It's easy to look at the original situation and think Nicki is anything but a friend in how she approaches Guy for money. It does sort of set her up for the less than positive reception options. But I think there is also a way of reading it that she is desperate, deep down in the rabbit hole with her scummy boyfriend's antics, making her desperate for a solution. So she hits up Guy as a last resort. Then the player has the decision to make how to respond to it. Be magnanimous, be angry and rage, or something in between. IMO the scene worked.
My problem was her disappearance and reappearance afterwards. That didn't work very well if the player was magnanimous. Her reappearance really is hard to swallow if you were nice to her originally and treated her well. But again the scene was well written, you could respond harshly (the bathroom action), but still come back from the brink, or go down the dark path. It worked both ways, but it did seem to paint Nicki in a pretty dark way. Coming back to Guy, again, after he helps her, maybe had some magic moment, and then ghosts him. Harsh. But it still worked because Nicky had a giant anchor around her neck in the form of her boyfriend.
I'm hoping the re-write won't be sunshine and daises. The original version starts Nicki off in a pretty dark light, but opens up some great character arc options for redemption or retribution. Understandably that might be a nightmare down the road with drastically different paths and coding/writing requirements. But I've always thought Guy's relationship with Nicki is set up to be the core of the game, so having some player agency in how that pans out is really appreciated.
Love the game, looking forward to how things shape up and where the story goes.
