MEGA DRIVE FAN LUNAR: THE SILVER STAR PRERELEASE CHARACTER CONTEST POLL RESULTS
 
[The following brief article was printed in the August 1992 issue of Mega Drive Fan.  It describes the
results of a Lunar: The Silver Star character popularity poll printed in the June 1992 issue.
The cutoff date for poll entries was May 15.  TSS was released in Japan in late June.  Therefore, as
referenced in the article itself, this poll was conducted before any readers had actually played the 
game.  For what purpose, other than to distribute Lunar-related prizes?  ...Who knows. 
Readers were given headshots and single-sentence descriptions of the characters listed below, then asked
to vote by distributing 10 points to whatever characters they liked as they saw fit.  (In other words,
they could give 10 points to one character, give 10 characters one point each, etc.)  The character 
descriptions are quite prosaic, though Pilya/Fresca's description as a "mistress of the whip, with a 
fiery temper" may account for her strong showing here.
As this poll is short, I'll use the Western names for convenience.]

LUNAR SPECIAL FEATURE:
CHARACTER CONTEST  -
THE CONCLUSION!!
With votes from the readers, Game Arts, and Studio Alex

WINNER: LUNA (1084 pts.)
Cute, kind, and a good singer...with just a little bit of a jealous streak: the perfect heroine. Luhna 
is our contest winner! Her voice actress, Kikuko Inoue, commented: "I'm thrilled."

2ND: MIA (901 pts.)
The runner-up is Mia, recognized as the game's #1 princess.  She vied with Luhna for the top spot right 
until the very end.

3RD: ALEX (528 pts.)
In 3rd place, Alex attracted a wide base of support from both males and females. But then, you'd expect 
the hero to have a strong showing, wouldn't you?!

4TH: JESSICA (475 pts.)
Despite her mannish character, Jessica sure racked up the votes.  Her father, on the other hand...

5TH: NALL (405 pts.)
Naturally, the mascot character got more votes from females than any other character.

THE HEROINE LUNA AND THE OTHER GIRLS DOMINATE THE CHARTS!
The June issue of Megadrive Fan put out a call for votes in the Lunar character contest.  We ultimately 
asked for votes from the development side, too: from everyone at Game Arts and Studio Alex.  As a 
result, the heroine Luna took the crown  -  and the female characters dominated the top of the chart.  
Only natural, if you consider that most of the voters were male.  Alex, did however, manage to capture 
a solid 3rd place despite his gender; of course, the hero _would_ have a strong showing.  All by himself 
down in last place is Admiral Mel.  Probably because some joke votes went to the real last place (?) 
characters, Quark and the Magic Emperor.  The game's finally out: what do you think of the characters 
now that you've actually seen them?  Compare your thoughts with the contest results.

[Caption on Kyle from opening] Besides Nall, Tempest and Kyle split the female vote.

WHO ARE THE FAVES OF LUNAR'S DEVELOPERS?

Now, let's take a look at some of the comments from the developers of Lunar at Game Arts and Studio 
Alex who were kind enough to participate in our contest.  By the way, the character who won the most 
votes from the developers was  -  Ghaleon!?

GAME ARTS:

[Satoshi] Uesaka, Chief, Development Team #1
Favorite Character: Laike
Reason: Ignore the elderly at your peril!  He's a tough old man, but he's got style, doesn't he?

[Hajime?] Satou, Development Team #1
Favorite Character: Ghaleon
Reason: He's just a nice guy, I guess.
[Note: This is most probably the illustrator, but there is also an Akiko Satou listed on the TSS dev
team.]

[Azumi] Masatoshi, Development Team #1
Favorite Character: Xenobia
Reason: I put the most effort into drawing her graphics.

STUDIO ALEX:

[Kazunari] Toshi, Programmer
Favorite Character: Tempest
Reason: I want to get engaged like him while I'm still young.

[Takeshi] Hino, Scenario Writer
Favorite Character: Nall
Reason: He was the most helpful when I was writing the plot. "Good ol' Nall; always there when I need 
him!!"

[Kei] Shigema, Scenario Writer
Favorite Character: Mia
Reason: She's got a big chest (laughs).

6TH PLACE & BELOW:

6th: Fresca (365 pts.)
7th: Tempest (209 pts.)
8th: Kyle (186 pts.)
9th: Ghaleon (162 pts.)
10th: Magic Emperor (143 pts.)
11th: Xenobia (123 pts.)
12th: Quark (117 pts.)
13th: Ramus (105 pts.)
14th: Nash (95 pts.)
15th: Laike (75 pts.)
16th: Lemia (70 pts.)
17th: Mel (33 pts.)

********

Translation by R. Capowski, 1/25/2019; this translation is not authorized.