Even though it's simple and monotonous, Rebirth is still a fun and entertaining action RPG.
- Great looking visuals
- Entertaining gameplay for a while
- Cutscenes are well done
- Movement is pretty fast
Negative
- A lot of cutscenes slow the flow of the game
- Combat can get monotonous
- Limited number of enemies in stages
Rebirth is the beginning of the G.U. of the .hack series which is scattered over 3 games, and this is the first one. It's improvement over the previous 4 entries isn't much, but it's still a satisfying RPG but it suffers from some monotony. Beside that Rebirth shines in many sections but that the fact that the story doesn't finish is becoming a serious pain in the neck.
Let's get one thing straight, the .hack series is an offline like most PS2 games but the game is based on a futuristic game online. In the game you control Haseo, a noob who started the game the first time but was attacked by PK (player killers) who terrorizes the lowest and newcomers. The story starts 8 months later where Haseo has become a PKK (player-killer killer) and is now level 133 and fights and defeats the PK. He is also known as Terror of Death. Some mysterious starts happening in "The World" (name of game) where people who get defeated by a powerful enemy named Tri-Edge never come back. Haseo encounters Tri-Edge but is immediately defeated and lost his data of his character because of a skill called Data Drain used by Tri-Edge. After returning to level 1, that's when the story begins. Eventually he's meet particular characters, awakening his "avatar" and learns about what G.U. is.
Throughout the game you'll meet many different characters. You can trade, talk and give gifts to them. There are various areas to go to fight enemy besides going the actual story and these are rewarding. After finishing each stage you enter you get the score depending on your actions; whether you did surprise attacks, got chims and others.
Rebirth's gameplay is pretty simple but fun and monotonous at times. Before you fight, you have the chance to make a surprise attack. This works by staying far from the enemy and then approach them without noticing and deal pre-damage to one of them. Surprising the enemy is worth it since in the stage results it counts. Opening treasure chest also count in the final score. Treasures are always guarded so you most of the time you have to fight to obtain them. Some chests are traps where some guns pop up and shoot you if you don't press the buttons on the screen in time. In all places you can find chims. These chims can open doors, but count in the battle score. In open places kicking some trees drops them, and you have to kick them to get them, pretty easy. The game's movement is surprisingly fast. Haseo's pace is one of the fastest I've seen in any RPG, probably the fastest. Same goes for the characters.
The combat is pretty fun at first but tends to get a little shallow and boring. Although there are some really smooth moves. First of all, you only control Haseo and none of the other players with you. Attack it the X and defend it the O, you can perform a skill (Gale Blade) at first but you'll obtain more afterwards. There's also a moral meter on the top right hand side and it's filled by performing the skill Rengeki, which can be performed by doing the R1 + any button after doing some melee attacks. It's basically the same as the Gale Blade by does more damage. The moral attack is pretty powerful and attacks such as the Demon and Beast awakening can be used. You can choose from the pause menu which one to choose. Preferable is the beast awakening since you attack with more power but the demon awakening isn't bad either but you have to press X repeatedly so deal damage and has less impact that the beast.
The number of enemies in one stage is strictly limited, meaning there are no random encounters. Here is where the monotony plays part. The stages are small and can be finished easily in a very short while. After some time in the game, you get a motor which you can drive in town and in open dungeons. You can deal damage to enemy pre-battle, but overall not worth using since it's speed is the same as Haseo's pace. After a while you can participate in battles with other players in arena battles and if you win means increasing your rank.
Haseo will occasionally receive e-mails from other players. So you have to log off and check them. Some characters will give you their help and you can call them to do certain missions. They won't be always available but if they are, they will come. Characters vary in skills and power but they are all helpful at a certain point. The game isn't very challenging so with Haseo alone it wouldn't be impossible to beat some stages. For some reason he does little damage to most enemies, basically 5 and over with normal attacks at first.
The cutscenes of .hack Rebirth are pretty awesome, but they are far too long. Though the animation is superb, and there are some which look really cool and hold up well for a PS2 game. Unfortunately these tend to be long and really chop the pace up. The story isn't very confusing after you pass the first bits but it's incomplete like before. The loadings are pretty fast. There are some parts where you change area in the dungeon and it comes immediately without the need of loading.
The graphics are simple fantastic. The background environments are the really hit, but they tend to repeat themselves a bit too much although the places really vary from one to another. The character designs deserve as much credit. In the special cutscenes the characters look awesome. The music is pretty good with great and familiar voices from other games and TV anime. The effects are ok.
It may be part 1 out of 3, but it's a good start for the G.U. series. Many people will say that Rebirth is monotonous and boring but really action RPG fans or those people who are willing to overcome some monotony are most likely to enough this installment because it almost offers everything an role-playing game should have, a great presentation, beautiful graphics and music, and a memorable but incomplete story. Overcoming its flaws, one will find a fun, but rather simplistic RPG here.
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Graphics = 8.5
Great looking and repetitive environments. Good character designs. Nothing much to say.
Sound = 8.1
The music is pretty good with great but familiar voice acting. Sound effects pass quite well.
Presentation = 8.0
Certain cutscenes look awesome and the others less but quite well. The camera tends to become annoying some times but nothing mind-blowing. Load times are fast.
Gameplay = 7.7
Basic hack-and-slash with some good skills. Gets monotonous after a while but surprising the enemy and other things can be entertaining. Limited enemy number in stages which are small.
Story = 7.3
Good story with many interesting characters. The game's main problem is that it's a 3 game series and none of them seem to defer that much. If these were in one game, the score would have been better especially for the value.
Difficulty = Easy
It was too easy to crawl through dungeons without dying once. The bosses can be tremendously easy. I killed one boss with using a beast awakening and defeated him before the meter was empty. Easy for now.
Final score = 7.7 / 10.
This underrated game deserves more credit despite its monotony. In the end, .hack rebirth represents a turn in the good way and it's a fun RPG which couldn't go without being monotonous. Rebirth is a fun and exciting action RPG, but suffers from simplicity and monotony.