MK1 Story Spoilers Discussion

[Marinjuana]

Couple nitpicks that come to mind, one being that Havik was very underdeveloped, I would have just liked to see some info about him or something. Scorpion burns his face but he can rip his arms off and magically grow them back? Why yo? Also Darrius should have gotten a throw away line he was begging for it

The main character of the story is kind of new era Shang Tsung but he just kind of disappears after his chapter unless you play as him(which I did), but it just feels like it was his story of revenge against Liu but than it got co-opted by pre-timeline Shang, which is fine.. but neither of them got real closure it felt like. OG Shang didn't even have a cool line or have his body explode he just gets knocked out and dusted away. The ending was fine with the teahouse I just thought there was an anti climatic element to the narrative there. I got to go do those arcade ladders for the endings tho

I still don’t understand why Titan Shang would even care about Liu Kang’s timeline after he “magically figured it out”. Like, you have control over an entire universe of your own. Why even risk trying to destroy Liu Kangs timeline/universe?

I feel like that line where Liu says his 'arrogance was his downfall' was referring to this. Shang's just gonna Shang, the mans never going to get enough souls

 

[kantboy2]

Female Scorpion should be called "Scorpiones"
Female Sub-Zero should be called "Tundra"
Female Reptile should be called "Reptila"
Female Ermac should be called "Camre"

There is a Joana Cage, after all. Other than that, I enjoyed the goofiness of that last chapter.

 

[skahwt]

I know a lot of people hated the last chapter, but fights like the Scorpion/Kung Lao hybrid named Stung Lao is peak Mortal Kombat.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Liu and Scorpion were my favorites in the story

Oh hell yeah for sure. That scene of him breaking out of the Dragon tomb was sick as fuck. I loved the scene of him vs Shao Kahn where he started choking him with his shackles. I was thinking "Man there's no way Scorpion would overpower Shao and choke him out" and it turns out Scorpion knew that, he was baiting Shao into using his strength to break the shackles for him. Great scene

Also I want to give huge shoutout to the fight choreography in this story mode. It felt tiers above anything thats come before.

 

[ItsYaBoi]

Are all of the ladder endings canon in MK1? I’ve only done 3 so far, but it seems like they all could be and directly follow on from the main story modes conclusion. Hopefully helps ground the narrative somewhat after that ending (though with the Titan Havik tease, I can’t imagine so).

 

[Juxtapose]

Haven't read all that came before, but I just want to give my $0.02 on the Story.

Overall, I very much enjoyed it. I played through the first half Thursday and finished the last half Friday night. It started out great and really kept me glued to it.

I love what they did with Outworld and the Tarkat disease as a whole. There was obviously camp and cheese, but I expected that. I wasn't expecting a deep dark story here, simply something fun and entertaining.

I loved how both endings from "Aftermath" are canon, and how my original hunch from the announcement trailer, that Titan Shang was indeed the primary antagonist, proved true. Also cool to glimpse what he did with his timeline.

The Story started to come undone for me a bit in Chapter 14 when they began bringing in other random timelines. Titan Shang's timeline existing was a possibility that made sense, but Kitana, Raiden, Kung Lao, etc. fighting and defeating Kronika for their own timelines wasn't possible in "Aftermath," so I felt this all a stretch.

I also felt the Story could have ended when they saved the Hourglass, and it made no sense to me why they simply let Titan Shang walk away like that. The final Chapter, while cool you could choose your character, felt very shoe-horned in and in many respects, unfinished. It was rather anti-climatic.

I'm not a fan of the 3D era as you all know by now, but I actually didn't have an issue with the game basically being a retelling of those games. The "Deadly Alliance" and "Deception" nods were excellent. The Pyramid of Argus (or whatever that pyramid was) and the gathering of a vast force of allies and enemies though was just rammed in there, it seemed, to have "Armageddon." Felt completely unnecessary and went too far to a multiverse thing for my liking.

I assume the last Chapter wasn't actually Argus' Pyramid, and this was a Pyramid in Shang's timeline?

I didn't like Li Mei at all, she should have been Jade, but, and I can't believe I'm going to say this: I liked Ashrah. Her look and voice acting were excellent. Her gameplay loosely reminds me of Shin Hisako's from Killer Instinct.

