Ryo's Appearance in WonderSwan Games
WonderSwan was a handheld game console released in Japan by Bandai, Japanese toy manufacturer. It was released in 1999 and would last until 2003, never to be released overseas. The console could be played vertically or horizontally, depending on the game - Digimon games were all played horizontally - and had an option of connecting two of them via cable for multiplayer action. This feature is obviously lost to us that played the game(s) on an emulator. With the right add-on gadgets WonderSwan could also connect to various Digivices on the market.
Ryo is the main character in four RPG-type WonderSwan games (although you also play as Ken in Tag Tamers), starting with Anode/Cathode Tamer and advancing his (and later Cyberdramon's) story until Brave Tamer.
Digimon producer Hiromi Seki and Digimon Tamers' story developer Chiaki Konaka both confirmed that WonderSwan Ryo and Digimon Tamers Ryo are one and the same person:
They are the same person. Simply put, Ryo was flown beyond space-time as soon as he defeated Millenniumon in D-1 Tamers, and he lost his memory. And this is why he encountered Takato and the others (Hiromi Seki commenting for the 2002 issue of V Jump magazine).
Even before I had joined the Digimon Tamers team, there was a character that had already been destined to appear in the third season of Digimon. This was Ryo, the main character of the WonderSwan Digimon game. As Ryo was a very popular character in Japan, the plan was to draw him into the TV series, as well (excerpt from Chiaki Konaka's character notes).
- Anode/Cathode Tamer -
- Tag Tamers -
- D-1 Tamers -
- Brave Tamer -