So do you still believe Rain will make it?
I'm
really torn on that one. The leaks I've read were 50/50 on Rain, but no one had seen a render of him, whereas they were pretty confident that both Shang and Mileena were unlocks, and a few said Shinnok was - and note, this is some time before the fake Shinnok screenshot was posted.
The leak said that the Krypt was now huge and had much more to do in it, and was divided into sectors; Shang Tsung's Island was one sector (the main, I assume) and Shang himself could be unlocked by completing it (or possibly the entire Krypt). Given what we saw yesterday, this leak now seems highly plausible, and it's possible that Shang either wasn't finished in time to be on the base roster or WB simply believed he'd be too good an opportunity to pass up as DLC.
It was also said that Rain was tied to the Edenia sector and Mileena to the Outworld sector - if we get confirmation from future trailers or leaks that the Krypt does indeed contain those places, then that's very good news for Rain and Mileena being Krypt unlocks.
There's also the fact that Rain is obviously popular in terms of polling (especially after being an NPC in MKX) and when Boon did his 'who do you want back for MK 11?' poll, Rain was IIRC 2nd after Noob, with Baraka and Kabal being the other options. Those three are all now confirmed for MK 11.
We had absolutely
no idea what the Krypt would be like in MK 11, we just assumed it'd be bigger and better based on the comments NRS had made. For someone to 'leak' that the Krypt contained Shang Tsung's Island and that Shang Tsung himself be tied to it as an unlock would be, IMO, a huge and very lucky coincidence if they were just making shit up and hadn't actually seen early builds of this stuff.
Given the 29 slot roster on the website and Shang now being confirmed as DLC, this is my bet as of now:
- The Krypt is made up of three or four sectors, with Shang Tsung's Island being the main/central area from which to navigate to the others.
- The three sectors are Outworld, Edenia and the Netherrealm (Earthrealm could also possibly be one?)
- The Krypt contains loads of stuff (skins, gear, concept art, custom moves, music, etc.) but also new characters: Mileena (Outworld), Rain (Edenia) and Shinnok (the Netherrealm).
- This would give you a 29-slot roster: 24 base + 1 story mode unlock + Shao Kahn + 3 Krypt unlocks
Yes, this could all be wrong and I am fully prepared for there to be no Krypt character unlocks, but given the way they've been teasing it this time, and the fact that Shang Tsung's Island was specifically mentioned to be the main part of the Krypt, with Shang unlocked in it (which I think they very probably considered earlier in development) I'm willing to be open-minded here.
Arguments against this would be that we've not seen leaked renders of Rain, Mileena or Shinnok (who looks like an NPC in the story mode prologue), but on the other hand we never saw a leaked render of Shang, who is confirmed, and we've still never seen a leaked render of Jax, who several leaks now seem to have all but confirmed.
Is this wishful thinking? Yes, certainly, but if you put some of the leaks together with the roster size on the website - which cannot be base roster + KP1 because it's not enough slots - then I think it bodes well.