Havik was a jober, as was Nitara wasn't just a jobber, but Meghan Fox's voice acting was horrible. It sounded like she was just reading lines, no emotion.

Loved what they did with Mileena, and also Sindel this time around. Was surprised Kitana didn't have a Chapter, but given the general back seat she took in the story I guess it makes sense.

Didn't like how Quan Chi and Ermac are fleshed out as characters, but being held back for the Kombat Pack. That felt sleazy. Shang being playable in Story Mode but a pre-order bonus also felt that way but to a lesser extent.

Overall though, I did enjoy myself immensely and I'll play through the Story again another time.

 

[Juxtapose]

Are all of the ladder endings canon in MK1? I’ve only done 3 so far, but it seems like they all could be and directly follow on from the main story modes conclusion. Hopefully helps ground the narrative somewhat after that ending (though with the Titan Havik tease, I can’t imagine so).

Klassic Ladder is never canon unto itself.

I agree they seem like they could follow the main story.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

Just finished the story mode and read all this thread. Jesus Christ. As many said, the story was dope as fuck up until Sindel's death, everything started to turn into shit by then. Prior to that, there were some questionable moments, like:

• as people said, no one attacking Quan Chi while he casts the spells in the Ashrah chapter;
• the whole "Mileena is a werewolf Tarkat controlled by timed medicine;
• Baraka fucking off screen for no Reason;
• Ashrah, Johnny, Reptile, Kenshi, Lao just being offscreen as well;
• Ermac being created by Quan Chi (felt rushed and unimpactful);
• Havik (the regular one) being just Dairou with no explanation for his weird healing powers, and IIRC, he doesnt even say the line "you will accept chaos, by choice or by force" anywhere in the story;
• Darrius and Khameleon having not a single line of dialogue;

These punctual things detract from the story, but not in any horrible way, but then after Sindel dies, we have:

• A mishmash of timelines. WHY? Shang and Liu's would be enough. Now we have so many heroes and villains nothing even matters anymore. I swear I couldnt understand what I was looking at when I saw some characters. Is this evil mileena? Is this TITAN evil mileena? Is this evil Reptile? Is this good Reptile from another timeline? WHAT
• Titan Shang just casually flaming the hourglass for minutes and minutes and not a single person just jumping on him while Liu fights Evil Kitana/Mileena;
• Titan Shang just casually walking out after failing;
• Titan Shang just casually creating a pyramid for a big multiverse conflict. Wouldnt it be smarter to just gather the evil titans? But anyways, by that point the story had become a fucking parody of itself. They shoehorned an Armageddon reference for pure nostalgia milking making no sense.
• WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK were those hybrid characters???? I got a Reptile/Sindel mash, Reiko/Raiden, Kitana/Shao, Mileena/Quan Chi, Female Sub-zero, Female Ermac, Li Mei/Scorpion. Those would be awesome for a non-cannon stupid fun fight, like in, you know, the fucking non-canon invasion mode that is supposed to be dumb inconsequential fun.

My impression is that the game was supposed to have at least 6 more chapters after Sindel died, and they were going for the last character as a "kreate a kharacter" thing but ran out of time.

Also, I tried going in optimistic for Megan Fox. Her voice acting is ATROCIOUS. Only thing worse was the Dimitri Vegas skin.

Also, twice we have seen Havik use his mace (as the Katara Vala zombie in Johnny's movie and then in the post credit scenes), but somehow his gameplay has none of that? I feel like the actual Havik is the one in the post credits (insane, has white eyes, preaches chaos), while the one we play as is simply weird face-burned Dairou.

Overall I got a really sad and very strange feeling by the end, like they wrote themselves into such a tight corner this time, with such OBVIOUS lack of time by the end of the development cycle, that this might as well have been the last MK ever. I know, it's insane, and were it not for this franchise to be such a beloved behemoth of pop culture reference, I would actually be worried this apocaliptic impression were true.

HOW are they going to move the story forward? As per Geras, Titans, once killed, do not return ever. So either they will kill every Titan (or everyone but Liu Kang and he somehow finds a way to become mortal again) so that we can have games where everyone is again at normal power levels, or...?

