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MK11 SHANG TSUNG Discussion

SaSSolino

Soul Stealing Loyalist

Shang Tsung is finally out! Let's start posting some tech, combos, matches and all that good stuff for him, so I can steal it.

Your tech is mine!

...sorry


Shang Tsung's reveal trailer is finally out!

Our evil sourcerer will be out June 18th for Kombat Pack owners, one week later otherwise. Can't wait to start stealing some souls!

Here's the breakdown for anyone that missed the Kombat Kast:

We didn't see much of our lovely evil sourcerer yet, but I'll update this thread when we do.

For now we only know that he's going to be our guide in the Krypt, that he has the looks of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (@chtofficial) and that he's going to be the first DLC of MK11.

We also know that the he has 2 stages dedicated to him: Shang Tsung's Island Ruins and The Nethership (although this last one hasn't been confirmed yet), and more importantly, that the Krypt he'll be our guide for is going to be on his own island!

Regarding this last bit I seriously hope we are going to explore all the classic stages that didn't make it into the game, and I'm fairly certain I won't be disappointed!




Discuss as much as you want, within reason.
 
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Marinjuana

Up rock incoming, ETA 5 minutes
How are they going to handle the shape shifting? Bring back MK9 style?

I would love for them to find a way to make the old school "shift into anyone" style work but I don't know if such a thing is possible with today's character models. Not to mention concerns of balance or even how it would work with the kustom variation system.

But they have to have the shapeshifting, it's the most iconic part of his character. Like yeah yeah up skulls, straight skulls I know but he needs to change into other people. None of this Shinnok mimic stuff, not a cool string where he changes form, that doesn't count. We need full-on Shang changed into another character because he steals people's souls. The real cheap shit that made him a legend.

I could see it being a gear slot too so they could try other things with him. Which could be cool but I really hope that the shapeshifting is a base part of his gameplay. I don't want to accept anything less then MK9 style because it's just not Shang without it.
 
How are they going to handle the shape shifting? Bring back MK9 style?

I would love for them to find a way to make the old school "shift into anyone" style work but I don't know if such a thing is possible with today's character models. Not to mention concerns of balance or even how it would work with the kustom variation system.

But they have to have the shapeshifting, it's the most iconic part of his character. Like yeah yeah up skulls, straight skulls I know but he needs to change into other people. None of this Shinnok mimic stuff, not a cool string where he changes form, that doesn't count. We need full-on Shang changed into another character because he steals people's souls. The real cheap shit that made him a legend.

I could see it being a gear slot too so they could try other things with him. Which could be cool but I really hope that the shapeshifting is a base part of his gameplay. I don't want to accept anything less then MK9 style because it's just not Shang without it.
Yeah, i do not think it is posible for them to make him mimick the full character like they did in MK9. I asume you'll get something similar to impostor Shinnok, stealing a staple move for each character and done
 

SaSSolino

Soul Stealing Loyalist
I trust NRS won't do him dirty.

I AM hoping they break their habit of releasing DLC character with only one skin though. Shang Tsung always needs a young and an old version.

Other than that, count me in as a Shang player when he releases
I'm with you 100%, and I'm sure NRS will deliver on this one.

Also young Shang players are posers!
 
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Agilaz

It has begun
How are they going to handle the shape shifting? Bring back MK9 style?

I would love for them to find a way to make the old school "shift into anyone" style work but I don't know if such a thing is possible with today's character models. Not to mention concerns of balance or even how it would work with the kustom variation system.

But they have to have the shapeshifting, it's the most iconic part of his character. Like yeah yeah up skulls, straight skulls I know but he needs to change into other people. None of this Shinnok mimic stuff, not a cool string where he changes form, that doesn't count. We need full-on Shang changed into another character because he steals people's souls. The real cheap shit that made him a legend.

I could see it being a gear slot too so they could try other things with him. Which could be cool but I really hope that the shapeshifting is a base part of his gameplay. I don't want to accept anything less then MK9 style because it's just not Shang without it.
I wager the "easiest" thing to do would be to have him shift into his opponents form, but "variationless".

Presumably, loading in a model that's already on screen wouldn't be that difficult.
 

Marinjuana

Up rock incoming, ETA 5 minutes
Yeah, i do not think it is posible for them to make him mimick the full character like they did in MK9. I asume you'll get something similar to impostor Shinnok, stealing a staple move for each character and done
Obviously we can't speak to their technical limitations but I feel like that caveat that should make it work. You need to turn Shang Tsung into the same character that's already loaded on player 2. I feel like Shinnok was more of a design choice rather then them not being able to pull it off.
 

SaSSolino

Soul Stealing Loyalist
How are they going to handle the shape shifting? Bring back MK9 style?

I would love for them to find a way to make the old school "shift into anyone" style work but I don't know if such a thing is possible with today's character models. Not to mention concerns of balance or even how it would work with the kustom variation system.

