I’d like to start this review with an aspect of these games that i believe is highly underrated and misunderstood which is the combat. Following that I’d like to talk about the existential consequences of the internet and technology that japan so masterfully communicated through art & media during the late 90s and early 2000s.

So the combat is under appreciated. Yes its archaic in some obvious ways, but if you’re open minded to seeing it in a different way, it can get surprisingly tense, frantic, and tactical, especially during boss fights. Due to having to open the menu for every action besides normal attack, it ends up having high a actions-per-minute rate. Constantly opening it to command party members, use skills, use items or switch weapons (which gives you access to other skills). Having to open it so often gives the combat a sense of urgency- you WILL die if you dont open the menu in time to heal. Its very fun plotting for the right opening to restack buffs, debuffs, etc. It’s makes it almost like a RTS game. Enemies have different weaknesses; I found that it’s worth keeping multiple gear load outs on hand so you’re ready for any given situation. What skills you use makes a difference, and theres a timing and strategy needed to keep you alive (assuming you’re not over leveled) . Some skill animations take longer than others to complete, i.e you may find yourself to be a sitting duck if you don’t familiarize yourself with what each skill does and when you should use it. So yeah I think the tactical element of the combat is severely underrated and misunderstood.

Beyond that, the story and presentation absolutely rules. It really holds up in how the lore gets doled out via emails, news articles, forum posts, in-game cutscenes and the accompanying anime (dot hack: liminality). The mystery and atmosphere can be seriously foreboding. I love the background music when you’re on the forums, it’s so unnerving when coupled with this juxtaposition of upbeat or silly discussions next to creepily cryptic warnings not to visit certain areas and disturbing descriptions of players going missing. The flourishes you get from talking to NPCs in town are always entertaining as well. I love this sort of cyber mystery thriller isakei stuff from the late 90s/early 2000s represented in japanese entertainment from the time. I put Dot Hack in the same category as Lain, Pulse/Kairo, Suicide Coub, Lily Chou Chou and more. Japan was seriously ahead of the curve when it came to the portrayal of existential issues related to communication and impending technology. How the internet will both connect us and isolate us. Or how the film Pulse (2002) described it, the internet will turn us all into ghosts, and each ghost is a virus that spreads from one individual to the next, pulling us away from the real world and trapping us in the cyber world. Dot Hack portrays the casualties of online gaming; players going into comas from playing “The World”(the name of the MMO which Dot Hack’s story revolves around) is akin to how in our world people get so immersed in gaming that they detach completely, ignoring all relationships and responsibilities.
While everyone in the west was all juiced up on internet being the future, Japan was crafting media that warned of its dangers.

Dot Hack is awesome. The pros heavily outweigh the cons for me personally. There actually really aren’t that many cons, for my taste anyway. More side content would be nice, the grunty system is pretty weak, the game does get repetitive (i would’t advise playing all four back to back. Give it some time in between), however I did really enjoy the optional character side quests and affection system. I had a lot of fun sending emails back and forth getting to know each party member. They’re not deeply fleshed out characters by any means but that’s how the internet was and is. Talking to and playing games with strangers online, more often than not you don’t get to know them beyond surface level.

To end this overly long review, I love this original series in the Dot Hack video game franchise. I’ve tried GU and couldn’t get into it. I haven’t watched Sign or anything, so I cant really speak on the media outside this first set of games. But if this stuff sounds good, and if you have the same taste that I do, its 100% worth giving this a shot. I love it