That's cool but I mean Jacqui should have not been able to use her Gauntlets when killing D'vorah (yeah this is my take) so she doesn't think she is just a clone
To be honest this entire system sucks IMO. The fact that the campaign is not playable is a complete mistake. All I do is sit in my chair with one hand holding my head up and the other hand ready for QTE(s). I can have the exact experience of playing the campaign as from watching it on UA-cam. I feel cheated for buying a half playable game. I'll take Deception, Shaolin Monks and Armaggeddon over MK 9-11. Not only are the stories better but they are actually fucking playable!!!!
Hey I just thought of something when radian used the amulet perhaps it had affect on the timeline and same with the time merger but I don't think neither realm has thought of this
Once again, I'm reminded of Blazblue's story mode, where many story mode fights end well before the opponent's health is depleted; where the villain gets to say "that was a good warm up!" and show the player character just how outclassed they truely are in a cutscene. This, you know, keeps everyone's power levels consistent, and means the villains are consistently threatening. EDIT: also, a few very strong characters need to be fought several times in a row before finally being defeated. And some times, a character will have their 'drive' sealed, forcing them to fight without the use of one their 'buttons'. EDIT 2: Blazblue uses time loopS for the first 3 games, this means each arcade mode and story mode are their own "loop"; which makes them all cannon, but are also all "duds" until the "true end" is reached, and that last "loop" becomes the "base" for the next set of time loops. ... the funny thing is, is that I originally got into Blazblue because it had a "relatively" easyer to follow story compared to other fighting games at the time. I don't know, maybe I just have enough patience to read through a novel's worth of text... maybe because I still read novels.
Soul Calibur 6 fleshing out everyone on a shoestring budget, including DLC fighters, while MK doesn't even bother for the simple visual novel style stories on a triple A budget is both hilarious and sad
Soul Calibur Simmer, I’m actually more convinced to get the completed addition of Soul Calibur 6 on my PS4 then MK11 because I only got MK11 on my Switch because of it having Spawn.
My first impression was disappointment, but over time I've come to appreciate how SC6 handled the Soul Chronicles with a main story and a path for every character. Also I wouldn't be surprised at all if you told me it was made on 1/5th the budget of MK11.
I love how Kano hasn’t won a single time in this entire timeline. I can’t help but think back to a video about him sucking in MK11 that joked about him being overtly sexualized.
Mortal Kombat Deception’s Konquest mode was a glorified tutorial but holy crap what a tutorial. Being able to explore all the realms was a treat for me and my brother as fans. I wish they would bring it back.
Honestly they wouldnt even really have to get rid of chapters if Netherrealm would stop being so obsessed with turning heroes evil. I've even started questioning if the writing staff was just obsessed with revenants and too lazy to find a suitable conclusion to that whole plot point. Again, turning not only Kitana, but also Sindel and Jade all 3 into revenants was a awful decision because it leaves no one on the other end who really cares to help them. You are forced to sit there as a fan and play as Cassie and friends beating them with no real closure, revenge, or any kind of feel good moment for those characters.
Another possible explanation to your well written comment is the comicbook philosophy which nrs employs in storytelling. Characters are either good or bad, without any complex conflict that defines them. MK 2011 proved how much of these characters were turned into comicbook archtypes. The revenant story is similar to the midway era revenants (see ermac's mkd ending). The grey area and character complexities are defined mainly by the voice acting (jax for example).
Just annoys me how much disrespect they had for Kitana thinking time travel would fix everything. You go back and see how much development they gave her and everyone else and it's very frustrating knowing she ends up becoming this useless minion revenant for not 1, not 2 but 3 different characters never getting her revenge or closure she deserved. Again they need writers who are actually fans who understand every character to handle the stories.
@@musicmodjoe2139 NRS just like mind control. They did it fine in the old timeline because it was temporary. Here it just feels like they're taking a steaming dump on both characters and fans of said characters with that cral
The fact that netherrealm has kept the god awful chapter system is ridiculous. Not choosing characters based on the situation at hand is destroying the narrative. The excuse that chapters help us learn one character at a time has also become irrelevant seeing as now we have character specific tutorials in mortal kombat 11. Why not give the player an option to try one before they start a fight with any new character? Sure it may slow down the narrative for newer players, but it beats DESTROYING the narrative.
