Line #174 Franchise/DotHack


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2	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExamples have been commented out. Please do not uncomment them without explaining how they fit the trope.
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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dot_Hack_3216.jpg]]
6	[-[[caption-width-right:350: Aura and the .hackers. From left to right: [[PlayfulHacker Helba]], [[BeastMan Mia]], [[KnightTemplar Balmung]], [[KidHero Kite]], [[ShortTank BlackRose]], [[SquishyWizard Elk]], and [[TheBigGuy Orca]]]]-]
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8	The ''.hack'' (pronounced "dot hack") series is a conglomeration of {{light novel}}s, {{video games}}, {{manga}}, {{OVA}}, and {{anime}} TV series that started with the games by Creator/CyberConnect2 and is owned by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment. Most of these are character dramas told from the perspective of online gamers playing an {{MMORPG}} called "The World," which displays the disturbing tendency to affect the minds of its players, calling into question the nature of human consciousness.
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10	Most of these series contribute to canon while others, such the second anime series, ''.hack//Legend of the Twilight'', are retellings of the same story from differing perspectives. Each installment refers to the others, making this an AllThereInTheManual series. The title always follows the construction of .hack//title and are read as "dot hack title". The slashes are never used when referring to the series as a whole. The word "Dot" is often written in small print inside the "." to reinforce the proper reading.
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12	The setting for the series is TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, diverging from the real-world timeline beginning in October of 2002. On December 24, 2005, a supervirus codenamed "Pluto's Kiss" destroyed all of the world's computer operating systems. MS Windows, Mac OS, Linux... all gone. All except for one, [[strike: [=OpenBSD=]]] ALTIMIT, which seems to be immune to all computer viruses. In response, hacking becomes a capital crime worldwide, and the Internet returns to its roots as a communication network for government and military use for the next several years.
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14	Eventually, commercial internet access becomes available again, and the release of the first post-crash online game, ''The World'', turns it into an instant craze, with twenty million users joining in the first few years. With a computer, a virtual-reality headset, and a gamepad, [[AnAdventurerIsYou one becomes a swordsman, magic-user, etc.]] and experiences ''The World'' through the [[LostInCharacter perspective of their own characters]].
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16	Though they'd never admit it, the game's publisher, [=CyberConnectCorp=] don't fully understand how the game's core program was [[BlackBox created]]. It was based on a prototype written by a German neurobiologist who has disappeared. He created his program after the death of the woman he loved, a poetess by the name of Emma Wielant, who began working on an unpublished online updated masterpiece after having what she called a "supernatural experience", which went by the name of The Epitaph of Twilight. This beta version of the game was known as ''frägment'' and a few recurring characters had active accounts during said beta test.
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18	The first chronological installment localized in the US[[note]]The novel series ''.hack//Epitaph of Twilight'' takes place before this, [[NoExportForYou but was never localized]].[[/note]] is the first novel, ''[[Literature/DotHackAIBuster .hack//AI Buster]]'', which takes place in 2010. Watarai, a game administrator, meets the first Vagrant AI (an {{NPC}} whose intelligence has grown to a level that cannot be programmed) that he cannot deny has a soul.
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20	Shortly after, in the anime ''Anime/DotHackSign,'' an introverted player named Tsukasa finds himself trapped in the game itself. Tsukasa's body is in a coma in the real world, but Tsukasa the character is still playing the game, and experiencing ''The World'' with his full senses, even to the point of experiencing pain when he's hurt or killed. The series focuses on a handful of players who become aware of his entrapment within the game, and decide to explore Tsukasa's character and his connection with an "unborn" AI character named Aura.
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22	The first series of [=PS2=] games (''.hack//Infection'', ''.hack//Mutation'', ''.hack//Outbreak'' and ''.hack//Quarantine''), the ''Anime/DotHackLiminality'' [[{{OVA}} OVAs]] and the ''.hack//Another Birth'' novels chronicle the following adventure, where another band of players - later known as the legendary "dot hackers" - challenge Morganna, the evil AI lurking within ''The World''. Using a [[GameBreaker game-breaking]] power given to him by Aura before her destruction, the newbie Kite and his partner [=BlackRose=] lead the fight against Morganna in the hopes of restoring Aura and the many coma victims that have resulted from Morganna's attacks. A set of novels known as ''.hack//Another Birth'' retell this story from Blackrose's point of view as well as her life offline and some of the things she does when not with Kite.
23
24	The ''.hack//ZERO'' novel series is set shortly after; a set of stories that tells the story of a character named Carl, of what happened to the character of Sora after the end of [=SIGN=], and of Tsukasa's real-life after being able to log out from The World. This series was never finished and Carl's fate was eventually revealed in other material.
