#and play .hack/GU

[seeminglyseph]

it is frustrating sometimes watching anime youtubers talk about isekai, and bring up Sword Art: Online, and talk about it in a way that makes it clear that like... the existence of .hack and the fact that like... it was pretty fucking huge and well known and from what I have seen of SAO must have been influential because like. I have not seen or read SAO, and so like, even if the creator of SAO has not played or watched read an entry in the .hack series, he's clearly consumed media influenced by it, right????

like I know .hack didn't create the like... 'trapped in a video game' genre, and I'm not saying all anime in the like... 'quasi-isekai, but it's an MMORPG' genre are .hack inspired, or owe something to .hack as a series...

I don't know exactly what point I'm trying to make specifically. But so much credit goes to SAO, and clearly it inspired a lot of the modern interest and web novels. I understand it's responsible at least for the resurgence of the genre.

But. I also feel like the way some people talk about SAO it's like... "How do I make people become fully aware of this other thing I feel is much better???" which I think is probably very self serving but also like. ugh the .hack series was really cool. I really wish we could bring it back and give it the credit it deserved. Sure not every entry was great, but I loved it. I think many anime fans would be happier with .hack as a reference point instead of SAO...

[moeblob]

Heavy Blade Buddies

[actualaster]

I always get distracted when Pi is present during like proper cutscenes. I just.

Not even in a sexy way its just.

The jiggle physics look so ridiculous I can't help but stare at her boobs trying not to laugh.

She breasted boobily across the screen.

[honestlyvan]

👀👀 rlly interesting read on ovan, would love to hear some abt ur hcs on him n corbenik

(Now on DW!)

So it's been a hot minute since I watched Terminal Disc so my memory of the details of the canon are very vague, but I definitely think it's likely that the Epitaphs attached themselves to players in reverse numerical order, making Ovan the first and unintentionally the template for how becoming an Epitaph-PC would play out.

Corbenik is sort of funny as a Phase because the way it's laid out in the Epitaph, Corbenik serves no function until the Wave wipes out its intended target, and it's left behind to observe the void. As long as the system state isn't disturbed and no new AI begins to emerge, Corbenik stays passive theoretically forever -- but once it is disturbed, it rouses the rest of the Wave to come clean up what was left unfinished.

(I recognise this isn't how we see it play out in R1, I'm basing this on the idea that Morganna designed the Wave to be essentially self-propagating against Aura. The stalemate is the point, the rolling waves razing any fertile ground for her to develop on in favour of perpetual despair and the call of the void.)

With Corbenik as the rearguard of the apocalypse, it could have easily been the most active (least inactive?) of the Phases during the period of calm after Aura takes over Morganna's duties -- with no AI competing with Aura available to suppress, it was essentially on standby, latching onto Ovan the moment he showed up and then doing nothing until it registered the AIDA that also attached itself to Ovan.

Which is the thing that really fucks Ovan over, I think. The body timeshare he has with Tri-Edge is stressful enough, but Corbenik is also perpetually making him identify himself as the greatest threat to system integrity. So he's essentially getting a triple dose of the Epitaph "the solution is Fucking Kill Yourself" heightened self-destructive urge -- from the nature of the Cursed Wave, from the Vagrant AI-fication of the Phases and being (in part) his own natural-born enemy.

On top of this, Corbenik is perpetually calling to the other Phases like "over here! I've identified the enemy! Here is an AI we need to stop from reaching self-actualisation!" So candidates are drawn to him, unconsciously recognise him as having seniority, and then immediately identify him as the threat to be eliminated. People keep forming a kind of proxy disordered attachment to him, feeling compelled to follow his orders but also feeling threatened by his presence and become driven by the urge to destroy him.

Haseo is particularly vulnerable to this because Skeith and Corbenik are so intertwined in their roles, the first Phase is the one the last calls the strongest, and his personal sense of betrayal only amplifies the destructive resonance. And the influence goes both ways, the more Skeith perceives Corbenik's host as the main threat, the more Corbenik calls on Skeith as the vanguard to eliminate that threat. Haseo's (perceived) perception of him directly influences Ovan's perception of himself -- with everyone else Ovan is very particular about asserting his own reality, but with Haseo, the way Haseo sees him takes priority over how Ovan sees himself.

[bobzora]

yeah femc has some really solid romance routes but i just cannot be assed to care too much because there are some crazy level yuri goings on in this game

[talk-danmei-to-me]

Meatbun and Astrology:

It’s written in the stars.

I’ve fallen down an astrology rabbit hole and have discovered Meatbun might in fact, be a bit of a fan.

Let’s deep dive!

Yuwu

Mo Xi’s birthday is 13th January making him a Capricorn.

Key Capricorn traits include:

- Hardworking (When is he not working?)

