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NRS should really respect the 3D era characters more

mattteo

mattteo

Noob
I didn't want to create this polemic thread, but after reading some of the bad arguments a few posters around here have about the 3D era characters, I actually have to do it. See what the sunshines will have to say now. I actually doubt that the people saying "the 3D era almost killed Mortal Kombat" even played those games and I think most of them jumped on the bandwagon after the reboot. I;ve been playing this game since 1993 or 1994 on arcades when I was just a little boy. I grew up with it and I have to say that a better story than the one unfolded in the 3D era I have never seen in Mortal Kombat. Not even John Tobias' inventions don;t top what the writers in the 3D era did.

And speaking of the charcaters, let's take the poster boy of the original trilogy of Mortal Kombat games, Scorpion, and put him against the poster boy of he 3D era games, Kenshi. Yes, the specter from Hell who throws a spear out of his hand is cool, but the blind swordsman who also has telekinetic powers would be my pick. I just think Kenshi is cooler.

And the second poster boy of the original era, Sub-Zero, against the most requested character from the 3D era, Fujin. Now that's a battle I'd like to see- ice vs wind. Sure, I find Sub-Zero really, really cool, but Fujin for me is an amazing potential. Just look at these art and what NRS could do with him:

http://www.game-art-hq.com/59217/mortal-kombat-art-tribute-fujin-alt-costume-from-mortal-kombat-armageddon/ (click on this)



Raiden or Shinnok? Who do you prefer? Honestly, the goody-2-shoes, incoherent and incompetent Raiden is not a match for the evil Shinnok. His powers and gameplay are better too.

Shao Kahn vs Onaga? Ok, Shao Kahn takes this one, but barely, as Onaga is cool too.

Noob Saibot or Reiko? Reiko was at first created for MK4 instead of Noob Saibot, that's why I'm making the comparison. Fine, Noob Saibot is better, but hasn't had some story development since MK Mythologies. Reiko has become an intelligent, arrogant, powerful General who was worshiped by both Mileena and Skarlet and kicked the ass of Jax in the comic.

https://imgur.com/vVjyxVk (click on this)

https://www.deviantart.com/camila181/art/Reiko-Mortal-Kombat-X-533857323 (click on this)

Meanwhile, all the Noob Saibot art you can make is of a guy dressed in black.

Shang Tsung vs Quan Chi? The main sorcerers from the 2 eras. Which one is better? Many of you will say Shang Tsung, but for me, Quan Chi is the better one. He is far more cunning, far superior in magic (except for the soul stealing). He was actually the last man standing after Deadly Alliance and would have practically been the winner had it not been for Onaga, which he could not have anticipated.


He also wins against Shang Tsung on other media:


Let's see, what else....?

Sonya vs Tanya? No question for me, despite Sonya being the original one, her personality has become so infectious and annoying that all she does is practically hate Johnny Cage and Kotal Kahn for no reason. Tanya is a wonderful character, well written, even though traitorous.

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/sonya-blade/images/17686788/title/mortal-kombat-4-w-tanya-photo (click on this)

Mileena or Sareena? Ok, Mileena is a fan-favourite that Sareena could never live up to. But even Sareena's concept of a good demoness from the Netherrealm is very good. The sad part of her arc is awesome, like the time when Kuai Liang woke up and saw her demon form and fought her away without knowing that she had saved him (I told you they had good writers in the 3D era)


Kitana or Li Mei? Ok, this is hands down Kitana. Li Mei was probably made to be a new protagonist, alongside Kenshi, but it didn't really work out as she's just stereotypically the Asian woman fighter.

Johnny Cage or Havik? Personally, I prefer Havik. For me, he brings much more to the story. Others would think Johnny Cage is more fun. Meh.....I think they could do a lot with Havik if they just made him playable. Johnny is so requested because he's just been so hyped in the last years. If they hyped Havik it would work out the same. I remember when Johnny was just comic relief and people were branding him as a powerless combatant (even though one of the original ones). When Raiden was left with just Johnny and Sonya at the end of MK9, people were like "We're fu**ed f that's all Raiden's got left."

