Swayzak

"I know you guys really like the PlayStation, but you don't think about the slogan, greatness awaits."

- Swayzak

Swayzak (unofficial name, referred to in the manual simply as hacker) is the protagonist of Rez. He's a virus that infects Eden and K-Project is at risk of being shut down. He later goes back to reboot Eden in order to reveal the true being at her core. Swayzak is equipped with the Lock-On Laser, as well as the power of Overdrive.

Swayzak has seven forms that can be achieved through downloading Progress and Bonus Nodes. If hit by a projectile, he immediately downgrades to the form below.

Swayzak is voiced by Troy Baker.

Biography
Swayzak was created by a young female hacker, presumably named "Olga" as the virus refers to an "Olga" many times. Swayzak was initially created for a school project, but soon he developed sentience and turned to causing chaos and destruction for fun, usually only in small systems like home computers, and a robot belonging to one of Olga's schoolmates. Swayzak always dreamed of being something more than what he was at the time, which is why he attacked Lumi and Eden.

Child of Eden
Fans suspect Swayzak to be the large, powerful Virus who attacked Lumi. The reason why he did it is theorized to be as part of a self-proclaimed espionage mission (in the Rez fanon, Swayzak is usually portrayed as a sarcastic, fourth wall breaking character.) One can assume he's trying to be like his idol, Solid Snake.

Rez
In attempt to bring mass attention to him and prove he is all powerful, Swayzak carries out one of his most diabolical plans yet: infecting the super AI at the center of the K-Project computer network, Eden. Doing so, however, results in Eden doubting her existence and purpose and ultimately shutting down, as she finds she cannot cope with humanity or the paradoxes which surround her. Swayzak is mortified and undergoes a change of heart as he sets out to reboot Eden, battling the K-Project mainframe's defense systems along the way, so he can reveal the true being at her core. After being freed, Eden thanks Swayzak and rewards him by cleansing him, which makes him a good program. She later sends him on a mission into the K-Project's Lost Area to retrieve some forgotten information and invites him to Area X so they can experience the beauty of life together. Swayzak eventually realizes his true purpose, too, as he tasks himself with the Trance Mission.

PlayStation All-Stars
In this idea by Konnichiku for a promotional series, it's been a year after Rez took place and Swayzak is enjoying assisting Eden in the K-Project. However, their peace is interrupted by a gargantuan alien force named the Yexxens, intending to destroy humanity unless they sell their souls to them. Since they have powers beyond any normal army's defenses, Swayzak decides to assemble a team of heroes from a variety of worlds to combat the aliens. Meanwhile, Swayzak has trouble adjusting to his "good program" behavior, and displays frequent bouts of reverting back to his maliscious viral nature, including apathy for his fellow team members, and is forced to get his act together or risk the disbandment of the team. Swayzak also has to deal with how people view him, as he's much more known for infecting Eden than disinfecting him, leading him to undergo an existential crisis just like what happened to Eden. With no hope left, Swayzak heads to his creator Olga, who fixes his morality, and he eventually gets the team back together.

Personality
(Note: take this with a grain of salt. No two ideas are the same. This is the wiki for this/my version of the Rez lore. Read the Rez Wiki at rez.fandom.com for the official canon.)

Swayzak infects Eden to prove he's powerful, but later regrets it as his actions led to Eden's shutdown. This means Swayzak is egoistical but with a morality. Swayzak's personality actually a bit similar to Rez from the Gex series (which is funny as the game is named Rez.) So Swayzak is a snarky braggart who has a penchant for breaking the fourth wall and at times can be a pastiche of old comic book villains, like the Silver Age Sinestro. Swayzak is also pretty well-versed in pop culture, occasionally spouting a reference or two. He especially loves '90s and early '00s culture. Another thing to note about Swayzak is when he gets particularly excited, he often tends to glitch out.

However, Swayzak does have his limits, and is mortified when Eden threatens to shut down, meaning he's good inside. And because of his heart of gold, Eden cleanses him and he turns into a good program; however, during the events of Tetris Effect, Swayzak returns to hacking into systems, but it is unknown if the system belonged to a criminal organization or not, though. Another time Swayzak's goodness shows is when the VR Force threatens to go their own ways after he demonstrates abnormal amounts of carelessness during missions; Swayzak was just having trouble adjusting to his "good program" behavior.

Swayzak is a big fan of Solid Snake, and was overjoyed to have him as his combat advisor. The relationship between Swayzak and Snake is like that of Moltar and Erik Estrada; however, Swayzak does care for Snake's well-being, and takes it upon himself to save his life in "Intravenous Super Highway."

Trivia

 * Form one of Swayzak is the appearance used for promotional imagery for Rez.
 * A bonus form of Swayzak is a Morolian from Space Channel 5: Part 2 (sound effects for which can be found in the files of this game if you hack it), possibly as a homage as they were made by the same creator, Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
 * There's several different interpretations of what happens to Swayzak at the end of Rez; but the one gone with on this wiki is that Eden cleanses him to become a good program after being rescued.
 * The name Swayzak is unofficial and comes from the Toonami block on Cartoon Network. A virus character by the name of Swayzak, from a 2002 event called Trapped in Hyperspace, made a cameo in Toonami's review of Rez. A confused fan edited Wikipedia and the Rez wikis thinking he was actually canon in the Rez universe, which led to several reviewers including the name in their reviews of Rez Infinite. It's too late now to correct their mistakes, so Swayzak is a nickname of sorts.
 * For a while, there was another Sega character with this nickname. The Sega Saturn commercials in the US included three where the PlayStation and Nintendo got bashed by a deep, robotic voice (Phil LaMarr) resembling the Toonami character Swayzak's voice when he appeared in the Trapped in Hyperspace event (in the Rez review, he had a higher pitched voice reminiscent of that of Sinestro from Injustice: Gods Among Us, which Troy Baker used for Swayzak in PlayStation All-Stars) so the voice in the Sega Saturn commercials has been dubbed "Swayzak" by Sega fans who are also Toonami fans, but was eventually renamed "Cronus" to avoid confusion.
 * Even though he restarts Eden, fans suspect Swayzak is a generally malign character due to where his nickname came from. However, if we are to go with the good program theory above, this is not the case.
 * This wiki's storyline for Tetris Effect sees Swayzak infect a variety of computer systems, so it's possible he couldn't resist having fun like he used to once in a while. However, it could be a mission he received from Eden to fight the amount of crime in the world.
 * Forms five and six of Swayzak are strikingly similar to how Biblical angels appeared in real life. This could connect to how Eden calls Swayzak her "savior," and how his attitude changed over the course of his journey.
 * Swayzak was the inspiration for Trevor Stanley from DC Triumph, Konnichiku's DC series pitch. Here, Trevor is Eden Rhodes' ex-boyfriend and an enemy of Simon Yates.