.hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

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SCP-173

.hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by SCP-173 »

I prefer original games
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shugo_lover
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by shugo_lover »

That's a tough choice. I like the story line of the original series better then G.U.s but I also liked G.U. because the game play was more fast paced.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Erranty »

I prefer IMOQ all the way around, even its music. I got more emotionally involved with its story and characters than G.U.'s "Paiiiiiiiii!" moment could ever hope to match.

I still enjoyed G.U. though. It just wasn't as difficult, which is something I appreciate in games. The sense of mortality without being unbearably weak is kinda rare for a game to have, and while IMOQ had that (oh boy the Skeith fight!) G.U. felt like an endless string of "I'm gonna use this weapon because it spams something that'll keep you from moving!"
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by mavrosheep »

Erranty wrote:I prefer IMOQ all the way around, even its music. I got more emotionally involved with its story and characters than G.U.'s "Paiiiiiiiii!" moment could ever hope to match.

I still enjoyed G.U. though. It just wasn't as difficult, which is something I appreciate in games. The sense of mortality without being unbearably weak is kinda rare for a game to have, and while IMOQ had that (oh boy the Skeith fight!) G.U. felt like an endless string of "I'm gonna use this weapon because it spams something that'll keep you from moving!"
now i have to play IMOQ, i just finished Sign, and thought i could just read the summary and that :P, besides SCP, you havent play either IMOQ nor G.U. have you?
SCP-173

Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by SCP-173 »

I've played both
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by TheSorrow »

IMOQ, definetly.

While i sure loved G.U. because of the awesome flashy skills, the Arena, Doppelganger, the challenges you could enforce on yourself, and in large part because of the story and the characters, IMOQ really made me feel like i was the player (Kite), like i was really playing a MMO where mysterious things were happening. It got me deeply immersed into the story, the characters, everything that was happening, while G.U. only made me feel like i was using an overpowered jerk on some wierd quest for revenge; i couldn't relate with him as with Kite, and i couldn't feel that emotionally attached to the events. And IMOQ felt like a true MMO, a game that could be played by ALOT of other people, in a great setting with great areas and enemies that needed a great teamwork to defeat them...G.U. instead was a cool-looking world with VERY small areas, hardly any variety of weapons and skills, and enemies so predictable you could finish them on your own at GREATLY LOW levels. And while you couldn't challenge yourself as much in IMOQ, it was because the game had already a very nice difficulty setting, not too extreme but you had to think and act fast even at the highest levels, and equipment and skills REALLY mattered. It's easy in G.U. to fight against some bosses or clear some dungeons under challenges such like low level/no healing/solo...but try the same challenges against Skeith and you'll be DEAD D: Low level is the only possible challenge to do, but still, if your level is too low against Skeith he'll immediatly end you with Judgment D: (And no boss in G.U. is ever able to do an unavoidable attack on your entire team...in IMOQ every Phase's attack is pretty much unavoidable XD lol)
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Kuukai »

I liked G.U. better in terms of gameplay and cutscenes, Link best in terms of story and music, and the original series... it was good at the time but it doesn't age as gracefully as the others. I will say I like it best in terms of Grunties... so there's that. Also all three installments have gameplay that can be lauded for taking a new mechanic and running with it. Data Drain was ingenious, and Hidden Darkside Holy Ground takes "hacking the monsters" to its extreme in terms of gameplay. G.U. was all about multi-classed gameplay, and again Painful Forest makes that insanely fun. Link doesn't really have a stage like that, in fact the stages themselves suck, but your partners all have legitimate personalities in that game and that was certainly an innovation. Matsuyama once said something along the lines of, if you're making a new game, it should be 90% Mario and 10% something new. That is to say, it should be mostly something people are already familiar with, but still extend that in an entirely new way. If it's not familiar enough, it's not playable, and if it doesn't innovate, you might as well just play Mario. So in that respect the .hack installments deliberately never repeat in terms of gameplay, and there's something unique about each of them.

...Although I still think Asura's Wrath is basically G.U. on rails...
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Jimbob »

To be honest both have their ups and downs. Spoiler warning for those who don't know what's happened yet.

GU has the better gameplay by far of course, and it tweaks it every game though Haseo's upgrades while the original series kept the same throughout all 4 volumes. And Haseo is a better character than Kite, development wise as he grows, while Kite is the same nice guy throughout the whole game (although Haseo is a little too much of jerk sometimes in the beginning)

The other characters in GU also develop, and you can get more out of them through the various emails, where as in the original you're limited to one chain per volume and even then they really only talk about one thing (Moonstone's training, Sanjuro's obession with Samurai films, Nuke's Comedy, etc) where as in GU you can ask about their location, favorite food etc.

