.hack//G.U. Last Recode!

To add to my growing list of games I'm fond off, let's go back in time to my childhood! To be exact, the game series that was my most favourite of the PS2 era before I was introduced to the Persona series. You can read the title.

Yes, regardless of the mediocre reviews for the trilogy, I am a huge fan of .hack//G.U. (which I'll just call GU for ease of writing). If you didn't know, the .hack series was the SAO series before SAO was even a thing. The whole online game world genre essentially. I'm not quite sure about the other forms of media before and after GU but GU itself did not exactly do a 'trapped in the online game world' scenario. It was mostly about a virus within the game world that had real life consequences.

The mediocre reviews were mostly due to the repetitive dungeons and the so-called 'filler' stories that most people compared to an anime episode and didn't feel like it suited the game. I felt differently. Again, this was during the PS2 era and I was still discovering the concept of video games. GU opened up a whole world to me in terms of storytelling and I can say that even today, still sticks close to my heart.

There were definitely shortcomings but I can't be quite clear cut about it now considering I played this trilogy many, many years ago. I started off with Vol 1 when my friend introduced it to me and I got Vol 2 right after that. I made my first visit to Japan soon after I finished it and lo and behold, they were promoting the release of Vol 3. It was not long after that that I managed to secure the newly released English copy and brought the series to an end.

Suffice to say, I received the teaser trailer of the remaster of the trilogy with cake and a kazoo. And LOADS of goosebumps when I heard the opera. Did I forget to mention that GU has some terrific music? Fantastic soundtrack.

Best girl right here

It states that the English version of Last Recode will be coming out sometime this year and honestly, while I'm very much hyped for it, I'd need to see what's different before actually purchasing it. After all, a remaster means a relatively improved on version of the original. And the original came out many years ago. Things have changed and I'm not one to play classics as I've mentioned time and time again.

But again, hype can always beat out sanity for regular gaming hours. This trilogy will be LENGTHY especially when you think about doing every sidequest, collecting high-powered weapons and armor, and getting every character to the max level of 150 (of which I did all of those things in the original). Like I said, I love this trilogy.

Here's to a great year of Yuri Lowenthal's screams!

"I'm right here....SKEEEEEEEITH!!"