25
26	The series time-jumps to 2014, where ''.hack//Legend of the Twilight'' takes place. Shugo is the new hero, and he and his sister Rena take on limited edition, [[SuperDeformed chibified]] clone accounts of Kite and [=BlackRose=] to try to defend Aura's Daughter Zefie, whose existence is threatened by debuggers that still don't understand [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman that [=AI=]s are more than data]], and return her to her mother.
27
28	By 2017, Aura has vanished of her own accord, and many errors started to form on the net, which had become dependent on her. [=CC Corp=] tries to fix this by reforming the Morganna system under their control to recreate Aura. They are unable to do so and are only able to restore the eight Phases she controlled, which are placed under the control of special players (with one stolen by a staff member). During a test, the creator of the plan, Jyotaro Amagi, goes insane and sets fire to CC Corp ruining the servers and much of the data and losing the data of the phases in the system. ''The World's'' remaining data is [[DolledUpInstallment combined with another project]] and released as ''[[DarkerAndEdgier The World: Revision 2]].''
29
30	The anime ''.hack//Roots'' begins here, with the new player Haseo joining the game. For reasons he can't guess, two powerful guilds are competing for Haseo's allegiance from the first day he logs in. The story primarily follows the changes in his character as he joins one of the guilds, his leader Ovan disappears and the guild falls apart, his love interest Shino is attacked and put into a coma by a mysterious player-killer called Tri-Edge (who looks strangely like Kite), and Haseo finally becomes obsessed with destroying Tri-Edge and all other player-killers.
31
32	The story immediately continues with the second series of [=PS2=] games, ''.hack//G.U.'' (''Vol.1:Rebirth'', ''Vol.2:Reminisce'', and ''Vol.3:Redemption''). Haseo is back at level 1 after a losing battle with Tri-Edge, and finds himself embroiled in a complex plot involving the use of his newfound Avatar power (his character data possessing one of Morganna's eight Phases), warring guilds, rampant player-killing, a malicious AI phenomenon called [=AIDA=], and the truth behind Tri-Edge. The .hack//CELL light novels are a side-story set between Roots and G.U.
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34	The story continued three years later with ''.hack//Link'', where yet another new version of The World has been created. The World R:X. 14-year-old Tokio Kuryuu gets sucked into this new game (apparently ''[[TrappedInTVLand physically]]'') by a mysterious new classmate, Saika Amagi, via her [=PSP=]. This new series combines elements from both the ''R:1'' and ''R:2'' eras. An organization of illegally modified characters is going after {{MacGuffin}}s called "chrono cores" located within certain previous main characters. These cores connect to the AkashicRecords of ''The World'', and with Saika Amagi acting as MissionControl, Tokio has to repair them by actually traveling between all of the .hack series: the R:1 and R:2 games, ''SIGN'', the novels, and the different manga. While the Manga adaptation of the game was imported, the game itself was not due to highly negative feedback and critical reception, alongside horrible sales in Japan. Several {{fan translation}}s have been in the works since its release in 2010.
35
36	An OVA called ''Anime/DotHackQuantum'', which is also set in The World R:X in 2022, was released in 2011 to similarly poor reception as Link.
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38	However, a full-length CGI movie set in the The World FORCE:ERA was released in January 2012 titled ''.hack//Beyond The World''. The film, set in 2024, is centered around a girl named Sora and her friends Balder and Gondo as they try to save the world from destruction. A new video game by the name of ''.hack//Versus'', set in 2025, was released on June 28, 2012 on the Blu-ray disc with the movie. Lastly "the Thanatos report", set after the events of "beyond the world" and "Versus" (and on the same Bluray disc), attempted to focus more on the backstory and deeper workings of forces behind the scenes of .hack's universe, and most particularly on Emma Wielant, ALTIMIT, both of their associations with the environmental awareness and protection group mama, and their own ultimate desires intended with The World, and in extension, the Ultimate AI, Aura, but in the process retconned a fair amount of the series extensive Lore.
39
40	''.hack'' is not for everyone, as it is heavy on dialog and is more focused on character pieces and interactions, despite being about a video game. Some have said that it's a good simulation of what playing an MMORPG is really like, others believe it to be more about exploring life through the lens of people's experiences inside of and relating to a video game, and how such can affect them.
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42	There is also a card game called ".hack//ENEMY" (previously distributed in the U.S. by Decipher, but now no longer in print), online/offline RPG (not an MMO, and service has since ended) called ".hack//frägment" named after the prototype of The World, and a short ".hack//GIFT" which is a parody of SIGN and the games, available only on DVD; none are {{canon}}.
