Anyone Else Disappointed With the Story Mode?

I forgot about Kitana. She's another, and granted popularity plays a huge role for these three, they could have at least found a way to make them relevant to the story rather than just putting them there. Sub-Zero didn't really have a super impressive story, but they at least did something to make him relevant. So it shouldn't be hard for the writers to do the same to the other characters. And just to be perfectly clear, neither Kitana, Ermac, nor Reptile are in my top five favorites.

I was really hoping there'd be something between she and Mileena and the only chance I get that is when they're both fighting against each other. That's it. I don't remember if Mileena even stated anything about Kitana in the story. And these two were somewhat heavily involved in the last game's story. I get that Mileena is the poster chick and they'll practically do anything for her rise to fame, but they could have at least given Kitana somewhat of an equal amount of fame as well.

This would literally be the thing that I'd change with the story. Either give the characters that had little to no significance to the story to actually have significance or get rid of them entirely and replace them with either a character that could do something with the role, or create brand new characters and do something completely new.

And to be honest, I'd choose the new characters.
 
I liked the story. I mean, it wasn't as fleshed out as MK9, but the story was serviceable. A few things that I felt could have been done better:

The cosmic threat. Each conflict seemed so isolated and small. Shinnok, though REALLY god damned spooky, didn't really make me feel as if Earthrealm was in any real danger. I don't think it helps your story if you start it off with your big bad being defeated in the first chapter. That reduced Shinnok from an eminent and terrible threat even worse than Shao Kahn into a persistent little shit who didn't know when to leave well enough alone. We watch Johnny Cage total Shinnok and then we go through these other stories where basically it's made clear that Shinnok was going to return... just to go back to getting his ass beat again by another Cage. Why tell the same story in 14 chapters if you told the whole story in 1 chapter and the first chapter at that?

What SHOULD have happened was that Shinnok gets wrecked by JC and the amulet becomes some beacon of power and the story SHOULD have revolved around the Outworld Civil War with factions lead by Mileena, Kotal, Reiko, and Quan Chi trying to get the amulet for his own purposes. And in the end, Havik should have been the big bad that capitalized on the Outworld civil war and it was the meddling of Havik, Erron Black, and Kano that gets Earthrealm wrapped up in the Outworld Civil War cluster****. That would have been a much more interesting story. But instead, we got the same story told twice. o_0
 
It could've and should've been longer for sure but I thought the story was still enjoyable especially the bigger battles shame they took out tag mode though thought that was fun in MK9
 
Slightly dissapointed with the storyline. Now of course im not expecting 4 hours worth like action adventure game.

1) there surely had to be more chapters, this wasnt enough what we had.

2) i was hoping khan would come across much harder and tougher, gets beating by kung jin and jackie...come on. I would prefer if he beat shinnok in the ending rathr than cassie. Cassie doesnt look legitimate to beat shinnok seriously?

3) reiko shouldv been in the game as a sub boss in.some part of the story, aftr u beat him u face him in his demonic form just like the comic.

4) what was the point of having liu kang, kitana in normal skins in this game? Plus liu shouldve come across much stronger. IMO I wouldve had him as a secret boss like shadow jago from killer instinct
 
I enjoyed MKX story for the most part. The 4 new heroes seem pretty cool Takeda being my fav of the bunch. I felt that they didnt use Kotal to his full potential....... When characters like Ermac, and reptile where announced I was kinda irked because I really did not want to see a lot of the ninja inspired characters in this game, but I got over it because I assumed that they where going to have an important part in the story. I now realized they were put in due to popularity and now it kinda irks me again because I feel that they weren't used to they're full potential hell Im not a fan of Rain and Tanya but I prefer they were playable at least they had a motive (Rain having a very predictable and uninspired motive) but still a motive. Now as for the whole what if skins for kang, kitana, and lao i was annoyed at first but i quickly got over it. As a Liu Kang fan i came to realize that I prefer a dead young Liu Kang over an alive old Liu Kang. (as much as awesome the old version looks. It also gives them a reason to keep Liu in the games if they do decided to bring him back to life) Im looking forward to The dark emperor and empress and what they will bring to the next game. .Oh yeah also that D'vorah scene was kinda gross I seriously hope no one thought that was hot.......
 
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I enjoyed some of the cinematics and even found the odd scene quite moving, but it was all a bit superficial; it raised more questions than it answered, went off at weird tangents and felt unfinished. Also, as someone else said, it felt like the entire plot was done in the first chapter, and then just repeated and stretched out over the next eleven.

It was a good story, but they could have done so much better with the source material and characters available to them.

7/10.
 
