Dot Hack G.U Vol. 2 Reminisce
Platform: PS2
Improves on Volume 1, but impossible to play without having played the first volume.
Review by Sirus

.hack//G.U. Vol.2//Reminisce (.hack gu 2) takes off soon after the events of the first game. If you haven’t played the first game you might not want to read this review because it will contain spoilers for it.

START SPOILERIFIC SUMMARY OF VOL.1

The first game started with Haseo AKA The Terror of Death getting PK’d (killed by another player) and returned to level 1. Throughout the first game, you meet a variety of players, become the leader of a small guild, and the emperor of one of the three arena tournaments. Before being PK’d, Haseo lost his dearest friend Shino to a creature he knows as Tri Edge. From what Haseo knows, this encounter led to Shino falling into a coma in real life, from which she has been unable to recover since. While searching for the truth behind the encounter which took his dearest friend away, Haseo came in contact with members of a guild known as G.U.

The leader of the guild, Master Yata, explained to Haseo that Shino is not the only player who has become comatose as a result of events that took place in The World (the name of the online game in which .hack takes place). Master Yata explained that these characters are commonly called Lost Ones and that there is a mysterious entity known as AIDA that is believed to be behind the characters being lost. In the fight against AIDA, Haseo discovered powers that a specific few characters possess known as Epitaphs. The Epitaphs are the only thing that can be used to fight the AIDA and Haseo happened to be one of the few characters who can use that power. In Haseo’s search for the truth, he fought a battle with Tri Edge and defeated him although right before the battle, his close friend Atoli was damaged by Tri Edge.

END SPOILERIFIC SUMMARY OF VOL.1

At the beginning of .hack gu 2, Atoli is still damaged by her encounter with Tri Edge and Haseo still hasn’t uncovered the mysteries behind AIDA or gotten Shino out of her coma. Throughout the course of the game, you continue your work with G.U. to hopefully get closer to the truth. Many of the characters you had access to in the first game return. You also gain access to a few new characters who become available through the course of the story. There are many twists and turns especially towards the end of the story that will keep you guessing. Overall the story is a step up from the first game and a total blast to go through.

The core gameplay remains largely unchanged although the few tweaks that have been implemented help make the game even more fun. First of all, the bike you had access to in the first game is no longer completely useless, although you are going to need to put a little work into it to make it useful. The biggest problem with the bike is you still can’t use it in indoor levels, which tend to have the longest distances between actual stuff. This makes the dungeon type levels a particular pain to go through because you have to walk the corridors at such a slow pace.

Fairly early in the game you get to advance Haseo’s character through a quest. Completing this quest gives you access to a few more gameplay options that keep things fresh. First of all and my personal favorite is the ability to equip three weapons at a time, one of each type and switch them in battle with the use of a skill. You also gain the ability to use the third weapon type, the scythe. Before, you could equip either a broadsword or dual swords to Haseo and the game would change the four available skills accordingly. Now you can equip one of each of these weapons at all times and, rather than having four skill slots for each weapon, you have four skill slots between the four types. If you are using a broadsword and you select a scythe skill in battle, Haseo will switch to your equipped scythe and use the skill. This adds a level of depth to the battles because most enemies are weak to scythes, broadswords, or dual swords and you can switch to the one that best suits your situation.

You also gain access to a new awakening move that deals massive damage to the enemies you are fighting. Before you let off the powerful attack, you have to time your hits on a meter for the move to succeed. If you hit it on one of the three bars in the very middle of the screen, you get extra time in which you can button mash to power up the move even more. The new awakening can be interesting the first few times but I found myself going back to the beast awakening from the first game because it’s more hands on and in many cases does more damage, especially on bosses.

There is an entirely new section of the game that is now open and completely optional called Crimson VS. I only tried it once but never really got into it. Basically it’s some sort of card battle where you have three cards in your deck. Once you pick a deck, you go against your opponent and, after the battle begins, you just watch the turns go without any input until one of you is defeated. It was way too slow for me so I was glad it was optional but I bet some people will find themselves completely addicted to it.

The music in the game is as great as it was in the first game. The vocal tracks are especially awesome and play at important parts of the story. These serve to enhance the experience of the scenes quite a lot. The voice acting is just as great as it was in the first game, with all of the voice actors returning to their original roles. The graphics in the game are as good as they were the first time. The characters in the in-game scenes still look good and the cutscenes make the characters look phenomenal as usual. Battles, specifically the epitaph battles, look especially awesome.

Overall if you are a fan of the first game and enjoyed what you saw of the story, you should consider picking up .hack gu 2. It should be noted that the game does have some minor slowdown when a ton of spells start going on screen while three characters and three enemies are all on screen. Thankfully this rarely happens and when it does, it’s not very annoying. The gameplay can get a little repetitive because there are only a few new types of areas you can go adventuring in and you will end up fighting the same types of enemies multiple times. The game took me about 30 hours to beat without any side quests, making it a little longer than the first game which only took me 20 hours. When you get past the few minor annoyances present in .hack gu 2, you are left with a fun game that manages to tell a compelling story that gives at least some closure and leaves you waiting for the inevitable conclusion in the third volume.



Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Lasting Appeal: 8/10
Story: 9/10
Playtime: 30 hours
Final Score: 8.6/10