43
44	The franchise survives in the form of the [=Cyberconnect2=] mobile games ''Guilty Dragon: the Sin Dragon and the 8 Curses'', and ''new world''.
45
46	Characters in the series also appear in both VideoGame/ProjectXZone games. Kite and Black Rose are playable as a pair in the first game, while it is Haseo who pairs up with Kite in the second. Other characters who appear include Aura, Sheith in both games, while Tri-Edge only appears in the second.
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48	In 2017 (.hack's 15th anniversary) a remake of the ''.hack//G.U.'' trilogy was released, under the name ''.hack//G.U. Last Recode'', for both [=PS4=] and PC (via Steam).
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50	Some media have their own articles - tropes for them should go on these pages, not here.
51	[[index]]
52	* [[Literature/DotHackAIBuster .hack//AI Buster]] (novels)
53	* [[Anime/DotHackSign .hack//SIGN]] (anime)
54	* [[VideoGame/DotHackR1Games .hack//IMOQ]] (the first four games)
55	* [[Anime/DotHackLiminality .hack//Liminality]] (OVA)
56	* [[Manga/DotHackLegendOfTheTwilight .hack//Legend of the Twilight]] (manga/anime)
57	* [[VideoGame/DotHackGU .hack//G.U.]] (the second generation games)
58	* [[Anime/DotHackQuantum .hack//Quantum]] (OVA)
59	[[/index]]
60	%%Only list entries that actually HAVE their own pages, please. If we went ahead and listed every entry in this series, we'd have a 20+ bullets list.%%
61
62	Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/NetHack''.
63
64	Also see the [[Characters/DotHack character sheets]].
65
66	----
67	!!''.hack'' has examples of:
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69	* AIIsACrapshoot: The good or otherwise nonevil AI are obscured by the many many obvious evil ones. The best example of the evil ones are the 8 Phases Of The Cursed Wave.
70	%%* AkashicRecords: The MacGuffin in ''.hack//LINK''.
71	* AllThereInTheManual: In short, if you want a full understanding of what's going on without consulting a wiki, be prepared to spend ''a lot'' of money.
72	* AlternateHistory: History in ''.hack//'' diverges from our own starting in 2002, with the founding of the World Network Commission in response to increasing cybercrime. Then, in 2005, a virus called "Pluto's Kiss" infected and practically destroyed the internet, crippling the global infrastructure and almost causing a nuclear apocalypse. In the wake of this disaster, [[MegaCorp ALTIMIT Corporation]] gained a legally-enforced monopoly over the computer operating system industry since its operating system was the only one that was able to resist the malware and hacking that trashed every other operating system in that incident.
73	%%* AntiGravityClothing
74	* ArtShift: ''.hack//LINK'' featured an opening animation sequence animated by Creator/Studio4C, the art looks radically different from previous .hack// installments game and animation series alike.
75	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
76	** Some dungeons in the first games are Flesh-type WombLevel dungeons. Of course, don't expect them to follow any kind of sensible anatomy.
77	** Justified in Vol. 1's Bonus Dungeon "Aerial Fleet". An accident has left a fleet of aircrafts carrying a mummified giant to wander the skies forever. The insides are of a standard Flesh dungeon until the Boss Area, where it is the only metallic room left. The boss's name? "Parasite Dragon".
78	* AwesomeButImpractical: Any skill beyond the standard Data Drain, such as Drain Arc and Drain Heart, is situational at best. With nasty side-effects like level down and [[strike: death]] '''instant Game Over''' from overexposure to viruses due to Data Drain, using riskier forms of Data Drain just to get rare items or hitting multiple enemies seems superfluous.
79	* BecauseDestinySaysSo is subverted. The over-branching theme of the series is how the "gods" are dead and people have to make their own path.
80	%%* BlackBox: The technology of The World, and to some extent, ALTIMIT itself.
81	* BlackComedyRape: Try [[spoiler:giving the Promise card to one of Aura's Knights, or Natsume]]. You've been warned. Also [[spoiler:Mia on Elk]] in .hack//GIFT.
82	* BlindIdiotTranslation: This series is so full of mistranslations that it got its own wiki page listing them at https://dothack.fandom.com/wiki/Mistranslations_in_the_.hack_series .
83	* BraggingRightsReward: Eventually averted, when all your rewards fuse into the Infinity Plus One Armour and Accessory.
84	%%* ButtMonkey: Elk to a T. However, completely Justified. Why? See LoveHurts below.
85	%%* CallingYourAttacks: They're in a video game!
86	%%* CityOfCanals: Mac Anu.
87	%%* CollectibleCardGame: Both in real life, as well as one within the G.U. generation games.