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/sonya-blade/images/22090373/title/mk-9-story-mode-screencap (click on this)

Meanwhile, Havik has pretty much grown to be a very appreciated character with just the good writing of Shawn Kittelsen, Imagine him being actually playable.

https://www.deviantart.com/genius-spirit/art/MKvsDCU-My-Version-Havik-The-Joker-425936505 (click on this)

I could make more, like Liu Kang vs Taven or Reptile vs Drahmin, or Rain vs Daegon or Kabal vs Mavado and yeah, the original charcaters have the edge on these ones, but the 3D ones aren;t horrible either, there's much potential there (just read the latest Luiz Mictian Mortal Kombat comic and see what he was able to do with Daegon).

http://www.game-art-hq.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Taven-MKA-MK-Tribute-on-GAHQ-by-grace-zed.jpg (click on this)

http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Drahmin?file=Legend_of_Drahmin.jpg (click on this)

https://twitter.com/LuizMictian/status/1080535399997624320 (click on this)

http://www.game-art-hq.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Mavado-MKDA-Bio-Alt.jpg (click on this)

In fact, I'd arrange the 3D characters this way:


Amazing, maybe Top 15 Mortal Kombat of all times:

Kenshi
Quan Chi
Tanya

Others we can probably agree are great and should be in the game:

Fujin
Havik
Sareena
Reiko
Ashrah
Daegon
Onaga

Some are good and could me made to work:

Bo'Rai Cho
Drahmin
Taven
Frost
Hotaru
Kai
Kira
Li Mei
Mavado
Nitara

The only truly bad ones were just 4:

Hsu Hao
Kobra
Jarek
Darrius

You really can say the same thing about the original trilogy, which also had some truly bad ones.

And the Hsu Hao hate was just a meme. Yes, he was bad, but also somewhat fun, I wouldn't say he's so horrible to be called the worst MK character ever. I'm just sorry people are acting like a herd and just pick it up and then say it again until it become serious even though it was just something the NRS team made a joke about back when they were doing Armageddon.


Now, to each their own, I'm not trying to create a fight here, but I think they should just get more respect. And by NRS out of everyone the most. They completely ignore them and just think that only the original charcaters have fans. Yeah, ok, Sonya has fans, I respect that. You want her in the game? Fine, good for you. But why do some people say bad sh*t about other people's 3D era favourites? Why can;t they get a turn and it always has to be the same characters for games in a row??
 
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Law Hero

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
I feel the same, I wish they'd get more love. That being said, I think many people (including NRS) see the 3D era games as the "Star Wars Prequels" of Mortal Kombat, and like to either totally shit on them or pretend they don't exist.

That aside, nice post, and I hope we see a couple of 3D reps that aren't Kenshi this time around.
 
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NeonGroovyGator

NeonGroovyGator

Vampire mommy simp
I mean, in terms of lore the 3D era was really really good imo.
Which is such a shame. A bunch of cool backstories and characters with a lot of potential wasted.
I have trouble understanding the hate for the 3D games. The gameplay wasn't as solid or competitive as the older ones, obviously, but I don't think it was that bad. Too many changes at once perhaps?
I wouldn't get my hopes up though. MK11 seems like the final step to completely bury the 3D era and move on with the story. As a gamer it's great because the games are better than ever and (some of) the new characters are awesome, but as a lore nerd the amount of potential lost is really really sad.

EDIT: also the Konquest mode in MKD is some of the most fun I've ever had with MK, but it's more for the exploration and story than anything else, so the new story mode kind of does that for me too. I'd be happier with a new MKSM-like addition to the franchise though.
 
mattteo

mattteo

Noob
Dankster Morgan said:
Kenshi and Quan Chi are the only good 3D characters, everyone else sucks
Click to expand...
You say that because they're the only ones who have been playable recently. If you had played as the other 3D era characters in MKX and got to know them in a new design, you'd have counted them too.
 
Error404

Error404

Noob
How can you not respect them? They are incredible! Between literally "Meat" , generic-vampire-chick , mostly-naked-mace-guy . And the greatest one of them all. The best. Goddamn Bo Rai Cho. The comedic character , that is not actually funny. Unless , you know , you're that type that finds out of context , random fart-jokes funny.
Yeah , I think I'll pass.
 
mattteo

mattteo

Noob
Pterodactyl said:
People like this make threads like these more for their own ego than actually accomplishing anything.
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"People like these"? You're a talker. What kind of people am I, smarty pants? What threads do you consider of importance? Go and spend time on them then, don;t come here if you don;t care.

I think there a lot of fans here who do care about the 3D era charcaters. Don;t know if we're going to make a difference, but at least we can have a thread where we can unite and talk about it.
 
Pterodactyl

Pterodactyl

Plus on block.
mattteo said:
"People like these"? You're a talker. What kind of people am I, smarty pants? What threads do you consider of importance? Go and spend time on them then, don;t come here if you don;t care.

I think there a lot of fans here who do care about the 3D era charcaters. Don;t know if we're going to make a difference, but at least we can have a thread where we can unite and talk about it.
Click to expand...
Oh I think they should certainly return and retouch some of the 3D characters and capitalize on their potential.

But I also think your original essay was terrible and counterproductive in getting what you want done. It really came off as you just wanting to rant more than actually make a plea to the developers.

