A mercenary working in space, she is tasked with destroying berserk robots, utilizing a high-tech bodysuit that allows her to fire energy blasts from her hands.

[3] As the character developed, Mikami wanted her name to represent a mix of cultures due to life aboard a space station in the future, with "Vanessa" being French, the "Z."

[1] Game producer Hiroyuki Koboyashi meanwhile wanted the character to be a "cool and sexy mercenary with a tough exterior that hides her dark past".

[7] Her crouching animation in particular was meant to resemble a jaguar, taking inspiration from an early title for the game due to how "supple and athletic" Mikami perceived her to be.

[8] In terms of character design, Vanessa is a woman with short brown hair and orange sunglasses, wearing a skintight black and white bodysuit that wraps around her body and connects to her spine.

Mikami himself noted similar sentiment, lamenting that he'd gotten "ahead of himself" when creating the game, and sees her as an "independent adult woman" when it comes to her appeal.

[18] For the 2011 video game Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, several skins for the character Jill Valentine took direct inspiration from Vanessa, namely from her default suit and the darker Intera Fusion variant.

However, he also pointed out that the character was held back by the game she was featured in, both due to its gameplay and exclusivity to the Gamecube, stating "It is not like a developer can contrive to create an icon, but there is the definite possibility of cult appeal.

[22] The staff of Electronic Gaming Monthly was far more critical however, stating the character had less in common with Croft than it did shmup series Gradius due to the gameplay.

[23] The character has been heavily praised for her physical attractiveness and sex appeal, with Retro Gamer describing her as "one of gaming's sexiest and overlooked heroines", adding that watching her was "a thing of beauty" and dubbing her a "sexy force of nature to be reckoned with.

They also shared Etherington's comparison to Lara Croft and Samus, stating that if P.N.03 had been a better game the character may have reached more iconic status to rival them, instead of just being "teeth-rotting eye candy.

Going further, he described her as someone with "the typical proportions assigned to voluptuous videogame vixens, and stands in a posture that makes scoliosis look sexy", feeling that while the game focused on the gyration of her breasts and buttocks the allure was hampered by the presentation.

[32] Jordan Mammo meanwhile in an article for Unwinnable Weekly voiced praise for Vanessa, stating that while in early previews it was easy to see her in the same light as characters like Lara Croft due to the emphasis on sex appeal and then-present firearms, in the game itself "she did something far more interesting: she danced".

In his eyes this brought a creative spark to the game, and that the emphasis on her dancing and limitations of her gameplay helped illustrate Mikami's story about being human through "coming to grips with something as frequently frustrating as having a body".