I think .Hack//sign is slow but the atmosphere is so different from a lot of 'trapped in a video game' animes out there. For one it's not really about teenage wifus or the MC being the strongest player. Tsukasa is very much not a wish-fulfillment character and is pretty morose and messed up as a person. Which I think turns a lot of people away. I like how every character feels like a real person using the game to escape their real world lives for various reasons. From an overworked salary man, a devoiced guy who can't connect with his son, a lonely older woman who can't connect with anyone, or even a paraplegic. But there's something really unsettling about The World and you can feel it in the design for both the first anime and original games.
What I loved and still love about the .Hack franchise is the feeling of genuine horror that the series has. Maybe this is just nostalgia, but there were times when I was afraid to load up .Hack just because of how uncomfortable the imagery and musical score was. That simple, droning tone whenever you fought one of the Waves was enough to make my brother scared to even go into my room at times when I was playing it and I can still hear Skeith's theme in my head.
You nailed it with that description. I would also like to highlight how .hack//SIGN also takes the time to show that no, it's not an amazing thing to be physically trapped into a virtual digital world, it's terrifying. I vividly remember one part where a stone bridge collapses with Mimiru on it and Bear grans her arm, catching her. She looks down at the digital clouds and asks "Hey...what would happen to me if I were to fall down?" and Bear tells her "Don't even think about it!". It's absolutely chilling. I still highly recomend this story because it's more of a psychological mystery than it ever was an isekai. Arcada, Thank you so much for doing this episode, it was full of loving memories. I'm off to re-watch the game cutscenes.... again. :)
@@tohothewriter8002 yup, it was a corrupted dungeon and they were racing up to meet Harold, with Morgana trying to prevent it. She was the one who broke the stone bridge, trying to "kill" Mimiru. Man, such an amazing series. I have so many memories of amazing scenes from this anime.
.hack//SIGN is still one of the most “realistic” isekai anime out there. The characters spend their time sitting around and talking about random stuff, some of them RP(and some go a little too far in it), you have players who try to act like hot shit but are actually 12 year-olds running wild without supervision, and age/life gaps that offer perspectives without keeping players from being friends with each other. Also, unlike other isekai, Tsukasa isn’t transported to The World, but rather, left unable to log out. They really considered all walks of life, especially with the ending revelations of Tsukasa and Subaru, and unlike SAO, the main character is deeply flawed and far from perfect- and that is what makes up Tsukasa’s personality, her trauma and introversion. You can’t NOT cheer for the ending, especially if you’ve ever had that moment where you can sense that someone close to you online is nearby offline.
.hack//sign was the first time I realized just how much I liked soundtracks. The World, Aura, even Magic and Sword--there's this constant undertone of discord and aching wistfulness, something Kajiura does really well in other work but especially here. It's probably the nostalgia, but this might be my favorite of her soundtracks (or at least right up there with her work with Kalafina). The ost makes the anime worth the watch, even if sometimes it's more worth it to turn off the dialogue and just listen for awhile.
BeeTrain: sorry we blew the animation budget on the soundtrack again, but on the flip side the soundtrack is freaking great. Tsubasa's soundtrack is arguably better than .hack//sign. .hack//roots is excellent etc.
Till this day, Haseo aka Sora from Sign is one of the most resilient MC of the .Hack franchise. This guy got tossed around with the Ls like a drag doll but still found a way to recover and get back what he lost.
That’s crazy. I just looked Sora up and the fact that Haseo was already playing in The World before he became the main character in G.U. baffled me. My first time to the series is the .Hack G.U. Re:code and to find out that he came so far is crazy/amazing. The story telling to the series maybe a messing but when you put it together the series has some of the best story telling to any game. Wish I could’ve played the first .Hack series to the game first but I’m happy that I even got to know and play any of the games.
@@adrammelech6323 It was all coming in full circle. His harem was small yet wholesome and deep. Alkaid for being best girl and Atoli for being more complex than we gave credit for (Atoli's story was rather messed up more than I imagined.) Should I mention Endrance though (Even if he overcame his grief from the first .Hack series).... LOL
.hack became my first ever anime becoz I accidentally heard the Yuki kajiura's soundtrack on UA-cam in 2006. I love that song for many reasons, one of them being it introducing me to the world of anime and Japanese artists
The one thought searing through my mind playing Last Recode: Why is this padded to three volumes and an epilogue? I'd be interested in a revival just to see what it's like without constant busywork to justify selling each volume as a separate game.
.hack//SIGN has one of the best soundtrack scores of any anime ever. The OP (Obsession) is an awesome techno trance-like song (That I didn't realize until just recently that it was completely sung in broken English, I couldn't understand what the singer was saying so I assumed it was Japanese this whole time) that really gets you pumped up. The background music throughout the show has alot melodic choir hymnal-like songs that portray a feeling of sacredness helping you really feel the mysterious atmosphere that the show is trying to convey. The soundtrack for this anime is close to the heavenly quality that was the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.
I never played the games so my only connection to .hack was //Sign since it aired on Toonami about 15 years ago. It gives it a nostalgic connection so when Funimation re-released the DVD set a few years back I picked it up... though I still haven't actually rewatched it.
When i watched .hack//Sign back in the day it was great but storytelling in anime has come a long way since then. Went back to it last year and stopped after a couple of episode cause i was bored to tears. Only the music held up since it is so wonderful but as for the rest there are many better isekai series that came since then that are way more enjoyable. So you're not missing out on much if you never watched it just listen to the soundtrack and you're good.
The games are good. I own all the original 7 mainline games and the odd one that was kinda a tie in for the movie for the PS3. The PSP one was ok too but it was so hard to find a copy I just played it in an emulator a while back. The 8th game title "//Reconnection" that was released for the PS4 is a bit of a doozy since I own it too physically for my collection but I haven't actually touched it at all. I kinda didn't want to double dip by also buying the PC version of the remaster + new game. My suggestion is if you want to play the games and not own a PS2 is to just watch the lets play on UA-cam or run a PS2 Emulator. For the GU games just buy the PC remaster off steam.
my fiancee still refers to SAO as "shitty .hack". she's also got the full collection of games (with a pricetag i'd rather not mention) and a grunty plushie that you literally cannot find for sale on amazon, ebay, or any other site. thing just does not exist anymore
I must say .hack is an awesome rabbit hole of different stories to go down. I ended up grabbing the gu remaster on sale and from there I was hooked on learning about the world and all the little details spread out through different media. I think that what makes it great to me is how large a world there is to explore which is something you don't quite get anymore in today's media.
I actually adore .hack//SIGN and think it's actually one of my favourite animes ever. I think the big stumbling block that people have with it is that they approach it like a typical isekai or action anime series where it's most definitely not either of those things. You really need to come into the series from a different mindset, treat it like a mystery show or even as a character-driven slice of life. Suddenly, what appeared like padding becomes moments where the characters grow, are revealed in more detail, and where the mystery becomes deepened, that's really what makes me love .hack//SIGN to this day! I really feel like it's the G.U. anime that had the severe pacing issues, where you literally have the protagonist asking "Why do people even play this stupid game?", being a grumpy asshole, and completely and utterly uninvested in the game for literally like the first 18 episodes and all of the drama happening in the last like 4, during which there is a time jump! .hack//SIGN at least filled all of that time with character development and deepening the mystery, G.U. looked at that and said "Oh, people like characters just standing around, talking to each other cryptically? Well, let's have that be all the show is about!" Literally nothing happens in G.U. and that's not even getting into what they did to Aura, basically turning her into the antagonist for no good reason! There's great bones to G.U., because it's built on .hack//SIGN, but it just puts them bones together in the worst and laziest way possible. :P
@Cyberdemon Mike I will agree to that, but that's because it was created, as Arkada said, as an introduction to the games. The anime always does require a bit of background research, too, to finally understand the series as a whole, but that's not unique to SIGN, G.U. has the same issues, but without anything remotely good to cover it up.
Sign's plot where only a single player was stuck in-game while others visit and even question if what they're talking to is human is still pretty unique afaik. The slow sense of dread due to the unknown in an an isekai show is still pretty different too.
Yeah unless people actually study the isekai fantasy in detail or is an older generation anime fan, this little series has sadly gotten lost over time, especially among the new generation fans.
