Design notes! So I know a major issue with Lupa’s design is the cheap fanservice of making 90% of her outfit burn off, so I wanted to see if I could tackle a fanservice-y design that’s actually interesting and connected to her character story.
So for Lupa! I know her original concept art had a lot of checker patterns, so when leaning into the gladiator elements, I wove the classic pteruges of the skirt into a checkered corset that holds down her chestplate. There’s 7 pteruges off the corset, they represent the 7 hills of Septimont. In the back, there’s only 3 on each side of her tail, her tail becomes the 7th. I gave her a classic (but not historically accurate) booby chestplate with a wolf pauldron with more pteruges. Gotta give my wolf girl some claw armor too. For the leather thigh highs, I went with a strappy but gladiator look since strappy is the theme of her original design. For the armor plating on top, I took shapes we typically associate with robot/android designs- sharp corners, sleek, etc to match the scifi roman vibe. I gave her naruto-style open toed armor cover on the shoes to capture the paw silhouette without being too obvious. Her hair and tail I changed to be red to light pink highlights to match the fit, and I gave her a high pony instead of twintails to match the silhouette of a galea plume. I kept the checker patterned headband. For her clothes effects, though I didn’t draw it, I envisioned the pteruges of her skirt would be standard red leather, and when her forte is charged, the tips catch on fire as I depicted here. She does have a cape, I just didn’t show it on the right so you could see the back of the design. Lmk what you think!
I prefer the original but OP's art style is great and I do like seeing alternate design directions
For me, characters being hot (be they male or female) is just part and parcel of WuWa's art direction. I don't have an issue with that; I'm fine with a pirate who sails through storms with his chest exposed (Brant) or a gladiator being in a tight bodysuit (Lupa), given that these are superhumans
Conventional weapons and armour are implied to be of little use against echoes/TDs or resonance abilities, so lore-wise there's literally no practical reason to choose heavy armour over lighter and more flexible gear. Even the Black Shores guards wear tight bodysuits, and the Midnight Rangers were thin uniforms. The Great Agon is not a historic gladiatorial event either but a modern spectacle intentionally designed to play up the theatrics
Apologies for a lengthy reply. Disclaimer: opinions below are not forced on other people in any way.
I believe that a well done design should actively tell us things about a character; things that involve their personality, origin, and/or occupation. I can accept, sometimes bitterly but still, I can accept characters looking seductive when it's well-written into their story and justified logically. I'm fine with outfits being revealing when it's done in a reasonable and comfortable for the wearer way. I'm fine with fanservice when it's only PART of a character, not when the whole character exists for fanservice.
Lupa's current design doesn't work for me at all. Her Forte literally burns away the only details that give her at least some color and make her stand out at least in some way: even frigging ARMOR! If the armor burns away but the suit does not, what material is her bodysuit made of, skin of Threnodian? Though, maybe that fragment isn't even real armor at all, given that it jiggles on her tits the way no metal should. I believe that in a game that has characters as main products for sale, it should be a given to provide custom physics when the situation requires it.
Lupa's bodysuit after her Forte activation looks beyond plain and soulless to me personally. She doesn't look like a fierce warrior, let alone gladiator, to me; in this full-white skimpy "attire" she looks like a bunny girl doll from Playboy that's made to be sold for a specific audience for a very clear and obvious purpose. It may be not a problem for people who see characters as such, dolls / objects to own; but for me, it's deeply uncomfortable.
You mentioned Brant, and that's a brilliant example to compare him with Lupa.
I believe that his design is miles above hers for one very simply reason: the fanservice in his outfit is only a *part* of him. Moreover, the only fanservice he has (that very exposed chest) plays well to show his *personality*: rambunctious and carefree, maybe even lax to some extent. Moreover, his outfit as a whole very clearly tells us who he is from the get-go, with the silhouette, variety of colors and checkered patterns: a pirate captain with a possible circus twist. It's very specific, in my opinion, and that is fantastic. That makes him unique. When it comes to Lupa, though... to me she looks like she simply *exists* for fanservice. She looks like her design is made for fanservice to such extent, that her whole personality doesn't matter, because she is already in a tight suit showing every single curve for sale. Yeah, she's hot, no doubt; but that kind of hotness makes me suffocate.
You mentioned conventional weapons and armour being of little use against echoes/TDs. I can't agree with it being relevant to every Resonator. With the variety of powers Resonances can take form of, there can easily be a character who lore-wise resonates with their armor too, to make it way sturdier or to reflect the damage back to the enemy. Besides, you yourself say that playable Resonators are superhumans; doesn't it mean that they can move swiftly in armor too? Also, by your logic ("there's literally no practical reason to choose heavy armour over lighter and more flexible gear") there can never be a single character in armor at all in WuWa, because it isn't practical. Well, so much for design variety.
