The Let's Play Archive

.hack (Series)

by DoubleNegative

Part 61: Character List

//Character List (Listed by order encountered.)

Kite: A new player to "The World." He is a Twin Blade character class with light blue hair and is fairly short. He is the main character for the first four games in the series, and is thankfully not a silent protagonist. Always polite and friendly to anybody, he is quite easy to get along with.

The player behind Kite is a 14 year old middle school student that enjoys playing soccer.

Voice Actor: Mona Marshall (South Park, lots of anime)

Orca: An experienced player of "The World" who has been playing since the early days of Fragment. (The beta version of "The World.") He is a Blademaster character class, wearing very little armor and carrying a large sword. He is one of the two legendary "Descendants of Fianna," known as "Orca, of the Azure Sea." The title was gifted to him for being one of the players to defeat the unbeatable boss, The One Sin.

All that is known about Orca's player is that he is named "Yasuhiko" and that he is in a deep coma.

Voice Actor: Kirk Thornton (Naruto, Kingdom Hearts series)

BlackRose: Like Kite, she is also a new player to "The World." She is a Heavy Blade character class, and is very loud. She is quick to add her thoughts to any discussion going on, and is easily the most confrontational out of everyone Kite meets. She seems to have a personal stake in the goings ons in "The World."

Behind the character, BlackRose is played by a teenage girl named Akira Hayami. She enjoys playing tennis more than anything else, and has two brothers: Fumikazu and Kouta.

Voice Actor: Wendee Lee (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, various other anime)

Balmung: Balmung is a legendary player in "The World." He is the other half of the "Descendants of Fianna," known as "Balmung, of the Azure Sky." He dealt the killing blow to an unbeatable boss and was rewarded with a cosmetic change for his character. That is where he got his trademark wings. He basically defines the term "White Knight" and all that it entails. Like Orca, he has been playing since Fragment.

Not very much is known about Balmung's player.

Voice Actors: Doug Erholtz (Official VA of Squall Leonhart, Bleach) (Voice of Balmung during Infection)
Crispin Freeman (Lots of Roles) (Voice of Balmung for the rest of the series.)

Helba: Not very much is known about Helba. She is an infamous hacker and... that's about it. She always seems to show up when something big is going down, and always knows far more than she lets on. She seems to have taken a liking to Kite.

Nothing is known about the person that controls Helba. They are obviously a skilled hacker, and they seem to have a vast number of resources at their disposal.

Voice Actor: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Lots of Roles)

Mistral: Mistral is an item collector - she wants to collect at least one of every item in "The World." She ran into Kite in the dungeon of Δ Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand. There, she saw him use Data Drain on a bug, and thought it was a pretty cool skill. She's a bit of an airhead at times, but is a solid addition to Kite's team. She is a very bubbly individual, always using some form of smilie to show just how she feels at any given moment.

Offline, Mistral is played by a young woman named Mayumi Kurokawa. One of her favorite things to do is cook, and she has exchanged many e-mails with Kite about cooking and shopping for cooking supplies. She claims to get the best deals when she buys food because she haggles the prices down.

Voice Actor: Sandy Fox (Akira, Love Hina, Trigun)

Mia: Mia is a very mysterious character in the game. She's the only PC in "The World" that looks like an anthromorphic cat. This makes her an accomplished hacker, because character modification is quite illegal. She's the only Blademaster that joins Kite's party for a long time, as well. She is never far from her companion Elk, and has a fondness for Armoatic Grass. Despite being pretty blunt and no-nonsense most of the time, she is also an expert Troll and enjoys torturing Piros.

Absolutely nothing is known about the player behind Mia.

Voice Actor: Debra Rogers (Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Zone of the Enders)

Elk: Elk looks almost exactly like Tsukasa from .hack//Sign, making him a Wavemaster. He can always be found with Mia, and she is probably his only friend in the game. This makes him pretty fiercely protective of her, and he has been known to be outright cruel to people who he believes to be drawing her attention away. He's pretty insecure, always stammering when talking to others.

The player behind Elk is a middle school student named Kaoru Ichinose. He's a little younger than Kite, at 13.

Voice Actor: Brianne Siddall (Bleach, Xenosaga series, .hack//Sign)

Piros: Piros is the comic relief. He plays a Heavy Axeman character and seems to always be role playing himself as a great hero in "The World." He has a unique character design among all other male Heavy Axemen in the game - his PC doesn't have a helmet.

The player behind Piros is named Hiroshi Matsuyama. He's in his early thirties and works as a programer for a large company. He has a love of strange food.

