[Spoilers] Can a fan explain how Haseo's actual player is the same...

[Kappa Omicron]

I'm going to use this part of the text as a spoiler warning since when you hover your mouse over a topic, some of the text will show up on the screen.

Anyway, moving onto my question, I'd really like a fan with decent knowledge into the series explain to me how the player who is Haseo is the same player who played Sora in the Sign anime series.

I found it out recently and thought it was pretty cool, but after re-watching Sign, watching a full LP of the first 4 .hack// games, and finishing Roots...I just don't see it...

I mean, yeah, the idea of them being the same player is a pretty cool idea, but from what I've seen, there is literally nothing supporting that fact other than reading some older forums of people saying the people who made the series confirmed it themselves.

The characters don't even act the same. Sora was a bit of a weirdo, with a pretty bubbly, playful attitude who enjoyed player-killing.

Haseo is pretty much the opposite, he's a moody stuck-up person who doesn't really care about anything apart from having some weird crush on Ovan because he rescued him from player-killers, I guess? He ends up developing feelings for Shino randomly, but throughout the course of the anime he still remains a really unlikeable douche of a character. He also appears to hate player-killers due to them killing him in the beginning, but Sora was a player-killer himself.

And I understand that Sora was put into a coma and then released during the events of the first 4 .hack// games, and then makes an appearance in the final Sign OVA joining everyone in celebration.

But I don't see how that explains the drastic change in personality between Haseo and Sora. It really doesn't make sense to me the more I think about it, and it just ends up sounding like a lazy way of just saying "They're the same player! Pretty cool, right!?" with no concrete explanation.

If I'm missing something or getting anything wrong, I'd really appreciate it if someone could explain it all for me. I do like this series, I'm just a little confused.

[Maha.j2]

The Unison episode in .hack//SIGN isn't canon to the story, so don't worry about that. It's just a fun episode.

When Sora's player woke up from his coma he basically forgot everything involving The World, his parents even going to great lenths to hiding it from him. So maybe that could be an explaination of his attitude changing. Or he's just an angsty 17 year old.

There's also a discontinued manga called ZERO that takes place in R:1 with Sora's original avatar continuing on as an AI and I think is mereged with Skeith.

Other than the creators straight out saying that Haseo = Sora, there's nothing really concrete in-game confirming it.

[Scyris]

According to the wiki for Sora and Haseo, it is indeed the same person. He was 10 when he was Playing Sora, and 17 when he made Haseo, and the thing below explains why he seems so diffrent. Least according to the wiki. Also Haseo's real name is never mentioned at all not even once in the .hack GU game as far as I remember, unless I missed it somehow.

Haseo's player, Ryou Misaki (三崎亮), is a sophomore student attending a famous private high school. He lives alone in Tokyo, and his dad owns a major company. He visits Shino, who is in a coma, at the hospital everyday. He decided to play The World R:2 after talking to a friend who used to play its previous version, The World. He was once the player behind Sora, but lost all memory of it and The World after being Data Drained by Skeith. Meanwhile his character data continued on as an AI and eventually reunited him as Skeith.

That info above was from a wiki.

in Sign he was 10 years old, in GU he is 17. The datadrain might have fubared his personality since he bascally got his reset button pushed. Which could explain why he acts so diffrently. That info above was from a wiki. I dunno how the reuniting part works, that may had to have happened before GU, as you don't see any char that looks like Sora from Sign in GU that I remember.

As someone above said, I don't think the creator of .hack said they are the same player. Its just that some facts line up and thats what people assume. But considering Ryou bascally got a personality wipe due to what happened in The World, you could technacally say its not the same player as they act totally diffrent.

As for Shino I always figured Haseo must have known her IRL for how obsessed he was with getting her out of that coma. My guess is the person who got him into The World R:2 might have been Shino irl, and then shortly after around the time he got pked, the whole Shino going into a coma thing happened. The time period between where he got pked and when he became a high level pkk was about 8 real life months. I am unsure about what I said here this is just my assumptions, about the whole Shino irl got him into The World R:2.

[Maha.j2]

On that same paragraph, under the Offline section of Haseo's Basic Info, is a picture of Heseo's player and someone calling him "Ryou-san"

[Scyris]

Originally posted by Maha.j2:

On that same paragraph, under the Offline section of Haseo's Basic Info, is a picture of Heseo's player and someone calling him "Ryou-san"

Yes there is. Its from one of the manga's that lead into GU is my guess. You probally see Ryou login to Haseo in The World R:2 at some point. I been trying to find the manga but haven't had luck, though I never really tried too hard lol.

[Kappa Omicron]

Thanks a lot of the info, guys! I am really interested in the lore of .hack// and look forward to experiencing Haseo's story when this game is out. I really appreciate it, I had no idea he was 10 during Sign and is now 17, damn.

