Thank you very much!
The initial/medium-term vision was, indeed, more intricate in its flow and diversity of procedural components. I didn’t expand on the differences between vision and submission too much in the game’s About section or on its itch.io page, as I felt it would have detracted from the final output to constantly compare what actually is to what could have been. Coming back to the game’s flow, having to scope down meant that while the game is simpler, it also now is much more streamlined (as you pointed out with the functionally useless red spray.
I also hoped that people would find the Axl hair to be a funny bit, so I’m glad it got a reaction :) I initially added the hair due to struggling to find good public domain hair PNGs, but it stayed in since my brain always makes a weird visual connection between Axl Low and (long-haired) Vargskelethor which I can’t really explain. I also just love ̶c̶r̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶c̶o̶c̶a̶i̶n̶e̶ I mean Guilty Gear.
About that last point: I tried to not lean too much into Vargskelethor referential humor/fanservice (truth be told, the thumb heads were initially placeholder textures but proved an easy way to iterate on variants).