Review: .Hack//Infection

Today's date is February 17, 2014. Had this been 10 years ago, I would have a much different number for .Hack//Infection. I like history, I have a very high respect for where the world has been and where we have come from. As much as I hate to think that age impacts things negatively, some things just don't age well. This game is one of them.

Right from your first log in to "The World" the game starts to show its age. An early PS2 game does not hold

Not very easy on the eyes.

up well graphically in this day and age. Models are all polygonal and jagged while the textures are muddy and dark. The graphics are ugly but perfectly serviceable though. You are capable of seeing everything you need to see, so this is merely a cosmetic issue. Be aware that you if go down this road you  are playing an old game and this is how it will look.

Unfortunately, the menus handle as poorly as they look. Equipping party members requires at least 3 menus, more if you want to see the stats of their items before you swap them out. You have to do this a lot too. For an active combat RPG you will be spending a very large portion of your time in menus. Attacks are selected through menus, group tactics are selected through menus, if it needs done, it has a menu. This interface is ridiculous to have when most of the buttons on the controller aren't really mapped to anything. Clunky and boring are not a good combination for a game going for fast paced combat.

I'm sleuthing

The concept of the game should be praised for its uniqueness. Playing a character who is playing an MMO to solve the mystery of his comatose friend makes for an amusing story. Over the course of .Hack you will be using email and forum boards to discover your next clue, make friends by questing, and trade with players in HUB towns just like a real MMO. Combat takes place in "fields" that you create by entering three random code words. Each word provides it's own attributes to the field so you can mix and match to your content. This randomly generated world has a field area where you start and a single dungeon that you enter and explore. Every dungeon ends with a treasure chest that gives you loot better than what you would normally see. This style of play is fun for a little bit, but you quickly find out that going through basically the same dungeons re-skinned is not the most fun.

There is not much of a sense of character progression as skills are tied to your equipment and not your character's level. Often you will be choosing between having helpful skills or have better stats. The same goes for your party members that you keep equipped as you play. At most it's a lot to consider, at least it is a nuisance to see your most used skill lost to progression.

You can always sell your extra items which you will be doing a lot of since that is the primary monster drop. This money doesn't really have a use besides buying healing items in the game. You will need a lot of money to keep your party stocked up with these since everyone in your party can carry up to 99 of each. You need to personally trade these items to your NPC party members too and good luck trying to figure out how many each of them already have.

To the game's credit the story is engrossing. The characters you play with seem real and you will be bringing people into your group just to continue their email dialog. For a series that spans four discs you can tell that this game is merely building the foundation of the game world but it even does that in an interesting way. I went the whole way through the game for the purpose of seeing the story to the end. It is a powerful goal and you will feel accomplished for getting through the 25 hour game.

I love these guys.

.Hack//Infection has been left in the dust by video game evolution. It is an interesting game with a genuine concept but the execution was I suspect mediocre in its time and even worse now. If you are a true fan of the series or JRPGs it may be worth going back for. Otherwise do not come back for this one. Your time is better spent elsewhere.

-Chemystery

The First Dungeon

I hit that spot in Final Fantasy XIV, the very first dungeon. In that moment I instantly learn what I think of any MMO. It's one of the first major milestones and it sets the tone for the rest of your experience. In the first dungeon you see the beginnings of raid mechanics, how your class really plays, and get a small sense of the community.

Your very first taste of loot.

In the case of XIV the first dungeon is a pirates' cove called Sastasha. My first time through as a level 17 white mage took about 40 minutes. My tank was a good friend from school so I had the benefit of being walked through the dungeon.. The rest of the group was a pug but they were all very consistent in their play, no wipes or deaths. My friend made sure we did all of the fights, apparently most groups that grind this instance just run past a few of the boss fights. Overall, the instance wasn't very different from any other MMO. The raid was solid, most bosses were tank and spank but that is expected in the first dungeon. The last boss was an exception, you had to run around and stop water ripples from summoning extra enemies. Pretty plain but solid all the same. I enjoyed how the groups worked, it was nice to see some synergy between classes rather than each one doing their own things. Also queuing up for the dungeon was simple and super fast, a rare thing for too many games. This dungeon just furthered my current belief in the game. A good game but you've seen it all before.

