Would you like to have a Tournament arc again?

[Pizza]

I mean, since Shao Kahn's invasion there hasn't been any more tournaments. So how can we have a Mortal Kombat champion if there's no Mortal Kombat? Everything is wars now lmao

I really liked the original concept of tournaments in MK and MK2. And I think it was handled very well in MK9, especially in the MK1 segment.

So I'd like to see something like that again. A new tournament with contestants from every realm. I don't know why, let Vogel come up with the story. I just think that a Tournament Arc is excellent to give the spotlight to every character. The story could even branch with some choices like picking a fighter in certain fights, and have alternate endings.
Pretty much what they started to do in Injustice 2 and are continuing in MK11.

Of course there could be some fights outside of the tournament, like some asshole trying to ambush another character. Things like that are possible. I'm talking about having a new story centered around a tournament. Enter the Dragon!

Thoughts?

 

[Jhonnykiller45]

Meh. I would like it if they made it an actual tournament with brackets and serious rules to follow and that kinda stuff.
None of the previous games ever felt like real tournaments and I think it's pointless to bring that setting back just for the sake of it.

 

[HeavyNorse]

No, never.
Tournaments being the story of fighting games is so cliché by now. And rather boring. Makes for a good foundation, but I'd like to move on to other epic stories, which is exactly what MK is doing.

 

[VSC_Supreme]

ngl, I was pretty excited when I saw Kotal's ending in MKX and really thought it'd carry into the next game. This time outworld defending itself against earthrealm in Mortal Kombat.

That being said, I think to keep the plot moving forward, there would need to be more than just a tournament.

 

[Pizza]

No, never.
Tournaments being the story of fighting games is so cliché by now. And rather boring. Makes for a good foundation, but I'd like to move on to other epic stories, which is exactly what MK is doing.

Weird. I think this whole "epic wars to prevent apocalypse" are getting old, since that's what they're doing since MK4

 

[Kiss the Missile]

I was hoping that's what they were doing with MK11. Where Outworld was actually on the defense from an Earthrealm invasion. That ending where Bo Rai Cho returns to Outworld to train Reptile in preparation for the tournament, that was the most excited I've been for a Mortal Kombat story since Deception.

 

[HeavyNorse]

Weird. I think this whole "epic wars to prevent apocalypse" are getting old, since that's what they're doing since MK4

Thing is, when it's a tournament, all the focus is on the tournament. It's just kinda the "Good guys" VS the "Bad guys", and that's that.

When it's an apocalyptic event, there are room for a lot of stories on the side, more factions playing out their conflicts, characters with unique goals that don't fit into a tournament setting. And I like that!

 

[Pizza]

We're still on a "good guys" vs "bad guys" story lol it's not limited to which realm each character is coming from.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Thing is, when it's a tournament, all the focus is on the tournament. It's just kinda the "Good guys" VS the "Bad guys", and that's that.

When it's an apocalyptic event, there are room for a lot of stories on the side, more factions playing out their conflicts, characters with unique goals that don't fit into a tournament setting. And I like that!

I mean there's hardly a difference. Tournament arc or apocalypse arc, the story boils down to the good guys beat the bad guys or bad things happen.

And the MK1 tournament arc had plenty of interesting side stories, just look at MK9. Sonya being at the tournament solely to rescue her partner, the Lin Kuei betraying their Earthrealm allies by trying to assassinate their warriors, rebellion within the Lin Kuei itself leading to infighting, Scorpion's vengeance plot, Kung Lao disobeying his Shaolin masters to prove that he's worthy of defending Earthrealm etc.

 

[pure.Wasted]

Thing is, when it's a tournament, all the focus is on the tournament. It's just kinda the "Good guys" VS the "Bad guys", and that's that.

When it's an apocalyptic event, there are room for a lot of stories on the side, more factions playing out their conflicts, characters with unique goals that don't fit into a tournament setting. And I like that!

Not true. Just look at MK9's MK1 and MK2 sections, which had the shittiest tournaments of all time, and still:

-Johnny and Kung Lao had story arcs about proving themselves
-Scorpion had a revenge subplot vs Sub-Zero
-Sonya had a revenge subplot vs Kano and saved Jax's life
-Sub-Zero had a revenge subplot vs Scorpion
-Raiden had a subplot about trying to redeem Scorpion
-Kitana and Jade had subplots about learning the truth about Shao Kahn and defecting to Earthrealm
-Smoke had a subplot about rescuing Sub-Zero
-Johnny and Jax had a sublot about rescuing Sonya
-Cyrax/Sektor/Sub-Zero had the sub-plot of the Cyber Lin Kuei
-Shang Tsung had the sub-plot of trying to redeem himself to Shao Kahn by inventing a brand new plot to take over the world

And that's not everything, I haven't even touched on Raiden fucking with time, Outworld invading Earthrealm during MK2, Liu Kang winning both tournaments, Mileena being created, and more.