However the overal plot I think is better in the original. You slowly learn about Aura and the backstory behind the world, every volume, and the 4th volume is where the story intensifies, with the reveal of Mia, Elk's betrayal, and the final fight against Cubia and Corbenik. In GU they pretty much banked everything on the Ovan twist (they were expecting Evangelion level backlash with death threats and all. It wasn't THAT surprising) and the story kind of ground to a halt after that. Volume 3 seemed really padded out. Sakaki randomly returns as an almost totally different character to basically just harass Haseo for a few hours before dying again. Yata goes nuts and awakens because they kind of forgot about him until then. And Cubia returns only to just throw Gomorrah's at you for a few hours before you take him down. And unlike the final volume of the first series, you pretty much stomp Cubia with no trouble, and no losses. Everything except the Ovan fight in Volume 3 (and even that was mostly just like Volume 2) seems like it was just padding out the story.

As far as party members, while GU's were more fleshed out, the first series actually gives you more time to use most of them. In the first series you've basically got your entire roster minus the bonus characters by the beginning of Volume 3, halfway through. In GU you only get half your roster towards the end of the final volume. It's also heavily unbalanced as you get like 7 Blade Brandiers, where as you don't get another cleric until volume 3 is basically over, and you never get another Edge Punisher at all, where as in the original you had at least one of each class by mid game Volume 1. Plus in GU there's really no point in using anyone other than the epitaph users, since you have to use them most of the time anyway.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Sadivinedevil »

The original series has a better battle system in my opinion, It's kind of like an early prototype for Xenoblade Chronicles made by a different company, but almost everything else about the games is pretty lackluster, the story is okay though.

The G.U Series has a lot better story and better character development, but the battle system isn't really appealing to me, It's kind of a button masher instead of a strategyesque setup. G.U. is probably more bang for your buck as well since the games are longer and there is a lot more variety in quests and dungeons.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Furie »

Jeez, I really liked both, but I'll have to go with the original series.

I.M.O.Q felt more like an MMO to me. I felt the story was superior to G.U's, and the characters were more diverse in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, G.U. was a good series, too, but it felt more like a regular RPG to me, and I just didn't like as many of the characters from that series.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Helbaworshipper »

I like the original series better, but there are a few things that I always get a little annoyed at with GU that IMOQ did right.

1. Japanese and English track - After listening to the dub which, while mostly alright, kind of annoyed me with a few character voices. Especially Rachel and her New York City accent. GU didn't have that option for a strange reason and while I liked the dub to a degree in GU, it had it's own issues from volume to volume. One of them being Yata kept sounding more and more gruff each volume.

2. Character designs - While IMOQ had designs that stood out, most of the main cast looked like they could be part of the MMO experience. The problem with GU is that most of the main cast looked too unique, including Silabus and Gaspard, who weren't even avatar player characters. It just felt strange not to at least see a similar model around town when in IMOQ you could at least see slightly similar models.

Anyways, I do like IMOQ for the better story and probably the better MMO feel. However, GU did better regarding things and I acknowledge that. GU had the better character development for some of the characters, a better dungeon and field system, and particularly felt like it took less time to complete.
SCP-173

Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by SCP-173 »

If g.u had you fighting the phases instead of those gay black dotd called A.I.D.A. I would have voted it instead of original. That why I like the original. Your defeating something that's not meant to be defeated. Its like a david vs goliath feel (in my opinion) in the original games. In g.u I feel like I'm dominating lots of times. Now I do like crushing my enemies. But I prefer feeling that the world could end any minute.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Amaso »

Well, I actually didn't play //IMOQ ,but I played //Fragment and //G.U. vol.1 .
I remember //Fragment has a similar gameplay to //IMOQ , anyway , I prefer G.U.'s gameplay .
But for the story it's none of them, I like //Link's storyline more than //IMOQ and //G.U.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by LieN »

I enjoyed the G.U. series a lot more, and how advanced "The World" had become in R:2 ^^
SCP-173

Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by SCP-173 »

LieN wrote:I enjoyed the G.U. series a lot more, and how advanced "The World" had become in R:2 ^^
That's one of the things I liked about g.u
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Haseo_Dude »

shugo_lover wrote:That's a tough choice. I like the story line of the original series better then G.U.s but I also liked G.U. because the game play was more fast paced.

Id say the gu, for fast pace like so above. More fighting styles, move, ACTION, and uh you get multi-weapons. Banging Bordeaux in the face with a broad sword? Hell yeah. (No sexual pun intended)
Though, yeah about imoq, the story is good, but your not so much as a badass as haseo and can't go into special modes like avatar mode, or moral. Though you can data drain and gate hack whenever you want., while gu has it only in the story line .
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by GyppyGirl2021 »

I prefer G.U., but I may as well list what I liked and didn't like about each.