But they have to have the shapeshifting, it's the most iconic part of his character. Like yeah yeah up skulls, straight skulls I know but he needs to change into other people. None of this Shinnok mimic stuff, not a cool string where he changes form, that doesn't count. We need full-on Shang changed into another character because he steals people's souls. The real cheap shit that made him a legend.

I could see it being a gear slot too so they could try other things with him. Which could be cool but I really hope that the shapeshifting is a base part of his gameplay. I don't want to accept anything less then MK9 style because it's just not Shang without it.
I would love for him to get mostly skulls in his base moveset, and Shapeshifting as his gear moves. With some exceptions.

Ground skulls are iconic and need to come back, but maybe the skull roller coaster could be gear. This would mean that he always has zoning, but he needs to commit slots to get good damage off of it.

Straight skulls are simple projectiles and I see no reason not to have them base roster, however his Fire Ring from the 3D era could come back as gear. It could function as a slower mid projectile (kind of like Reptile's force ball) and would compliment his ground skulls very nicely. I would like not to lose the straight skulls in the process though, but it depends on good it turns out to be I guess.

Up skulls I can see come back also, we need a character with a move that functions like Sektor's up rockets after all.

Another gear move I'd welcome dearly is his fire port also from the 3D era. This could have many uses in a game like MK11, but it should probably cost defensive bar, otherwise it might be too strong.

Now to the shapeshifting stuff: I would like to have a couple of string packs where Shang shapeshifts into various characters to do new strings as gear, although I don't want this to be his only shapeshifting move.

I definately would welcome a MK9 style soul steal, and that could be a base move. A move I would LOVE to have as gear though is a quick shape back, possibly with an AMP version that speeds it up. This would allow Shang to pressure his opponent with his own strings, morph back, and continue his pressure himself. And don't get me started on the combo potential!

Speaking of combo potential, a gear move could be the possibility to amplify his soul steal, stunning for a combo. This would scale massively for obvious reasons, but imagine the combo possibilities! This is easily my most wanted move for new gen Shang! I literally wouldn't leave the lab.

Finally, a move like Shinnok's mimicry could work for him. It's plus frames, restand and, depending on the match up, could be worth a slot plus trading off the soul steal. Labbing Impostor combos was very fun in MKX after all, I wouldn't mind doing it again!
 

SaSSolino

Soul Stealing Loyalist
Also I feel like if he has his MK9 Soul Steal its gonna be a 3 slot move.
Unless it gets some special properties, 3 slots would make soul steal unviable. It was already somewhat awkward to use in MK9 since your opponent likely knew his main better.
 

SaSSolino

Soul Stealing Loyalist
He also had his sword tied to his side in the trailer.

Sword moves incoming?
I could never figure out if that was an actual sword or just an ornament piece of his robes. I would welcome a sword though, range is super important in MK11 after all.
 

Pizza

Thrill Kill
Outfits I'd like:



The old sinister sorcerer with white eyes is iconic. I hope they make this possible.




Since they seem to be taking inspiration from the MK3 era, this should be a must! Long live this outfit! Long live John Turk!

Personally I think Shang Tsung looked really bad between Deadly Alliance and Armageddon. So I hope they keep that outfit out.
 
Agreed about shapeshifting, that is what made him my favorite character in all fighting games, and made MK my favorite game. When I was little and didn't know about MK, my friend told me about sub-zero (his favorite) and all the other cool characters that game had (that happened when mk2 came out)and I was like "man, I need to know more about those characters and pick me a favorite". I read about all of them first, and thought Raiden was my guy....Until I saw one little sentence in the Shang's description : ....can shapeshift into any character and have all their special moves and even finishers....I was like WTH? This is the most broke shit ever lore wise!!!! This is my guy!!!! Then, when I had a chance to play mk2 and try his shapeshifting, I was like "this is awesome, I can be anyone at any point...well except Bosses...."
And then I found out about the Kintaro fatality!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah, the shapeshifting is all I wanted from an MK game ever since. MK9 was kinda ok, but MKX was almost unacceptable, which made me like the game less!!!!
Dear NRS...Make it happen for real this time
 

Gamer68

Fujin!
I trust NRS won't do him dirty.

I AM hoping they break their habit of releasing DLC character with only one skin though. Shang Tsung always needs a young and an old version.

Other than that, count me in as a Shang player when he releases
NRS pretty much broke that habit with Injustice 2. Gear was basically skins in that game and DLC characters still had multiple full sets like base game characters.

With MK11's big mechanic being customization, even if DLC doesn't have as many skins as the base game characters, I think they will still have plenty of skins.
 

Jhonnykiller45

Shirai Ryu
Maybe it would be cool if Shang had some moves where he would steal a little bit of the opponent's soul to gain HP back kinda like how Skarlet's amplified special moves drain blood from the enemy.