.hack//G.U. Trilogy Movie Review – For the fans only?
P/s: Here is Impz hijacking Shokkeru’s post to apologize for the massive downtime today. =3 We also thank Maestro for his hard work to bring the blog up for goodness. Cheers!
I’ve finally got a chance to watch the much anticipated .hack//G.U. movie that was released on DVD and Blu-ray last month. If you didn’t know already, the movie wraps up all the main events from the three G.U. games all into one nice package with a little extra. If you don’t know what .hack//G.U. is, look here for an explanation.
This movie is probably more for the fans than anything else. There’s a lot of places in the movie that seemed rushed and might not make any sense for viewers who haven’t played the games or know of the story already. That being said, I still think the trilogy movie is pretty good if not for the visuals alone. I haven’t had the chance to watch the movie in full HD yet, but the average quality I got from watching it on my computer was still pretty good.
NOTE: Possible spoilers after the jump… this warning is probably not necessary… hell most of you who even read this probably already know the story anyways, but even so, you’ve been warned.
Story
Pretty much the same as the games only with a few minor tweaks and changes. Haseo sports a new form in which he becomes much like a berserk beast. While not mentioned in the movie, I believe the new form is called “B-st” form, but I could be wrong. Certain events are placed at different times in the story. For example, it seems Haseo doesn’t activate his avatar until he faces Kite and not earlier during the arena matches. Also, Atoli does not attempt to befriend Haseo until after he’s through with the matches as well. Those changes in event order are a bit trivial, but still a little odd for someone who’s played the games.
Probably the main complaint is that the movie seems way too rushed (for me at least). The story just seemed to progress a bit too quickly. One minute he’s at the first fight against Kite and then ten minutes later he’s already through the arena matches. Even for someone who doesn’t already know the story, the pacing might seem too fast.
Another thing is that a lot of the supporting characters were left out of the movie. This again is something a fan would only notice. But the only characters to have a significant role in the movie are perhaps only Haseo, Ovan, Atoli and to some extent, Yata, Pi, Kuhn, and Shino.
But overall, I like the story of .hack//G.U.. The movie doesn’t bring much new elements for the fans, but I still think it’s worth watching.
Rating: 8/10
Visuals
The art style is very much like the CG cutscenes in the game, only a lot more hotter. The rendering seems much more smoother and definitely more hi-res. The animation seems a lot more fluid as well. Heck, even if you’re not a fan of .hack, you’d probably be impressed by how high quality it looks.
I also have to give props on how much “better” AIDA-infected Atoli looks from the game. They really took it to another level and I was really impressed. Haseo’s B-st form looks crazy, but I wasn’t really feeling it as much. I still think his Xth form looks the best, but B-st form is a nice addition to the movie.
AIDA-infected Atoli: Game version vs. Movie version
I have to say, seeing certain parts of the story animated properly makes a fanboy giddy. The avatar battles really were the best action scenes in the movie for me. Also, the scene where Haseo sticks his face all up in Atoli’s was pretty interesting to watch in terms of animation fluidity.
Although, there was a few parts I had a problem with. Aina just looks really weird to me. I know she’s supposed to look like that, but having very little to no eyebrows just looks really funky to me. Other than that, I guess there’s really not much for me to whine about.
Rating: 9/10
Audio
I guess I’ll keep this one short. The music for the movie wasn’t anything memorable. There was very few times that I even noticed the background music at all. And even when I did notice the music, it wasn’t really that great for me. I do have the soundtrack for the movie and have yet to listen to it. Until then, I’ll have to say that the music was probably my least favorite part of the movie.
The voice acting was pretty good though (although there wasn’t too many different voices to be heard). I’m used to playing the games with crappy English voice acting and felt refreshed listening to them in Japanese. I don’t mean to sound like a fanboy, but some of the voice acting in the American version of .hack//G.U. was pretty terrible. I’ve had multiple people agree with me on this so I know I’m not alone. =P
Rating: 7/10
Overall, I think this was a pretty good movie for the fans. I’m not sure how non-fans will react to it, but I can definitely say that fans and non-fans will not be watching the same movie. There’s so many things a fan who knows the story will pick up on that a non-fan will not and I think that makes a difference in this movie.
