Reminisce is too familiar, but a better story and more gameplay make it better than Vol.1.
- Story continues where Rebirth left off
- The graphics are still great
- Data import from Rebirth, of course…
- The new awakening looks cool
- The job extention provides great new gameplay type
Negative
- Recycles almost everything, from visuals to gameplay
- Gets repetitive and monotonous
- Doesn't end here
Reminisce is a direct sequel to .hack vol.1 Rebirth. If you have never played a .hack game before you might not have been expecting an exact replica of Rebirth to be Reminisce. Apart from the story, there is almost nothing that distinguishes this from the other one, meaning is more than just a familiar experience.
After Haseo's fight with Tri-Edge, Rebirth left us with a lot of answers. Reminisce doesn't answer all these questions but there are some surprises and the story isn't bad. Haseo and the others find out that they can no longer log out of "The World" and that their real selves are stuck in the game. Unless you played volume 1 first, there is little chance you will understand what is going on. There is no tutorial whatsoever like .hack Mutation in the previous series so it's best to play Rebirth first and there is also a data import from it. Although there is a little explanation of went on before, to refresh the minds of the fans of what went on before Rebirth finished.
There is almost no gameplay update or anything. You still go in dungeons, fight limited number of enemies, and fight using the same skills like before. (I'm saying if you played Rebirth and imported data). The core gameplay hasn't changed at all. It's still repetitive, shallow and only those who don't mind these are most likely to enjoy this. Like previously, you will control Haseo and most of his swords are huge even for him, and his attacks are mainly one hit, and then hold X and strike. Performing skills with the R1 button and attacking enemies until they die are still here. The "Rengeki" is still here as well, except that the ones that they the voice are different. (It was better before). The other addition is that the enemies can move and not remain in the same spot. Other than that there the dungeons are almost all the same. You will still get a score on your overall performance in stages. Another addition is that you can use moral attacks when the gauge is filled at half. And of course it lasts less. This time around your allies can also kick chims you encounter. After getting the 'offline' view of the game, you will have an e-mail that explains what is new.
The avatar battles make yet another appearance in Reminisce and they are more frequent than before and absolutely nothing has changed in these. I didn't speak of these in the last review since they appear late in the game so here it is. Avatar battle pits as Skeith, Haseo's avatar. You won't use Kuhn's or Pi's. The controls are basic, square to shoot, X to attack with the sword and O to side dash. After you finish your enemy's health, you use data drain for a period of limited time. Hold the X button to fill the gauge and launch the attack. If you hit him, the battle is over you would have won. Enemies move and throw things at you to interrupt. It's difficult to hit him in just one try, but you should finish it before the time runs out.
After Haseo gets his Job Extension quest done he gets a new awakening and a new type of weapon. With this new power he can hold most kinds of weapons at the same time in battle. When doing a special attack with use different weapons, Haseo changes the weapon to another to perform that move. It's a pretty good idea this and he also gets a new armor. It changes Haseo's style and there are a lot of weapons to collect.
Something that didn't change and is somewhat good is the graphical quality. Rebirth was a great looking game and Reminisce looks exactly the same in every aspect. It can't be counted as a bad thing but the problems in the previous installment are all here. The level design is monotonous, the quests are a drag, and the game seems to force you to kill all enemies in stages which are basically small. The cutscenes artificially lengthen the game, and there are so much that they will bore many people. For some reason the cutscenes are slow to more, for example after one character talks, there is a little pause and another character answers, they can take forever especially in the beginning.
The music is a headache this time. You will hear the same songs over and over again because you will explore the same places over and over again. Although it's still good enough. The voice acting is still good as well and almost all the characters from before appear here. To add to that there seems to be some frame rate issues or slowdowns in battle. When Haseo does some attacks, the battle will slow unnecessarily.
.hack vol.2 Reminisce of the G.U. series can't be recommended to everyone but those who are already fans of the series. Reminisce is an exact replica of Rebirth in a bad way, so if you like Rebirth you will Reminisce, if not you won't like this one. Rebirth had potential and was a good game, but Reminisce abuses of this fact . Many will find this disappointing, those who expected more, but Reminisce should be an expected outcome.
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Graphics = 8.1
Same as before with great looking models and environments but these get repetitive.
Sound = 8.0
Most themes from Rebirth are still here but you get to hear new song as well.
Presentation = 6.5
The cutscenes took a turn for the worse but still hold the story. There is still no online play or anything.
Gameplay = 8.0
It's repetitive and monotonous and there isn't as much as before. The bike seems to ride faster this time around though. Unfortunately anyone outside the .hack universe will find this boring and tedious but the job extention's reward make the gameplay better than before.
Story = 7.2
Continues where Rebirth left off and it's good. Data import was to be expected but the fact that you will have to play Redemption to finish the story is a pain.
OVERALL = 79 / 100
Reminisce is too familiar, but a better story and more gameplay make it better than Vol.1.