This release of Redemption Volume 3 marks the final chapter in the .hack//G.U series. Instead of taking the usual route and reviewing just this game, Redemption, we'll do a combine review of both Redemption and the overall .hack//G.U series as a whole. Redemption picks off where Reminisce story and gameplay left off. This final volume will also provide the much needed closure to the entire G.U series storyline and hopefully make way for the next .hack series.
STORY
At last the Book of Twilight!
An ending is only a beginning.
In the last volume, Reminisce, we saw the defeat of Sakaki and the revelation about Ovan being the person that is behind players becoming the Lost Ones. Redemption picks up at the end of the confrontation between Ovan and Haseo. Now Haseo and the team of G.U. have to track down where Ovan disappeared to, to get answers to all their questions. But that's not all as it appears that AIDA has become such a major treat to The World that the CC Corporation decided to hand administration control over to Sakaki in hopes that he can fix the virus problems in The World. With their arch enemy in control of things, Haseo and his friends were sidetracked in finding Ovan and dealing with AIDA. On top of all these problems, the team of G.U. soon discovered that the problems within the game, The World, may soon spread to the real world effecting major networks around the world that may end up as a Third Network Crisis causing quite possibly the destruction of the world on a nuclear scale. The race to save The World is on in both virtual and reality in Redemption. Redemption is the final chapter in the AIDA and Tri-Edge storyline that is sure to provide some starting revelation to fans of the .hack series.
If you look at Redemption overall than you notice that the story pretty much serve as closure to a few story plotlines and character background plots that were left open or unanswered in the last two volumes. Here you get answers or at least hints to who Yata is, who the Azuze Knights (Kite, Orca, and Balmung) are, the story behind Ovan, and where Aura has disappeared to. You also have closure to Lost Ones that were put into comas playing The World. The Redemption story is actually broken down into three parts. The first part closes the Sakaki part of the storyline. The second part of the story provided closure to the Ovan storyline. And finally the last part of the story deals with the coming of the third network crisis. For a closing chapter, Redemption does a pretty good job closing off the story and the story moves in a good pace. The title of the volume, Redemption, pretty much underline what the direction of the story is about. The title Redemption can easily apply to the main character, Haseo, or to Ovan depending on how you look at it. In the first volume Haseo was portray as a selfish non caring jerk toward his friends and the people around him. With the final volume you can see how far Haseo has come since those days to a person that cares for others and for his friends so in a way he's redeem himself to a better person. And of course with Ovan it's more of a Star Wars redemption much in the way like Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. What makes Redemption a good closing chapter is that the ending was a very satisfying good ending that leaves you feeling complete. In terms of the .hack//G.U. story overall from all three chapters, I have to say this is one of the best series storyline around. What makes the G.U. storyline great is that it introduces some great characters and provided key story scenes that move us emotionally and left us grasping for more at times. Any story that gets you emotionally involve is a story that will be good. There were times you be sad, mad, excited, happy, and shocked. And these are the emotional feeling you will get out of .hack//G.U. from volume 1 to volume 3. It was a great roller coaster ride and I'm personally happy with the entire series on how it began and finished. The only flaw with the series that I didn't enjoy too much was the plotline involving the third network crisis. The idea of a virus infecting a MMORPG and making it crash was believable. They should have kept to that plotline. But when you add in the third network crisis where the crash of a MMORPG game in Japans ends up crashing major computer networks around the world including the networks that control nuclear warheads and stuff like that providing the possibility of a nuclear meltdown around the world, it becomes a bit too unbelievable even for a fantasy rpg story. Fortunately the third network crisis plotline was only introduced at the very near end of volume 3. And that's the only thing that I felt was a bit too far stretch in terms of possible plotlines. A great story from overall from .hack//G.U. series.
Score 9/10
CHARACTERS
The G.U. team is all here.
