the company cares about working on the series at this point.

I can't help but wonder if part of the reason might be because the company is either unwilling or unable to try their hand at making a game for the PS3 even if it's the exact same as either series of PS2 games except for format/system.

[Tolby]

Actually I really liked it. It shows their efforts to be unique and have their own style. A game doesn't need animated custcens to be good. Golden Sun is a great RPG with no animated cutscenes at all.


And I said I liked it, but that was more of a first impression. The first cutscene done this way really excited me, after that they seem pretty scarce and not too many of them are anything special, but theres nothing wrong with the style of cutscenes itself. Like I said, there were some pretty cool cutscenes. I'd probably me more eager to defend it if this wasn't the last game. I'm really starting to hate the way its going out. I mean I still love playing Link, but when you think that this is the final game... I don't know, maybe the rest of RX will be amazing and the game can just be fun pocketsized fanserivce of button mashing proportions.

[salarta]

Actually I really liked it. It shows their efforts to be unique and have their own style. A game doesn't need animated custcens to be good. Golden Sun is a great RPG with no animated cutscenes at all.


And I said I liked it, but that was more of a first impression. The first cutscene done this way really excited me, after that they seem pretty scarce and not too many of them are anything special, but theres nothing wrong with the style of cutscenes itself. Like I said, there were some pretty cool cutscenes. I'd probably me more eager to defend it if this wasn't the last game. I'm really starting to hate the way its going out. I mean I still love playing Link, but when you think that this is the final game... I don't know, maybe the rest of RX will be amazing and the game can just be fun pocketsized fanserivce of button mashing proportions.

I think I honestly wouldn't care much at all regarding how this game does things (other than maybe a few bits here and there like the Xth forms) if not for the fact it's the last installment. There's nothing better to hope for. This is it. They might do something amazing in an anime or manga, but since I only ever really cared about the GAMES, none of that matters. Unless they come back to it with another game that's a true send-off, my impression of the company's attitude toward the series is forever fixed with "the company doesn't care about the .hack series anymore, they just want to throw a few crumbs at the fans in thanks and ditch the whole lot of what they made to start something else."

[|<!73]

CC2 stated that unless this game does surprising well, and Bandai Namco forces them to make another then it's the last game. As for their lack of dedication to .hack I couldn't disagree more. Now I know this is a spoiler's thread. But has anyone managed to unlock .hack//Epitaph of Twilight. Grumbles something about special street addresses.

[Keyaki]

She was technically defeated by an A.I. so personally, I'd rather have an A.I. defeat her than any other being.

But that's even more contradicting, that's like a human killing God.

In terms of the The World, the only real "citizens" or "inhabitants" of Za Warudo are the AIs, we players are just trespassing and CC Corp claimed ownership.

[GyppyGirl2021]

Humans killing God has been done before, look at Tales of Destiny 2