Lulu
Image edited from Puyo Puyo (video game, 1992)
Ally of the P-Kids
Swift/Crystal Type
Original Media: Puyo Puyo (video game, 1992; English translation)
Story
The 1992 Puyo Puyo game saw an unusual form of release outside its home country of Japan: The English version of the game rewrote much of the script, renamed many characters, and gave them new personalities; in one such case, the character “Rulue” became “Lulu”, with her affection for the game’s main antagonist re-imagined as her being an acquaintance of the game’s hero, corrupted the villain’s dark influence.
The old English version of 1992’s Puyo Puyo was forgotten to time, though, and sequels to the game use the original Japanese cast, story, etc. In the world of The Chaos Zone, this forgotten translation is its own world, itself stagnantly forgotten to time. Lulu was pulled from it some time after fellow inhabitant Dark Elf escaped, being corrupted yet again by a team of villains to attack Dark Elf.
Once she was defeated and cured of the corruption, Lulu was finally able to show her true personality: A friendly, carefree, athletic girl who tries not to let the past bother her. She quickly formed a large friend group, and even connected to Dark Elf, the two eventually entering a relationship.
Abilities
Ascalon Strike
Lulu lets loose a punch, her fist surrounded by an energy that can cut things.
Impact/Cutter Type
Burning Fist
Lulu uses Fire magic to unleash a flaming punch, creating a wave of fire in front of her.
Flame/Impact Type
Image is from Final Fantasy IV (video game, 1991).
Flame Whip
Lulu swings her arm and creates a powerful, whip-like trail of Fire magic.
Flame/Swift Type
Moonlight Berserker
Lulu powers herself up and charges forward, slamming the ground to create shockwaves of moonlight, and dealing massive damage to anyone caught at point-blank range.
Space/Crystal Type
Knuckle Blast
Lulu strikes with a heavy punch that deals major damage. If she holds the punch for long enough, a shockwave will burst from her arm, dealing additional minor damage and intense knockback.
Impact/Explode Type
Feedbacker
Lulu swings a punch. While the punch itself is weak, when timed right it can parry physical attacks, or reflect projectiles back to an opponent.
Shield/Impact Type
Voice
General Description
Young Adult; cheery and energetic
Example Voice
Source: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (video game, 2018)
Original Context: The voice of the character “Chie Satonaka”.
Behind the Scenes
Lulu was one of six characters I introduced into Chaos Zone as part of a storyline with Team Mecha (my main villain characters at the time) having effectively brainwashed several characters as a means of causing both mayhem and psychological distress, as most characters under their control were closely affiliated with other characters I had introduced by then (in Lulu’s case, she was affiliated with Dark Elf).
I picked Lulu because I felt that she was an interesting contrast to Dark Elf when looking at what the English version of the 1992 Puyo Puyo game changed about them from their Japanese counterparts: while Dark Elf was given a new design, her original personality was pretty close to her original counterpart, “Harpy”. Lulu, by contrast, had the exact same design as “Rulue” (and even her name is pronounced the same in Japanese), with her most unique difference instead being her implied position in the narrative; as far as I know, the original Japanese text indicates that “Rulue” is genuinely infatuated with the main antagonist, while the English script has the game’s protagonist, “Silvana”, worriedly urge Lulu to snap out of it, as if Lulu’s personality in-game is not how she always acts.
I took the basic idea of there being an unseen, benevolent side to Lulu and ran with it, expanding on the idea that she was an old friend of “Silvana” and generally a heroic force when not under someone else’s control. With “Silvana” not being a character I was interested in exploring more in Chaos Zone, I decided to have her first clear-minded conversation be with Dark Elf, sort of encouraging Dark Elf to let go of the past and live for the present.
Early in my writing, Lulu had the same design that “Rulue” did in 1992 Puyo; even if Rulue was already a character in Chaos Zone (not written by me), the idea was that the difference between Rulue’s old design and new design (seen in the Images section) would make it clear which one was Lulu. As Lulu developed and learned Fire magic, I decided to differentiate the two further by giving Lulu a new color scheme and shorter hair, with red hair and yellow clothes suiting her heat-based powers, and short hair being less likely to catch fire by accident. I also imagined Lulu wearing a pair of gray shorts instead of having visible thighs like Rulue did originally; the idea was to emulate how video games in the 80s and 90s would often censor revealing outfits.
Images
Brash Buster 