- Practical (Excluding cooking… he’s a skilled soldier)

- Ambitious (Taking that oath was hella ambitious)

- Honest (This to a fault. Seriously his subtlety as it relates to Gu Mang wanes in vol 4 and following Gu Mang’s admission of love in vol 5 completely disappears)

- Sensitive (Never getting over the teach me to forget conversation)

- Wild side (Literally any time Meatbun blesses us with Ximang smut)

- Fearless (Breaking in and saving Gu Mang from torture, the psychological game he played with the Liao Kingdom’s Guoshi, making the emperor wait, summoning Jiang Fuli back, literally going to pick Gu Mang up from the Royal Palace at the end of the last vol.)

Gu Mang’s birthday is the 10th February making him an Aquarius.

Key traits of an Aquarius include:

- Independent (Literally a one man army. He’s a machine, Gu Mang is completely self-reliant and I think his extreme willpower shows his independence. Even his attempts to save his memory are solely held by him)

- Progressive (I mean

- Intellectual (He literally was the first slave to get to go to an academy. My boy is so smart!)

- Humanitarian (His whole mission is humanitarian in nature)

- Friendly (His soldiers call him dad, he’s super popular and everyone loved him prior to his defection.)

- Problem solvers (This man is solving all Chonghua’s problems)

Now’s where it gets interesting:

Capricorns are not well matched to Aquarius as they may seem flighty and inconsistent.

Personally I think this is genius because for a huge part of the narrative, Mo Xi is completely tortured over Gu Mang’s defection and cannot understand it at all. Even when they’re together in the early days, he’s never quite able to define what they are. Despite being Meatbun’s most wholesome couple, Ximang really do have a doomed lovers vibe to them that’s written in the stars.

Case File Compendium

He Yu’s birthday is the 26th May making him a Gemini.

Key traits of a Gemini are:

- Versatile (He Yu is able to adapt to any social setting/occassion and present a version of himself as to attract the fondness of others. He’s a student, a madman, an actor and a lover.)

- Spontaneous (Like when he decided to kiss Xie Qingcheng in a bar full of people)

- Intellectual (The mind games he plays with Xie Qingcheng are so, so good. Like when he catches him out over the students not attending classes. Iconic)

- Independent (His family have basically abandoned him at this point, he went and got a tattoo because he could.)

- Loyal (No one is allowed to do anything to Xie Qingcheng but him)

- Impulsive (Literally describes his actions any time he’s alone in a room with Xie Qingcheng. Also when he was hacking all the hate online for Xie Qingcheng)

- Inconsistent (Being heterosexual)

Xie Qingcheng’s birthday is the 27th September making him a Libra.

Key traits of Libras include:

- Diplomatic (A useful trait to have anytime he has to be in a room with He Yu and Chen Man)

- Intellectual (he’s been a doctor, he’s a university professor and now he moonlights as a detective.)

- Fair minded (This interestingly comes out in the flashbacks when you see how concerned he is over how He Yu’s parents neglect him)

- Adaptable (So much so he successfully managed to bore his wife into a divorce)

Here’s where things get interesting though:

Gemini’s match well with Libra’s as they stimulate their intellect and embrace their ever changing nature. Allegedly they can create a partnership based on mutual respect and have good communication.

Spoilers for the future I guess.

The Husky and his White Cat Shizun

Mo Ran’s birthday is the 9th April making him an Aries.

Key traits of an Aries are:

- Fiery (Threatening to fuck Chu Wanning to death and turning Song Qiutong into soup immediately come to mind)

- Passionate (His love for Chu Wanning)

- Bold (All his methods of seduction fall under this e.g. ‘Next time I’ll make you come on my cock’. Also giving Chu Wanning head when Xue Meng was literally stood right there. But also crashing Nangong Si’s wedding was a pretty bold move)

- Loyal

- Helping (in the 2.0 timeline he is trying so hard for everybody. He wants everyone to get the best ending possible)

Chu Wanning’s birthday is the 9th August making him a Leo.

Key Leo traits are:

- Loyal (I mean... Could be be any more ride or die for Mo Ran. The man literally travelled through time and space for him).

- Generous (He gave baby Mo Ran the congee and left home because he wanted to help people. He literally hauled Mo Ran’s body up an insane amount of stairs. There’s literally so many times he gives things up for people throughout the novel)

- Stubborn (He’s old and ugly and no one will ever love him. Do not try and change his mind!)

- Dramatic (Absolute unit. Truly awe-inspiring. Demanding Mo Ran wash his back and keeping their hair with him at all times)

- Creative (the man literally makes robots as a hobby. Also his iconic paper dragon.)

- Passionate (He would be just as bad as Mo Ran if Mo Ran didn’t keep denying him because he was scared he was going to do something to hurt him and you cannot convince me otherwise.)

And now for the best part:

Aries and Leo are compatible as soul mates but can also have volatile relationships due to thinking they are right and therefore need to work on communication.

They literally needed to die multiple times and cross time and space to end up in a proper relationship.

