.hack//Versus announced for PS3 (Fighting game + CG film)

[Erroneous]

Edited your url link to show the video, however if you guys want to skip to the fighting game portion use this link to skip straight to it.

Watching it looks like the Smash Bros of .hacks

[Advent_Winter]

Yeah...It's definitely .hack//Ultimate Ninja Storm.

Is this going to be a full fledged game? or is it just a bonus? Don't get me wrong here. I enjoyed the movie, but all I care about is the game.

[Kuukai]

Well we finally know what that song is called... "Hitohira" (Petals)

I wish they'd show more than two playable characters, though...

[Kaori]

Well we finally know what that song is called... "Hitohira" (Petals)

I wish they'd show more than two playable characters, though...

Dont you mean three?

[Advent_Winter]

All they showed was Sora and Haseo as playable characters.

So, what are the chances of it coming to America guys? Now that we know Namco Bandai America is the true nemesis here.

[Tolby]

Oh yeah, been meaning to ask. Whats that last song? It played during the extra videos of .hack//LiNK too, is it on the movie soundtrack?

EDIT: Had this page open before Kuukai posted. Refreshed when I posted. Thanks for song title, Kuukai.

[Kuukai]

I guess maybe Tokio counts but they haven't showed any gameplay and he's probably an OP boss character. But I just realized the special edition cover has the three heroes of .hack on it in one form or another:
-A girl named Sora that the part of the movie I saw implies is using Kite's original PC
-Grown-up Tokio
-Which demands the question... what is Haseo? A Twilight Knight? Actual Haseo who hasn't changed that much? Another schoolgirl like Sora but with a deeper voice? I would think the premise of the game would demand the Twilight Knights come back but it seems weird for him to be the odd one out of the trio...

[Sadivinedevil]

I was confused for a bit about whether or not the game and Movie were on separate discs at first, but the second disc in the package is not the game, it's an extra informational disc. The game and movie are actually on the same disc, according to the trailer.

[Tolby]

Nothing good ever applies when it comes to Haseo, why should him being real be any different? But yeah I agree, just taking the chance to rag on Haseo. Though Sora still isn't Kite. And Tokio might not be Tokio. Probably is, but could be some residue stuff left over from when he was in the game.



Also about the movie.. can you tell us anything about that? Wikia has no info and I can't find it on the interwebs. Well actually I haven't tried, but just remembered I could look yesterday when I saw someone complaining about not being able to find it.. and with the lack of information on wikia and so on I'm guessing its not out there.

[Kuukai]

I only know the first ten minutes and what I could get out of my friend who saw it who isn't that great at Japanese. So not a lot. I asked him what was up with Aura and he was like "she seems fine." So, one more reason to buy this thing, right?

[Kaori]

something just came into mind, What would Tokio's fighting style be? Because I noticed that in link he uses twin blades but in one of the pictures for this game, I notice what appears to be a gear themed Knuckle.

[Kuukai]

His Xth-form allows him to wield gears sort of electromagnetically around his body and shoot gears of various sizes at targets. When Orgel warns the others about Tokio, the only weapons he even mentions are the gears. So it looks like he just ditched the swords that were only around to provide the .hack twinsword gameplay we can never escape from. I expect a bullet wall of gears, mind-reading, and attacks from his childhood. But then again he could have new abilities too.

[Advent_Winter]

I'm guessing Kienzan Disc Gears being launched like frisbees.

[Takao]

Yeah...It's definitely .hack//Ultimate Ninja Storm.

Is this going to be a full fledged game? or is it just a bonus? Don't get me wrong here. I enjoyed the movie, but all I care about is the game.

Likely just a bonus incentive to buy the movie on Blu-Ray. Namco Bandai has pulled this Game + Movie scheme in the past with Gundam, Macross, and Idolm@ster. Each game included was supposedly incredibly barebones and would be closer to a demo than a full game.

The trailer does shatter any hopes this wasn't related to the game teased earlier this year. Versus is that game.

[Sadivinedevil]

Likely just a bonus incentive to buy the movie on Blu-Ray. Namco Bandai has pulled this Game + Movie scheme in the past with Gundam, Macross, and Idolm@ster. Each game included was supposedly incredibly barebones and would be closer to a demo than a full game.

The trailer does shatter any hopes this wasn't related to the game teased earlier this year. Versus is that game.

Though I share the same concerns I doubt .hack//Versus will be barebones like those other games Blu-Ray discs can hold a lot of information, 50GB for a dual layer disc, and it isn't hard to imagine a full game being included with the movie. I wouldn't be surprised if the game has 20-30 fighters and has a fairly in depth story mode with the movie being on the same disc. I'm sure more information will be leaked about the game as it's release date comes closer and closer, and the 3 fighter roster will eventually grow, if it doesn't then it would be a big waste of money for Cyber Connect 2.

[Takao]

No, it would be a bigger waste of money for them to put in effort in what essentially is just a ploy to get people to buy a Blu-Ray of the film. Blu-Ray could have over 9000 GB of data and it wouldn't change the fact that these pack-in "games" have as much content as your usual demo or something. The fact it's a re-skinned Naruto game should tell you that this is another case of lax effort. If it was major it wouldn't have been announced 3 months before release as a pack-in to a movie.