[Vance Finiraldi]

Adding to everything, the one piece of .hack media that's been officially translated and actually makes use of the fact that Haseo is Sora is the .hack//GU novelization, which is based off the game's prototype before script changes were made. The final volume of the novel makes a pretty big deal out of making that explicit. So it's definitely not a theory that people came up with out of nowhere.

So if you want a primary source as opposed to secondhand info from people who translated guidebooks or people who heard from them, then there you go. It's a bit of a hard/costly find, though, since the company that published and all other .hack written media at the time, Tokyopop, stopped publishing manga right after they released the volume with the relevant scene, so copies of it are exceedingly rare.

[Loki]

I think other than the Skeith connection, it's pretty much as you said, "They're the same player! Pretty cool, right!?"

Even that doesn't hold up because Shino had an avatar that left her and went to Atoli, so it isn't like Skeith couldn't have found any player he wanted.

It's always felt like a bit of a waste to me. Sure, the age difference could explain why Haseo's such a stick in the mud compared to Sora, but there's nothing really exciting connecting them.

[Kytsurai]

Speculation.

Post the events of R1 when Sora was devoured by skeith, Once the events of Part 4 concluded, Ryou was released from the hospital and likely put under heavy restrictions of his life, As you may can imagine as a boy growing up already in a strict japanese society It likely made his life that much more dreadful having to go to school and come home to no video games Or anything.

[Vintruce]

I found there are pieces of evidence that are sprinkled around where it is alluded to but never directly stated and it would boil down to how the information is interpreted by each person. And most of these come from the games themselves so ill avoid specifics but the cutscene I have in mind where this is strongly suggested was in Vol 3 where Haseo has a conversation with himself. It seems like its Skeith hes talking to but its actually the part of Sora that was taken from Ryou back in //Sign when he was data drained and in a sense, became Skeith. As far as the attitude shift, I think this is best explained by the events that happened in the core games when Kite defeated Skeith that part of Ryou was left behind and since he never returned to The World after those events that part of his personality was left to wander The World(which is where ZERO fits in). There is a great retrospective on youtube by Shinta Reviews that you should check out after you are done with the games. He goes over the back story and lore in fantastic detail and if there is anything you want to know about the lore you will find it there. I hope you enjoy the experience =)

[Voltaire]

The opening theme of the Roots anime also features Haseo with his shadow in the shape of Sora's.

I'll admit, I'm rather disappointed in how the two characters are so different yet are supposed to be the same person. Even if he forgot about playing The World R:1, his personality shouldn't have changed that much (especially when you look at another 10-17 year old character of Wiseman and Yata and he's pretty much the same). Haseo seems less clever or skillful than Sora.

I would have preferred Haseo's player either be someone entirely new, which would match him with Ovan, or if they made the Sora/Haseo connection stronger in explaining what happened to Haseo to make him so different.

[Selphares]

Actually a personality change would not be to big of a surprise, actually up to the age to 24 in some cases a human personality changes a lot over the years. I mean with 10 not even puperty kicked in and that messes up a lot about people. :)

[Loki]

I agree with both of you. Most humans change behavior between 10 and 17 and doubtlessly the strictness of his parents after R1 would have made him bad at socializing, but I feel like the connection between the two is so weak and could have been explored a lot more.

However, I reserve my own final judgement until I get to see that scene with the Sora personality in Last Recode :D

[Maha.j2]

Originally posted by Loki:

However, I reserve my own final judgement until I get to see that scene with the Sora personality in Last Recode :D

Is that a thing confirmed for Part 4?

Or are you mentioning the scene where Haseo speaks with Skeith?

Originally posted by Ayn Randy Savage:

The opening theme of the Roots anime also features Haseo with his shadow in the shape of Sora's.

Gotta admit I've watched this opening like 10 times and I don't see any shadow that looks like Sora. Someone got a screenshot?

[Voltaire]

Originally posted by Selphares:

Actually a personality change would not be to big of a surprise, actually up to the age to 24 in some cases a human personality changes a lot over the years. I mean with 10 not even puperty kicked in and that messes up a lot about people. :)

Like I said, I wouldn't be bothered by it if Haseo didn't seem to have gotten....dumber? Than when he was a kid, if there was some reference to his parents banning him from playing videogames throughout his adolescence or something to justify how clueless he is about even basic mmorpg things, and if the series didn't already have other characters who were also younger but with a much stronger connection with their older selves.

Originally posted by Maha.j2:

Gotta admit I've watched this opening like 10 times and I don't see any shadow that looks like Sora. Someone got a screenshot?

I could be wrong, it might have just been Bee Train being lousy animators (I would love for a new .hack series to be done by a better studio!) but his shadow didn't seem to match up with his body at all. Looked an awful lot like Sora's to me.

[Jazneo]

Skeith are left over data then use to summon a avatar. think people who were in coma got this abitly. in this update world. reason haseo can summon it