88	* CompanyCrossReferences: There are quite a few to another one of Creator/CyberConnect2's games, ''VideoGame/TailConcerto.''
89	** Various "other players" are named after the characters in ''VideoGame/TailConcerto'' (Waffle, Cyan, etc.). There are even ads on your desktop about the game, including for the canceled ''Tail Concerto 2''.
90	** In the Japanese version, Mia's weapon is called "Kuronekodan no Ken", translating to "Black Cats Gang Sword".
91	** The warp sound effect in ''infection'' is ripped directly from the final stage of that game.
92	* ContemplateOurNavels: SIGN is particularly guilty of this.
93	* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Kite and Haseo.
94	* CorruptedData: The protagonist is playing an MMORPG [[ShowWithinAShow Game Within A Game]] and has to defeat in-game bosses whose data is corrupted and whose names are shown containing random characters.
95	* CostumeExaggeration: The show somehow manages a BeachEpisode that subverts this, where Shugo suddenly realizes that Ouka, being a CoolBigSis, should naturally appear in the slinkiest swimsuit of any of the girls -- until she shows up in wolf shape (which, granted, means she's technically naked).
96	* CrapSackWorld: Played with. The in-game world is ruins based on The World's in-game story, but since the real point of The World was to create AI's and have them learn human emotion, some based on Death, others Temptation. [[AIIsACrapShoot Sadly most of them were a crapshoot.]]
97	* CrisisCrossover: ''.hack//Link'' [[NoExportForYou which isn't coming to the West.]]
98	* {{Cyberspace}}
99	* DigitalAvatar: The characters in the series are shown as these instead of their flesh and blood players, with a few exceptions.
100	* DegradedBoss: Of Type-B variety. Think you've had enough defeating those Data Bug Bosses? in Vol.3 onwards, expect dungeons filled with NOTHING but Data Bugs. Happy hunting, hope you don't overdose on Data Drain!
101	* DemonicInvaders: Viruses and hostile [=AI=]s.
102	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Mistral's "confession" in Vol. 3/Outbreak sounds exactly like ''another'' [[LoveConfession kind of confession]]. She acts like a teenager in-game but betrays that she's older than she acts in e-mails (by mentioning cooking, going to store and haggling, for example), which gives an interesting possibility: "Is she an older woman into [[LoliconAndShotacon shotacon]]?" Nah, [[spoiler: she's an expecting housewife that will soon give birth to Mirei who will inherit her Player Character later in Legend of Twilight Bracelet]].
103	* DoWellButNotPerfect: The Grunty Races award prizes for beating the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place times, and you can race them over and over again to win more; however, your race times become the new record times to beat. If you want to maximize the payout, then you want to just barely beat the current times (starting with 3rd place and working up) so that the new times are not too hard to beat.
104	%%* DualBoss: Gorre
105	* EarlyBirdCameo: Type 2. Kite (Sora), an unlockable extra character in ''Link'', is the main character in ''[=.hack//The Other Side of the World=]''.
106	* EasterEgg: Keywords to access secret areas in the games were hidden throughout other media, including the subtitles for the Liminality OVA.
107	* EtherealWhiteDress: Aura wears white, and is seen as the core of the system.
108	* EyesAlwaysShut: A-20 in ''.hack//SIGN''.
109	** Natsume, a character in the games with the same character model, has this as well, so one can assume it's the character base.
110	** Tawalaya, in ''.hack//Roots''. Averted a few times when surprised.
111	* {{Expy}}: Justified example (see FacialMarkings below), but it doesn't stop the trope from being lampshaded and played with; for example, [=BlackRose=] and Mimiru actually argue over this in a SIGN {{omake}} episode, accusing the other of being a copycat; in the same episode, Bear is killed by Orca but everyone assumes one is the other. A similar incident occurs in Roots and the G.U. games, where Haseo finds himself being befriended by a character who's nearly identical to a close friend of his, who was [=PKed=] and put into a coma. Mistral and Mirelle are an interesting example as [[spoiler:Mistral and Mirelle are the same The World character, but Mirelle is played by Mistral's player's four-year-old daughter. (She changed the character's name to Mirelle at an event.)]]
112	** The character of both Kite and [=BlackRose=] has been used many times, particularly Kite. Aside from Kite himself, there's Shugo (Legend of The Twilight Bracelet), Azure Flame Kite (G.U.) and Azure Flame Knight (LINK). Oh and, Kite (Sora) in LINK as well as Sakuya in Quantum (both being played by females, incidentally).
113	*** On another note, some has noted the physical similarity of Kite's X-Form with [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Kaworu]]. Hey, Sadamoto ''is'' the character designer after all...
