::UPDATE:: The new trailer shows Mega Man as he appears in Design B, but ultimately he will look like the design you helped pick. 

Poll time, guys! The Dev team has been debating over the design for the blue boy himself, and they need you to give your input on which one you think is the best fit for this project.

Just vote for the one you like in the poll above: Design A, B, or C. As a bonus, leave comments in this post for a chance to be selected for a prize! We'll select three people to receive a prize, and. . . . depending on how many Facebook and Twitter shares this post gets, the size of the prize will increase! So click those Tweet and Facebook buttons, friends!

Voting Period is now until Monday, 4/25 at 5:00 p.m. (PST). Design details and notes from Art Director Ishihara-san after the jump!

From Ishihara-san In the wild world of game production, we usually come up with multiple ideas for a design--candidates, if you will--debate over them amongst the team, and then eventually make a final decision. I think you'll find that in today's case, all three designs fit in with the look and feel of the game (though you may be a bit surprised by Design C), but we have to consider many things: Who is our target audience? What kind of impression do we want this character to give? Which design makes us happy (this may not be a top priority, but it is important!)?

Now, seeing as we're here to show you the realities of game production, I thought it'd be good to let you in on a subject where, in all actuality, our opinions have divided. Such is the case with this Mega Man design, so please lend us your thoughts!

Well, in all honesty, the designs aren't all that different from one another, and some of you may be like, "Eh, any of them are fine," (hah), but even input like that is fine by me. Just participate!

Design Notes

Design A (Legends 2)

This is simply the design from MML2. Surely this is a familiar site to those of you who have played through the series. As a candidate, this design gives players something they already know and feel comfortable with. Granted this was a design created to suit the hardware of MML2, but if you think of that as part of the look and feel of the franchise, then it could still fly on a modern system. 

Design B (Detailed Design)

By increasing the "density" of information provided in the design, we allow for more definition in Mega Man's mech-like body parts. More indentations and protrusions have been added to the many straight lines in his design, and his color scheme has been brightened up a bit.

The objective of this design was to create something that wasn't TOO different from Mega Man's look in the previous titles, while still providing a more up-to-date take on the character, so that people viewing him for the first time with no outside reference will find him appealing.

Notes

-His hip/thigh joints are spherical, but mostly covered.

-Leggings are bulkier

Design C (Armored Design)

This design is based on Design B, but looks more like a regular human being who's wearing armor. The reason we came up with this was because some of the team members felt that Design B's "underwear-like pants" were uncool, and that the whole robot look was too old-fashioned.

We actually weren't thinking of EXE or Star Force when we came up with this. We just thought it would give more of a swift, agile impression to Mega Man. One thing we have to keep in mind, though, is that this is a character who can exchange parts of his body. We wonder if this design works within the capacity of that element.

Notes

-Shoulders, mid-section, and fingers are human-like

On Designs from Mega Man Legends 1 and 2

 Mega Man Legends 1

Based on the blue hero's simple image from the NES days, this design added a slightly segmented look to give sort of a mech-like feel. Unlike previous Mega Men, this one was helmetless by default. The helmet was, by all means, just for digging. 

Mega Man Legends 2

This design added an orange backpack since you were often looking at his back, thanks to the game's camera angle. More details were added all-around on his arms in legs as well.

::Update:: Art Director Ishihara-san has also provided a few notes about characters in the world of Mega Man Legends.

The people of this world are fundamentally organic beings made of flesh, but are able to replace their regular body parts with "mecha" (mechanical) implants. That's not to say that everybody goes around getting their bodies mech'd up. This is mostly reserved for the attachment of weapons or bodily upgrades to aid those involved in ruin exploration or combat. These enhancements can range from simple arm replacements to full-body overhauls. There are also cases where implants are used to repair grievous injuries.

In Mega Man's case, his body has been almost entirely exchanged for the sake of carrying out full-scale digs in the ruins. We aren't planning to delve into this discussion too in-depth in the story (as of now, anyway), but I do feel it might give you a significant context for the sake of this Suit Design vote, so I'll also add these notes to the vote post.

Now get to voting already!!!