Come-on morden isekai is the best isekai you basically turn from a loser to an alpha with cheat and everyone worships you those who don't are ass holes you get to have every woman you see even those that have guys that like them why wouldn't you love morden isekai
Mark Gasto Because it sucks, that’s why! You literally just watch emo kids talk about their feelings and the story makes no sense unless you play the games. To hell with this series!
i remember the hype about the game series that was pushed along with the anime. they played up the connection between anime and game as if it would be important to have seen the anime to understand the game, at least where i was when it was being promoted. i never bothered with the games but the anime, slow and plodding as it seemed at times, was compelling enough to keep my interest and i never minded the pacing because the settings, visuals and character designs were so gorgeous for the time i earned a top spot on my favs list. the op music/visuals didnt hurt either. also i gotta sit back and go 'damn, it was that long ago?'
.hack// changed my life entirely. A friend handed me a light novel of it when I was ~11, then I found more about it online, somehow stumbled across Infection for a few bucks at GameStop, and played. After that it was my favorite thing. I bought the manga, watched as much as I could, had all the music, started collecting the games, etc. Besides Naruto and Inuyasha and the like, which were shown on Toonami, this was the first thing to really grab my attention from Japan. It led to my deep interest in all sorts of Japanese games and media, and those eventually led to other things etc etc. It led to me going to conventions, meeting other people who knew WAY MORE than I did. Led to me enjoying movies and shows I would have never heard of. Led to me learning about an entirely different culture and language. That all started when I was a child and it shaped who I am and what I value as an adult. I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t read that .hack// light novel.
Dot hack was my childhood, i bought the games and i discovered anime through the games, i love it, i got into anime because of it and im eternally grateful, it will always have a spot in me. :)
I didn't even know the word "Anime" until I played .hack and found it thought the japanese-audio trailer, advertising the several media of the franchise. Thank you .hack!!
25th years anniversary? Would love to have them too, but with a new and fresh coat of paint and less clunky mechanics if anything. I have the first original three volumes myself for PS2.
As someone who grinded for perfect ryu books on all original PS2 games I'd say they need a lot of work to be released today. More like full remake than remaster. The camera and movement were soo bad that they would be trashed by every reviewer if they were rereleased. But the story, ideas and music were really good, in many aspects it was groundbreaking for it's time.
.hack//SIGN remains my favorite anime to this day since i first saw it at uh... twelve/thirteen years old. You say it dragged on for far too long, but I still find new things to like in it every couple years when I come back to it. I resonated with Tsukasa's struggle in ways I didn't understand until I was much older.
I just finished .Hack//Sign after a 20 year gap between seeing the first half on TV and then finishing it online now. .Hack is still very unique among Anime, you can tell the Isekai tropes didn't exist because characters only briefly touch on game mechanics that are entrenched as normal behavior now (in game holographic displays). The story definitely is slow and I'd almost say it has a cliffhanger ending, thankfully we have the OVA ending to the series that brings a sense of closure even if it didn't specifically resolve everything that happened in .Hack//Sign.
I know a lot of people don't like .hack//Sign but I love it! Yes its to long but that music and just the overall fell of the show. It was the first anime that really got me into anime.
I rewatched this year and thought it was a masterpiece. I'm not the kind that gets turned off by slow burns (monster is one of my favorites) that people call boring. I find my own fascination with them.
@@MultiGreatNinja Monster Farm/Monster Rancher has a few RPG elements tho. Building a party, collecting the discs and taking them to the shrine as fetch quests, Mu as the final boss character, etc. Genki was even sucked into a video game, or at least that's the suspected premise Monster Farm is the OG
Game isn't a slog at all when you get the right gear, and give your party members the right gear too mainly a BiS weapon. Back when the games were new and i didn't know any better for the first game the battle against skeith was gruelingly long and painful. When i replayed it with the vast knowledge of the internet i hooked up my party members with the best weapons available in part 1, and completely blitzed skeith in a minute, and the parasite dragon wasn't much harder.
Im aware this is 4 years late but the aim of the .hack// games was so corporate but the idea to sell a single player game that mimics the feel of an mmo snd each volume acted as an expansion.
You should have mentioned the DVD OVAs that were included with the original Quadrilogy. They were a really awesome addition, an additional piece of media almost completely outside of the game, while the game disc takes place exclusively always inside the game. Each Liminality OVA showed more and more of the real world and the people trying to solve the mystery outside, and the game disc showed more of the game The World. I think they really nailed their multimedia .hack project by doing that.
.Hack//Sign captures the feel of Early MMO's like Everquest. The lack of lots of combat, the long periods of downtime, the countless moments of just talking or "being in character" or "pretending to be someone or something else" is exactly what early MMO's felt like.
I finally found and bought .Hack Quarantine last month after years of searching. Sure there always been copies on Amazon/ebay, but most sellers weren’t selling the complete product and were grossly overpriced.
What I loved about SIGN was all of the music that was in the series was actually being played in the game. In Liminality we caught a glimpse of a character about to log in, it started playing The World (SIGN op) through the desktop's speakers. So that is like the coolest catch.
I remember .hack//sign airing on Toonami. For whatever reason, I never really caught more than 4 episodes and honestly don't remember enough to say what happened. I know a bunch of people I hung out with were super into the games... I didn't own a PS2 so I was out of the loop. I wouldn't mind trying to watch the original series, at least to get a refresher on it. Somehow, I did catch all of Zoids Chaotic Century though... probably helped that that series began to air in the morning a little bit before I would go to school.
As someone who absolutely loves .hack, the ending for SIGN has probably one of the most disturbing scenes I ever saw in anime, probably because I didn't expect it. After the PK Sora betrayed Morgana and then stayed behind to gloat a bit after letting everyone else escape he was trapped himself, then crucified as Morgana summoned Skeith "The Terror of Death" (still the coolest looking and best named of the waves). He was then data drained and collapsed, and then it goes to the real world where it goes to his bedroom where he is collapsed at the keyboard, it shows a schoolbag and a calendar with 4th grade school schedule written on it. What is cool is that in the third game in a side mission you can hunt down Skeith's staff and free Sora's soul. Also for those who don't know why Haseo is so grumpy and pissy in ROOTS and GU, he is Sora grown up to a highschool teenager with amnesia of the events of when he played The World.
You forgot for Asia, it was pretty much Ragnarok Online that introduced people to the MMORPG genre and this was also around 2002~2004 right when .hack were coming out to the market.
Same. At that time I never even heard of Ultima Online, EverQuest, or WoW. I'd learn about those a year or two after .hack but Ragnarok manga and the Ragnarok Online Korean server were my first introductions to MMO's.
I recall getting into .hack//sign when I was like 7. And I have been hooked since. I wasn't able to play through the PS2 games due to not having the console during that time, but I picked up other parts of the series. Such as .hack//Legend of the Twilight anime and .hack//Quantum. I still loved the series and the music. I bought the remastered .hack//GU on steam and played the crap out of it. I had some of the light novels when they came out in the US. I even have the .hack//sign DVDs when they got a US re-release in the US a few years ago. Even though the music puts me to sleep. This is still probably my favorite Isekai series ever.
I remember watching this when it aired on cartoon network and was immediately hooked. I looked everywhere for the DVD's and eventually got them from Ebay and various EB games stores. I still have them and watch it periodically. This show was so different from everything else and I've been watching it for years. So good!
I love Sign!!! The intro song is amazing that felt like something you'd find in a game, the despair of the protagonist as he is the only one stuck, the slow build of trust and friendship, PKers, the purposeful plot holes and difference of real life and video games. We need a new instalment
I've watched your original review of .Hack//SIGN back in the day and I've constantly found myself wanting to ask you to do a second look of the show because I felt you were unfair in how concepts like the happenings behind closed doors of a video game world that is reset to its original parameters, for one, which has stuck with me for several years and makes Bear probably one of the most well written characters of the entire franchise in my eyes. I agree that the narrative spends a little too much time on character development and tries to flesh things out with a lot of world building getting stuffed in a single 25 episodes season, but at the same time it sets a tone that is defined everything that followed, primarily with how... adequate the soundtrack is. I really wanted to tell you all of this for so long, I'm glad that you actually went and did it before I decided to constantly bother you about that old review of yours. I sing fake wings to myself oftenly to this day still, it has helped me deal with difficult times throughout the years. Don't think for a moment I didn't pick up on it when you started talking about Yuki Kajira's musical work on the franchise. Because I totally did! Such a beautiful and simplistic sounding song that has an incredible amount of depth to uncover when you pay attention to the lyrics. Thank you so very much for this second look and, consequently, insight of what isekai is as a whole.
