You might have seen Fruitcake on our social channels and previous event coverages. She has been cosplaying Bandai Namco characters since 2016. Her most recent work is one of the protagonists of CODE VEIN, Eva Roux.

“Her character’s personality and design are what really drew me to her. She has an elegance, but also a sternness about her. I usually love cosplaying those type of characters,” says Fruitcake - whose real name is Vanessa de Galicia.

This stylish Revenant joins the main character on his/her quest and it’s also Jack Rutherford’s sidekick. Vanessa tells us that “It’s fun to act like someone who has a very different personality than you do. I feel really cool wearing Eva.”

The Eva Roux cosplay consists of a red dress made from velvet, a spandex piece underneath, and multiple flowers which she painted herself (she even added more in recent shoots and events!). Around her neck, the character wears a feather boa that Vanessa says is the most challenging part of cosplaying Eva: “the feathers get everywhere,” she told us. In contrast, the character's makeup is one of her favorite parts of the cosplay.

The creation process can be witnessed live. On her Twitch channel, Fruitcake crafts clothing pieces and chats about it with her fans. “I am able to answer them and show them [the crafting process]. It’s so rewarding to see people looking to get into the hobby, so I try my best to be a good teacher. I also do some cosplay streams where I play a game dressed as a character from that same game. Those are also fun as well,” says Vanessa.

She doesn’t hold back any advice for newcomers: “Just do it. Nowadays, it’s so much easier to get into cosplay because of all the accessible and 'easy to work with’ materials”. Vanessa also thinks that there are many tutorials out there. It’s alright to learn from a few mistakes here and there during the process! Her advice even ends with a little bit of a pep talk: “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t cosplay a character.”

If you are uncertain how it may feel like to participate at events as an aspiring cosplayer and get your work recognized by people, Vanessa sums it up as a joyful experience: “Bringing people’s favorite characters to life as well as witnessing their smiles and hugs make it all worth it”.

Even though Vanessa did a lot of work with us in the last few years (check out the photos down below), she says that CODE VEIN has been her favorite work so far. “I have so many fond memories cosplaying as Eva. It also opened a ton of cool opportunities and I can’t thank Bandai Namco enough for them,” she says. Vanessa adds that she is excited for cosplaying more characters created by Bandai Namco in the future.

CODE VEIN’s character design and story background are Vanessa’s favorite parts of the upcoming game. Vanessa says she looks forward to finally uncovering the mystery surrounding the story since there is a lot of memory loss going on in the plotline. 

Promoting the game as several characters (like Eva and Mia) for almost three years since CODE VEIN’s announcement, Vanessa went plenty of events like E3 and even recorded some live streams at the Bandai Namco office. Last year, we also got the opportunity to do a video interview with her.

Check other Bandai Namco characters cosplayed by Fruitcake below:

Velvet Crowe (Tales of Berseria)

Asuka Kazama (TEKKEN)

Sheena Fujibayashi (Tales of Symphonia)

Mia Karnstein (CODE VEIN)

CODE VEIN is set to be released September 27th for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Get yours on pre-sale and stay tuned in our website for more updates to come!