I dunno, I feel weird right now. The story would have been muuuch better without the last 2 chapters, OR with 6 more to develop things at a reasonable pace.

 

[Gooberking]

I have the usual multiverse complaints. I'd love to go in on how lazy and diluting of substance the trope is, but clearly writers can't seem to get enough of it despite it seeming like it functionally undercuts basically anything foundational to quality storytelling.

Mostly done well for that sort of thing if you set that aside. I think I would have been much more OK with the use of verses had it just been the twin timelines trying to merge or something that A) forced a conflict and B) was still a form of a single thing going on. But nah, infinite universes for scale and easy solutions. Bigger, better, bang bang bang. It's MK so wiggling out of any form of commitmit and being absurd is kind of the deal, so it all probably makes more sense in this franchise as much or more than any other.

It felt like the grandest thing they have done, but I really didn't see much of MK11's story past getting Frost, but I'd be surprised if this wasn't an industry high bar by a good margin.

I did like some of the mashup and gender swap fights. Stuff like that is cool though it really only made since out of the multiverse cluster I'm not sold on. It also cut against the tone pretty heavily so that whole run was kind of a "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be feeling here" moment.

I guess I did get to riff a little on multiverse stuff.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

One thing, I actually loved the female Johnny Cage, and LOVED the fact that current Shang got duped by... Titan Shang. I felt like the whole "Shang and Quan Chi are so treacherous they would betray even THEMSELVES" worked really well and was a smart way to put Raiden, Liu, Shang and Quan in the same side.

Another thing I'd like to mention: I found it interesting that Onaga's mummy army in this timeline are actually magical statues, it kinda solves the problem of the original timeline, in that the army is useless without Onaga to keep ressurecting them, but Shang and Quan Chi didn't know about that in MKDA. And then comes Titan Shang just saying "lol thanks nerds, Imma get this army now".

 

[Marinjuana]

In the leak thread please

 

[kantboy2]

ALL tower endings feel like canon/lore that moves the story forward.

Maybe the story expansion will feed off that... and the mid credits scene.

 

[Juggs]

HOW are they going to move the story forward? As per Geras, Titans, once killed, do not return ever. So either they will kill every Titan (or everyone but Liu Kang and he somehow finds a way to become mortal again) so that we can have games where everyone is again at normal power levels, or...?

I dunno, I feel weird right now. The story would have been muuuch better without the last 2 chapters, OR with 6 more to develop things at a reasonable pace.

I mean they always find a way. They could make up really anything to fit a new narrative. That that wasn’t the “real” Titan Shang at the end, just another Shang that Titan Shang trained or something. They can do some sort of time loop or reset again. Main point is they can make anything fit and it doesn’t have to make much sense. People tend to forget that this is a fighting game story, it’s never going to be a masterpiece of storytelling where everything makes sense at least to some degree.

But they also could do what I said and actually just have the next game genuinely JUST be a Mortal Kombat martial arts tournament between realms. Their aversion to keeping it simple is really annoying when time and time again other media has shown that just a big world martial arts tournament can be enough in its own right if done well.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

I mean they always find a way. They could make up really anything to fit a new narrative. That that wasn’t the “real” Titan Shang at the end, just another Shang that Titan Shang trained or something. They can do some sort of time loop or reset again. Main point is they can make anything fit and it doesn’t have to make much sense. People tend to forget that this is a fighting game story, it’s never going to be a masterpiece of storytelling where everything makes sense at least to some degree.

But they also could do what I said and actually just have the next game genuinely JUST be a Mortal Kombat martial arts tournament between realms. Their aversion to keeping it simple is really annoying when time and time again other media has shown that just a big world martial arts tournament can be enough in its own right if done well.

Yes, I understand, obviously they are going to find a way to make it work, my point is mostly that they seem to always one up their stories from previous games... I was hoping this was the perfect opportunity to just scratch all the multiverse timeline past/future stuff and start with a clean, definite slate going forward from now on. And most of the story was exactly that, with awesome character backstories, good on-screen development, etc and then it just reverts back to "no, we had a powerful elder god boss in MKX, now we need a TITAN boss in MK11 - and now we need MULTIPLE TITAN BOSSES in MK1!" I mean, what is the next step? We will have the primordial Chaos Boss! Then multiple primordial Chaos Bosses! Then the One Being is the boss! Then Multiple One Beings (lol the irony).

