Would you take a bigger roster and more stages over a story mode?

[Baconlord]

nah I don't want to be capcom. The story mode is a huge selling point for the game and not having it would probably make some players less inclined to join the scene. I know for a fact that I probably would't be in this community if injustice 1 didn't have a story mode.

 

[Marinjuana]

Part of the reason MK is one of the most popular fighters(most popular?) is because people care about the characters. You care about the characters more when there's an actual story. Killer Instinct had like no story aspects outside of small arcade endings at one point(and some online short stories), and I made my case in a suggestion survey that they should add more story stuff. Not saying I was the reason they changed it, but they eventually did add Shadow Lords which wasn't a Story Mode but it added lore and plot to the game. Gave me more reason to care about a character like Aria outside of "wow she looks cool". The game was way better for having it.

People can talk about whiff punishes and footsies but at the end of the day, characters sell fighting games and the story/lore side of things is extremely important there.

 

[Pizza]

Okay, but we're still talking about the main characters. Most of the cast are just jobbers or bystanders. I mean, I'd agree with you if this was like Guilty Gear Revelator where every character had an episode and they all played a part in the story. Yes, they were shorter but you don't get just SOL BADGUY and Ky Kyske kicking everyone's asses. Even Bedman had characterization and a role to play lol

 

[RonnyRAGE]

More characters and stages! While I enjoy story mode, let's face it: MKX was a letdown. I think Vogel is not up to the task, bring back John Tobias asap.

And since we had "compilations" games at the end of each era like MK Trilogy and MK Armageddon, I'm expecting to see something like this about MK9-MKX-MK11 in the near future.

Story Mode was written by the same guy that wrote the comics Shawn Kittelsen @kittelsen and @domcianciolo

 

[RonnyRAGE]

Yes but it1s meaningless. Casuals love story mode

Are you a pro player or a casual?

 

[BarakaTile]

MK1, MK2 and UMK3 had fantastic lore and they didnt have Story Modes. MK5 used its training mode+Bios to provide you with lore post trilogy and Deception used Konquest with Shujinko+Bios.

Lore and Story Mode don't go hand in hand. You can have good lore without a story mode.

 

[GLoRToR]

This is literally a wishful thinking thing.

I'd love to lose all the fluff and have a huge, balanced roster each game anew with no character missing but all the old ones in and new added like in Tekken, but it's not to be currently.

 

[pure.Wasted]

Okay, but we're still talking about the main characters. Most of the cast are just jobbers or bystanders.

Out of 24 characters on the MKX base roster, the following were "jobbers or bystanders" who didn't do anything except get their butt kicked: Ferra/Torr, Reptile, Ermac, Erron Black, Kitana, Kung Lao.

That's 6/24 characters, or 25%. Very far from "most of the cast." Everyone else had AT LEAST one significant character moment. And most had a lot more than one. Does the story mode give everyone equal weight? No. Is there room for improvement? Yes. But you're overstating the case for how bad it was.

 

[KRYS9984]

I think story mode and versus mode are two separate things and you can't really compare one another because they offer something different depending on the gamer. NRS and other developers need a story / casual mode because that's their principle, target audience; not everyone is a competitor.

Story mode is good addition and a lot of people actually purchase the game to experience it along with the more casual aspects; it also adds a certain value to the game and makes consumers feels like their getting a quality product in exchange for their hard earned money. Story mode gives life to characters and tells a story much like a movie; it provides some background as to who they are and what are their intentions.

A better comparison would be to ask if you would rather have more individual characters over the variation system, in this case I would choose the former. Same goes for stages, I would rather have more stages if that meant cutting out the interactibles since they require time and resources to get all aspects working properly.

I personally like the competitive aspect of fighting games so story mode is secondary for me; however, I absolutely see the need to include it from a developers standpoint if that means sacrificing elsewhere (but ultimately can be included via DLC).

 

[HeavyNorse]

I can't really make a choice. One of the main reasons I want more characters in the game is to see them play out in the story mode.

 

[Darth-Nero]

Hell no, Story/lore juice is what i live for. A perfect 25 character base roster can exist if half of it weren't occupied by Special-snore-Forces and their kids.

 

[Sutter Pain]

Never understood the appeal of story modes in fighting games, just give me a hour long cut scene. The game play in story modes is always boring and forces you to use characters you have no interest in vs stupid AI with health and damage buffs.

 

[BarakaTile]

Out of 24 characters on the MKX base roster, the following were "jobbers or bystanders" who didn't do anything except get their butt kicked: Ferra/Torr, Reptile, Ermac, Erron Black, Kitana, Kung Lao.

