We are almost there! With less than two week to go until release, we have just a handful of Kombat Kasts left before we all actually have the game. This week, it was lady's night, and it was feeling right with Kitana, D'vorah and Cetrion.
Opening talk this week introduced Shaun Himmerick as a special guest to talk about "time crystals". Time crystals are used as a shortcut to earn cosmetics (gear, skins, taunts, etc.). Something he elaborated on that we didn't know much about before is how gear and stats work: they are separate this time around. So instead of Injustice 2, where gear affected stats, you get augments that you can put on your gear to give you stats. Time crystals cannot be used to buy augments, so something they wanted to be clear about was you can't use this to "pay to win" your way through player matches. This appears to be the only form of micro-transaction they are using, with Shawn doubling down on "no lootboxes" once again. After a Kitana/D'vorah trailer, they went into it with the new Kahn of Outworld.
So 16 Bit described Kitana as totally redesigned from MKX: more grace, less kung-fu. She has the same basic kit you'd expect, fan throws and stabby pokes. In her gear set, she can add moves that give her better control of the air, like a aerial hop. On top of that, you can give her a parry that boosts her fan damage upon a successful block.
Some more moves she can get is something similar to Batman's spinny bat trait, but with fans. If you are tied of fans but miss Mileena, you'll be glad to know that Kitana gets a set of specials that make use of Mileena's sai to give her new specials, like a tracking projectile.
Our next character was Cetrion! Goddess of rocks, fire, wind and water, she can basically just call up the elements to smack you around. Her base specials include a giant boulder she can summon and throw at the ground or air. She can get Aquaman's From the Deep, but vines instead of squids, as well as a fire beam she can call from the air and shoot close, mid, or far.
On top of a tracking ground pound, her gear moves allow her to gain several elemental buffs. One of them allows her to summon floating rocks that attack the opponent whenever they hit you.
If you are familiar with Street Fighter V, she can throw out mini-tornadoes that look like Rashid's VT2. The elemental buff she can get for wind creates a giant bubble that makes it really hard for your opponent to move forward past it, setting up an easier zoning field for you.
Last up, D'vorah. Still a rushdown character, she's keeping a lot of her MKX moves, sans anything involving cancels. She still has her ovipositor rush, she still has her puddle (doesn't track anymore), and she gets an anti-air grab that's apparently a great combo ender.
She can get a really cool move that's a big, spinny flip with a lot of range. She can also summon a hive that shoots out a projectile (3 upon a meter burn) or individual bugs that fly up slowly and prevent your opponent from jumping. If you missed it from the Game Informer breakdown, when she dies, she comes back as a baby "Bug-Vorah" with it's own moveset. To close it out, we got a look at the single worst fatality in history: D'vorah vomits on the opponent and they explode into a giant spider.
Above is a shot at the near final character select screen. Anywhos, the belt battle this week was played on tournament mode. Tyler was was still mopping with Jax, while Derek threw us a curveball by picking Kano. Tyler, once again, took game 1. Derek decided to stick it out with Kano, a decision that cost him the belt this week, as Tyler proceeded to win the next game.
No Kombat Kast next week, while everyone is busy trying to sell more copies of the game. But they will be back the day before release to do a Kast that Monday, showing off some more stuff. So be on the watch for that.
Opening talk this week introduced Shaun Himmerick as a special guest to talk about "time crystals". Time crystals are used as a shortcut to earn cosmetics (gear, skins, taunts, etc.). Something he elaborated on that we didn't know much about before is how gear and stats work: they are separate this time around. So instead of Injustice 2, where gear affected stats, you get augments that you can put on your gear to give you stats. Time crystals cannot be used to buy augments, so something they wanted to be clear about was you can't use this to "pay to win" your way through player matches. This appears to be the only form of micro-transaction they are using, with Shawn doubling down on "no lootboxes" once again. After a Kitana/D'vorah trailer, they went into it with the new Kahn of Outworld.
So 16 Bit described Kitana as totally redesigned from MKX: more grace, less kung-fu. She has the same basic kit you'd expect, fan throws and stabby pokes. In her gear set, she can add moves that give her better control of the air, like a aerial hop. On top of that, you can give her a parry that boosts her fan damage upon a successful block.
Some more moves she can get is something similar to Batman's spinny bat trait, but with fans. If you are tied of fans but miss Mileena, you'll be glad to know that Kitana gets a set of specials that make use of Mileena's sai to give her new specials, like a tracking projectile.
Our next character was Cetrion! Goddess of rocks, fire, wind and water, she can basically just call up the elements to smack you around. Her base specials include a giant boulder she can summon and throw at the ground or air. She can get Aquaman's From the Deep, but vines instead of squids, as well as a fire beam she can call from the air and shoot close, mid, or far.
On top of a tracking ground pound, her gear moves allow her to gain several elemental buffs. One of them allows her to summon floating rocks that attack the opponent whenever they hit you.
If you are familiar with Street Fighter V, she can throw out mini-tornadoes that look like Rashid's VT2. The elemental buff she can get for wind creates a giant bubble that makes it really hard for your opponent to move forward past it, setting up an easier zoning field for you.
Last up, D'vorah. Still a rushdown character, she's keeping a lot of her MKX moves, sans anything involving cancels. She still has her ovipositor rush, she still has her puddle (doesn't track anymore), and she gets an anti-air grab that's apparently a great combo ender.
She can get a really cool move that's a big, spinny flip with a lot of range. She can also summon a hive that shoots out a projectile (3 upon a meter burn) or individual bugs that fly up slowly and prevent your opponent from jumping. If you missed it from the Game Informer breakdown, when she dies, she comes back as a baby "Bug-Vorah" with it's own moveset. To close it out, we got a look at the single worst fatality in history: D'vorah vomits on the opponent and they explode into a giant spider.
Above is a shot at the near final character select screen. Anywhos, the belt battle this week was played on tournament mode. Tyler was was still mopping with Jax, while Derek threw us a curveball by picking Kano. Tyler, once again, took game 1. Derek decided to stick it out with Kano, a decision that cost him the belt this week, as Tyler proceeded to win the next game.
No Kombat Kast next week, while everyone is busy trying to sell more copies of the game. But they will be back the day before release to do a Kast that Monday, showing off some more stuff. So be on the watch for that.
