Has NRS silenced the Mortal Kombat 1 critics?

[Juxtapose]

However, Dominic Cianciolo from NRS has confirmed that all endings in MK1 are canon.

He said this before "Khaos Reigns" released, and the expansion took things in a different direction.

 

[TomShane]

He said this before "Khaos Reigns" released, and the expansion took things in a different direction.

And yet none of the endings contradict what happened in Khaos Reigns. It's very clear that all the endings of the base roster and KP1 MK characters happened before Khaos Reigns, and the KP2 MK chars endings happened after KR. Guest endings are of course not canon

 

[Juxtapose]

And yet none of the endings contradict what happened in Khaos Reigns. It's very clear that all the endings of the base roster and KP1 MK characters happened before Khaos Reigns...

That's not true at all, but believe what you want.

 

[TomShane]

That's not true at all, but believe what you want.

Oh really? Can you explain how and why?

 

[SaltShaker]

However, Dominic Cianciolo from NRS has confirmed that all endings in MK1 are canon. This is one of the reasons why NRS/WB decided to start the New Era, to make a whole new canon, and the endings are gonna keep the world building of the New Era going. All of this is coming from Dominic himself.

Not sure I fully follow. So basically all the character endings are true canon, and MK2 will be a continuation of both the main story and linked to the character endings as a continuation of them?

 

[Juxtapose]

Oh really? Can you explain how and why?

The big one I see people reference to try and prove they're canon is Scorpion's wedding and confrontation with the Lin Kuei. Except that it happens completely differently in Story Mode.

You can simply watch the endings, and see that nothing happened/was followed up on.

Again, believe what you like, though.

So basically all the character endings are true canon,

They are not.

 

[TomShane]

If you're a story person I do understand not liking what has happened. Most games are full of plot holes anyway, but the MK verse is like the next level. Like watching the TV show Lost.

MK9: kinda OG stuff, tournament, Kahn invasion, mostly traditional versions of characters, ends with Raiden killing Liu accidentally and Kahn defeated, and wondering how this changes the OG timeline. Big shock seeing the ending back then, but feels like it worked.

MKX: unexpected 20 years later jump, it's after the world was saved and many OG heroes dead, the OGs kids are now heroes, new era type of story. Ends with a very clear anointment of a new Earth Protector, Cassie Cage, who is the strongest and has Warrior God Bloodline or something. Liu Kang and Kitana and company are also zombies while Raiden is corrupted at the end setting up MK11. Figure this is the new era direction going forward.

MK11: Scraps literally all of last game and it's relevance. "Dark Raiden" is gone by the first Act by dissolving, Cassie went from the new Earth Protector to "eh she's in the game", timeline MCU galore everywhere, Kronika is manipulating all events through thousands of timelines is learned. Kotal Kahn is now a chump, many changes in story again. Evil Liu Kang kills good Liu Kang, but then later we get God Liu Kang, who is now the new Raiden, and will build his own timeline.

MK1: Liu Kang has his great timeline, where Shao Kahn is a chump, Raiden is Champion, Hanzo apparently doesn't exist, a bunch of villains are anti-heros fighting for their people, the robots are women, Kombat Kids retconned except Takeda who isn't Kenshi's kid. We learn the timelines are back again, and there's still a bazillion of them and Shang was getting all the bad timeline guys together so God Liu gets a bunch of good timeline guys and they have a Marvel Endgame war clash. Khaos More timeline stuff. Future more timeline stuff coming.

These stories are so far off the page each game that it's difficult to enjoy this over time. By the time you get to MK1 It's easy to have given up on caring about the story. It's one thing for the gameplay to completely revamp each game, variation, kameo, whatever, but when you do such dramatic changes and revisions each game with the story I can see why someone like Subby would lose interests in it. I feel like each game's story has regressed.

