In Part 3, the main story is finally addressed, and it is shown why there was some potential in this otherwise botched entry, if they weren't violating Continuity so.
I had not realized that the franchise had been retconned so heavily...and all to make Jyotaro Amagi a major villain. Unfortunately, by the time I'd been finally able to get myself a .hack game, this was the only game available to me, and untranslated....and BOY do I now regret it...and lament the inability to play either preceding set of games. But even then, I knew something was wrong with the story, particularly with Haseo. If I, who only knew by second-hand information at the time on what happened in his story, and then seeing this, could tell his portrayal here was off...if the intent was indeed character assassination, congratulations, it's done it's job and the fans have now been pissed. And yes, it was a FREAKING SLOG to get thru all of them. Monotonous at that.
Now having seen what is really the case, the only benefit I can find to this game is presenting EVERY character in the franchise up to that point and giving them a voice, and for that matter, rounding up everyone who's lent their voice to the franchise. Which kind of makes this even more of a massive waste. All that talent, all that effort to give voices and, in a sense, animate, the text or print-only characters...and all for this massive retcon-athon.
There IS a more minor thing that I do like about their treatment of the Bracelet cast, design-wise. Besides Rena, (who got a rose-adorned choker and a braid to make her look more than simply a de-aged BlackRose), even if they used Hotaru and Kamui's anime designs generally, they still seem to be grounded by their manga selves, namely Hotaru being gloved and looking a little less feminine (though still having Ayako Kawasumi's sweet, sweet Atoli voice doesn't help), and Kamui having her Albireo-based heterochromia and Link's version of the Spear of Wotan, former even being pointed out. Funny enough, this is were Ouka seems to show the least amount of skin.
I had not realized that the franchise had been retconned so heavily...and all to make Jyotaro Amagi a major villain. Unfortunately, by the time I'd been finally able to get myself a .hack game, this was the only game available to me, and untranslated....and BOY do I now regret it...and lament the inability to play either preceding set of games. But even then, I knew something was wrong with the story, particularly with Haseo. If I, who only knew by second-hand information at the time on what happened in his story, and then seeing this, could tell his portrayal here was off...if the intent was indeed character assassination, congratulations, it's done it's job and the fans have now been pissed. And yes, it was a FREAKING SLOG to get thru all of them. Monotonous at that.
ReplyDeleteNow having seen what is really the case, the only benefit I can find to this game is presenting EVERY character in the franchise up to that point and giving them a voice, and for that matter, rounding up everyone who's lent their voice to the franchise. Which kind of makes this even more of a massive waste. All that talent, all that effort to give voices and, in a sense, animate, the text or print-only characters...and all for this massive retcon-athon.
There IS a more minor thing that I do like about their treatment of the Bracelet cast, design-wise. Besides Rena, (who got a rose-adorned choker and a braid to make her look more than simply a de-aged BlackRose), even if they used Hotaru and Kamui's anime designs generally, they still seem to be grounded by their manga selves, namely Hotaru being gloved and looking a little less feminine (though still having Ayako Kawasumi's sweet, sweet Atoli voice doesn't help), and Kamui having her Albireo-based heterochromia and Link's version of the Spear of Wotan, former even being pointed out. Funny enough, this is were Ouka seems to show the least amount of skin.