.hack//Link turns ten years old today! A terrible game that may be responsible for the death of the series, but at the same time it received a lot of hate that it really didn't deserve.
Hey, user!
Thomas Allen
Wyatt Nguyen
Elaborate. What's not to hate about it. It was supposed to celebrate the series. Even with only being restricted to a time plot to celebrate older characters, it has the worst combat in the series, an unlikable protagonist, a garbage actual story, no real cutscenes, never came out of Japan, and got stuck on the fucking psp of all places. What's actually good about it?
James Flores
bandai.eu.qualtrics.com
Link to the survey if we are gonna do this proper. Also an update. Vital Hearts may be a jew. /tg/ has reported that they haven't released the starter pdf even though they met their kickstarter goal years ago. Kikery inbound. Im gonna fucking make my own system after all it seems. Also best girl is Blackrose. Prove me wrong.
Josiah Ortiz
Her only actual competition is Atoli due to how much your stuck with her. You get nuance with blackrose because your stuck with her for every major event in the game. Great design though
Matthew Long
Did a kickstarter roll out related to .hack// that I missed?
Alexander Wright
No its this.
kickstarter.com
I wanted to make a .hack tabletop but an user suggested I just use this systems ruleset and make a campaign instead. Saves me time so I thought sure. Look it up. Go to /tg/. Nothing. Bastards have been sitting on a "Starter Demo PDF". NO ONE HAS IT. Fuck that shit. Its been years apparently. Looked cringe but its a rule set to do EXACTLY what I wanted to do.
Asher Watson
> What's actually good about it?
Some of the new characters are alright, like Flugel, his adopted daughter and Aika; being able to use many of the characters of the series as companions (including some of the LNs) and the upgrade system to make them achieve their X-form; and I liked some of the fan service and the humor that comes from the interaction between characters from different eras, although a lot of it is optional.
>an unlikable protagonist
Oh, yeah, I totally agree. Tokyo is the main reason I hate this game. He acts like a generic protagonist from a random shonen anime; he reminds me of Baruto (same VA, too). Though I like his design and fighting style in //Versus. He grew up to become one sexy boy.
Zachary Powell
Its been a while, was AIKA related to AIDA from G U? And I never got to play Versus, but it looked fun
Liam Garcia
Ah, I getcha. While tabletops aren't really my thing, the more .hack// the better. I had ENEMY back in the day but never got a chance to play it
Brody Price
Does Harold Hoerwick have anything to do with G U or LINK?
Colton Stewart
>Its been a while, was AIKA related to AIDA from G U?
If I remember correctly, Aika is the AIDA that appears in .hack//G.U. Returner.
Charles Cruz
Okay okay, I gotcha. Was the loli in Vol 4 the AIDA in Ovan's arm? I only played it once.
Connor Morales
Nothing.
Easton Fisher
>Was the loli in Vol 4 the AIDA in Ovan's arm?
Yep, Kusabira was Tri-Edge.
Tyler Thomas
I had no idea about the series when I first played Link, so I never knew it was a cross-series game like FEH. When I was playing it the first time, I always thought Mimiru and Tokio had a thing for each other, and sometimes got off on the idea of them cyber-fucking, because I was an absolutely horny teenager.
Mimiru, especially in her Xth, is still pretty fucking hot. I just dislike how a lot of the Xth Forms feel lazy and uninspired now, barring Haseo and Kite, and I guess Tokio.
Eli Jones
Wasn't Haseo's X Form achievable because Zelkova used Skieths data to upgrade Haseo? How are the others getting these game breaking forms?
Julian Anderson
>Wasn't Haseo's X Form achievable because Zelkova used Skieths data to upgrade Haseo?
Yeah, but all the companions in //Link, are basically AI created by Aura (pic related), so it doesn't work in the same way. You need to upgraded them using some items, if I remember correctly.
Owen Bailey
You still around?