IMOQ.
Pros:
-Felt more like a MMO overall. Root towns were a bit small, but other than that it had the feel down pat.
-Field designs were all fantastic.
-Interesting character concepts. A lot of them follow basic archetypes, but then you have Gardenia...
-Infected areas give me the chills in a good way.
-Really interesting plot that ties itself together well.
-Dual audio, which in this case is good because I feel like they didn't even really try with the dub.
Cons:
-I found it very frustrating at times, and I hated how enemies would appear out of nowhere in regular fields.
-Difficulty curve is bizarre and hard to adapt to.
-Gameplay is slow, and having to use everything from a menu is annoying.
-Phase fights make no sense whatsoever in terms of difficulty. Skeith is super-hard, but then Innis?????
-Limited opportunities for conversations with party members/expansion on their characters.

G.U.
Pros:
-Addictive gameplay. Could have been better, but it keeps me entertained and that's what matters.
-Most of the characters have a great deal of depth, and you can find out more about them through greeting cards.
-Call me strange, but I also really liked the story, although it did get silly at times.
-Difficulty curve is easy to adapt to, for the most part.
-The Skill Trigger.
-Decent dub voices for the most part.
-I love how cave dungeons look.
Cons:
-Avatar battles are dumb.
-The game felt too easy at times... for someone who likes easy games. Aside from Avatar battles (which I already covered), you often have to go out of your way just to make the game passably difficult.
-As I mentioned above, some parts of the story were silly. (Alkaid in Reminisce, Cubia...)
-Haseo needs to stop screaming all the time.
-What even is Crimson VS?
-No dual audio. I want my Sakurai!
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by zaseo »

It is a mix for me. IMOQ and GU both have good gameplay but they could be improve in some ways.

In IMOQ Arts/Spells locked the caster and target in place. The only way to avoid being hit was if you had very high evasion and luck. Twinblades and Wavemasters are God Tier. Twinblades have great magic(second only to wavemasters) and good physical attack. Also their def is decent. Wavemasters can basically just cast their spells and the other enemy cannot do anything unless they get close or have powerful spells of their own. The only real problem for a wavemaster at least as far as IMOQ gameplay is concern is magic tolerance. If a strong physical enemy gets close than the wavemaster dies but due to spells freezing the position of enemies this should not be a problem. Putting the 2 elemental skills that a class doesn't have would help.

Not really a problem but the level of weapons is odd. You do not really get high level weapons until the Quarantine. Armor is fine.

GU does the weapon and armor thing better but there is a lack of weapons for classes not twinblade, blade brandier, and edge punishers. Customizing weapons and armor is good. As far as skills there are a lack of them in GU. Due to how the weapons work you can do some broken and in cases endless combos with Haseo. Dual guns are at the end of the game but as far as the regular classes Edge Punishers is Haseo's most broken. Just juggle enemies with a skill like Tiger Strike.

For monsters both series should have more high level variants to fight.

In IMOQ you can fight enemies 20 levels higher than you. As far certain boss battles like phases you can't get away with being underleveled.
In GU levels matter more. If you are more than a few levels apart and fight something its hard to make them recoil from damage. Plus you do less damage. On the other hand due to the combos/juggles you can do with a charge and release boardsword this negates that problem.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Sadivinedevil »

I like the original series more, but that is because I grew up with it. I still remember the fear that Cubia instilled in me, the emotional trauma of fighting the 6th phase, and the sense of relief after beating the last boss and final dungeon of the games. I agree though that it hasn't aged well. I will never experience these emotions again playing these games but I still love playing them.

G.U. is really a mixed bag for me. I think the combat was better, but it was streamlined and felt too simple. I think G.U. should have improved upon the original series setup instead of reinventing the series. A game like Xenoblade, which is similar original series, captures more of what I wanted to see out of G.U. I don't hate G.U. but once I got past the nostalgia driven Volume 1 it went down hill pretty quick.

Link is just plain awful aside from the music and I guess the story, oh and the big bosses were pretty fun I guess.

Guilty Dragon is good, but mostly because it forces me to play in brief stretches. It's a skinner box that is entertaining for a little while, but if I was playing it for hours on end without a break I'd honestly consider it worse than Link. The free to play model it runs on is its saving grace and is a psychological barrier that keeps it from becoming stale.
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Re: .hack original games or g.u wich do u like better

Post by Bullet Biter »

I'm just gonna say GU because I couldn't even make it through the first hour of Infection without needing some hard liquor on hand.
I thought IMOQ had a boring story with equally boring characters and it was really hard to force myself through the game...I played GU before I played IMOQ and everyone had told me that IMOQ was some fabulous game so I went for it and was bitterly disappointed.
I'm glad it wasn't my first .hack game or else I would've dropped this franchise right then and there and would've missed out on the good parts!

LINK is a great audio drama but such a shitty game like my god.
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