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Characters in the Story (Spoilers)

What are everyone's impressions of what they did with the various characters in the story mode this time around? Below are a few of mine:

Kitana: I think it's safe to say that this is the best version of her that we've ever seen. This is the Kitana that Kitana fans have been waiting 20 years for, even if they didn't realize it. She's what a warrior princess SHOULD be. She uses compassion and intelligence to bring all the various tribes of Outworld together and then kicks the shit out of Shao Khan in the middle of the stadium to take the throne. It was fucking brilliant. Also, Revenant Kitana was in the story too, but I really only care about her about as much as the writers seem to have done.

Sonya: Like Kitana, I think this is the best version of her we've seen. Present Sonya has a great relationship with her family and then sacrifices her life to complete the mission and passes the torch onto her daughter. It was an excellent way to wrap up her character and I was impressed with how they did it. Then I really liked how Past Sonya started out with the awkward interactions with them and was basically like "Look, I really don't know how to be what you seem to want me to be" and then gradually becomes more of a part of the team and ends up liking and respecting them and fitting in. Her last line to Cassie of "You know, I'm so proud of you that I'm actually considering dating Johnny" was great. Also, I'm glad she finally got to kill Kano and it was a total boss move how she did it.

Raiden and Liu Kang: Good to see the OG boys back and the main storyline of their having a second chance at how to go about doing things was well written and I liked it a lot. It did kind of suck that the whole set up of Dark Raiden they teased at the end of MKX just didn't happen, though. I was looking forward to seeing the effect on the heroes of having this morally ambiguous leader and how his commands would clash with their values, but the one and only thing we saw them do together was to go and kill a bunch of demons who were actually a legit threat to Earth and then the guy vanished, never to be heard from again. There was one Kotal line about his actions killed the alliance between Earthrealm and Outworld, but we never actually saw anything like that ourselves. Also, I was really looking forward to having a story mode about Dark Liu Kang ruling the Netherrealm and, after this game, I am still looking forward to that and would be interested in a story mode which had that as a part of it.

Jax: His PTSD thing was cool and how Kronika took advantage of that to turn him to her side and the young Jax's reaction to old him making these choices was great. Really liked him in this one.

Erron Black: Who? Once again, he had no role beyond just being a random jobber. One thing I really don't get is why they had two versions of him. They dressed and acted the same and had absolutely no interactions together, so it was completely pointless to have two of them. Also, everyone else who came from the past seemed to fit into Kronika's "don't like the current course of history" thing, but Black appeared to be absolutely fine with how things turned out for him. I don't have any more of an idea of why there were two of him than the writers seem to have had.

Cetrion: So, her brother was the big boss in the last game and she's someone with mommy issues who has Erron Black laughing at her for being such a pointless jobber? Not what I expected from an Elder God and I was underwhelmed.

Anyone agree or disagree with my takes or have some interesting points about some of the other characters?
 

Pizza

Thrill Kill
I agree about Kitana, this is her best version by far.

Sonya is cool. I always like her. I prefer her MK9/MKX versions, with a bit of MK4 too!

Raiden is cool too.

I think Cetrion is the biggest disappointment. They promoted her as the opposite of her actual role in the story mode. Gameplay wise she seems fun and all, but her lore is TRASH.

It's a shame Geras and Kollector are underdeveloped. I think Kollector has more chances to come back some day.

Skarlet, Baraka and Jade are very well done in this game. I'm happy to see Baraka and Kitana being allies.
This is probably the best version of Jade too, same as Kitana.
And Skarlet is a big improvement over her MK9 version. I like her, she's creepy.

I wanted to mention D'Vorah too. While she had a bigger role in MKX, I think she was well developed and is one of the best villains the franchise has seen in years. I hope she's still around in the future.
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
Super disappointed that they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with Noob Saibot in story mode. I really wanted to see some cool stuff with him, Kuai, and Hanzo. We barely got one scene with them together, and then he just disappears to job again another day. My disappointment was maximum.
 
