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1* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Haseo's jerk tendencies in Rebirth have a few possible explanations. Option 1) the Avatar's amplification of ''The Terror of Death'' means Haseo had a violent Avatar to begin with, shown as early as the first area after his level downgrading. Option 2) Even very early on, it's clear that people who don't know the situation (like Silabus and Gaspard) don't quite believe him yet, and people who do (like Ovan, Pi, and Yata) are hiding ''something'' from him in obtuse answers. Some (like Pi and Sakaki) also don't endear themselves to Haseo by insulting him without much provocation despite Haseo minding his own business up until then, such as Pi's first interaction with Haseo being to call him an "unruly child" and doesn't improve easily. With a rapid string of these unpleasant interactions at the beginning of Rebirth, it's no wonder that Haseo's pissed; either they're ridiculous with the BrutalHonesty or deliberately lying or obscuring things from him. This is further emphasized with Reminisce's main points being about revealing the true self underneath the facade, and a LOT of these people are NOT being completely honest about themselves.
2* ArcFatigue: The FinalBoss from Disc 2 is fought once again in Disc 3 with a similar moveset in a similar area and even an Avatar battle afterwards.
3* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Pick a game, ''any game''.
4** Every G.U. Phase Battle.
5*** Skeith, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd2W5J8KgME I'm right here]]".
6*** Innis, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9pL-BIoUic Here I come]]".
7*** Magus, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMti4h_g6bc Differences Between People]]".
8*** Fidchell, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9A4hO6q1JI Chain of Fate]]".
9*** Gorre, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io_iCRsdj_k Double Prayer]]".
10*** Macha, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_vWDABbaiM "She"]].
11*** Tarvos, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCU37qShUk Whereabouts of Power/Location of Power]]".
12*** Corbenik, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nPOh9IscXY Dark Infection]]".
13** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFoggDuyn9w&feature=related Everything In These Hands]]", Azure Kite's battle theme.
14** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjNyVpMuKOA Victory Must be Grasped]]".
15** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntWRzNGIyoM Speedy Boy]]".
16** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIktI8Rfmlo Fly Mecha Grunty]]!" is also highly catchy.
17* BaseBreakingCharacter: A number of examples...
18** Haseo gets some in the first game for being a big jerk and the way he treats Atoli for a game. It gets even worse in the CGI film and the manga.
19** Atoli. Half of the fanbase considers her TheWoobie, the other half considers her TheScrappy.
20** Alkaid. One half thinks she's TheScrappy, the other half is in love with her.
21** Shino might count as well, since some think she's a complete bitch, and others love her.
22* BrokenBase: A minor one involving ''[[UpdatedRerelease Last Recode]]'' and its scaling of difficulty and grinding. In general, the player no longer really needs to grind; just by playing the story and then running an area or two on the side if they're not up to snuff for the next major beat, they'll always be overleveled. And this isn't considering Haseo being blatantly strengthened to reduce the challenge, in a game where he genuinely became overpowered anyway. There's some fans that swear by the original [=PS2=] releases as a result of these changes, while most generally accept the quality-of-life improvements, ''especially'' in regards to inventory management.
23* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[TheHeavy Sakaki]]--real name [[AxCrazy Tooru Uike]]--is a brilliant, [[EnfantTerrible sociopathic ten-year-old]] who [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope slips]] from wanting to use AIDA for the benefit of mankind, to a revenge-driven, would-be tyrant as his hatred of Haseo consume him. Infecting his followers with AIDA to bend them to his will, Sakaki strings along one suicidal girl by playing to her insecurities and even uses AIDA to [[MindRape mentally assault]] her and bring out the power of her Epitaph. Enraged by his losses, Sakaki allows himself to be infected with AIDA and in his frenzy puts together a tournament in which players must kill each other for his own blood thirst]].
