7.5/10 +Atypical protagonist with strong character motivations +Great blend of action and romance -Bland supporting cast distracts from major story beats -Complicated lore takes focus over stronger character work The world of .hack//G.U.+ isn’t cozy or inviting. Most stories centered on video games give us something to escape to. A lush universe, cozy characters, maybe wild and goofy antics where we can relax and enjoy the ride. There’s a certain comfort to watching these epics quests or seeing fools triumph over adversity. The story of teenage Haseo doesn’t touch upon either of things; instead, he’s out to avenge his old flame as a player killer aftershe falls into a coma when playing the game together. On the plus side, there’s a rich mystery to keep us interested and Haseo isn’t your ordinary innocent do-gooder. There’s also tons of fun action, from revenge killing to dues ex machina power ups, plus a sweet (if underdeveloped) romance.

All the genre ingredients are there, so what happened? Unfortunately the heavy focus on complicated lore over deeper character work prevents any sort of satisfying emotional payoff. Haseo’s motivations don’t always align with his actions, making him extremely hard to relate to. The final arc is also sloppily paced and feels slapped on just to get a conclusion.

Despite the missing pieces, .hack//G.U.+ contains solid framework for an interesting sci-fi epic. It shoots for a compelling revenge story but struggles to stick the landing.