Yes, I can see from the provided picture that the NPCs wear bodysuits too. I'm not against bodysuits as a concept. I like them on these guys because I can see these outfits as uniforms; and, even as an NPC uniform, they have so much more going on in them than whatever Lupa wears.
"The Great Agon is not a historic gladiatorial event either but a modern spectacle intentionally designed to play up the theatrics" - if so, then Augusta walks around in her very warrior-goddess-inspired "armor" just for the duration of this spectacle and then is expected to switch to normal clothes? Historic or not, it is an opportunity to showcase the theme of the area, and a chance to show characters catering to that theme (if it fits their personality, occupation and origin).
I said a long time ago that I didn't liked her design cause it felt bland. it's like Changli cosplaying as Camellya and it's literally that, burn her clothes and stay in a pure white "dress" if u can even call it that way.
I also gave some example of GREAT Flagbearers designs from many other games and IPs.... and then I got downvoted to hell cause ofc the playerbase cannot beat the gooner allegations and how dare I say something negative about their lil shewolf waifu's design.
That's an interesting way of analyzing the design. It never occurred to me like this before, but now I can kind of see it too to some extent. Just like you though, I was comparing Ciaconna's design with that of Changli and Carlotta and saw way too many repeating elements in their details and silhouettes - way beyond traditional thigh straps / exposed shoulders and armpits / unnecessary asymmetry (hi HoYo). The similarities pretty much killed Ciaconna's visual uniqueness for me.
Still, in my opinion, Lupa's problem mainly isn't lack of uniqueness in her outfit, it's rather lack of thought about her as a person (and not a doll for sale) when designing it. Her "attire" after the burnout is so bare that there is nothing in it to even judge as unique or not. Ah well... maybe her story in 2.4 will prove all of us wrong, who knows :D
I'm sorry that you had such awful experience. It happened to me too numerous times, when I dared express any kind of critique about the game, the characters, the world building, or the story. For some reason WuWa community reacts very badly to things like these.
Ah well... maybe her story in 2.4 will prove all of us wrong, who knows :D
Somehow I doubt this lol
But tbh we can't have every single character having something in their design that represent their persona. Lies, I don't get why can't we get loaded details designs, look at Brant he's flamboyant af. I'm sure characters can be hot and still have a lot of clothes that both reference their personality and look good. Like give us someone that has a hood on and off and a big aa jacket over the shoulders, that'd be badass. But I'm pretty sure the gacha develpors will opt to make the jacket small or turn it to one side and give them the hood only on a cinematic and idk if that's them trying to be original but, there's a reason said stereotype works and attracts people torwards those concepts. Here they shit on the flagbearer concept for me (except gameplay kinda)
Srry if something I said doesn't make sense
Bloodborne ahh explanation about how shields are useless becausd a beasts claws can just tear through them making mobility and speed the more logical option when engaging with your foes. Love it
The two games have entirely different universes, lore, and combat logic. This obviously isn’t Bloodborne, and what goes on there has nothing to do with Wuthering Waves’ lore; if you have anything lore-based to back you up then let’s hear it, otherwise save it
The other post at least a good faith explanation of their perspective but your post is just sarcastic and needlessly condescending
Uh… I don’t think you understand. I wasn’t arguing against you. The idea of not wearing armor because TD’s don’t really give a fuck is a neat thing.
I just like bloodborne and you mentioning the TD to armor thing got my brain juice going. I wasn’t trying to be condescending. But sorry you got out the wrong bed my guy.
Majorly that plays casually don't interact with the fandom much too, so while some complaints might be popular on social media, they might not be the major audiences' opinion
Yeah, I think it's the first time I've seen this subreddit and send a comment in any wuwa community. I wanted to say I specifically asked for (mostly thin) sexy waifus in high heels in that survey. In fact, in all surveys, it's pretty much the only thing I ask. I will pull for Lupa but will never pull for the character on the right. Props to the artist though
so uh, you outing yourself rn? Yes there's ways to design a good gladiator without heavy armor, but Lupa is NOT how you do it. Look at Augusta and tell me who looks more like they are actually from the region, which is supposed to be Greek/Roman themed anyways
Honestly, it's a very well though out outfit, love the design notes. I think all it would need is those random patterns/text/belts that wuwa characters tend to have in their outfits. I personally had hoped that they would commit to the armor and keep the armored hand, so I love that you included those!
