.hack//G.U. - Reception

Reception

The series has received a lukewarm reception, but positive sales figures. CyberConnect2 announced that sales of the .hack games exceeded 2.8 million combining both the first .hack series and the .hack//G.U. series. Patrick Gann of RPGFan recognized the development team's efforts to address the problems of the first .hack series, succeeding in some respects and failing in others. Like the first series, .hack//G.U. goes to great lengths to preserve the illusion of playing an online game, through in-game message boards and news reports, and Gann found that these elements gave more depth to the future world he was experiencing. He found fault in the formulaic progression between dungeon, checking email to find the next dungeon, but the battle mechanics were a marked improvement over the original series. Although the graphics were "spectacular", Gann criticized the limited and repetitive dungeon designs. In his review of Reminisce, Gann noted the relatively good quality of the voice acting, but called the translation script "hit or miss". Minor changes to the battle system, such as being able to change weapons at any time, made Reminisce's combat more exciting. He concluded in Redemption that, while not perfect, the three-part format of the series was relatively more worth it than its previous iteration.

Meghan Sullivan of IGN described the series as an overall improvement over the first series but complained that the Avatar battles were boring and a missed opportunity for a "very cool feature". She also suggested that the storyline could be streamlined by allowing e-mail access within The World. Despite deriding the "filler" story of Rebirth, Sullivan found Reminisce to be much more enjoyable due to its more mature storyline. However, she found the new Crimson VS card game to be as "pointless" as the Avatar battles. The overall sentiment conveyed by multiple reviewers was that the new games would appeal to fans of the series, but would have been much better if released as a single game.