All the revenants deserve to come back next game!

[Commander]

As much as I like Sub-Zero, if he wasn't in an MK game, yeah it would bug me, but at the same time I would also learn to move on.

Raiden was another favorite of mine during the Trilogy era.
That said, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Scorpion, Kitana, Mileena, Baraka and Reptile were ALL missing from MK3 (for their own separate reasons), and MK3 still ended up being an awesome new game with Cyrax, Sektor, Kabal, Sindel, Stryker and Nightwolf being new and original good playable characters.

How about MK4?
There was no Baraka, Sektor, Cyrax, Mileena, Kitana, Nightwolf, Sheeva, Stryker, Sindel, Smoke or Kabal in MK4 (technically Jarek was Kano with a different name), but it was still a fun MK game and we got Quan Chi, Fujin and Tanya as new and original good playable characters.

Fujin is another favorite of mine, and I'm hoping that he appears in KP2, but if he doesn't, then so be it.
MKX is still an awesome and fun game, regardless.

 

[BBBLP]

Many would disagree with you about MK4 being a good game. I'm not one of them, but they're pretty numerous.

What is your favorite thing about Mortal Kombat? If it was removed from the next game would you be able to move on and accept it?

 

[Imperatrix Sindel]

I'm usually one of those fans who think that death is good and the old characters need to step aside, but after the reveals of Tekkwn 7 and SFV I realized how much of a hypocrite that makes me. Because I am anxiously awaiting and hoping to see the return of Sagat. I couldn't care less about them making any new characters, I just want to see my favorites.

And as for Tekken, I honestly wish they'd stop making new characters all together. Because every one since T6 has been horrible. I've been a huge fan ever since 2 and have owned every game since. But if they were to ever make a Tekken without King I wouldn't even give it a second look. So I can understand the people who clamor for Liu Kang and Kitana game after game, as much as it frustrates me as a fan of the lore

Thank you for saying this, because it's exactly my position.

I love the MK lore and I love to see it advance. Apart from Erron Black, who I kind of feel is a cool dude without much substance beneath the flair, I think the new characters in MKX are great. I look forward to whatever new characters they're gonna add in MKXI (and I think Erron has potential, especially if his assassination of Jax becomes canon).

That said? The characters I -- and most people -- fell in love with are the Trilogy characters. I don't love them all, like I could do without Stryker and Kabal and Nightwolf I guess, but they're the classic cast. They are what I buy Mortal Kombat for. I care about their stories and I want to see them do stuff. There are some 3D characters I like a lot, but Quan Chi and Tanya aside (and MK4/Gold doesn't really count as PS2 3D era, imo -- it was an intermediate step) none of them have really made the jump apart from, recently, Kenshi.

Street Fighter emphasizes the SSF2 cast, with a few of the most popular Alpha characters (Sakura, Rose, etc), in pretty much every iteration. Occasionally they add in a SF3 character for flavor. SF3 was their controversial and less popular period, but some of the characters are great and deserve to hang with the iconic cast. This is a model that I think works. As you point out with Tekken (and I'd add Soul Calibur's most recent iteration to this as well), when you get too far away from the cast people signed up for, it becomes kind of lackluster for those fans. Especially if the characters just aren't as good, which most of the 3D era characters simply weren't imo.

People always go on about how the 3D era characters 'have so much potential that has gone unexplored', but so do the Trilogy characters who weren't front and center back then. Do we really think Nightwolf and Kabal don't have any more stories to tell? Before MK9 they barely had a story at all. Are we really 'over' the Sindel/Kitana relationship and all the potential there? Because we barely ever even saw it, since they were never in a game together apart from UMK3/T and Armageddon, which were 'best-of' updates that didn't really advance the story. Are Reptile and Baraka 'tired jobbers', or are they two of the dramatic otherworldly characters that set Mortal Kombat apart from its rival Street Fighter in the first place?

I don't think we should have the MK9 roster every single time, but I don't think there's anything wrong with emphasizing the cast that has been proven to work.

 

[Commander]

[MENTION=4889]BBBLP[/MENTION]

Not to anyone in specific here (just in general), but the ones who say MK4 seem to be the same ones stuck in the Trilogy era.
Some of those same people would probably say that MK GOLD with Kitana, Mileena, Baraka, Kung Lao, Cyrax and Sektor was even better than MK4, due to who was added.
I think that MK GOLD (red disc, version 2.0) is better, but not because who was in it but because it seemed more polished and balanced than MK4 or GOLD (regular version).

