From: StealThisSheen | #079
Roxy's just a palette swap. I don't really see how Roxy being female decides anything, since that's as simple as just making a snap decision after debating everything with Poison. I mean, it's not like Roxy truly "exists" beyond being a palette swap. Was Roxy even addressed as anything before Classics Collection?
Yup. She has a profile in all the original manuals released for the game, just like everyone else in the game.
From: Lopen | #080
I just told you a reason they wouldn't remove the female sprites, though. You assume that the devs all have unlimited foresight or unlimited development time. Neither one was close to the case especially for late 80s games, which commonly were released with nasty glitches or things that just didn't work right.
It's a hell of a lot easier to slap "newhalf" onto concept art and into the manual than redraw an entire spriteset because you realize "hey maybe we shouldn't have a woman getting beat up" close to the release date
My point stands, then. If they decided at the last minute that she would be a newhalf to avoid controversy, which we're agreeing is the only way they go ahead and draw the female sprites and then later decide she's a newhalf, then why wouldn't they make Roxy a newhalf, too? I know you keep saying "they could just replace Roxy's sprites with Poison's," but why would they do that instead of just calling them both newhalfs and being done with it all together?
--
Ace Detective in Sir Chris' Police
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4258/1118030354863.jpg