Are You A Gamer? Then Try And Fighting For A Cause!

First off this matter concernes not only CC2 and Hack but many, many publishers and game developers as well as games out there!

Joystiq and Cruchyroll already mentioned a reoccurring problem with some of the J-RPG franchise. We all love games and want to see more of them, so bringing up matters of concern in this category is basically all we can do to persuade publishers and developers alike.

Everywhere outside of Japan is a huge lack for japanese games on the market, most of the time because most gamers usually only like the main stream games, like for example Call of Duty, Battlefield 3, Skyrim and so on.
It's not a bad thing to like those, since we like what we like but to condemn or ignore other games in fact is. So that's why I'm going to say:

Even if you are not particularly interested in games others want, you can still help them to achieve their goal and the games they love. Helping each other out is what we gamers do best, aside from saving the world or roughing each other up in a match of Melty Blood, Street Fighter, Mass Effect, BlazBlue and so on.


Let's give an example:

CC2 aka CyberConnect 2 are not only the developers of those really nice and well made Naruto fighting games, Asura's Wrath and Solatorobo, they are also the creators of a certain OFFLINE Massive Multiplayer experience called ".Hack".

This Hack&Slay action adventure MMO Simulation/RPG (long category huh?) was praised by many people in the past. While the first 4 games were quite boring to play the story was well told and quite interesting. the next, newer 3 "the G.U. Trilogy" was much more fun to play and hat lts of action in it. To the point where you actually considered to grind the hell out of this game till you are so overpowered that you're able to kill every single boss with a few hits!

Now to the actual matter the "Why am I telling you all this"

Today the president of CC2 said the following:

".hack" Localization Needs Support from Fans

Doesn't it pain you to read that?
To that I say mostly yes! BUT the real problem lies somewere else entirely because they get support from their fans nearly every day. Those who played the games mostly liked (if not loved) them.
The same goes not only for Hack, but for Asura's Wrath, Y's, Legend of Heroes, Wild Arms, Breath of Fire, Yakuza, Shin Megami Tensei, and many, many more.

We need courageous gamers who are willing to try out new and different sorts of games as well! Those who are not yet into various franchise (or misunderstand the term J-RPG entirely!). And with this post I wanted to make sure that this small message reaches the right people.
Those wo care about games, those who are willing to look into entirly different ones. Gamers who enjoy it, who are fun, get jokes, are not all too much about just killing!
The gaming world needs much more of those, of you guys!!

"It's most important to be able to see the whole world. Back in the day, a lot of developers and publishers were focused on Japanese games and sent them out to North America. Obviously that's not going to be accepted as much. From our standpoint, we're really looking to create a game that's fun for everybody in the world."

And because of that we should at least try to make it known that the fans and that gamers are still out there who are willing to pay for such different games and developers who truly need support!
Not those who make you pay for everything in a whole just to give you various DLC endings a few weeks later!

Neptunia might not be as nice or serious, it may seem childish, crazy and for most who think of themselves as serious gamers completely stupid and out of the question, but isn't it the fun and humor in games we enjoy the most, aside from completely obliterating a world threat?

The entire world needs creators and publishers who try something new, and they need people like you who are willing and able to help them achieve all that! If a game doesn't sell well the probability is high that it's much more difficult for the developer to get it published by ANYONE, even if they want to make a new title of a series.
Even if it's a damn good game!

Why? 

Because publishers invest their money into those games and if they do not sell well enough to what will that lead? No more publishing, strictly limited publishing!

We on this blog damn well know that everyones money is limited, that today mostly no one can just go out and buy what they would love to have. But despite all that we ask you to think twice if you see a game that could at least be worth the cash, instead of just thinking: "Cover sucks, didn't get a good actual review on GT or Metacritics, won't buy unless it's rated as high as the sky goes."

Please always keep in mind that such sites as GT recieve payment for writing and reviewing games and thanks to our "new established trust system" most of them are scared to write honest reviews for popular/well advertised games.  Because cash and a pre-release copy of those games make the world go round and otherwise they would go out of business pretty soon.
- I do not say that this is always the case, but that is an example how it usually works, not just with games but even with books and just writing this makes me sick to the core. -

Now for some .Hack Trivia to give you all, who are not really familiar with those games an idea why it is worth to fight for such games!

»Extremely down-watered introduction to the first 4 games«

Somewhere in a World in the future people are able to dive into MMO RPGs like they want to, from nearly everywhere. The Game is called the world and was developed by a certain imaginary company that is really famous in those times.
"The World" is based on a near epic poem "the Epitaph of Twilight" and is constructed around it's mythology.
Yet a fatal error occured and spread throughout the whole online game, it is known as AIDA. Everyone who gets trapped within it, will fall into coma in real life. Some of the users even continue to exist in the World after that as so-called ghost data.

Yet one boy got the ability to change that, and that boy wasnt quite a hero, he's a player like everyone else but encountered the goddess of this world "Aura". After that and the encounter with the datafid Book of Twilight he got access to a special kind of bracelett that is able to partially counter the virus.

In .Hack//G.U.

The second games, a trilogy that consisted of Rebirth, Reminisce and Redemption a new version of the World with the same base code has been established after the break down of the internet.
A new story, new main characters, side characters but the same legend and lots of cameos.
This time around the gaming system is much more entertaining, even the battle system got tweaked and is not only much more fast paced but also got reinforced.
~You play as Haseo, a guy who gets viciously betrayed on his first day in the MMO. A very strong and high level Player Ovan helps him out and invites him to his guild before the events of the Game take place.~
New classes were introduced, for example the main character (Haseo's) class the Adept rouge, who is a jack of all trades but a master of none.

»Main Character Class Spoilers«

Basically adept rogues are able to imitate all other classes in the game. At the beginning the Player is able to pick two or three classes via a point buy system.

1 Point classes:

Blade Brandier
Edge Punisher
Twin Blade

2 Point classes:

Flick Reaper
Lord Partizan
Tribal Grappler

3 Point classes:

Macabre Dancer
Harvest Cleric
Shadow Warlock
Steam Gunner


That said Haseo has to go thrugh similar events as Kite in the beginning, only that he has a much weaker mindset than our former hero "Kite of the Azure Flame"

Sadly we didn't get to chose which one we want since we are the player of the player in G.U. But it could happen in the new game. (though this author here would mostly resort to the Twin Blade class, as usual. xD)
And to that Adept rouge are able to switch weapons between fights, which looks really stylish. And the Game starts like this!









Aside from verious fun minigames like the motorcycle one, catching ChimChims, finding rare equipment, taking part in the Arena and exporing various hidden areas, as well as a friendship system to get to know your teammates better, the gameplay mainly of good old hack & slash dungeon crawling and questing like you know it. Only with characters that actually care about you, who you are and really talk and interact with you.

This is basically just a good portion of what you are able to do, there is much more in store for everyone who's slightly interested in it.

Sadly it's been a while since the gamers here got to see a game. Hack //Link never even made it out of japan, mostly because it was a fan service title of the series. Most gamers at that time just weren't really interested in them, which is quite a shame because the tought of creating such a game alone is worth millions of dollars/euros whatever.

»Different G.U. Trailers«