[voidsentprinces]

Oh and reminder, it took us last time four fucking days for this all to play out last time. Remember social media and news sites get more clicks if they make your heart jump in your throat or make you doom scroll. Don't let those pissants get you spinning plates and running in circles for them. If you got time to even look at their dumb ass "Will they won't they" headlines. You got time to play

FINAL FANTASY XIV NOW WITH A TRIAL WITH UP TO LEVEL 70 AND BOTH AWARD WINNING HEAVENSWARD AND STORMBLOOD EXPANSION

MONSTER HUNTER WILDS BETA IS NOW HERE

EGG MCEGGSON DAWN VEIL or...was it dread wolf? VEILGUARD!? I CANNOT REMEMBER BUT THATS OUT TOO!

Back log of games? Time to catch up.

And there's this new show I've heard about called Brigerton whose main plot point is fucking real life G'raha Tia...or something? Imma be honest with you I wasn't paying attention but shirtless Jonathan Bailey just kept appearing on my dash.

Speaking of which Jonathan Bailey won sexiest man alive awards this year. Thus making G'raha Tia the sexiest catboy in Eorzea.

Have you ever thought of replaying an old favorite? .hack//GU? Assassins Creed? FFVII is available on steam as is VIII, IX, and X.

ARE YOU BOSCH FON ROSENBERG!? Cause XII is also on there.

So much to do, so much to see, so whats wrong with taking the backstreets?

[orcaslushie]

Hii, can you do headcanons about the social media pressence of toh?

YES OMG TBIS IS THE BEST ASK

Luz makes art and glyph tutorials

Gus makes those really bad prank videos where he pranks people with illusions (usually his friends)

Hunter makes cosplay videos and tried to start a webtoon of his OCs

Hunter and Gus send each other Cosmic Frontier videos every 5 minutes

Willow posts vlogs Amity watches all of them

Amity follows Luz's art tutorials

Raine posts viola covers of songs that get extremely popular

Eda makes life hack videos and she has well over 100k followers

Luz also posts deep character analysis videos of Azura characters

Boscha makes grwm's

The Hexsquad often goes live and plays roblox and minecraft

Matt tries to cancel random creators for fun

Darius will randomly post the hottest takes in the universe on his twitter (is there a toh name for that) and almost get canceled by Matt like twice a week

Gus and Matt have a shared channel that they react to videos on that's amassing a good following

Kikimora posted a Colleen Ballinger apology video with a ukulele (canon trust me)

if anyone wants a specific character ask away I have more ^^

[quietlyimplode]

the language of flowers and silent things

Whumptober 2023: Day 21 - Found family

Warnings: child abandonment, grief

Word Count: 1.8k (gif not mine)

Summary: Clint leaves to find a person from his past, surrounded by the family he created.

A/N: <3

Masterlist

Whumptober Masterlist

.

2013

NEW YORK

“Can you find someone for me?” Clint asks Tony, looking around the room, and the technology it holds.

He can’t help but touch the screens and play with the holograms as he waits for Tony to reply.

“Can you pass me the copper wire?” Tony asks.

Clint hops up on the bench and throws it to him, his aim true.

“I can find anyone, if they want to be found, and even then, likely I can find them if they don’t want to be,” he answers distractedly.

“Can you hold this here?”

Clint hops down and pushes on the wire, analysing the circuitry and frowning.

“You’ve wired it wrong,” he surmises, pointing with his other hand.

Tony swears and rubs his face.

“How long have you been up for?” Clint asks, a pinch of worry for his friend and his insomniac ways.

Tony looks up and glances at the time.

Jarvis answers for him, “twenty six hours.”

Clint swears it’s sounds almost disapproving.

“What are you trying to do?” he asks, knowing that until the project has reached a satisfactory conclusion, there’s no way Tony will stop.

Rubbing his forehead, Tony shows him the circuit board connected to the towers alarm system, and automatic controls for system lockdown.

Clint frowns.

“Has there been any attempts to get in here?”

He doesn’t understand why Tony was upgrading the already functioning system.

He shakes his head.

“No, but I just..” he pauses.

“Who do you want me to find?”

Clint ignores him and without words helps, correcting the circuitry then placing the upgraded board into Tony’s hand.

“You know, if you get sleep, these things become easier,” he grins.

Tony rolls his eyes, the lower limbs of the suits attaching as he flies to the control box outside and installs the board quickly.

There’s a quick glow, and a light force field covers the tower before disappearing again.

Clint didn’t realise how big the project was, and smiles as Tony returns.

“Come get some food,” he prompts, holding the door open as the legs come away and he reaches ground again.

Tony obliges.

Heading to the kitchen, Clint explains about Gus.

The ex-carney, convenience store owner that stayed close to the circus and protected Clint from future foster homes and set him on the path of this life.