114	* FacialMarkings: Used to distinguish Player Characters, since, as in some real video games, the base "design" is the same for each gender/class combination. Also doubles as a PowerTattoo.
115	* {{Fanservice}}: All parts of the franchise have some, but the biggest offender is definitely the ''Legend of the Twilight'' manga. ''.hack//GIFT'' probably has the best example: After the cartoony silly parody of the series is done, it goes to a silly cartoony parody of the .hack//sign credits, before suddenly inexplicably cutting to a photo of Mimiru, BT, and Subaru completely nude bathing in a sauna. BarbieDollAnatomy took a step back for that scene.
116	%%* FinalFirstHug: [[spoiler: Ovan gives Haseo one of these when he's finally defeated in the manga.]]
117	* FunWithAcronyms: In GIFT, there is one part where they muse on whether the three kana that make up the Japanized pronunciation of the word (''gi'', ''fu'', and ''to'') point to three words (three-word combinations serving as room names/coordinates). One of these hilariously random [[WildMassGuessing Wild Mass Guesses]] was partially bleeped out (if unbleeped, it would be [[spoiler:Awkward Marital Slaughterhouse or something like that]]).
118	* GenreSavvy: Justified since they're people playing an MMORPG.
119	** WrongGenreSavvy: Some characters suspect that the unkillable monsters, mysterious message board posts, and players "allegedly" trapped in the game are all part of some elaborate meta-event or AlternateRealityGame. Very few realize that the situation is entirely real and beyond the boundaries of the game.
120	*** Of course, LeaningOnTheFourthWall is the subject of the game as it's supposed to simulate an MMORPG in a fake reality. It even advertises itself as an MMORPG with no need of connecting internet cords, and whatnot.
121	* {{GIRL}}: Played straight, subverted, and inverted all over the place. The most classic inverted example is of course, [[spoiler: Tsukasa]]. Asta (from G.U.), on the other hand, is a straight example.
122	* {{Gotterdammerung}}: In the backstory of The World, the humans had a war with the gods which ended in the death of the gods, and the general [[AfterTheEnd ruined]] feel of much of the game world. Also, in G.U. most of the AI "gods" are inactive, apathetic, or dead.
123	* HackerCollective: The player character Helba is part of such a group, and is theorized in-universe to be the avatar for several members instead of an individual person controlling a single character.
124	%%* HermeticMagic: In the online videogame version.
125	* HiddenEyes: Nearly everyone's depiction in the real world has overshadowed eyes. Only the few honest or "free" personalities have eyes.
126	** Probably to make the RL counterpart as "close" to the "In-game" avatar counterpart.
127	* HonestAxe - In SIGN and the original video game tetralogy. The honest answer provides the player with an upgrade or downgrade of the item they have thrown in, while the dishonest answers provide weak golden and silver axes that are only useful for trading. Tsukasa just tries to kill the water spirit.
128	** If the item is out of the level range for the pond you tossed it in, and are honest, the water sprite will suggest you take it to a different area and give it back along with both the Gold And Silver axes.
129	* HopelessBossFight: The One Sin was this InUniverse, but it was more of a case of it being an incredibly tough boss. Orca and Balmung defeated it, becoming {{Living Legend}}s among the players due to the boss's infamy.
130	* ImplacableWoman: Magical Pokotan is one. No matter how many times this [[TheMostWanted Chaotic]] [[PlayerKilling PK]] is killed and removed from this group of the game's most notorious player killers, she will inevitably return to the group, no matter whether that group is a blacklist or a LegionOfDoom.
131	* InstantAIJustAddWater: {{Justified\|Trope}}, given [[spoiler:the fact that The World was specifically designed to produce an AI.]]
132	%%* InstantRunes
133	* {{Irony}}: An entire franchise centered around a fictional MMORPG, and not one actual MMORPG to show for it (the closest thing was .hack//Fragment, as explained above.)
134	* InternetIncorporated: In 2007 the World Network Commission (WNC) passed a law stating that ALTIMIT was required software for all computers. Making its saturation of the worldwide market almost 100%.
135	%%* JustAMachine
136	%%* LampshadeHanging: To be expected, considering the players are in an MMORPG.
137	* LateArrivalSpoiler: If you ''insist'' on being spoiler-free, start by reading a novel, then follow up with its sequel [a short story collection], then watch a 26-episode anime series, then play 4 games (or cop-out by reading 4 novels... actually, just do both as the books tell the story from [=BlackRose=]'s point of view while the games are from Kites and some events are only shown in one version as only one of them is there), then read a 3-volume manga series (and don't you ''dare'' cop-out by watching the anime adaptation, as that's in CanonDiscontinuity), then watch ANOTHER 26-episode anime series after that, then play 3 games. ''In that order.'' Not to mention [[FilmOfTheBook the OVA's that come with the first four games]], which tell what's going on in the real world in the time period the games take place.
