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MK11 female designs are... extremely underwhelming

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pure.Wasted

'ello baby, did you miss me?
If you haven't seen them yet, here are Cassie's skins in MK11. And they're bad. Really bad.

Remember how stylish and fun Cassie was in MKX, between her eye-popping black S-F outfit, her hot jacket and gym shorts outfit, and her weirdly classy Hollywood "undercover" skin? That's all gone now. Her default is a beige combat outfit, a variation with slightly less armor, and another variation with a generic jacket on top of the armor. Then she has a space suit (non-canon by the way) and two more variations on that space suit.

Because nothing screams Cassie Cage like a beige color palette, or a turtleneck space suit.

And if you think that's an isolated incident of a female character's outfits not showing their personality, or being otherwise generic, look at this:



Wow. Many unique design. Such personality.

We have three female Special Forces characters in the game, who have pretty much interchangeable Special Forces armor outfits.

And before you say "well of course, they're all in Special Forces." No, motherfucker! Johnny's in Special Forces too, and this game gives him more variety and personality in his outfits than he's ever had before. Jax is in Special Forces too, and between his stylish leather jacket and metallic arms, no one's confusing him with anyone else. Liu Kang and Kung Lao are both Shaolin monks, that doesn't mean they look alike. Shao Kahn and Kotal Kahn are both Kahns of Outworld, it doesn't stop them from wearing COMPLETELY different armor and looking like COMPLETELY different characters.

Then we have the issue of "Injustice" designs creeping in on MK. Cetrion is already the most controversial character in MK11 and a lot of that has to do with her appearance, which focuses almost entirely on visually telling us her powerset, and tells us almost nothing about her personality as an individual. Jacqui and Frost both have sleek "Kronika's Army" design skins that look like they would fit better in Injustice than in MK. Then we have Skarlet's weirdly weird Eastern European goggle-hat default, which while certainly being distinct, is neither cool nor makes any kind of story sense.

I'm looking at characters like Noob Saibot, Scorpion, Kabal, Erron Black, Kano, Johnny, Jax, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Shao Kahn, Kotal Kahn, Raiden, on the male side of the roster, whose visual designs are all so wildly different from one another and all exude personality... and you want to tell me these female characters exist in the same game? And had as much work put into them? That's just sad, man. The female characters of MK deserve much better than this.

I have more to say but I'll leave it here for now. And before anyone tries to make this to be about skin, it's not fundamentally a question of more or less skin. D'Vorah's entire body is carapace, and her primary outfit is still one of the best female designs in MK11. The used-to-be stylish, now-ragged black cloak alone tells the story of everything she's been through.
 
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Samsara

Resident Cynic
Edit: I misunderstood OP, but I mean to say is that this is how skins could have been if NRS put in the effort

D'Vorah looks great though

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Doesn't follow that trend at all.

She has a callback to her MKX look.

She has a xenomorph skin

She has a bizarre armored Borg alien look

And another skin with a cool coven witch look to it.

I may not like some of the color schemes, but you gotta admit D'Vorah bucks the trend.
 
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pure.Wasted

'ello baby, did you miss me?
I may not like some if the color schemes, but you gotta admit D'Vorah bucks the trend.
Check the last sentence of my OP. ;)

I think D'Vorah's primary is FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC.

And I think Kitana looks amazing overall.

The best two female designs in the game, hands down. They look great and tell you everything you need to know about the character at a glance.
 

DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
The majority of the costumes have that weird segmented-armor Injustice look that makes them look like a knock off Lord of the Rings or Mass Effect character.

The males have so many cool base designs. A cowboy who makes weapons out of battle trophies, a Mayan god, a ninja wraith, etc. The women are mostly either tech wielding special forces or self-assured royalty/royalty affiliated
 

Lisbeth

Kitana stole my sai
I agree 100%
Like I said on the spoilers thread, MK11 is the worst of both worlds. They don't have the variety of Injustice or the uniqueness of MKX but that is only happening with the girls. Also, they follow the same fricking patern: shoulder pads and loincloths. Seems like Kitana also robbed Skarlet wardrobe.

Dvorah is the only one who looks good and all of her outfits are unique. I'm so disappointed.
 

Samsara

Resident Cynic
Check the last sentence of my OP. ;)

I think D'Vorah's primary is FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC.

And I think Kitana looks amazing overall.

The best two female designs in the game, hands down. They look great and tell you everything you need to know about the character at a glance.
I wasnt dogging you, man I understand you. I'm just making a point to say NRS is capable of doing it right if they actually put the effort in.

Kitana also made it our alive if you ask me

Some skins are literally just cut and pasting elements on and off. Slight edits of the same boring design.
 

DDustiNN

MK11 Pocket Guide: Koming Soon to the App Store
I wasnt dogging you, man I understand you. I'm just making a point to say NRS is capable of doing it right if they actually put the effort in.

Kitana also made it our alive if you ask me

Some skins are literally just cut and pasting elements on and off. Slight edits of the same boring design.
Kitana, Jade, and Skarlet all have this problem. I was hoping for more variety than just a bunch of Injustice 2 style color shaders that no one actually likes.
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
As in the spoiler thread, I agree. I think one of the main issues is that they were trying to be extra EXTRA careful not to offend anyone, and when that happens, you typically don't impress anybody either. Part of what makes D'vorah look so good is that she's not really bound to those same rules, so they can go crazy with her.
 

SaltShaker

In Zoning We Trust
Gotta agree, OP is dead on. Remove D'Vorah, maybe Kitana, and the rest is decent or meh. At best. It has nothing to do with that "show me skin" garbage, the designs are simply underwhelming.

Cassie has to be the biggest disappointment. I felt her design, outfits, etc were near perfect in MKX. Her personality and character was on full display with her skins. The launch ones for MK11 for her? Terrible. Too many outfits look too similar to other outfits for the women. Not just compared to other women in the game, but to their own other skins in their sets. As much as I favor Jacqui, hers too seem out of place as she's the last character I would have given the "elegant" attire.

Something just seems way off. Nothing too original or unique with their outfits. The human argument can't be made because look at Johnny, Kano, etc. The male skins are so amazing it's tough to draw why the females seem so bland.
 

stokedAF

casual kahnage
I agree. It kinda seems like they wanted to get away from their traditional looks so bad out of shame that they just ended up being boring and safe. Its kind of sad seeing all the personality in the male characters only to see the purposeful avoidance in the females. It makes you wonder what the mindset is over there at NRS. How young are these new designers? why did they do it? Lol. Some hashtag bullshit?

I’m not an advocate for the stripper cop costumes or whatever, it’s just a shame how boring they ended considering how good the game looks. Especially if it’s over some dumb social stigma. It’s not a big deal to me as I’m playing Shang and Kahn but I agree.
 

Vslayer

Juiced Moose On The Loose
Lead Moderator
Yeah, they did such a great job with most of the male costumes, why was it hard to give women personality too? I mean for crying out loud, wtf is with the mass effect suits? Just give her her tux and a workout outfit and call it a day. Damn, all these things just made me realized how uninspired their creative department was for these female costumes, especially for SF characters.

I mean I like Sonya's Lara Croft-inspired outfit, and her workout ones are cool too, but the colours are still ass.

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don't get stung by a stingray now Sonya, be careful

and wtf is this exactly:

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also don't tell me that they couldn't find a better color palette for this outfit:

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DLCs better have some good costumes dude. I mean, it's not that important, but I hope the customization items are the flashy part of the costumes cause they are generic AF.
 
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