The entire large cast of .hack//G.U. is back for the final chapter in this series. All the main characters as well as supporting characters are back. There are only 2 new characters introduced in this volume and they act as supporting characters. The 2 new characters are Aina, Ovan sister, and Taihaku, a Battle Arena Emperor. As for the rest of the cast of .hack//G.U., by now you should be familiar with all of them from the previous two volumes so the storyline didn't spend too much time developing them in this last volume. This is really an all star cast of characters for the entire series with excellent voice acting provided from the professional cast of voice actors and actresses. By the time you finish the game you realize that you are looking at over 22 characters in this game from main characters to supporting characters including villains. What's great is that each of these characters has their own unique personality and storyline that have been slowly develop over the span of all three volumes in the series. You will instantly start to fall in love with some of these characters and it's hard to say good bye to them after this volume. Here's hoping that some of these characters will make a return appearance in any new future .hack game.
Score: 10/10
GRAPHICS
We meet again, Haseo.
No real change or improvements to the graphics in Redemption but than again that's expected since Redemption is a third part of a large single rpg game that's been cut into three parts.
It's not like Redemption need any graphic over haul since it still boast one of the best looking graphical rpg games around. As with the other two previous .hack//G.U. games, Redemption has one of the best colorization around using bright and beautiful color in gameplay mode and story scenes. The designs of the environments and characters are base on a Japanese anime episode and the game itself plays out like an anime too. Everything from character models to background environments is drawn out beautifully making this game and the entire series graphical look a treat to look at. Truly one of the best looking rpg games around and clearly shows that coloring done right in an rpg game can really enhance a game graphics all around. The nice thing here that is different from Reminisce is that Redemption does introduce some new environments for you to play in as well as reuse old environments that were introduce in the last two games. You still can't even see much difference between the regular story cut scenes to those of the actual movie clip scenes. This just tells you just how close the gameplay graphics are to the movie ones. And really the bottom line is that if anyone says that .hack//G.U. graphics are only above average than they really don't know what the heck they are talking about and shouldn't be doing reviews at all.
Score: 9/10
MUSIC
A desktop with all media files.
As usual the musical presention in the .hack//G.U. games are top notch. Volume 3 is no exception to this. Not only does this game introduce a few new musical tracks that are exclusive to Volume 3 but it also uses the entire musical tracks from the first two volumes. Add everything up and you have pretty much an award winning musical soundtrack for a video game. What makes music great in any game is the pure fact that a musical track need to be memorable in the long term as well as having a profound impact when playing the game. Without even including tracks from the previous two volumes, Volume 3 already has 4 to 5 new killer memorable tracks that are orchestrated and composed excellently to near perfection. You can listen to some of the new Volume 3 musical tracks on your virtual desktop in the game. New favorites that you can instantly notice in this volume are Abandoned House, Your Gentle Smile, and Carl's Theme. Overall you can listen to the entire soundtrack from all three volumes on your virtual desktop in the Accessories menu. In terms of Playstation 2 rpg game soundtrack, I have to say that probably only the Xenosaga Soundtrack series would be better or on par with .hack//G.U. If you are a huge fan of rpg musical tracks than I would highly recommend that you find and buy the original soundtrack from an online store. There are so many excellently tracks that I just love listening to almost all of the tracks again and again even after I finish playing this series.
Score: 10/10
GAMEPLAY
So this is the Outer Dungeon.
At last it's Cubia!!
Game Information
Genre: Action RPG
Publisher: Namco Bandia Games
Disc: 1 DVD Disc
Memory: 489 KB
Players: 1 Player Mode
Analog Control: Yes
Vibration Function: Yes
Rating: Teen
Release: September 2007
Well by now you should already know the concept of the gameplay since the gameplay is a continuation from the last two volumes. A few minor new features were added to finalize the gameplay for this last volume in the series. Like with before you main objective is to check e-mails on your virtual desktop for direction on what to do next to get the story going. Once that's done, log into The World and head to the town or server where the e-mail sent you to get your story cut scenes. From there you normally get a bookmark keyword area that you need to enter at the Chaos Gate to warp to the appropriate dungeon. You'll need to add at least 2 party members before you head out. Once at a dungeon you pretty much need to trek out to the last floor of the dungeon to get to the area where a cut scene will occur. Once a cut scene is complete you log out and back to your desktop to read up on new e-mails and check the message boards for anything new and repeat the whole process again. Like with the previous .hack//G.U. games the battle system is a fast pace real time action game play where you engage the enemy using regular attacks to magic to special skills attack. All the regular features that you have come to be familiar with in the last two games are back. Some new features to make note on in this game is that the level cap restriction has now been raise to the maximum of level 150 for your party members. A new Awakening has been added. Haseo can now get his final job form which allows him to use a final new weapon which is a gun. The game also added a new dungeon area called the Outer Dungeon. Outside of these new features nothing else was really added. We'll go over the final details of all the features in the entire series here.