My favorite things in MK are a combination of a few things; gameplay, story, Fatalities, and (sure) certain characters, so it's hard to nail it down to just 1 thing.
The thing is that MK games are usually guaranteed to have at least 2 or 3 out of those 4 things done right, which is why I hated Armageddon.
Gameplay was terrible and characters felt half-assed, Fatalities were generic copy and paste and story was convoluted and full of plot-holes.
MKvsDC was a step up.
Sure, it was missing authentic M-Rated Fatalities, but the gameplay was improved upon from Armageddon and a few familiar faces returned and the story sucked.
If all 4 of those things were missing from MK games; all the famous characters, the gameplay, the story AND the Fatalities, then I could associate better with it, as without those 4 components it wouldn't feel like MK.

I've said tons of times, though, that while Sub-Zero was my favorite character, the mains that I used in MK9 that I got a special place as favorites in MK9 (2nd to Sub-Zero) were Nightwolf and Rain.
That said, I've also said multiple times that I was more than happy to give up Nightwolf and Rain to see some of these new characters shine (like Kotal Kahn being the new native / tribal character in MKX), and part of me even accepted the possibility of no Sub-Zero or Sub-Zero being a cyborg in MKX, even though I couldn't personally stand Cyber-Sub in MK9.
With MKX, sure, I get it that a lot of MK3 favorites didn't return, and I can sympathize with those people, but at the same time there were a handful of post-MK3 characters that didn't even get a 2nd chance, like Fujin, Bo Rai Cho, Li Mei, Frost and Sareena, which were all in story mode.
Whether or not I like all of those characters that I just mentioned, MK9 Kenshi made me a firm believer that just because I disliked a character in the past, doesn't mean that I would dislike their MKX revamp.
After MK9 I came with more of an open mind that just about any character could be made into a good / likeable character.

Again, MK games consist of a few things that make them feel like MK games, to me, and without those things they wouldn't feel like MK, but it would have to be all of those things missing from a game for me not to move on forward and accept it, or skip a game.
The entire roster would have to be missing, the story would also have to be terrible, the gameplay would also have to be terrible and finally it would have to have no finishing moves.
All of that would have to be compiled into 1 game before I would be like "Ok, this doesn't feel like MK, and I'll skip this sequel."

 

[reikoiskahn]

I'm usually one of those fans who think that death is good and the old characters need to step aside, but after the reveals of Tekkwn 7 and SFV I realized how much of a hypocrite that makes me. Because I am anxiously awaiting and hoping to see the return of Sagat. I couldn't care less about them making any new characters, I just want to see my favorites.

And as for Tekken, I honestly wish they'd stop making new characters all together. Because every one since T6 has been horrible. I've been a huge fan ever since 2 and have owned every game since. But if they were to ever make a Tekken without King I wouldn't even give it a second look. So I can understand the people who clamor for Liu Kang and Kitana game after game, as much as it frustrates me as a fan of the lore

I agree with you for the most part on the Tekken stuff but Sergei Dragunov is the truth!

 

[BBBLP]

I agree with you for the most part on the Tekken stuff but Sergei Dragunov is the truth!

He's from Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

 

[Kitty_55]

I wish they would get better writers if they feel that this should be a story-driven fighter. If lore is such a big deal, they need to stop being so vague with things as well as make it to where characters are being directed into a path that doesn't end shortly. Like what Imperatrix stated about how Nightwolf and Kabal doesn't have a lot going for them, I agree.

Nightwolf is such a heavily underrated character, it's horrible at times to realize that the only memorable things about him is that he's a Native American and that he sacrificed himself to kill Sindel. That is it. I don't think people know he's a historian. (Read the debut biography, it states it there if you really didn't know about this)

They make all these cool characters and then they just shove'em away. Every game has a new character in it and most of the time we don't see a lot of stuff happening to them. I say, instead of worrying what kind of characters should return and whatnot, the better thing to do is just focus on writing a hell of a better story for everyone so that we don't necessarily need to worry about if the Trilogy characters are returning or the 3D era.

