I was hyped for MK11's initial release, so much to work with story-wise with Dark Raiden, the inclusion of my all time favourite character Shao Kahn as playable, and what was supposed to be a return to neutral based fighting. The mechanics looked enticing prior to release. When the game came out, I was honestly happy with most of the features, but as time has gone by, I have become more frustrated and honestly enjoy MKX more than MK11. It has become more boring for me to play mk11.
The kombat kids, kronika and new era storyline didn't do it for me, and in fact destroyed the rich lore of my all time fave game. On top of that, my main (Shao Kahn) is in a disgraceful spot still, after a year(why do they refuse to buff this man).
The mechanics have grown more clunky for me. Crushing blows are fun but some are far too hard to pull off and unrealistic in a match. Fatal blows are OP and dumb in my opinion. A comback mechanic with armour that comes back at 0 consequence?
One of my big gripes is getting grabbed out of active frames, janky hitbox issues, hitting a d2 at the same time when you read a grab often has varying consequences.
There is a lack of depth in this game, and I believe it is for the sake of balance. There is no denying this is the closest thing to a balanced game NRS has produced, but it is a shallow game. Most characters were optimised within a week of their release. And certain characters that are at the upper end of this balance continue to be exploited.
While MKX was a 50/50 and armour heavy game, there was far more depth to the characters, far more combo routes, and set ups - and zoning especially was far less prevalent (minus a couple examples like Jacqui).
Everyone has different tastes, I would have preferred the combo potential and character depth of mk9/X with a faster paced neutral. The defensive options are also very strong, with 0 consequence as you regain defensive meter quickly. Some OKI options are completely negated by wake up buttons, and if you try to hit meaty even that can become a guessing game due to wake up buttons and other defensive options.
Having said all that, I do have fun with the game but I'm in maintenance mode. MKX has far more hype and far better replay-ability in my opinion (see DESTROYER's resurrection tourny).
I hope NRS learns from certain gameplay mistakes that have come from this game, fix the damn lore in MK12, and in the meantime, buff Shao and Raiden already.