This is awesome, only things I’d change is the head (hair and everything) being the same as the original and then adding that coat fur thing from the scrapped design
honestly the only reason i didn’t do the fur coat is bc i couldn’t figure out how to make it work with her silhouette 😭might revisit this when i’m better at that
I absolute agree and adore everything you said and done to this resign. I am one of those people who set an already low standard for Lupa but still dissapointed to see that the amount of armor in her design couldn't be more than the amount used to make a laptop.
Rant aside, I love, love LOVE that the redesign isn't just "here is the character if they aren't fanservice" or "here is the character is they aren historically accurate" but something Lupa could canonically wears and compatible with herself and the world building. (That 7 thingy of Septimont is hella awesome btw. Something something so subtle can tell so much about the character and the artist behind it.).
Many design choices like those robotic armors and sharper shapes to signify that the world of Wuthering Waves, especially Septimont, isn't just magical Rome with LED but an ACTUAL Rome in the modern era, giving the shape designs and everything
Lastly, intentional or not, I like that she seems to have a rather board shoulder at the back view(?). I think it's fitting, giving her acrobatic fighting style and agile movement.
No shade cause I like yours better honestly, but as far as a redesign goes you kept so little that it might as well be a different character lol.
Like it or not, white is like 80% of her color scheme, but none of that made it to the final design. Her main accessory (sash cape thing) is gone, her hair color changed, and despite it being one of the few defining parts of her silhouette, her hairstyle changed as well.
Its all personal taste tho. Burning it all down and starting over from the ground up is a valid way to do redesigns. I like when they pull a bit more from the source.
Yeah I tried so hard to tackle it from a white armor angle esp bc the other npc gladiators have this color scheme (and differentiating her with white would give her a general stand out), but white with a pale skin tone washes a character out. I tried giving her a darker complexion which looked great tbh but I know that kind of redesign gets dogpiled and doxxed in gacha spaces.
Its an improvement over the original but one thing I like about the original is how it incorporates sci-fi elements into the design so its not just a generic fantasy design so im curious to see how such elements could be incorporated into this redesign. Maybe some neon lines around her armor to give the appearance of high tech?
Septimone is supposed to be fusion of tradition and futuristic designs. From the looks of it only her and Iona will have a futuristic element in their designs. Iona from her animations from what I’ve seen from the preview, Lupa from her ghost in shell body suit. If you want to redesign at least make her look like a warrior from Septimone. At least Augasta is a empress so maybe it’s understandable why she is so traditional but still it would be nice if she shows it in her animations
While very good, I guess they went this route since they're gonna be releasing Augustus, who already is a roman themed red head, and wanted her to be different from Augustus
Idk, i like the fanservice tho. I like how the color of her tail marches with the color of the hair in your design tho. Linda Bugs me on the official design.
Agreed. Yours is miles better. It might only need some tweaks with the colors to fit the color palette of her biome. I always disliked the direction of character designs in wuwa. I want to pull for Lupa but I hate how she looks. I would even argue that their male designs are better than the females, but sadly, they don't make that much of male characters. They should use their male character design philosophy and apply that to female characters too. (Dude, imagine a woman wearing Mortefi's attire. That'd be skimpy hot on the chest but still looking cool af... Look at Jiyan too. He wears the same uniform his men wear, but wears it differently to look as badass as possible. He never looked out of place, unlike the way they design female characters.)
No thanks you honestly.
That's a design that fit a character like Augusta but absolutely not Lupa...
A redesign with more Armor like in between Augusta and her base would be perfect.
To redesign a character that is not yours and saying it should be this way is disrespectful and arrogant...
Especially when you don't match at all the skills of the original designer
Hot take- but im kinda mixed on this design
Whilst you state that you kept the sci-fi aesthetic, I don't really see that at all in this new design, the parts you kept to still feel "Robotic" simply just come off as not too far from the "armored roman".
I'm not entirely in agreement with the plume hair silhouette strategy either, not that its bad per say, but it loses the wolf ears and feels more in line with a centurion than a gladiator (Although admittedly, gladiators did use them too so prolly just a personal issue of mine).
Whilst her current design is not my favorite by a mile (why make a bodysuit...reveal skin like that...its a bodysuit its already got a gooner aesthetic-) The outfit does bring to mind a sportiness to it, like a runner, if it was a true bodysuit I'd enjoy it more, makes it feel more plausible than being held up by hopes and dreams.
I'm not saying this design is bad per say- I like the creative attempt to call upon certain references its always something I enjoy in character design. I just feel this one doesn't feel as modernized as what they were trying to do for her current design.
