.hack

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.hack (or Project .hack) is a multimedia franchise primarily created by Bandai. The series encompasses four games for the PlayStation 2 console, three anime series and several manga series, as well as novels. The franchise primarily surrounds a future in which one operating system, Altimit OS, is used by nearly all computers in the world due to a computer virus named Pluto's Kiss that crashed the Internet, shut down all networked computer and communication network control systems, and sent hundreds of PC users into seizures on December 24, 2005. From that point on, Altimit OS became the only major operating system in the world, and the only OS allowed on the Internet. This is credited to its remarkable stability.

The primary focus of the franchise, however, is the popular MMORPG The World, the first network game to be allowed to run after the events of Pluto's Kiss. It was wildly popular, with over four million users signing up at its launch. The series focuses on a particular set of events known collectively as the Twilight Incident, in which multiple users were forced into a coma while playing the game. Most of the stories revolve around a group of AI, including Aura, Morganna, Aura's "child" Zefie, and various other anomalous AI.

Contents 1 Main storylines 2 Other storylines 3 Sequels 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Main storylines

The four initial storylines of the franchise were:

• .hack//Sign, an anime series surrounding the character Tsukasa and his inability to log out of The World.
• .hack, a series of four PlayStation 2 games that follow the story of the .hackers, Kite and BlackRose, and their attempts to find out what caused the sudden coma of Kite's friend, Orca, and BlackRose's brother, Kazu. The four volumes are known as .hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, and .hack//Quarantine, respectively.
• .hack//Liminality, a set of four DVD OVAs included with the games that follow the story of Mai Minase, Yuki Aihara, Kyoko Touno, and ex-CyberConnect employee Junichiro Tokuoka as they attempt to find out what is causing the comas.
• .hack//Legend of the Twilight (also incorrectly called .hack//Dusk, among other names, because of early fan-translated versions) is a manga and anime series that follows the player characters Shugo and Rena, as they win a mysterious contest that earns them chibi-fied character models of the legendary .hackers Kite and BlackRose (from the .hack PlayStation 2 games).

[edit] Other storylines

Other storylines of the franchise that were created later were:

• .hack//AI buster, a novel telling the story of Albireo and a prototype of the ultimate AI, Lycoris, and of how Orca and Balmung defeated 'The One Sin' and became the Descendants of Fianna.
• .hack//AI buster 2, a collection of stories involving the characters of AI Buster and Legend of the Twilight Bracelet. (".hack//2nd Character", ".hack//Wotan's Spear", ".hack//Kamui", ".hack//Rumor" -previously released with the Rena Special Pack in Japan-, and ".hack//Firefly"). It has now been released in America as well.
• .hack//Another Birth, a novelization of the .hack games, from BlackRose's point of view, which consist of four Japanese volumes. The North-American release is currently up to the third volume: the first volume was released on June 13, 2006, the second on October 2006, and the third one on Feburary of 2007.
• .hack//Gift, a self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek, one-episode OVA that was created as a "gift" for those who had bought all 4 .hack games and completed it (in Japan, one could only watch Gift if the Data Flag on the memory card file in .hack//Quarantine was present, whereas the American version included Gift on the fourth Liminality DVD). It is predominantly a comedy that makes fun of everything that developed throughout the series, even the franchise's own shortcomings. Character designs are deliberately simplistic - Balmung wears a tie round his head in this title to symbolise that he is an office worker.
• .hack//Zero, a novel series that tells the story of a Long Arm named Curl, of what happened to Sora after he was trapped in The World by Morganna, and of Tsukasa's real life after being able to log out from The World.
• .hack//Enemy, a collectible card game created by Decipher Inc. based on the .hack storylines. It was discontinued after running five separate expansions between 2003-2005.
• .hack//fragment, the first .hack ORPG (Online Role-Playing Game). It has recently been released in Japan. Bandai has announced at E3 '06 that frägment will not be coming to North America.
• .hack//4koma, a manga series which throws a little humor into both the .hack and .hack//G.U. franchises alike.
• .hack//XXXX (read as "X-Fourth"), a manga series that adapts the four original .hack video games.

[edit] Sequels

.hack//G.U. (or .hack Conglomerate, as opposed to its predecessor, Project .hack). The series encompasses three games for the PlayStation 2 console, an anime series called .hack//Roots, prose, and manga.

The storyline is set seven years after the events of .hack. In the years that have passed, Altimit OS has been replaced by Altimit Mine OS, and The World has become The World R:2, which has been overrun by player killers and lawlessness abounds.

[edit] See also

• Simulated reality

[edit] External links

• Project .hack official website
• Japanese Project .hack official website
• Project .hack at .hack//Wiki
• dothackers — .hack fansite

.hack v • d • e
Video games:	Infection | Mutation | Outbreak | Quarantine | frägment | G.U.
Anime:	Liminality | Sign | Legend of the Twilight | Gift | Roots
Books:	AI buster | AI buster 2 | Zero | Another Birth | Legend of the Twilight | .hack//XXXX | 4 Koma | G.U.: The World
Characters:	Albireo | Alkaid | Aura | Azure Kite | Balmung | Bear | BlackRose | BT | Crim | Cubia | Elk | Emma Wielant | Harald Hoerwick | Haseo | Helba | Kite | Kuhn | Lycoris | Mia | Mimiru | Morganna | Orca | Ovan | Rena | Shugo | Skeith | Sora | Subaru | Tri-Edge | Tsukasa | Zefie .hack//Sign characters
Other:	Altimit Corporation | Altimit OS | CC Corporation | Cubia | Data Drain | Eight Phases | GU Phases (.hack) | .hack//Enemy | Epitaph of Twilight | Twilight Incident | Net Slum | Pluto's Kiss | The World | .hack character classes