There's nothing wrong with "massive swings", they don't have to sit there like Bloodsport every game, it's about the "swings" they took. It's like having 5 options but picking the worst one every time. MK9 to MKX is the only one that worked decently enough because there was a major time skip, the others are like reboots that retconned in the worst way. They pretty much went from

--tournament but things go wrong
--literally 20 years in the future, New Era is here
--New Era is meaningless, Cassie is now regular, Kronika manipulates 1000s of timelines, must be stopped
--All the known characters are completely different after God Liu's timeline. God Liu vs God Shang for the battle of the universe MCU Endgame style

This is just too dramatic of changes game to game. It's hard to even recognize what story they are trying to sell me from one game to another. At least in the old timeline it was wonky but you can follow the basic concepts. Liu is the champion and wins some tourneys, Kahn is salty and invades earth but loses again, Shinnok schemes up after this, Quan and Shang team up to kill the threats of Shao and Liu, etc etc and really only tanked hard after the Onaga stuff started up. What they have been doing with the current era games story is criminal when MK easily has the best potential by farrr for good stories. I've read some fan made stories that were great and we got the worst case scenario of stories and continuity.

And comparing to Tekken's lowest bar in history story isn't a flex lol. Tekken went from "tournament", to "dead guy in basement for years is actually alive and threatens the world TWICE", to "Devil and Angel fighting on an asteroid in outer space". Nothing is as bad as that story lol.



This part I disagree. I don't think a lot of people want "new stuff". I think most people want faithful adaptation to what they already enjoy, and expansion on what they like a lot, not a bunch of new things or revamps or soft reboots. Companies and creative writers, directors, whoever, are the ones who always want to do new things because often they hate the source material or have no knowledge of it. Think of movies shows or films based on comics or animes based on mangas. Very often the complaints are about how the character(s) aren't how they are "supposed to be". In anime everyone hates fillers or changes because many times it's "not like the manga". This is no different in video games. People, especially casuals who like the lore like Subby, want Hanzo as Scorpion and Shao Kahn as a strong bad guy in Outworld. They don't want "Scorpion and Sub are now brothers, and Shao Kahn is a useless chump".



In hindsight the clones route ala Mileena might have been a much better part than what we ended up getting lol. Especially if they pulled off a "he/she was actually the clone all along". I don't think I've ever heard that immortality tournament one though, I actually like that one a lot. I'm not sure how they get from that to fighting Onaga though. My head might explode if MK2 is more multiverse stuff again though. I want to say there's been enough feedback to not do it, but I also think they might get "told" to do it.

None of the stuff that you said was true at all. MK11 did not scrap anything from MKX, you still got Cassie, Kotal, Dark Raiden and more, all in relation to how MKX ended with Raiden cutting off Shinnok's head.

Also you, like everyone else, keeping throwing the MCU comparisons, which is objectively false. MK9 was the ones that started the time-travel concept before the MCU, MK11 just expanded on it. Also, WB games have the DC license, and the DC universe also has it's own multiverse, and NRS had IJ1, which also had it's own multiverse story way before MK11 and MK1. This makes your multiverse rant even less legit, because even if you wanted to compare it to something, you don't even compare it to the more correct thing. You and the rest of the bashers only throwing MCU MCU MCU just because that, just like it's fun to hate on MK, or any western IP nowadays, on the internet, MCU is like the pinnacle of interent western bashing.

And the Kombat Kids were not "retconned" in MK1, that is not what "retcon" means. Again throwing stuff up. Only if there's a change with no explanation in the story and it will happens in the same timeline, only then it is a retcon. And since this is a new timeline. It's not a retcon.

And no, not a lot of people want adaptations of stuff that they already know. The vast majority of people want things to be fresh, see new takes on stuff that they already know and take stuff to the next level. Yes sometimes it's good to have adaptations, but not in the vast majority of cases. MK1 is clearly an alternative take on the origins of the characters, and as a long time MK fan, I can say with all honesty that this is the best Mortal Kombat story ever done.

Not sure I fully follow. So basically all the character endings are true canon, and MK2 will be a continuation of both the main story and linked to the character endings as a continuation of them?

Yes all MK1 endings are canon, and MK13 will be a continuation of both the main story and Khaos Reigns as well as all the endings. In fact. Dominic even hinted that all Invasions stories might be canon as well, although that one in particular is still remains to be seen, but the Arcade endings are 100% canon.

 

[TomShane]

The big one I see people reference to try and prove they're canon is Scorpion's wedding and confrontation with the Lin Kuei. Except that it happens completely differently in Story Mode.

You can simply watch the endings, and see that nothing happened/was followed up on.

Again, believe what you like, though.



They are not.