Malus Phillips I feel like the more MK goes into multiplayer focused gameplay, the more and more the story will collapse. I wouldn’t be surprised if Netherrealm decided to say F you to the story mode entirely at some point. I definitely don’t want that, but that seems to be the trend for a lot of game franchises.
@@ChaseJonas75 I wouldn't want them to forget about Mutiplayer too of course since that's another big appeal to folks but characterisation has to play a big key factor in that and yeah, having them just forget about story would be terrible apart from the fanboys and kissasses that just want game play. It's funny that these same fanboys praise the "Savage" and "Flirting" in the dialogue when they say story doesn't matter yet, there's stories behind why the characters act the way they do around certain others.
I'm glad they started adding two characters to choose from but it does get stupid when you end having to fight your partner's opponent. Ex; Green arrow and Black Canary chapter in Injustice 2.
collin richmond The problem is not the chapter system, it's the writing and directing. Have a group of competent people tasked to do the story, and it would certainly be better. There is no perfect formula for a story mode in a fighting game. No matter the sugestion, there will always be pros and cons.
I was actually hoping for Dark Raiden in 11 😂 i mean imagine Revenant Liu Kang some how finding out that Raiden reanimated his corpse in the original timeline and sent him on a killing spree 😂😂😂 Liu got reasons to hate this dude in every bloody timeline 😂😂😂
I mean, for as simplistic as it was, I think the Subspace Emissary handled it's story better than modern Netherrealm. With a focus on small groups of characters at a certain time until they ultimately team up together, no character feels robbed of spotlight (Aside from Sonic showing up last minute). Fights between heroes are typically chalked up to misunderstandings, are instigated by the canonically fight-happy Meta Knight, involved a Pokemon, or are broken up before it becomes a playable fight. Finally, non-boss villains feel on top of things even when they aren't playable until the end, as opposed to NRS making their villains out to be basically stronger mooks.
Netherrealm: Has massive potential for so many things in their stories, like characters, settings, and structures. Also Netherrealm: How about let's only have the hero's win and make villains complete jokes. Oh yeah, and let's completely ruin klassic and iconic kharacters.(note)
Face it, there's TOO MUCH INJUSTICE crap on NRS minds that they can't even separate the franchices. The fan beloved MK mystic atmosphere is just not there anymore. The focus shift to SF characters speaks volumes about the story direction. Cassie and Jacqui are more important than Shao Kahn, Shinnok or anyone with a challenging character arc. Fun fact: Wanna know WHY so much focus on revenants? Because that way writers do not have to compile a good script for them, so they reduce them to mindless jobbers. Mortal Kombat deserves a better studio. Boon and his baffoons had their chance.
The bit about the mystical atmosphere of MK being thrown into the trash can is exactly what I have been complaining about since the last 10 years but those competitive nerds cannot look anything beyond "MUH 50/50s MUH fRaMe dAtA" and my criticisms are shut down because I don't blindly lick NRS' balls. Ed Boon is trying way too hard to make MK a generic DC comic book. MK's soul and identity extends way beyond its gratuitous violence but sadly NRS has forgotten that and I honestly don't think we will ever get an MK game that has the dark, surreal atmosphere of Deadly Alliance and Deception.
@@TheWitchking123 Preached! It's not even Mortal Kombat at this point. It's all about dumbed down to oblivion good guys vs bad guys souless clichès, with an extremely biased focus on SF and the despicable NRS dev team's favorite obnoxious forced characters, that fit their standards. Mortal Kombat needs a better studio, a "thirsty", devoted dev team that appreciates the lore and it's legacy, with Tobias and Vogel as figure heads, but that's not something that will happen in this timeline, sadly. Boon and NRS have made me almost HATE Scorpion and Kitana in this installation. P.S. MK Deception's intro is what The Godfather is to a Adam Sandler movie (mk11 "story" mode).
