This rating/review is for the entire IMOQ tetralogy, since they are by all accounts one single game across four discs.
The best part of these games is how well they simulate the old-school MMO experience, and I mean that both inside the game and out. Quests are given in emails and on forum posts, you get to know more about characters' lives outside the game the more you build their affinity, and gear can be acquired through trading with other "players." Along the way, you'll definitely want to consult some real-life forums and FAQs to help you with the Virus Core grind and some of the more well-hidden secrets. I think it succeeded in delivering what it was like to participate in a late-90s/early-00s MMORPG.
The gameplay loop is essentially checking your email/forums to accept new quests, going to a new dungeon, fighting a boss/watching a cutscene (or both), repeat. It's repetitive, but engaging enough both because of how engrossing the world is and how fun the combat is. Combat is similar to Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3, where you control the main character and the other two are AI, and you can pause at any time to perform actions and use items. The biggest difference is that you don't have to build any meters, and you can set more specific commands to party members. You can also just use the general whole-party "Skills!" command and they will be smart enough to hit enemy weaknesses provided they have those actions available. Most of the time, this works well enough, so you don't have to be super precise with your commands until you fight 4+ enemies at once or bosses. An important thing to keep in mind is that all Skills and Scrolls animation-lock you, whereas items don't. This creates a compelling risk-reward system where, for example, casting healing spells proactively can mitigate incoming damage, while items can help out in a pinch, but you can only carry a limited supply. 99 of each item sounds like a lot, but you can burn through them very quickly in a long dungeon if you aren't playing efficiently. This battle system may appear slow due to all the menu pausing, but in reality this is a system where you can win or lose in mere seconds. You always have to be ready to heal, buff, debuff, attack, etc., because enemies can take you down in just a few hits. If you aren't hitting enemy weaknesses fast enough, you'll be forced to use items to heal in reaction to massive damage.
One of the most interesting things is how actions are tied to equipment, which makes gear much less of a simple numbers comparison. The Lv. 19 Blades of Bond may have significantly less physical attack power than the Lv. 74 Raian, but you also get a lot more elemental resistances and slightly higher magic attack. This is just one example of dozens. What this means is that, although Kite is always a Twin Blade, you don't have to gear him up to be one. There are plenty of options for gearing him as a caster, healer, or even something more tanky, though your options are limited there since you can't equip heavy armor.
It's a pretty interesting RPG system, all things considered, but there are a few small changes that I think would really elevate it. Hotkeys would be nice, and could work similarly to FF14, using the shoulder buttons. The camera reset and zoom buttons could be remapped to R3 and L1+R3, respectively (also like FF14), since those buttons currently aren't used. Opening hotkeys would still pause the game just like the normal command menu, so it would just cut down on the amount of needless scrolling.
The other change I think would help is the inclusion of gear sets, which you could save multiple of for each character and, crucially, are not counted in your 40-item type limit inventory. This would promote the idea of switching gear on a per-encounter basis (which is already encouraged) while still limiting how much loot you can hold in your dungeon runs. I think this would help the strengths of the battle system come through more. Overall though, this is a solid gameplay system that rewards proper setup and experimentation. It's definitely never boring to fight things in this game; you always have to pay attention.
On top of the interesting world and battle system, there's also a pretty good soundtrack, and great character and enemy design. The boss designs in particularly are a highlight, both aesthetically and mechanically.
So far, we have some great ingredients for a cool MMO-inspired dungeon crawler. Unfortunately, there are some pretty glaring issues.
First off is the dungeons themselves. These work fine enough, but considering the main story alone requires you to trek through ~50 of these, I think there should have been at least double the visual themes, music tracks, and room layouts. No, I don't think there needs to be puzzles or traps or anything stupid like that, but I'd like the dungeons to be at least as aesthetically interesting as the towns.
