.hack//G.U. takes place in an alternate version of Earth in the year 2017. As depicted in the first .hack game series, the "2nd Network Crisis" was an incident that occurred seven years ago in which many computer systems across Japan malfunctioned. Through the efforts of those games' hero, Kite, the incident resulted in the birth of Aura, the
ultimate artificial intelligence (
AI), capable of making decisions for itself. Under the guidance of Aura,
The World, the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game at the time, flourishes and the events of
.hack//Legend of the Twilight occur during this four-year period. In late 2014, Aura disappears, resulting in the slow decay of
The World and the Internet as a whole. In response, the
company that administrates
The World, CC Corp, sets up "Project G.U." and tasks them with remedying the problem. They come up with the "Restore Aura (RA) Plan", in which they attempt to retrieve the fragments of Morganna—an AI that served as Aura's "mother"—and seal them into
player characters (PCs) of
The World. In theory, this would allow the Project G.U. programmers to manipulate the Morganna program to recreate Aura. Only certain "chosen" players could control these special "Epitaph PCs". After locating candidates to operate the Epitaph PCs, the team proceeds to test the RA Plan despite concerns over "anti-existences" that might damage the Internet. The program fails catastrophically and destroys over 80% of the data for
The World. Instead of trying to salvage the data, CC Corp develops
The World R:2 and releases it to a new generation of players. However, this new game is less popular than its predecessor and becomes plagued by "
player killers" (PKs), players who target other players for fun and sport. The Epitaph PCs which had been lost during the RA Plan disaster resurface in the new version, attached to certain players of interest.
The main playable character of
.hack//G.U. is Haseo, a player of
The World whose friend Shino fell into a
coma after being attacked by a PK named "Tri-Edge" within the game. As a result, Haseo becomes obsessed with becoming strong enough to defeat Tri-Edge and save Shino—he earns the nickname "Terror of Death" for his relentless hunting of PKs. As an Epitaph PC, Haseo is recruited into the new incarnation of Project G.U., which now handles
debugging of
The World. Yata, who played a key role in the events of
.hack under the name Wiseman, leads Project G.U., while other Epitaph PCs including Kuhn and Pi comprise the rest of the group. Haseo's hostile nature attracts the attention of Atoli, a member of the peace-loving Moon Tree guild, who resolves to befriend him. Haseo is also searching for Ovan, Haseo's and Shino's former guildmaster who disappeared during
.hack//Roots under mysterious circumstances.
Story
Following the events of .hack//Roots, Haseo has become a ruthless and powerful player. A chance encounter with Ovan leads him to the Hulle Granz Cathedral, where Shino was put into a coma. He encounters and battles "Tri-Edge" but is soundly defeated. Tri-Edge uses a powerful, illegal skill called "Data Drain" on Haseo, which resets his character data to level one. Lacking the strength he once had, Haseo is mistaken for a newbie player by Silabus and Gaspard, who invite him to join their guild, Canard.
Development
Development for .hack//G.U. began in October 2002, towards the end of the first .hack series' production cycle, with CyberConnect2's president Hiroshi Matsuyama as director. According to Matsuyama, the acronym "G.U." has twelve meanings related to the plot of the games but the central theme is "growing up" in many respects. Graphically and technologically, the game is an improvement on the original
.hack series. Personally, Haseo grows up as a character, developing his inter-personal skills and his worldliness. As a series, the setting and concept presented in the games are darker and more mature than before. Matsuyama claimed that
Rebirth was longer than the four games of the first series combined and that the three
.hack//G.U. games would not be "three parts to the same game". Unlike the previous series where the animated tie-in
.hack//Liminality was included as a bonus DVD, the development team opted to integrate the animated story into
webisodes available in-game. Bandai also released a "Terminal Disc" with the special edition of
Rebirth, which further expands the franchise's backstory and bridges the gap between the two game series.