Damn! What a bunch of haters! I am amazed by the high levels of hate people can harbor, some of them don't even know how to write characters' names correctly, but in the other hand, i've readed some cool stuff here, some of you guys know best :)

To be honest, i am disappointed too... But not 'cause i found the story mode awful or shitty, actually it was 'cause i wanted MORE! It was so GREAT that i didn't want it to end. I really loved it, REALLY LOVED IT <3

For me, it wasn't perfect, but not because of things many people listed here, but 'cause i wanted the chapters to be way longer, so we really felt the struggle between Kotal and Mileena when he overthrew her for example, or Sub Zero VS the Cyber Lin Kuei and stuff like that, things that IMO deserved a little spotlight and explanation.

But inspite of my harsh feelings about it, the positive things are more, and due to the fact i played all yesterday's afternoon with a smile on my face:


10/10
 
Kotal was a push-over during the whole thing. I really expected more from him. Kitana, Kung Lao, and Liu Kang didn't have their fleshed out "rise to power." (And apparently all three of them are evil from now on.) D'vorah being a double agent. (The most cliché part of the story.) Cassie beat Shinnok? Really?

The only parts I liked were Johnny's scenes and when Scorpion got his sweet vengeance.
 
Got my friend to play through some of it; endured it for about 90 minutes; stopped out of boredom; can hardly remember anything that took place!

Moral:
A story mode is all fine and dandy in a fighting game. But fighting games are about gameplay, roster and content -- no story mode can distract from these integral areas.
 
Story was fairly decent if you ask me. I really enjoyed it, I wanted to play only some of it but I couldn't stop playing because I was too interested. I didn't like that it was so short. Didn't like how Quan Chi is able to get beat up so easily, and also didn't like that a character like Cassie can be an elder god LOL.. Shinnok didn't kill anyone and that is a shame. I was hoping he'd kill Johnny at least. Raiden becoming a douchebag is cool and all but I'll never be able to view him being as badass and Quan Chi or shinnok. Oh and fujin should've been in there more...
 
I thought the story mode was mediocre. Short, relatively easy, predictable story arc, and with some characters that seemed like shoe-ins and not used to their actual potential (Reptile, especially lookin' at you). That said, some dialogue was quite on-point and some character's personality really managed to shine. If I were to rate the story mode as its own entity, I would give it 5/10 -- disappointing, but it had its moments.
 
I agree it was a short story and some fights didn't make any sense compared to the power levels between the characters, but to be honest, even not pleased, the story takes on a new take with Liu Kang and kitana being bad, dark raiden "smoother" compared to original timeline, and for the first time, sex didn't sell, the game did sell with fighting only.
 
I actually really enjoyed the story mode,
I thought the cut-scenes and the presentation of the story mode was much better then MK9,
BUT, I did feel that MKX story mode was kinda short and TOO EASY.
Where MK9 felt like it increased in difficulty the farther a-long you got, MKX felt the same from start to finish (as far as difficulty)

Also, I didn't like how some of the more powerful characters in the game got their asses handed to them so easily,
Johnny Cage knocked out Quan Chi with one punch? Couldn't he [Quan Chi] have used some sorcery to escape from those chains?
Kung Jin & Jacqueline Briggs defeat and humiliate Kotal Kahn with ease? I doubt an emperor of Outworld would be taken down so easily.
And really, Cassie Cage defeats Corrupted Shinnok? How is it an elder god can be defeated so easily?
And it's not so much that Cassie Cage is the one to defeat him, I can swallow it, it's that the boss fight was SOOOO EASY!

Sure, Shao Kahn in MK9 was cheap, but at-least you felt pride & accomplishment when you beat him (in story mode),
Fighting Corrupted Shinnok just felt like fighting any-other NPC in the story mode.
 
I actually really enjoyed the story mode,

I thought the cut-scenes and the presentation of the story mode was much better then MK9,

BUT, I did feel that MKX story mode was kinda short and TOO EASY.

Where MK9 felt like it increased in difficulty the farther a-long you got, MKX felt the same from start to finish (as far as difficulty)



Also, I didn't like how some of the more powerful characters in the game got their asses handed to them so easily,

Johnny Cage knocked out Quan Chi with one punch? Couldn't he [Quan Chi] have used some sorcery to escape from those chains?

Kung Jin & Jacqueline Briggs defeat and humiliate Kotal Kahn with ease? I doubt an emperor of Outworld would be taken down so easily.

And really, Cassie Cage defeats Corrupted Shinnok? How is it an elder god can be defeated so easily?

And it's not so much that Cassie Cage is the one to defeat him, I can swallow it, it's that the boss fight was SOOOO EASY!



Sure, Shao Kahn in MK9 was cheap, but at-least you felt pride & accomplishment when you beat him (in story mode),

Fighting Corrupted Shinnok just felt like fighting any-other NPC in the story mode.


Agreed. But corrupted shinnok in my opinion was even cheaper than shao khan, because he used a full screen blast, at least shao khan had to move to do couple things, but regardless, I love the fact that we moved on from shao khan
 
I don't understand the ending when Raiden feeds the head to the revenants, at least MK9 had a cliff hanger and somebody dying. Corrupted Shinnok was cool and totally unexpected for me, I thought we would just fight the main costume version with red eyes / stronger. The whole Kotal Kahn era is rushed a bit, the ending comes way too soon and there's only 12 chapters. I thought somebody said around 20? There doesn't seem to be any story after this, only something rehashed like the dragon king coming back to reclaim his throne and going against Raiden.

