February 4, 2004

Culture

e the other press ©

 

  
  

-hack/quarantine

It's the end of the road for}
Kite, Black Rose, Barmung,
Orca, Mistral, and the rest.
After taking nearly a year to
release all four parts of dot
hack, Bardai’s groundbreak-
ing saga that blurred the lines
of entertainment has come to
an end. I may frequently be
pointing out that this is the
end, but its importance as the
final piece of this saga is just
as important as Return of the
King, or Return of the Jedi—
except there really isn’t a
return of anything here
because nothing was ever
missing.

As I’ve stated before, the
dot hack games have very lit-
tle innovation between the
volumes game-play-wise. In
fact, they are nearly identical
except for a scant few features
that have been added. So far,
the only new feature that
appears to be added is an
item-collection quest, but it
seems not to be unavailable
until the game is finished. So
as for innovation, from a
game-play standpoint, there
is absolutely nothing,

The combat system is the
same real-time system with
the fully movable manual
camera, and it’s the same real-
time combat with a time-
based factor for magic cast-
ing. Graphically its identical
to the previous volumes. It’s
odd but the best way to think
of this game is as one with
four discs that are sold sepa-
rately. Since it’s basically the
end of a game, the only rea-
son to pick up this title is if:
you're still on the edge of
your seat, waiting to know
how it’s going to end.

Before hitting some plot |
points we should talk about ‘
the Liminality DVD that!
comes as a standard bonus }
with this final chapter. Now!
Liminality still doesn’t make a |
whole lot of sense unless you }
play the game first, but it!
does fill some gaps for what's |
going on in the real world }
and what certain effects ns
wave virus is causing. That's |
not the main reason I men- ‘
tion the disc, though. It’s: i
hack//GIFT. What is that}
you ask? Basically it’s a bonus
you could mail away for in!
Japan if you bought all four |
copies of the game. Included

' on the disc was a singular
' episode of .hack, which has

been thankfully added to this
set. Now it’s not a normal
episode of .Aack. It’s done in
extremely bad animation
with a total budget which
seemed to have topped a
whopping $23.57, or looks
like it anyway. It’s an!
extremely funny parody, with +
a clash between the Sign and }
game characters, in a search !

for the twilight hot spring. A i

haven't played a single vol-
ume should be looking to
-hack/linfection first.
However, the basic happen-
ings in this volume are that
our heroes don’t have time as
a luxury if they're going to
find the clues to help the peo-
ple who were afflicted by
comas while playing the
game. With the severs in
jeopardy from both the CC
Corp, who are trying to cover
up their mistake, and the

de faa

my ES (Stars

Ce ee

heads up for .hack//GIFT.
First, this is subtitled only.
I’m assuming they didn’t
bother to get the English
voice actors to do this (or
they were too embarrassed
to). This is the kind of weird
humour that was present in
Excel Saga, so if you're expect-
ing a serious or dramatic
close to the series, you're out
of luck.

As for the story itself, in
this chapter of hack it’s the
conclusion—and for some-
thing that started off as an
experiment to blur the lines
of entertainment, it has great
impact. Describing it, howev-
er, is like trying to explain
what happens in the last act
of a film. Those who are
familiar with the story may
have a vague idea of what’s
going on, but those who

www.dothack.com

erst

 

waves of strange effects com-
ing from the world, which are
effecting the rest of the inter-
net, it seems fairly bleak for
our heros. This is the most
basic back-of-the-box-like set
up I can give, but I assure
you, the game has quite a bit
of depth. Most of it for this
volume would be considered
a spoiler. What else can one
say at the end of a saga other
than “it’s over.” If you haven't
given this title a second
thought, now may be the
time to give it a try—but
start with .hack//infection
first, it will make much more
sense. Whether you loved it
or hated it, the fact still
remains that it’s over. This
could start a trend of multi-
part games, but for your wal-
let’s sake, let’s hope not.

 

In addition to looking all fancy, with
the accent thingie on the e, Prétear is
also a magical girl anime with lots of
pretty boys as well. In this anime it’s
up to Himino, and the 7 Knights of
Leafe, to stop the Princess of Disaster
from draining the entire world’s leafe,
or life energy.

The picture quality is excellent in
this volume, although, since we usu-
ally only get newer series, and DVD
transfer technology is improving, pic-
ture quality like this is starting to be
the new standard. For the sound
aspect, we've got the now standard
5.1-channel English audio mix, as
well as the original 2.0-channel
Japanese vocal tracks. Since this was
Volume One you also have the

 

option of getting it in a fancy box }
that will hold the whole set of DVDs. t
Although I was sorely disappointed |
by the lack of free stuff (I usually }
expect a free t-shirt out of the deal), t
after looking at the cover art I think {
that maybe it’s a good idea I don’t
have a Prétear shirt. As for disc-con- ‘
tained extras, there are the ever pop- |
ular, and what I now call standard, t
clean opening and closing anima- |
tions. Along with that is a set of pro- |
duction sketches, and the same ADV !
trailers you probably saw on other |
ADV discs. But they did start some- }
thing new: they have two 10-minute !
interviews with two of the voice |
actors who worked on Prétear. These t
are nothing amazing, but I figure that |
since this is the first time they're |
doing these, it is to be expected. The !
only odd thing was that the guy !
doing the interview ripped off Craig |
Killborn’s “Five Questions” bit. !
Rounding out the disc particulars, |
the English voice cast has done a ;

http://www.otherpress.ca

   

great job on the dub—although since
most of these voice actors have done
many different jobs, I can’t remember
their names and I continue to call
them by their character names from
other series.

Prétear appeats to have quite a bit
more depth than your usual run-of-
the-mill, magical-girl anime, and
with only 13 episodes, there won't be
any filler to speak of. The basic set up
is that the Princess of Disaster has
escaped from her prison, and since
the Knights of Leafe can’t defeat her
alone, they need to find someone to
be their Prétear. What sets this apart
form your typical magical-girl anime
is Himino’s family life—her poor
starving-writer father married the
richest woman in
town, and now
she’s living on a
huge estate with
her two  step-sis-
ters. Neither sister
really wants
accept her as fami-
ly, and her father
doesn’t’ seem
have enough time
,, to spend with her,
so) ashes all
depressed = and
lonely and full of
self doubt. That’s
she runs
‘into one of the
Knights of Leafe,
literally, and they
hit it off with such
anime rapport
that youd think
they hated each
other for
And then,
right on cue, that’s
when the demon

to

to

when

years.
as if

larvae start attacking and _ it’s
explained to her that she has to com-
bine with a knight so she’s able to
defeat the monster and so on. It’s an
interesting take on the whole magi-
cal-girl thing and gives it a fresh
angle. And for the most part, the
majority of the characters are original
and not your basic cookie cut-outs.

This is far outside my usual bounds
of reviews, but it’s still got a solid
story and interesting characters. For
many of you this won't be your thing,
actually taking one look at the cover
will probably scare a few people
away. And just to let you know,
there’s only one girl on the cover and
the rest are guys. So if you have an
aversion to girly looking pretty boys
and Japanese dub, I certainly would
urge you to stay away from this. But
if youre all about the magical girls
and the pretty boys that naturally
accompany them, then Prétear will
certainly impress you.

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