Logging on to The World in an alternate 2010. Dot Hack's runaway popularity did actually spawn a genuine online game in Japan, .hack//fragment, that ran for a couple of years. The PAL version took almost two years to arrive, March 2004, so it's always felt like a late mid-lifeish PS2 title to me.

.Hack is one of my favorite franchises. I’d love to see more get done with it, and I credit it with my enjoyment of VRMMO stuff nowadays 😁

I never played the games but I was absolutely enamored with the universe because of .hack//sign. Even read some spinoff light novels

Man those games were so cool. The “game within a game” stuff was just amazing

"Welcome to..Za Warudo"

This game was responsible for my fondness of the "you die in the video game, you die in real life" trope. The PS2 era graphics, weird music, and the monster design make it feel like a strange dream. Great stuff. I hope Cyberconnect revisits it again some day.

#Spoiler I played .hack//Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine to darn near 100% I think there was potentially one optional post game quest I didn't do, but I did finally get Mia back. That was HARD. Maybe I did complete it. I remember grinding to level 99, but data drain delevels you. IIRC.