Bandai Namco held on June 18 the fourth live stream for Blue Protocol, debriefing on the game's Closed Beta Test from late April. The core staff of the game appeared on stream as usual, and most notably explained how no announcements or schedule reveals would be happening on the stream, or anytime soon for that matter. No new gameplay or features were revealed either.Instead, the Blue Protocol core staff explained how the development team carefully went through feedback received from Closed Beta Test players, and are focusing on improving the game. They explained how nowadays many online games do their Closed Beta Tests right before the Open Beta Tests, and the game's actual launch. As such, some might be expecting an OBT and release date to be announced soon, but it won't be the case. They will take the time the game needs. As such, Blue Protocol's schedule isn't finalized yet, hence why no schedule was announced. It's possible Blue Protocol will get another Closed Beta Test before the Open Beta Test as well.Along with these explanations, the staff also revealed multiple graphs and data from the Closed Beta Test. The development team received around 50,000 entries of feedback for the closed beta. They got a lot of positive feedback, but also received many negative opinions. They read everything and will take everything into account going forward. The staff noted there was a particularly important amount of negative feedback on certain aspects of the game, so they stressed out they strive to improve the game even more.

Blue Protocol Closed Beta Test Report Stream

The players' feedback was very diverse. Data shared included how 59.6% CBT players had the game on the highest graphics configuration. Or how 71.9% CBT players finished the story content.

You can tell there are very varied players, and each player tried out all the classes. The amount of time each of the four Classes was played is nearly even.

However, there is a majority of negative opinions when it comes to certain gameplay aspects. Such as how much time it took players to gather materials for crafting and upgrading equipment and Imagine. 30.8% of players thought the time it took was normal,  However, 40% of players thought it took a bit too much time, and 24.7% of players thought it took too much time. Basically, most players said the CBT was too grindy.

As for the overall gameplay during action battles: 11% found it very good, 24.9% found it so-so good, 25.6 % found it normal, 31.3% found it so-so hard, and 7.2% said it was very hard. The staff explained how overall, the people who voted positively mentioned in the feedback they got used to the game's action battles quickly, while those who voted negatively said they had a lot of trouble adapting to the game's battles. Which makes sense as not every player is particularly good at action games.

Blue Protocol: 42 Frequently Asked Questions and Upcoming Changes

Following that, the stream switched to Frequently Asked Questions. The staff answered 42 questions in total. Most of these were answered in the past and we covered that in our summaries of the previous three streams here, here, and here.

We heard again how the character creation will be improved, and the staff again stressed they will add even more costume parts, accessories, voices, etc later on.

The staff also specified they will implement underwear to choose from too, so those who enjoy that shouldn't be worried.

The lockon system will be improved.

Battles can become too flashy and confusing when there are many players, so they will make it so you can only display specific effects.

Multiple players noted how it's stressful that enemies get knocked back all the time when you attack them at close range. It makes combos and the attacks from long-ranged players easier to miss. The staff will adjust that.

They will improve the UI such as adding the time limit of buffs and debuffs.

Certain buttons in certain menus were also too small and hard to click on. This element of the UI will be improved as well.

Bosses and raid bosses will be improved, so the battles are more strategical.

They'll keep working on the Skills and the Classes' Skill Trees too.

The Imagine system will be improved too. For example, Mount Imagine will stop loosing energy when you're staying still. They'll also add methods to recover a Mount's Energy besides going back to a town.

They'll keep improving the Coliseum and Time Attack too, and try to fix exploits so there are less players cheesing through the ranking.

We'll be able to display our equipped weapon even inside towns.

The loading times for entering towns will be reduced in the future.

The map and mini-map will be improved.

Many players also asked for a mini-map inside dungeons. The developers explained they purposefully didn't put one because it doesn't fit their conception of a dungeon. However, they will consider adding one now.

The staff acknowledged the Matching system in the Closed Beta Test was very unstable, so it will be improved.

They'll improve the experience of players playing with controllers, and add better button mapping options.

The Follow and Followers system, basically the friendslist system, will be improved.

A wishlist-like system will be added so it's easy to tell what you are hunting for and which equips do you currently aim to craft or upgrade.

The Ability system will be reworked and improved too. Crafting difficulty will change too. In the CBT Crafting was hard from the start. Now, It'll be easier at first, and gradually get harder.

Last but not least, the Blue Protocol core staff also acknowledged bag space is pretty small, and how annoying it is to go back to town all the time because you can't carry any more loot. They received a massive amount of negative feedback on that aspect of the game alone. So they are trying to find ways to make it less stressful for players, while analyzing the CBT data. One idea they are considering is being able to send specific items to storage without going back to town.

They will review and adjust the bag's initial capacity. However, the maximum amount of identical items you can stack on one slot will not be increased. Moreover, they are planning to add in-game bag upgrades, unlockable through gameplay. They stressed out players won't be able to buy bag space with real money, and they will never add this sort of pay-to-win stuff.

They also stressed out they knew the bag size was probably too small during CBT, but purposefully didn't talk about it before Test, as if they did, players wouldn't have sent as much feedback regarding that. The bag being small was also a way to force players to regularly move zones between dungeons and the town during the CBT, in order to test the game's flow, servers, etc.

As explained in the tweet above, a more detailed report of the Closed Beta Test will be published later on June 19 on the game's official site. If time permits, I'll be there to translate additional details we learn from it.

As the stream ended, the Blue Protocol staff said to keep your eyes on the game's Twitter, that the game's development is still going well, and that they'll have new announcements coming when they're ready. They acknowledged certain players are disappointed we still haven't heard of an Open Beta Test, but they will only announce it when it's ready.  The team wishes to make the best game possible.

Blue Protocol was only announced on PC for now. However, guessing from job listings, it's also possible Blue Protocol will come to PS5 and Xbox Series X.  The staff also already mentioned they are thinking about releasing the game outside Japan, but for now are focusing on development and the Beta Tests.

Update: The Blue Protocol official site was updated with the Closed Beta Test report. After skimming through it, it looks like I haven't missed anything important through the stream, so no changes were made to this article. Except a few corrections regarding the bag size problem. If you understand Japanese and want even the tiniest bit of details, be sure to check the official report.