138	** Done with that? Great! Now you've got a few more books to read, one more game to play (which is unlikely to be [[NoExportForYou officially localized]] but will at least play on your PSP) a subtitled miniseries to watch, and don't forget about [[TheMovie The Movie]]. (No not ''[[AdaptationDistillation that one]]'', the other one!) Have fun!
139	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: One of the [=NPC=]s in the first four games tries to lead noobs astray by relating false "rumors." The rumors include stating that the [[GenreSavvy online game is not an online game but a perfectly crafted game since people seem to speak several lines before repeating what they have to say.]]
140	* LevelGrinding: Aside from the events of the plot and the odd event here or there, this seems to be the entirety of what ''The World'' consists of, you go into dungeons to level up and get better equipment so you can go to higher level dungeons to level up more and get better equipment...
141	** More conventionally, be prepared to do some of this yourself in the games. If not for actual levels, then for the [[RandomlyDrops randomly Data-Drained]] Virus Cores. Annoyingly, using Data-Drain increases your infection level, which makes it less likely that you'll get Virus Cores from using it, meaning you can't just spam Data Drain at the enemies that have the cores you need.
142	* LegacyCharacter: In series following the original tetralogy, many characters have their avatars modeled after the original heroes, including Kite (Shugo, Sora, Sakuya, Tri-Edge), [=BlackRose=] (Rena, Mary), Orca (Gondo), and Balmung (Tobias, Baldur).
143	* LinkedListClueMethodology Go to dungeon. Get clue. Go to next dungeon, get next clue.
144	* LostAesop: A ''lot'' of effort is made in ''R:1'' to show that Man and [=AI=] can get along together and build a bright future. Most of these [=AIs=] die in ''.hack//ROOTS'' and after or else choose not to interact with humans directly ever again. The plot no longer cares.
145	* LoveHurts: Poor, poor [[TheWoobie Elk]]. Not only does Mia, the only friend he has in The World and his first love [[spoiler: turn out to be an AI]] but immediately after that revelation, he [[spoiler: is forced to fight her alongside the main character and erase her from the game]]. It gets better in the BonusDungeon where you [[spoiler: bring her back into the game]]...only to get much, much worse during the move into G.U. when Mia [[spoiler:gets destroyed anyway along with the rest of the world. This turn of events causes Elk, now Endrance, to [[HeroicBSOD become a social recluse and spend his life addicted to the world]]. When he thinks he is finally reunited with her in the form of a cat, he finds out that it was only AIDA manipulating him and watches as she disintegrates right in front of him when you defeat him in battle, leading, understandably, to ANOTHER HeroicBSOD where he becomes a recluse in The World, literally trapped in crystal.]] Elk's got it rough.
146	* MeaningfulName: Everyone. Seriously, ''everyone''. Even the ones that aren't even ''names'', like BT. Invoked in that players name their own characters, and would naturally choose something personally meaningful.
147	* MerchantCity: The Guild @Home for the mind-bogglingly huge trade-centric Guild [=TaN=] in .hack//ROOTS is a full-on merchant city. It's so big that apparently, it can rival Root Towns in size. Keep in mind that while every Guild can have their @Home, only very large ones get anything more than a simple room. Notably huge guilds such as Kestrel and Moon Tree can have their own areas for Guilds, but even then they are smaller than what [=TaN=] used to have. To give a sense of scale, a Root Town is about the size of your typical MMO server-managed city designed to accommodate huge amounts of players at once. Something rivaling ''that'' size would take a lot of server load!
148	* {{Minigame}}: Racing Grunties!
149	** Replaced by Steam Bikes in GU/The World R:2
150	*** Crimson VS automated card game in GU series.
151	* MindScrew: From the "What is [[CanonDiscontinuity .hack//XXXX]]?" page of the first volume of the said manga, here's this: "[=* =] Incidentally, this background image is a random image from the non-existent manga ALTIMIT XX which .hack//XXXX is simultaneously related to and disconnected from. (CC2: Matsuyama)" Wha...?
152	* MonsterOfTheWeek: The Eight Phases of Morganna you will fight in the game, save for a few - specifically, the first (Skeith), sixth (Macha), and eighth (Corbenik) have much more plot importance than the other five.
153	* TheMovie: A feature-length CGI movie simply titled ''.hack//The Other Side of the World'' .hack//G.U. Trilogy could also count.