24* ContinuityLockout: The gist of the core G.U. storyline can be understood by the average player, but good luck trying to make sense of anything past that. There's not really any handy logs or data entries to keep track of the loads and loads of characters, major character and backstory motivations were set up in ''Roots'' which itself contains spoiler {{Foreshadowing}} galore for the games including [[spoiler:who the BigBad would really be]], even more things are tied directly to the VideoGame/DotHackR1Games all over the place while being given minimal context unless you've been paying attention to even minor character habits, and without the [[AllThereInTheManual Terminal Disc]] videos you get absolutely none of the context of what happened between the two game series besides small drip feeds, or the context and investigation of major plot threads in ''this'' series. And the Terminal Disc was [[CrackIsCheaper a limited edition release]] back in the day, though the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Last Recode]]'' remaster thankfully has them.
25* CriticalDissonance: Most Critics gave G.U. a Low to Medium score, most who have played love the game to the point of giving it high to perfect scores. Mainly due to the "fresh" gameplay compared to the older games, as well as more likeable characters and story.
26* DisappointingLastLevel: After testing Skeith's ultimate form, the rest of the FinalBoss fight is done with the regular playable characters. Futhermore, most of the next fights against doppeldangers and the final one will barely pose a challenge if the player already defeated the doppelgangers from Disc 1 and 2.
27* EnsembleDarkhorse: Alkaid and Azure Kite. Alkaid was originally slated to only have a brief appearance in Volume 1, but fandom demand and the creator's preference changed that.
28* FridgeLogic: How come no one ever brings up ripping off their headset or unplugging their PC?
29** In the R1 games being anywhere near one of the phases made players begin to have spastic fits such that they are physically unable to take their hands off the controllers unless there's someone in the room to do it for them, like Mai and Tokuouka in the first volume of Liminality. The same possibly holds true for anyone in the presence of AIDA or the Avatars.
30** Why do Atoli's parents take her to the doctor, confirm she has Doll Syndrome, and still let her play on the computer? The answer to that could be FridgeHorror. We later learn how isolated Atoli is and it's heavily implied [[spoiler:from her pre-avatar battle]] that her parents are at ''best'' neglectful.
31** If Aina was so sick in the hospital, why did doctors allow her to play an online virtual reality game so much?
32*** For that matter, why did doctors let someone who fell into a coma for several months after playing The World have a computer *again* so they could continue to play The World when she woke up?
33* GameBreaker: The Doppelganger Items and [[spoiler: the pair of guns that Haseo gets in the Forest of Pain.]]
34** [[spoiler: This also includes Haseo's ability to juggle enemies with his guns, semi-infinitely if the player is quick with the reload button.]]
35** [[spoiler:The DG-Y's ability. Combined with Super Charge, it essentially eliminates Skill Trigger recharge.]]
36** Quick Rengeki or Jet Speed Attack + Awakens also fits in this trope. Awakenings are so broken that people have actually complained about how gamebreaking they are.
37** Starting a new game in 1 if you have the clear data for 2 on your memory card allows you to start the game at level 35 [[spoiler: even after being Data Drained.]] For the record, the [=PKs=] who kill you at the start of the game are level 10, and the crazy bitch Bordeaux is only level 27 when you have to fight her in the arena. It's possible to beat every single mission up to the battle with Alkaid without having to level yourself up at all. But be warned, your allies will be horribly weak.
38** There might be a reason why you are the only player who can use a Broadsword in your party: even all by yourself you can juggle most small sized enemies and "player" enemies until they are dead or enough to finish with a Skill Trigger.
39*** Equip a Broadsword with rapid attacks. Attack an enemy with the Broadsword and chainsaw for the extra hits. Block ''immediately'' afterwards, which resets your attack without the cooldown and allows Haseo to juggle enemies like there's no tomorrow - and since you're using the rapid attacks, you'll build up the combo meter quickly, allowing for almost flawless Rengekis, gaining both combo and Rengeki morale bonuses.
40*** For one step further, do the above with the Divine Awakenings starting in Volume 2. At the right level, every second or third fight is just a Divine Awakening, which does so much damage it's ridiculous; ''weak'' Divine Awakenings can still do enough damage to wipe out an entire group in one go.
41** Damage Change + SP Regen could also be considered a GameBreaker, although to a lesser extent. It's pretty damn easy to break this game.