.Hack is honestly my favorite fictional franchise of all time. I have collected nearly every installment of it that exists in America, and am certain that I will rewatch/replay/reread the whole series at some point in the future when I get nostalgic again.
Not to mention .Hack, at least the original games has this mythical haunted feeling with it's damaged textures and strange epitaphs and unruly AI, it feels like a modern fantasy in the best way. Something both familiar and alien. The aesthetic design and the music makes you want to unravel the deeper mysteries in the game's code.
I remember .hack. I loved the .hack//G.U games, and .hack//SIGN is one of the first anime I watched as an anime fan. My only problem with .hack is that it's a massive multimedia project and consequentially it's just about impossible to get the full story and lore.
with people doing scanlations of the numerous novels and manga series we never got in the West, as well as the cutscenes of the games are easier to watch on UA-cam not to mention streaming websites having the numerous anime series both in subbed and dubbed versions , it's now easier to get into the franchise than say 17 years ago
Having only watched //sign and a couple other episodes some of the other anime or OVAs, i actually love the fact that I only know snippets of the full lore -- pieces of the puzzle. It replicates the same feelings for me as a viewer that I would have had as a player stumbling in on the greater story, which makes "the world" feel much bigger and more dangerous. A lot can be lost when we get the 'whole story.'
@@martinde-serres8724 yes but there's about 34 different medias, it's still tough to go through all of that.I finished all of the anime and ova and I'm now playing g.u. last recode,plus I bought ai buster (read one volume of .hack legend of the twilight too).But that's still a long way from the full story.
@@inkoinfinity2 again, thanks to the powers of the Internet, and also a PS4 or PC for Last Recode, you can play catch up with the .hack// franchise more easily than trying to get EVERYTHING that was localized in the West it's not THAT hard to get caught up honestly, you just need to know what to watch/read/play that's canon and you're good to go I mean, the franchise's wiki is pretty much the go-to for everything .hack, so don't act like a fucking pussy and just do it
The first hack has a weird place in my heart. I remember a marathon of it was going on around Christmas and I remember watching in while also playing my brand new pokemon sapphire game. Fun times. I was definitely a weird time in my childhood. I've been afraid to rewatch the series as an adult as I'm not sure it'll holdup.
I liked .hack Sign in my early teens, aswell as the quadrilogy of games with the tense atmosphere and imaginative gameplay setting. Importing your character and all your things kept up the illusion of playing an MMO in a collapsing world that nobody else is aware of. Infection, Mutation, Ourbreak and Quarantine will always have a special place in my memory. Damn me and my desperation for money as a child. I traded tons of rare RPG'S in as a kid for a couple dollars. Fire Emblem for gamecube/Wii was another great intriguing game I miss.
@@GlassReflection On a somewhat related note. This was an awesome video, and I would LOVE to see a similar video on Persona/SMT, since it's also a massive Anime/Video Game/Manga media franchise
G.U. is a very important game to me. It’s not my favorite game ever, but it’s probably my most important. It really helped shape me into the person I am today.
This was a very well done video and I very much would like more like it from you in the future. I recently picked up the GU remake on Steam but was on the fence about playing. I'll check out SIGN then play the games. Also , when Mass Destruction played, I said "marin karin" at the exact same time Mitsuru did in the video. So, that definitely got a chuckle out of me.
God...my nostalgia sense is tingling so strong right now. I was there for .Hack//Sign and I was RIVETED by it. It led to my long standing love of isekai to this day.
I actually like Sign quite a bit. I understand it isn't for everyone though. It's easy to go into it expecting a light hearted adventure with fantasy battles. But, most of what you get is actually a somewhat depressing character drama. But, if that's something you're into I think it's great. The pacing is slow, but I feel like that adds to the tone really well. I may be biased, but having grown up in an abusive situation, Tsukasa's character arc really hit home. Especially with his relationship with Bear, and where that goes. (Don't wanna spoil things.) It's one of my favorites to this day. Also, it gets props from me for being a positive portrayal of LGBT themes way ahead of its time. I also love that it portrays all of its characters as being more complex than they first seem. Even minor characters like Silver Knight. On top of that, none of them are just 'Good' or 'Evil'. They all have unique motives that inform their behavior once you understand them. Overall, I think it still holds up really well if you just want solid character exploration in a fantasy setting with great atmospheric music.
I loved how character focused Sign's plot and story was. Pretty much all of the main characters had this endearing charm to them every time I saw them. I loved the different relationships each character had with each and seeing how they change. Along with the mystery that slowly unravels as the show progresses of who these people behind the online avatars really are. Since they all lived pretty different lives outside of just playing a video game to escape reality. Sign is amazing.
There were a number of anime released in the late 90s early 2000s that were surprisingly positive in their LGBT portrayals. .Hack, Sailor Moon, Ghost in the Shell, Utena. Most of those were even mainstream.
Re: it's positive portrayal of LGBT themes, it also handles issues around gender, disabilities, mental health and so many issues well and in complex ways. Social/economic class, age, etc. It tackle so many different aspects of identity with a diverse cast of characters, and none of the player characters are left paper thin. Heck, is there any other anime that gets so much of these issues right and isn't afraid of the complexity? If there is, I'd love to watch it. If the series had been cut in half to 'speed up the action,' so much of this rich complexity, from so many of the characters, would have been lost, and then it would have been just another anime.
as a man who owns all this media yeah your assessment is pretty much on the money the only thing that I still engage with from the franchise is the music I couldn't really go back and replay these games too much they just didn't hold up for me
Yuki kajiura did amazing work creating an unforgettable atmosphere within the franchise! Am I the only one who needs a .hack//SIGN OST 1&2 on a vinyl release with cool cover and sleeve art?
SAO the anime may have come out a decade after .hack//sign, but the original web-novel started in 2002, just like the .hack franchise. That's one of the reasons Aincrad differs from actual MMO's: it was written before WoW and it's clones dominated the genre.
Thank you so much for covering this series. Not only did you explain how good it is, but also what makes the franchise weak compared to others. This is one of my favorite franchise but I see why it isn't the greatest. The MUSIC, visuals, and story is what hooks me to the franchise. And although not the greatest of franchise. I still consider it a masterpiece tho. It is dragged out both the anime and the games but they are worth it. I thought the A.I. was easy to use. But then again I spent way to much time in this franchise. Thank you.
So glad you covered this, you helped me get answers as to why the franchise fell asleep for a while and got me to pop in my old school copies of one through four for old times sake. :D
I really liked the .hack anime series. I think I have watched all of them 3 times during years. For me they were relaxing to watch because of the music and the slow pace of story. Even though nowadays I notice the animation and how cheaply they were made. Whenever something happened that would have required bit more fast paced action, they generally jumped to show some other players who were just calmly talking about something. Very few scenes with much movement and mostly very static. Especially .hack root series.
I have to say, it was very fun to see you also review the games. It totally took me off guard and I'm glad to see how you approached them in this video
I had a bit of an . . . obsession with dot Hack when it first came out. I love the anime and have watched it multiple times, I think it is part of why I can take some joy in slower animes today, though certainly not as slow lol. I have never completed any of the games. The grind was far to much for me and by the time I had time to actually sit down and play, well life just kept going. I never got into GU or ROOTs though I have tried to watch Roots and GU did look somewhat interesting. By the time they came out I was already burned by Legend of the Twilight and I don't think I enjoyed that the main character of the GU series was a bit too. . . shonen. Overall I 100% agree with your statements, the music is incredible and there is nothing wrong with starting in the GU era as that is certainly more fleshed out than the original lol. I'm just happy to see we haven't all forgotten this series.
I miss .hack so much. If they put effort into bringing it back, it would blow SAO and Log Horizon out of the water. New anime, new game, remaster Kite's quadrilogy. So glad I still have my old PS2 Kite games. I love them.
Not only that but they don't know that Isekai anime has existed since the 80s. It doesn't help that the dumbass of gigguk and theanimeman have been spreading those stupid memes.
@@cruzgonzalez7061 Crunchy Roll did a full video on the genre showing it's dates aback before the 2000s, so I recommend it. Now I can say Digimon and Inuyasha are Isekai anime. Plus it does make you want to look at characters now if the are NEETS or Shut Ins to the old life before diving into their new life.