@@dommo2803 OMG I still fail to understand why people praise the story mode in MK11 to no fucking end. It so atrocious with enormous plot holes, major inconsistencies in lore that I struggle believe it was written by someone who even remotely cares about having a good story. What we have is a Wal-Mart version of Avengers Endgame Now, from a gameplay standpoint I think MK11 is really solid and fun but unfortunately the atmosphere and intriguing mythologies of the older titles that drew me into the franchise has been completely butchered. The only thing Ed Boon cares about is the fucking eSports money at this point and I would not be surprised at all if they completely get rid of the story and single player elements in a future title in favor of eSports much like Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V.
@@TheWitchking123 Deadly Alliance had no story outside of arcade endings & Deception strapped us in with Shujinko, a character whose main function in the story is fetch-quests and training montages. When he finally gets to fight as himself, he has nothing interesting or unique to offer. He inevitably runs away from the villain after giving him exactly what he needed to enact his plan. NRS isn't the greatest team of storytellers, but at least they allow me to play as characters I actually like.
@@TheWitchking123 I do agree that MK story modes have been ass and gameplay is not that good but you just sounded like someone who sucks at the game because all you mustered up was insulting competitive players
One detail that I really liked in DOA5: you can actually piece together the tournament, and the brackets line up. And the way they did it was really simple. It would be like, you're playing Hitomi, she wins a quarter final match, then a semi final match, then it skips ahead to after the tournament, where she's talking about her loss. You don't know who she lost to, but you find out later when it gets to that person's chapter. And the two people that Hitomi beat, you already knew beforehand that they lost to somebody.
@@InsidiousOne yeah I agree but still they are not as bad as all of nrs's games but it's impossible to make a game worse than mk11 that would be a world record if a miracle happens a really big one needs to happen lol
@@ViniciusJunior17 hey just one question, why is MK11 bad? I don’t play fighting games except MKX and MK11 so I want to know why they are considered bad
@@bluesyrupgc4224 due to the way the story letdown The longtime fans of Mortal Kombat and the animation locking in a lot of departments primarily in the fighting oftentimes we compared to games like Street Fighter or Tekken or many other games of the original timeline it feels like you've been betrayed that is why many of us really I hate Mortal Kombat 11 though I won't fault you for liking it I understand if it is the only one that you play you most likely have lots of fun playing with family and friends or just by yourself so I understand why you like it
@@loganboyd6609 Ahh thank you I understand what you meant. I also don't like MK11 combat because I prefer the fast mobility that MKX has to MK11 clunky slow one. I'm considering trying out the 3D era MK
Many questions arise as to how this storytelling philosophy has reached its current iteration. However, looking at the Midway era I can't help but feel that this is where some traits began. In the midway era (post John Tobias) much of the new cast of mkda was scrapped (hsu hao, mavado, drahmin, nitara) and co wizard quan chi began to become more and more central to every nut and bolt that comprises that storyline machine of that era. This culminated in mk vs dc's portrayel of quan chi (nevermind the fact that he survived raiden's kamikaze attack, alongside tsung in mkd, how?). Since than you begin to see a hierarchy of character centric chapters, you get to see the progression of heroes and villains, while story wise they are portrayed differently. I will go to quan chi and kano, look at how they were treated, ever the punching bag of the main cast, or reduced to a glorified few scenes, remaining the punching bag. The problem with post Midway story structures is how the characters are watered down to basic components, while they ended in the midway era with much more. Let's take Raiden, in the Midway he was excellently voiced by Hernan Sanchez (in MKDA) and later Richard Epcar. I feel that Raiden's character went through some of the most drastic changes in the series, he went from arrogant god (mk1) to the mentor (mk2-4) to the leader in the trenches (mkda) to a fallen diety (mkd and mka) to a leader of enemies and allies (mk vs dc, all be it with the obsessive need to use quan chi as the leader idea progenitor). Compare him to NRS Raiden, voiced epicly by Richard Epcar, beyond mentor figure and retracing the mkd dark raiden character what can you say about him? Raiden doesn't develop any sort of questioning of his fellow gods, he is blindly following their advice and never suspecting their constant ambivalence towards earthrealm's fate. I thank you for adding your points to this discussion, as I hope that NRS will listen to you and many others who share these questions marks on characters' placement in the story and in the universe.