154	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Yata and Pi, as Naobi and Ender, break the seal on Ovan's arm while trying to figure out its purpose. This results in [[spoiler: him losing control of the AIDA and player-killing Shino.]]
155	* NonstandardGameOver: If you use Data Drain too many times, your corruption level will rise to such a high point that when it reaches 100%, you have a fair chance that the game just immediately kills you. Made even worse later on when you NEED to Data Drain everything in sight to look for rare Virus Cores. Made even worse than that because a bonus dungeon contains almost nothing but protected enemies that require you to data drain them to kill them, so your corruption level ''will'' reach 100%.
156	* OldSaveBonus: As can be expected, playing the games in order and loading new games with the saves of previous ones will benefit your characters, usually transferring their levels over, as well as any {{Optional Party Member}}s you encountered. Transferring from the first four (and ''[[NoExportForYou frägment]]'') to ''G.U.'' even unlocks a few special e-mails
157	** Inversion? Starting a new game of .hack G.U. volume 1 with volume 2 clear data starts Haseo at level 20 with better weapons and armor.
158	* OneGameForThePriceOfTwo: Four. Then another for three.
159	* OneGenderRace: All the Vagrant [=AI=]s appear entirely female except for one, whose gender is listed as "[[DudeLooksLikeALady male?]]".
160	* OnlySixFaces: Justified. Lots of characters have similar voices, or faces, or body types, or hairstyles, or costumes. But since this is an MMORPG you're bound to run into stuff like that now and then.
161	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Werewolves are a type of career that players can choose for their avatars in The World, providing they have an expansion pack and certain other requirements. They appear as wolf-eared humans with animal-like agility and strength, in addition to being able to shapeshift into regular-looking wolves.
162	* PerspectiveFlip: .hack//Another Birth tells the story of the R1 games through the perspective of Black Rose.
163	* PowerTattoo: The Wave symbols on any given character model are more or less a permanent bonus trait to whatever spells or abilities your armor grants you, granting different attack styles or defensive perks that would otherwise not exist.
164	%%* RecapEpisode
165	* RelationshipValues: Make your friends like you more through e-mail and trades. ''.hack//G.U.'' has a wedding at the end.
166	* {{Retcon}}: ''.hack//LINK'', ''.hack//Quantum'', and ''The Thanatos Report'' make it so that everything that has happened in the franchise was not the result of big business abusing technologies that have advanced past the point of their understanding as the world reached the technological event horizon and true A.I. began to develop, but a deeply-entrenched conspiracy concerning an Ecological terrorist organizations' efforts to trap the entirety of humanity in a video game so as to keep the world from being destroyed due to human abuse. This contradicts several significant past plot points and lore; the least of which being the nature of how Aura --who this plan all hinged upon to work-- was created to be a testament of the love her programmer held for a woman he never got to be with...that those entries retcon as being one of the inner-circle. The retcon may itself be subjected to a retcon by future projects, as ''.hack//G.U. Last Recode'' avoids addressing the new plotline entirely.
167	%%* RewardingVandalism
168	* RoadCone: You're allowed to perform the marriage Promise Card ending of ''.hack//G.U.'' with nearly any female character ([[GayOption and Endrance]]), but Atoli and Alkaid are the only canon contenders for Haseo's heart, with Atoli strongly in the lead in the games and the sole winner in adaptations. Similarly, you're allowed [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential to kill off Saku in Volume 3]], but she's alive in Volume 4 regardless of your decisions.
169	%%* RolePlayingGameVerse: Literally.
170	%%* SaveBothWorlds
171	* SayMyName: There's a scene in the Legend of the Twilight anime which is nothing but the two main characters shouting each other's names. For about ten minutes.
172	* SceneryPorn: Especially in ''.hack//SIGN'', where the camera spends ages languidly panning across the World's various landscapes.
173	* SchmuckBait: The Guardian enemies Protect Break after unusually small amounts of damage. If you Data Drain them, they become The Bracelet. Enjoy your Game Over.
174	* SelfDeprecation: CC Corp, the InUniverse equivalent of Creator/CyberConnect2 and the runner of the various incarnations of The World, is portrayed as laughably incompetent at best and actively malicious at worst.
175	** One of the final Parody Mode sketches in ''.hack//G.U. Last Recode'' is Shino and Haseo giving a very unkind summation of the poorly-received plot of ''.hack//LINK''.
176	* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Emma Weilant's "Epitaph of Twilight". Harald Hoerwick used her poem as the setting for frägment, the beta version of the The World, both of which which are actually an attempt to [[spoiler:create a true [=AI=] by studying the millions of players]]. But part of his program ends up becoming intelligent on its own and rebels against its purpose, resulting in the rebel [=AI=] and a handful of players actually ''reenacting'' the story of the Epitaph in ways Harald never anticipated. And considering Emma's rather mysterious inspiration for the poem...
