I have watched the first volume of .hack//signs. I have no freaking clue what is going on. Aside from the fact that the creators obviously wanted this to happen, and could learn a little bit about placing, I am wondering some things about the series. This is a big spoiler post, so please tell us what you are going to spoil before you do it. I don’t want to know everythng - but it may be months before I can see the next volume of the series (its not all released in English, yet).
What i going on with the pink kitty? Is that another aspect of Tsukasa’s mom? Why can’t it talk? Can Tsukasa hear it? If so, why can’t we?
Is there a real reason he has a vicious, impossibly strong monster following him around? Why did that tablet piece in the treasure chest give him the monster thingy?
There aren’t very many random monsters for an MMORPG, are there?
Why haven’t any of the spellcasting class character cast a single darned spell, yet? Other than Tsukasa’s teleport.
My pals ad I are thinking about starting the .hack drinking game. Every time Tsukasa teleports to end a conversation, take a shot.
Is Tsukasa dead? On life-support? Actually in the system for real? Is The World alive? Why haven’t the police got involved with all of these strange physical problems happening to player of the The World?
Anyone have a list of all the classes? I cn’t seem to find any fansites about .hack, which is unusual for an anime with so much following.
I’ve only seen two episodes, the one on Saturday night and the one the week before, but just love this show!
I think the show is more about the characters than fighting, radical for a quasi-anime show, but still it fits with the weird unknown vibe the show has going on.
I’d love a drinking game, it’s on near me at midnight on Saturday, prime drinking game time.
I am not sure what exactly the cat thing is, it moves its month, and Tuskasa seems to understand what it is saying, so I guess they aren’t letting hear it for mystery effet.
Watch more and find out
You see some random monsters later on, but I guess a show about fighting random monsters all the time would get boring really quickly.
In some of the later episodes you see a BT do a spell, but the effect of the spell is a spoiler. Also, their is a shield shell later on too.
BEST DRINKING GAME EVER
I think [SP] Tsukasa is on life support but has his mind connected to The World. [/SP] - As to why the police haven’t gotten involved, I guess the admins haven’t called them yet.
Its an anime series, variously called dot hack, .hack, .hack//signs, the dot hack project, etc etc ad infitum, ad nauseum. Its quite popular in japan and has a long anime and manga series and several PS2 games.
Its about an MMORPG called “The World,” which is freakishly and not-surprisingly exactly like an anime version of Everquest with no other race. The problem is that something very real is happening in the fictional world. Things inside it start affecting things outside it - several people recieve real damage from attacks inside the game! It also asks the question, “What if you entered into a fiction world, and you couldn’t get out?” What if the World became reality? For at least one character in .hack//signs, that question becomes very important.
I really liked one old character, because, well, he’s a lot like me. Bear, that is. He’s an old-school Role Player. He remembers non-online RPG’s. I loved it when he mentioned playing one where you had to fight a long horde of monsters. Every time he died, he reset rather than retry. He takes a moment to wonder whether in all those other worlds, the monsters won…
First there comes a book which is only in Japanese.
Then comes the TV series.
Followed by the DVD and PS2 video game. (there are 5 episodes. Only 1 has been released in the US.)
Many of the things you see do make some sense but only until you start to play the PS2 game. Like the pool he throws something into in the beginning. In addition a lot of things might not be clear until the 4th or 5th episode. Even after watching the entire TV series and playing the 1st episode of the game through completely (well I do have 1 more thing to do) and having watched the DVD there are many things that don’t make sense. Clues you can’t read. It’s a long haul till the end. And expensive too!
You can probably find classes for the game but those are usually spoiler laden. The game makes much more sense if you keep flash cards of many things.
Wavemasters - Magic casters
Twin Blades - Knife in each hand
Long Arm - Spear wielders
These three are self explanatory
Heavy Blade
Blademaster
Heave Axeman
There may be other types but I haven’t seen them or there armor yet.
There are a lot of different .hack projects that go together. Right now in the US there’s just the anime series and the first PS2 game. In Japan there’s also a manga and a radio show that supposedly help explain a great deal about the story. Sadly, there is currently no plans (that I know of) to bring either one over.
Now, for the questions-
The cat guy, I have his name around someplace, I think he’s mute. Neither the American DVDs nor the Japanese fansubs I saw a while back had any dubbing of any kind for him. I think he just opens his mouth to mimic speech.
Umm…plot point, would be a major spoiler I think…just wait and see.
If you play any RPG style games at all, do you ever remember most of the monsters you encounter? I don’t even recall most of the fights, except when I die or get an unusual item of some sort. The focus of the series is player character interaction, not on the game itself.
I think most of the characters we’ve seen so far aren’t focused on magic anyway. Most of the spells I have seen in the game are more support/healing spells rather than fireballs. There are plenty of attack magic, but its more difficult to cast in real time battle…plus its a pain to animate.
This is a great idea for a drinking game! Another idea would be taking a shot for all the times one character is staring off moodliy into the distance. Or when that one guy asks a girl for her character address. Or whenever Mimiru poses with her sword…
I think Tsucasa’s player is on some kind of life support, but I don’t recall exactly what is the issue…I think the police just haven’t made the connection yet, and the company that is running The World is NOT interested in getting them involved in this…(imagine the lawsuits…)
In the .hack//SIGN world, character class is not very important. I’d reccomend looking for information under the PS2 game .hack//Infection. Gamefaqs has some decent info at its site.
Its a pretty confusing series, but its very interesting. Good luck!
Actually I find joining up with the 2 wavemasters a very powerful group. Although you do have to tell them to use magic every time but once they get started the life drains pretty quickly from enemies. And if you can tag the enemy with a weakness equivalent to one of your magic strenths you can kill some people with just a few blows. I got pretty good at magic as well. Actually sometimes the magic is too strong. That is you can beat some of the toughest common enemies without even taking a scratch.
