Hear me out and it's probably been pointed out but here are some things we know, largely based on leaks and datamining:
The Aftermath part of the story was always planned to come out along with all the 5 MK characters that are part of the DLC line-up. Not necessarily that it would've happened, but this was always the idea. Now we can of course argue about crunching, reportedly Kotal Kahn's VA that a lot of lines he recorded and story parts didn't make it in, the leak which was 90% true (e.g. Shinnok and Cetrion children of Kronika) meaning Shang might have been base roster and had a role in the OG story that got cut - likely to have ended in Shang locked away in the void which was revealed during his Kombat Kast, from which he now appears - but that is to me irrelevant.
Shang is the focus of this part of the Aftermath story, so in any case it doesn't matter since they will likely explain in Aftermath where he was before and maybe even use some of the cut material. Especially given how that early leak had Raiden and Shang working together - some said this was a mistake and was meant to be Shinnok instead of Shang - which now is coming true, my guess is the guy who leaked it saw the story outline / script or even footage and figured it was part of the main story or we just assumed this.
Remember, Shaun Himmerick mentioned in an interview they were doing big things at the reveal that "when we announce it, i think it will be obvious, like THEY ARE DOING WHAT? Oh my god, that's so much content". To me this is 100% about Aftermath, since story DLC is something they've never done before along with releasing 4 stages, of which RetroKade is highly likely to me the thing that Himmerick thought about when he mentioned Ed had some ideas which they though "we cannot possibly do that", as well as maybe getting some of these voice actors, bring Friendships back as well as Stage Fatalities. It is indeed a big ass upgrade. The question is specifically about the DLC content:
Aside from the story and MK characters part of DLC, the exact numbers of characters and who seem to have been decided long before release up until Aftermath. They likely worked on all of this months before April 2019 and found a way to make it all work so that we could have the focus of the story be around the DLC characters as well as the new stages. They are going back to Shang Tsung island where the 2 classic stages are to be found as well as a third one that is likely to be the new final battle stage for Aftermath.
To me it all lines up, it gives MK11's story a chance at redemption and I'm so happy they didn't let Tagawa's talents go to waste by including him in a big chunk of the story, likely to be better than the full story up until now and it just is hype AF to be releasing it like this as a DLC upgrade. I've rarely seen a fighting game roll it out like this so I'm glad what Himmerick then said they will probably try and do, nothing is for sure in the world of gaming and if MK11 had not done well WB might not have signed off on them making this upgrade as big as it has become, is now coming to fruition. Thanks for reading and hope this makes you even more hyped
- Fujin, Sheeva, Nightwolf, Sindel as DLC were part of the big leak around January 2019 I believe.
- Shang Tsung was said to have a story role in that same leak that included working together with Raiden and supposed to be base roster.
- March 2019 Select screen leak had 34 placeholders
- Nintendo Switch datamines upon release showed all DLC + dialogues (Ash instead of Robocop)
- DLC Storymode and DLC new stage as a name / code were in the leaked files
- Datamine in october 2019 showed Friendships in the file and audio for Fujin and the stages Soul Chamber and Dead Pool
The Aftermath part of the story was always planned to come out along with all the 5 MK characters that are part of the DLC line-up. Not necessarily that it would've happened, but this was always the idea. Now we can of course argue about crunching, reportedly Kotal Kahn's VA that a lot of lines he recorded and story parts didn't make it in, the leak which was 90% true (e.g. Shinnok and Cetrion children of Kronika) meaning Shang might have been base roster and had a role in the OG story that got cut - likely to have ended in Shang locked away in the void which was revealed during his Kombat Kast, from which he now appears - but that is to me irrelevant.
Shang is the focus of this part of the Aftermath story, so in any case it doesn't matter since they will likely explain in Aftermath where he was before and maybe even use some of the cut material. Especially given how that early leak had Raiden and Shang working together - some said this was a mistake and was meant to be Shinnok instead of Shang - which now is coming true, my guess is the guy who leaked it saw the story outline / script or even footage and figured it was part of the main story or we just assumed this.
Remember, Shaun Himmerick mentioned in an interview they were doing big things at the reveal that "when we announce it, i think it will be obvious, like THEY ARE DOING WHAT? Oh my god, that's so much content". To me this is 100% about Aftermath, since story DLC is something they've never done before along with releasing 4 stages, of which RetroKade is highly likely to me the thing that Himmerick thought about when he mentioned Ed had some ideas which they though "we cannot possibly do that", as well as maybe getting some of these voice actors, bring Friendships back as well as Stage Fatalities. It is indeed a big ass upgrade. The question is specifically about the DLC content:
Aside from the story and MK characters part of DLC, the exact numbers of characters and who seem to have been decided long before release up until Aftermath. They likely worked on all of this months before April 2019 and found a way to make it all work so that we could have the focus of the story be around the DLC characters as well as the new stages. They are going back to Shang Tsung island where the 2 classic stages are to be found as well as a third one that is likely to be the new final battle stage for Aftermath.
To me it all lines up, it gives MK11's story a chance at redemption and I'm so happy they didn't let Tagawa's talents go to waste by including him in a big chunk of the story, likely to be better than the full story up until now and it just is hype AF to be releasing it like this as a DLC upgrade. I've rarely seen a fighting game roll it out like this so I'm glad what Himmerick then said they will probably try and do, nothing is for sure in the world of gaming and if MK11 had not done well WB might not have signed off on them making this upgrade as big as it has become, is now coming to fruition. Thanks for reading and hope this makes you even more hyped
