.hack//G.U. Last Recode

Decent story but very repetitive gameplay. Thankfully, the added cheat mode helps make the game less grindy and tedious. The combat is really simple and boring. It's cool at first but gets stale pretty fast. The combat improves and looks cooler in the further games (especially volume 3 and 4) but it's still pretty stale. The dungeons are forgettable and often times reused. The story is kind of boring in the beginning but it gets better as you go on. Character designs are pretty good and the music is phenomenal. I played all of the volumes in cheat mode just to enjoy the story and it took me about 65 hours to finish all of the main story along with some side stuff (not all) and the secret bosses. Might as well treat this game more like a visual novel or watching an anime by using cheat mode because it's not a great JRPG. If this game didn't have cheat mode, I can't imagine having the patience to play through all of this because fights on the lackluster combat would take longer and there would be more tedious grinding for item drops that progress the story (cheat mode instantly gives you them sometimes). If i rated the each volume separately in terms of how much I enjoyed them: 1 - 5/10 2 - 7/10 3 - 8.5/10 (could've been 10/10 but [spoiler]it felt rushed towards the end[/spoiler]) 4 - 7/10 (it's pretty short) The writing definitely improves and gets more interesting as you go on but I felt like it kind of fell off at some point too.[spoiler]Some characters felt left out after arcs that involved them the most. It feels like they're just there and it doesn't feel right after going through so much with them.[/spoiler]The gameplay could've also easily been a bit more entertaining if it allowed you to play as other characters but you can only control Haseo. For how cheap this game gets when on sale, it's a decent pickup ONLY if you're interested and want the nostalgia. Also after finishing this game, I don't think the .hack//Roots anime is worth watching. However, I think .hack//G.U. Trilogy movie is okay and the .hack//G.U. Returner OVA is pretty good.