Reception
The series has received a lukewarm reception, but positive sales figures. CyberConnect2 announced that sales of the .hack games exceeded 2.8 million. Patrick Gann of RPGFan recognized the development team's efforts to address the problems of the first
.hack series, succeeding in some respects and failing in others. Like the first series,
.hack//G.U. goes to great lengths to preserve the illusion of playing an online game, through in-game message boards and news reports, and Gann found that these elements gave more depth to the future world he was experiencing. He found fault in the formulaic progression between dungeon, checking email to find the next dungeon, but the battle mechanics were a marked improvement over the original series. Although the graphics were "spectacular", Gann criticized the limited and repetitive dungeon designs. In his review of
Reminisce, Gann noted the relatively good quality of the voice acting, but called the translation script "hit or miss". Minor changes to the battle system, such as being able to change weapons at any time, made
Reminisce's combat more exciting. He concluded in
Redemption that, while not perfect, the three-part format of the series was relatively more worth it than its previous iteration. Meghan Sullivan of
IGN described the series as an overall improvement over the first series but complained that the Avatar battles were boring and a missed opportunity for a "very cool feature". She also suggested that the storyline could be streamlined by allowing e-mail access within
The World. Despite deriding the "filler" story of
Rebirth, Sullivan found
Reminisce to be much more enjoyable due to its more mature storyline. However, she found the new
Crimson VS card game to be as "pointless" as the Avatar battles. The overall sentiment conveyed by multiple reviewers was that the new games would appeal to fans of the series, but would have been much better if released as a single game.
Manga
Lesley Smith wrote ".hack//GU+ is yet another outlet for the story to shine combining a compelling mythology with the manga format."
Related media
.hack//Roots was a TV anime series that serves as a prequel to the video games, depicting Haseo's first experiences playing The World. As part of a larger multimedia franchise, the games have inspired a variety of subsequent novels, manga, and film. A novel series of the same name retells the story of the games with slight modifications, such as depicting Epitaphs as weapons instead of physical Avatars. .hack//G.U.+ serves as a manga adaptation of the game's story. .hack//G.U. Trilogy is a computer animated film adaptation of the games that takes numerous liberties with the story. The games' sequel is .hack//Link, a manga series that takes place three years in the future with a new version of The World.
Music
.hack//G.U. Game Music O.S.T. and .hack//G.U. Game Music O.S.T. 2 are the soundtracks for the .hack//G.U. games. The former contains 62 compositions from Rebirth while the latter contains 58 compositions from Reminisce and Redemption. Both soundtracks come with a third disc with special features, such as game trailers, desktop wallpapers, and voice clips. Chikayo Fukuda composed the music for the series, as well as for the previous set of .hack games. Patrick Gann of RPGFan commended Fukuda's more mature sound, noting a greater emphasis on vocal tracks than before. He praised the use of piano as a key instrument and found this soundtrack to be more memorable overall. Gann also appreciated the wide variety of styles from "silly character themes" and "rock-hard battle themes" to "beautiful piano solos".
![Yomi [Vocals]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHiw-DTPITDU665Nove8dB1my6VuJVd1Hvyus5iAmDwvJYGtpZ6J2t1OXXsF7qN2GuGdCT902Qh9eZkveBKJHv98ujpbPZNjnpJxkjcolmHoa-6vBaIpxQ6Gpm6rbxKVf9QhFyaf20jd4/s150/neo001_yomi02.jpg)
![Ruka [Rhytm Guitar]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDnwXZ3UrQEnxM19XpGr6h040OUDhIvDxFzqUiiSP-AeFYQJY_FkMey2Ucn0I1p19wWEjoL5J6cT0pG2FkmCz6y30jTvo5PST9rV54z-gZIKiYd5miHokizqlZDoL1b6tfnFlLMKAMCU/s150/neo001_sakito03.jpg)
![Hitsugi [Lead Guitar]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwrAWwLElGDrfdf9FWGD8Y1Nph6OjkZuwfbsvCxqe63pAZhqb83NFlOaT2BYe47oLtCLF9jHqZNu4z_0zC4D4lIb6qnVwnEBuIFI9O5ys6zP8J5m7zW1ZNoKjj5usZUF6kElfYCsA0-js/s150/neo001_hitsugi01.jpg)
![Ni~ya [Bass]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNn3fOw88u7dHfXJ-C2BDHbJH5SAWsuEhtmzOkgGtzyquKIK21nFWUo6Yt8s_TdmrrapJAfZLoDBHL9AybdFuIa59d_litRDqO7QYFxepX_GsSnITUQEiChtOUB26xM5cZBc_OMSzkpLk/s150/neo001_ni-ya03.jpg)
![Ruka [Drum]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY0-DxBNK5kcbt3zp7SfavGS52o_IzpdwM12W5BemvssWRLh3LJ-5JIDyKigv6x987UvXo68L19oJQkjBihwsfteo1AtVQnqozX6gw76Ct2z8UWLl4Egs6EpACH_e57EKs74uyMV6scZA/s150/neo001_ruka01.jpg)
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