There’s some hesitation in the way Tony replies, and Clint doesn’t quite know if he should have trusted him with the story.

“Why do you want to see him again?” Tony asks, handing him a Stark-Pad.

Clint hesitates, feeling judged in the moment.

“I want to tell him about Barney, maybe just check that he’s okay. Thank him I suppose?”

He doesn’t know, not in any way he can put into words.

Tony is uncharacteristically quiet, before he takes the stark-pad off of Clint and opens up a data base, taking time, he seems to hack into some sort of data base.

It takes him a minute or so, before he hands the tablet back.

“He’s still in Iowa, Cedar Rapids, last known address was near the Prairie Park Fishery,” he pauses, “we can go now if you want?”

Clint stops in his tracks.

“What?”

Tony points upwards.

“Two hours, we can go there now if you want?”

Clint nods slowly.

“Yeah okay,” he says impulsively, “let me just send a message to Natasha, and let her know.”

Tony shrugs, “sure, I’ll be up at the hanger, if you ask Steve it will be a party.”

Clint decides on calling Natasha, feeling a slight urgency on getting going.

“Hey,” she picks up, after a beat.

“Hey,” he answers.

“I asked Tony to find Gus and he found him in like five seconds. He asked if we wanted to go visit, and I’ve said yes,” he says quickly.

“Doyouwannacome?”

Natasha takes a second before responding, and then tells him she’d meet him at the hanger.

He smiles. It’s like a road trip with his friends, something they’d do at the circus.

It’s seems somewhat fitting.

Picking up the phone again, he calls Steve.

“Hey man,” he says as the phone clicks over.

“Hey,” Steve replies.

“Natasha and Tony and I are going on a bit of trip to see an old friend I have in Iowa. Do you want to come?”

“When?” Steve asks.

“Now?”

Steve takes a moment and then agrees, Clint thinks he can hear the change in his tone, a small amount of pleasure at being invited.

“Come to the hanger when you can,” Clint tells him, “we’ll be waiting.”

.

The trip to Iowa is an exchange of stories. Clint starts by telling the story of Gus and how he taught him magic, he shows the others a trick and then produces a coin from Steve’s ear.

Much to his delight, Steve replicates the trick and produces two coins.

Tony, not to be outdone, produces two coins and a card.

Natasha bursts out laughing.

“You’re all magic nerds,” she says, joyfully.

The rest of the trip they try and outdo each other, Natasha taking the lead in flying the plane as they all show off random magic tricks, and teaching each other the ones they don’t know.

She gives them a ten minute warning and looks back to see Clint smiling, a true smile that had been so rare from the events of New York to learning of his brothers death.

She hopes this is positive and that Gus is the man Clint believes him to be.

Otherwise, she might kill him herself.

.

Clint knocks on the door.

Alone now, he wishes he hadn’t been so adamant to do this himself. He’d left Natasha with the others in the plane, promising to be back soon.

The anticipation feels heavy as he hears movement in the house and he hopes Tony was right in the address.

The door opens slowly, and Clint smiles lightly.

“Hello,” he opens, “I don’t know if you—“

“Clint?”

The door opens wider, revealing Gus, now older but still the same man.

“Hi,” he says shyly.

“Clint!”

He pulls him into a hug and Clint feels himself sink into it, feeling like a kid again.

“Come in,” Gus asks, ushering him through the door.

“Can I get you anything?

Clint doesn’t get a chance to answer as Gus disappears into the kitchen and returns with beer and a bottle opener.

He takes it and opens them both, offering it to cheers which Gus does with a smile.

“Clint,” he says, almost in reverence.

“How are you?”

“I’m good,” Clint replies, not sure what to say.

He came here to say that Barney was dead. To thank him for helping him when he was a child, to pointing him in the direction of the military.

“I — wanted to find you,” he starts.

Gus stands, finds an album on the bench and hands it to Clint.

“Open it,” he gestures.

The album has photos, some articles from the circus, pictures of Clint he’d never seen before, gently he turns the pages, emotion welling inside.

He can’t speak.

Gently touching the photos, he sees himself holding the bow and arrow as a young boy, stance strong and gaze focussed.

“That’s my favourite,” Gus says, watching Clint carefully, “you had such natural talent from the get go, and even if archery didn’t get you famous, I think you would have been a fantastic pickpocket.”

Clint huffs a laugh, turning the page.

“And now you’re an Avenger?”

There’s clippings from the paper from the last twelve months.

Of Tony, Steve and Thor, of him and Natasha. Articles and pictures.

Clint thinks it’s one of the kindest things someone has ever done.

He smiles.

“I’m just a human, amongst superhero’s, metal men and gods,” he laughs, starting at the start again to take the photos in.

“Maybe it’s what they need, to keep them in line,” Gus retorts.

Clint stops at a picture.

Barney stands arms crossed with a smile as Clint does a handstand.

He stares at it, and forces breath.