I’d like to hear from people who haven’t played the games but watched this movie about their experience with it. I’ve only heard from fans of the series so far and I’m curious to see how this movie looks to non .hack fans (of course, I’d like to hear from more fans as well).
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I’m a .hack fan but haven’t played the GU games since like most of European we still haven’t got any news of a release
(hopefully we will after Beez release the last vol of the prequel anime Roots at the end of this month)
I know most of the backstory to the movie from watching Roots but not having had first hand experience with the games the movie is based on I’d say it wasn’t that great, everything after Tri-Edge being defeated (what happened to the Orca & Balmung clones I heard are in the game?) didn’t make much sense to me, especially Ovan having a sister and turning evil but being saved in the end by Haseo. I also didn’t know of any of the differences like the new AIDA-infected Atoli till now.
I would recommend not watching this till you’ve played the games *pokes Bandai again for an EU release*
I think I passed this up, but now I’m gonna go check it out sometime. I haven’t played the games btw (pre-order the very first game and ended up wanting to shoot myself), so you’ll get that viewpoint you’re looking for.
So pretty!
I root for HaseoxAtoli anyhow so I was pleased with the movie. Biggest complaints I’ve seen were about some of the characters left out. Also watching the end of roots tonight there were several nice foreshadowing events that hint at the events that came in the game and movie
If you don’t like the dubbed voices, it is actually possible to patch it with the japanese voice acting.
http://misctutorials.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-undub.html
You do need the jap ISOs.
You know, watching this after completing the games, I enjoyed it, but was kinda miffed at how many story elements were left out. The disappointing thing about the sped up pace and lack of characters was that a lot things that would have looked great in the movie were left out. Kite wasn’t explained at all and just seemed the more random for it, we only got to see a few avatars, and the ending to volume 3 was completely rewritten. It was nice to see Ovan get a good end, though. Hearing the Japanese voice actors was pleasing, especially for Atoli. I can tolerate and enjoy just about everyone else’s eng VA, but Atoli really grinds on ones nerves (except during her avatar fight. that was one of my favorite fights.) What really got me interested in .hack//GU in the first place (other than having already played, watched, and read the first wave of .hack//) were the visuals. In that sense, the movie more than delivered. Haseo’s fight with Ovan was epic on all accounts.
Though, I think you forgot to mention that bit at the end. There was some extra stuff hinting at another sequel. It didn’t really make any sense to me, because it wasn’t in the games at all.
Thank you all for your input.
@Necromancer: I thought that some of the parts would seem confusing for someone who hasn’t played the games. There was room for a lot more events and build up in the games to see that Ovan was being an evil bastard and a lot more things were explained as well. I do hope that you get a EU release soon, but I’m also hoping Bandai will put dual voices in their games again.
P.S.: Azure Orca and Balmung are in the games and help Kite, but they seem to have decided to kill off Kite for good in the movie.
@Riex: The games are pretty mediocre if you’re looking at gameplay mechanics and stuff. Somehow I’m able to tolerate it and actually enjoy it sometimes. It’s a whole lot better than the first series of .hack in my opinion though.
@kiryuu: Yeah HaseoxAtoli was nice. I was upset that Alkaid got so little screen time when I was expecting more. She’s not really a major character in the story, but still.
@Forceflow: After reading the link, I’m assuming I would need a PS2 capable of playing burned copies. If that’s so, I think I’m out of luck since I don’t own a modded PS2 nor do I have any loaders.
@Amuro1X: Yeah I was kind of upset they didn’t show a lot of the plot in the movie. I can understand that they were working with limited screen time, but it’s still disappointing. It would have been better if they were able to split the movie into three movies to allow much more development. But of course, that means more work, time and money.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to mention the teaser at the end. It may be hinting at a new sequel and it’s a bit clearer with the .hack//LINK manga that’s already been out. There’s a bit of info at dothackers, but I don’t think anyone knows if the next series will have any games or anything. I do hope for another sequel for the PS3 because that would just look absolutely amazing.
