Nikke MARIA-n Part 1 - Whoa, that's even worse than usual...Marian!!!

The much-awaited new event in NIKKE is out, and it's turning out to be even more dangerously depressing than anything else they've thrown at us so far. The story follows how Marian was created, alongside the events surrounding the Commander's (the player's) backstory as well.

Doctor Maria's entire project of trying to recreate Liliweiss by sending thousands of clones of herself to their deaths against the Raptures felt rather foolish. Then again, Doctor Maria doesn't seem like the brightest person, completely blinded by her obsession with restoring her mother's name without realizing that nobody in the Ark even remembers who she was.

I mean, I know this is a retcon and couldn't have been referenced in the early story because it hadn't been planned yet, but it only makes her look even more foolish in retrospect. Her "Maria-n" clones were all adorable, and it was genuinely heartbreaking to see them slowly devolve into that horrific mess as the project dragged on.

I honestly like the original Marian design so much more than the new one. She had that...mature look.

The moment I heard Maria-2 I knew that this was not going to end until the number grew a lot bigger...

I might get bashed for this, but I still don't entirely like the Marian we got after she was recovered from her Heretic state. It only got worse in recent chapters, where she is treated like some sort of "Rapture Jesus" destined to make the Raptures become friends with humanity.

The first part ends with the Commander meeting Marian for the first time, proving that even he is just another product of this clone cycle. The "memories" they share link them back to when they were originally human, which will be an interesting angle to explore. Will they show us their childhoods?

Now we wait until the second part drops in a week's time, but I'm already anticipating where this is heading: Doctor Maria will die (how that happens is the real question), and the Commander and Marian will lead directly into the prologue of NIKKE, where Marian is executed by the Commander before being converted into a Heretic.

Poor Marian, so many cute girls wasted in such a terrible way. Come on Doctor Maria!

I'm still waiting for Red Shoes to be put in her place. I heard it happens in the main story, but I haven't read yet so...

From there, everything connects back to the main narrative, eventually leading to Marian becoming the new Queen and all that entails. Honestly, the event was engaging, but at the same time, I experienced heavy déjà vu during many of the scenes; it felt like I had seen this premise before somewhere else. That might just be because plenty of other sci-fi stories have used the trope of endless clones being discarded in inhumane ways...

I keep telling myself to catch up with the main campaign of NIKKE, but I hit a stretch of chapters that were incredibly boring (specifically the whole crystal and mechanics arc), and I just can't bring myself to push through. I really need to at some point, though; hopefully, the conclusion of this event will give me the push I need.