To start this off: I was extremely disappointed when I found out that the final (currently available) stage of the Anima weapon is quite lackluster compared to is previous iteration. (Also, considering the effort that goes into getting that bland (albeit more powerful) weapon in the first place... >> ) I love the gold glowies my weapon has now, and will be really sad to see them go if/when I end up upgrading to the i210 weapon. To the point of where I've just been considering saying "screw it" just so I get to keep the pretty glamour. |D;
I've also thought that about my SCH's first stage zodiac weapon: even though it's just a simple purple glow and sparkles, I really like it, despite the fact that the later weapons get even fancier. If I ever decided to upgrade that, I would probably miss it as well.
With the implementation of the NPC that allows holders of a Zeta weapon to purchase a replica of that weapon for glamour purposes, though, I've been struck with an idea: why not make replicas of each stage of the relic weapons available for purchase? I'm not sure how feasible this is, but I could see it working something like this: there would be a NPC that would have these replicas available for purchase so long as the player has already unlocked them, similar to the way Zeta replica purchases work. When the player upgrades their weapon, they are able to purchase replicas of its previous stages to use as a glamour, and they unlock the replica of their relic's current iteration for purchase at the respective NPC.
So... yeah. XP; I dunno, I thought it was a good idea. ;;;; I know I'm not the only one who will miss my Awakened weapon's appearance upon upgrading it...