Hi, my name is Bannon Rudis. I am one of the directors of WayForward. WayForward does Shantae and River City Girls games, among many others. Personally, I’ve been making River City games for almost a decade now with Arc System Works. I started by reverse engineering River City images and animations and tried my best to figure out how to create animations. This pushed me towards my game development path. But I know you’re not here for me. Marian, one of the new playable characters in River City Girls 2, is the main attraction of this article, so let’s get right to it.
Marian has a long and long career as a prostitute in distress. Over the decades, she was publicly attacked on the streets, kidnapped by a shadowy criminal gang, held hostage in exchange for magic stones, or shot dead (although then she revived). Needless to say, she had it pretty hard. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that her friends, Billy and Jimmy, fought to the death over who could date her. It’s a bit much.
Marian’s final production art, along with concept images showcase her powerful action sequences.
Times have changed and so has Marian. She is no longer the helpless victim of street thugs, villains and mad skeleton magicians. Over the years, Marian has trained her body to reject the kind of physical and emotional abuse she has unknowingly received over the decades. Unwanted punches to her intestines were just a faint memory of the old Mother.
Two of Marian’s many expressions. Something mysterious seems to be happening!
Marian learned to box and wrestle. She doesn’t want to be seen as the “slow but powerful wrestler”. Her quick grappling punches and moves make her a very unique fighter, but at the same time very familiar.
This is Marian when she first appeared in River City Girls. By popular demand, she’s evolved from a humble shop owner into a playable character in RCG2!
Marian’s current River City Girls design appeared in the first River City Girls game in 2019. Players and fans of the series were immediately captivated by this new interpretation of Marian. She’s a fan favorite and the obvious choice for one of the new playable characters in the sequel. Marian also bridges the gap between the Double Dragon and River City series. We have run this by Arc System Works, the license holders and they agree with the decision.
Explore frame-by-frame one of Marian’s mighty moves, the KO Cutter!
Even though she’s a grappler, she’s not necessarily slower than the other characters and she has different moves that make her incredibly versatile. She is the only playable character with a command function. These moves are great for dealing damage to an enemy, but they also have a lot of splash damage to destroy a mob near her.
Marian unleashes a combo that sends her enemy into the air, then sends him back to Earth with an Air Pancake.
She also has some high-flying moves that can help launch her into crowds of enemies from above using her Party Crasher Move. This move can quickly launch her forward to knock out enemies in the distance, or be used as an anti-spin attack in the air, or if you wait until the last second when she stops spinning, you can release her Elbow Piston special air. Attack the unsuspecting enemies below her.
Another special is that taking commands only works if she’s between two enemies in range. Mind Meld is performed by Marian grabbing an enemy on each side of her and slamming them head-on. If she casts the move on an enemy, she’ll instead hit Irish Whip them (a silly move in pro wrestling where the opponent can’t stop running after being pushed into a rope). This will allow Marian to attack them while they are vulnerable.
Marian proves that two heads are better than one with Mind Meld splitting skulls, followed by KO Cutter!
And finally, there’s her KO Cutter. This move is a straight punch that can knock down several enemies in front of her. Or, if you choose the right time, the move can be counted by holding the Special button until it opens automatically. This will deal more damage and have the added benefit of throwing enemies from the walls back at you.
Another useful move in Marian’s arsenal is Carousel Toss, which not only deals damage to enemies thrown but also to any enemies lucky enough to get in the way!
Marian is very different from the other playable characters in the game, but she should be easy enough for anyone to pick up and feel at ease with right away. Both of our new characters, Marian and Provie, are fun to play as it makes me personally feel like the original characters need an overhaul of their gameplay so they can catching up with new players is so much fun. I hope you enjoy playing as Marian, Provie, and our returning characters (all featured in the sequel) as much as we do when it arrives on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