Unfortunately Quan Chi isn't one of the lucky 17 characters in Amageddon to get a (out of game) character bio. Neither was Shinnok - but Shang Tsung and Onaga were and in their bios it's implied that either it's Quan Chi who started the Forces of Darkness alliance with Shinnok being the first to sign on or it was Shinnok who started it who ordered Quan Chi to go out and spread the word. Personally, I think Shinnok being the founder is more interesting as Shinnok canonically sent a body double to the battle instead of himself, so it makes more sense that Shinnok started an alliance with all of the most powerful villains in MK only to allow them to die being blissfully unaware of the fact that Shinnok was the only one not in any danger whatsoever.
@@jaernihiltheus7817 realisticly shinnok is should be the ultimate villain of mk(i mean hes basically its version of the devil). However he has only really been done well in mk armageddon. In mk4 and mythologies quan chi was focused more on and in mkx he went out like a biatch smh
I honestly thought that MK9 Jade's ending and MKX's Kitana ending was setting up for MK11's story And I was so hyped, Kronika was this being that possessed Jade, that's why I thought she wasn't in mkx, 'Jade' or Kronika were showing Kitana what would have happened if Raiden didn't reset the timelines. Yes Shao Kahns Mka ending would have been cannon, with him merging the realms until he goes insane, but it would have left an opening for Kitana to finally be able to defeat the man she has wanted to kill for her realm. Like Azula's final battle in Avatar, Kahn was unhinged, off his game, it would have been the perfect moment to show that Kitana has been practising and matches up to Kahn thanks to him moulding her into the perfect warrior and successor, and that the things Kahn saw as weaknesses in her 'that he tried to scuff out with Mileena's creation' were actually strengths. It would have been kinda poetic by finally fulfilling Kitana's entire character motivation and possibly opened up new possibilities like, with her hatred for Daddy Kahn out of the way she could see that it is partly Kitana's fault why her 'sister' hates her, and make some kind of Nebula and Gamora make up relationship in the ends. And sooo many more opportunities for every other character, whether they be classic, 3D or new. But we got.... Mk11 (This is written really badly, sorry)
Honestly, same. Like they even hyped up Jade's MK9 ending for her future story relevance on their own streams and it would've explained why Jade was completely absent from MKX minus her cameo in Kintana's ending which again, hyped up MK11's story. But instead we got MK11 and Jade was always a revenant but never mentioned nor seen for the 25 years that took place in MKX? Okay. Plus, it doesn't even make sense why she was in Kitana's ending if she was never possessed to begin with.
I just miss Deception’s RPG style story mode, I know a lot of it is definitely nostalgia for me but exploring all the worlds and interacting with characters whilst they were taking part in their own unique stories unrelated to Shujinko’s and seeing the story slowly reveal over the course of the game’s length was exciting and unique and if they’d had just fined the rough edges and kept working with this formula in-mind going forward, this would be an incredible and unique aspect to the series.
Just went back to play it recently and it absolutely is however one thing NRS absolutely did better was the kombat part. Put the current gameplay style in the old games and we have a perfect MK game
...... but they added nothing to the over-arching lore. Shujinko almost destroys all of known-reality by giving Onaga phenomenal cosmic power, only to be slain by Raiden after correcting his mistake & Taven goes through the events of Armageddon in an effort to save the worlds only to get screwed by Shao Kahn. They were boring characters who did nothing but make pit-stops & say hi to characters we actually care about. Now, I'm not defending Cassie Cage & her win over Shinnok, but at least I got to fight as my favorites like Kitana, Sub & Raiden
Mk11 biggest plot hole:shao Kahn is killed/severely injured by kitana meaning that Kung Lao never died nor sindel killing half of mk9’s roster and raiden never accidentally kills liu kang
Since the younger selfs of the characters were brought into a present where quan chi is dead and then no one can transform them into revenants, their revenants shouldnt ever existed, and mkx story wouldve been different. Stupid NRS writing, they complicate it with time travel
Of all MK games I think Armageddon mixed the Story Mode with the Arcade Endings the best, we are given a story that explains the context of whats happening and why everybody is fighting, only at the very end of the story mode the equivalent of the "Tournament" starts, the arcade mode is the fights the character is in and the Endings are what happens if they win the prize, and we are left wondering who is the canonical winner for the next game.
