Do Variations have a future in MK?

MK-TREMOR

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Despite the fact we haven't got to play every character in this game yet, I think it's safe to critique the variation system and whether or not we think it has a chance to appear in MK11 and so on.

Now I'm kind of torn because I love this idea but didn't feel it was executed as well as it could have been with some of the roster. Reptile, Liu Kang, D'Vorah and some others come to mind. Some variations only differ by just one move or for example taking Raiden's signature Teleport that's been in every single game and splitting that up into a variation. But all in all I did enjoy the variation system and would like to see it return. Characters like Kenshi, Scorpion, Quin Chi, Shinnok, Ferra/Torr,Tekeda etc. all reaped the benefits from this feature.

So going forward do you think they can build off this game and improve the variation system? I'm all for adding combo's and expanded move sets with different characteristics since many fighters have so many possibilities. Do you think it should be split into 3 variations or maybe 2? Discuss.
 
I hope not, I feel like some of the characters variations are poorly done characters feel incomplete. Thats not to say that like you state there are some that were well done.
 
I think it's a very cool feature and I hope they return, but they do need to make sure they're all as well-thought-out as Kenshi or Takeda. Most of the characters feel like they have one extraneous one (Ethereal Mileena, Brood Mother D'Vorah, etc).
 
I like variations since it gives them their own play style and helps reply vaule in the game. I do think we should have variation fatalities where there's a extra fatality based on the variation that you are playing. Maybe they can do that in MK11.
 
I like variations since it gives them their own play style and helps reply vaule in the game. I do think we should have variation fatalities where there's a extra fatality based on the variation that you are playing. Maybe they can do that in MK11.

Someone suggested this on Twitter the other day and Boon did not seem to like the idea.
 
I like the variation system, but at the same time I've played as some characters with the "no variation" version, and they seem to be (to me) just as good or if not more fun to play as (Reptile, Liu Kang, D'Vorah) than their regular variation version.

I honestly wouldn't mind either way, whether or not the variation system makes it back for MK11.
As long as they keep the run / dash mechanic, interactlibles, Brutalities and Stage Brutalities, I'm 100% fine with the variation system being gone in MK11.
MKX has a good mix of MK9, Injustice and MK4, and as far as gameplay goes, I love it.
 
yes they should be in mk11 but characters should only have 2 variations. it seems that a lot of characters have one variation that I don't like or I never want to play as.
 
I love it. I hope it returns tbh. But if it does i dont think they should make those silly adjustments in costumes
 
I won't miss it. Some variations come across as after thoughts and there some overlapping too, including several characters that have a damage buff. I'd rather have 30 separate characters than 20 characters with 3 variations each.
 
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They will be forever one way or another. MKDA-MKA had Variations (albeit a different way). If they could combine the way it was done in the 3D-Era (different Basic Moveset per car) and the way it's done in MKX (Special Moves/Brutalities specific to variations) then I believe the system would be perfect.
 
I'd like for it to return. My concern is if they come back for future games, are we going to get new variations or will characters have some that will be repeated with minor new features added?

I like them because they make the character feel more... what's the word, in depth I think I'm looking for? But I don't want to have Sub-Zero return for the next game and his variations hardly changed or there's like one-two moves added to all three. That will get stale very fast for me.
 
Variations mean less characters, and more ways to play those lesser characters.
That being said, hell no. Let's go back to MK9 style fighting and more characters to choose from instead of more versions of those characters.
 
Variations mean less characters, and more ways to play those lesser characters.
That being said, hell no. Let's go back to MK9 style fighting and more characters to choose from instead of more versions of those characters.

This.

And to be honest the variations are weak.

The only difference in the characters are a couple special moves. At least for ermac it's really disappointing.

Spectral ermac is bad.
Mystic ermac is better than spectral.
Master of Souls is the best.

I feel like in the long run only one variation will end up being played over the others for each character because it's simply better.

Really wish they'd go back to mk9 style and have more special moves, more characters, and no variations. It just felt like laziness to do it the way they did in mkx.
 
This.

And to be honest the variations are weak.

The only difference in the characters are a couple special moves. At least for ermac it's really disappointing.

Spectral ermac is bad.
Mystic ermac is better than spectral.
Master of Souls is the best.

I feel like in the long run only one variation will end up being played over the others for each character because it's simply better.

Really wish they'd go back to mk9 style and have more special moves, more characters, and no variations. It just felt like laziness to do it the way they did in mkx.

Yup.
I'm over 100% sure that if we didn't have variations, Baraka, Sindel, Tanya, Rain, and Fujin would already be on the main roster, with Jason/Pred/other wanted-chars being on the DLC side. Variations really took up too much of a waste. We should've had all these chars already.
And I will only be using 1 variations per char besides Tanya anyway.
 
Yup.
I'm over 100% sure that if we didn't have variations, Baraka, Sindel, Tanya, Rain, and Fujin would already be on the main roster, with Jason/Pred/other wanted-chars being on the DLC side.

I'm not sure how you can be so certain, considering that MKX characters have fewer moves per variation than MK9 characters do total, so clearly a lot of the work that went into variations would have just gone into those same exact characters if this game was similar to MK9. So you can't really say that they ate up too much of the budget.

And there's not a ton of overlap between the people who work on variations and the people who design new characters, besides. Variations don't need much concept art, they don't need any extra voice overs, they don't need brand new models and they certainly don't need new model rigs, sometimes they recycle animations wholesale...

I'm not sure what resources you see that were taken up by producing variations that would have made creating 5-6 new characters possible.
 
I'm not sure how you can be so certain, considering that MKX characters have fewer moves per variation than MK9 characters do total, so clearly a lot of the work that went into variations would have just gone into those same exact characters if this game was similar to MK9. So you can't really say that they ate up too much of the budget.

And there's not a ton of overlap between the people who work on variations and the people who design new characters, besides. Variations don't need much concept art, they don't need any extra voice overs, they don't need brand new models and they certainly don't need new model rigs, sometimes they recycle animations wholesale...

I'm not sure what resources you see that were taken up by producing variations that would have made creating 5-6 new characters possible.

This, exactly. People keep saying this but it doesn't hold up. Creating a variation involves like 3-4 more moves, maybe a couple new combos. It doesn't mean designing, modeling, rigging, planning and balancing an entirely new character with a unique moveset.
 
I'm not sure how you can be so certain,

Because I can be.
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