 

[Imperatrix Sindel]

I thought the story this time out was aces and a good model for the future. Tight storyline, good core character dynamics. Could have used a few more chapters (I would've done one apiece for Mileena, Reptile, and Kenshi) but overall a step in the right direction. The smart thing to do is to focus in on the characters that work and not worry too much about going massively vast. Trilogy cast, the absolute cream of the 3D crop, and the well-received new MKX cast. Don't get distracted.

 

[Commander]

The problem that I have isn't so much just "Trilogy vs post-MK3," but rather WHICH Trilogy cast members didn't get their chance to shine and WHICH post-mk3 characters didn't get their chance to shine, in story mode.
It's shit like that, which irks the hell out of me, when it comes to MK.
It's the same damn characters that are always in the story.
Some of the Trilogy cast in MKX have had a chance at their last hurrah in the game, so how about some of the other Trilogy and post-MK3 characters that didn't get a chance to shine?
Baraka, Fujin, Bo Rai Cho, Sareena, Sindel and Li Mei were all in the game as story fodder for all of 10 seconds each before NRS gave them an unceremonious boot.

The reason why Quan Chi and Kenshi have been 2 of the most notable post-MK3 characters is because Midway (aka NRS) gave them a chance back in the day.
Quan Chi was incorporated as 1 of the central villains in Deadly Alliance and given huge story importance.
He was brought back for MK9 and MKX and also given a more important role, further establishing his place as a character.
The same goes for Kenshi.
He had a role in DA, then another role in Deception, and finally he came back for MK9 as DLC and was given an Ok role in MKX (although they could have expanded on his issues with his son more).
Most of the "henchman" Trilogy characters and most of the other post-MK3 characters never got that chance that Quan Chi did.
How different would things be, though, if some of these characters started getting more chances to shine like just Quan Chi did early on?


- The Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Quan Chi feud has been settled (for now), so I don't see why those 2 (Scorpion and Sub-Zero) can't be cameos in MK11, while still being playable characters on the roster, and Quan Chi can remain dead for now.
He can come back later, but let's have another character step up to the main villain plate.

- The same goes for Mileena.
Mileena got a great chance to shine in MKX, and she got a pretty good hurrah in MKX, so she can be a background cameo / revenant in MK11.

- Raiden got himself 1 last good hurrah in MKX, as well, and now he's the dark overlord / protector of EarthRealm who will obliterate anyone who gets in his way.
IMO, he can also be a secondary / boss type character as well, opening up the doors for Fujin not agreeing with his dark ways and taking matters into his own hands, re-establishing the forces of light with a better head on his shoulders, instead of bat-shit cray cray Raiden.

- Johnny, Sonya, and Jax can sit out for a while, and their kids can continue carrying the story mode torch in MK11.
Cassie stepped up to the plate in MKX.

- You want Baraka not to be a useless punching bag / henchman / kill fodder?
Fine, then give him a role, like ruling over the Tarkatan hordes and going against the main villain, to try to be a ruler himself.

- You want Reptile to stop being a useless henchman?
Then how about him finding his Saurian race (like in his MKX ending) and planning an invasion of 1 or more of the realms?

- You want Sektor to have an important role?
Fine, then how about Frost rebelling against Sub-Zero and putting Sektor back together, and this time in a way that makes him more like an Ultron type of threat?
Hell, maybe Sektor can even reform the Tekunin.

- You want to give Nightwolf an important role?
How about him somehow escaping the NetherRealm in MK11, and going more into detail about him being a shaman?
How about expanding on the fact that Nightwolf becomes a Sin Eater (in Deception), and is able to completely absorb evil energies whilst retaining his psyche and using that in MK11?
Why can't that be incorporated into the story somehow or even be used to set some of the dead / revenant MKX characters free, now that Quan Chi is dead?

- You want Styker to be more than just an EarthRealm cop?
I can't think of an example off the top of my head right now, but how giving him a more important role?

- You want Shang Tsung to be a more badass character in MK11?
Fine, then how about not making him someone else's puppet and making him a proper villain, for once, with his own motives?

- How about giving Ferra / Torr and Erron Black more story importance than just being punching bags?
The most interesting info on Erron Black is in his ending, and for now we don't even know if it's canon or not.
Even after reading the comics, I still was left scratching my head, regarding Ferra / Torr.