Then there's Data Drain. Data Drain by itself is actually I think a really cool mechanic that creates another risk-reward layer to combat and is another useful way to acquire gear. Losing exp, possibly leveling down, and eventually a chance to game over - these are all cool ways of raising the stakes. My issue is how the game forces you to use this mechanic in ways that don't really mesh well. Grinding for Virus Cores would have been a lot more tolerable if you were guaranteed to get them while your Infection Level is blue, although I think it would have been even better to just elimate the grind and only get Virus Cores from story bosses. The second problem with Data Drain doesn't rear its head until the final two dungeons of Quarantine, where the rooms are littered with Data Bugs that must be Data Drained. There is no way to skip encounters, so unless you're lucky enough to encounter some normal enemies along the way, you're at the mercy of RNG whether you get a game over or not. I still think that the chance of getting a game over is interesting by itself, but there should be a way to circumvent this. For example, the dungeon could always spawn a set amount of normal enemies on specific floors so you can make it through without worry of getting a game over if you take the most efficient path - but if you go after extra treasure, then you'd have to deal with it. As it is now, those last couple dungeons are pretty awful.
Perhaps the largest issue is that the game is simply way too long. You could condense this into one, max two, games and still have all the main story beats, intrigue, and character development in-tact. Too many quests are just going to dungeons only to find that there's nothing there, and you need to go somewhere else instead. The developer interviews included on the OVA DVDs give the impression that they thought of the 4-disc premise first, and then designed the game around it. I'd also have liked to see some extra side content other than Grunties since the towns and fields feel rather underutilized.
So, overall, it's a pretty solid experience. Many of the gameplay concepts here reminded me of Final Fantasy XII, and while I think that game pulls it off better, .hack has plenty of unique and interesting ideas of its own. The OVAs were alright too, although I think the quality falls off after the first one. I have to say though, the penultimate segment of Quarantine left a sour taste in mouth. If it wasn't for the satisfying final boss and ending, I'd rate this lower.
If you want to play it, I'd recommend using PCSX2 so you can crank up the speed, cheat in some Virus Cores (Kite is a hacker too, he would do this), and use savestates for those last two dungeons. The NA release thankfully includes Japanese voices, so no undub patch required if want to play in English.
The best part of these games is how well they simulate the old-school MMO experience, and I mean that both inside the game and out. Quests are given in emails and on forum posts, you get to know more about characters' lives outside the game the more you build their affinity, and gear can be acquired through trading with other "players." Along the way, you'll definitely want to consult some real-life forums and FAQs to help you with the Virus Core grind and some of the more well-hidden secrets. I think it succeeded in delivering what it was like to participate in a late-90s/early-00s MMORPG.
The gameplay loop is essentially checking your email/forums to accept new quests, going to a new dungeon, fighting a boss/watching a cutscene (or both), repeat. It's repetitive, but engaging enough both because of how engrossing the world is and how fun the combat is. Combat is similar to Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3, where you control the main character and the other two are AI, and you can pause at any time to perform actions and use items. The biggest difference is that you don't have to build any meters, and you can set more specific commands to party members. You can also just use the general whole-party "Skills!" command and they will be smart enough to hit enemy weaknesses provided they have those actions available. Most of the time, this works well enough, so you don't have to be super precise with your commands until you fight 4+ enemies at once or bosses. An important thing to keep in mind is that all Skills and Scrolls animation-lock you, whereas items don't. This creates a compelling risk-reward system where, for example, casting healing spells proactively can mitigate incoming damage, while items can help out in a pinch, but you can only carry a limited supply. 99 of each item sounds like a lot, but you can burn through them very quickly in a long dungeon if you aren't playing efficiently. This battle system may appear slow due to all the menu pausing, but in reality this is a system where you can win or lose in mere seconds. You always have to be ready to heal, buff, debuff, attack, etc., because enemies can take you down in just a few hits. If you aren't hitting enemy weaknesses fast enough, you'll be forced to use items to heal in reaction to massive damage.