Desktop: Your virtual desktop allow you access to your e-mails, latest news, internet forums, and desktop media such as music and wallpapers. Here you can make contact with your party members outside of the game when you aren't playing The World and catch up on the latest news on the real world outside of The World. The World: The World is made up of three sections, the actual game itself where you need to log in to play The World, the official website of The World, and the official forum of The World where players that play The World can interact with one another and exchange thoughts and ideas. In other words, The World is set up just like a real MMORPG game that you would normally play outside of Playstation 2 games. Towns: In this volume the final town, Breg Epona is open up to you. This means you now have three towns to move from during the game. Mac Anu from volume 1 and Dol Dona from volume 2. Of course for the most part since this is volume 3, most of the action will take place in Breg Epona. Chaos Gate: Chaos Gate is the warp gate to towns, fields, and dungeons. Just like with all previous .hack games, you can access bookmark areas where you have already learned the keywords from e-mail conversation, topics in the forums, or just from party members. You can also have the Chaos Gate put together random key words to create a random area for you as well. If you prefer to do it manually than you can just plainly match up different keywords that you have learned and picked up during your adventure to create your own access areas as well. @Home: @Home is the entry point for all Guilds for all the players that play in The World. In other words, if you wish to drop off items in your Guild inventory, sell items through the Guild Shop, check out the Book of 1000s, or just plain visit your Guild, than you would go to the @Home area and enter the @Home to access your Guild. Your @Home has been move to Breg Epona from Dol Dona in this volume. You can also upgrade your @Home to its final stage if you have the money to do the upgrade. Guild Shops: Certain Guild Shops will appear during certain time in Mac Anu, Dol Dona, and Breg Epona. Guild Shops sell items and equipment that normal shops don't usually sell. Haseo (you, the player) also has his own Guild Shop in each of these towns. You should sell your excessive items through your Guild Shop than to a NPC shop as you will get more money back by selling items through your Guild Shop than through a NPC Shop. Trades: Like with the previous .hack games, you can trade items with your party members and fellow PC players found in dungeons, fields, and towns. Trading for items is a great way to gain and acquire hard to get items that normal shops usually don't sell. Steam Bike: Access to the Steam Bike is also back. This little vehicle will allow you to travel through fields and the towns faster than simply running. You can tune up your Bike's various parts to improve the speed, grip, and steering. This is useful when you want to tackle the new Bike Missions. You can buy tune up parts at Junk shop found in all the towns. Tuning your Bike will take place inside your @Home in the Bike Factory section. Party Affections: By answering e-mails and sending gifts to with various party members you can raise their affection up for Haseo. The point of raising their affection for Haseo is that their actions in combat will be friendlier toward Haseo. An example of this is that a high affection for Haseo will mean that a party member will more likely heal Haseo when he's low on HP than a low affection for Haseo. Alchemize: You can alchemize at your @Home to upgrade your weapons, armors, and accessories to enhance them for better performance. The new and interesting thing here is that the game introduces Cheat Alchemy that allows you to upgrade equipment that are Rare level 5 by using Cheat Code items that you can find in various fields and dungeons. Arena: The Battle Arena is actually part of the storyline where you need to fight in the Tournament to get your rank up so you can fight a certain key story character. However it is also possible for you to use the Battle Arena outside of the storyline once you finish