@@OathKeeperRiku07 Yeah I've already seen it, I was surprised that they actually did their homework for the video, thanks though! It just annoys me that when folks mention isekai, they only bring up the ones from the 2010s, then act like that's what isekai is all about. Tell them to watch the ones from the 80s/90s/00s they'll say no because it looks "ugly/old".
Thank you for giving spotlight to .hack games. It tends to get forgotten and left into shadow of much more well known SAO. It would be great if they did same with first 4 games that they did with G.U. games so that more people could play those.
This is my absolute all time favorite series. Every time I hear the music my heart sinks and I could never tell why but I love the feeling and even miss it. I really hope all the little nudges to the series continuing in .hack// Last Recode were more than just nudges
I love .hack. I'm one of the 1.5% of Steam players with the King of the World achievement for Last Recode. And while I'd love more out of this franchise, yeah I get it. It's been beaten to death quickly and efficiently. Hell you didn't even mention the entire anime series that takes place entirely between the tutorial and first cutscene of G.U. 1.
i got pulled in by the mystery of The World. learning of how it was developed by Harald Hoerwick, Aura's conception as a virtual child between Harold and Emma, Morganna's decision to not follow her programming in order to save herself, ect. i wanted to see how Aura and The World developed over the years, always excited to see what's new. though i never finished G.U., so idk how that ended. i only got as far as the 2nd game
Hey Arkada! Great review! I also reviewed the series a while back and had the same exact observation about Final Fantasy VII Remake. If you're curious, CyberConnect2 was actually involved in that decision, when they were working on FFVII Remake. So, guess who we have to thank for THAT little nugget of genius. :-P
with all the remakes and remasters this last year or 2, this game definitely deserves one, maybe with a few touch ups to combat *cough cough* menus and ai
My personal favorite of "recent" .hack are the Quantum ovas: by having the person trapped in the game portrayed as the villain instead of the protagonist for the measures they go to try to escape made it very interesting and even heart breaking at times.
"Split up and sold separately for an unknown reason" The answer as told by Hiroshi Matsuyama at a CC2 panel "We were inspired by Star Wars and wanted to make a story that kept its players hooked and waiting for the next part of the saga."
A unique part of .hack is the sense of urgency caused by the pace at which the game becomes visibly glitched, as it happens at a slow yet obvious pace in the game, which causes the players to take all the time they need to prepare for the inevitable battles as they need to wait regardless so they just play "normally" until then. In both the games and anime they mention levelling up, getting new spells and weapons, playing the game normally despite the world visually degrading around them.
Watching the part where he mentioned the cost of attaining the full set... and then looking over and seeing Outbreak, Quarantine, Mutation, Infection, Rebirth, Reminisce, and Redemption on my shelf. So satisfying. Also, Key of the Twilight is STILL my favorite song from any .hack media to date.
I think the biggest appeal of the .hack series (which I LOVE, btw. I didn't come back to it after growing old, but well) is, as you said, its tone. It's so powerful and unique, kinda similar to what Ghibli does in some movies, as seen in the train sequence of Chihiro (which is done better, but dot hack gets kinda close), and it goes throughout every game. I loved answering emails and getting to know the characters better every time (Gardelia, Mistral, Natsume, Sanjuro, miss you guys), but the liminality anime is where it shines most, I guess... I still want to read some of the novels, especially the g.u. era ones. Well, I'm glad to see someone talking about it. It made my day. See ya!
Honestly I feel the more drawn out nature of Sign was important for the simple fact that it was initial world building for a fully planned multimedia franchise. It needed to be able to provide a firm foundation for the the World and also had to then present both a resolution to Tsukasa's story and the basics of the overarching Aura story at the heart of phase 1 of the franchise. As far as the whole four game thing goes yes, they should have had it all in one game and for that matter we really should have had a compilation on PS4 similar to G.U.'s.
I used to play 1 other the early .hack game back in 2009, it was Infection i think but i don't really remember. Now i have abit of regret for not finishing that game cause after checking all my old stuff after watching other review on it(before this), i don't have the game anymore.
Hello again arkada, tis me Hasty. I saw this just today (thanks UA-cam for your Garbo) and realized among the fanbase who played and enjoyed .Hack I'm a descent heavy hitter with the nostalgia and knowledge. Hell I still get inspiration from this series and use it in DnD for my players. Overall yes the early games and shows were... Bland and about as gameplay varied as looking at your feet while walking through a desert. Yet the theme and 4th wall style ideas still sink into your soul. Being young and playing these games did sink genuine fear into the wielder of the controller as you wondered each time if you left "The World" if players would die or abandon you for being so close to the corruption so often. I never got to read the light novels but I am the guy who bought the games, busted out my old madcatz controller and played all the way from beginning to last disc G.U. (which my controller broke then my laptop cooked preventing me from finishing it) But it's still something that if they only even updated graphics and made a few small tweaks would actually fit into its own catagory I dare say 1-2 steps above Indie games. Do I want a full resurgence of the WHOLE title chain and everything attached to it? No. But updating the games, making them multi platform and releasing the novels and anime in a bundle like DBZ, bleach, ghost detective, ghost in the Shell and so on have done in the past. Yes, miles yes. Overall I appreciate your work just as much today as I did when I discovered your channel back years ago. Best of luck. Hasty.
I think .Hack//sign is slow but the atmosphere is so different from a lot of 'trapped in a video game' animes out there. For one it's not really about teenage wifus or the MC being the strongest player. Tsukasa is very much not a wish-fulfillment character and is pretty morose and messed up as a person. Which I think turns a lot of people away. I like how every character feels like a real person using the game to escape their real world lives for various reasons. From an overworked salary man, a devoiced guy who can't connect with his son, a lonely older woman who can't connect with anyone, or even a paraplegic. But there's something really unsettling about The World and you can feel it in the design for both the first anime and original games.
What I loved and still love about the .Hack franchise is the feeling of genuine horror that the series has. Maybe this is just nostalgia, but there were times when I was afraid to load up .Hack just because of how uncomfortable the imagery and musical score was. That simple, droning tone whenever you fought one of the Waves was enough to make my brother scared to even go into my room at times when I was playing it and I can still hear Skeith's theme in my head.
haha same.
You nailed it with that description. I would also like to highlight how .hack//SIGN also takes the time to show that no, it's not an amazing thing to be physically trapped into a virtual digital world, it's terrifying. I vividly remember one part where a stone bridge collapses with Mimiru on it and Bear grans her arm, catching her. She looks down at the digital clouds and asks "Hey...what would happen to me if I were to fall down?" and Bear tells her "Don't even think about it!". It's absolutely chilling. I still highly recomend this story because it's more of a psychological mystery than it ever was an isekai.
Arcada, Thank you so much for doing this episode, it was full of loving memories. I'm off to re-watch the game cutscenes.... again. :)
@@LumyTheQueen I believe that was in the Outer Dungeon, on the way to some story element I'm not sure I remember accurately.
@@tohothewriter8002 yup, it was a corrupted dungeon and they were racing up to meet Harold, with Morgana trying to prevent it. She was the one who broke the stone bridge, trying to "kill" Mimiru. Man, such an amazing series. I have so many memories of amazing scenes from this anime.
Lets be honest. Idea of being trap in MMO is horrible, until modern gamy-anime turn it into a joke.
Before the term Isekai became well known, I used to call the genre (or this subgenre of Isekai) "Help I'm trapped in an MMO".
All because of .Hack
I literally thought it was "mmo" genre lol
i just called them hack clones.
@@10tailedbijuu i've always called it (breathy Clint Eastwood voice) "you die in the game, you die in real life"
.hack//SIGN is still one of the most “realistic” isekai anime out there. The characters spend their time sitting around and talking about random stuff, some of them RP(and some go a little too far in it), you have players who try to act like hot shit but are actually 12 year-olds running wild without supervision, and age/life gaps that offer perspectives without keeping players from being friends with each other.
Also, unlike other isekai, Tsukasa isn’t transported to The World, but rather, left unable to log out. They really considered all walks of life, especially with the ending revelations of Tsukasa and Subaru, and unlike SAO, the main character is deeply flawed and far from perfect- and that is what makes up Tsukasa’s personality, her trauma and introversion.
You can’t NOT cheer for the ending, especially if you’ve ever had that moment where you can sense that someone close to you online is nearby offline.