That's 6/24 characters, or 25%. Very far from "most of the cast." Everyone else had AT LEAST one significant character moment. And most had a lot more than one. Does the story mode give everyone equal weight? No. Is there room for improvement? Yes. But you're overstating the case for how bad it was.

You forgot Kenshi who was a bystander/jobber.
Then you had characters like Kano, Mileena and Quan Chi who did very little besides get their asses handed to them.
Then you have NPCs who were brought in to job: Baraka, Sindel and Rain
...Goro isn't even in Story.
You spent a whole comic and a story chapter building Kotal Kahn up only to lose to Kung Jin in a stupid duel, then ask for death afterwards. Then losing to Jacqui in the dumbest turn of the story.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

I'd take a life if story mode was ever removed.

 

[stokedAF]

I like story mode and the single player content MK provides so I picked that. I would never be against more stages and characters though.

 

[STB BroZki]

Nah

 

[honeybooboo]

Can we do more characters but only arcade endings?

 

[MKF30]

I hope at some point they bring back cinematic endings like MK 4, that's one big thing that MK 4 did much better than every other MK game with the endings. Can you imagine that shit now?

 

[pure.Wasted]

You forgot Kenshi who was a bystander/jobber.

I didn't forget Kenshi, he was integral to Takeda's story arc and expressed a motivation outside of jobbing (hunting the Red Dragon). You can say you want more but you can't say he had nothing (unlike Ferra/Torr, Ermac, etc).

Same goes for Quan, Mileena, Kano. You can say you wanted more for them, but you can't say they had nothing. They had characterization and purpose in the story mode that went beyond "just there to lose fights." You can't just replace Quan with Noob Saibot and have the story make sense. You can't replace Mileena with Baraka. You can't replace Kano with Tremor. Their roles in the story were unique to who they are. Whether they won or lost fights is immaterial.

As for whether Kotal losing to Kung Jin or Jacqui was good storytelling or not? No, I don't think it was, but then again that's not the point of this conversation.

 

[Zev]

Mortal Kombat's story and lore is what makes it one of the best franchises in all of gaming, not just fighting games. If your going to remove anything, remove the variation system to add more characters. Most people will only use one variation for each character anyways, which defeats the purpose of the customization option. Rather go back to set skills and have a bigger roster if you were going to change anything.

Story Mode could be DLC. What do you think

 

[ImperatrixSindel]

Entirely different teams work on these things. It isn't one or the other.

 

[BarakaTile]

I didn't forget Kenshi, he was integral to Takeda's story arc and expressed a motivation outside of jobbing (hunting the Red Dragon). You can say you want more but you can't say he had nothing (unlike Ferra/Torr, Ermac, etc).

Same goes for Quan, Mileena, Kano. You can say you wanted more for them, but you can't say they had nothing. They had characterization and purpose in the story mode that went beyond "just there to lose fights." You can't just replace Quan with Noob Saibot and have the story make sense. You can't replace Mileena with Baraka. You can't replace Kano with Tremor. Their roles in the story were unique to who they are. Whether they won or lost fights is immaterial.

As for whether Kotal losing to Kung Jin or Jacqui was good storytelling or not? No, I don't think it was, but then again that's not the point of this conversation.

Well then no you can't say Reptile had nothing in MKX (definitely in MK9).
Because his previous job being bodyguard to Shang Tsung is how he outed Mileena as a False Heir. And he kicked Takeda's butt a lil bit before he got Story Nerfed.

But that said the stories to X and 9 are terrible and I really hope 11 is better.
I hate this jobber shit while the Earthrealm Heroes get the shine, I want to play as the villains while they clobber the likes of Johnny, Cassie, Jacqui, Sub, Scorp and Sonya.
That would even the playing field a bit more

 

[IamBatface]

Even though it makes up the tiniest percentage of my playtime I do really enjoy the story for the short time it lasts.

 

[Hellbringer]

I only care about gameplay. If i want a story ill play an adventure game.

 

[pure.Wasted]

Well then no you can't say Reptile had nothing in MKX (definitely in MK9).
Because his previous job being bodyguard to Shang Tsung is how he outed Mileena as a False Heir.

I actually agree with this. Reptile did have one tiny moment of non-jobbing. That's a good point.

I want to play as the villains while they clobber the likes of Johnny, Cassie, Jacqui, Sub, Scorp and Sonya.
That would even the playing field a bit more

Agreed, really hoping MK11 and future NRS games will move in that direction. Nothing wrong with bad guys winning every once in a while.