I don't wanna say "I told you so"
BUT
Everyone was complaining about NGS ver2 "only adding creative spaces" up until it actually came out and now everyone is spending hours upon hours in it because it's INSANE how much you can do with it.
It might not be everyone's cup of tea but man, it's so clear that this is what SEGA has been working on for a long time. It really shows. And nobody believed that it was worthy of making the game ver2 xD
@xianc78 not that i know of. it's possible they said something on twitter or did something for her in JP instead. i'm not super hooked into much beyond the game itself.
apparently there was a little memoriam to her in the sega mega drive mini 2 but that's all the info i can find just from a quick search.