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offtopic / .hack//Gay Undertones
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Shaiapouf 28-May-22 01:05 AM
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well. That's really awkward, shino
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The End
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Zedd-Repulsa 28-May-22 03:49 AM
sorry I missed it after all. the day was long and not as we'd originally planned
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Shaiapouf
the fight starts with you needing to defeat a left and right core
archaeo 28-May-22 05:17 AM
classic
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Shaiapouf
wow this is gay
archaeo 28-May-22 05:20 AM
this is so fucking gay holy shit
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I was also unexpectedly passed out and feel really bad about it
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but dang
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that shino ending
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lol
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how is such a straight game so homosexual
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archaeo 28-May-22 06:12 AM
also FWIW I caught up with the thread hours later but we are totally going to talk about this shizz because lol at how all that played out
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I Have Opinions About The Writing Of .Hack//GU (edited)
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LettuceKitteh 28-May-22 07:49 AM
...aww, Shino. (Also Christ Atoli was trying so hard in that scene ;_;)
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archaeo 28-May-22 07:57 AM
yeah like
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I find the actual way the story gets put together and some of its decisions really baffling
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but it is very effective and sweet
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Skeith 28-May-22 09:23 AM
So fun fact
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Piros was in my final boss party
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By pure accident
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archaeo 28-May-22 09:31 AM
lol
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Shaiapouf 28-May-22 10:27 AM
so I didn't get into much commentary since no one was here and I figured the ending should stand on its own for a bit, but let me give my thoughts on it. Honestly, Vol 3 as a whole feels pretty janky and honestly rushed. There is a notable decrease in The Close Up Zone, and the plot feels way more thin than it needs to be. When you actually break down what happened, half the game was focused on Sakaki--and then very quickly jumped to Ovan, and then a bunch of new plot points introduced in quick succession. Specifically I feel the Cubia arc is just kinda bad and not very satisfying. For new players to GU, Cubia is not really an interesting foe and the fact that AIDA is mostly unresolved as a plot line is bad. For players who know about Cubia, the whole point of Cubia in .hack is that it's a threat that cannot be punched, because to do so is to destroy yourself--or at least your power. They draw attention to this but don't actually resolve the conflict at all. On top of this, while I did say I liked Ovan's use of The Rebirth in the context of them being dumb and bad in an intentional way--and I still to an extent think that's true, Aina more or less forces haseo and the player to forgive him in a way that doesn't really feel earned. Though I do actually mostly like Ovan's presence in the ending, as Haseo's deeply conflicted feelings about everything feel right.
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What I DO like a lot is the final shino scene though. The thing about Shino in GU that you lose from not watching roots is this--the version of Shino we get from Haseo in the game is EXTREMELY biased--as you would expect from someone talking about a person they loved who died. Shino does flirt with Haseo and they definitely were close. But Shino is actually 20 during the plot of roots, while haseo is like, 16-17. 3-4 years isn't a massive difference, but it absolutely is at those ages, and Shino is always kind of mysterious and contemplative in her own ways, and was frankly also kind of obsessed with Ovan in her own way. This is just my feelings on the subject, and maybe someone like Skeith who watched the show more recently will disagree, but I think what happened is this: Shino was in love with Ovan. When Ovan vanished (which happened because Pi and Yata tried to investigate his Tri-Edge arm, making it go berserk) Haseo and Shino both despaired at losing him, which drove them closer together. Shino desperately searched the lost grounds for Ovan until, tragically, she found him. Leaving Haseo holding the bag with a ton of baggage from these two older, yet not that old, adults. Shino, seeing the plot of the game as it unfolds from Ovan's POV, sets this situation up specifically to give Haseo permission to move on with his life and finally become an adult in his own right. I imagine she has a lot of her own conflicted feelings about Ovan to deal with.
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Sorry that was a lot of words, I've been holding onto my thoughts about Shino for a while
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anyways as said there are 2 major updates left for Vol 3. The first is the conclusion to Online Jack and the Terminal Disk. And the Second is the games true epilogue that requires me to beat the super dungeon which is uh...gonna take a bit. Then we'll start on Vol 4.