The ending is definitely one of the things that made me love the series.
this shindig is the bombdigity
The ending of Sign never fails to bring a smile, especially as a yuri fan.
shadowtheimpure Okay you give me reason to binge Sign~
I find Log horizon to be the most "Realistic" in a sense, I mean game mechanics aside at least.
.hack//sign was the first time I realized just how much I liked soundtracks. The World, Aura, even Magic and Sword--there's this constant undertone of discord and aching wistfulness, something Kajiura does really well in other work but especially here. It's probably the nostalgia, but this might be my favorite of her soundtracks (or at least right up there with her work with Kalafina). The ost makes the anime worth the watch, even if sometimes it's more worth it to turn off the dialogue and just listen for awhile.
The .Hack OSTs were actually the first anime OSTs I ever purchased, and they were my first purchase from the internet as well.
BeeTrain: sorry we blew the animation budget on the soundtrack again, but on the flip side the soundtrack is freaking great. Tsubasa's soundtrack is arguably better than .hack//sign. .hack//roots is excellent etc.
Till this day, Haseo aka Sora from Sign is one of the most resilient MC of the .Hack franchise. This guy got tossed around with the Ls like a drag doll but still found a way to recover and get back what he lost.
That’s crazy. I just looked Sora up and the fact that Haseo was already playing in The World before he became the main character in G.U. baffled me. My first time to the series is the .Hack G.U. Re:code and to find out that he came so far is crazy/amazing. The story telling to the series maybe a messing but when you put it together the series has some of the best story telling to any game. Wish I could’ve played the first .Hack series to the game first but I’m happy that I even got to know and play any of the games.
Yeah I love the aspect of him being PKK without remembering he was the worst PK before+him having Skeith as his avatar.
@@adrammelech6323 It was all coming in full circle. His harem was small yet wholesome and deep. Alkaid for being best girl and Atoli for being more complex than we gave credit for (Atoli's story was rather messed up more than I imagined.) Should I mention Endrance though (Even if he overcame his grief from the first .Hack series).... LOL
@@zhaoyun255 lol Endrance was definately part of the harem even if Haseo didn't want that.
@@adrammelech6323 LOL, even in Re:coded, they added his ending as well. Oh yeah, how should I forget, OVAN!!!!
Yuki Kajiura's .hack//SIGN soundtrack is, for my money, the best anime soundtrack ever made. Still have CDs of it from like...2005?
Been on my mp3 playlist for like ten years.
very much underrated!
.hack became my first ever anime becoz I accidentally heard the Yuki kajiura's soundtrack on UA-cam in 2006. I love that song for many reasons, one of them being it introducing me to the world of anime and Japanese artists
Kyle wow spit some slapped pink racked bald nekcked action pact on oral irak action
Kajiura is magnificent. Her work in Pandora Hearts is wonderful as well!
I am a simple person, i see .hack i click, and like.
Haven't i heard that one before 😒
You sir are a man of culture
The one thought searing through my mind playing Last Recode: Why is this padded to three volumes and an epilogue? I'd be interested in a revival just to see what it's like without constant busywork to justify selling each volume as a separate game.
Never heard that one.
Considering he's insulting .hack, I hope you corrected that.
.hack//SIGN has one of the best soundtrack scores of any anime ever. The OP (Obsession) is an awesome techno trance-like song (That I didn't realize until just recently that it was completely sung in broken English, I couldn't understand what the singer was saying so I assumed it was Japanese this whole time) that really gets you pumped up. The background music throughout the show has alot melodic choir hymnal-like songs that portray a feeling of sacredness helping you really feel the mysterious atmosphere that the show is trying to convey. The soundtrack for this anime is close to the heavenly quality that was the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.
I never played the games so my only connection to .hack was //Sign since it aired on Toonami about 15 years ago. It gives it a nostalgic connection so when Funimation re-released the DVD set a few years back I picked it up... though I still haven't actually rewatched it.
Same.
When i watched .hack//Sign back in the day it was great but storytelling in anime has come a long way since then. Went back to it last year and stopped after a couple of episode cause i was bored to tears. Only the music held up since it is so wonderful but as for the rest there are many better isekai series that came since then that are way more enjoyable. So you're not missing out on much if you never watched it just listen to the soundtrack and you're good.
The games are good. I own all the original 7 mainline games and the odd one that was kinda a tie in for the movie for the PS3. The PSP one was ok too but it was so hard to find a copy I just played it in an emulator a while back.
The 8th game title "//Reconnection" that was released for the PS4 is a bit of a doozy since I own it too physically for my collection but I haven't actually touched it at all. I kinda didn't want to double dip by also buying the PC version of the remaster + new game.
My suggestion is if you want to play the games and not own a PS2 is to just watch the lets play on UA-cam or run a PS2 Emulator. For the GU games just buy the PC remaster off steam.
my fiancee still refers to SAO as "shitty .hack". she's also got the full collection of games (with a pricetag i'd rather not mention) and a grunty plushie that you literally cannot find for sale on amazon, ebay, or any other site. thing just does not exist anymore
She's right ya know?
I must say .hack is an awesome rabbit hole of different stories to go down. I ended up grabbing the gu remaster on sale and from there I was hooked on learning about the world and all the little details spread out through different media. I think that what makes it great to me is how large a world there is to explore which is something you don't quite get anymore in today's media.
The Black Rose/Mimiru/Rena character model is one of the cutest character designs to come out of early 2000s anime.
I actually adore .hack//SIGN and think it's actually one of my favourite animes ever. I think the big stumbling block that people have with it is that they approach it like a typical isekai or action anime series where it's most definitely not either of those things. You really need to come into the series from a different mindset, treat it like a mystery show or even as a character-driven slice of life. Suddenly, what appeared like padding becomes moments where the characters grow, are revealed in more detail, and where the mystery becomes deepened, that's really what makes me love .hack//SIGN to this day!
I really feel like it's the G.U. anime that had the severe pacing issues, where you literally have the protagonist asking "Why do people even play this stupid game?", being a grumpy asshole, and completely and utterly uninvested in the game for literally like the first 18 episodes and all of the drama happening in the last like 4, during which there is a time jump! .hack//SIGN at least filled all of that time with character development and deepening the mystery, G.U. looked at that and said "Oh, people like characters just standing around, talking to each other cryptically? Well, let's have that be all the show is about!" Literally nothing happens in G.U. and that's not even getting into what they did to Aura, basically turning her into the antagonist for no good reason! There's great bones to G.U., because it's built on .hack//SIGN, but it just puts them bones together in the worst and laziest way possible. :P
@Cyberdemon Mike I will agree to that, but that's because it was created, as Arkada said, as an introduction to the games. The anime always does require a bit of background research, too, to finally understand the series as a whole, but that's not unique to SIGN, G.U. has the same issues, but without anything remotely good to cover it up.
Sign's plot where only a single player was stuck in-game while others visit and even question if what they're talking to is human is still pretty unique afaik. The slow sense of dread due to the unknown in an an isekai show is still pretty different too.
.hack// series will always be the number one in my heart for MMORPG/Games related media. Nothing will ever replaced .hack// ever.
I feel the same!
Finally someone acknowledges that dot hack exists. I'm tired of SAO and all the modern isekai stuff.
Yeah unless people actually study the isekai fantasy in detail or is an older generation anime fan, this little series has sadly gotten lost over time, especially among the new generation fans.
Come-on morden isekai is the best isekai you basically turn from a loser to an alpha with cheat and everyone worships you those who don't are ass holes you get to have every woman you see even those that have guys that like them why wouldn't you love morden isekai
@@maadtee6281 I can't tell if your being sarcastic or not.
Mark Gasto Because it sucks, that’s why! You literally just watch emo kids talk about their feelings and the story makes no sense unless you play the games. To hell with this series!
@@10tailedbijuu It was never good!
i remember the hype about the game series that was pushed along with the anime. they played up the connection between anime and game as if it would be important to have seen the anime to understand the game, at least where i was when it was being promoted. i never bothered with the games but the anime, slow and plodding as it seemed at times, was compelling enough to keep my interest and i never minded the pacing because the settings, visuals and character designs were so gorgeous for the time i earned a top spot on my favs list. the op music/visuals didnt hurt either. also i gotta sit back and go 'damn, it was that long ago?'
