Here’s a summary of teh information provided in the text:
* Early Tomb Raider Design Changes: During the development of the original Tomb Raider, ther was a push to redesign Lara Croft with a more “manga-style” appearance – specifically, larger eyes and head.
* Toby Gard’s Resistance: Toby Gard, a co-creator and designer of Lara Croft, was resistant to altering the character’s design.
* Compromise: A compromise was reached where the character models in the game itself weren’t changed. Instead, the changes were limited to the game’s manuals and guidebooks.
* Evidence: The article presents evidence of this “manga-style” Lara in a rendering found on BlueSky (posted by NixieTube) and in illustrations from the Japanese game manual. A tweet from Paul Douglas shows an example of Lara and Jacqueline Natla in this style.
* Development Process: Paul Douglas, who worked on the game, explained that the initial request was to change all the models, then narrowed down to just Lara, and finally to just Lara’s head. The manual illustrations are possibly the onyl remaining visual evidence of this attempted redesign.
Essentially, the text details a captivating behind-the-scenes story about a design direction for Lara Croft that ultimately didn’t make it into the game itself, but left a trace in the supplementary materials.
