Hayato Kanzaki is the main protagonist and hero of the Star Gladiator series of 3D fighting games. Hayato is a rebellious young Japanese intergalactic bounty hunter who fights with a Plasma Sword and has a strong sense of justice when battling against the forces of evil.
Story
Abandoned by his parents as a young child, Hayato was found wandering the streets of Neo Tokyo by a female owner of a local orphanage. She raised Hayato as well as many other disadvantaged children in her own time, but in doing so, she fell deeply into debt. Upon growing up into an adult, Hayato had vowed to help the owner get out of debt. Unable to find other work from within the city, Hayato had reluctantly became a bounty hunter in order to gain easy money so that he could help support the orphanage.
One day, Hayato had discovered an ad offering a huge reward to join a project called Star Gladiator and realizing that this was his chance and opportunity to help the owner and the orphanage out, Hayato had joined the project without any hesitation or second thought. From within this point on, Hayato would eventually meet up with his future girlfriend June and his future friends Saturn and Gamof from within the project and that the four of them would find themselves battling against Bilstein and the Fourth Empire.
One year later from within the events of Plasma Sword (Star Gladiator 2), Hayato has become a successful bounty hunter and has settled down with June, spending his days peacefully in rebuilding the orphanage with the bounties he has earned. One day after coming back home from another successful bounty hunting mission, Hayato is shocked to hear and learn that June has suddenly disappeared and that his friends had told him on what had happened. Realizing that Bilstein, who had shockingly and surprisingly returned from his supposed "death" at the end of the Final Crusade, is behind the unexpected situation, Hayato sets out to find June and to finish things with Bilstein once and for all.
Black Hayato
There is an evil version of Hayato called Black Hayato (also called B. Hayato) that is playable in Plasma Sword. In his last fight against Hayato, Bilstein had managed to implant a "genotype" microchip in the protagonist. It eventually took control of Hayato and that the microchip had transformed him into Black Hayato: a cruel and ruthless swordsman with a cold and emotionless fighting personality, the opposite of the original Hayato's own personality and that he fights with a Plasma Sword. While B. Hayato is evil, he still hates Bilstein for what he did and that he'll attack and eliminate anyone and anything who gets in his way. If the player beats the game with B. Hayato, he'll try to kill June on sight, but the small bit of consciousness that Hayato has left will attempt to stop him. Should B. Hayato win, the effects of the microchip will remain permanent and that the real Hayato will be gone forever. It should be noted that in Gantetsu's ending, B. Hayato is shown as a separate entity from the original Hayato when he is actually in the latter's body.
Other appearances
Hayato is the only Star Gladiator character to cross over to another Capcom game; in this case, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Gore was technically the first, with his appearance in SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, but that game was an SNK release and his appearance was merely a cameo in one of Akari's special moves).
Hayato also makes a cameo appearance in Tekkaman Blade's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (in which he saves Tekkaman Blade from being attacked by Bilstein's ghost).
Trivia
- It is implied in Plasma Sword that Ele is his and June's daughter from the future.
- Due to the nature and cosmetics of his sword, Hayato may have been inspired by the Jedi of Star Wars fame.
- Waka from Okami shares his Plasma Blade activation sequence, along with a reference to the moon and a theme of outer space in some manner; Waka is from the Moon Tribe and came to Nippon, in extension, Earth, from space; Hayato wields a technique named Engetsu (full moon in Japanese), and journeys out into space.
- His Engetsu technique is also shared by Bayonetta (the protagonist of Hideki Kamiya's game of the same name) through the weapon Pillow Talk.
Gallery
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