[Sadivinedevil]

No, it would be a bigger waste of money for them to put in effort in what essentially is just a ploy to get people to buy a Blu-Ray of the film. Blu-Ray could have over 9000 GB of data and it wouldn't change the fact that these pack-in "games" have as much content as your usual demo or something. The fact it's a re-skinned Naruto game should tell you that this is another case of lax effort. If it was major it wouldn't have been announced 3 months before release as a pack-in to a movie.

As far as this series goes it isn't unusual for the game to have a packed in video or extra content, the original games had Liminality, the G.U. games had Online Jack, and Link came with an historical disc. Now the Movie is coming with a bundled game on the same disc. To be honest, yes the extra content packed in with the games hasn't been as good as the game itself, but then again this entry has a game and a Movie packed together and the bundle costs as much as an average game. If they wanted to sell more copies of the movie why not just release the movie by itself instead of packaging it in with a game and selling it for the price of a new game. Less people are going to buy this bundle at full price as apposed to just buying the movie at full price. It's kind of like a $30 vs $60 comparison, the more expensive set will sell less than the cheaper set.

Also Matsuyama said in a recent interview that Cyber Connect 2 is currently working on 7 projects, not all of them may be games, and we have almost no information on any of them, sorry the interview is buried on Screwattack. By the looks of it this game has been in development for a while because of the attention to detail that is present so far. It might be a reskin, but if it were a cheap cash grab game the attention to detail wouldn't be as high as it has been shown in the trailer. Wait for more fighters to be announced as its release date approaches and make up your mind then. For now it's just a waiting game, not to mention it'll be another 3-6 months before this bundle is released outside of Japan after they are released.

[Takao]

As far as this series goes it isn't unusual for the game to have a packed in video or extra content, the original games had Liminality, the G.U. games had Online Jack, and Link came with an historical disc. Now the Movie is coming with a bundled game on the same disc. To be honest, yes the extra content packed in with the games hasn't been as good as the game itself, but then again this entry has a game and a Movie packed together and the bundle costs as much as an average game. If they wanted to sell more copies of the movie why not just release the movie by itself instead of packaging it in with a game and selling it for the price of a new game. Less people are going to buy this bundle at full price as apposed to just buying the movie at full price. It's kind of like a $30 vs $60 comparison, the more expensive set will sell less than the cheaper set.

Also Matsuyama said in a recent interview that Cyber Connect 2 is currently working on 7 projects, not all of them may be games, and we have almost no information on any of them, sorry the interview is buried on Screwattack. By the looks of it this game has been in development for a while because of the attention to detail that is present so far. It might be a reskin, but if it were a cheap cash grab game the attention to detail wouldn't be as high as it has been shown in the trailer. Wait for more fighters to be announced as its release date approaches and make up your mind then. For now it's just a waiting game, not to mention it'll be another 3-6 months before this bundle is released outside of Japan after they are released.

The difference between Liminality, Online Jack, and the historical disc and this is what is perceived as the main product. The Liminality OVAs were bonuses for purchasing the game. But take a look at .hack//Versus. Look at its packaging. Is it in a PS3 case, or a standard Blu-Ray movie case? Standard Blu-Ray movie case. What was shown first in the reveal trailer it or the CG film? The CG movie. In the release packaging which product got name billing? Given the release is called ".hack//The Movie + //Versus" it shouldn't be difficult to see what the main product here is. It's a movie being bundled with a game, and not a game being bundled with a movie. What's the distinction? The latter puts more focus on the game, and shows it's an important piece. Need examples? Namco Bandai (the same company who is releasing this) has done countless Anime + Game releases, but have also done a handful of small Game + Anime releases. The most recent is Tekken Hybrid for PS3 (the most recent is actually Tekken Prime on 3DS but I'm ignoring that since no one would bundle a 3DS game with a Blu-Ray film):



Notice how it's all in video game packaging, and while the games don't get top billing they're featured prominently on the cover. This is a distinction that can't be overlooked. The main product here isn't .hack//Versus. It's .hack//The Movie. .hack//Versus is the bonus for buying .hack//The Movie.

As for why Scamco would go to the effort of doing this, well simply because it's an experiment that worked. Bandai originally released Blu-Rays of the Macross franchise without video games, and the sales weren't all that great, but suddenly once they started bundling extremely cheaply done games sales improved dramatically. Less people will download a copy of a Macross video game than they'll download a copy of a Macross film. Because there's a game it also means the release gets carried in more stores than just the anime ones.

I'm not holding my breath for Versus to be anything substantial. History tells me it won't be.

[Kara]

Sorry, if it already been disscused, but is this guy:

the same as this guy:


Who is he anyway?
Oh, and location in Versus part of trailer looks like part of the first World. I wonder where it will take place.

[SSJScygoku]

His name is David i'm pretty sure @.@

Which reminds me,at the end of .hack//Legend of the Twilight Complete Edition vol 2 there was this:

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t127 ... 2517470728