Recently, I was going through my old game pile, and I stumbled upon this old treasure.
I bought this last year after the A.T.A.M, and let me tell you, it was worth it.

(Note: This is a review of the first game)

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PLOT: The game is about a boy (Kite) who joins a game because of his friend (Orca), and Orca shortly falls into a coma after playing for the first time with Kite due to a 'data bug'

Throughout the series, kite meets more people, and they all join him in the fight to help save the "lost ones" (aka, the ones who fell into comas)

Overall Plot - 9/10
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Graphics: The characters were in 3D, and the videos kept the same graphics as the game.
The 'data ripples' in the 'infected' areas made it actually look like the system was in bad condition and was going to shut down.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much action to witness the graphics (Go to .Hack//g.u. for that) and the graphics seemed sorta new for PS2 in 2000.

Overall Graphics - 8/10
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Audio: You ACTUALLY get a choice! You can listen to the characters (outside of a cutscene) japanese or english!

The characters have good voice actors, and they don't seem as if they're 'reading the lines off the paper,' so it doesn't kill your ears!

Repeated cries in battle get annoying.

Other than that, though almost everything has voices included, so they obviously spent a lot of time on them. Also, the only annoying voice is Mistral's, but that's another story...

Voice Acting/Audio: 9/10
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Gameplay: Just like an MMO, the characters in battle help aid, defend, and attack against enemies, and seem like they have a brain!
The battle is a great use of real-time strategy.
(Note: the battle system is NOT take turn)

However, just fighting gets a little boring after a while.

The running through long long long hallways gets annoying though...
...But at least they made speed scrolls!

Gameplay - 7/10
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Replay Value: This game will have you level grinding even after the disk has ended. It comes packed with extras and side-quests.

The story will also keep you coming back for more.

Replay Value - 9/10
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Overall: THIS GAME IS AWESOME!
I actually watched Alek play the whole game before buying it, because I was so hooked on it... (and gamestop didn't have it... heh)

I would recommend this game to ANYONE; even if they hate RPG's.

Overall - 8.5/10

Awesome review. I'm gonna give you 100 Viz myself for that one.

Theres only one flaw with this game. Content. After you beat Skeith thats pretty much it. You have to go out and get Mutation, AKA, the second game.

There's side bosses and if you look hard enough there's secret keywords to enter new places with tons of new items.

Yeah, but the side missions get boring after quite a while.

I think neyro is right, you really need to get mutation after beating it b/c there's not much to do.

yes, but thankfully it's affordable now.

200 Viz.