Classic JRPG franchises returns with CyberConnect2's new game .hack//Z.E.R.O.

Millennials, rejoice: .hack is back with a new game

Fourteen years after the last titles in the .hack series, CyberConnect2 is celebrating the studio's 30th anniversary by unveiling .hack//Z.E.R.O., also known as "Project Dusk." With no release date yet, the game is an action RPG being developed only for consoles, coming from the studio behind Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, and many game series based on popular anime franchises, such as Naruto and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

CyberConnect2 has only shared a teaser where the game's "real world" — a modern society marked by delivery drones zipping through the sky and social media — contrasts with the digital fantasy MMORPG "The World," where the stories in the .hack universe take place. At the end of the teaser, the names of some staff members behind the project appear. Among them are Hiroshi Matsuyama, credited as executive producer and known for participating in the development of other .hack games, and Seiichiro Hosokawa, who is responsible for the character design.

In an interview with Famitsu, as reported by RPG Site, Matsuyama explained that in .hack//Z.E.R.O. the events in the real world are going to be as important as the journey in the digital world. In addition, despite this new project having connections to previous games in the series, players don't need to worry about catching up, and new players can enjoy it as much as old fans.

In the early 2000s, the .hack universe was huge, being one of the first multimedia projects telling stories set inside an MMORPG, a trope that would become popular in later years. Comprising anime, light novels, and multiple games, the .hack series hasn't seen a brand-new game since 2012, when CyberConnect2 released .hack//Versus. Until 2017's .hack//G.U. Last Recode, all games in the series had been published by Bandai Namco. However, for .hack//Z.E.R.O., Bandai gave CyberConnect2 "permission to manage the entirety of the project from planning and development to release," as explained by the studio.