And that's in the shittastic, silly, strictly-paying-homage-to-MK1-and-MK2 tournament of MK9. And even in that game, then it had the MK3 section, which had nothing to do with a tournament at all! There's absolutely no reason why a tournament in a future game would have to take up the entire length of the story mode, and not provide any room for in depth character stories. Maybe the game would start with a tournament to decide the fate of Edenia, and then after its fate is decided, the sore losers decide to wage a desperate war to keep it from gaining its freedom. There you go, tournament first half, epic war second half.

And if it's not clear, my answer is YES!

 

[HeavyNorse]

the story boils down to the good guys beat the bad guys or bad things happen.

There's one big impending threat in an apocalyptic setting, but there can still be several individual factions who are fighting out their individual battles which doesn't have anything to do with the big bad boss.

Sure, in the tournament settings, Sonya was after Kano, Sub-Zero and Scorpion had beef, etc etc, however, the characters had to belong to either side. Either they were team Good or team Evil.

By not doing a tournament setting, there's more freedom for each character to evolve as individuals. That Liu Kang kills Shao Kahn, Cassie kills Shinnok, Shujinko kills Onaga etc, that's just one part of the main story because there needs to be a hero bringing down the main villain. But those are just two characters of the whole story.

So yeah, that's just my personal preference in storytelling.

 

[pure.Wasted]

Sure, in the tournament settings, Sonya was after Kano, Sub-Zero and Scorpion had beef, etc etc, however, the characters had to belong to either side. Either they were team Good or team Evil.

Who says that the two (or three, or four) sides fighting in a tournament have to be good vs evil?

To follow the example I used above, if the object they're fighting over is a free Edenia, maybe there are excellent reasons for not freeing Edenia. Maybe freeing Edenia will result in Outworld destabilizing as a planet, and millions of deaths due to catastrophic weather conditions, etc. On the other hand it will create a home for Edenians. So bam, there you go, no clear good and no clear evil. Just two sides both fighting for what they think is right. With plenty of room for individual characters to disagree, to persuade one another to switch sides, to fight for personal reasons that have nothing to do with Edenia at all, or to have stories that involve Edenia but have nothing to do with the tournament. Easiest thing in the world.

Seems to me like you're getting too caught up on how tournament stories have been done in the past, and not seeing the potential for how easily they could be improved in the future.

 

[Jynks]

I really like story mode personally.. I think it is a very important part of MK and in why NRS games are so great. Remember the "competitive" scene is only a small subset of the gaming community that plays MK. As a company NRS needs to cater for all tastes.. if story mode didn't exist... MK games wouldn't either.. it is that simple.

Still, I am not a big fan of continuity. There is a reason comics have no real adherence to continuity. With characters being rewritten, ret-coned, one shots, else worlds and the like. When stories follow strict continuity they just get out of control and unwieldy after a while. MK is already in that "bigger, better, harder" trap. Each story needing to top the last. 1/2 the original cast and fan favs are dead, each boss being bigger and badder... it is just lame. Superman is like 80 years old and counting precisely because they do not give a shit about continuity.

I would MK to be like James Bond or something. Fuck making it a single long story in many parts.. each MK should just be the best and most awesome MK story they can make and fuck it if it dosen't match up perfectly with the old ones.

Maybe I just want Superman to not be an asshole in Injustice and all the MK guys back from the dead.

 

[HeavyNorse]

Who says that the two (or three, or four) sides fighting in a tournament have to be good vs evil?

That's how it's been in MK when there was a tournament setting.
In other fighting games, the individual characters have their own reason to join. They all have their background stories, whether they want fame, need the money to help a sick family member, want to avenge someone's death who the main tournament organisation or someone else in the tournament was responsible of, wanting to prove themselves as a fighter, stuff like that. But it's all the same in each of these games! Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Street Fighter, and yes, even Mortal Kombat had these roles filled in, just to give each character a reason and motivation to be in said tournament.

I prefer the freedom not restricted by a tournament setting.

 

[MrWarMachine]

honestly, the tournament itself has never mattered much in the grand scheme of things. Yes it was there as a reason for all these characters to fight, but can you name any actual rules of the tournament? Or even how opponents are chosen? Hell in MK 9 they had some characters fighting two people at a time, how the fuck does that shit work lol?

The tournament should always have it's place in the lore, but I think the series has moved past it by this point.