 

[BBBLP]

I honestly wish they'd get rid of the grand, all encompassing story mode in favor of each character getting a smaller story mode. Like each character getting about 3-4 chapters. Help out the fans of the jobbers man. Ferra/Torr would have been amazing in story mode if they had more spotlight. The comic relief for the villains' side

 

[Commander]

Agreed.
Some better developed stories for characters like Reptile, Baraka, Ermac, Kitana, Sindel, Kabal, Nightwolf, Jade and Enenra / Smoke would be nice.
Actually, I think Smoke / Enenra has a good story arc that they could expand / build upon on in the next game.
I was also so hyped to get to know more about Ferra / Torr's story, prior to MKX coming out, but then nothing.
After Chapter 1, Fujin was gone.
Bo Rai Cho spoke with Raiden for a little bit, then he was gone / implied to have been killed (whether that's true or not is unknown).

I honestly think that 1 of the main reasons that I honestly never cared much for some of the other jobbers like Baraka and Ermac was because NRS never gave me a reason to care for them.
Sure, they're cool characters with cool moves, but I wasn't ever invested in them like I was with some of the other characters.
The same goes for Sindel and Rain.
Cool characters in concept, but they're always someone else's lapdog / right-hand.
Fujin is probably my exception to the jobber that I liked, essentially because "wind god" and the potential to be Raiden's successor.

 

[Kitty_55]

I'm betting that Ferra Torr isn't going to be in the next game. Which would fvcking suck on my end since I enjoyed the crap out of them.

The cutest pair of characters ever made for this series. How could you not like them holding hands?

 

[BBBLP]

I remember when their win pose got described. I was searching youtube everyday just to find it.


How would you guys feel if their ending was canon and Ferra became the brute with a Lil Torr on her back? I don't think I'd mind it tbh, as long as they're still represented. And yooo, what if Big Ferra kept Torr's mask on her shoulder or something to remember him? So sick, please don't get rid of them

 

[Noob-Zer013]

I think if Erron Black returns, they should design him more of a Mad Max/Outworld version of a cowboy instead of a plain cowboy. I don't know why they didn't go that direction in the first place.

 

[Commander]

I'm betting that Ferra Torr isn't going to be in the next game. Which would fvcking suck on my end since I enjoyed the crap out of them.

Sadly, I also think that this will be the case, and it sucks because it seems that people are treating Ferra / Torr like the Hsu Hao (who the general fanbase mostly hate) of MKX, just because NRS did a poor job of developing their backstory, as characters.
That's another character who fell victim to poor backstory development; Hsu Hao.

 

[Kitty_55]

I remember when their win pose got described. I was searching youtube everyday just to find it.


How would you guys feel if their ending was canon and Ferra became the brute with a Lil Torr on her back? I don't think I'd mind it tbh, as long as they're still represented. And yooo, what if Big Ferra kept Torr's mask on her shoulder or something to remember him? So sick, please don't get rid of them

Definitely would love to continue seeing the concept keep rolling with Ferra being in Torr's place for the next game.

 

[Suisari]

Sindel, Kitana & Liu Kang

 

[ninja]

Sadly, I also think that this will be the case, and it sucks because it seems that people are treating Ferra / Torr like the Hsu Hao (who the general fanbase mostly hate) of MKX, just because NRS did a poor job of developing their backstory, as characters.
That's another character who fell victim to poor backstory development; Hsu Hao.

more like, victim of an abysmal design where the brute looks generic and there's just a kid on his back. they could have executed a duo character so much better and they went for THIS, it has nothing to do with their backstory, people hate those two because they look lame

 

[Sgt. Stryker]

more like, victim of an abysmal design where the brute looks generic and there's just a kid on his back. they could have executed a duo character so much better and they went for THIS, it has nothing to do with their backstory, people hate those two because they look lame

So you're saying that Ferra/Torr aren't popular fighters in MKX because their designs are lame?.....

In that case, Kano and Quan Chi would like to say hi.

 

[Kitty_55]

more like, victim of an abysmal design where the brute looks generic and there's just a kid on his back. they could have executed a duo character so much better and they went for THIS, it has nothing to do with their backstory, people hate those two because they look lame

What in the world are you talking about? Looks has nothing to do with how much a character is played. It's all based on their gameplay. I really didn't care for Kitana's look, but did that stop me from playing her? Absolutely not. You have to be some sort of dummy to not play a character based solely on the appearance of a character instead of basing it on its gameplay.