the game. Chim Chims: Chim Chims are little egg like creatures that you can kick to get Chim Spheres. You can find them in dungeons or fields. By collecting Chim Spheres from Chim Chims, you can open certain gates or activate certain warp devices. Lucky Animals: Like with Chim Chims, you can usually find a Lucky Animal in a field or dungeon. Catching and kicking a lucky animal will have that animal grant a special effect onto your party to help your party for a limited amount of time. Each different Lucky Animal will give off a different special effect. In addition to Lucky Animals you can also find Unlucky Animals as well. Of course Unlucky Animals will give off special effects that will hinder your party instead of helping your party. Surprise Attacks: During battles it's possible for you to get a drop or a first strike on the enemies if you are able to approach them carefully without being seen by them. Once you are close enough the Surprise Attack option will show up allowing you the option to do a Surprise Attack. A Surprise Attack is a massive rush toward the enemy knocking them backward while doing a critical hit damage to them. Job Extension: For some reason Haseo is the only player in The World that can get job extension that allows him to use different weapons. In volume 1 Haseo first job extension allowed him to use broad swords in addition to his starting weapons, twin blades. In volume 2 Haseo second job extensions was scythe giving him three weapons to choose from. In this volume, Haseo final job extension allows him to use guns. Skill Attacks: Each party member has their own set of skill attacks they can learn base on the weapon they can equip. All weapons have a default skill attack but once you start using the weapon more and start using a skill attack more, the weapon itself start gaining experience in level. You'll be able to unlock more skill attacks once a weapon reaches certain levels. The new thing here is that Haseo can now perform a follow up skill attack called double trigger with his gun to any normal skill attack for additional damage. Rengeki Attacks: Rengeki Attacks are basically higher level versions of a skill attack. If you attack an enemy with enough combos, blue and purple rings will appear around them indicating that their defenses are weaken and they are vulnerable for a Rengeki Attack. Awakenings: Awakening is a powerful group attack that you can perform for a limited amount of time. You have a morale gauge that goes up each time you are successful in doing Rengeki Attacks. Once your morale gauge is full you can perform an Awakening Attack. The new Awakening attack for volume 3 is called Avatar Awakening. The special thing about Avatar Awakening is that not only does it do damage to all enemies, it also collect virus cores. The other 3 Awakening is as follows: Beast Awakening is where all your party members for a limited amount of time will be stronger and faster doing greater damage than normal to all the monsters. Demon Awakening is where all your party members will gather to do an AOE magic attack on all the enemies for a set limit of time. Divine Awakening is a really all out powerful attack. Virus Cores: You can only obtain virus cores from performing Avatar Awakening. The main purpose of collecting virus cores is to use them to upgrade your main characters Lost Weapons which is basically their best weapons in the game. Anomalous Data: This is a new feature in the game where an anomalous data will sometimes appear in a town, fields and dungeons. Mostly in fields and dungeons though. There are only two purposes for an anomalous data and they are either to get items from the data or to warp to the Outer Dungeon. Once near the data just press R1 to either get an item or open up a warp portal to the Outer Dungeon. Outer Dungeon: An outer dungeon really is just like any normal dungeon in the game except it looks like it was made from the Disney movie Tron. Outer dungeons are normally just storyline dungeon where you need to explore a bit to reach an area in the dungeon to get a story cut scene going. You don't really use Outer Dungeons as a way to gain levels or get items like with normal dungeons.