42** Atoli can become one. Damage Change, SP Regen, Skill Boost (for Rig Geam, which stacks with SP Regen), and Dancing Haze combine to create an unstoppable wall. Atoli is the only character that can use Dancing Haze - and it gives a 2-slot armor customization that may very well be one of the best caster customizations in the game, on a ''weapon''. If she somehow takes some form of physical damage, she's able to heal herself almost immediately afterward.
43** As soon as the guild shop option opens, dump unnecessary items and equipment into it instead of going to the shops; Gaspard is such a good seller most items will be sold for a better price. Every time you do a new area, come back and check Gaspard to pick up the profits and drop off items from your newest haul. You'll soon be stacked with cash, enough to buy at least one of the ridiculously expensive Black Market items before Haseo hits the Arena tournament rounds.
44* GrowingTheBeard: Vol. 1 was fine but was [[ObviousBeta rough around the edges]] and many just couldn't get past Haseo's more abrasive moments. It was also considered to have some slow pacing and few stakes despite the threats in AIDA. Vol. 2 featured more streamlined gameplay mechanics and fixed various problems the previous vol had. The story also greatly picked up as the stakes became greater and CharacterDevelopment really set in not just for Haseo but almost everyone else.
45* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Volume 3 as a whole is full of them. [[spoiler:The ending cutscene with Haseo running after Atoli is one of the milder examples.]]
46%%** Vol.2 Reminisce has more of this than any other.
47%%** Almost every Promise Card ending.
48%%Administrivia/HowToWriteAnExample: Examples are not general. Do not uncomment the above examples without coming up with specific examples for each.
49* HarsherInHindsight: In the Trilogy "bloopers", Atoli starts torturing Haseo for having several love interests. Haseo's voice actor Takahiro Sakurai would eventually be revealed to having affairs.
50* HoYay:
51** Endrance and Haseo. A rare, explicit case [[GayOption which doesn't have to be one-sided]].
52** Haseo also has some moments with [[MentorShip Ovan]] that gets even more intimate in the manga.
53** And dear God, Piros the 3rd. "Your love makes me hot!" Also another case of Do Not Want for Haseo.
54** Kuhn as well. Send him the Flower Gift card and he'll think Haseo is hitting on him.
55** Silabus, again with [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Haseo]]. He's one of the easiest to upgrade his relationship status, and not just because he's in Haseo's party for half of volume 1; it's possible to get him to max-out ''less than one-quarter'' of the way through Volume 2. Some of his e-mails suggest a stronger devotion alongside his obvious admiration, and his Promise Card scene is rather...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4KZ7GiQcho&feature=related interesting]]. It should also be noted that Silabus could be considered a SpearCounterpart of Atoli, the closest the game gets to a canon love interest.
56---> '''Silabus:''' Hey! You scared me running off like that! [[spoiler:(to Haseo after chasing Ovan in Lumina Cloth before meeting Endrance)]]
57* MagnificentBastard: Ovan was once an ordinary hacker playing The World who had the misfortune of getting possessed by AIDA, who forced him to put his sister Aina and other players into comas, becoming the notorious [=PKer=] Tri-Edge. To save Aina and the other Lost Ones, Ovan conspired to trigger the Rebirth by manipulating Haseo into fighting and defeating the seven other epitath users, including Ovan himself. Ovan effortlessly manipulates Haseo, the [[EnfanteTerrible cruelly ambitious Sakaki]], system administrators, the World's AI guardians, and even the AIDA possessing him, without revealing his identiy as Tri-Edge until he desires it. His plan to trigger the Rebirth goes off without a hitch and Ovan saves Aina and the Lost Ones at the cost of falling into a coma himself.
58* MemeticMutation: The fandom isn't really large enough to have many cases, but...
59--> "RAWR, I'M GABI!! :D"
60** Haseo's LargeHam tendencies are memetic as well:
61---> '''"SKEEEEEEEEEIIIIIITH!!!"'''
62** Haseo constantly spouting "Guess I'll log out and check my email or something" after some events.
63* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Too many examples to list. Haseo's arrival as a PKK in Volume 1, [[spoiler:the four-way Avatar summoning sequence against Sakaki's AIDA]], [[spoiler:Atoli ''telling off'' Sakaki after he betrayed her with MindRape]]...
64%%* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Sakaki crossed it.]]
65* {{Narm}}: Summoning Skeith the first time is a pretty cool moment. It crosses into Narm when Haseo says the exact same thing, with the same inflection and tone and everything every subsequent time.
66* NarmCharm:
67** A few times Haseo shouts something out are genuinely impressive or dramatic moments; like trying to save Pi from being infected and his "Give us back... all of the Lost Ones!" from the end of Volume 1.
68** With any other character, Endrance's flowery language would either be out-of-place or just plain weird. Once you learn about Endrance's history [[spoiler: as Elk from R1]] and his subsequent turnaround, some of his more romanticized speeches are actually quite beautiful and poignant.
69* NeverLiveItDown: Haseo was a huge jerk in Vol. 1, with some exceptionally strong KickTheDog moments, but he also had plenty on the [[PetTheDog opposite spectrum]] that kept him from being completely loathsome and he mellowed out towards the end when multiple characters called him out on it. And that doesn't even include his later CharacterDevelopment. However, detractors on youtube will often cite only his more cruel actions in Rebirth when talking about his character without talking about his redeeming aspects. Reviewers who have only just restarted the game in their reviews and mention just how unlikeable he is for most of it in spite of his other moments.
70* NightmareFuel:
71** The Dopplegangers. When one shows up on the map and notices you nearby, it starts to slowly and confidently walk towards you while an increasingly scary music that alerts you of your impending doom starts to play and grows louder the closer it comes toward you. The screen also starts flashing red, and more so when the enemy closes in on you.
72** Entering in a battle to escape from it is useless like when you get to fight [=PKers=] he'll, literally, walk in with his shady appearance.
73** Innis in vol. 2... [[spoiler:"I want you to look at me... NOBODY EVER LOOKS AT ME!"]]
74** [[spoiler:Skeith beating the hell out of Magus in Volume 1. ''Haseo panics.'']]
75*** [[spoiler:It happens earlier with Alkaid, too. Haseo is ''speechless and horrified'' when Skeith appears on it's own and appears to be trying to scream when Skeith attacks Alkaid.]]
76** [[spoiler:Sakaki [[MindRape mind-raping]] Atoli may count too, considering Atoli's reaction makes it seem as if she's being literally raped.]] Also doesn't help that the scene plays out a little like a horror film.
77** [[spoiler:Haseo, Pi, and Atoli defeat an AIDA-infected Sakaki, and Ovan shows up to congratulate them... and shows them the truth about Tri-Edge by ''violently cutting down Pi and Atoli in one stroke each''' '''''while creating the Tri-Edge insignia around Haseo'''''.]] May count as a moment of CreepyAwesome.
78* PolishedPort: ''Last Recode'' gathers together all three games, plus a new fourth one, all in one package that runs at a beautiful 1080p 60FPS, and adds some fixes to Rebirth that Reminisce had. That said, the port does have some quirks, since many effects were made with the original 30FPS in mind, and weren't redone to put the new framerate into account. Still, a nice option for playing the games, be it for a revisit or if you're playing for the first time.
79* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
80** Atoli in ''Reminisce'', for those that considered her TheScrappy.
81** Haseo too thanks to his CharacterDevelopment.
82* TheScrappy: Piros the 3rd is generally agreed as this. Several others can fall into this trope as well, but for the most part they more often fall under BaseBreakingCharacter and generally fan reaction to their later character development [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap redeems them]]. Piros, however, is simply outright despised for being an obnoxious FlatCharacter.
83** Saku. She is a psychotic StalkerWithACrush for Endrance and loathes Haseo so much she first arranges for him to get killed by Bordeaux and later gleefully allies herself with Sakaki for the PK tournament, knowing that if Haseo's team lost they could become Lost Ones and AIDA would spread throughout the server. Trying to understand her better through email chains only shows how deranged her obsession with Endrance is, and she never stops insulting you. It's no wonder that some players choose to [[spoiler:let Saku disappear when it becomes clear that Bo no longer needs a split personality anymore to deal with his mental issues]].