Voice Actor: Daran Norris (Fairly Odd Parents, Lots of other roles)

Natsume: Natsume is another Twin Blade. Kite first met her when she posted on the forums about looking for the Spiral Edge. She's a bit naive, and is really down on herself. Despite that, she's very energetic and gives 100% to anything she does.

Offline, Natsume is played by... Natsume Oguro. She's a 15 year old librarian, and (though she doesn't realize it at first) she knows Kite's player in real life.

Voice Actor: Lia Sargent (Xenosaga series, Star Ocean 3, Cowboy Bebop)

Sanjuro: Sanjuro is a Heavy Blade, like BlackRose. He looks similar to a Ronin, or a wandering Samurai. He has an eye patch, and uses Katana-type weapons exclusively. He really hates PKers, and views himself as a wandering hero.

Sanjuro's player is actually a Japanese teacher from South Dakota. He plays on the Japanese servers to improve his skill in the language, by playing with those who are fluent in it. He is a huge fan of Samurai films starring Toshior Mifune. The character's name came from "The Hidden Fortress."

Voice Actor: Steven Jay Blum (Every Role Ever)

Gardenia: For some reason, Gardenia has a fan club. The first introduction we get to the character is through her fanclub circlejerking each other on the forums. She finds the club annoying, and the only reason she joins with Kite is because he's both persistent, and not a member of the fan club.

The player behind Gardenia is a High School senior, and president of the Naginata Club. She loves flowers, which explains her name.

Voice Actor: Carolyn Hennesy (General Hospital, Dawson's Creek, Click)

Lios: Lios is the head system administrator for "The World's" Japanese servers. The "power-up" books that Kite received during Infection were his doing. He had hoped to silently delete Kite's character data through them. He is something of a grouch, but his heart is in the right place ultimately.

Head SysAdmin for "The World" is both who he is in the game and real life. It's his job, after all!

Voice Actor: Bob Papenbrook (Suikoden V, Digimon, many other video games)

Nuke Usagimaru: Nuke wants to become a stand up comedian. He is the host of an internet show where he provides running commentary over battles. He likes Kite because he sees him as the ultimate straight man to his comedy act.

Nuke is much the same offline as he is online. Fun fact - he and Rachel actually successfully become stand up comedians by the time the GU trilogy rolls around.

Voice Actor: Derek Stephen Prince (Kingdom Hearts series, Bleach, Naruto, Xenosaga Series)

Rachel: Rachel is a very greedy lady. She's always chasing after some idea or another to make her a lot of money in the game. Every couple weeks, she posts a new message on the Boards with a new service she's started.

Offline, Rachel is a 19 year old "freelancer," as she calls herself. She wants to become an Editor-in-Chief of something. It doesn't matter what she's EIC of, she just wants that title. She's also Nuke's editor by e-mail.

Voice Actress: Julie Ann Taylor (Akira, Patlabor, Nier)

Moonstone: He's a silent, brooding loner hero who speaks in short often... ellipsis... filled... sentences. He seems to chase after moon-themed items. He likes Kite because Kite is strong.

Offline, Moonstone is obsessed with working out. He has a pretty intense list of exercises her performs morning, noon, and night. He made friends with a little puppy while out jogging.

Voice Actor: Lex Lang (Agents of SHIELD, Mass Effect series, Digimon)

Marlo: You remember that kid in High School who wore black leather, played with a lighter, and carved symbols into his arm with a paperclip? That's Marlo. He's constantly negative, he's a bastard to the few friends he has, and fashions himself as a brooding anti-hero.

Offline, Marlo's player is a 17 year old who drinks beer and refers to himself as a loner. That should tell you all you need to know about him.

Voice Actor: Robert Martin Klein (Suikoden IV, Digimon, Leap Frog Educational Products)

Wiseman: Wiseman fancies himself as an information and item broker. He's an excellent strategist and something of a modest hacker.

Offline, Wiseman is a 10 year old kid. He hates carrots for no particular reason and plays Digimon Card Battles. He also enjoys playing soccer.

Voice Actor: Steven Jay Blum (Every Role Ever)

Terajima Ryoko: Where to begin with Ryoko? She's very polite and formal, but can be very territorial if she wants something. Kite is her only male friend.

Offline, Ryoko is a rich heiress. She attends an exclusive private all-girls school that sends its students to Hawaii for a field trip. Her father is also a very controlling man who once black bagged a boy for expressing interest in his daughter.

Voice Actress: Julie Maddalena (Monster High movies, Love Hina, Star Ocean 3)

//Character Class Descriptions (courtesy of berryjon)

Twin Blade
Wave Master