.hack// changed my life entirely. A friend handed me a light novel of it when I was ~11, then I found more about it online, somehow stumbled across Infection for a few bucks at GameStop, and played. After that it was my favorite thing. I bought the manga, watched as much as I could, had all the music, started collecting the games, etc. Besides Naruto and Inuyasha and the like, which were shown on Toonami, this was the first thing to really grab my attention from Japan. It led to my deep interest in all sorts of Japanese games and media, and those eventually led to other things etc etc. It led to me going to conventions, meeting other people who knew WAY MORE than I did. Led to me enjoying movies and shows I would have never heard of. Led to me learning about an entirely different culture and language. That all started when I was a child and it shaped who I am and what I value as an adult.
I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t read that .hack// light novel.
I can say the same thing! Incredible.
Thank you for covering my favorite anime & video game.
Dot hack was my childhood, i bought the games and i discovered anime through the games, i love it, i got into anime because of it and im eternally grateful, it will always have a spot in me. :)
I didn't even know the word "Anime" until I played .hack and found it thought the japanese-audio trailer, advertising the several media of the franchise. Thank you .hack!!
as a kid I was freaked out by the menu of the DVD, the play icon says "Log In", and internet was extremely expensive at that time.
I still want a re release of the first 4 games
25th years anniversary? Would love to have them too, but with a new and fresh coat of paint and less clunky mechanics if anything. I have the first original three volumes myself for PS2.
Ehh as much as I’d like to experience that story, the gameplay is... unacceptable at best.
I'd play that
As someone who grinded for perfect ryu books on all original PS2 games I'd say they need a lot of work to be released today. More like full remake than remaster. The camera and movement were soo bad that they would be trashed by every reviewer if they were rereleased. But the story, ideas and music were really good, in many aspects it was groundbreaking for it's time.
I think it needs a full remake with all 4th parts into one game. The mechanics are so old now it just needs a fresh coat of paint.
your choice of music here is literally perfect, made me wanna watch this anime within like half a minute
.hack//SIGN remains my favorite anime to this day since i first saw it at uh... twelve/thirteen years old. You say it dragged on for far too long, but I still find new things to like in it every couple years when I come back to it. I resonated with Tsukasa's struggle in ways I didn't understand until I was much older.
I just finished .Hack//Sign after a 20 year gap between seeing the first half on TV and then finishing it online now.
.Hack is still very unique among Anime, you can tell the Isekai tropes didn't exist because characters only briefly touch on game mechanics that are entrenched as normal behavior now (in game holographic displays).
The story definitely is slow and I'd almost say it has a cliffhanger ending, thankfully we have the OVA ending to the series that brings a sense of closure even if it didn't specifically resolve everything that happened in .Hack//Sign.
I know a lot of people don't like .hack//Sign but I love it! Yes its to long but that music and just the overall fell of the show. It was the first anime that really got me into anime.
I rewatched this year and thought it was a masterpiece. I'm not the kind that gets turned off by slow burns (monster is one of my favorites) that people call boring. I find my own fascination with them.
Bout damn time someone recognized that .Hack series as one the original Isekai genre.
It’s the Original Isekai with RPG elements.
@@MultiGreatNinja Monster Farm/Monster Rancher has a few RPG elements tho. Building a party, collecting the discs and taking them to the shrine as fetch quests, Mu as the final boss character, etc. Genki was even sucked into a video game, or at least that's the suspected premise
Monster Farm is the OG
Game isn't a slog at all when you get the right gear, and give your party members the right gear too mainly a BiS weapon. Back when the games were new and i didn't know any better for the first game the battle against skeith was gruelingly long and painful. When i replayed it with the vast knowledge of the internet i hooked up my party members with the best weapons available in part 1, and completely blitzed skeith in a minute, and the parasite dragon wasn't much harder.
Im aware this is 4 years late but the aim of the .hack// games was so corporate but the idea to sell a single player game that mimics the feel of an mmo snd each volume acted as an expansion.
You should have mentioned the DVD OVAs that were included with the original Quadrilogy. They were a really awesome addition, an additional piece of media almost completely outside of the game, while the game disc takes place exclusively always inside the game.
Each Liminality OVA showed more and more of the real world and the people trying to solve the mystery outside, and the game disc showed more of the game The World. I think they really nailed their multimedia .hack project by doing that.
.Hack//Sign captures the feel of Early MMO's like Everquest. The lack of lots of combat, the long periods of downtime, the countless moments of just talking or "being in character" or "pretending to be someone or something else" is exactly what early MMO's felt like.
I finally found and bought .Hack Quarantine last month after years of searching. Sure there always been copies on Amazon/ebay, but most sellers weren’t selling the complete product and were grossly overpriced.
Ya when I saw sword art online I immediately said it was a ripoff of hack
What I loved about SIGN was all of the music that was in the series was actually being played in the game. In Liminality we caught a glimpse of a character about to log in, it started playing The World (SIGN op) through the desktop's speakers. So that is like the coolest catch.
the opening song to dot hack sign is titled "Obsession" not "The World"
I remember .hack//sign airing on Toonami. For whatever reason, I never really caught more than 4 episodes and honestly don't remember enough to say what happened. I know a bunch of people I hung out with were super into the games... I didn't own a PS2 so I was out of the loop. I wouldn't mind trying to watch the original series, at least to get a refresher on it.
Somehow, I did catch all of Zoids Chaotic Century though... probably helped that that series began to air in the morning a little bit before I would go to school.
.Hack was what got me into MMOs; eventually, I moved on to other things, but it still remains as a very important period of my life.
About time! This series really needs more appreciation. Thank you for making this!
As someone who absolutely loves .hack, the ending for SIGN has probably one of the most disturbing scenes I ever saw in anime, probably because I didn't expect it.
After the PK Sora betrayed Morgana and then stayed behind to gloat a bit after letting everyone else escape he was trapped himself, then crucified as Morgana summoned Skeith "The Terror of Death" (still the coolest looking and best named of the waves). He was then data drained and collapsed, and then it goes to the real world where it goes to his bedroom where he is collapsed at the keyboard, it shows a schoolbag and a calendar with 4th grade school schedule written on it.
What is cool is that in the third game in a side mission you can hunt down Skeith's staff and free Sora's soul.
Also for those who don't know why Haseo is so grumpy and pissy in ROOTS and GU, he is Sora grown up to a highschool teenager with amnesia of the events of when he played The World.
You forgot for Asia, it was pretty much Ragnarok Online that introduced people to the MMORPG genre and this was also around 2002~2004 right when .hack were coming out to the market.
Same. At that time I never even heard of Ultima Online, EverQuest, or WoW. I'd learn about those a year or two after .hack but Ragnarok manga and the Ragnarok Online Korean server were my first introductions to MMO's.
So good hearing Kajiura's OST for this again :)
I recall getting into .hack//sign when I was like 7. And I have been hooked since. I wasn't able to play through the PS2 games due to not having the console during that time, but I picked up other parts of the series. Such as .hack//Legend of the Twilight anime and .hack//Quantum. I still loved the series and the music. I bought the remastered .hack//GU on steam and played the crap out of it. I had some of the light novels when they came out in the US. I even have the .hack//sign DVDs when they got a US re-release in the US a few years ago. Even though the music puts me to sleep. This is still probably my favorite Isekai series ever.
I remember watching this when it aired on cartoon network and was immediately hooked. I looked everywhere for the DVD's and eventually got them from Ebay and various EB games stores. I still have them and watch it periodically. This show was so different from everything else and I've been watching it for years. So good!
Really liked this video and how you made a combination of both anime and video games. Would like to see more of this.
I love Sign!!! The intro song is amazing that felt like something you'd find in a game, the despair of the protagonist as he is the only one stuck, the slow build of trust and friendship, PKers, the purposeful plot holes and difference of real life and video games. We need a new instalment
I've watched your original review of .Hack//SIGN back in the day and I've constantly found myself wanting to ask you to do a second look of the show because I felt you were unfair in how concepts like the happenings behind closed doors of a video game world that is reset to its original parameters, for one, which has stuck with me for several years and makes Bear probably one of the most well written characters of the entire franchise in my eyes. I agree that the narrative spends a little too much time on character development and tries to flesh things out with a lot of world building getting stuffed in a single 25 episodes season, but at the same time it sets a tone that is defined everything that followed, primarily with how... adequate the soundtrack is. I really wanted to tell you all of this for so long, I'm glad that you actually went and did it before I decided to constantly bother you about that old review of yours.
