Besides, like I mentioned in my other blogs, I have a lot of unfinished posts stored on the drafts pages of my numerous blogs (particularly Tumblr and Google Blogger). I'm now trying to finish all these articles, so I can publish them already and decrease the number of my drafts.
This post is about the .hack//xxxx manga by Hiroshi Matsuyama. This manga is an adaptation of the .hack games with some changes. You can check out my review of the .hack//xxxx comic here.
While I was reading through the first few parts of this graphic novel, I had a lot of questions about how the game world worked and exactly how said game was played.
It seems like you need to have prior knowledge before reading this manga such as having played the game. If you're completely new to the .hack series before starting to read this manga, you might end up being terribly confused a lot of the time.
That's what happened to me. As I continued to read this graphic novel, the number of questions I had kept on growing. This included wanting to know more about the game's items and magic system as well as how the game itself was played and how everything in it worked.
The following are some of the questions I had in no particular order:
Character Classes
The character sheet shown in the .hack//xxxx manga (#ad) included the classes of some of the characters. Unfortunately, it did not explain what these classes are and what they mean.We find out that:
- Mistral is a Crest User
- BlackRose is a Heavy Blade User
- Kite's class is Twin Blade
But what do all these terms mean? What are these classes? Are they randomly assigned to the players, or can you pick your own class?
We also discover that Helba is a hacker. But how does this work in the game world? Is hacker one of the classes in the game, or is she an actual hacker? Or maybe both?
The same questions can be asked about Lios. Just replace "hacker" with "system admin" since that's apparently what he is.
Game Items
I found BlackRose's mailbox interesting, but exactly how does it work? What else does it do? Who sends her mail?Game Concepts and Ideas
We find out that Mistral likes trading, but how does that work? I wish we'd gotten more information about this.How do you get wings in the game? Can the characters really fly? How is that possible? Balmung has wings and can fly, but what about the others?
Game Level
- How do the characters level up?
- How does leveling up work in this game?
- What's the level of Kite and the other characters?
Miscellaneous
- What is the BBS?
- What's CC Corp?
- What's with the illegal program?
- What's with the virus?
- How does the Pluto's Kiss virus work? Why is it called Pluto's Kiss?
- If they got rid of the virus years ago, then how was it able to return?
- Why is the game known as The World?
- Who are the lost ones? What are they supposed to be? Why is Kite searching for them?
- What is the Epitaph of Twilight?
- If you get killed in the game world, do you die in the real world?
- Why would hackers be permitted in The World?
- What is resurrecting confused judgment? How did BlackRose figure it out, and why isn't it explained to the reader?
Conclusion
I think there's lots of good concepts and ideas here. The magic system of .hack//xxxx seems really interesting. Such things fascinate me, so I'd love to learn about the intricacies of this world. I just wish all of these things were explained in a better way. Perhaps future manga chapters or volumes would expound on this some more. I certainly hope so.Your Thoughts and Opinions
So what about you? What do you think about this? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment or by answering the poll below.*Notes:
- Pics are from Amazon.com; link shown above
- Text was added to pics using Canva