I dismissed Cetrion almost immediately (dont like her at all). I hoped she’d at least prove me wrong from a Lore/story perspective and really show out....she did the exact opposite. Not even trying to be extreme, but I think she’s absolutely garbage.

As for Kitana, this is arguably the best version we’ve seen of her which is disappointing because I don’t like the way she looks unfortunately. Some of her outfits are good, but I feel as though they pale in comparison to MKX. Her is face is definitely improved but I strongly prefer her Arabic/racially ambiguous look over her Asian look. Her body does not look good at all. Clearly since the majority of my Kitana complaints are surface level, it’s obvious they did a great job with her character.
 

DragonofDadashov24

Let’s see whose fire burns hotter
Oh, it’s fucking on! Here is me impression!
Liu Kang— finally I got my old Liu Kang back. Humble, brave, wise, strong. The best character in my opinion. MK9 and X fucked him up badly but I’m glad they brought him back.
Kung Lao— now Kung Lao is a miss. He shouldn’t be jelous of Liu Kang cause in the old timeline he refused to compete in MK so that he could live a normal life. I don’t know why would they make him look like Liu’s shadow.
Kitana— Godlike.
Raiden— the only Raiden I like in 27 years, lol.
Jax— Jax is Jax.
Cage— Shouldn’t brag about beating Shinnok, that was shit.
Kano— great
Kabal, Noob, Scarlet, Kollector, Erron— waste
Sub and Scorp— I enjoyed both very much.
D’Vorah and Cetrion— Fuck these two.
 
Cage— Shouldn’t brag about beating Shinnok, that was shit.
Hey, if you kick the ass of an Elder God, you should feel free to be bragging about it for the rest of your life and finding a way to bring it up in every conversation you ever have, regardless of what sort of dumb-assed plot armour you used to beat him. Plus, it's Johnny Cage, so he'd probably spend an hour bragging if he managed to save a nickel when buying an ice cream cone.

Speaking of Johnny, I think my biggest problem with the story mode was that it wasn't an hour longer so they could have a couple dozen more scenes with old and young Johnny jawboning back and forth. He was frigging awesome in this.
 

BlunderGod

The Kollector wants your lunch money
I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Raiden and Liu Kang were handled. While Dark Raiden's untimely dissappearence was unfortunate, Raiden was freed from that humiliating stigma of Blunder God that stuck ever since MK9. Liu Kang rising to become the next protector God of Earthrealm was a fitting conclusion to his character arc, much better than having his neck snapped by the Deadly Alliance that's for sure. I'd include Kitana as well if she was meant to last longer as Kahnum.

Sub Zero and Scorpion were completely directionless, if you exclude rehashing Sub Zero vs the Cyber Initiative and Hanzo Hasashi vs Scorpion which were handled much better in the comics.

The Special Forces characters and Kano were fine for the most part.

I had no problems with D'Vorah killing Hanzo though I wish she had played a bigger role in the moments leading to the final battle.

Felt like too many potentially interesting characters ended up just being filler.

I'd rather not speak about Kotal Kahn, if that's OK.

I've made my thoughts about the ending already known, so I'll make a summary. If they use this opportunity to expand the setting, give the other members of the roster the opportunity to step outside of the shadow Raiden and Liu Kang have set while effectively retiring them from their previous spots as main protagonists then I'm all for it.
 
that why it the kitana and liu kang and raiden makes sense it to write off there charachter and give them there ecning they deasarve espically liu and kitana after the crap they been in both timelines

ill be fine if they kust cameos going foward
 

chrisisnice

I'm a lover, not a fighter
For me...