I sing fake wings to myself oftenly to this day still, it has helped me deal with difficult times throughout the years. Don't think for a moment I didn't pick up on it when you started talking about Yuki Kajira's musical work on the franchise. Because I totally did! Such a beautiful and simplistic sounding song that has an incredible amount of depth to uncover when you pay attention to the lyrics.
Thank you so very much for this second look and, consequently, insight of what isekai is as a whole.
.Hack is honestly my favorite fictional franchise of all time. I have collected nearly every installment of it that exists in America, and am certain that I will rewatch/replay/reread the whole series at some point in the future when I get nostalgic again.
Not to mention .Hack, at least the original games has this mythical haunted feeling with it's damaged textures and strange epitaphs and unruly AI, it feels like a modern fantasy in the best way. Something both familiar and alien. The aesthetic design and the music makes you want to unravel the deeper mysteries in the game's code.
.Hack was one of my childhood obsessions and was what immedietely came to mind when SAO was originally getting popular.
This was my favorite as a kid. Any iteration of .hack got love from my family and I as we were growing up.
I freaking loved .Hack//SIGN I wish there were more anime in the .Hack franchises
I remember .hack. I loved the .hack//G.U games, and .hack//SIGN is one of the first anime I watched as an anime fan.
My only problem with .hack is that it's a massive multimedia project and consequentially it's just about impossible to get the full story and lore.
with people doing scanlations of the numerous novels and manga series we never got in the West, as well as the cutscenes of the games are easier to watch on UA-cam not to mention streaming websites having the numerous anime series both in subbed and dubbed versions , it's now easier to get into the franchise than say 17 years ago
Having only watched //sign and a couple other episodes some of the other anime or OVAs, i actually love the fact that I only know snippets of the full lore -- pieces of the puzzle. It replicates the same feelings for me as a viewer that I would have had as a player stumbling in on the greater story, which makes "the world" feel much bigger and more dangerous.
A lot can be lost when we get the 'whole story.'
@@martinde-serres8724 yes but there's about 34 different medias, it's still tough to go through all of that.I finished all of the anime and ova and I'm now playing g.u. last recode,plus I bought ai buster (read one volume of .hack legend of the twilight too).But that's still a long way from the full story.
@@inkoinfinity2 again, thanks to the powers of the Internet, and also a PS4 or PC for Last Recode, you can play catch up with the .hack// franchise more easily than trying to get EVERYTHING that was localized in the West
it's not THAT hard to get caught up honestly, you just need to know what to watch/read/play that's canon and you're good to go
I mean, the franchise's wiki is pretty much the go-to for everything .hack, so don't act like a fucking pussy and just do it
@@martinde-serres8724 no need for the insults,I didn't insult or was derogatory in any way
The first hack has a weird place in my heart. I remember a marathon of it was going on around Christmas and I remember watching in while also playing my brand new pokemon sapphire game. Fun times. I was definitely a weird time in my childhood. I've been afraid to rewatch the series as an adult as I'm not sure it'll holdup.
I liked .hack Sign in my early teens, aswell as the quadrilogy of games with the tense atmosphere and imaginative gameplay setting. Importing your character and all your things kept up the illusion of playing an MMO in a collapsing world that nobody else is aware of.
Infection, Mutation, Ourbreak and Quarantine will always have a special place in my memory. Damn me and my desperation for money as a child. I traded tons of rare RPG'S in as a kid for a couple dollars. Fire Emblem for gamecube/Wii was another great intriguing game I miss.
That Mitsuru straight up jump
scared me.. I still get PTSD flashbacks...
MARIN KARIN
@@GlassReflection On a somewhat related note. This was an awesome video, and I would LOVE to see a similar video on Persona/SMT, since it's also a massive Anime/Video Game/Manga media franchise
G.U. is a very important game to me. It’s not my favorite game ever, but it’s probably my most important. It really helped shape me into the person I am today.
Thank you for covering this series. While I may not agree with everything you did a great job and the more exposure this series gets the better.
OMG!! .hack! People should talk about this series more. I'M A HUGE FAN!!!
This was a very well done video and I very much would like more like it from you in the future.
I recently picked up the GU remake on Steam but was on the fence about playing. I'll check out SIGN then play the games.
Also , when Mass Destruction played, I said "marin karin" at the exact same time Mitsuru did in the video. So, that definitely got a chuckle out of me.
God...my nostalgia sense is tingling so strong right now. I was there for .Hack//Sign and I was RIVETED by it. It led to my long standing love of isekai to this day.
I actually like Sign quite a bit. I understand it isn't for everyone though. It's easy to go into it expecting a light hearted adventure with fantasy battles. But, most of what you get is actually a somewhat depressing character drama. But, if that's something you're into I think it's great. The pacing is slow, but I feel like that adds to the tone really well. I may be biased, but having grown up in an abusive situation, Tsukasa's character arc really hit home. Especially with his relationship with Bear, and where that goes. (Don't wanna spoil things.) It's one of my favorites to this day. Also, it gets props from me for being a positive portrayal of LGBT themes way ahead of its time. I also love that it portrays all of its characters as being more complex than they first seem. Even minor characters like Silver Knight. On top of that, none of them are just 'Good' or 'Evil'. They all have unique motives that inform their behavior once you understand them. Overall, I think it still holds up really well if you just want solid character exploration in a fantasy setting with great atmospheric music.
I loved how character focused Sign's plot and story was. Pretty much all of the main characters had this endearing charm to them every time I saw them. I loved the different relationships each character had with each and seeing how they change. Along with the mystery that slowly unravels as the show progresses of who these people behind the online avatars really are. Since they all lived pretty different lives outside of just playing a video game to escape reality. Sign is amazing.
I'm sorry you had to grow up in such a terrible situation *hugs*
There were a number of anime released in the late 90s early 2000s that were surprisingly positive in their LGBT portrayals. .Hack, Sailor Moon, Ghost in the Shell, Utena. Most of those were even mainstream.
Re: it's positive portrayal of LGBT themes, it also handles issues around gender, disabilities, mental health and so many issues well and in complex ways. Social/economic class, age, etc. It tackle so many different aspects of identity with a diverse cast of characters, and none of the player characters are left paper thin.
Heck, is there any other anime that gets so much of these issues right and isn't afraid of the complexity? If there is, I'd love to watch it.
If the series had been cut in half to 'speed up the action,' so much of this rich complexity, from so many of the characters, would have been lost, and then it would have been just another anime.
@@Ryeguy123a try Serial Experiments Lain
as a man who owns all this media yeah your assessment is pretty much on the money the only thing that I still engage with from the franchise is the music I couldn't really go back and replay these games too much they just didn't hold up for me
No key word beats: (Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground) in .hack//
Hulle Granz Cathedral.
It's also clearly an analog for a women's **This comment has been censored for ladies, gentlemen, and others**
Great video GR. I started my journey with .hack// with the G.U. games too. Also RESPECT for shouting out those amazing composers. The Legends.
Yuki kajiura did amazing work creating an unforgettable atmosphere within the franchise! Am I the only one who needs a .hack//SIGN OST 1&2 on a vinyl release with cool cover and sleeve art?
Finally, someone said something. I was getting tired of all these kids saying SAO was the first of its kind. But now they will know the truth.
SAO is why isekai are trendy, didn't come up with anything on its own... just more or less refined the formula if you will.
@@tohothewriter8002 Can't really say its better but yes it publicized the newly developed formula which a lot of anime ran with.
Digimon is isekai too
SAO the anime may have come out a decade after .hack//sign, but the original web-novel started in 2002, just like the .hack franchise. That's one of the reasons Aincrad differs from actual MMO's: it was written before WoW and it's clones dominated the genre.
@@ntm4 Curious, was it a harem story back then or did they just do that for the anime?
Great video, good job
Thank you so much for covering this series. Not only did you explain how good it is, but also what makes the franchise weak compared to others. This is one of my favorite franchise but I see why it isn't the greatest.
The MUSIC, visuals, and story is what hooks me to the franchise. And although not the greatest of franchise. I still consider it a masterpiece tho. It is dragged out both the anime and the games but they are worth it.
I thought the A.I. was easy to use. But then again I spent way to much time in this franchise.
Thank you.
Ah, the first anime when sorted alphabetically.
LOL YES!
FINALLY SOMEONE ACKNOWLEDGES .HACK!!!