177	* SeriousBusiness: Much like in real life, people take The World way too seriously and [=PKing=] has the same status as murder, especially since Haseo being a PKK puts a more prominent spotlight on it compared to the R1 stories. Justified with those [[TrappedInAnotherWorld trapped inside the game]], since it becomes a question of [[YourMindMakesItReal what would happen to them in the real world if they died.]]
178	** In a more conventional sense, the gender of Hotaru's real-world player, one of the characters of ''.hack//Legend of The Twilight Bracelet'', is ''very'' fiercely debated due to several conflicting pieces of information across the medium. Specifically, while many have said that Hotaru is a female, she is revealed to be male in the non-canon ''Let's Meet Offline'' and in a throwaway, hard-to-translate line in ''A.I. Buster 2'', which ''is'' canon. It doesn't help that real-world Hotaru is shown at the end of Volume 3 (along with the other real-world versions of the cast), and looks VERY [[AmbiguousGender gender-ambiguous.]].
179	*** The infobook "Epithet of the Old Testament" apparently clears this up... but the lack of a readily available English translation makes it difficult to figure out. Fans seem to agree it confirms Hotaru is a boy in one continuity and a girl in another, though which is which seems to switch. Worse yet, some sources say it sidesteps the issue entirely and only refers to Hotaru's player character.
180	** This series brings this trope up to eleven. Players of The World never seem to just take a step back and say "OK, this is a game - even if something really terrible happens, I can just quit and forget all about it". As such, you never see players log out or turn off their computers when faced with [[YourMindMakesItReal "real"]] threats from The World, which is what any sane person would normally do.
181	*** Note that a scene in ''Liminality'' suggests the [[MindRape Mind Raping]] begins with just the ''presence'' of such a threat. When Mai and Junichiro encounter Skeith, [[ChekhovsSkill Mai]] just pulls off her headset, but Junichiro's twitching and foaming at the mouth, madly mashing his control pad, until she shuts down the system. And he wasn't even Data Drained.
182	* ShoutOut: In ''.hack//Link'', Haseo and Ovan's secret costumes are [[VideoGame/TalesOfGraces Asbel and Malik]].
183	** In G.U. you can read a message board poster saying he/she is reminded of a story about [[Anime/WolfsRain wolves searching for paradise]].
184	** Gaspard sends you an e-mail saying "[[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} I ain't afraid of no ghost"]]."
185	* SneezeCut: Subverted in ''Beyond the World''. [[spoiler:After having allergy-induced sneezes throughout the movie, David actually manages to hold one in during his flight back while the other characters are talking about him.]]
186	* SuperpoweredEvilSide:Quite a few examples, although it's played for laughs in [[spoiler:Natsume]]'s case.
187	* {{Synchronization}}: Happens in reverse form, where various [=AI=]s - Aura, the eight Avatars, and [=AIDA=] - are linked to certain players and respond to their emotions. More than one player openly questions how such a thing could be possible.
188	* ThemeNaming: It seems many Captains and Guild Leaders in G.U. have to be named after Heavenly Objects. The various arena champions are all named after stars, and the guilds are named after birds (although Silabus offers an alternate explanation for "Canard").
189	%%* ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet: Part of the reason for the denial about [[spoiler:Tsukasa]].
190	* TitleDrop: The group that defeated Morganna is known in later installments as the ".hackers".
191	%%* TragicMonster: Most of the series' "villains."
192	* TrappedInAnotherWorld - Get killed by the various corrupted evils of .hack, and you get to spend RL in a coma, and your mind in The World!
193	%%* UndergroundMonkey: Many of them are in the video games.
194	* WeirdlyUnderpoweredAdmins: Various points in the franchise show many displays of the admins not using their powers through any means outside of the game of ''The World''. A major part of the plot for the first generation is that the creator of "The World" programmed the game to "give birth" to an actual ArtificialIntelligence behind the scenes that the game devs didn't know about, so it falls outside of the devs' know-how to deal with them and they take Aura's presence as a threat. You would think that they would just look up a database of player accounts to determine if they're using illegal hacks or modifications or notice game code that should not be there, but they can only ever confirm such suspicions and account bannings directly in the game itself.
195	* YourMindMakesItReal: Characters who get attacked by Data Drain also reportedly suffer severe comas in the real world; this is explained in ''Legend of the Twilight'', where it's revealed that Data Draining causes the mind to assume a "nocebo" death.

Context Franchise / DotHack