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Skeith 28-May-22 10:34 AM
Yeah that's a pretty accurate read on Shino. She and Haseo were friends before Ovan vanished but got closer when he went poof. Notably Haseo asked Shino for her cell number after Ovan vanished so he could call and check up on her outside of The World
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archaeo 28-May-22 10:36 AM
yeah good read
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Skeith 28-May-22 10:36 AM
Okay so I tried to find the scene to demonstrate the point but found this instead and honestly this is better than anything I could have found lol
usoda 2
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archaeo 28-May-22 10:37 AM
there are so many cool storytelling ideas that get flirted with but they never quite make it work
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I'd say the serialization model and how they decided to handle that in terms of pacing and plotting is what kills it
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So much time gets spent on a tourney structure and storyline that feels a bit stapled on to the other plot
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which is a shame because the core character writing, setting, and sort of governing ideology of the thing feels very of and ahead of its time
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Shaiapouf 28-May-22 10:44 AM
yeah I think that's basically right RKO
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The games are just very messy and the ideas and ambitions are just beyond the grasp of the developers capacity to implement. but like, this is a fucking PS2 game and genuinely the level of thought that went into the character drama is really quite impressive. There are not very many games from that era that can boast of even attempting something like this
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Skeith 28-May-22 10:49 AM
Oh yeah, Shaia, will you also talk about the Drama CD that came with the special editions Last Recode?
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Shaiapouf 28-May-22 10:49 AM
the parody disk?
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Skeith 28-May-22 10:49 AM
Nah, there was a drama CD called Innocent Call which explains why Vol 4 is happening and what happened to AIDA
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Shaiapouf 28-May-22 10:50 AM
huh. This is, in fact, the first I'm hearing about this
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Shaiapouf 28-May-22 10:51 AM
Interesting
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Might want to hold off on watching it for a bit later though, as we do have the forest of pain epilogue to do and it might serve it better to watch just before I dig into vol 4
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Skeith 28-May-22 10:52 AM
Gotcha salute
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Shaiapouf
The games are just very messy and the ideas and ambitions are just beyond the grasp of the developers capacity to implement. but like, this is a fucking PS2 game and genuinely the level of thought that went into the character drama is really quite impressive. There are not very many games from that era that can boast of even attempting something like this
archaeo 28-May-22 11:16 AM
it's true, this is definite one for the canon of "wow, this pile of anime you made was so ambitious, I love you for that"
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Shaiapouf 28-May-22 01:33 PM
discussing ovan in the fgo discord
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archaeo 28-May-22 01:53 PM
lol
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Shaiapouf 29-May-22 09:40 PM
If people are around, I'd like to cover some postgame content tonight
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Mysterious Stranger "Cyouni" 29-May-22 09:40 PM
unfortunately, I'm Cyouni, not Around
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archaeo 29-May-22 09:51 PM
jfc cyouni...
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Mysterious Stranger "Cyouni" 29-May-22 09:51 PM
googlyerika
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Shaiapouf 29-May-22 10:09 PM
okay so first off
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we have the finale for online jack
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where this left off, they were all getting arrested for breaking into CC corp--which had been apparently experimenting on Doll Syndrome kids in some way (I wonder if this includes Sakaki, come to think of it) when The Rebirth Happened and they were all arrested
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Well
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At least they tried
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Mysterious Stranger "Cyouni" 29-May-22 10:14 PM
Online Jack: Reporting in today from jail
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Shaiapouf 29-May-22 10:15 PM
with that done, lets take a look at the news
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first and foremost, Ovan apparently is not getting arrested
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I wonder who the leaker was. Yata, maybe?
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Man they are right Ovan really should run for Prime minster
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also I had missed this but apparently Cubia ALMOST STARTED A WAR
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WOW
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wild shit
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archaeo 29-May-22 10:19 PM
dang
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Shaiapouf 29-May-22 10:20 PM
okay
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before I posed this
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post this
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I want you to know that I laughed so loud when I saw this Maria asked me if I was okay
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are you ready for this @archaeo @Mysterious Stranger "Cyouni"
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presented with no further commentary or elaboration
SPOILER
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archaeo 29-May-22 10:22 PM
lmaooooo
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Shaiapouf 29-May-22 10:23 PM
checking out the forums next
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Honestly they survived the last network crisis, I bet they'll survive this one
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Shaiapouf
presented with no further commentary or elaboration
Mysterious Stranger "Cyouni" 29-May-22 10:23 PM
YES
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YESSSSSSSS
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the ultimate gamer
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Shaiapouf 29-May-22 10:24 PM
What kills me about this is that Haseo is doing the Morbius/Jeb pose just from a different angle (edited)
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archaeo 29-May-22 10:24 PM
Yeah
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Of all the faces
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lol
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lmao
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Mysterious Stranger "Cyouni" 29-May-22 10:25 PM
perfect in every way
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Shaiapouf 29-May-22 10:25 PM
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Honestly the forums for The World Players read a lot like uh, reading the WoW forums now
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lmao
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I'm just reproducing this conversation in its entirity because it feels really..idk, down to earth, after all this insanity. like, what would gamers do in this situation, and why do people play online games in the first place. When you get right down to it, that positive expression of the potential of online gaming is what .hack is about.
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Honestly I for one am very doubtful that CC corp is going anywhere
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That company could survive the apocolypse, like a cockroach
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