She hasn't said "Hey, Listen!" even once. 

I'm well beyond the first dungeon in Bravely Default however. It is amazingly addictive, it just pulls you in and keeps you there. It has such a strong sense of progression that every level feels like a big deal. I'm always super excited to see what ability the next job level will unlock. That feeling has let me down more than once though. some of the earlier abilities just suck. The Norende mini game also keeps me coming back to the game. My 3DS hasn't actually been shut off in a week. I keep it in sleep mode to get more Streetpasses and more shop levels. I worry though that the shop items from Norende break the game. I've bought some of the higher tier pieces and I feel like my characters are burning through the early game content faster than they should. This is compounded by the fact that I have set my encounter rate to +50% so I'm fighting more things then I am supposed to. For the curious readers my party is White mage, Knight, Monk, and Black Mage. I'm doing something pretty dumb and keeping them those classes until they max out the jobs. I know it is not efficient, but it's fun to me. If I looked more into it, I bet the systems are really easy to manipulate. There is just enough "extra" social stuff in it that I think your party could become excessively strong extremely fast.

Also this week I did a little more grinding in .Hack//Infection. I'm hoping to wrap that game up this weekend. Expect a full review soon!

Happy Valentines Day!,

Chemystery

Down the MMORPG Hole

Sorry about missing last week's post. I had to adjust to the new school schedule I have going for me. I'll try to make up for it this post.

Are his joints made of lava?

I made it to the last boss, Skeith in .Hack//Infection. The last dungeon in the game is a breeze to get through and when you reach the end, you get totally destroyed. I mean the boss battles ramp up the difficulty in the game 10 fold out of no where. This makes grinding worse than normal because you have to grind things that are super weak and easy so you can battle something that seems to be ridiculously leveled. I only tried to fight him once before choosing to go back to grinding. I definitely need to have maximum healing items on myself and my party members. Maybe I'll do some more grunty farming or try to get all of the unlocks in the books of ryu. I want to beat the game soon but I'm not sure how likely it will be since I have a new game on the block.

After much convincing and looking at sale prices, I picked up Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn for the PS3. This is the second (or third if you get technical) MMO in the FF franchise. I'm a total sucker for the series and an MMO seemed like a fun way to fill my time so I loaded it up. It took some doing though, I had to clear a bunch of space off of my PS3 hard drive (Deleted Gran Turismo 5) and bought myself a USB keyboard so I could type in the game.

The game controls very well on the PS3, a feat that I did not believe could be accomplished. It assigns a hot bar to each d-pad and button so you switch hot bars by holding R1. The skills on the hot bars are accessed by holding R2 or L2 and then hitting a d-pad direction or button. It establishes a nice symmetry and feels very intuitive. Switching between targets can be a little strange but mostly it is done by hitting directions on the d-pad while targeting something. The only thing that does not control well is the map. The map is quite difficult to navigate and I often find myself struggling to tell where I need to go. When a quest is in a different area then where you are, they just put it out in this gray blob. It could be that I haven't explored the map a lot yet or it could be the PS3  navigation for the map. I wonder if it's any better on the computer.

Behold the Symmetry!

I'm hoping to make a white mage character but first I need to level up my conjurer class before I can get the specific job of white mage. It's an interesting system especially since you can freely switch between classes just by changing your weapon. Your level is not an overall number but linked to whatever class you are at the time. Final Fantasy 14 definitely has some different mechanics than the standard MMO and I hope they pay off later in the game. Right now though I am really amused with it. I fully expect most of my gaming time to be with this now. But we shall see! Bravely Default will be coming out soon and I can't wait for it.

For those interested my character is Thail Ashlain, I play on the Ultros server and I am a level 10 conjurer.

Play Safe,
Chemystery