.hack//Difficulty Mode - A Way to Get Into the .hack series

It might get too repetitive if I said, in commemoration of .hack//Z.E.R.O. announcement, I'll get straight to the point.

You know, entering into the .hack series has its difficulty mode... not because of combat or battling against enemies/bosses is difficult or anything, but what I meant is about Accessibility.

Accessibility, in my own opinion, is about how they can access certain information, visuals, product designs, or anything that can be accessed by them.

In this day and age, if you want to try the older game in older platform, accessing those games is difficult under different circumstances; some that the disc game is rare, and some of those discs can be found but are expensive. You might get lucky if you are still collecting them at your home (as long as you don't sell them).

And there's a modern platform that can be easily accessible for everyone, and if there's an older game that gets remastered or remade and released on that platform, it can get easier for everyone to get accessed into that game.

For .hack series case is very special; there's a lot of difficulty to get it accessed, it can be harder or easier in many ways.

Well, let's get straight to the explanation:

You see, there are four difficulty modes of accessibility as a way for you to get into .hack series: Easy Mode, Hard Mode, Anime Mode, and Extreme Mode.

Easy Mode - .hack//G.U. Last Recode

For easy-mode accessibility, there's .hack//G.U. Last Recode, the remastered version of the original PS2 games, .hack//G.U. series, and this one is easy for you to access. 

Well, of course, this game is a direct sequel to .hack//IMOQ (the first .hack games), but if you wanna ask if there's a story or characters that get mentioned, all I can say is that nope, but they only mentioned the world. Some lore, easter eggs, and little characters that get mentioned, but as for the rest, it's separated from its first game.

The story is about our protagonist, Haseo a PKK Terror of Death, currently hunting down the one who made his friend, Shino fell into a coma, by the one whom he called, Tri-Edge. If you wanna know what's next, then you have to play this game.

The gameplay is easy to connect with the new players, you might find it repetitive, but the experience you gain there and everything you went through in every volume, you'll get a very rewarded with worth experience that you'll never forget.

It was my childhood game at that time, and I considered it one of the greatest gaming experiences of all time. Haseo's character development is on top-notch and cannot be beaten, and of course, there's a mystery surrounding phenomenon surrounding that can only be found in THE WORLD.

The game is available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam).

Hard Mode - .hack//IMOQ

Now for the Hard Mode, .hack//IMOQ is the first .hack series game that everyone so much loved and always demands Bandai Namco to get it remade or remastered, but sad that BNE's brain is retarded.

You know this is the hardest game to get, unless you can download the game on the internet and play on the emulator. If you wanna find discs to collect, well... you can... but the disc of the game gets rarer these days and even if you find them, it gets expansive in return. Ironic right? yeah, I know.

.hack//G.U. Last Recode is the easiest thing for you to access, but if you truly want to start .hack series with IMOQ, you have yourself a challenge like an outdated combat system, but I appreciate your effort, because the story and world-building is insane, you can its creepiness and weird things going on, but don't expect to be the same as NieR game...lol.

The story is about Kite invited by his friend Orca into The WORLD, only to encounter a mysterious giant white thing, and a white girl named Aura, causing Orca to fall into a coma, and Kite has to go into the world to find out the cause, while exploring the mystery that is hidden in the online game.

It is the greatest foundation of the .hack series, a foundation that lets you open emails. news, and forums, experiencing the essence of MMORPG, combat is hard ofc and dungeons can be repetitive too, but you will find a great mystery, suspense, weirdness, in-depth game and reality blending, and so much more that I can't even explain myself, you just have to see it through.

The game is exclusively available on PlayStation 2.\

Anime Mode - .hack//SIGN

It's weird if this Anime Mode is included as one of the accessibility options, but this anime is popular among .hack fans, as I see every tweet of them loving and geeking about it. Yep, you're not wrong, it's .hack//SIGN.

Well, you can freely watch this anime since it's a prequel to .hack//IMOQ and you might have a lot reason how it's set up to the game, even it could be separate things (but it's connected tho). And of course this anime is so deep and relates to many people around the world, about Escapism, Issues, Isolation, and more, but it also deals with growth within each of the characters and the communication they attained with them.

But I'm not going to recommend this for those who only loved Action-Driven, but if you truly wanted to give it a try, then I hope this anime can be worth your time, because sometimes, you can get related to the character's story and their personal struggle they've been through, character study I think... see for yourself.

.hack//SIGN focuses on Tsukasa, who is losing his memories as he is trapped in the online game known as THE WORLD and can't even log out of it. Find out more as you watch it.

Extreme Mode - .hack franchise

Welcome to the Extreme Mode, you're going to dive into the Rabbit Hole for the rest of your life, BWHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!😈

If you're up for the challenge, you can try all .hack series of games, anime, novels, and even manga... and if you're truly willing for that, then good luck, suckers👋 You're going to spend the rest of your life trying to learn deeply about the series... but you'll be rewarded with all the experience you get.

So... FIGHT ON!!!! RAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Here's the .hack list you can try, brought to you by Falions

Easiest Mode

Now for the easiest mode, it's .hack//Z.E.R.O. 

Although the game is not coming out yet, it will be a reboot of the franchise as Matsuyama stated that he wants to restart the series from zero. 

Thankfully, Bandai Namco is permitting CyberConnect2 to use the IP for their new self-publishing title, and this game will be planned, developed, and marketing 100% by CC2, and it will be on the largest scale in CC2's history.

It would be 100% pure creativity and spirit from CC2, just imagine if their creativity can match how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 did, it would be the masterpiece of all time, but that depends on how they can handle it. But with no restriction from Bandai Namco, I can honestly think that this game will had good track record.

Plus note, since this game is a reboot, the events of earlier .hack series titles will be unrelated to this upcoming game, so you don't need to learn any lores about .hacks and earlier titles to jump on this one. It's a very good opportunity for new players to try.

Wish this game were available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC (Steam).

Conclusion

And here you go, it all comes with accessibility after all, how they can access certain information and how they can handle it, the same case came from .hack series on different levels, but I had faith that newcomers, new players, and even new fans can try this timeless masterpiece and the adventure that this series has to offer.

I won't force you to choose any mode you like to enter, just hoping your experience with those games or anime you try first will be a good one. And I promise you, this game is different from SAO, it has a deep exploration of reality blending between the real and online world, character studying, MMO essence, fun stuff about grunties, trading your items, suggesting or generating keywords area, quest, and sometimes you can yell SKEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! or OVAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!! (Damn, Yuri Lowenthal, your voice as Haseo will always be the GOAT!!)

Of course, there's novel mode too... but I leave the rest to the fans who want to recommend it to you.

If you wanna talk about music, don't be because Chikayo Fukuda and Tomoyo Mitani will always be the GOAT of music composers! I won't exclude you, too, Yuki Kajiura.

Alright then, from here on, you're on your own... good luck😉✨