The biggest disappointment is no real merger of realms or anything close to that. They need to change the set-up of story mode, character driven is just not the way to go. Also way too many lose ends, anybody cares to tell me who died and what supposedly happened to whom? I have no clue what happens with the revenants, where Fujin is, if Bo Rai Cho died or not etc. Also no mention of Goro, kind of weird but okay. Seems like lazy writing and I rather have more characters and no story mode in the future, it's a fighting game anyway.
 
I beat the story mode in one sitting myself.

The only complaints I can really make is I still haven't been convinced by these new characters. I think its mostly their attitudes. Mostly Takeda and Kung Jin. As characters, I think their concepts are great. I just think Kung Jin should be more serious. He's dressed like a monk with a dragon bow but he talks like Johnny Cage, similar to how I feel with Takeda. The young confidense is fine but something bugs me about it. Kung Lao and Liu Kang were a bit stoic and more solemn in their prime. Obviously, though, Cassie has the right to be mouthy by birth.

Nothing major, I just still haven't warmed up to these new kids.

Even though I wanted nothing more than to see Quan Chi convicted by Scorpion, I found myself upset when Quan Chi died. Wasn't even a fight if I remember right. He just executes him. I also wanted to see Kuai Liang have more involvement with Quan Chi's death. He kind of deserved too but maybe Kuai had let go of that a long time ago.

Anyways, those are my minor nitpicking. The story was amazing regardless. I hope if the kids take the spotlight again, that they mature.. a lot. :laugh:
 
I thought it'd make more sense for me to beat the story mode before posting my comments.

Although I had spoiled the game for myself, I still feel it was a great story-mode as compared to the past. The biggest strength I'd say was the cinematic feel to the entire thing - the execution was phenomenal and I doubt they could surpass this.

Yet content-wise - it was lacking. Not terrible, but there were definitely areas where it could have been improved. In wasn't that bad in the beginning, but the ping-ponging in between flashbacks etc became a tad too much by the time we got to Raiden (baring Scorpion and Sonya's flashback, I doubt anyone else's made that much of an impact, tbf).

Secondly, there was incongruency in between the roster and the storymode, one which just screams lost opportunities to me. NPCs, including Tanya and Rain have a far greater role and impact on the storymode than half the roster - yet they're not playable as of yet. Erron Black, Mileena, Ferra/Torr, Ermac all deserved their own separate chapters to flesh out the Outworld perspective. Takeda remains the only kid whos parent wasn't featured in a chapter - which is a massive loss of opportunity for me. Kenshi's back story is extremely relevant to this game, and far more interesting than some of the others - how did he manage to break the Sento? Why is he possessed? How did he 'help' Scorpion out? I believe they should have had a 'netherrealm war arc' where such questions would have been dealt with, rather than treating him as a 'good' jobber. (Having said that, I kinda liked him better in the original timeline - where he was more self-absorped and neutral than the goody-two shoes that he is now.. but that's just me).

The same goes for Mileena. Her motivations, her struggles, the impact of the amulet on her - all should have been explored in greater detail. Dare I say it, I actually felt bad for her towards the end. I wouldn't mind if the fights per chapter were reduced to 3, but a more cohesive storymode should have been on the lines, imo. This, especially because some of the chapters felt like mere beat'em ups with minimal impact on the story - Takeda (post-flashback), Sub-Zero, Jax, Jacqui especially come to mind. This was work that a cinematic could have dealt with, and within themselves, they added very little to the storymode or the development of the characters in themselves. It's a fighting game, we have a gazillion fighting options outside the storymode, with the faction war, and towers, etc. etc. What we don't need is for the 'fighting' aspect to dominate over the storymode in such a way that it diminishes the value and worth of important characters.

Lastly, in general - there was just not the same sense of loss, of fear or impending doom in this game. Maybe it was because Shinnok was beaten in the first chapter, or idk. But I never truly felt that loss of control of the proceedings as a player - it's sort of a ringer, actually. Once you're constantly reminded about how bad it would be if Shinnok corrupted the Jinsei without feeling the escalation of tensions yourself, sort of shows that there's been ineffective writing in the middle that has failed to impact the player.

These pretty much cover my reservations. But all in all, I did enjoy the storymode, and would definitely replay it once or twice more down the line. Having said that, I will also state that this game is quite literally a game-changer for NRS. With the success of MKX, they have established themselves as leading the fighting games niche for now. And story-mode has been a fundamental aspect in ensuring this success. For the next MK game, it'd be better if they do not repeat the same mistakes, or feel that they can be lazy with the storymode (and let the comics handle the gaps, or whatever).

7/10
 
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