I don't like the concept of Episodic Adventures.
I mean sure, I get it. Some indie developers can't get everything out in one go due to time, error management, and money. Some big names may do it because of size, time, and, again money.
From a fan's perspective, it means waiting months or longer to continue a story, hanging on a cliff so long they should all have developed Mr. Fantastic powers (and then migrate over to Marvel for alter-universe auditions).

One game series in the past was sort of like an Episodic game. There were four volumes, it was all one story, and the improvements from one volume to the next were slim. Taken separately, these games were regarded as "more of the same" more or less. And that's a problem. Because taken separately, ok, can see the point...but again, it's EPISODIC. It's judgement on a PART of something that's not finished. Instead, it should be judge as a WHOLE. But of course, any reviewer out there wants to be first to praise or belittle a work, so each part is going to be up for judgement.

I'm talking about a series that was a little meta, where you play a game as a person who is playing a MMORPG. A game that (at least partially), is coming back. Enhanced, with a new episode and mechanics to boot. A game within a game....

.hack.

Possible Spoilers for those ahead, you've been warned.

The game involves the...well...game...called "The World", an MMORPG launched a few years after a computer virus known as "Pluto's Kiss" crashes world computers and the Internet is shut down for security concerns (huh, familiar). Imagine, today, if those thousands of World of Warcraft, Old Republic, and FF11 players suddenly couldn't play their games anymore. They'd...have to get "lives" *gasp*!
But seriously, would suck for a whole lot of people. Anyway, "The World" garnered over 20 million players and becomes the most popular online game of all time. But, shortly before the games (the ones YOU'RE playing), events start happening in The World that leads to a number of users becoming comatose...blame is placed on cyberterrorism...but like any conspiracy, something more is going on...

See, The World was created by Harald Hoerwick, who based the backstory of the game on an epic poem called the "Epitaph of Twilight", created by Emma Wielant. Her death sparked Harald's foray into making the game. His secret agenda? Development of an ultimate artificial intelligence that can make decisions for itself. So, he creates these special system functions in the game to track and code behavior from the players of The World to create the AI. After Harald died, though, these codes became black boxes that not even the developers of game understand....

Enter Kite, a new The World player who's invited by his friend Orca, who just happens to be a pro at the game. During a simple tutorial under Orca's instruction, a strange event plays out involving a little girl clothed in right being chased by a strange stone reaper monster. Well, curiosity doesn't serve well here...
Following, the mysterious girl gives Kite and Orca a strange book...moments before the monster attacks THEM! Orca tries to take it down, but even at his legendary status, he can't even hit the thing. Kite watches in horror as his friend's avatar is blasted by some weird ray from the creature's hand...and is deleted...
Kite manages to escape the same fate thanks to the involvement of a strange character named Helba, a very elite hacker. In the real world. Kite's player finds out that Orca's user...is comatose.
Returning to the game, and encountering a female player known as Blackrose as well as legendary player Balmung, Kite uses the mysterious girl's book during a battle with a virus laden monster that's invincible. The book grants Kite the "Twilight Bracelet" which allows him to "Data Drain" the monster, letting it become normal, beatable. As Balmung reveals, the power Kite now has is the same that put his friend into a coma....

And thus...Kite's journey begins. He befriends others in his cause to find out what happened to the comatose victims, what these strange monsters are that are showing up in the game, and uncover what Harald Hoerwick was doing...and what went wrong...

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As said, the .hack series is separated into four parts. Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine. As the story progresses, more equipment and items start appearing, more varied party members can be found, and understanding what's wrong with "The World" slowly starts to piece together.

Overall, gameplay is the same. You have various "Root Towns" which are like hubs where you can buy stuff, chat and trade with other players, and raise Grunties (think Chao from Sonic Adventure). Using the Chaos Gates in the towns, you create areas to visit using a "three-word password system". Story and side-mission places are laid out for you as you progress, but if you want to train and find other items and such, you can practically make a random dungeon to visit. Actually, it first starts out on the field when you arrive, and then you can go to the dungeon.
You can use Kite's Data Drain ability (which can evolve over the games to hit multiple enemies or ensure rare items) to drain normal enemies to possibly get new and different items (and make them weaker) and to make virus enemies beatable. It also comes in handy later to get Virus Cores, which are needed to hack open some areas during the story. Be careful not to abuse it though, since it spread's Kite's infection level, which leads to status effects and even death (though just defeating monsters normally lowers it.)
You get yourself a three-person party, with Kite staying in. You can balance how you like, as many party members are of different classes. Kite's a Twin Blade, a sorta jack-of-all-trades class that boasts some magic ability and fast attacks. Blackrose? Heavy sword, big damage dealer. Others use spears, others are healers and magic attackers...there's a decent variety.

Another interesting feature is actually outside the game, your desktop. Here you can find information about the game, read e-mails, view the news and message boards (where you can find keywords to rare items), and download backgrounds and music, and many of these features update as you go through the game. It's simple, but it's very cool to have a realistic approach through the desktop that I think adds some charm. It gets even more interesting in the later games, when things in The World start affecting the REAL world and you see in the news and read it on the message boards.

