Character Contest winners announced + 5/11 blog

[Mike]

And the winner is...

Spoiler!

#18, mw!




For reasons I'm sure most of you will have no idea why, this character was the most popular, taking a third of the vote and will be showing up in game.

Spoiler!

For those of you without any knowledge of current pop-culture in Japan, this character looks strikingly like the large, cross-dressing columnist/TV personality Matsuko Deluxe. Throw that name in to an image search.

If you want to see the other winners, head over to http://www.pso2chara.jp/ and check them out.



Additionally, the official blog was updated. According to the blog, Sega will announce more details on the open beta around the end of May. Additionally, Sakai confirms that the scratch complete sheet found in the closed beta will not be in the game. Sega is removing "complete gachas" from existing games on the 31st and not using them in any further games, which was predictable but is good news anyways. EDIT: Since some people seem to be confused, I'll try to explain a better. Gachas, scratches as they are called in PSO2, will still exist in the game but the system used where you got a prize if you got a certain amount of items from a gacha is being removed. Thus the Rappy suit, which was only available in the closed beta by obtaining 10 or 12 from a scratch, will now be available by some other method.

The blog lists a few stats from the closed beta as well. These were announced during the fan briefing but here they are again:

• Total of around 147,000 client download
• About 131,000 participants
• An average of about 63,000 log ins a day
• A maximum of about 23,500 total simultaneous connections (which was reached on the 21st)

There are also a few pictures listed of the new planet for the open beta: Lillipa (リリーパ). This was also shown during the fan briefing but here are some screenshots.




I believe 4gamer had the ruined city areas labeled as "The Great Wall of China."




And just like Navelius' monsters, Lillipa's machines and the Darkers will be duking it out.


Finally, we get the design pic for the parts that Lisa was wearing in the closed beta. This isn't Lisa's design mind you but the design for her parts. The only characters in the game with special models are Shion and Matoi. All the others are regular models designed with the character creator.

[Blizz3112]

No, for me it was kind of obvious it was portraiting somebody famous in Japan...

[bryanbtje]

We all expected that mw would win. :P

[RocSage]

I think it was rigged. They saw something they liked started with that and then put in a bunch of inferior ones so the one they liked would get picked and they didn't "break" any rules.

[blace]

I know of several games that had this kind of contest, but overall, it was to bring in a celebrity that is known in that region. That's how most contests work, anything to endorse the game further by introducing a famous individual in the region.

[Vent]

I didn't really understand your translation Mike. Do you mean they removed gachas altogether or only prizes for completing gachas?

Also, this seems to suggest that the idea of CBT2 is dropped and they're planning to go into OBT early June.

[CelestialBlade]

That is a pretty impressive character though, celebrity or not

Good to see the numbers from the beta, I wonder what percentage the English-speaking community made up? Probably not anything huge, but I'd be pretty impressed if it was as high as 10%.

[blace]

I didn't really understand your translation Mike. Do you mean they removed gachas altogether or only prizes for completing gachas?

Also, this seems to suggest that the idea of CBT2 is dropped and they're planning to go into OBT early June.

I'm guessing the complete removal of anything gacha based. Which could mean more items available for purchase instead of relying on a random system that can drain your wallet.

[Vashyron]

I didn't really understand your translation Mike. Do you mean they removed gachas altogether or only prizes for completing gachas?

Also, this seems to suggest that the idea of CBT2 is dropped and they're planning to go into OBT early June.

Simply put, the prize from getting everything in the scratch at least once is gone. (So, the scratch still exists but with no completion grand prize.)

Guess they'll now most likely shove their planned completion prizes somewhere else.

I'm guessing the complete removal of anything gacha based. Which could mean more items available for purchase instead of relying on a random system that can drain your wallet.

Nope. Just the completion prize.

(Man I saw that people would get confused at this from a mile away.)

[Mike]

Do you mean they removed gachas altogether or only prizes for completing gachas?

They are only removing the prize you get for getting certain items from a gacha. The gachas/scratches will still be in the game as will the prizes you would have gotten from a completing a collection but there will just be a different way to get them.