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After a near five year absence, multi-player returns to .hack! In this mode you and up two other players can tackle what I call the Link Towers! Each one spans 10 floors which you ascend five blocks at a time. The downsides are that the mode is local only, no online play. This can be alleviated using the PS3's Ad-hoc Party application however.
The other thing is that you're not battling right alongside your teammates. There are 3 routes per each block of floors and you each must choose one to run through. The only time you'll be together is in the lobby! Inside said lobby you can send/receive and view Link Cards to/from other players, purchase items from the shop, and decide which route you'll take!
- Trap: more likely to encounter rooms with traps such as spikes strewn about while fighting monsters
- Normal: this one is pretty balanced in the normal monster, boss monster, and trap rooms
- Boss: and here you're going to be dealing with two boss class monsters along the way
Near the warp to the next floor you'll often find a "Random Switch". This has many different effects should you choose to press it before heading onward. The effect you may get are as follows:
- restore half the HP and SP for your bridage
- restore all of the HP and SP for your brigade
- changes the next Block into a Normal, Trap, Boss, or Recovery Block
- inflict negative status effects on players or enemies in the next Block
- enemy stength flucuates (this can be real deadly if the boss trio is up next)
- ...and more?
Oughta be noted that the fifth Block of each Floor can't be switched for a different type of room, it will always be a Guardian boss fight room. And these Guardians are no pushovers. At Level 30, in the Easy Link Tower Block 5, that trio of bosses came close to netting me a game over several times! And they, along with all of the other monsters, only get tougher the higher you climb! This is certainly not a mode to tackle very early into the main game!
As for the Guardians, they switch out after a certain amount of time has passed, or after you finish using a Unison Attack or XRengeki on them. The idea is that with 3 human player, each party is fighting one Guardian at the same time, but solo you've got to take them all out yourself! Which leads to lengthy fights since the Guardians aren't having their HP wittled away by other players while you're fighting one. So when they switch they'll have the same amount of HP as when you last left off with them.
Even if you are doing this mode solo it may be worthwhile. This makes for good Virus Core farming and raising affection with UPCs! You can unlock background images and keywords for your Link Card, Titles, and 3 UPCs to fight alongside (post-game only). The higher floors of the hard difficulty tower are also a good challenge for high level players bored with the Lv.99 areas in story mode (or no longer have access to them since those are all X'over episode areas)! New things include:
- There are Data Bug / AIDA infected versions of monsters not seen in the main game
- A lot of items which can't be found in the main game are obtained here
- Actual obstacles and traps like you'd find in some areas in the G.U. games
- The towers themselves are a new Area type and their bosses and boss arena are also unique
Notes:
- You'll auto-lose if Tokio gets KO'd 3 times on Easy, 2 on Normal, and 1 on Hard.
- UPCs getting KO'd seems to affect the Failed Battles rank.
- The shop upgrades and adds more items on Normal and then again on Hard.
- This mode could be considered Links post-game super dungeon!
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