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.hack//SIGN #5: Uncovered

Tuesday, 02 March 2004

For most of this disc you'd be forgiven for wondering who Tsukasa was - it's the end of the final episode before he really gets back into the meat of the story. The thing is, you barely miss him...

20 - Tempest
Life goes on for the players of The World... Mimiru & Bear are questing, with Tsukasa having pretty much dropped off the radar for them & the search for the Key of the Twilight on hold. Silver Knight's having to get used to life without the Crimson Knights, BT & Sora are scheming about how to make best use of him, and Subaru's spending most of her online time just sitting with Tsukasa. So much for grand plans to solve Tsukasa's logout problem - but after letting things drift for a while, Bear finally decides to relaunch the search for the Key & calls the gang back together again. Meanwhile, Tsukasa decides to show Subaru his hiding place, but when they get there the mysterious girl is gone, and someone's really not happy at him having brought Subaru there...

21 - Despair
Subara hasn't seen Tsukasa since her visit to his hiding place & is worried enough to be searching for him. She'll have a hard time finding him in his current state, though - he's back in his hiding place (now a wasteland) and he's in no condition to do anything. There's much talking about what's happened to Tsukasa & concern for Subaru, as she leaves herself weakened as a result of her worry... Meanwhile, Bear's been doing some thinking about the ramblings of the upside-down man, and has come up with an explantion...

22 - Phantom
Bear, Mimiru & Subaru search for another instance of the upside-down man - a computerised reproduction of Harald Hoerwick, creator of The World. Seems he may have left something personal in the game that has to do with the Key of the Twilight. Making use of some help given by mysterious hacker Helba, they manage to track him down & get some sense out of him. Meanwhile, Tsukasa sits alone in his hiding place, still unable to do anything, while Sora & the Silver Knight investigate another angle...

23 - The Eve
A series of mysterious messages, and the gang are summoned together - although for all that the first half of the episode is various parings discussing whether they're going to answer the summons or not. Tsukasa finally makes an appearance in the game world, but he's traumatised by his recent experience and is terrified of being hurt again. Crim tries to ease Tsukasa's fears by sharing some of his knowledge of 'real-world' Subaru. Eventually they all come together, to be confronted by another of Helba's gates leading to an unknown location. Meanwhile, Sora's closer to the Key than anyone else thanks to a fortunate run-in with the Neko PC...

So now our mysterious girl has a name - Aura - and there's a lot more detail given about what's going on. It seems some of the subroutines created by Harald have taken on a llife of their own & are working towards gaining control of the in-game world. By the end of this disc everyone seems to have renewed sense of purpose, as they finally know pretty much what they're looking for. Progress!

Still not much in the way of action to keep hack & slash fans happy, but I guess that crowd will have given up by now. :) For the rest of us, the end is in sight & may just be worthwhile...

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