I don’t know if this was a known fact or not; but while reading through an old Gamefan magazine (Volume 4 issue 9) I came across this:
So, apparently Alita from the anime ova, was going to be a selectable character in Zwei? It would have been cool to select her in Pandora’s Box!
Huh… interesting. I didn’t know this.
Also totally thought of Battle Angel Alita. That would be one hell of a crossover. 
Pretty cool there, though I still have the strong impression that the ideas for Alita evolved into Azel. The basic formula of a medium for some arcane power / nemesis is there, but it’s good that Azel is a lot less derivative than how Alita comes across.
I was thinking that as well! Azel was very deep and mysterious. She actually became more human gradually, over the entire span of PDS. Alita on the other hand, was a typical teenage girl. She had the archetype of damsel in distress, being week and frail; needing to be saved by Kyle.
Her being fused with the dark dragon was akin to Azel being mentally and emotionally linked to Atolm.
A female player character would have been pretty cool, and wouldn’t really mess with canonical events as far as I can think of. Makes me wonder if her intended character for Zwei was similar to what we got in the OVA. That might’ve been rather annoying! o_O
Interesting find. Do you have a full page scan legaiaflame? If so I could add a link to it in the encyclopaedia.
Sure, here is the full page. Although the rest isn’t panzer related.
Thanks. I like to add the full page for context; in this case I’ve uploaded both.
I get the feeling we should take this information with a pinch of salt. Is this source that reliable?
Assuming it is, it’s highly likely the version of Alita in the anime is completely different to that intended in Zwei. They might share the same name, but that doesn’t mean the character in Zwei would’ve looked like or had any characteristics which are the same as the anime we know of. It would have likely have been the same in name alone.
Magazines sometimes get facts mixed up; it’s possible that there’s no truth to the statement. I agree that Alita would have been quite different had she made it into the final game. Or as The Ancient mentioned, she evolved into Azel.
Zwei was too short. Who knows what else the developers might have added if they had been given more time.
Alita was unique because she was blind and taken over by forces beyond her control. Of course, I never really took the OVA seriously. It retold the story rather than expanded on it in my mind.