Barney.

“He’s dead,” he whispers, taking the photo out, he shows it Gus.

“He’s dead,” he repeats again.

Gus hobbles over to sit with Clint, taking the photo and then handing it back.

“I know,” he nods, and hugs Clint in a side hug.

“He came here, a couple of years ago, asking after you, I showed him and told him you had gone into the military.”

He turns the page and Clint finds the picture of himself in uniform.

“He was so proud of you,” Gus tells him.

“I think he wanted to tell you.”

Clint can’t help it; he cries.

For the loss of his brother, for all the words left unsaid and the time they’d never get back.

“Do you think he knew I loved him?” he asks, voice as small as a child’s.

“Of course he did,” Gus nods.

He closes the album, and motions for Clint to follow him.

“Barney stayed here, for a little while at least, and drew some pictures. I held onto them, as I hoped— I wished I would see you again.”

He opens the door and pulls out some pictures from a drawer.

The pictures are of Clint and Barney as children, their faces small and chubby.

Clint feels the tears on his face as he furiously wipes at them.

“Your brother, he was complicated and could be harsh and I think he wanted to protect you but didn’t know how… You were both so young.”

Gus looks down.

“I think I failed you both but I did the best I could,” he admits.

Clint shakes his head.

“No,” he refutes, “you saved my life, probably Barney’s too. I came to thank you.”

Gus waves him off.

“Take them,” he tells Clint, “they’re yours, the album too if you want anything from it.”

Clint nods, finding the album, knowing what pictures he wants and the ones he wants to show Natasha, maybe even the others.

He sits back down, not quite ready to leave yet.

“I’m going to get married,” he confesses.

Gus looks up, his smile wide.

“Will you come?”

The nod and laugh is infectious.

“Of course, of course I will,” he agrees.

He sits back and takes a sip of the still cold beer.

“Tell me about her,” he asks.

.

The plane home is in darkness, as Clint shares the chocolate and pictures that Gus sent with him.

He tells the stories behind the pictures, prompting Steve and Tony to tell their own.

Natasha holds onto the picture of Clint and Barney and stares at it for a long time.

“He looks like you,” she whispers later.

“Remind me,” he tells her, “remind me to tell you the story behind that one.”

Natasha hands it back to him, and nods, bringing her head to his and pushing it against his.

“I’m proud of you,” she whispers, so the others can’t hear.

“It’s hard facing our pasts, and I’m glad it went well.”

He regards Natasha and all the history she has with facing her past; the good and the bad.

He nods.

“Me too, Nat.”

.

[open-hearth-rpg]

Hearts of Wulin Now at Age of Ravens

Hearts of Wulin, a PbtA game of wuxia romance and melodrama is now at Age of Ravens Games. Written by Joyce Ch*ng and Lowell Francis (me). This game and its expansion, Hearts of Wulin Worlds, offers a range of playstyles by focusing on the powerful heroes trapped by a web of obligations and personal desires. 

It’s pretty awesome IMHO. It draws on the literature of writers like Jin Yong and Gu Long, in particular adaptations of those stories in dozens and dozens of TV series (Laughing in the Wind, The Proud Twins). It also works to include things like more recent web novels and their adaptations, with rules for xianxia and the fantastic. The core book includes ideas for various genres, narrating fight scenes, building entanglements, and handling historical/courtly games. 

Hearts of Wulin: Worlds includes several settings: 

Shadow of Joseon, set during the Korean Joseon Dynasty. (Yeonsoo Julian Kim)

1905: San Francisco, presents a Chinatown just emerging from the shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act. (Banana Chan)

Cour de l'Eppee transports Hearts of Wulin to swashbuckling France. (Cat Evans)

Academy of the Blade offers a dueling academy inspired by Revolutionary Girl Utena. (Alison Tam)

Fight Me IRL is a unique take on cyberpunk. (James Mendez Hodes) 

Silk & Steam gives you a wondrous silkpunk setting. (Kienna Shaw)

It also includes two major rules add-ons:

The Villain, a new playbook. Not all wulin "Heroes" are heroes with a capital H. Some start in a darker place... 

Numberless Secrets, a new set of rules for telling mystery/investigation stories in Hearts of Wulin. 

These can be found on Drivethrurpg– both are part of the ongoing GMs Day sale happening right now. 

Personally I’m really excited about the future for Hearts of Wulin. Though I never learned the print run, I do know that the last of the physical copies recently sold out at Indie Press Revolution. I have a short list of things I’m hoping to accomplish. 

Get it up on itch.io. I know some folks prefer to get their ttrpg pdfs via that site. 

Figure out how to get Print-on-Demand versions up on Drivethru. I’ve been told this is a challenging process to get right, so I’m hoping to talk to some folks who have done it before. 

Publish the Names & Entanglements deck. This was a self-print add-on for Hearts of Wulin. It's a useful resource for character creation and I’m hoping to have physical copy available for sale. 