There is no contradiction here. In the base story, Scorpion already named his new clan the Shirai Ryu (as confirmed by Liu Kang), and then in his ending we see them already going into a huge battle with the Lin Kuei, and then we get Khaos Reigns and the wedding.

I'm not believing stuff for nothing, it's all there, and Dominic has confirmed it.

 

[Juxtapose]

There is no contradiction here. In the base story, Scorpion already named his new clan the Shirai Ryu (as confirmed by Liu Kang), and then in his ending we see them already going into a huge battle with the Lin Kuei, and then we get Khaos Reigns and the wedding.

I'm not believing stuff for nothing, it's all there, and Dominic has confirmed it.

Again, believe what you want.

 

[TomShane]

Again, believe what you want.

So no explanation or counter argument? You give me a none-point, I debunk it, and that's your response.

I guess, you sir, can believe whatever you want.

 

[Vulgar]

I'm not sure how Khaos Reigns contradicts Scorpion's ending. Clearly they had skirmishes between the end of MK1 and the start of Khaos Reigns.

Scorpion's ending shows both clans facing off. Given that Scorpion is being hounded by Sub Zero at the beginning of his ending, that tracks.

What we're probably seeing is a battle that took place after MK1 but before Khaos Reigns.

Am I missing something?

 

[Juxtapose]

So no explanation or counter argument? You give me a none-point, I debunk it, and that's your response.

Counter argument to what? You're proving my point for me. The Tower Endings can reference canonical materials, but they're not canon themselves.

The wedding, that battle, all happen differently and under different circumstances in story mode then they do in the Tower endings.

Where's the film Mileena, Tanya and co. shot with Johnny from his ending? That never happened since they're actually trying to get their realm back in order. Where's Onaga tamed by Reiko? Right, that never happened or is referenced anywhere in the expansion. Where's Hanzo from Smoke's ending? Or Shujinko? Or most of the other things that happen in the Tower Endings? All non-existent in Story Mode.

People believed the Tower Endings from Mortal Kombat 11 were canon as well, until the Story expansion proved that false. People thought the Liu Kang/Kitana ending to Story Mode was canon for Mortal Kombat 11 as well, until the expansion showed it was the Liu Kang/Raiden one. People expected an Outworld tournament with Dark Raiden as the aggressor for Mortal Kombat 11 after all the Tower Endings set up such a tournament in Mortal Kombat X, which never happened.

Again, believe what you want, but I'll believe what history has shown time and time again, and that's for the Netherrealm Studios games, Story Mode is canon, intros and Tower endings are not.

 

[Juxtapose]

I'm not sure how Khaos Reigns contradicts Scorpion's ending. Clearly they had skirmishes between the end of MK1 and the start of Khaos Reigns.

Scorpion's ending shows both clans facing off. Given that Scorpion is being hounded by Sub Zero at the beginning of his ending, that tracks.

What we're probably seeing is a battle that took place after MK1 but before Khaos Reigns.

Am I missing something?

As I recall, the Lin Kui didn't attack the Shira Ryu until the wedding. It was meant to crush Scorpion and humilate him while introducing and proving their cyber tech all in one shot.

 

[Vulgar]

As I recall, the Lin Kui didn't attack the Shira Ryu until the wedding. It was meant to crush Scorpion and humilate him while introducing and proving their cyber tech all in one shot.

No, it says in the beginning of Scorpion's ending that Sub Zero and his clan were dogging him so much that he had to flee to Japan.

 

[Vulgar]

Counter argument to what? You're proving my point for me. The Tower Endings can reference canonical materials, but they're not canon themselves.

The wedding, that battle, all happen differently and under different circumstances in story mode then they do in the Tower endings.

Where's the film Mileena, Tanya and co. shot with Johnny from his ending? That never happened since they're actually trying to get their realm back in order. Where's Onaga tamed by Reiko? Right, that never happened or is referenced anywhere in the expansion. Where's Hanzo from Smoke's ending? Or Shujinko? Or most of the other things that happen in the Tower Endings? All non-existent in Story Mode.

