Warframe is an admittedly very soft scifi game, but it is still technically a scifi setting. And this definitely holds true when it comes to weapon design. Most weapons are somewhat fancier, or sometimes less fancy, versions of guns or bows or what have you. Even the more out there weapons still make some sense, primary and secondaries still shoot energy bolts/waves or bullets or some sort of projectile that makes sense for the weapon, like arrows for bows or bubbles for the Kompressa. And melees all look either heavy enough or sharp enough to hurt. The Grimoire doesn't really fit in with the rest of the weapons, feeling distinctly more fantasy then anything else we've gotten.
But, it could, through some relatively small changes, fit in with the rest of the weapons. And don't worry any of you who like the style and aesthetics of the new weapon, with the changes I'm suggesting, we won't be straying too far from that theming, more just making it make sense for warframe.
So, the changes I'm suggesting are this: While open, at the each of the 4 corners, should be a glowing circle with a visible beam of light going up and into the center, forming sort of a pyramid shape. At the point where the beams meet up there would be a slightly translucent glowing sphere/orb. the center of the orb would be at where the beams connect, and the beams would stop at the surface of the orb. diameter of the orb would be about 3/4'ths the spine of the Grimoire. If DE wanted they could have the various requiem symbols float in there. Animation wise, the warframe would hold the book slightly lower and hold their hand over the orb, grabbing it and throwing the orb at enemies.
And thats it, no changes to how its fired or its effect or any of the dialog/lore around it. Even the model changes are fairly simple, only 4 circles, 4 cones and a sphere. Though if they wanted to go the extra mile they could also add some of that rounded metal void corruption stuff we see on incarnon weapons around the edges of the book, which feels like it fits given the theming of the update, but its not necessary.
Now to anyone who isn't yet convinced, let me tempt you with this; an weapon idle animation where the warframe ponders the orb. I rest my case.
Heres a concept model I made. Its a bit rough as I don't have any actual 3d modeling software so I had to use stud.io lol, I hope it conveys what i'm going for, though the orb wouldn't float that high off the book in game
I was more going for the book being similar to the book we see at the beginning of treasure planet, and the warframe being able to grab that hard light projection and throw it. The orb would be more like a globe, with Orokin script covering the outside (and yeah that seems like an impractical way to display info, but the orokin weren't know for practicality). If I could design it from the ground up I would make the pages metal and have the warframe rip them out and throw them, causing them to explode due to some anti-piracy feature, but that would probably require the dialog to be re-written and recorded, and that seemed like a big ask. I do like your idea of the PC, maybe have a rip-off nes power glove because of the random 80's-90's tech in the update.