I’ve always said folks should feel free to hack and rework Hearts of Wulin as they wish. But I’d like to get a clear Creative Commons license out there for everyone and encourage folks to play around with the system.

Eventually I might do a 1.5 version bringing some of the HoW: Worlds material over into the main book, as well as a couple of rules updates.

I want to publish a collection of Numberless Secrets mysteries along with guidance for running detective wuxia games. I love the series Ancient Detective and this is the best way I get to play out those kinds of stories. 

Get an online keeper which has easy to use set ups for all of the expansion worlds. We have a solid one– newly automated thanks to Agatha– but it doesn’t have all the expansions. 

Some folks have done from amazing things with HoW so far (inspired by media like Scott Pilgrim, Cobra Kai, Star Wars and beyond). It would be great if I could assemble a collection of new hacks and settings, maybe with some additional play options.

Finalize the one translation agreement I’ve been offered. 

I want to thank everyone who has read and/or played Hearts of Wulin. It remains a game I love to run and it would be amazing to have more people try it out.

[seeminglyseph]

My main problem with Sword Art Online is that now everyone forgot that .hack exists and did most of that shit first and better and was a video game series that was definitely like. Kinda cringe at times but like. Was also fun.

And also had people get trapped in the game and go into comas and shit and corrupt businesses and OP edgelord gamers in MMORPGs and also the AI souls of the dead possessing some glitched out monsters.

It’s a real fucking shame the anime adaptations never matched the quality of the games but they did have the highest quality soundtracks because .hack//SIGN has an OST by fucking Yuki Kajiura and it’s one of the best soundtracks of all time and if you love music go listen to the .hack//SIGN soundtrack right fucking now. The anime was mediocre, the soundtrack was fucking amazing.

.hack deserves better, so much stuff that SAO seems to get credit for originating was in .hack but more enjoyable. I wish they would rerelease the original 4 because they came out for the PS2 and are like. Expensive as fuck now. .hack//GU got a PS4 remaster I think and they are genuinely fun games I fully recommend I think it’s on steam too so you can play on PC?

They were fun and played with the idea of being trapped in a game and a greater conspiracy of computer corporations behind the scenes that was very early 2000s sci fi anime that was really fun.

If you follow the full .hack lore it all ties together in a really neat way like the main character of GU is Sora the edgelord goofy assassin character who turned out to be a child roleplaying as an assassin online in SIGN, who is still being kinda an edgelord like a decade later.

[alpaca-clouds]

I sure miss .hack/

One anime series - or rather multimedia franchise - I have an immense amount of nostalgia for, even though it was never as big of the thing, as some others, is .hack/

Given it has been a while, since the franchise released something new, let me quickly explain:

.hack/ is a multimedia franchise, that features stories set in a VR MMORPG called The World. Originally the story featured the conceit that some players for some reason got "stuck" in the game, unable to log out, while their physical bodies fell into a coma. Just as there was a mystery featuring the AIs, that for some reason had evolved in the game's mainframe - and a mysterious artefact called the Key of Twilight.

I honestly do not know what it was about this, that spoke to me so much. But I was early on very fascinated by the idea of a VR MMO - even though we of course know today that it is something that is probably not easily achievable. (In a weird way, franchises like .hack/ kinda had the right idea by having the physical bodies turn into a near comatose state while playing, which would probably help the motion sickness...)

It was one of the first anime I pirated back in the. xD Even though I did not get to play the game until I was an adult, given that I was not allowed to have a game console as a child.

I know a lot of people, who found .hack/SIGN, the first anime series of the franchise, rather boring as it has a really, really slow pacing. Like, wow, the pacing is really slow. But... to me it really worked. There was an intrigue about the series and how it explored The World. (Not to mention that from today's perspective the main character is easily read as a trans guy.) And yes, of course the Yuki Kajiura soundtrack played heavily into it.

See, one of my big first online memories is playing the browser based game, that Bandai was hosting back then. A game mostly frequented by Japanese players, so I was trying my very best to keep up with where the chat was going. And when we were "playing" (it was not so much of a game, really) together, it was always a headache to find a timeslot, where me and the Japanese folks could meet up.

Most of all, I think, the series weirdly captured that early 2000s online culture quite well. This is especially true for the more comedy heavy and cutsy "Legend of the Twilight" series. (Man, I need to rebuy that manga at some point.) Which just very much captured the feeling of just meeting online with friends from all over the world, who you might never meet, and... yeah. Just hang xD

But also the plot so often kinda had this undertone of "The World belongs to the players, not the company". Because especially in "Legend of the Twilight", but in the other entries too, one of the central conflicts comes from the company hosting The World trying to control the mysteries - especially the AIs. While the player characters are fighting against it and ending up siding with the AI.

Something, that feels strangely accurate to the modern internet, where the big, near monopolistic companies try control the user experience more and more, rather than letting users decide about their own experience.

