To ppl mad about Shang rumors:
The only ninjas with actual character development and relevance are Scorpion and Sub-Zero, NRS knows this. Kuai Liang seeks to redeem his name and clan by making amends with his rival. Scorpion learned who was truly responsible for his clan's destruction, and learns to temper his rage.
NRS seems to only want to bring on characters they are interested in writing for.
They were clearly writing off reptile in MKX. He was the last of his race and had no master to job for, what were they gonna do with him in 11? Just have him keep jobbing with no real consequence on the plot like usual? Reptile slot went to Baraka, who has much better room for growth.
Ermac has been hitting the same notes for near a decade now. What is so interesting about him? We are legion, you aren't. Very edge. We are mooks for whatever the bad guy needs to be and dont have our own goals. His aesthetic is cool and his powers are neat but he's a shit character.
Literally who even is Smoke. He has not left any kind of impression on the story despite being in several games now. Another character with plenty of edge but no actual 3dimensions like the two main ninjas.
Rain is a fucking meme. A cool meme, but a meme.
I feel the same about the ninjas as I do about the cyborgs, interesting aesthetic but lackluster characters. I loved them when I was 14 and didnt give a shit about story, but now I see their inclusion for what it truly is: fanservice.
I understand why the kombat kids and the MKX outworlders made it onto the roster and they didnt. Outside of jobber-black, NRS actually wants to take them somewhere.
I'd rather cramp 3 ninjas into a character than have roster slots go to them over characters with more potential.
Honestly the same point can be made about every character that is not Sub, Scorp, Liu, Raiden, Shang, QC or JC.
Whats Kano done all these years? Or Jax?
Kabal? Sheeva? Noob? Lao? Baraka? Even Kitana... EB was useless in two games. Kollector and Frost are going nowhere storywise.
Kano and Jax will keep doing the same stuff they did the last 30years for the next 30years.
Ermac/Reptile have at least story potential if NRS would decide to dedicate more time to bad/neutral chars. Smoke could be great if they explore the whole Enenra thing more.
So the problem are not the characters or their potential but NRS and how they tell the storys. Their story is basically a movie were 3-5 character get story and the rest is just there cuz they have to fill the roster. And this probably wont change, doesnt matter if its Reptile, Kollector, Kano, Jacqui, some 3D pick up or a new character... either you are one of the main bad guys/main good guys or you just get some story splinters which will probably never be explored further.