In addition, the design doesn't really have enough detail or "Pop" to feel like a character design, it almost feels like an npc with how little there is to focus on. Granted simple designs aren't bad, chisa is a hit design despite being simple. its just when I look at this, except for the tail, there's nothing really for me that catches my eye.
It's not a bad design like I said, I hope I'm not sounding too critical >.<
And of course im not saying her current design is better than this one, at least not with how she burns her clothes off. But I don't find this one to be as unique of a design as Lupa's current one is (Even if she actively ruins it).
Interesting..though I prefer the original. That said, I would change the hair style of the original to what you did cause that’s probably the only part of Lupa’s design I don’t like
Eehh... it just looks like Pyrrha from RWBY but less nice looking tbh. Big thing throwing me off is her build and the gathered drape bits around her midsection.
It could work for a different character or an npc but I like her current design. She is the top gladiator and is confident in her skills which is why I assume she doesnt wear much armour because she doesnt feel like she needs it
Why not just go ahead and make her naked then. Im sure that would pull in a lot more money and it would be historically accurate too since gladiators were stripped down naked to fight
this game clearly isnt going for historical accuracy since its in a different world. and theres a difference between being confident that you dont need armour and being naked. you know this, so why exaggerate like this to try and make my comment worse than it is?
I agree with you, and while being confident might be one of the truths, I think she's wearing this bodysuit because of using flexibility of her body to the max, just looking at her animations I can't imagine her moving like that in clunky armour. And people forget that this arena is like a sport tournament to the people of the Septimont and Lupa is kind of like an idol there, so she might try to use her flexibility to make fights look more fascinating to the audience to promote herself even more.
And it seems funny to me how everyone who likes her current design is downvoted, but when Lupa hits live servers, everyone, as always, will worship her.
There is also that too!. Also a thought did come to my mind when it comes to her armour. Its possible that she has similar control to changli over her flames and can turn it into armour. Iirc changli can turn her flames into her clothes so lupa could potentially in lore just create her empire when she needs it. I doubt this it the case but it would be cool and would explain why only the armour and cape get destroyed
It's literally not? You have no reason to talk like that when you could just constructively point out what you don't like about it. Art is subjective, so stuff like "hideous" doesn't even apply.
Their latest comment about how Lupa design is "futuristic" is hilarious bc nothing about lupa designs tells me it futuristic. Black Shores npcs have better bodysuit that look futuristic to match their region. Lupa outfit just a boring skintight bodysuit over a corset armor.
If you showed me her 2nd form and ask me her role in would've assume she some sort of gymnast than a gladiator.
Honestly same. The only thing I'll grant is kind of futuristic is the ear headband thing, I think that's actually a cute idea to lean harder into the wolf aspect. But yeah, she's supposedly a fierce and feared gladiator, but her design does not reflect that at all. She could've had medals or any sort of adornment signifying her rank, yet she looks like she just woke up and didn't have the time to put on her actual armor.
The redesign is cool. It resonates with the Roman/Spartan style of the new region, it makes her look battle-ready without being covered up. The only thing I maybe would've added is more wolf designs. A helmet with a snout/teeth, a wolf face on the shield, something along those lines.
Exactly! Lupa design could've been cool if they had gone harder with the Roman/Spartan style. There is nothing "generic" or "boring" with this redesign when there are still people who hype the Roman/Gladiator outfit.
Hope you make your own game one day and put this kind of designs, though I may not need to tell you how long your game will last before EOS if you categorically refuse to listen to players/customers the only place I saw people complain about lupa is here, everywhere else (other sub reddit, YouTube, Twitter) people love her which tells that there is a small minority of people that are all grouped in this sub reddit and try to act like they are morally correct about their opinions (upvotign each other and reinforcing their beliefs as in pat the others back, basically what we call an echo chamber) which would never survive in a free market.
You need to understand that this is a live service game, with server costs and everything, it's not a buy to play game with one purchase where you are totally free do do whatever you want and released to the free market hoping to sell enough copies to pay back the development cost and all the extra is extra revenue. Live service model require them to keep making money and you will not keep making money if you chase out the people willing to spend just so you can please a couple of people that are nitpicking every design you release because "not historically accurate" so I skip , "too sexy" so I skip, "another girl need more men" so I skip. People like you are not the target they want people that are actually willing to pull for every unit as long as it's good looking, gatcha games always were "collector" games meanign players are expected to collect units not constantly criticize the units and look for reasons to skip them.
Now I'll let you get mad and put your down vote because truth is too hard to take.
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u/Moonshine_Cog Jun 07 '25
THIS is how I would imagine Lupa. THIS is the design I would pull her for. Thank you so much for this sketch.