The good

Kitana - Awesome. Glad to see her become Kitana Khan and kick Shao Kahn's ass after all of these years. Made sense given what he did to her family

Jade - Best version yet. They actually gave her a storyline and she did not just feel like Kitana's sidekick

Baraka - Same as above. They gave him depth for the first time and seeing his allegiances changing showed that he is more than simply a lackey like he has been since MK2

Johnny / Kano - Johnny is funny as always and had some of the best lines in the story and Kano was pretty entertaining too. Unfortunately not enough of Johnny towards the end

The bad

Cassie - Her new voice is horrible and I really liked her smart ass personality in MKX. I was looking forward to her as she mixed the best of Johnny and Sonya in MKX, but she was a miss for me.

Jax - Seriously dumb. He is moping about watching the TV then spontaneously decides to help Kronika destroy time. Seemed silly / nonsensical.

Erron Black / Kabal / The Kollector - standard lackeys. We still do not know anything about Erron's past at all. I have nno idea whether the version of this one was the younger him... if so, was the older one even in it??? I don't understand the point of the Kollector - he was just a generic minion. There was no exploration of he personality and why he was kollecting stuff. Waste of space.

The worst

Cetrion - She was the new character I was most hyped about. With all of the hype around her being an elder god of light, they did nothing with her. She was by far the biggest disappointment. She was just in it as a lackey and did nothing. The one time they could have given her some depth was at the end and they didn't bother. Absolute travesty. She may as well have not been in the game.

All others I was fairly indifferent to.

I think in the future, they need to give all new characters a chapter - even if it is only one or two fights. Ferra Torr was such a wasted opportunity in MKX. I think this time Cetrion and the Kollector really needed one (Geras was given a bit more development).
 
For me...

The good

Kitana - Awesome. Glad to see her become Kitana Khan and kick Shao Kahn's ass after all of these years. Made sense given what he did to her family

Jade - Best version yet. They actually gave her a storyline and she did not just feel like Kitana's sidekick

Baraka - Same as above. They gave him depth for the first time and seeing his allegiances changing showed that he is more than simply a lackey like he has been since MK2

Johnny / Kano - Johnny is funny as always and had some of the best lines in the story and Kano was pretty entertaining too. Unfortunately not enough of Johnny towards the end

The bad

Cassie - Her new voice is horrible and I really liked her smart ass personality in MKX. I was looking forward to her as she mixed the best of Johnny and Sonya in MKX, but she was a miss for me.

Jax - Seriously dumb. He is moping about watching the TV then spontaneously decides to help Kronika destroy time. Seemed silly / nonsensical.

Erron Black / Kabal / The Kollector - standard lackeys. We still do not know anything about Erron's past at all. I have nno idea whether the version of this one was the younger him... if so, was the older one even in it??? I don't understand the point of the Kollector - he was just a generic minion. There was no exploration of he personality and why he was kollecting stuff. Waste of space.

The worst

Cetrion - She was the new character I was most hyped about. With all of the hype around her being an elder god of light, they did nothing with her. She was by far the biggest disappointment. She was just in it as a lackey and did nothing. The one time they could have given her some depth was at the end and they didn't bother. Absolute travesty. She may as well have not been in the game.

All others I was fairly indifferent to.

I think in the future, they need to give all new characters a chapter - even if it is only one or two fights. Ferra Torr was such a wasted opportunity in MKX. I think this time Cetrion and the Kollector really needed one (Geras was given a bit more development).
I disagree with your thoughts on Jax. He has ptsd and doesn’t want his daughter to go through what he did. At the time he’s panicking cuz he thinks he doesn’t know if his daughter is ok after losing losing his wife. At that point it’s not surprising to me that he would make such an irrational choice. He wasn’t in a normal state of mind
 
Jax - felt very authentic from a character arc standpoint. He is one of the few MK characters with such a realistic outcome.

Liu Kang - FINALLY gets the respect he deserves. I have always been very much into "alpha" characters. I was upset ever since deadly alliance about how NRS (midway?) disrespected that character.

