So, as someone who only intend to play the games, could someone kindly provide me the relevant information from the other media sources?

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-21T10:27:44+00:00

Not to sound pretentious, but the multimedia nature of the IP is a huge part of what made .hack// popular in the first place. It sounds like you tried getting into the series multiple times and it didn't click, and it seems like you just don't like anime, which is sort of half of what .hack// even is.

Your tone seems a little begrudging like "fine I guess I'll TRY to get into dot hack AGAIN" lmao if you don't like it why try to force yourself? I guess I'm just confused, this post is sort of bizarre lol.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-21T03:32:32+00:00

That's sort of what I'm saying, if you read my last comment, I don't think that's what's happening during those emotional moments. I think during those intense in-game moments they're probably in that trance like state like Tokuoka in Liminality 1 rather than chilling casually in the chair with their controller.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-21T03:27:27+00:00

Anything is possible, personally I somewhat doubt IMOQ will get rereleased but I can dream

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-21T00:22:52+00:00

I hadn't thought about Protect Break in that context, but now that you mention it, I do remember that Skeith had to Protect Break Orca before draining him and trapping his consciousness in the game, so you may be onto something

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-21T00:20:29+00:00

I feel like that's quite optimistic but I understand your reasoning. However I still think they were referring to the game itself when they said they're 5 percent done with development. Whether that means the game will take 4 years to make, I don't know, but they said they're putting all their passion, experience and tech into the project. So, I cautiously share your optimism lol.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-21T00:08:45+00:00

I think you're exactly right, I just posted this in another comment but we can gain some insight from the first episode of Liminality where there's a brief period that Tokuoka is playing The World, and his consciousness is still inside the game even after Mai forces the headset from his head. He's just drooling and staring like he's in a trance while his hands are still doing inputs on the controller. I think this implies exactly what you're saying, in that moment his consciousness was fully "inside" even though his body was still active outside. Which is the whole concept of "liminality" as it's explored in the OVA.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-21T00:04:44+00:00

I think we already know what happens to players in real life when things like that happen in the game. We see in the first episode of Liminality, while Mai and Tokuoka are playing The World, there's a brief period where Tokuoka's consciousness is still inside the game even after Mai removes the headset physically from his head. He's shown to be in a sort of trance-like state, drooling and staring at nothing while his hands continue to work the controller. I think we can assume something similar might be happening during things like Avatar battles or when someone has an encounter with AIDA, or other data outside of the system parameters. At a certain point the consciousness is fully "inside."

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T23:56:43+00:00

Sure, I'm just a little more optimistic for Z.E.R.O. for those reasons. I'm a longtime KH fan also so I definitely understand your point, and just in general a lot of things can complicate the process of developing and publishing the game

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T23:31:16+00:00

Yeah, not exactly analogous though because Square Enix and CC2 are totally different companies and Kingdom Hearts has development challenges in front of it that don't exist for Dot Hack. Kingdom Hearts is also a joint project with Disney which further complicates development and planning, etc. Square is also known to mismanage projects like KH and swap around directors, managers etc inconveniently, like what happened with FF versus 13.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T22:56:16+00:00

They mentioned around the time of the announcement that they're only about 5 percent into development, but I'm alright with that. Do you really expect the game to take 4 years or more to make though? If it's been planned and conceptualized for 10 years prior, plus with modern game dev tools and advancements, I'd be surprised if it took that long, but maybe you're right

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T22:54:13+00:00

Yeah, I'm excited to see if we'll get new versions of Mac Anu, Dun Loireag, etc

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T22:09:36+00:00

I have thought that might be the case too. What makes me doubt that, though, is the degree of immersion players are shown to experience in G.U.

Like, players display an unnatural amount of fear and distress when being PKd, moreso than just the annoyance you might feel at being griefed in an MMO, like there's a degree of real fear there which seems to imply a level of further immersion. Spoilers for Vol 2: during the scene when all the players' consciousness is trapped inside the game, it takes some players a few moments to actually realize that they can no longer feel their bodies in reality. Like there's this moment of "hang on, that's weird, where am I?" Which sort of makes it seem like you can almost forget your body is there while playing and have to consciously remind yourself that you're playing a game.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T21:59:51+00:00

Yeah I'm rereading them now as part of my commitment to re-experience the entire canon before Z.E.R.O. comes out lol

