MMO Stories

>>51409119

.Hack

If you want to read/watch/play all of it, you are in for a long fucking ride.

>>51409136
How long are we talking exactly ?

>>51409207
Not him, but I know there was at the very least like eight video games and an anime

>>51409239
>>51409207
Also countless VNs.

>>51409252
There aren't any VNs in .hack. You might mean LNs.

>>51409207
The first "chapter" begins with .hack//SIGN, a two-cour anime which is followed by the first batch of PS2 games, known collectivelly as IMOQ, which is just a single game chopped in four disks.
On the side, you can read AI Buster, which is a 2-volume long LN which provides some background. Then there is the four volumes of Another Birth, which is just IMOQ from Blackrose's perspective and what she does when she isn't in your party. Finally, there is the Liminality OVAs which were bundled with the games.

The only "requiered" stuff are SIGN and IMOQ.

(Cont.)

>>51409429
Then there is the "interlude" between chapters. It consist of a manga, Legend of the Twilight, and it's anime adaptation. And the ZERO LN, which I don't believe was ever translated.

The anime is garbage and the manga is passable, but it does bring some points about Aura which are expanded upon in the second chapter.

(Cont.)

>>51409119
>SAO

What makes me maddest of all is that it could have been done so much better.

>>51409459
The second chapter is the G.U. trilogy.
First of all, there is the Roots anime, another two-cour, which is a direct prologue to the game, and unlike SIGN is pretty much required to get what is going on at the start of the game. Then there is the trilogy, which does a good job at actually feeling like different games.
Then there are a plethora of manga retellings and side stories, two movie retellings of the games, of which only Returner adds anything to the plot.

Some might argue that watching Roots spoils some things in GU, but I believe those "spoilers" were things you were meant to know at the start.

(Cont. for the last part)

>>51409538
The rest is kind of a mess to order, to be honest.
There is the Quantum OVA, three episodes long, of which I can only say it was too short. Then should go the Link game, for PSP and currently being fan-translated (did they finish it by now?) which plays merry hell on the overall franchise plot.
Finally, the CG movie. Which has a companion web-novel (also being translated) called Bullet. It was bundled with a fighting game, Versus, distinguished by the Thanatos Report OVA, which is the ending point of the the whole franchise. It's litterally the end of the official timeline. It also relies heavily on the conspiracy subplots running along the whole franchise.

(Cont. Because I forgot some stuff. Sorry.)

>>51409624
Other than that, there are manga retellings of all games, including Link.
There is a cancelled LN, Cell, and a Epitaph of the Twilight LN which focused on the original "Fragment" program, the precursor to "The World". There are also G.U. LNs.
There's also a few later mobile games by CC2 alledgely set in the same universe, but there's nothing beyond cameos to support the claim.

>>51409119
Grimgar

>>51410985
this is pretty dissapointing to be honest
Even Overlord did better