The conclusion to this underappreciated 4 part series is worth playing for.
If you have played the first 3 parts and read my reviews on them then you will know what I mean. Part 4 Quarentine has the same Gamplay as the previous 3 installments and just finishes the storyline.
After fighting the Wave that has been destroying the online game called The World and affecting people in real life, Kite and his band of friends finally get a chance to destroy it for good. As with previous games you have to go through several dungoens and monsters to destroy parts of the Data Bug and bring a conclusion to the Wave. When you finally make it to Cubia and fight him in a last battle, Kite figures out how to destroy him and does. But its not over, now a Final enemy appears and you must destroy him in 3 forms to finally end the destructive Wave and save those people in real life from their game playing induced coma's.
The gameplay is very good in my opinion. The free style hack & slash with a dash of alot of magic makes for some interesting battles. Although you can be overwhelemed by some enemies, most are easily defeated by using the opposite element. Battles take place by opening up yellow portals and releasing the monsters into battle. Some treasure chests are also found this way. Most of the best items and weapons are Drained from monsters or traded with NPC's found in the Root Towns.
The graphics and sound arent up to par with the PS2 system capabilities as you can see from repetative looking dungeons and fields. They arent very detailed but at least the monsters look cool and some of the players have nice costums and designs.
Overall I think these series of .Hack games were very underrated and underappreciated. Could they have been combined into two games... or even one?? Yes... but because it was spread out over 4 games it made for alot of extra exploring and item collection. There are countless number of fields and dungeons to explore and many different character combo's to use in batle. Plus there are hundreds of weapons, armor and items to use and switch around with the characters. Each game in the series has a secret Boss area and even after the game is completed you can continue playing and even use new characters.
If you like RPG's and enjoy the real time battle system then I would give this game a try. It's definately worth it and I found it enjoyable to play.