Final Fantasy Artists NFT Collection, Successful Android Beta Tests and New Features in GensoKishi Online: Exclusive Interview

Recently, I had a conversation with GensoKishi Online CEO Maxi Kuan. We talked about GENSO updates and future plans, including the official release date, and the upcoming NFT collection created by renowned Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano. If you missed our previous interviews where we discussed GENSO gameplay in detail, you can check them out here and here.

U.Today: Three months have passed since the last interview, and I can see that there have been quite a few updates on GensoKishi since then. Can you name the most important ones?

Maxi Kuan: Yes, we released the closed alpha and now the closed beta is coming to an end. With open beta coming on September 5th, anyone can play GENSO in open beta testing with just your social media ID. No NFT tickets are required. This is a great start.

Before open beta, we’ve had some big updates over the past three months. MV listed on Kraken, both the global and Japanese stock exchanges. This is a record for Japan – we achieved the fastest listing record on a Japanese CEX in seven months, when it usually takes more than a year.

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We announced an NFT collaboration with Yoshitaka Amano, who is the most famous artist in the gaming world for designing characters in the Final Fantasy series. This is the hottest topic around GENSO recently. The official release date is postponed to November 2022. This was a big announcement, that we decided to combine the Metaverse scheme with cryptocurrency in GensoKishi to perfectly fit the Japanese market, in accordance with NFT and crypto-legal conditions. We really hope this will be the flagship project, so we’ve delayed the release to make some improvements instead of just releasing it as is, for short-term profit, which is not our goal.

We have an Android test version out: now you can play the closed beta with an NFT ticket in your Metamask wallet, on your own Android device! This is the most exciting thing this month – as you know, games today are mostly run on smartphones, not PCs. This is exactly what we’ve aimed for from the very beginning: to play games and engage with the Metaverse anywhere on the Web3.

U.Today: How is the closed beta testing going for Android users? How many users do you have there? When should we be ready for the official release?

Maxi Kuan: Yes, as mentioned above, the Android version release was exciting. Our community has been waiting for the smartphone version for a long time and we made it on Android first. In the past, for GameFi projects or Metaverse projects, few people made a real application for the project. Now we are proud to say that you can have real gaming experience on your smartphone and you will hardly know that it is a Web3 game.

So far we have 300,000 people in our community and DAU on closed alpha and beta is in the range of 800-2000 people. The closed beta will end on August 31st, and next is the open beta, where anyone can easily download the GensoKishi app from the Google Play Store and get started.

As for the official release date, we moved it to November 2022. We have been working as hard as we can to make it better.

U.Today: You are working on a new collection of NFTs created by Yoshitaka Amano, who is known above all for his artwork for Final Fantasy. Can you tell us about this collection?

Maxi Kuan: Yes, he is the great character designer of Final Fantasy, Master Yoshitaka Amano. He has always been my favorite artist since I first played the Final Fantasy series. He has designed so many masterpiece characters. The atmosphere in Amano’s world is truly unique, which is why we did our utmost to make the collaboration come true. As for Yoshitaka Amano’s NFT collection at GensoKishi, he specially designed 20 characters (equipment) for us, including Dark Knight, Dragon Knight, Dancer and Bishop in male and female versions. We are using a generative style for this NFT collection and there will be 11,000 items, divided into eight parts for each character so that the combinations are full of variety. The rarity level of GensoKishi is super rare and we plan to do the public sale at the end of September, with a whitelist campaign running now. The whitelist sale will come after the public sale, with a fixed price of 400 USDT in FCFS (First Come First Serve) style. We believe this will be a very popular NFT for all players and NFT collectors.

A surprise for this collection is that there will be 10 NFTs in the exact same combinations as the ones Yoshitaka Amano made, signifying the completion of the character. These perfects will be completely different from the generative ones, and the rarities will vary. People who buy these randomly surprising NFTs will be super lucky.

U.Today: You mentioned that several major exchanges listed the $MV token. What about your in-game token, $ROND? Are there any listings planned?

Maxi Kuan: Yes, of course, currently the listing is under negotiation and will be announced soon. $ROND will be the base currency used in the GENSO Metaverse, and not only in GENSO, but with other possibilities in the multi-Metaverse. We had a whitelist campaign for $ROND and bet dApps to bet MV to earn $ROND. The whole community is just waiting for the good news about $ROND.

U.Today: Where can players buy game items? Can you tell us about the mall and museum of NFT art?

Maxi Kuan: For now, you can buy all goods (NFT) on OpenSea, and as you mentioned, we are going to have a mall and museum of art (NFT).

As for the mall, there are 3D shops built in the Elrond Shopping Area (the street in the castle). Users can go to this area and see what services our customers’ stores offer there. For example, there are game guild partner stores; you can talk to the NPC in front of their shop and browse the options including visiting the official website or doing some Web3 transactions in the future. Potential partners will be EC, NFT providers, Web3 companies and IPs. There is a large shopping center and several areas are under construction.
There will also be a museum for the exhibition of NFT art. You have to pay a small fee to enter the museum to see the limited NFT shows. There are currently legendary NFTs (replicas) we had in the 1st and 2nd auctions. In the near future, we will have sponsored partners’ NFTs, with some limited promotions and even auctions.

U.Today: What are the hardest and most exciting parts of the project for you?

Maxi Kuan: The hardest part is the Web2 to Web3 evolution in the team. We are a game-based team with many Web3 and blockchain mentors and advisors. The whole system is so big that we always have to consider how to solve problems in a Web3 way or a Web2 way, which I call Web2.5. In the beginning, you have to be centralized when you build something, otherwise there is nothing to be “decentralized”. But for the community it has to be DAO and, of course, decentralized. We work together with the community, and ultimately the community will “make” the future of GENSO. It’s a learning process and I think we do our best as we go through it.

And now for the most exciting part, the delivery of our product: GENSO Metaverse. From the beginning we keep saying we have GAME, not GameFi with a simple card battle or just static images with some buttons everyone used to know. You can apply NFTs to your avatar and even create your own originals to make them unique. Go to dungeons with your best friends from around the world. Enjoy the game itself or try doing business and investing here. Find a new way to make your dream come true in GENSO Metaverse. Everything is very exciting here.

U.Today: What are your thoughts on the current bear market? How long will the crypto winter last this time?

Maxi Kuan: This time the bear market started with the famous Terra/UST crash and some butterfly effects remain. It is different from the one in 2018; we have more fundamental ecosystems that didn’t exist four years ago, like NFT and Metaverse. People are getting more used to crypto, and governments are taking actions that are either positive or negative, which means that the crypto market is becoming something for the entire world economy. In my opinion, I think “winter” could be 6-12 months.

U.Today: Do you have any advice for people who believe in crypto?

Maxi Kuan: Many new business models are coming. Metaverse is one of them and perhaps the biggest. Make sure the crypto you’re dealing with is legit and run by a good community or DAO. And follow the GensoKishi project – we are on a path that no one has ever attempted.