The franchise of .hack// seems to be long dead and forgotten by Bandai and development studio CyberConnect2. The last game that released was .hack//Link, the last other media was the .hack// movie in 2012, that apparently passed everyone by either way.

To put it differently: It has been 11 years, since some new media released for that franchise. And it does not seem that anything is in the works to keep up with it. Especially as Bandai has taken the official international website off the net in 2020.

Technically, of course, a Switch Remaster of the .hack//GU games released in Japan last year for the franchises 20th anniversary - but it does not seem as if there are any plans to release it worldwide.

Maybe the franchise had its perfect moment in time in those early 2000s, when the internet really felt like an entire World that was there for us to explore.

But man, I miss this franchise. I had so much fun with it. And I just... love The World.

Also I need to leave this banger opening for .hack//Link with you. Because darn, I love this thing.

PS: If any of you went like "That kinda sounds like Sword Art Online" at this... Yeah, I to this day have the slight suspicion that Reki Kawahara was "lightly" inspired by .hack//. Because really, the entire SAO stuff to me is ".hack// but with less interesting characters and world building".

[actualaster]

Ovan: *ranting about how Haseo needs to devour him*

Haseo, obviously trying not to cry: "If that's what you want, if it will grant your wish"

Me: Boys, boys, talk about your vore kinks later you're supposed to be fighting not flirting

[videogamerzero1]

Well I've seen Dot Hack GU Trilogy since according to KNIJohn it was a ship fanfic rewrite of the first 3 Dot Hack GU games which I figured this'll be one way to celebrate Valentine's Day and I thought ok, can this be enjoyable regardless of that? WELL NOPE! It's still trashy as an adaptation of those games AND EVEN AS A BONUS TO PEOPLE THAT PLAYED THESE GAMES because it still flanderized EVERYONE & fast forward key story moments & the only MONOCHROME of praise I'll give was Haseo's new movie exclusive B-st form but it's a bit unearned as it's a bad take of Asura's Berserker Form especially considering it FLANDERIZES HIM BY JUST MAKING HIM NOTHING BUT BEING A RAGE EDGY BOY THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE MOVIE UNTIL GETTING HUGGED OUT BY HIS GF INSTEAD OF YKNOW ACTUALLY EARNING IT BY CHANGING & GROWING AS A PERSON! *sigh* yeah as you can tell this is some of worst video game adaptations of all time, it's now sharing that spot with Blazblue Alter Memory & Danganronpa the animation

[foone]

here's a question I'm not sure this is the best place to talk about:

if you were going to build a set of DOS/windows machines to play ALL PC GAMES, how many would you need?

Like, the boring answer is "ONE" but that's terrible and no, not really. Yes you can run DOSBox and such on a modern computer, but there's plenty of games in the hard-to-emulate era where they just won't run on a modern computer without a lot of patching and hacks and even then, maybe not.

So a slightly less boring answer is "TWO": One for the Hard To Emulate Era and one for NOW-GAMES. So like a 600mhz Pentium III with a Voodoo 3 and Windows 98, and a Modern Boring Machine. You play nearly everything on the modern one, including DOS games (using DOSBox and similar), but games that fit in the hard-to-emulate era, you play on the Old Machine.

BUT if you want to have a set of computers for most of the eras of PC gaming, you need more than that. Like if you were populating a museum of PC games. How many? I'm gonna say... FIVE. Maybe SIX.

An IBM XT. This is the best system for the earliest era of PC games: booters, early DOS games, anything without speed control (yes, there are turbo buttons, but they can only do so much). This is like an 8mhz with a 20mb hard drive, 640kb of ram, PC speaker only. You definitely need a joystick.

High-end 486/Pentium. This will play the rest of DOS games and nearly all Windows 3.1 games. 16mb of RAM is more than enough. A hard drive of about ~500mb (one of the first size limits), a soundblaster and maybe a GUS or MIDI device. You'll need a CD-ROM drive, for sure, even though most games won't need it.

Pentium II/III, or an AMD K6: Most early Windows games from the windows 9x era. You'll need a PCI sound card and a 3DFX card, probably a Voodoo 3 or above. You could go with an early nvidia like a geforce 2/3, but then you don't get GLIDE games. Something like 128mb of RAM, a couple gigs of hard drive, nearly all games will be CD-ROM so you want something FAST, and probably an old copy of Daemon Tools/CloneCD and a pile of no-CD cracks, because that will be NOISY.

Late single-core era: Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64. This is for the games that are relatively recent (2000s and onward) but have compatibility reasons that make them not run well on modern systems, because they don't handle multi-core systems, 64bit windows, or windowses newer than XP. So obviously this is going to run Windows XP, maybe tweaked Vista at a push, and it will 100% be the 32bit version. You're gonna have like 1-2 gigabytes of RAM, a few hundred gigabytes of hard drive space to a terabyte, and a video card like a GeForce 8-series or a Radeon HD 3000.