So glad you covered this, you helped me get answers as to why the franchise fell asleep for a while and got me to pop in my old school copies of one through four for old times sake. :D
I really liked the .hack anime series. I think I have watched all of them 3 times during years. For me they were relaxing to watch because of the music and the slow pace of story. Even though nowadays I notice the animation and how cheaply they were made. Whenever something happened that would have required bit more fast paced action, they generally jumped to show some other players who were just calmly talking about something. Very few scenes with much movement and mostly very static. Especially .hack root series.
I have to say, it was very fun to see you also review the games. It totally took me off guard and I'm glad to see how you approached them in this video
I had a bit of an . . . obsession with dot Hack when it first came out. I love the anime and have watched it multiple times, I think it is part of why I can take some joy in slower animes today, though certainly not as slow lol. I have never completed any of the games. The grind was far to much for me and by the time I had time to actually sit down and play, well life just kept going. I never got into GU or ROOTs though I have tried to watch Roots and GU did look somewhat interesting. By the time they came out I was already burned by Legend of the Twilight and I don't think I enjoyed that the main character of the GU series was a bit too. . . shonen.
Overall I 100% agree with your statements, the music is incredible and there is nothing wrong with starting in the GU era as that is certainly more fleshed out than the original lol.
I'm just happy to see we haven't all forgotten this series.
I miss .hack so much. If they put effort into bringing it back, it would blow SAO and Log Horizon out of the water. New anime, new game, remaster Kite's quadrilogy. So glad I still have my old PS2 Kite games. I love them.
It's a shame fans these days don't even know about the .hack// series. We're way too spoiled with the current seasonal anime.
Not only that but they don't know that Isekai anime has existed since the 80s.
It doesn't help that the dumbass of gigguk and theanimeman have been spreading those stupid memes.
@@cruzgonzalez7061 Crunchy Roll did a full video on the genre showing it's dates aback before the 2000s, so I recommend it.
Now I can say Digimon and Inuyasha are Isekai anime. Plus it does make you want to look at characters now if the are NEETS or Shut Ins to the old life before diving into their new life.
@@cruzgonzalez7061 gigguk at least only does it for the jokes, anime man just hates to hates
@@OathKeeperRiku07 Yeah I've already seen it, I was surprised that they actually did their homework for the video, thanks though!
It just annoys me that when folks mention isekai, they only bring up the ones from the 2010s, then act like that's what isekai is all about. Tell them to watch the ones from the 80s/90s/00s they'll say no because it looks "ugly/old".
@@kingkaiser95 >haha guys anime is trash and so am i XDDDD
Sorry but that got annoying real quick.
The .hack soundtrack is still one of the best. Seriously.
The Marin Karin Mitsuru clip hurt my soul with how true it was.
Thank you for giving spotlight to .hack games. It tends to get forgotten and left into shadow of much more well known SAO. It would be great if they did same with first 4 games that they did with G.U. games so that more people could play those.
Flaws and all, one of my favorite anime. Emotional and fascinating.
This is my absolute all time favorite series. Every time I hear the music my heart sinks and I could never tell why but I love the feeling and even miss it.
I really hope all the little nudges to the series continuing in .hack// Last Recode were more than just nudges
I love .hack. I'm one of the 1.5% of Steam players with the King of the World achievement for Last Recode. And while I'd love more out of this franchise, yeah I get it. It's been beaten to death quickly and efficiently. Hell you didn't even mention the entire anime series that takes place entirely between the tutorial and first cutscene of G.U. 1.
i got pulled in by the mystery of The World. learning of how it was developed by Harald Hoerwick, Aura's conception as a virtual child between Harold and Emma, Morganna's decision to not follow her programming in order to save herself, ect. i wanted to see how Aura and The World developed over the years, always excited to see what's new. though i never finished G.U., so idk how that ended. i only got as far as the 2nd game
When looking at a list of anime in alphabetical, this is always on top..
It always makes me wonder what it is, so thanks for a indept analysis
Thank you so much for making this. I have been a fan for a long time and I'm happy to see other people remember a great franchise. 👍
Omg someone is talking about the holy grail..Dot Hack. Thank you T .T
Hey Arkada! Great review! I also reviewed the series a while back and had the same exact observation about Final Fantasy VII Remake. If you're curious, CyberConnect2 was actually involved in that decision, when they were working on FFVII Remake. So, guess who we have to thank for THAT little nugget of genius. :-P
Cool seeing you here Derek.
with all the remakes and remasters this last year or 2, this game definitely deserves one, maybe with a few touch ups to combat *cough cough* menus and ai
My personal favorite of "recent" .hack are the Quantum ovas: by having the person trapped in the game portrayed as the villain instead of the protagonist for the measures they go to try to escape made it very interesting and even heart breaking at times.
"Split up and sold separately for an unknown reason"
The answer as told by Hiroshi Matsuyama at a CC2 panel "We were inspired by Star Wars and wanted to make a story that kept its players hooked and waiting for the next part of the saga."
I love .hack so much, I got googsebumps when I heard the music. thanks for this video :)
A unique part of .hack is the sense of urgency caused by the pace at which the game becomes visibly glitched, as it happens at a slow yet obvious pace in the game, which causes the players to take all the time they need to prepare for the inevitable battles as they need to wait regardless so they just play "normally" until then. In both the games and anime they mention levelling up, getting new spells and weapons, playing the game normally despite the world visually degrading around them.
Watching the part where he mentioned the cost of attaining the full set... and then looking over and seeing Outbreak, Quarantine, Mutation, Infection, Rebirth, Reminisce, and Redemption on my shelf. So satisfying.
Also, Key of the Twilight is STILL my favorite song from any .hack media to date.
I think the biggest appeal of the .hack series (which I LOVE, btw. I didn't come back to it after growing old, but well) is, as you said, its tone. It's so powerful and unique, kinda similar to what Ghibli does in some movies, as seen in the train sequence of Chihiro (which is done better, but dot hack gets kinda close), and it goes throughout every game. I loved answering emails and getting to know the characters better every time (Gardelia, Mistral, Natsume, Sanjuro, miss you guys), but the liminality anime is where it shines most, I guess... I still want to read some of the novels, especially the g.u. era ones. Well, I'm glad to see someone talking about it. It made my day. See ya!
Been a fan of yours for years, it’s great to see you continuously putting out great videos still to this day.
I loved the .Hack series. I really wish there was more of it. I've watched all the run-off versions, but .Hack// Sign really pulled me in.
only just noticed that Yoshiyuki Sadamoto did the character designs for .hack Sign and the tetralogy games. Neat
Honestly I feel the more drawn out nature of Sign was important for the simple fact that it was initial world building for a fully planned multimedia franchise. It needed to be able to provide a firm foundation for the the World and also had to then present both a resolution to Tsukasa's story and the basics of the overarching Aura story at the heart of phase 1 of the franchise.
As far as the whole four game thing goes yes, they should have had it all in one game and for that matter we really should have had a compilation on PS4 similar to G.U.'s.
I used to play 1 other the early .hack game back in 2009, it was Infection i think but i don't really remember.
Now i have abit of regret for not finishing that game cause after checking all my old stuff after watching other review on it(before this), i don't have the game anymore.
Hello again arkada, tis me Hasty.
I saw this just today (thanks UA-cam for your Garbo) and realized among the fanbase who played and enjoyed .Hack I'm a descent heavy hitter with the nostalgia and knowledge.
Hell I still get inspiration from this series and use it in DnD for my players.
Overall yes the early games and shows were... Bland and about as gameplay varied as looking at your feet while walking through a desert. Yet the theme and 4th wall style ideas still sink into your soul. Being young and playing these games did sink genuine fear into the wielder of the controller as you wondered each time if you left "The World" if players would die or abandon you for being so close to the corruption so often.
I never got to read the light novels but I am the guy who bought the games, busted out my old madcatz controller and played all the way from beginning to last disc G.U. (which my controller broke then my laptop cooked preventing me from finishing it)
But it's still something that if they only even updated graphics and made a few small tweaks would actually fit into its own catagory I dare say 1-2 steps above Indie games.
Do I want a full resurgence of the WHOLE title chain and everything attached to it? No. But updating the games, making them multi platform and releasing the novels and anime in a bundle like DBZ, bleach, ghost detective, ghost in the Shell and so on have done in the past. Yes, miles yes.
Overall I appreciate your work just as much today as I did when I discovered your channel back years ago. Best of luck.
Hasty.
Believe it or not, the mysterious (at the time) .//HACK Sign OP got me really interested in anime.
Because I had not seen anything like that before.