One of the most interesting things is how actions are tied to equipment, which makes gear much less of a simple numbers comparison. The Lv. 19 Blades of Bond may have significantly less physical attack power than the Lv. 74 Raian, but you also get a lot more elemental resistances and slightly higher magic attack. This is just one example of dozens. What this means is that, although Kite is always a Twin Blade, you don't have to gear him up to be one. There are plenty of options for gearing him as a caster, healer, or even something more tanky, though your options are limited there since you can't equip heavy armor.
It's a pretty interesting RPG system, all things considered, but there are a few small changes that I think would really elevate it. Hotkeys would be nice, and could work similarly to FF14, using the shoulder buttons. The camera reset and zoom buttons could be remapped to R3 and L1+R3, respectively (also like FF14), since those buttons currently aren't used. Opening hotkeys would still pause the game just like the normal command menu, so it would just cut down on the amount of needless scrolling.
The other change I think would help is the inclusion of gear sets, which you could save multiple of for each character and, crucially, are not counted in your 40-item type limit inventory. This would promote the idea of switching gear on a per-encounter basis (which is already encouraged) while still limiting how much loot you can hold in your dungeon runs. I think this would help the strengths of the battle system come through more. Overall though, this is a solid gameplay system that rewards proper setup and experimentation. It's definitely never boring to fight things in this game; you always have to pay attention.
On top of the interesting world and battle system, there's also a pretty good soundtrack, and great character and enemy design. The boss designs in particularly are a highlight, both aesthetically and mechanically.
So far, we have some great ingredients for a cool MMO-inspired dungeon crawler. Unfortunately, there are some pretty glaring issues.
First off is the dungeons themselves. These work fine enough, but considering the main story alone requires you to trek through ~50 of these, I think there should have been at least double the visual themes, music tracks, and room layouts. No, I don't think there needs to be puzzles or traps or anything stupid like that, but I'd like the dungeons to be at least as aesthetically interesting as the towns.
Then there's Data Drain. Data Drain by itself is actually I think a really cool mechanic that creates another risk-reward layer to combat and is another useful way to acquire gear. Losing exp, possibly leveling down, and eventually a chance to game over - these are all cool ways of raising the stakes. My issue is how the game forces you to use this mechanic in ways that don't really mesh well. Grinding for Virus Cores would have been a lot more tolerable if you were guaranteed to get them while your Infection Level is blue, although I think it would have been even better to just elimate the grind and only get Virus Cores from story bosses. The second problem with Data Drain doesn't rear its head until the final two dungeons of Quarantine, where the rooms are littered with Data Bugs that must be Data Drained. There is no way to skip encounters, so unless you're lucky enough to encounter some normal enemies along the way, you're at the mercy of RNG whether you get a game over or not. I still think that the chance of getting a game over is interesting by itself, but there should be a way to circumvent this. For example, the dungeon could always spawn a set amount of normal enemies on specific floors so you can make it through without worry of getting a game over if you take the most efficient path - but if you go after extra treasure, then you'd have to deal with it. As it is now, those last couple dungeons are pretty awful.
Perhaps the largest issue is that the game is simply way too long. You could condense this into one, max two, games and still have all the main story beats, intrigue, and character development in-tact. Too many quests are just going to dungeons only to find that there's nothing there, and you need to go somewhere else instead. The developer interviews included on the OVA DVDs give the impression that they thought of the 4-disc premise first, and then designed the game around it. I'd also have liked to see some extra side content other than Grunties since the towns and fields feel rather underutilized.
So, overall, it's a pretty solid experience. Many of the gameplay concepts here reminded me of Final Fantasy XII, and while I think that game pulls it off better, .hack has plenty of unique and interesting ideas of its own. The OVAs were alright too, although I think the quality falls off after the first one. I have to say though, the penultimate segment of Quarantine left a sour taste in mouth. If it wasn't for the satisfying final boss and ending, I'd rate this lower.
If you want to play it, I'd recommend using PCSX2 so you can crank up the speed, cheat in some Virus Cores (Kite is a hacker too, he would do this), and use savestates for those last two dungeons. The NA release thankfully includes Japanese voices, so no undub patch required if want to play in English.