Like with the first .hack// series, GU spans across multiple games and each game manages to add more depth to the story

User Rating: 8.7 | .hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Kimi Omou Koe PS2
.hack// G.U. vol. 2 Reminisce (with a long title like that, you know the game will be good) is a continuation of the events of the first game in the G.U. series. It does a nice job with picking up where the first left off story wise and from there, it delivers a great continuation of the story along with good cel-shaded graphics, great acting, the indroduction (and death, or coma in this case) of characters, and some clever twists that will leave the player wanting more.

To start off with, the gameplay of the game is exactly the same as with G.U. vol. 1 Rebirth. Press the “X” button to perform a basic attack, press R1 to open the Skill Trigger menu where pressing either “X”, “Circle”, “Triangle”, or “Square” will launch different attacks. The only addition to the battle system is the “Multi Trigger”, which allows the player to set moves from different weapons on their skill trigger. The addition of this feature works great with the main character and adds in some strategy to the game. Another new feature is the Crimson VS card battle. After a whole game of taunting, this just doesn’t deliver. Basically, the player picks a deck leader and three support cards and logs in to “the world”. When they log out, the computer will have automatically done some battles for them.

The graphics in the G.U. series are cel-shaded. Cel-shaded graphics take less memory which allows developers to put more into the game. The graphics are good in all, but if Namco Bandai was trying to go for that more anime-like look, they could learn from Rogue Galaxy or Dragon Ball Z Budokai. I don’t mean to offend, but I thought those games had better graphics. The best part about the graphics in this game is probably the environments. The fields and dungeons are just simply great. Many people might complain about the areas being too repetitive, but you have to remember, it is a simulated MMORPG. In MMO’s dungeons are often repetitive.

As for the sound quality, this game delivers and then some. The music of the game does a great job of adding to the overall ambience of a “simulated MMO” that they are trying to produce. Like with the area, people will complain that the music is too repetitive. I’ll say the same thing as before. The voice overs in this game are great. Aside from a lot of annoying pauses and waiting for the subtitles to catch up with the speaking, they were fantastic. Thats all the basic stuff, now lets get more into this game. To start off with, there are an abundance of side quests to do even after you’ve beaten the game. There are Steam Bike races among other quests that you can do after the game is over. As I said before, the story picks up where Rebirth left off, which picks up after the anime .hack//ROOTS. It does a good job of continuing the story of the series. I don’t want to spoil anything for those that haven’t played it yet, but their will be new characters added in and one of Haseo’s party members will be put into a coma. Friends will become enemies How’s that to whet your palate? Overall, I would highly recommend beating Rebirth and watching at least some of the anime before getting this game. Because it will be too confusing otherwise. If you have done both of those, this game is a must-have that will keep you playing until the end, and then wanting more.