Damn, this thread has been on fire lately and it's getting spicyyyy 
The way I see Nicki, and the other LIs, is that you should look at them as complex characters with lives and experiences outside of the MC. This is how most written works should be, but unfortunately, this is pretty unusual for a VN because most VNs, the characters are written face-value, i.e. what you see is what you get (some VNs do try to have complex characters, but they fumble it imo). So, when you interact with a LI, what you're getting from them in that moment might not fully represent them, i.e. Gabby's attitude in the shop, Gabby's impression of Brit, Ashe's first impressions, and so on.
As the author of a VN writing the whole gamut of reactions, from romance to dark, Neon has an incentive to poke at you the player a little with every character to actually rouse a response, or else no one would care either way, right? Straightforward VNs don't have to do this because they aren't giving you a range of moral decisions to decide on, so they have a bigger incentive to write one-note totally likeable characters. So, in FiN, you're going to have a LI be annoying or stupid about x, but pleasant and enduring about y. As the MC, you get to jump to conclusions and judge/punish them wholly for their flaws, or you can choose to see them as a complicated person that deserves a chance. That's what's so fun about playing it!
Also, you can notice that sometimes the 'poke' from the author isn't how the character behaves, but strictly their identity which.. let's say are sour topics in politics today. There's at least 2 LIs in that category for sure. I won't go further into detail here because I don't want to start a dumb political argument, it's just something that I think is interesting.
Anyways, obviously chp 1's execution can be improved and the author agrees, but Nicki's situation being not quite straightforward is kind of the point and that's what makes the initial decisions so defining for the MC going forward. I don't think the chp 1 remake is going to change this, it's just going to reinforce the friendship aspect so Nicki won't just feel like some random bitch that you work with.
The canon, though, as I see it, is basically that it's a misunderstanding that the MC, especially the corrupt/dark MC, can discover going forward. You realize things about Nicki's personality, or about her thinking, or what her motivations and intentions were at the time, and so on. Same for all the other LIs to different degrees. The MC can dismiss them and continue to justify his actions, but that of course says more about the MC than any of the LIs.
The way I see Nicki, and the other LIs, is that you should look at them as complex characters with lives and experiences outside of the MC. This is how most written works should be, but unfortunately, this is pretty unusual for a VN because most VNs, the characters are written face-value, i.e. what you see is what you get (some VNs do try to have complex characters, but they fumble it imo). So, when you interact with a LI, what you're getting from them in that moment might not fully represent them, i.e. Gabby's attitude in the shop, Gabby's impression of Brit, Ashe's first impressions, and so on.
As the author of a VN writing the whole gamut of reactions, from romance to dark, Neon has an incentive to poke at you the player a little with every character to actually rouse a response, or else no one would care either way, right? Straightforward VNs don't have to do this because they aren't giving you a range of moral decisions to decide on, so they have a bigger incentive to write one-note totally likeable characters. So, in FiN, you're going to have a LI be annoying or stupid about x, but pleasant and enduring about y. As the MC, you get to jump to conclusions and judge/punish them wholly for their flaws, or you can choose to see them as a complicated person that deserves a chance. That's what's so fun about playing it!
Also, you can notice that sometimes the 'poke' from the author isn't how the character behaves, but strictly their identity which.. let's say are sour topics in politics today. There's at least 2 LIs in that category for sure. I won't go further into detail here because I don't want to start a dumb political argument, it's just something that I think is interesting.
Anyways, obviously chp 1's execution can be improved and the author agrees, but Nicki's situation being not quite straightforward is kind of the point and that's what makes the initial decisions so defining for the MC going forward. I don't think the chp 1 remake is going to change this, it's just going to reinforce the friendship aspect so Nicki won't just feel like some random bitch that you work with.
The canon, though, as I see it, is basically that it's a misunderstanding that the MC, especially the corrupt/dark MC, can discover going forward. You realize things about Nicki's personality, or about her thinking, or what her motivations and intentions were at the time, and so on. Same for all the other LIs to different degrees. The MC can dismiss them and continue to justify his actions, but that of course says more about the MC than any of the LIs.
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