Get on steam
Dominic Bailey
play fragment
Josiah Watson
I will after work. Sorry to say. Give me an hour and a half
Joshua Rogers
I'm still mentally recovering after getting absolutely btfo in that one dungeon after saying we wouldn't die.
James Edwards
I might've crashed by then, but sure.
Juan Flores
Rezz carried our asses through this dungeon, not gonna lie.
Lincoln Martinez
those golems are broken af
but im lvl 3 now, so im a lot stronger
i also have a lvl 18 flame sword
Christopher Ward
indeed
those stunlocking little shits are very annoying
Juan Morris
Nice. My provider is shitting the bed atm, but if you guys are still around after this episode is over I'll see about hopping in later. Grinded back my level plus one offline.
David Diaz
>You get nuance with blackrose because your stuck with her for every major event in the game
she hangs around but she's the exact same the whole game. kite and blackrose are some of the worst protagonists of any jrpg because they're self inserts but they also talk all the damn time, meaning everything that comes out of their mouth is the most cliche utilitarian bullshit dialogue possible outside of like two brief scenes where they actually talk about their feelings and not just the latest plot point some other character mentioned.
for fuck sake they don't even play videogames and are instead into sports like a bunch of normalfags, those games are good in spite of the main characters, not because of it
Parker Bailey
> He acts like a generic protagonist from a random shonen anime
you mean like kite?
Robert Peterson
>Always suspected that haseo was sora's player, was waiting for the shoe to drop at some point during the GU games
>It gets confirmed in fucking parody mode of all things
Jayden Adams
Kite was a normie gamer at best. Average school kid. Not some uber jock,nerd,bancho
Cooper Clark
Kite was a mild-mannered, thoughtful kid. Not at all like a generic shounen protagonist.
Nicholas Collins
BOING
Christian Foster
Well we knew since some data books ages ago and a manga a few years after it but having the parody mode seal the deal in the most nonchalant way caught me off guard.
Austin Taylor
That shit with the returning IRL characters was completely unnecessary and completely ruined Unison.
Most of them could be new people and the story wouldn't change.
Carson Gutierrez
Is exp nerfed in the offline mode, or is leveling really just that slow?
Kayden Walker
>was completely unnecessary
The ones that didn't return moved on with their lives.
The ones that DID return did so because they clearly had hang-ups that weren't addressed in //IMOQ and finally got spotlight in //G.U.
My man Wiseman/Yata had a great arc.
Easton Phillips
the only difference between kite and naruto is that he doesn't yell all the time. kite absolutely refuses to not be passive all the time. he passively accepts the shocking plot points people who know more than him like helba or balmung say with a "huh?" or a "what?" instead of grilling them for info. he passively does what he's told by others, be it aura, lios, helba ect when it comes to going to places (even going against lios during vol 2 is black roses idea). in vol 4 his final victory isn't even because of him, but because aura jumps in front of his sword and that fixes everything (and also because a bunch of people that he's never met help him out). the only time kite does anything for his own instead of what someone else suggests he should do (even getting the braclet only happened because orca happened to take him to a place and then took a hit for him) is during the emails where you can reply to party members, which is all so disjointed from the actual story is may as well be non-canon for how little it actually changes things.
kite is a boring self insert, admitted as much by the devs. he just exists to be the players avatar into the story and setting. he barely even displays a personality beyond generic goodguy and being a straight man to his more wacky party members outside of a brief bit where instead of never giving up he gives up all the time.
Jeremiah Morgan
>the story wouldn't change.
the story doesn't, but the context and your understanding of it does. wiseman being yata was another one that I figured out before it became explicit and I thought it was interesting to see how being a child genius who saved the world gave yata a whole lot of issues, in particular about being passed up for being the special OC hero twice in a row
Thomas Evans
the exp is that bad online too, you level up way too fast in the original games and you would run out of "content" (not that fragment really has any besides endless copy pasted dungeons) way too fast.
your options are fighting stuff way stronger than you and hoping you can take it down with friends, or grinding it out.
