I would like to see another Dot Hack title.

[TarrenVonRose]

I know from personal experience of playing the 4 original games on the Ps2 and the G.U. series that I would love to see another title. The first Dot Hack games were a little "Wonky" with how they worked. I could hack into areas that were far beyond my level and got me killed in two hits or I would end up in a lower level area and be killing everything in one hit. And the fact that my abilities changed with each piece drove me insane. "I like this ability but this piece of equipment is far better." Was my normal line during my play through.

The combat system in the game was exquisite, with the ability to know what was going on with each character before it happened was very helpful. The story was a little slow going for me and the fact that I was stuck as a twin blade (Though I love that class) didn't strike my fancy. I remembered running through a dungeon and seeing Rose attack something and asking myself, "Why cant I have some big ass sword."

With G.U. they improved on this system with improved AI and the ability to advance in class throughout the story. The guilds were also a nice step and it made me feel like I was part of an actual MMO even though it was clearly only me playing. The guild shop generated great revenue during my quests where I would drop off anything I wasn't using to be sold and come back to a nice chunk of change.

And then there was Death Grunty, Haseo in grunty form. I honestly prefered the grunty in G.U. to the ones in the orignal Dot Hack games, sure they served no real purpose but they were amazing mascots.

At the beginning of each G.U. game they rewarded you for save data of the original Dot Hacks that matched up with their number and then they also rewarded you for playing the previous G.U. And the raised level cap was amazing, I remember playing through the first G.U. to level 150 and taking on some God boss at the end that gave me special armor after almost an hour of beating on him.

The re-emergence of Kite, and his friends Orca and Balmung. Or avatars of their avatars as your so called "Enemies" was an amazing twist even if they were possibly a little over powered. I remember each encounter with them making my heart skip a beat as I said to myself. "OH GOD! THEY ARE GONNA KILL ME!"

Your ability to transform into Skeith was also another nice change, I mean don't get me wrong, the data drain graphics in the first set of Dot Hacks was pretty cool, but they took it to a entirely different level in G.U. Forcing you to change and defeat other Epitaphs was an amazing change.

Now i've heard rumors of a Dot Hack fighting title comparable to street fighter that will feature, Haseo, Kite, Balmung and Orca among others but I would honestly rather see another title like G.U. or the original ones. Does anyone else second this?, Or am I alone in this?

[Autistic Angel]

I had a friend who seemed to get really into the first .hack game, Infection, but petered out pretty quickly into the sequel.  I think it was just a matter of too much too quickly.  People today question the wisdom of annualized Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed games, but Namco published four full-priced .hack RPGs in the span of eleven months.

Speaking as a casual observer, if they were to resurrect the .hack franchise, I'd recommend planning the sequels at least eighteen months apart.  Developers need time to generate new art and music assets, smarter game play mechanics, and to respond to whatever criticisms people had about the previous entry.

-Autistic Angel

[TarrenVonRose]

I will completely agree with what you just said Angel, I do not believe that they should have thrown the games out so quickly and maybe if they had taken more time the games would have been that much more enjoyable. But it has been years since they have thrown out a Dot Hack title and honestly I don't think that the fighter they are making will be that good. It will take away all the things that the people like me loved about the previous games.

[davidrobots]

I think .hack would work beautifully as an episodic downloadable game. Charge $60 for the whole pack, and get each installment every three months or so. I think that would work beautifully, even if they weren't spaced out as much, rather than charging $60 per game over the course of 2 years or so. With the success of games like The Walking Dead, if Namco did it right, they'd probably do pretty well with it. It really was an idea ahead of its time. It's too bad it ended up being so expensive, as I was really interested in them when they first came out, then lost interest as I found I couldn't afford a new $50 game every few months -- a game that was essentially so similar to the one before it.

[TarrenVonRose]

Now that David is a genius idea, I have played the walking dead game you speak of on Playstation and it was quite fun I think. I loved Dot Hack though I regretably did not become interested in them until the first four games had come out. I know now that I wish I could have kept track of my Ps2 and my set of GU games but now I find myself looking for them again and unable to find them.

I love the installment idea though in my opinion the walking dead episodes were far to short, out of all the time I played the game I think I maybe spent an hour or so playing each episode. Which while the story was intriguing and forced me to make some difficult choices and changed depending on them. It was just to short.

One other thing is I would love to see an actual online MMO based on the world, like the real version of the game. Giant online server and everything though a game of that magnitude would take years to create and is far ahead of its time. Wouldn't it create a wonderful new experience for gamers the world over?

[Dante Rising]

I have the .HACK GU games, but I still haven't gotten around to playing them. I opened the first one and tried it out for about an hour before putting it aside for reasons I don't recall. It had a wonderful art style for a PS2 era game, and the real-time combat seemed well developed.

I need to get back to these titles.

[Autistic Angel]

I have all three Xenosaga games waiting in my backlog, but my backwards-compatible PS3 is down for repairs...hopefully.  It might be out of commission permanently, but at least I still have my PS2 if it comes to that.

Never played the .hack games myself, though.  I'd be interested hearing how they hold up.

-Autistic Angel

[TarrenVonRose]

They are wonderful games that like David so kindly said, were ahead of their time. They did have a few pitfalls here and there but all in all they were intriguing rpgs and the storyline was wonderful. Describing them though does them no justice if I am asked, they are a must play for any rpg fan in my book, but thas just me.