Sad about Hanzo, but Scorpion is cool I guess. Hanzo + Sub teamup was fun to watch and develop

Cassie, ugh, I stand by what I said a while back. I don't see the point of this character at all. She is just aesthetically to similar to Sonya, and mechanically too similar to Johnny. It is also really odd to see every single character job to her...like, she beat liu kang lol. wtf

Jacqui nice to see her with a bit more of a role, but kinda feels like another backdrop

Raiden - Great character arc/resolution

Cetrion - plot holes galore. The almighty Elder Gods turned out to be pretty silly

Khan Arc - was great to see Shao Khan absolutely kicking the hell out of kotal several times. It was also cool to see Kitana turn into a straight up badass. Was cool to see Shao Khan so upset over mileena as well

Kronika - She was quite weak for someone who controls the universe or whatever. her intentions werent clear unless i am missing something. She wanted to continuously reset time which may or may not benefit those whom have been reset but still the ultimate goal didn't seem to be bad or good, just inconvenient if u were somehow aware (raiden eventually, and godkang). She wanted a reality without Raiden, but to what ends? we can assume for bad intentions, but it wasn't exactly clear. I think i am gonna save this topic for a separate thread

Other notes:
LOTS of missed opportunities
No end credit scene...
Are we getting another reboot? im not upset about it, just over the "time" thing and would rather see actual progression of the story
Would have been nice to see Goro's death
Forget his name, but has the guy that ferry's them ever been mentioned before in MK?
 

Pizza

Thrill Kill
I don't understand the point of the Kollector - he was just a generic minion. There was no exploration of he personality and why he was kollecting stuff. Waste of space.
His introduction in the story mode is quite interesting, especially when he acts like a counselor to Shao Kahn regarding D'Vorah... I think that could've been explored more. He could have been the trustworthy, keeper of secrets of Shao Kahn, perhaps the only being Shao Kahn would ever listen to (this would also develop Shao Kahn). A shame that wasn't explored.
 
I just feel like, no offence intended, but NRS writers just aren't that good. I hate being super critical, but sometimes it just is what it is. The Kollector seems like he COULD be cool. I mean, he mentioned poverty in some way which explains collecting from a human perspective, but it would have been nice to explore that.

Like, why did we only get to play good characters? If they were just gonna reset the timeline again, why not make it bloodier and more emotional? MK has the best lore of any game i can think of, but this time around, i feel like we are dropping the ball. Kronika is a cool addition, but there was just so much that didn't make sense.

"DOH, i love my mommy but here is how u stop her, DOH" --Cetrion
 

Searsy82

Noob
So I guess the thing that bothered me the most about it was that in the end it was all meaningless right?

I mean....Kronika is like "Hey, bro...totes erased everything. Muh bad", and Liu was all like "Well....poop. I guess Ill beat you anyway"

Then Raiden is all "We're in space now and I'm just a man. You do you, bro"

And Liu is all like "Fuck all that noise, get me some poon dawg, where Kitana at"

Then they are just...in space.
 

FaneBlackwing

Best in the West
I like the whole good, bad, decent, etc... thing.

The Good:

-Kitana: The best she's ever been. I love how she rose to the situation and acted like a righteous and benevolent Queen would. She showed Baraka, Sheeva, Kotal, and everyone else that she's there to protect her people and she truly has the best interests for everyone. I also felt like her killing Shao Kahn is how it always should've been. He made her suffer the most out of anyone, and I really like that she did this.(If only it were under different circumstances)

-Baraka: FINALLY they move away from the mindless and savage lackey role he's ALWAYS had. It was such a refreshing change to have him turn to the light and aid Kitana and others in fighting Kronika. I'm really glad they finally gave him some good character development.

-Jade: Similar to Kitana, easily the best she's ever been. They really showed how close her an Kitana are just by the way they act and treat others. I loved her part in the story and it was probably the high point in the story for me.