If you look at the core of the .hack//G.U. gameplay it really is a basic easy dungeon crawl action rpg game. Redemption is a final look at all the elements and features of how the entire gameplay look when it's been implemented into the final stages. Both Volume 1 and Volume 2 had key game features being left out on purpose so they can be introduce in the proceeding Volumes. Here all the key features have finally been introduced as well as the final level cap at level 150. If you look at the key features of the gameplay as well as the setting of the gameplay base on a virtual MMORPG, it's nothing too special because the gist of the gameplay is still base on you running around in dungeons through various floors. The problem with this as stated in the last two .hack//G.U. reviews is that things can get quite repetitive pretty quickly since almost all the dungeons look the same and the goal in each dungeons are the same. However even though the gameplay may be plague with repetitiveness, it's still a very fun and enjoyable game to play. The reason for that is that the flow of the game is in a very fast pace mode. The dungeons themselves mostly consist of only three floors and your movement inside the dungeons are in a fast pace that you can breeze through each dungeon pretty quickly so that even if you don't like crawling around a dungeon, you don't spend a lot of time inside a dungeon overall that it drags you down. The battles are done in real time and they are fast pace battles to keep things moving along quickly that even fighting the same monsters over and over don't get too repetitive too quickly. Another good thing is that the game keeps you busying between inviting different party members to trading and upgrading your equipment that you hardly notice that you spent 40 hours plus on this game and that's not including the 20 hours more for doing all the extra stuff. The interesting thing is that getting a complete gameplay would probably net you over 80 hours of gameplay and you don't even feel like you spent that many hours on the game. This is why the flow of the game is really good because it off set the repetitiveness of the dungeon crawling element. I had a lot of fun playing this game but there were times where I felt annoyed having to go through some dungeons again just to get to a cut scene to advance the story. The good side that I enjoyed the most was the customization, the alchemy, the trades, and the battles. I also enjoyed the fact that the game is pretty straight forward and easy to complete as well. In the end I have to say gamers would get their money worth in terms of sheer gameplay features and elements.
Score: 9/10
EXTRAS/REPLAY
The boss of all bosses.
Ahh yes the extras are back and when you think it can't get any bigger it does. Bigger and better to be exact. Your entire returning favorite extra features from the first two volumes plus new extras from this volume making the extra feature one of the most jam pack feature of the game.
The Book of 1000s is back for you to complete to unlock movie clips, music clips, and gain various amount of money. All the mini side quests from the NPCs from the town of Mac Anu are back too. The Bike Missions are back with newer missions for you to complete in this volume. The card game, Crimson VS, is back too although the card game itself doesn't offer any reward for you. And just like before the Quest Guild does provide some side quests for you to do but in this volume pretty much all the quests from the Quest Guild are part of the storyline so I'm not sure if you can even call the quests from the Guild extras since they do require you to do them to advance the story. These extras alone from the combine first two volumes would net you over 15 hours of extra gameplay if you looking to complete everything. But that's not all as volume three also has its own new extras for you to do. First thing to mention is that unlike the first two volumes, this volume provides a couple of extra hidden playable characters for you to have as party members. There are also a few extra boss fights for you to do as well but the biggest new extra feature is the 100 floor dungeon called Forest of Pain. Climbing this 100 floor dungeon will eat up a lot of gameplay time but in doing so, not only will you be able to unlock a hidden character but you will also unlock a secret ending to the game. If you combine all of these features you are looking at nearly up to 30 hours of extra gameplay time and that's a lot of extra gameplay time for you. The only minor drawback here is that this game doesn't offer any real replay value since the game itself doesn't end even if you finish the storyline gameplay and there's no New+ game feature at all but with so many extras for you to do, replay value doesn't matter too much.
Score: 10/10
If you loved the previous G.U. games than you would love Redemption like I did. As how the entire .hack//G.U. series stack up, I have to say that it has one of the best story, characters, graphics, and musical presentation around. In fact I would rank the .hack//G.U. series as one of the top three rpg series for the Playstation 2 and one of my personal favorite rpg series around. I would rank the Xenosaga series and possibly the Kingdom Hearts series as the only other two rpg series that is better or equal to .hack//G.U. on the Playstation 2. The only flaw that you can say about .hack//G.U is that the gameplay is a bit too repetitive with the constant dungeon roaming over and over but luckily the gameplay is just one of the parts in an rpg game even if it's the biggest part that the rest of the other parts can make an even above average gameplay enjoyable to play. I highly recommend rpg fans to pick up this series if they can as it's a good buy. And finally I hope and can't wait till the next .hack series is introduced and hopefully the next .hack installment will be just as good as .hack//G.U.
