Day 29 - A list of your collection.

My collection of official stuff is actually kind of small and pathetic:

.hack//G.U. Rebirth
.hack//G.U. Reminisce
.hack//G.U. Redemption
.hack//G.U. Perfect Guidebook
.hack//G.U.+ volumes 4-5 (I’d already read scanlations of the first three, and wasn’t impressed or completionist enough to buy them)
.hack//4koma

I also have three adorable Ryou/Kaoru doujinshi, and a set of .hack//SIGN DVDs I bought years and years ago, which unfortunately turned out to be Chinese bootlegs with terrible nonsense subtitles. No dude, I don’t think you’re really going to the Suzy shop to eat Suzy.

I’m still pining for my own copies of the Black and White Archives, too.

I thought I’d finished these questions ages ago, but it turns out I forgot the last few! So yeah, here’s another.

Day 28 - An unpopular opinion.

I’ve voiced most of my unpopular opinions already, but here’s another: I don’t actually think a real MMO based on The World would be worth playing. Not unless they added a huge amount of new stuff, and didn’t rely on the .hack franchise to draw people in.

Gameplay-wise, IMOQ and G.U. are very limited compared to MMOs like WoW and RO. There’s not much variety in quests or PvP, and I’d rather have 20-30 intricately detailed and themed dungeons, instead of 200-300 randomly generated ones that follow a handful of templates. As console games they’re fine, but as online games they wouldn’t cut it.

Besides that, all the elements that make The World really special - Aura, the Eight Phases, Lost Grounds, AIDA, the Key of the Twilight legends - are things outside the control of the programmers. The only ones that could be replicated are the Lost Grounds, but instead of being truly mysterious, they’d be ‘places deliberately made to look mysterious’. And the characters which brought the .hack series to life, from Tsukasa to Haseo, none of those would be around either. So I just feel that any attempt to make a real The World would fail, as Fragment did, because it wouldn’t be able to live up to the fans’ expectations.

I haven’t forgotten this meme! Just been busy with other stuff. Like The Last Story, oh wow best game I’ve played in a long time.

Day 25 - Least favorite .hack.

LINK, for all the usual reasons people hate LINK. Also, I thought the way they treated Endrance crossed a line from ‘annoying’ into ‘downright offensive’, but I’m not in the mood to rant about that.

Trilogy was poorly done as well, since it basically trashed G.U.’s complex story, erased heaps of important characters and plot points, and turned it into a bland Haseo/Atoli lovefest. At least the graphics were pretty though?

Day 26 - Best voice acting.

This is one question I don’t have strong opinions on! I suppose the Japanese cast of G.U. was the best, from what I’ve heard. The English cast wasn’t bad either - some characters, like Haseo and Pi, were great - but the likes of Gaspard and Atoli let them down. Gaspard’s English voice annoys me a bit, but his Japanese voice is the CUTEST THING EVER oh my goodness.

Day 27 - Most epic scene/moment ever.

Endrance being amazing in Sage Palace. I shall not explain this any further, because you should all know what I’m talking about and why I chose it.

…Who am I kidding, I can’t resist. First, there’s the sheer badassery Endrance exhibits - he came up with the plan to beat Sakaki completely on his own, and executed it flawlessly. This is a person who, not long ago, had withdrawn from the world and lost himself in feelings of grief and helplessness, so it’s wonderful to see him develop so much confidence and determination. And all because of Haseo - who accepts him back as an ally instantly, and mere moments later is counting on Endrance’s support again. And then they take down Sakaki, one of my most hated villains ever! And then Endrance gives another of his magical speeches, and and…

The only thing that could elevate it from ‘amazing’ to ‘flawless’ is if Haseo’s response to all that was ‘okay wow you’re totally cool we should date’. Because seriously. So cool ;u;

Day 24 - Something you wish had happened or been done differently.

1. The G.U. novels should have been given a decent translation. They have interesting ideas, but it’s buried under awkward prose and nonsensical characterisation. Seriously guys, I would edit those things for free and they would be so much better. I’d even promise to behave and not end with Ryou and Kaoru making out.

