Critical reception to Kite has been positive; Meristation liked his premise in the .hack games following the dark date regarding his friend. Siliconera praised the way the narrative makes the player connect with Kite, who becomes concerned with Orca's comatose state and both find a common goal of becoming stronger. This was noted to surpass expectations of the game and of massively multiplayer online games (MMO) games in general. GameSpy found Kite's existence as an avatar that is picked by a player interesting and called Kite's concern for Orca/Yasuhiko well-written; the reviewer felt attached to Kite when playing the game. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine called it the game's "mind-bending premise" because Kite interacts interestingly with The World. According to RPGFan, Kite's journey does not reach a major point in the first game, making the story lacking. RPGamer stated while Kite's true form is "average" by storytelling tropes, he changes when his friends fall into comas and form a team to find clues to recover them.
