Free Fire Character Hayato In Real Life: What Inspired Garena To Create This Character?

Hayato has become one of the most popular characters in Free Fire, ever since he was released a year ago, on March 20, 2019. The reason behind his popularity is probably cool appearance, strong skill, and dark backstory. As a lot of Free Fire character was based on real-life people, have you ever wondered who Hayato was based on? In this article, we would answer the question of Free Fire Character Hayato In Real Life, along with an analysis of the character’s skill and backstory.

1 - Hayato’s backstory and design

Hayato is a 20 years old male, with a birthday of Mar 21 (which is the exact day he was released in-game, weirdly enough). The guy was the only inheritor of a legendary family of Samurai - carrying on his back the family curse. This is one of Hayato’s darkest secrets that he never revealed to anyone.

His full name is Shimada Hayato - the curse of the Shimada family has been going on for generations upon generations, with the souls of clan members getting sold to the demons in exchange for power. In Hayato, the power manifested in his ability “Bushido”, which give him extra armor-piercing for the amount of HP he lost.

The drawback of the curse is the loss of Sanity - the Shimada family members would become homicidal maniacs if they active their power. It can also activate randomly therefore very hard to control. Hayato’s demon manifested in Free Fire as the Blood Demon Set.

2 - How did Hayato get drawn into Free Fire?

After Hayato’s father’s duel with his demon-possessed identical twin brother, the Shimada family was scattered all over the world. Hayato was sent to live with Kelly’s family - who is actually his cousin, Shimada Kiriko.

After Kelly was kidnapped by Paloma and brought to Bermuda, Hayato chased after her and get into the fight, probably to save Kelly and bring her back.

3 - How does Hayato’s ability relate to his backstory?

Being members of the Shimada family, both Kelly and Hayato has their special "awakened" form. However, Kelly's awakened form is actually the activation of her demon power, while Hayato's demon power is constantly activated from the start. Hayato's ability is named Bushido, which is actually pretty ironic, as it is the code of ancient and honorable Samurais - the complete opposite of "battle maniac demon-possessed" mode.

Hayato's second form is Firebrand, which comes with an ability called Art of blades - which reduces all damage taken on the front. The theme of this ability is actually pretty appropriate, as it is canceled if you fire a ranged weapon - only melee weapons are allowed. This is pretty appropriate, as Hayato always carries a Katana, and the Katana is the symbol of a samurai.  About the "damage taken from the front": this might be a reference to the "never retreat" policy of samurais, as taking a hit on the back is dishonorable - it means you are running from the fight.

The Firebrand form might be Hayato's final decision to discard his demon power and return to his roots - an honorable Samurai.

4 - Free Fire Hayato Character in Real Life?

Actually, Hayato was not based on any specific real-life character, unlike Alok, Luqueta, Jota...and the like. The character design for Hayato was a mishmash of elements or "Tropes" taken from the usual "Japanese Samurai" story and their modern interpretations. The normal Hayato is a fallen samurai, who is struggling with his family's demonic power with his "awakened" form being the guy's decision to rely on his own power and ability with the blade and not someone else's.

His appearance is super stylish - almost like an anime character. The guy wears an open jacket with his left arm covered in armor - as Hayato uses his sword with that arm, we can safely guess that it is his dominant arm. The last detail about his design is the samurai-style hairdo at the back of his head.

5 - How to use Hayato's skill?

Hayato's Bushido skill gives 10% armor penetration for every 10% HP loss, which means he would have a maximum of 90% armor penetration at 20 HP. This makes the character super strong at 1 vs 1 fight - or "Duel", pretty appropriate for a samurai.

His ability is also pretty useful if you are using a long-ranged snipe weapon as well - you can keep your HP low without any fear - the range alone might prevent you from getting hit. Miguel, Awakened Kelly, Laura or Antonio have the best skills to pair up with Hayato's.

Interested in more of our article related to Garena Free Fire? Please check out this post to find out more about the 5 unique facts about the Kalahari map.