In general, they aren't the exact same girls, just heavily based on their TM predecessors.
If HHR even played in the TM world at all, it would be in some alternate timeline/worldline/"what if".
What's canon in your TM playthrough remains canon in your TM playthrough, namely that they lived happily ever after with the TM MC.
1. It was never about recycling assets.
Designing new character models is my favorite task during development.
I'm sitting on a bunch of good models that may never get used.
I had to brush up the TM-based models for HHR quite a bit to make them 'competitive'.
Adding characters based on TM girls was more an "emotional attachment" decision than anything else.
2. HHR was my 2nd "IP", TM my 3rd (not counting the discarded ones in between).
I'm also just into stuff like worldlines and alternate realities in general.
Think more "Fate/stay night" or "Steins;Gate", though.
My only noteworthy contact with DC Comics stuff was the first 2 Arkham games, so no idea about the degree of similarity.
Generally not much of a fan of western stuff, honestly.
3. I don't really care much about success or money.
In fact, I kind of expected in advance HHR would be less popular than TM.