84* ScrappyMechanic: Oh god, ''counter equipment'' in Volume 3. For you, it can help stun enemies out of their combos on you if they happen to trigger its particular element. Except it also works the other way around if you're fighting player characters. Better be prepared for even your basic combos to suddenly halt dead in their tracks amidst taking damage without any warning whatsoever, because some [=PKers=] were hauled with counter equipment.
85* SignatureScene: Despite all of Haseo's CharacterDevelopment, the one moment that really sticks in a lot of fan's minds comes from him reaching his RageBreakingPoint at Atoli part way through ''Rebirth''. It's such an infamous KickTheDog moment where, after Atoli was InnocentlyInsensitive about calling out player-killers and those that just played The World like any RPG to get strong (ie. Haseo), Haseo ''flips his shit so hard'' that he delivers probably the single most mean-spirited and cruel KickTheDog moment in the franchise. [[JerkassHasAPoint Haseo had a point]] in enjoying the game the way Atoli hates even if he's getting strong to save Shino mostly, but crossed the line in doing so. This one moment hit so hard that [[NeverLiveItDown it characterized Haseo permanently]] for most of the fandom and the series going forwards despite his attempts to genuinely reflect upon and grow from moments like this.
86* {{Squick}}: Hiiragi ''probably'' isn't aware that the Sakaki he's fallen madly in love with is in fact a [[spoiler:psychotic ten-year-old boy putting on an act]], but their “relationship” is squicky enough even ignoring that...
87* ThatOneBoss:
88** AIDA <Oswald> in ''Reminisce''. It has several difficult to dodge and '''very''' damaging attacks that can easily rack up about 1/5 of your entire life bar and if you get careless you might get hit many times on a row.
89** AIDA <Victorian> in ''Rebirth''. Destroying its protection isn't (quite) the challenge, ''Data Draining it is''. Victorian moves erratically all over the place while spilling bullets that will cancel your Data Drain gauge entirely if one so as much scratch you. Failing to Data Drain it in time means the boss will have around 1/3 of his life back in a battle that might have taken about half of yours.
90** The Azure Knights, a memorable late game throwdown against all three of Aura's knights in [[LandmarkOfLore Hulle Granz Cathedral]]. It's a 3-vs-3 battle where your enemies have as much firepower as you do and even when properly geared up and at recommended level this fight can go sideways very fast if you're not careful and one of their attacks can easily bring you from full health to zero, more than one character if you're unlucky enough. This battle marks a notorious difficulty spike in ''Last Recode'', as while the game in general was made easier, these guys still pose a considerable challenge without preparation or level grinding.
91** [[spoiler:Cubia]], as well, at least [[spoiler:in the Avatar Battle portion.]] It's not so bad until near the end, when [[spoiler:Cubia]] whips out its strongest attack, [[spoiler:[[ThatOneAttack Chaos Gehenna.]]]] This is even considering that [[spoiler:Cubia is the FinalBoss and technically you're fighting it's first (two?) form(s)]], and that ONE SINGLE ATTACK can easily send you back to the very start of what is already a long battle.
92* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Gabi and Zelkova get a lot of build-up in the first half of Volume 1. Gabi in particular gets a whole cutscene with him, Haseo, Kuhn, and Bordeaux (amidst detailing some of Kuhn's background), is implied to be a rather strong player, and gets multiple forum responses and some scenes outside of the arena fight that imply he's going to be a major character. Gabi fades out of importance pretty quickly during Volume 2 despite this build-up, while the hinted Zelkova/Sakaki feud becomes part of Volume 2's main storyline and extends into Volume 3.
93* {{Wangst}}: Haseo gets a lot of this in the first game especially when he throws angry tantrums at Atoli for enjoying the game. It is far more exaggerated in the manga and the CGI film when Haseo is given so many creepy expressions that he looks like a molester.
94* TheWoobie: Several. To name a few, Atoli and Sakubo.

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