2. The scene with Ovan in the Forest of Pain. I hated how Haseo did a 180 there, from his awesome ‘you’ve got no right to make people suffer!’ speech in the Creator’s Room, to being all ‘waaah Ovan pay attention to meee’. Just. Why. Haseo why are you behaving that way. Please forget that creeper and go rejoin your actual friends who’ve actually supported you, instead of skulking around playing mind games with you.

3. G.U. had too many party members that I never used. The Azure Trio, Bordeaux, Kaede - I do like Kaede, but why do I need yet another Blade Brandier? I’d have preferred to recruit Hiiragi, since then I’d get a second Macabre Dancer who’s more interesting than Yata (sorry, Yata). I never used Antares, Piros or Matsu either, outside of quests where I was forced to. So instead of all those surplus characters, I’d prefer more events and longer email chains with my favourites.

4. Endrance’s Promise Card scene (fair warning, if you’ve talked .hack with me in much detail then you’ve probably heard this already). I am, of course, pleased with the fact that he actually got a wedding, and the game went that far in legitimising his feelings. But it wasn’t perfect. The wedding pictures were silly - in a way that wasn’t funny, at least not to me - whereas all the other weddings looked more serious and romantic. Including the ones with minor characters like Tabby, Kaede and Bordeaux (you know, the Bordeaux who harassed Haseo and his friends, made Alkaid a Lost One, gloated about it, and would have done the same to him if it wasn’t for Endrance…that Bordeaux). And I call bullshit on that.

Haseo is the one who sent the Promise Card. He listened to Endrance’s speech and went with him to Hy Brasail, while the girls were all ‘wow guess he’s not as straight as we thought’. And Endrance himself asked ‘what exactly do you want from me?’ so there was no room for misunderstandings, was there? Haseo sent the card, Endrance asked for clarification, and they ended up with a wedding. I’m pretty sure there’s only one way to interpret that outcome.

So then, what’s with Haseo’s lousy expressions in the wedding pictures? It’s like the creators chickened out at the last second, didn’t want to alienate the homophobic-14-year-old-boy fanbase, so they shoved Endrance in some sparkly bridal gear and tried to make it more of a joke. And it doesn’t work. Haseo made a romantic gesture to a guy he knew would reciprocate - you can’t backpedal from that. Their pictures should be in exactly the same tone as everyone else’s, something simple and sweet like them holding hands and smiling at each other. Maybe an echo of their first conversation, where Endrance is touching Haseo’s face but this time their expressions are warm, not cold. That is what should have been delivered - it’s no less than they deserved to have, and it’s no less than LGB players of the games, like myself, deserved to see.

Yes, as I stated, it’s a huge step forward that Endrance got a wedding at all. But I can’t help feeling that it was deemed ‘lesser’ in comparison to the others (and if you still doubt me on this, then look at Hosokawa’s concept sketches in the Perfect Guidebook), in a way I’m not okay with.

Posting three questions together to catch up on this!

Day 21 - The .hack with the best story.

G.U. is the storyline that had the biggest emotional impact on me, and entertained me the most. Dramatic confrontations and battles, cute comedic moments, tragedies and triumphs - it wasn’t perfect, but everything was in a pretty good balance.

Day 22 - A lesson learned thanks to .hack.

Well, it helped me pull myself together when I was in a bad place. That’s as much as I’m going to say right now.

Day 23 - How .hack compares to other series.

SO VERY UNDERRATED. Seriously guys why is .hack so underrated. I know the sheer volume of stuff seems to daunt some people, since I see a lot of ‘I want to get into this series but oh god where do I start’ style questions. And uh, it probably doesn’t help that SIGN and ROOTS are both rather slow and meandering. It also doesn’t help that IMOQ and G.U. are split into multiple installments, meaning you have to shell out three or four times if you want to complete them. And…okay, I do see why people get discouraged from the series. But I still think it’s underrated, once you get into it.

