At last I have it! After fangurling for 5 blog post! (almost)
Storyline:
Sometimes it is predictable and sometimes it makes a great leap at you and says BOO on your face so loud you’ll get goosebumps. Of course not many will actually agree with this since most of them either finds the story boring from the start or does not really understand the real message the whole game more like the whole “The World” was about. If you watched the anime and continued with the game, you’ll find out those bits of meaningful places and conversations that really strikes deep to those who knew what it meant.
Game play: One word. Repetitive. Even the new Awakening Mode at first does looks cool, but it gets too draggy and by the time your half way through the story, you’ll be thinking of switching back to old modes. Boss battles are more challenging if your on par with the boss level but still, it is easy, since leveling up is made easier with a faster bike and Atoli in your party :D Changing of weapons is a nice touch though. Kept me busy on finding all weapons type for Haseo. One thing I don’t like about the system is that you do not have shortcuts for player command on A.I’s like the first .hack series (I’m talking Infection, Outbreak etc here). So every time I wanna use magic I have to go through a long process of opening up the menu and scroll to the magic I wanted. Hectic! Mini-Games:
The card game you see being offline in the first volume is now available! But you don’t play it like Yu-Gi-Oh oh no. You just arrange the deck of four cards and the battle will run by itself while your spending every minute in “The World”. I had fun looking at my ranks kept getting higher and higher. Heh. I tend to forget about Bike Missions and ended up didn’t play it. So all I can tell you is this… it is the same as .hack// series running around chasing goblins on foot but this time you do it on a bike! Of course when it comes to bike missions not all of them are goblin-chasing so give it a try! *In my case I abandoned playing this mini-game. Horrible me….*
Music: Sometimes when I see a cutscene with really operatic voice at the background and parts of the story which suits the music, I’ll feel goosebumps all over. That is also one of the reason why I’m so in love with this game. The theme song for Vol 2 by Tomoyo Mitani “Whereabouts of Truth” really have this struggling but faithful feel about being alive and never giving up. Sounds corny? Well go hear it for yourself and tell me what impressions did you get. So should you get it?
If you have played the first game and finished it, that means your hack fan enough that gives you the right to play the second one! If your just passing through and feel like “Hey it looks not bad” Then I suggest watch the anime first then play the game. If you got half way through the series and gave up on the anime, well I’m not going to tell you not to try it out, but most probably your going to do the same with this game too. And of course for those who hate repetitiveness or god forbid hate Kingdom Hearts battle system, AVOID it. My Rant:
I love it, because of the storyline and the simplicity of the game structure.Id does have alot of flaws and glitches but still maybe because of how much I like the storyline it kind of made my points tilt a little. I really hope they will think about making a MMORPG on it and get a MUD thingie on the market! But to think it is going to end soon at Vol 3 is such a sad thought….. well all games come to an end (save for Final Fantasy series who likes to make remakes and such not yes I’m talking about FF7 *grins*)