One of the original creators of the famous Tomb Raider series has shared an interesting story from the game’s development history. According to Paul Douglas, who helped create Tomb Raider, a Japanese publisher once approached the team with a specific request regarding Lara Croft’s appearance.

The publisher, identified as Victor Interactive, wanted the development team to change Lara’s look to make her more appealing to players in Japan. They suggested giving her a distinct anime-style design, which would have been a major departure from her original appearance.

Paul Douglas, who describes himself as having “co-created Tomb Raider half a lifetime ago,” explained the details of this request on his social media account. The publisher specifically asked for Lara to have “huge eyes” and a larger head, which are common features in anime character design.

This redesign request came quite late in the development process of the original Tomb Raider game. The publisher even sent a fax to the team with their design suggestions, showing how serious they were about this change.

However, the idea faced strong resistance from another key member of the Tomb Raider team. Toby Gard, who was also a developer on the project, did not want to alter Lara’s established look. He felt strongly about maintaining the character’s original design.

To find a middle ground between the publisher’s wishes and the developers’ vision, a compromise was reached. Instead of changing Lara Croft herself, the team decided to incorporate more manga-style artwork into the game’s manual and guidebook.

Douglas mentioned that he is not sure exactly who created these manga-style illustrations for the game materials. The compromise allowed the publisher to have some anime-inspired content while keeping Lara’s in-game appearance unchanged.

Back in 2021, Douglas shared images of these manga-style characters on social media. He also provided some background information about the situation at that time.

He believed that Victor Interactive probably thought changing all the character models would only take a few days of work. However, this was during the early days of 3D game development, which made such changes much more time-consuming than expected.

Douglas explained how the request evolved over time. It started as a proposal to change all the in-game models and cutscene characters. Then it was narrowed down to just the in-game models. Eventually, the request was reduced to changing only Lara Croft’s character, and finally, just her head.

The images shared by Douglas show manga-style versions of characters from the original Tomb Raider game. One image features the villain Natla along with her minions, while another shows a manga-inspired version of Lara Croft herself.

These illustrations demonstrate what the game might have looked like if the team had fully accepted the publisher’s request. The style is distinctly different from the original game’s visual design.

Meanwhile, the original Tomb Raider game is currently receiving a complete remake from the ground up. This new version is known as “Legacy of Atlantis” and is scheduled for release later this year.

The remake will be available on multiple gaming platforms, including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam. This gives modern gamers a chance to experience the classic Tomb Raider adventure with updated graphics and gameplay.

In addition to the remake, Crystal Dynamics is working on a brand new entry in the Tomb Raider series with Amazon. This upcoming game is titled “Catalyst” and will take Lara Croft on a new adventure to Northern India.

Recently, it was announced that actress Eva La Dare will be part of the cast for Tomb Raider: Catalyst. She is well-known to gamers for her role as Sheva Alomar in Resident Evil 5, another popular video game series.

The story of the anime-style redesign request shows how game development often involves balancing different creative visions and market expectations. While the publisher wanted to adapt the game for Japanese audiences, the original developers remained committed to their initial design for Lara Croft.

This compromise of using manga-style artwork in the game materials rather than changing the character herself allowed both sides to find a solution that worked for everyone involved.