Just being honest with you, no hard feelings

 
Gamer68

Gamer68

Fujin!
I don't really think that comparing Trilogy characters to 3D characters is fair, like the Johnny vs. Havik thing. Those characters are very different in comparison, same can be said about Sonya vs. Tanya. Different personalities, different movesets, for different types of players.

With that being said, yes, I wish NRS would stop ignoring most of their characters. With the way MK11's roster is shaping up it looks like most of the MKX characters aren't going to be in the game, which is surprising... the entire point of MKX was "passing the torch" but it seems that they aren't going to give most of the characters in that game a second chance. I'm sure a couple of them will show up in this game, and the ones that were left out will be in MK12 or something, but ALL of them not being back in the direct sequel would be pretty weird. Jacqui and Kung Jin specifically had some pretty big design problems (mostly generic), but I felt like those things could have been fixed in a sequel but nope, seems they are going to be left out. What's worse is that there's a pretty good chance that D'Vorah won't be back even though she is arguably the best newcomer in that game, but Cassie's back? Don't get me wrong, I actually liked Cassie and considering the story she is important, but I think in the long run people like D'Vorah as character more -- and to be honest she fits MK better.

I LOVE the Trilogy characters, and when a game lacks them (especially the MK3 ones) it can feel pretty bad. This was MKX's problem. New characters aren't bad and even if they are they can be improved upon, but when you leave out characters like Baraka, Sindel, Noob Saibot, Jade, Kabal, Smoke, Cyrax, Sektor, Rain, Shang Tsung, and characters that were just introduced in the previous game (Skarlet), and characters that haven't been in a game in a while (Fujin, Sareena, Havik, etc), THEN there is a problem.

I really think MKX's roster would have been better if they were able to get in more characters at launch. We don't know MK11's roster yet and maybe they got some real surprises up their sleeves, but my gut is that the same is going to be said about that game. People will probably like it more in comparison to MKX because there will be more klassics, but I think there's still going to be characters that feel obviously missing.

Of course this entire post so far has mainly been about MKX characters, but my point is that it seems that NRS doesn't treat a lot of their characters the way that I wish they did, and I do feel they end up falling back onto the same MK1-MK2 characters over and over again. It's been hard for me to get excited about Geras because I would be surprised he gets left out of MK12 and doesn't show up again until MK13's Kombat Pack DLC or something, lol. I just know they probably aren't going to treat him and Kronika very well in the long run, but I would love to be wrong.

Anyway, I don't think that the Trilogy characters should get replaced by 3D, MKX or MK11 characters in the long run, I just wish said characters could have more of a presence in the rosters alongside the Trilogy ones. This problem could probably be fixed if we got a game with like 32 characters or something, but NRS seems to want to do 20-something plus whatever customization systems instead. Because of that the rosters will probably always end up feeling "safe".
 
MrWarMachine

MrWarMachine

Jacqui/D'Vorah 2020
There are a handful of characters with potential, Fujin being one of them. But even in the OG canon, Shinnok didn't do shit lol. He has a cooler name than most of the cast I'll give him that. And Fuck Hotaru lol.

The reason most people don't like the 3D characters has little to do with the characters themselves, and more with the fact that DA-Armageddon features a lot of weird design decisions and frankly aren't all that fun to play. And I played tf out of them as a kid. Compared to Tekken at the time, it was night and day. The characters more represent the awkward transition the series was going through.

A lot of ideas from the 3D series did carry on though, like Story Mode and the dedication to explaining things about the characters and their histories, rivals etc. I'm sure some of the characters will be brought back, but I wouldn't get your hopes up for too many.
 
ChaosTheory

ChaosTheory

A fat woman came into the shoe store today...
I'm still waiting for Hotaru and Havik to be revised. There's a few more I'd like to see, but these two stand out to me.

Not confident in either, but DLC seems more likely than the main game.
 
Zaccel

Zaccel

Noob
I can't say the 3D era squad is a hugely memorable lot, but I think they're a source of untapped potential.

Fujin really does deserve another kick at the can.
With Shao Kahn back Reiko is probably screwed; his character's only unique qualities lean on the former.
Li Mei could work if they played up the Wuxia angle.
Havik is a novel character--a cult archetype, with room for all kinds of gonzo animations.
Shujinko's a moron, but they could totally do away with "I will do as you ask" for a fairly classic old master sort (which is kind of rare in MK). That or play his advanced naiveté for laughs.
Hotaru and Darius both have possibilities, and I think they were mostly held back due to the creative constraints of their time. An authoritarian soldier and freedom fighter are decent starting points.
Dairou's boring so he's toast.
Taven and Daegon pfffft
 
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