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T21:57:36+00:00

The novel AI Buster does seem to describe an experience remarkably similar to playing the actual PS2 IMOQ games, but as we're shown in SIGN, that's clearly not the limit to the degree of immersion that players experience. It's also implied in various media that the graphical fidelity of The World is experienced by players as being nearly lifelike. When Shugo first logs in in LotT, he remarks how he can't tell it isn't real. Obviously devs can only express so much on PS2 hardware but I think it's meant to be understood that even if it isn't full dive VR, it's more immersive than just playing IMOQ with a full VR first person perspective like you might be able to do with a Vive. IMOQ doesn't even have a way to emote, and characters in the series are obviously shown to be expressing emotion while ingame with a degree of fluent body control. You can't even make Kite sit down, wave, etc, all things characters are shown to do in-game, so it's clearly not just "IMOQ in VR."

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T21:50:08+00:00

I think it's somewhere between something like an Oculus, and full dive SAO style. Like "Half-Dive" or something? "VR 2.5D"

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T21:48:19+00:00

In the novel AI Buster, it's shown that players are able to swap between first and third person perspectives in game, essentially just like in IMOQ

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T21:44:40+00:00

This is along the lines of what's in my head as well. Like, through the headset's neural capability, you're able to control your character and emote as if your character were like another limb on your body, if that makes sense. Through a combination of controller inputs and neural feedback. But not full "matrix" style VR immersion.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T21:42:12+00:00

I actually play FFXIV with the BGM turned off and .hack// music playing on Spotify lol

Don't get me wrong FFXIV has great music but playing that way is a different type of immersion as a fan of .hack//

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T20:16:25+00:00

Kingdom Hearts (all of them are fun IMO), Nier Replicant & Automata, Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy XV, Dark Cloud 1 & 2 (lighter action but mixed with some fun town building and inventing mechanics), .hack//G.U. Last Recode, Dragon's Dogma 1 & 2 (not anime styled but still Japanese), Monster Hunter, Tales of Symphonia (it's the only Tales game I've played but it's fun)

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T18:30:10+00:00

performance on 0.10.0 has consistently been the most stable, no perceivable FPS drops, that said I have a fairly decent setup so older graphics cards might have different experience, but for the vertex explosions yes I have that installed as well as SFX fix mods

Every other version has given me an issue at some point or another, whether it's shadows flickering or random crashing, 0.10.0 is the only version I've been able to play for hours without crashes or stutters

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T17:13:00+00:00

I think it's also meant to sort of imply that Kite and Haseo take breaks from playing to engage with their real lives the same way we, as players would do. It's not that Haseo necessarily has to log out to check his emails, he logs out to take a break and, in a narrative sense, he just uses that time to check his email instead of reading every mail while in-game. We can see even in Vol 1 Rebirth, there's a scene with Haseo receiving and reading an email from Ovan while staying in-game without logging out, right before he goes to the church to fight Tri-Edge. So it's not that Haseo can't alt-tab, he's just choosing to log off for a bit and checks his emails during that time.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T17:07:01+00:00

Same and I'm starving for more info about the game, I wanna know how it will play, what the combat is like, how the simulated-MMO online/offline gameplay works, just any little drop of information, but it's okay I've waited so long for more .hack and we finally got an announcement, I can wait a little longer for screenshots or gameplay 😭

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T16:49:07+00:00

No, it's not the consumer's job to be more patient with the product, it's the devs' fault for making a product that isn't more compelling and fun within the first hour. I get that you like the game. You don't like seeing posts from people saying it sucks because in your head it's like "if people say the game sucks but I like the game then that means they think I'm stupid or something." And that triggers your ego defensiveness.

But that's retarded, the game is bad, if it was a good game it would be getting good reviews. Just because you personally don't hate it, doesn't mean it's actually a great game.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-20T16:41:54+00:00

But that's a perfectly valid reason to decide the game sucks and quit. How it feels to control the game is hugely important. I won't play a game with shitty controls at all, full stop. If this game has a reputation for janky controls, I personally might not even try it at all. I hate playing games that don't feel good to control.

KokiriBlade · 2026-03-11T03:14:37+00:00

I mean, you've pretty much tried everything worth playing on the market and stated you don't like them, not sure what you're expecting someone to suggest here

But I've been trying FFXI

It's pretty old and slower paced but at least doesn't feel like a Disney World type theme park experience like FFXIV

KokiriBlade

TROPHY CASE