Boring modern machine. Fastest CPU/GPU, most RAM, biggest HD, etc that you can afford. Run Windows 10 or 11, it doesn't matter.

And the only reason I say "five or six" is because you might want to stuff another computer in, call it PC 3.5: Basically a fast Win9x machine, but this one uses an nvidia/ATI GPU instead of a 3DFX GPU. This'll be a machine for high-end Win9x/ME games that need more graphics power than a 3DFX card can manage, but don't work on an XP machine. I don't know for certain there are games in that area, but I wouldn't at all be surprised.

[andromedavwrites]

Sorry if I’m yapping I’m just obsessed - sorry what ok continuing

Idk if you’re waiting reveal it or something but can you please say you’re fancasts (is it considered a fancast if you’re literally the creator? Or the half creator since it’s a reboot?) for your reboot?

I love eah fancasts / just fancasts in general and the way you’ve mentioned some of them in other posts makes me so curious

!!!!!

i never talk about my cast but here’s the list!!(i probably fucked up names on this, i have like five times)

these aren’t set in stone obv, and one of them is a joke bc i thought it would be funny if a certain someone played Rumplestiltskin-

Raven Queen played by Callie Haverda

Apple White played by Mckenna Grace

Madeline Hatter played by Momona Tamada

Briar Beauty played by Kyleigh Curran

Cedar Wood played by Maliah Baker

Ashlynn Ella played by Trinity Likins

C. A. Cupid played by Sarah Dorothy Little

Blondie Lockes played by Ava Kolker

Ginger Breadhouse played by Iman Vellani

Duchess Swan played by Rina Johnson

Darling Charming played by Clementine Lea Spieser

Farah Goodfairy played by Cheyenne Hinojosa

Cerise Hood played by Ashley Sarmentio

Daring Charming played by Tait Blum

Dexter Charming played by Jacob Tremblay

Sparrow Hood played by Dallas Young

Hunter Huntsman played by Mateo Gallegos

Humphrey Dumpty played by Issiah Russel-Bailey

Kitty Cheshire played by Miya Cech

Lizzie Hearts played by Sofia Chicorelli Serna

Alastair Wonderland played by Walker Bryant

Bunny Blanc played by Xochtil Gomez

Chase Redford played by Parker Bates

Courtly Jester played by Trixie Hyde

Meeshell Mermaid played by Sophie Grace

Jillian Beanstalk played by Brianni Walker

Hopper Croakington II played by Jentzen Ramirez

Melody Piper played by Oona O’Brian

Ramona Badwolf played by Symonne Harrison

She played by Izabella Rose

Poppy O’Hair played by Anais Lee

Holly O’Hair played by Mirabelle Lee

Brooke Page played by Pixie Davies

Gus Crumb played by Jace Chapman

Helga Crumb played by Camron Seely

Travis Thumb played by Amari O’Neil

Prudence Step played by Lilo Baier

Charlotte Step played by Ava Ro

Lily Bo-Peep played by Lotus Blossom

Zypherus Wynd played by Camren Conerly

Aquilona Wynd played by Trinitee Stokes

Charity Charming played by Kaylin Hayman

Clara Lear played by Scarlet Spencer

Mahlee Black played by Daria Johns

Coral Witch played by Michela Luci

Nathan Nutcracker played by Finn Little

Justine Dancer played by Priah Ferguson

Witchy Brew played by Pilot Saraceno

Nina Thumbell played by Ella Noel

Felix Princely played by Jackson Dollinger

Tucker Merry played by Miguel Cazarez Mora

Marsha King played by Alexa Nisenson

Jackie Frost played by Anya Taylor-Joy

Northwind Frost played by Logan Lerman

Milton Grimm played by Frank Whaley

Giles Grimm played by Kieran Mulroney

Baba Yaga played by Olga Kurylenko

Rumplestiltskin played by Danny DeVito

Pied Piper played by Collin Donell

Mad Hatter played by Paul Wesley or Alex Hefner

The White Queen played by Kate Winslet

Mr. Badwolf played by Con O’Neil

Momma Bear played by Nathalie Boltt

Papa Bear played by William Baldwin

Coach Gingerbread played by Hill Harper

Snowelle White played by Alison Brie

Elvira Queen played by Clemence Poesy

Good King played by Matt Lanter

Snow Queen played by Lisa Kudro

Snow King played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Lance Charming played by Dan Stevens

Bryce Frost played by Shailene Woodley

Pie played by ?

Butternut played by ?

Cheshire Cat played by Stephanie Hsu

Queen of Hearts played by Meghan Ory

White Rabbit played by Joe Arquette

Cook played by Olivia Hack

i have spent… so long thinking about my cast for this i would DIE if i got even half of these actors to play the characters in the reboot!!