-Fire God Liu Kang/Liu Kang/Raiden: I thought this was a brilliant thing tbh. For all Liu Kang does and sacrifices I thought making him a God was a fantastic idea and would help keep the character interesting in the next entry.(That is if they don't start a new timeline again...) Raiden and Liu Kang themselves were actually pretty good in this game as well. Couldn't complain about them.

-Sonya Blade: The best she's ever been! I've never really liked her, but I actually liked her in this game. She's was less of a hard ass, emotionless drone and actually showed her emotions and devotion to her family.

The Same as they were in MKX:

-Cassie, Kano, Johnny, Jacqui, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kotal Kahn, Erron Black: Really not much to say about them? They were okay. Didn't really feel like they had major developments and they weren't any better or worse than they were in the last game.

The Decent:

-
Jax: Not disappointed in the character, his PTSD trip was decent development, but outside of that he was pretty bland. He doesn't play a villainous role very well, so I'm confused why they thought it was a good idea.

-Shao Kahn: It's Shao Kahn. Not much else to say there.

-Kollector: The only good-ish new character we got. I really hope he returns in the next game, I'd love to see more of him.

-Skarlet: I mean, anything is better than what we got of her in other games, which is really nothing.

-D'Vorah: I hate her, but she was more underwhelming as a character in this compared to MKX where she was probably one of the best developed characters in it.

The Bad:

-Noob Saibot: Disappointed here. I was hoping he'd have more of a role, but he was just a lackey that appeared a couple times. That was it.

-Kabal: Similar to Noob. He really did nothing special or interesting. He was just... there. A different revenant like Nightwolf, Smoke, or Sindel would've been more interesting.

-Frost: Holy shit was she bad. She was totally unnecessary too with Sektor and Cyrax being in the mix again. She had a great design and totally could've been so much more, but Sektor and Cyrax stole the spotlight imo. Seeing them back was more exciting than Frost.

-Kung Lao: Poor guy was totally shafted this game. He was just an inferior Liu Kang when it came to the story. Totally unfortunate.

-Geras: Really what was so special about him? He was just an obstacle, and his whole shtick was "I can't die and I always come back stronger but you'll still kick my ass."

Please Never Come Back:

-Cetrion: What the **** Netherrealm.
 

Pizza

Thrill Kill
What they did with Cetrion is absurd. It still baffles me.

I know it's a shame there wasn't much focus on Geras and Kollector like they did with the Kombat Kids, D'Vorah, Kotal and Erron Black in MKX. But I can kinda understand why, even if I disagree.

However, Cetrion is by far the most wasted new character. Hyped up to be awesome, but her lore turned out to be crap. I still like her design and her gameplay... but regarding the story, she was a gigantic disappointment.
 
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-Geras: Really what was so special about him? He was just an obstacle, and his whole shtick was "I can't die and I always come back stronger but you'll still kick my ass."
Yeah, but Raiden was fucked up for doing that to him in the end lol. I felt that on a personal level. Demonic.
 

xenogorgeous

.... they mostly come at night. Mostly.
Kitana, Baraka, Jade and Cassie , for me, were the best in story mode, because they had more deep development chance to bright there :D

Raiden and Liu Kang, they're OK, not the highlight, but fine

Noob and Cetrion, are the major disapointments ..... was waiting more for them, but, they kinda bland empty lacking there :confused:

Kronika is weak, boring and not that intimidating ..... if she never again appears in MK lore story, I could care less ;) ..... she has no charisma

All the others, more or less so-so, sort of .... missed oportunity to shine .... they (story writers) could have make more for Skarlet participation in story, but, she is just another "second rate" movie extra on there.... shame and sad, because she is a cool character well designed
 

FaneBlackwing

Best in the West
Yeah, but Raiden was fucked up for doing that to him in the end lol. I felt that on a personal level. Demonic.
I actually laughed at it.

It was pretty dumb but really funny at the same time, especially at the very end.

"oh this sea of blood is conveniently bottomless so you're just going to eternally sink into nothing, but dw it won't be for long because you and everyone else will be erased from existence anyway"