.hack//Link | |
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Genre(s) | Role-playing game |
Developer(s) | CyberConnect2 |
Publisher(s) | Namco Bandai Games |
Composer(s) | Chikayo Fukuda |
Platform(s) | PlayStation Portable |
Original release | March 4, 2010 (with bonus disc) March 28, 2010 (without bonus disc) |
.hack//Link is a single-player action role-playing game developed by CyberConnect2 for the PlayStation Portable . The game was released exclusively in Japan on March 4, 2010.
Set in a fictional version of the year 2020, .hack//Link's story takes place in a new version of "The World", a popular series of MMORPGs known as The World R:X. The game focuses on a young man named Tokio Kuryuu, a second year junior-high student who gets transported into The World R:X by a new student named Saika Amagi. After arriving into the game, Tokio is tasked by an artificial intelligence version of the character Kite to be a hero and use a tower of the Akashic Records to save the Twilight Knights, a group of artificial intelligence versions of characters based on casts of previous entries in the .hack series. Using the Akashic Records, Tokio is able to travel backwards in time to previous .hack entries and encounter past characters in order to unfreeze the data of the Twilight Knights.
Since its release, .hack//Link has been met with negative to mixed reception among both critics and fans alike. With many praising the expansion of the series' overall lore, but with strong criticism towards the gameplay of the title.
Although never stated to be the final chapter to the .hack series, the game is currently the last game in the chronology of the series to bear the name of .hack. The game was eventually followed with future installments known as Guilty Dragon: The Sin Dragon and the Eight Curses and New World Vol. 1: Maiden of Silver Tears for both iOS and Android platforms. Both games have since had their services discontinued. [1] [2]
The story takes place in the year 2020. Tokio Kuryuu is a normal middle-school student who loves to play games. One day, a transfer student named Saika Amagi approaches Tokio and takes him to the school rooftop where she sends Tokio directly into The World R:X. There, he finds Kite, the legendary hero and leader of Twilight Knight dedicated to protect The World fighting against Flügel, the leader of a mysterious group called Schicksal. During their battle, Kite protected Tokio from Flügel's attack, resulting Kite's PC to be frozen but not before he asked Tokio to save them. Tokio is then transported to Saika's hideout, Grand Whale, and forcefully makes him her slave to find four items called Chrono Cores that are necessary to fully control the Akashic Record, a god-like power that holds over the system of The World and enables them to travel to the past data of The World. Using the Akashic Record, Tokio and Saika travels throughout the past timelines of .hack series to find the Chrono Cores and restored the frozen data of all members of Twilight Knights, gaining new allies in the process.
During their journey, Tokio befriends AIKA, a benevolent AIDA-PC that greatly resembles Saika whom the latter introduces as some sort of her alter ego. Saika also reveals that the reason she's gather Chrono Cores is because her cousin, Jyotaro Amagi, has sent her an email that tells her to save him by gathering all the Chrono Cores. One of Schicksal members, Geist, for some reason has been indirectly helping Tokio to get the Chrono Cores and at the same time getting rid of his own Schicksal comrades who were getting in Tokio's way. The mystery behind Tokio's ability to directly entering the game is revealed because he is a Doubleware, a special kind of human who has the ability to digitise himself into the network.
Near reaching the top of Akashic Record, Tokio are confronted by the five remaining members of Schicksal. However, two of the members, Metronome and Geist betrays Flügel, allowing Tokio and Saika to reach the core of Akashic Records where they find Aura trapped inside by Schicksal who reveals that they have been tricked. At this time, a virus suddenly came out from Tokio's body and slowly corrupting Aura. Geist reveals that he was the one who sent the email and the R:X disk to Saika by posing as Jyotaro so that he could corrupt Aura by using Tokio's power as a Doubleware combined with the virus that he implanted inside Tokio from the disk. Now working together with Flügel and the remaining members of Schicksal, Tokio confronts and defeats Geist who reveals that he was planning to bring forth Immortal Dusk, a plan to digitize all of humanity that was started by his creator, Jyotaro. Flügel then reveals that the plan was a failure, and Jyotaro had been the very first victim of the plan, resulting him to be in coma for years.
Aura, who was completely corrupted, begins her onslaught throughout the network and begins to digitise all humanity as a form of her twisted love for The World. Hoping to return Aura to normal, Tokio and all the revived Twilight Knights confront Aura and uses the vaccine programs that Saika had created to restore her. The vaccine is not enough to destroy the virus inside Aura, and one by one Tokio's friend was defeated. To save everyone, AIKA sacrifices herself to restore Aura's data and disappears. After the incident, Saika suddenly disappears, prompting Tokio to ask Flügel for help to locate her and finds her at a hospital where she is tending Jyotaro. Saika reveals her guilt for involving Tokio and blames herself for AIKA's death so she tries her best to just forget everything that happened and hopes for Tokio to do the same. Tokio refuses and convinces Saika that everything that happened is too meaningful and precious to be forgotten, telling her there's no need for her to bear the sadness alone. Tokio and Saika reaffirm their friendship, both determined to overcome their sadness over AIKA's death.
