After setting it aside for a couple of weeks, I picked .Hack // Mutation back up today and something rather odd happened: I beat it. The first installment of this series was rather easy. Maybe even a little too easy. The second installment definately had its moments where things got a little touchy, and “ressurect” scrolls were being burned like Harry Potter books at a fundamentalist Christian bonfire. What turned out to be the final boss, Magus, was definately a thorn in my side. After trying unsuccessfully four or five times (and having to run through a rather large dungeon and cinematic sequence to restart the fight, no less), I had actually become frustrated enough with the fight to take a .Hack vacation for a little while. It turns out I just had to be cautious and patient, two virtues that were never simultaneously required elsewhere in the game. By diligently knocking down Magus’s spawn with Kite, while BlackRose chipped away at the big boss and Mistral hung back on healing duty (with the help of a Rig Geam spell effect), I was able to knock the bugger out without ever being seriously endangered by the bastard. Ok, I had to use a single ressurect scroll after I used Data Drain on the bugger, but my other two characters were in excellent condition at the time. As promised, the plotline has improved and is now genuinely intriguing (a big change for console RPGs), and I very much look forward to Outbreak, which should be on the shelves in early to mid September.

Continuing on with the DotHack series, I’ve gone along a little ways, spent some quality time with a system administrator, and acquired the email addresses of two additional Blademasters, another Wavemaster, a new Long Arm, and yet another Twin Blade. For the uninitiated, this is how you gain additional party members: NPCs (other players in The World) give you their email addresses so you can contact them in-game and enlist their aid.

As reported elsewhere, the game mechanics have hardly changed at all from .Hack//Infection, but the plotline really is starting to come into its own. The ability of the Project Dothack folks to dole out information at such a conservative pace serves not to alienate the player, but to intrigue instead. Having watched .Hack//Sign, two episodes of .Hack//Liminality, and an episode of the silly superdeformed Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, I’m still not entirely sure what’s going on.

You may want to chalk that up to stupidity or thick-headedness on my part (I must admit I zoned out occassionally on Sign), though. With about 40 hours logged on this game (total, with Mutation unfinished) I unreservedly recommend purchasing this game.

I finally bit the bullet and purchased the second installment in the .Hack videogame series. The fine folks at Project .Hack quite promptly dump you back into the mix, sending Kite and Blackrose back to investigate the aftermath of Infection’s climax. This time the System Administrators start taking a visible interest in the disturbing recent events, and Kite is put in the rather unfortunate position of being some hacker’s pawn and the sysadmins’ lapdog at the same time.

I’ve only been able to sit down for part of an evening with this game, but as all the game review sites have already said before, there aren’t any dramatic changes in the graphics or interface. For the sake of continuity, this is a good thing. Game reviewers sometimes miss out on big-picture issues such as those that cropped up when the Star Wars franchise of movies switched over from miniature modelling to CG: they don’t look like they all belong in the same series.

Previous games have handled the technological upgrades in their sequels by dramatically shifting the timeline, totally disregarding the previous game, and/or waiting years between releases. All told, I’m happy with the new release simply for expanding my opportunities to carry on my email conversations with BlackRose, Mistral, Piro, and the rest of the gang, even though I haven’t met any new party members. Importing your old save file is a big plus, as I worked hard to get that desktop image and mailspool, darnit!

This time around I hope to actually get myself to use the Data Drain (and its new variant) ability enough to actually see my infection reading increase (I used it quite sparingly in Infection).