Hi, yeah the movie looks great from the reveiw and the souped up AIDA atoli is the most impressive thing i’ve seen. i really would love to se the movie but alas, i have not finished the games yet. i’m currently fighting AIDA-Borduex(sorry if i mispell) in the tournament on VOL. 2, i got the first game in october 2007 and beat it by end of november. and i just got the 2nd game in June 2008. yea Vol. 2 was that hard to get ahold of. and no one has Vol. 3 anywhere and people on Ebay overprice the G.U. games(even the used ones) so it will be a while before i can see this movie i guess. however do you think they will dub this movie idc much for jap voice acting. since my first 6 anime years were nothing but eng dub. the visuals look very colorful and very well integrated. very similar to the next-gen style cel-shading graphics you see on games like Eternal Sonata and DBZ: Burst Limit. but they have more of an evil, depressing tone which really seems to bring the CG more to life. if i don’t get the last game i might as well watch the movie i only play the games for the storyline anyways the gameply is too consistant. well the avatar battles are pretty fun. this game would be killer if it had a PvP system. anywho sorry for getting off subject a bit. but i do wanna know if you can tell me where i can get the soundtrack to this movie. cuz i’m a sucker for a new OST. Cheers!!!
@Michael Nutt: As far as I know, there has been no announcement for a U.S. release of the movie. However, I think it was licensed in Europe so they may have plans to dub it there. As far as the OST, I think you can still get it from import stores like PlayAsia or YesAsia so try looking there.
thx for the info on the OST, as for the dubbing. Europe huh? guess that means yuri lowenthal won’t be voicing haseo. and Steven Jay Blum definetly won’t be in the dub either. o wells it’s better than nothing. i’m sure US might eng dub eventually but i don’t wanna get my hopes up. cuz G.U. didn’t get much popularity in the US. as a matter of fact game informer gave it a really bad reveiw and so did gamepro. so idk if they want to invest in it anymore or not. but do you know if they will be dubbing the last episode of Roots called returner? again sorry if it’s a bit off subject.
@Michael Nutt: Not sure if they will ever dub returner as I don’t really follow the dub releases of roots. If they ever did, I’m not sure how they would distribute it. In Japan is was given to people who bought all three games supposedly (not sure how they kept track of that). You’re right about it not being that popular out here in the states. As far as I know, it’s way more popular in Japan than out here. But perhaps Bandai will pick it up sooner or later.
it probably isn’t something to depend on. i realized that cyberconnect2 also worked on Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3. and on that game in japan you get an OVA which is about a jonin/genin tournament to collect crystals. and when they released Ultimate Ninja 3 in the US it did not come with the OVA released in Japan and it was never dubbed. since returner came with the Games like you said then it’s more than likely this could turn out to be a similar situation then the whole UN3 deal.
srry. i know this is probably a really nubbish question and it was probably answered at one point or another either in this blog or another one on this site. but how would i be able to see this movie? it sounds really good based on everything i’ve heard and how much i love the trilogy for the games.
thanks, and srry again if it’s nubbish.
I’m from the UK and a huge .hack// guru, and I’ve tryed my very best to keep up with G.U. by not playing the games, It’s been a struggle, so I bought the g.u. novels and manga, and watched a few episodes of .hack//roots and know the story line pretty well. seeing the movie hasn’t been released in the UK I bought it from the us becuase I was littuarly dieing to know g.u. better
I think the movie pretty much sumed the story line up for me, and after reading the manga/novels I was horrified that my sakubo wasn’t in it! Neither was endrance or silabus!
I do agree that they cramed alot into the 1:30 min movie, but maybe that was for the best I suppose to end .hack//g.u. series to an end.
Voice acting would of been nice, but the subs were easyer to read than I thought! (I like dub!)
I guess the overall performance was really great! I loved the graphics of the cel-shaded CGI and the content!
8.5/10 for me!