Back in the mid-1990s, the design of Lara Croft almost took a very different direction in Japan. Toby Gard, one of her original creators, revealed that the character might have been reworked to fit the then-popular aesthetic of games like Final Fantasy 7 and Street Fighter. It’s fascinating to imagine a Lara that followed the flashy, more stylized trends of Japanese gaming at the time. However, Gard points out that ultimately the changes were quite minimal—the adjustments mostly happened in the manuals and strategy guides rather than the character herself.
Seeing the renders from that era makes it clear why the franchise stuck with Lara’s original look. She felt fresh, grounded, and distinct against the backdrop of other iconic characters who leaned into overtly anime-inspired design. Lara’s British tomb raider identity was already carving out a unique space in gaming, and shifting her into a more exaggerated style might have undermined that.
The choice to keep her design relatively intact, while tweaking the supplementary materials for regional markets, illustrates how localization can sometimes be less about overhauling a character and more about packaging them appropriately. In hindsight, it’s a reminder that not every popular trend needs to be followed, especially when a character’s charisma comes from a more straightforward, confident presentation.
Source: pcgamer.com
