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In between dungeons, of course, you'll interface with other players, discover new secrets, and generally get steeped in the mystery of .hack//G.U. We've already met the hopelessly naive yet charming Atoli. We've also run into the pompous Sakaki, who commands immense respect in the powerful Moon Tree guild. We've even been lectured by the mysterious Pi, a sexy character who seems to know more than anybody else about what's going on with Tri-Edge and Haseo - except maybe Ovan, who is quite literally hiding something (his left arm, trapped in a giant case.)
Though we only had a few brief hours to play the game, we already feel like we've learned as much as in maybe half of the original .hack's first volume. That's not a shock, according to Matsuyama. "We lessened the number of volumes from [the original's] four to [G.U.'s] three because some felt that the content in each volume was not enough. However, the amount of story for the three volumes of G.U. is equivalent to eight volumes in the previous series."
And, of course, .hack wouldn't be .hack if you didn't have to delve deeper find out the whole story. Just as the original saga had a TV anime series, manga and novels to back it up. .hack//ROOTS, a new TV show, is currently airingin Japan and is due to hit the US in 2007. Matsuyama explains that "the .hack//ROOTS animation and the game G.U. are all within the same world's timeline. They can both be viewed separately, or if seen as a continuous history, the consumer can experience new findings and excitement. Haseo is the main character for both G.U. and ROOTS. If the player can view the untold story of how Haseo became a [Player Killer Killer] through the animation they will understand how that connects to Haseo in the game and empathize with him."
This mixed media approach, contrary to expectations, worked beautifully last time. In fact, the weak link might just have ended up being the games themselves. They ground down our interest with repetition - boring dungeons, simple battles. From what we've been able to play so far, we're worried that .hack//G.U. could lead us down the same path; many of the same ingredients are there. On the other hand, the promise of vastly more story content per volume should help immensely, and the battles could prove to be more strategic than they're letting on so far. What we do know now, however, is that we're ready to dive back into The World and soak some more of that paranoia-inducing, complex, confusing and utterly addictive story. That's why we're still here after all these years.
If that's not enough .hack//G.U. for you, don't forget to check out our exclusive new footage by hitting the Movies tab above this story. You can also take a gander at our exclusive guides -one on the game's charactersandone for its worlds.