Speaking specifically about G.U., it’s not the greatest thing I’ve ever played, gameplay-wise. The battle system isn’t half as challenging as it should be, and I wish there was more variety to the quests. A few decent puzzles wouldn’t go amiss, either. However, the character designs and music are both excellent, and some of the environments - the Lost Grounds in particular - are gorgeous (though I wish they could be explored more thoroughly). The setting is unique, but there are both good and bad points to it. It’s fun to participate in a ‘real world’ setting, with extras like the forums and news reports, but there’s not as strong a sense of wonder and mystery as I find in pure fantasy worlds, like Legend of Zelda or Valkyrie Profile.

Although the storyline is linear, I appreciate things like the greeting card emails, which let you choose how Haseo bonds with different party members. It’s not as in-depth as, say, the PA system in Star Ocean or the Dive system in Ar Tonelico, but it’s better than nothing. And as I’ve said before, there need to be more games with same-sex romance options, so it earns bonus points for that.

30 Day .hack Challenge

Day 20 - A cool piece of art (official or fanmade).

This was another tough question, since I have a vast collection of .hack-related art scrounged from all across the internets, and I’m lucky enough to be friends with the two best artists on the English-speaking side of the fandom.

But in the end, this image seemed most appropriate. I like how Haseo is trying to be a Serious Business Artist here, while Bo is being an adorable little kid and Endrance is just…himself ♥

Image Source

Day 19 - Merchandise you wish existed.

Well, I prefer collecting things like art books and doujinshi. And I’m infinitely more interested in stuff that features both Haseo and Endrance. So really and predictably, what would make me happiest is if there were a lot more Haseo/Endrance doujinshi in the world, with quality art and proper characterisation and storylines to melt my fangirl heart.

Because as far as I know, there are FOUR* Haseo/Endrance doujinshi in existence (and I own three of them). And that’s ridiculous considering that Endrance’s feelings are canon, and Haseo can actually marry him. And they’re both really pretty. Japanese fans, you disappoint me.

*It’s actually six, if you count another two which look so silly that I’m not interested in them.

Day 17 - Favourite antagonist.

I think the idea of Morganna, created to be mother to another AI but instead turning against her, is really interesting. But since I haven’t played IMOQ, I’ll go for Sakaki. He’s a villain I loved to hate, and yet there was a ‘good’, relatable motivation behind his actions that got twisted out of shape. I could never decide if he really thought Haseo was a bad guy trying to spoil his utopian vision, or if he was just making excuses to be mean, but in a way that was part of the fun, too.

Also, best defeat scene ever. For many reasons.

Day 18 - Favourite protagonist.

Gee, I wonder what my answer to this will be!

Day 16 - Funniest scene/moment.

Probably when Haseo has to look after Shop Acorn. Or any time Canard are pushing him into cheerful activities and he’s being completely tsundere about it. Cute as hell.

But I’ve already posted my favourite Canard-themed bits from the 4koma manga, so here’s another random page from it.

And also another of Biwa’s comics from the Perfect Guidebook. Apparently she doesn’t think Haseo’s outfits are outrageous enough yet…

…so she puts him in Rei’s plug suit. Congratulations Zelkova, you win at trolling Haseo forever.

I don’t have many thoughts on .hack//Versus, since I’m not a fan of fighting games (they feel like the absolute opposite of RPGs). It’s a relief to know where those ‘secret new game’ screenshots of Haseo came from, though. I’d much rather see him in a novelty fighting game, instead of starring in a proper new .hack story that might spoil his character for me. …Also that new Skeith with scythes for arms is undeniably badass-looking.

Anyway, on with that meme I’m supposed to be doing!

Day 15 - Weirdest character design.

For this, I can only turn to the pages of the .hack//Archive Black…

SO MANY AWKWARD BULGES dear god why D:

There are many, many questionable designs in that book, and someday I may post more, just for the lulz. There are also some cool things, like a prototype Haseo wielding chainsaw-katars. How did that not make it into the game, CC2