Aiden Wilson
it's just THAT slow
also, if you die you lose half your xp
and you can lose levels too, going from 5 to 4 for example. the game is hardcore.
Nathaniel Nelson
>he barely even displays a personality beyond generic goodguy
I like him that way. Quiet, passive guys online aren't uncommon and Kite had a few good scenes that stuck out to me (rolling his eyes at Blackrose, Teasing her after their fight with Skeith, Saving Terajima, smashing the bracelet, and the final rush to Cubia).
Like Blackrose addresses him about, Kite's flaw is he locks up when he should be saying something.
I find Haseo more interesting as a protagonist, but Kite is good too.
Chase Clark
was parody mode in the japanese original on ps2 like it was for the first four games, or was it new in the re-release worldwide?
Eli Thompson
Nigger he is just chill. I find his lack of hotbloodedness endearing even. And his motivation is just solving what happened to his coma'd friend. Honestly though if he was as passive and empty as you say he is do you honestly think he would have kept going like he did? Any other normie tier would have quit that shit day one. He has hidden attributes but attributes nonetheless
Dylan Anderson
>Honestly though if he was as passive and empty as you say he is do you honestly think he would have kept going like he did?
I don't know, because I don't know who kite is. As far as I know the literal in-story reason for why he never gives up is literally just because it's a video game and you're controlling him because he never fucking reflects at all about what he is or why he's doing things beyond "muh friend in trouble".
Because he's a self insert, and if they give him too much dialogue kite will suddenly have the potential to act in a way the person playing him would strongly disagree with.
Carson Williams
English //IMOQ never saw the parody mode sadly.
Parody mode in //G.U. is a last recode addition, it's just the cutscenes from the game dubbed over with funnier dialogue.
Levi Morris
>he never fucking reflects at all about what he is or why he's doing things
Forgetting the scene in Carmina Gadelica where Kite sees the city bugged and fucked up and starts feeling like he's doing something wrong and Blackrose gets pissed off?
Parker Hughes
.hack//Link is more fun than the G.U. games. That series, by the way, is what sent .hack spiraling downwards.
Sebastian Campbell
Okay cool, just wanted to know before getting into it. Thanks guys.
>if you die you lose half your xp
>and you can lose levels too
Just like the good old days of FFXI. Awesome.
Jack Miller
no
Isaiah Bailey
It is abso-fucking-lutely better than G.U. in terms of gameplay if only by the fact that every single scene and area in G.U. is dragged out for hours on end. Scenes and areas in Link are short and to the point. Filler/padding is at a minimum.
Camden Cox
yeah, join us, it's fun.
Evan Thomas
yeah, that's a brief scene of kite reacting to something, that's all kite does, react to things.
think about it like this. If you had to describe kite to someone who'd never played these games, and you couldn't use what he looked like, his abilities or his actions in the story, how would you describe him? I feel it would be a lot more shallow than the protagonist of literally every other .hack media
Jose Wilson
Shit dude. God forbid he isnt some Helba tier hacker who can go and get shit done irl. He is a warrior. He needs war. He reacts to the circumstances and then kicks the circumstances' asses. Its what he does. Not every hero has to lead the damn charge 24/7. Coincidentally he does just that for the final boss.
Austin Hughes
I don't really agree, for example kuhn being seig's player and mentioning that he's single IRL gives a rather realistic ending to liminality. eyebrows girl and him were just a high school fling that didn't go anywhere for whatever reason instead of some destined romance
Benjamin Ortiz
Will do. Just need to find some free time first.
Jayden Harris
you guys really need to stop with the game i like > game you like shit
this isn't dark souls. lets remove this tumor before it kills our threads
Joseph Carter
here's the doc with everything for when you'll have some time to set up : docs.google.com
Aiden Foster
Is it good
Kayden Watson
It's IMOQ in multiplayer.
If you like IMOQ and want to play as something other than a twinblade, its pretty great.
If you hated IMOQ, being able to play it with other people probably wont fix that for you.
Jack Rivera
Henry Fisher
yes