People believed the Tower Endings from Mortal Kombat 11 were canon as well, until the Story expansion proved that false. People thought the Liu Kang/Kitana ending to Story Mode was canon for Mortal Kombat 11 as well, until the expansion showed it was the Liu Kang/Raiden one. People expected an Outworld tournament with Dark Raiden as the aggressor for Mortal Kombat 11 after all the Tower Endings set up such a tournament in Mortal Kombat X, which never happened.

Again, believe what you want, but I'll believe what history has shown time and time again, and that's for the Netherrealm Studios games, Story Mode is canon, intros and Tower endings are not.

MK11 Jacqui had the best Tower ending in all of MK.

 

[Juxtapose]

No, it says in the beginning of Scorpion's ending that Sub Zero and his clan were dogging him so much that he had to flee to Japan.

That assumes the endings are canon, of course.

We'll find out in time, with Mortal Kombat 13. Considering every game developed by NetherRealm has always been that Story Mode (and bios) are canon, I'll be very, very surprised if this turns out differently, new era or no.

 

[Juxtapose]

MK11 Jacqui had the best Tower ending in all of MK.

She absolutely did. Very sad. Still not canon.

 

[Juxtapose]

Keep in mind, one aspect of people being upset with the story telling is they like to believe every bit of flavour text and line of dialogue in a game is canon as opposed to looking at what's really canon for a narrative.

We still have people who believe Erron Black was ageless because of his Mortal Kombat X Tower Ending, which of course is not and was never canon. But people buy it and then get upset when the next game "retcons" things.

 

[just_2swift]

I'm aware of all of that, I have been in the fighting game block for a long time. However, Dominic Cianciolo from NRS has confirmed that all endings in MK1 are canon. This is one of the reasons why NRS/WB decided to start the New Era, to make a whole new canon, and the endings are gonna keep the world building of the New Era going. All of this is coming from Dominic himself. As for the intros, yes they are still on the verge of "some are canon, some are not". But yet these are that tease Sindel not being that good don't contradict the story that much, or the endings, which once again, are all confirmed to be canon this time.



That's a.... non-answer dude.

It's..... A correction dude.

 

[just_2swift]

MK1 models are the best ones, and both Sektor and Cyrax.

 

[TomShane]

Counter argument to what? You're proving my point for me. The Tower Endings can reference canonical materials, but they're not canon themselves.

The wedding, that battle, all happen differently and under different circumstances in story mode then they do in the Tower endings.

Where's the film Mileena, Tanya and co. shot with Johnny from his ending? That never happened since they're actually trying to get their realm back in order. Where's Onaga tamed by Reiko? Right, that never happened or is referenced anywhere in the expansion. Where's Hanzo from Smoke's ending? Or Shujinko? Or most of the other things that happen in the Tower Endings? All non-existent in Story Mode.

People believed the Tower Endings from Mortal Kombat 11 were canon as well, until the Story expansion proved that false. People thought the Liu Kang/Kitana ending to Story Mode was canon for Mortal Kombat 11 as well, until the expansion showed it was the Liu Kang/Raiden one. People expected an Outworld tournament with Dark Raiden as the aggressor for Mortal Kombat 11 after all the Tower Endings set up such a tournament in Mortal Kombat X, which never happened.

Again, believe what you want, but I'll believe what history has shown time and time again, and that's for the Netherrealm Studios games, Story Mode is canon, intros and Tower endings are not.

Except that none of those things were contradicted by the events of Khaos Reigns. Mileena trying to repair Outworld and Scorpion having his wedding doesn't contradict that Johnny brought all of them to his studio to make a film. It just means that all of these events happened in different points of time. Just like the big Shirai Ryu-Lin Kuei battle happened between the events of the base story and KR, Johnny inviting the warriors to his studio happened in a different point in time before KR.

I mean, just look at Sub-Zero's ending. He ended up creating the Cyber Initiative, and you can see the scientist next to Sub-Zero making what is not a cyborg, but a mech-suit, which is exactly what we got in Khaos Reigns for Cyrax and Sektor.

Also Erron Black's MKX ending is what is called a semi-canon ending, as it tries to explain something from the past that is canon and only the present/future part is not canon. How else you would explain Erron Black, a gunslinger who's clearly from the old wild west, managing to stay young for this long like an Outworlder even though in the MKX story he confirms to that Kombat Kids that he's from Earthrealm?