Prior to the game's release, a shōnen manga adaptation was made titled .hack//LINK Twilight Knights (.hack//LINK 黄昏の騎士団, .hack//LINK Tasogare no Kishidan) and was released on October 26, 2007. It featured artwork done by Megane Kikuya and an entirely original story by CyberConnect2 that differs from the game. The manga was published by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan and released in the Kerokero Ace magazine. An English version of the manga was also published by Tokyopop. [3]
After the release of the third volume on February 26, 2010, the manga adaptation of .hack//LINK was discontinued for unknown reasons.
No. | Original release date | Original ISBN | English release date | English ISBN | ||
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1 | March 26, 2009 | 978-4047152113 | June 29, 2010 | 1-4278-1776-6 | ||
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2 | October 26, 2009 | 978-4047153035 | November 2, 2010 | 1-4278-1868-1 | ||
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3 | February 26, 2010 | 978-4047154070 | February 8, 2011 | 1-4278-2582-3 | ||
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Reaction to .hack//Link has been moderate to negative among both critics and fans alike. Famitsu magazine has commented that while Link's story is deep and engaging the gameplay itself is shallow and boring. The juggle combo feature in battles has been said to be fun on the first try but that over the course of the game many simply ignored it. The large cast has been praised by fans for the return of many classic characters, but many complain that some of the new X-forms are not required and that they ruin the flair. Heath Hindman, in RPGLand.com's review, shared many of these complaints in addition to ones regarding a "dreadful camera" and repetition "on a whole new level," among others. Hindman did have high praise for the story, however, saying, "It ties up many loose ends while adding a bit more info and detail to the world of The World. Moreover, it does so while managing to give a shout out to practically every major .hack side project and providing a great mix of fan service and real quality work". Ultimately, despite the story's strength, the .hack//Link's high number of game-breaking faults got it an overall rating of "Horrible." [4]
In 2009 Namco Bandai Games announced at Tokyo Game Show that an all CG anime-series "tie-in" is going to be produced. Not many details were known other than it was not going to be a television series. They also announced that CyberConnect2's team "sai" is the production force for the CG film.
Later a 2D anime Original Video Animation series known as .hack//Quantum, produced by Kinma Citrus was announced with a subsequent 3DCGI movie known as .hack//The Movie being produced by CyberConnect 2 Sai. [5]
Chrono Trigger is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first entry in the Chrono series. The game's development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, creator of Enix's Dragon Quest series; and Akira Toriyama, character designer of Dragon Quest and author of the Dragon Ball manga series. In addition, Takashi Tokita co-directed the game and co-wrote the scenario, Kazuhiko Aoki produced the game, while Masato Kato wrote most of the story. The game's plot follows a group of adventurers who travel through time to prevent a global catastrophe.
Chrono Cross is a 1999 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is set in the same world as Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Chrono Cross was designed primarily by scenarist and director Masato Kato, who had help from other designers who also worked on Chrono Trigger, including art director Yasuyuki Honne and composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Nobuteru Yūki designed the characters of the game.
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.hack//Legend of the Twilight is a science fiction manga series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki and drawn by Rei Izumi. The twenty-two chapters of .hack//Legend of the Twilight appeared as a serial in the Japanese magazine Comptiq and published in three tankōbon by Kadokawa Shoten from July 2002 to April 2004. Set in a fictional MMORPG, The World, the series focuses on twins Rena and Shugo, who receive chibi avatars in the design of the legendary .hackers known as Kite and BlackRose. After Shugo is given the Twilight Bracelet by a mysterious girl, the two embark on a quest to find Aura and unravel the mystery of the Twilight Bracelet.
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.hack//Roots is a 26-episode anime series, animated by studio Bee Train, that sets as a prologue for the .hack//G.U. video games. It is the first .hack TV series broadcast in HDTV (1080i). It is set seven years after the events of the first two anime series and games. .hack//Roots revolves around an MMORPG game called The World R:2, also known as The World Revision:2 and serves a sequel to the original version of "The World".
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Hiroshi Matsuyama, born in November 23, 1970 in Fukuoka, is a Japanese game designer. He is the CEO of the company CyberConnect2. He developed multiple games including the .hack franchise as well as adaptations of the anime series including Naruto and Dragon Ball. Besides developing games, Matsuyama has participated in directing two .hack films as well as voicing a character from the series.
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