It's like they just refuse to step down the scale. Everything was starting fine in this story - fresh start, Liu Kang renounced the Hourglass, story was mostly moving forward interestingly for many characters then BOOM armageddon IDGAF everyone dies (or not, multiple timelines lololol).

Well, let's guess the inevitable aftermath dlc with Titan Havik concludes with them breaking every hourglass across existence, maybe have Onaga collect every kamidogu across every timeline to do so or something, just so we can FINALLY get back to a single timeline.

 

[Ptehu]

as most of you said - it's best NRS story since MK9...

...and then the multiverse shit happened.

Up until Sindel's chapter, most of the things make sense and are quite decently portrayed.

Can't see MK2 plot now, but they need to somehow return to one single timeline without all this bullshit, multiversal, universe-threatning stuff.

 

[Scar_Subby]

Did you guys see the new leaks on reddit for the dlc?

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

Did you guys see the new leaks on reddit for the dlc?

I saw some that mentioned the dlc story is supposedly centered around Havik (duh) and Bi-han, apparantly he will become Noob (or a new version of Noob). Jade and Kung Jin are also supposedly leaked as fully playable. I don't know how true any of that is though.

 

[Scar_Subby]

I saw some that mentioned the dlc story is supposedly centered around Havik (duh) and Bi-han, apparantly he will become Noob (or a new version of Noob). Jade and Kung Jin are also supposedly leaked as fully playable. I don't know how true any of that is though.

Yup that’s what I was speaking on.

He becomes Noob but then gets stored away in the temple of elements. He’ll probably still be Sub-Zero next game unfortunately for me but yeah Bi-Han is still Noob.

 

[Law Hero]

Are we sure this is the right thread for leaks? I thought this was for discussing base game story only. I feel like we need a new leaks thread to discuss further DLC and datamining stuff.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Yup that’s what I was speaking on.

He becomes Noob but then gets stored away in the temple of elements. He’ll probably still be Sub-Zero next game unfortunately for me but yeah Bi-Han is still Noob.

Wait how will be be Sub-Zero next game if he becomes Noob? Is Noob from a different time line?

 

[zerosebaz]

Wait how will be be Sub-Zero next game if he becomes Noob? Is Noob from a different time line?

Maybe it'll work like Spiderman's black suit? It gives new powers, makes it more evil, can be taken out?

 

[NoCharge]

Someone at NRS wets over crooked noses. Goddamn, Johnny, Rain and especially Quan lol

 

[Law Hero]

Someone at NRS wets over crooked noses. Goddamn, Johnny, Rain and especially Quan lol

NRS character artists' kinks:
Men: hooked noses and manbuns/ponytails
Women: open-toed high heels and tights

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Maybe it'll work like Spiderman's black suit? It gives new powers, makes it more evil, can be taken out?

Since Sub-Zero’s power is magic and not inherent to his race in this timeline, perhaps he could learn shadow magic or whatever and still retain his ice powers. Would be awesome to have Noob with Sub powers or vise versa. Maybe Bi-Han wants into the temple of the elements to access more power and that’s how he becomes Noob, rather than being a wraith.

Or it is a possession type thing like how the symbiote functions for Spider-Man. Makes him more ruthless. Bi-Han is ruthless and only cares about his clan in this game, but he’s not evil for the sake of it, he only doesn’t have morality beyond Lin Kuei supremacy. When Scorpion and Smoke were still in the Lin Kuei, he asked them if they were unharmed after their fight, and fought Kuai Liang more on the grounds of oath breaking rather than “ahhh im evil now and you’re still good.” He even decides to slice Kuai Liang’s eye in the cutscene when he could have easily taken the killing blow.

 

[NoCharge]

Btw, story is meh at best. As much as I dislike Kronika, would've been way better if it was her messing up Liu's timeline somehow. Shang being Damashi is like an Aftermath dlc for the main story.
Characters like Reiko and Shao, and maybe others, can't remember, didn't make any use of their weapons and abolities.
Havik being the last big bad was underwhelming since he was just a whimp through the rest of the story.
Idk, not really any big impacts in the story. The worst one yet.
Last chapter was dope though.