One of Azure Striker Gunvolt’s main characters is Lumen, an extremely popular pop-star who is promoted by the Sumeragi Group. Over Twitter, developer Inti Creates showed off an early design for what Lumen was going to look like:
Unlike Gunvolt, this early concept is rather different from what the final design for Lumen ended up looking like. It actually looks more like Joule, who is the other lead female character in the game.
Next, here’s a “pre-final” design for Lumen. This one is radically different from the early design and looks more like a kimono. It’s also much closer to Lumen’s final look.
And finally, the art you see below is Lumen’s finalized design:
Part of the reason the early concept of Lumen looked closer to Joule might have something to do with the fact that Lumen is an avatar created by Joule’s psychic power. She is a being that reflects what Joule wants to be, deep down.
However, Lumen inhabits a different body from Joule and can think for herself. While the Sumeragi group promotes her pop-star career, they’re secretly using her as bait to find other psychics like Joule and subjugate them.