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- 3rd Season - (cont.)
The .hack//Link fanslation has come a long, long way (by the time of this writing its all but done) an bugs aside I've enjoyed it several times!
.hack//Link is just a few months away from being completely translated (insofar as I’m able to).
I’ve started the editing and Quality check phase. Each day I play the same and edit file by file for spacing, grammar, spelling and style as well as plot errors.
Source: https://dothacktranslate.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/editing-and-quality-assurance-phase/
In regards to Quantum... as it turns out, Bandai Entertainment bought the big one. Now with them and Tokyopop gone, we now weren't just not getting games, but future anime and manga/novels also. However, on the anime front another localization company saw this opening an decided to snatch it up!
The North American anime distributor Funimation announced at its Anime Weekend Atlanta panel on Saturday that it licensed the .hack//Quantum video anime series and will stream this fall's Guilty Crown television anime series as it airs in Japan. Funimation will release .hack//Quantum on DVD and Blu-ray Disc next year. Guilty Crown premieres in Japan on October 13, and Funimation will release the anime on DVD and Blu-ray Disc next year.
Source: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-10-01/funimation-adds-.hack/quantum-streams-guilty-crown
Funimation swooped in and brought Quantum over. Unfortunately in the transition at least once recurring characters english voice actor did not make the jump. Later on, Funimation would license SIGN, LotT, Roots, and G.U. Trilogy and re-release them. Sadly they also neglected to bring us Returner. -.- Nor the feature film .hack//The Movie. But why?
Matsuyama: Unfortunately for .hack//Versus, there are no plans, at the moment, to release it in American territories.
— A movie was released alongside .hack//Versus…
Matsuyama: Unfortunately, because the movie is packed with the game as a hybrid disc, there are also no plans for it.
Source: https://gematsu.com/2012/10/interview-cyberconnect2-ceo-hiroshi-matsuyama-on-narutimate-storm-3-hack-and-jojos-bizarre-adventure
No, seriously. But why? In Japan, the movie was released on blu-ray and dvd. The blu-ray release was the hybrid version which included the game. The dvd release lacked the game. So the movie - could in fact be released sans the game. With this in mind, Versus could also have been released without the movie. Instead, neither one got localized!
Also alongside the Versus release was .hack//bullet a new .hack novel published directly to the web. Obviously no one (besides fans!) saw fit to translate this. Regardless of these things, we were promised a .hack game localization that very same year so thats good right?
Guilty Dragon, The .hack Connected Mobile Game, Is Coming To America & Europe
"After we release in Japan we will release Guilty Dragon in America and Europe," announced Matsuyama. This is the first time Matsuyama discussed a Western release of Guilty Dragon.
Source: http://www.siliconera.com/2012/09/26/guilty-dragon-the-hack-connected-mobile-game-is-coming-to-america-europe/
Pretty cool huh? Even Europe is getting the game despite them missing out on G.U.! But as we know by now, this english release never happened. The game didn't see the light of day in North America or Europe. It was very successful for CC2 in Japan, being their most popular mobile game by far, so much so that it lasted 3 years! Still have yet ta see any interviews as to why it never showed up overseas. Its successor, New World, released in 2015 but didn't show up either. Though they never promised that one.
And so the years passed by. 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016~ aforementioned things like the Link fanslation moved along, anime re-releases. Some out of the blue fanslations for manga/novels (Legacy, GnU, bullet) happened. People also took a crack at fanslating .hack//frägment AND getting its online back up and running! In the west, .hack was being fueled almost solely by the fans! With that said there were some notable, and official(!), releases on the game front in that period.
Project X Zone, the crazy crossover game featuring Namco Bandai, Capcom, and Sega characters all working together, is coming to North America! Namco will be bringing the role-playing fighting game hybrid to North American, European, Australia, and Latin American shores with full English localization, at least in terms of the text.
Source: https://www.destructoid.com/project-x-zone-getting-localized-coming-to-north-america-242789.phtml
Both Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2 made their ways across the world! While not strictly .hack games, each one features .hack characters among the cast and the games stories were entwined with "The World". This was the first time since G.U. Vol.3 that Bamco touched upon anything related to the series over here! Before long, the year was now 2017. The real world had caught up to G.U. an with it - an outta the blue announcement!
Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced through this week's Weekly Famitsu issue that .hack//G.U. Last Recode, an HD remaster of the .hack//G.U. series, will be coming to PlayStation 4 and PC.
Source: https://www.rpgsite.net/news/5659-hack-g-u-returns-as-hack-g-u-last-recode-for-playstation-4-pc
!!!!!! Apparently many peoples wanted this. Not so much myself, I want new stuff of course, but I was more than happy to support this release all the same since it did include new content in the form of a Vol.4. Many improvements over the PS2 originals helped alot to... plus DUAL AUDIO! Finally! The last missing piece of voice actor consistency was delivered to us! While I enjoyed .hack dubs, over the years there were issues with recurring character voices and the fact that G.U. Trilogy, Link, The Movie, Versus, Guilty Dragon, New World, and both Project X Zone games never got dubs. So if you were following the series you'd be flipflopping between (inconsistent) dub and sub and it sucked!
By the way shortly after this was announced, a new web novel covering the IMOQ series (again!) began and multiple chapters were posted weekly up to Last Recodes launch. Did Bamco see fit translate this for people outside Japan? Course not! By the way, Japan got a special collectors edition which included a short novel, a drama cd which frankly may have dropped info more important to the series story than Vol.4 did, and Returner... in HD on a blu-ray disc no less! We missed out on all of that to. But hey, a few months later would see the release of a pretty lackluster demo for Vol.1 HD!
Now over a little over year since Last Recodes announcement things are quiet on the .hack front. Way to reignite interest only to let it flame out shortly thereafter! The 15th Anniversary of .hack has ended but the series remains unfinished with only hopes and dreams of new content to follow.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
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