river city girls 2 marian unlock
Image via Wayforward/Arc System Works

How to Unlock Marian in River City Girls 2

Ab-tastic.

If you played the original Double Dragon games at all, you may remember Marian, Billy Lee’s (and occasionally Jimmy Lee’s) girlfriend who gets slugged in the stomach at the start. Turns out she got tired of all the stomach-punching and hostage-holding, so she reinvented herself as a proper butt-kicker with awesome abs. With a bit of footwork, you can play as her in River City Girls 2! Here’s how to unlock Marian in River City Girls 2.

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How to Unlock Marian in River City Girls 2

Adding Marian to your merry posse is the main goal of the Downtown section of River City’s map. When Kyoko and Misako first enter the area, they get the word about a buff lady keeping the peace, but she’d recently gone missing.

Related: How to Get Through Witchy Woods in River City Girls 2

Follow the map northward until you eventually come to the subway entrance, former home of Abobo’s gang. The power’s out and you can’t enter, but if you go to Junk City and talk to Williams at the map’s highest point, he’ll give you a quest to repair the district’s three power generators.

  • The Coffee Shop
  • Skid Street
  • Top floor of the apartments

You’ll need to visit these three locations and use the nearby wrench to smack the generators back into working order. You’ll be screen locked until they’re fixed, so don’t bother fighting the mooks. Once the generators are fixed, return to Williams to turn in his quest and get your reward.

Battling Marian

river city girls 2 power box
Image via Wayforward/Arc System Works

With the power restored, you can enter the subway, located west of Junk City. Make your way through, and you’ll eventually encounter Marian, though she doesn’t seem to be quite in her right mind. You’ll need to fight her to return her to her senses.

Marian is a powerful combatant, employing sweeping blows with heavy knockback. Wait until she takes her swings, then rush in and lay down a combo. You can get a little extra damage in by launching her and air juggling, but don’t hang around when she gets back up.

When she changes phase, she’ll pound the ground to drop some blocks, then flood the room with sludge. Stand on the blocks to stay out of the sludge, then jump between them to avoid the explosive barrels she throws. The sludge will drain when she’s finished, and you can get back to fighting her normally. In her last phase, she’ll perform several sweeping punches across the room, which you’ll need to jump over until she runs out of steam. Also, when she floods the room, she’ll start throwing two exploding barrels at once, so try to stay on the center block and quickly jump to the safe one.

Once you defeat Marian, she’ll snap out of her brainwashing and agree to join your cause. You can swap to her from the character select screen or at any hideout. FYI, all those crazy heavy moves you just saw her do? You can totally do them yourself.

Author
Image of Daniel Trock
Daniel Trock
Since the first time he picked up a controller as a child, Daniel has been a dyed-in-the-wool gaming fanatic, with a Steam library numbering over 600 games. His favorite pastime, aside from playing games, is doing deep dives on game wikis to learn more about their lore and characters.