MK11 endings were indeed not canon as indeed there is no way that any of them can be if Liu Kang ended up manipulating time again for Shang Tsung and the others to get Kronika's crown. But then again we didn't know until the end of KP1 that we will get a story expansion, and also each and every single ending showed what the winning would do with the Hourglass, and that obviously can't possibly happen.

MK1 endings are all canon.

 

[TomShane]

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Seriously?

Oh and your "correction" didn't add anything, so yeah, non-answer.

MK11 Jacqui had the best Tower ending in all of MK.

I wouldn't say the best of all MK, but indeed the best in MK11 for sure.

 

[Trickywizard]

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Damn I would be maining Cyrax & Sektor….

 

[Juxtapose]

I mean, just look at Sub-Zero's ending. He ended up creating the Cyber Initiative, and you can see the scientist next to Sub-Zero making what is not a cyborg, but a mech-suit, which is exactly what we got in Khaos Reigns for Cyrax and Sektor.

As I said, they can reference canonical events.

a gunslinger who's clearly from the old wild west,

He's not, he's from Texas. You're believing something that's not canon and getting things muddled.

and also each and every single ending showed what the winning would do with the Hourglass, and that obviously can't possibly happen.

And that's what Klassic Tower endings are: what if scenarios. They are not canon.

MK1 endings are all canon.

Almost 14 years of history disagrees with you.

 

[SaltShaker]

None of the stuff that you said was true at all. MK11 did not scrap anything from MKX, you still got Cassie, Kotal, Dark Raiden and more, all in relation to how MKX ended with Raiden cutting off Shinnok's head.

Also you, like everyone else, keeping throwing the MCU comparisons, which is objectively false. MK9 was the ones that started the time-travel concept before the MCU, MK11 just expanded on it. Also, WB games have the DC license, and the DC universe also has it's own multiverse, and NRS had IJ1, which also had it's own multiverse story way before MK11 and MK1. This makes your multiverse rant even less legit, because even if you wanted to compare it to something, you don't even compare it to the more correct thing. You and the rest of the bashers only throwing MCU MCU MCU just because that, just like it's fun to hate on MK, or any western IP nowadays, on the internet, MCU is like the pinnacle of interent western bashing.

And the Kombat Kids were not "retconned" in MK1, that is not what "retcon" means. Again throwing stuff up. Only if there's a change with no explanation in the story and it will happens in the same timeline, only then it is a retcon. And since this is a new timeline. It's not a retcon.

And no, not a lot of people want adaptations of stuff that they already know. The vast majority of people want things to be fresh, see new takes on stuff that they already know and take stuff to the next level. Yes sometimes it's good to have adaptations, but not in the vast majority of cases. MK1 is clearly an alternative take on the origins of the characters, and as a long time MK fan, I can say with all honesty that this is the best Mortal Kombat story ever done.



Yes all MK1 endings are canon, and MK13 will be a continuation of both the main story and Khaos Reigns as well as all the endings. In fact. Dominic even hinted that all Invasions stories might be canon as well, although that one in particular is still remains to be seen, but the Arcade endings are 100% canon.

At the end of MKX, the story which was a 20 year time skip, concluded with the anointment of Cassie Cage as the strongest in the world, the new champion of earth, who descended from a legendary bloodline of warriors. She quite literally surpassed Liu Kang as the heroine, as he became a zombie villain. The Kombat Kids were now the new team to protect earthrealm all written very strongly with new foes and rivalries. OG heroes are either dead (Liu Kang, Kitana, etc) or going into other roles.

In MK11, the timelines were "merging" due to Timeline storytelling, Dark Raiden literally evaporated in Chapter 2 (no payoff at all), Cassie became a "role player" alongside Jacqui, and there's no more Kombat Kids because two of them are quite literally not even in the game to storytell. Cassie and Jacqui reduced to quips and helping save other characters, but support roles to the real heroes like Raiden and Liu. Liu Kang is killed but then also not killed and becomes the hero again and a God.


MK11 is a soft reboot to MKX, that shouldn't even be debatable. Two Kombat Kids were removed outright in MK11, and only one is in MK1 as a DLC with a completely different backstory. But after that, you're like " I disagree, it was actually perfect in every way, the Kombat Kids are still clearly the heroes of the story and the New Era is obviously about them. Stop hating on MK" lol.