Another cool feature from the games is that completed save files are data flagged, able to be transferred to the next volume, letting you keep all the stuff you have and carry it with you to the end of the adventure if you want.

Overall, the first .hack series was a pretty decent PS2 series. Judged separately, it may not seem much, but keep it all together and it's a long interesting experience.
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Now let me mention what's coming out. I do have to say, I'm surprised that CyberConnect2 and Bandai are not going with the original quartet of games to give a Remaster treatment to...
No, instead, they are doing a trilogy that came a couple of years after it.

.hack//GU

After the network incident surrounding the events of the original quartet of games, The World game flourished, guided by the AI that was created from it's original purpose. A few years after, however, the AI disappeared and The World slowly degenerates. CC Corp, the company running The World, creates a task force, Project G.U., to fix the problem, by attempting to secretly give players pieces of program that would lead to the recreation of the AI. But, the test run fails and most of The World's data is destroyed. So, like any company, instead of salvaging anything, they make a new world, The World R:2. Though it's not as popular as the original, since Player Killers are now a part of the game's society. However, pieces of the Project G.U. data start to resurface in other players...

Now GU begins with Haseo, our Kite of this trilogy, having a not-too-fun beginning to his game experience. But his story isn't all told in the game, some pieces come from the .hack/Roots anime...but honestly it's not necessary to see it to enjoy the game. Anyway, Haseo doesn't end up like world-saving humble Kite. He's actually pretty cold and isn't into getting close to people, though he has his reasons for that. His lust for power is so great, he's actually (at the point of the game's actual start) a very high level player who kills player killers, called "The Terror of Death".

But it's not just for power's sake, Haseo is out for revenge, looking for a player killer known as "Tri-Edge" who put his friend, Shino, into a coma after killing her character. Guided by former comrade Ovan, he finds and fights Tri-Edge, but is no match for him. In the end, Tri-Edge data drains Haseo.
However, instead of being deleted or becoming comatose, Haseo's character is completely reset. He's back to Lv. 1 with his basic skills. All that work lost...
Now, dragging himself from the dirt and being mistaken for newbie, Haseo grudgingly becomes a guildmaster to two player helpers, and joins a guild known as "G.U.", which is led by a system admin named Yata. Part of the guild, Haseo experiences mysterious entites known as "AIDA", and gains the ability to use a powerful Avatar to destroy them.

As the series goes on, twists occur that show things are not what they seem, and that the emergence of the original The World AI programming and the emergence of AIDA is just the start of one big journey, with one revelation after the other. Another enjoyable thing to see is Haseo's progression. Originally a loner and power-lusting person, he slowly comes to value the friendships he makes along the way, empowering him to see things through to the end.

Overall, while I enjoyed the original games and components from them, this trilogy wasn't too bad. Combat is more fluid and interactive, and Haseo is more varied than Kite was. As a new class, the Adept Rogue, Haseo is actually three classes in one (though you get a new class per game, and yes, that includes the last, making a "fourth" hidden class). Adept Rogues are literal jacks of all trades, having access to a lot of abilities, but not performing as better as "true single classes".
For the majority of the first game, you're a Twin Blade like Kite was, using fast attacks and arts to take opponents down. Later in the first game you can go on a quest to unlock his second job, Edge Punisher, which allows you to wield huge swords to cut, slam, and saw through armor and shelled enemies. In the second game, you'll get Flick Reaper, a new class that uses scythes for area damage. In the third...well...I won't spoil it for the newbies, but it's a unique class for Haseo nobody else gets.
Some new features open up as the game and trilogy progresses, from "Avatar Battles", to using the Steam Bike to travel in towns and fields, to getting a version of Data Drain to get virus cores to upgrade super weapons. So, while the core gameplay remains, some new features here and there try to make each new addition fresh.


And NOW, GU is getting a remaster of sorts, with additional mechanics, new form for Haseo, and another story yet to be told (accumulating into what I guess is Ovan finally joining the party). It was a delightful surprise to hear.

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Ok, I talked too much. but hey, I was going through SEVEN games here, at least as far as individuals go....esssh. I actually played some GU way back in the simulator, but hadn't had much cause to talk about it...till Last Recode came along.

Anyway, I'm going to hop into the Chaos Gate to a new area to hunt down some virus cores, in the original Mac Anu Root Town from The World. Yep, I went for Adept Rogue's class too and favor the Flick Reaper. Always found sycthe's to be wicked...and heck, the first move is called WICKED STRIKE! If ya can't tell just from looking, I'm pretty high level heh heh.
Why the heck my small guild's Grunty thought it would come along, I have no idea. Every guild comes with one based on it's guildmaster and runs the daily operations (such as weapon upgrading, bike maintenance, shop management) so you can play the game. At least mine's not as annoying as Haseo's was. Still...wish they didn't look so much like you...it's creepy.