All is well in the universe when i pop in my MKA in my PS2. I may never have been good at 3D era titles but just having a universe that is built strong instead of being centered on a small set of characters... ahhhh those blissful minutes
I miss the start of the 3D era of story telling for Mortal Kombat, I remember how crazy it was to that Liu Kang and Shao Kahn were both dead in Deadly Alliance. It really helped establish the seriousness of the threat of the Deadly Alliance as well as giving the chance for new comers who have been since thrown to the wind sadly.
In all honesty all it showed was how garbage earthrealm was without liu kang almost everyone got they ass beat. Kung Lao should've been able to hold his own. NRS story may have been trash but I'll give them credit for not relaying on Liu to come save the day
Three things can kill any good narrative on arrival, in my opinion: time travel, alternate universe plots, and any form of cloning. These KILL character importance and suspense. They'll always be back. You'll see it from a mile away. Who gives a damn about Liu Kang 64 dying when Liu Kangs 34, 27, and 19 are fine? Speaking of characters dying... What the actual f*ck with MK11? They're rebooting the franchise. This is the perfect opportunity to actually kill some major characters without "losing" them for the next installment. What happens? Not a single win for the bad guys. Seriously. I pitied Kano. This guy has committed horrible atrocities, and I pitied him.
The Liu Kang 64 argument is kinda stupid, you care because he's his own unique individual who went through his own unique life and the value in that is just the same as if he was the one and only.
The thing about Netherrealm, MK, and Injustice in general is that they wanted to make it this singular, broad and partially cinematic spectacle so it could appeal to the masses, but they also want to simultaneously develop these characters, specifically the heroes, which is why they have their own arcs. There’s a method to the madnesses, which is also why intro dialogue exists: it’s used to develop the sideline characters and create world building, one of the better aspects that NRS has.
Him breaking down all the MKDA and MKD plots really made me realize how much I miss that method of storytelling. The world felt so much more alive, because the characters were all people with their own goals and methods and we got to see so much more through their eyes back then. The story is so condensed now that it feels less like a fantasy world full of different realms, cultures, heroes and villains, and more like a shitty action-scifi show that got unceremoniously dumped onto some random streaming service. The characters no longer live in the world, the world bends and breaks around the characters to fit with the protagonists' mission. Bare minimum worldbuilding, NO consistency in power level, personality and backstory has been sucked out of most characters and realms (you know, all THREE that exist in the new timeline), and literally the entire MK universe is now focused on the Cages, Raiden, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and maybe Liu and Lao if we're lucky, rather than every character having a unique plot and perspective.
Nah a game about Asian culture and Kung fu is now about a White family how did we go from Lui Kang to Cage family show, soon as Cassie was introduced Sonya should of been replaced by her but nope we get a water down blend of Sonya skin on a weaker Johnny Cage its honestly terrible direction. Takeda the only new character that justify his parents still be on the roster and maybe Kung Jin yet his kit all over the place.
Guilty Gear deserves more recognition in general. Fighting games used to have the unique ability to present multiple possible outcomes for the overall story with each character's arcade ending, with the sequel revealing which ones actually happened and which did not. I always found that kinda of exciting, but lately that feels like it's no longer a thing.
@@bigballzmcdrawz2921 Ah okay. Hey, remember when Guilty Gear XX's story mode had three endings for EVERY character and you had to wait till Accent Core Plus to find out which of the three was canon for each?
They should just make story chapters centered around a theme, like "netherrealm warriors" where they can switch around for fights with fighters like scorpion, drahmin, or moloch while they defend the netherrealm from lets say outworlds forces, making good and bad sides for story
... and made him go from getting his ass handed to him by Kitana and getting jerked around by some Shokan Grunts to somehow being more powerful than he ever was and beating half of the MK cast (including people more powerful than him) along with his cartoonishly evil retcon wife for just one chapter before going back to their weak and dumb selves and getting their asses merked by an actual good villain, the end.
I enjoy the games very much injustice and mk but I will not deny the story's are very much flawed and there are many wasted potentials on characters and plot points. Noob is basically a really cool looking jobber, Shao Khan is a joke, and so much more.
Well, I wouldn't want "50/50 booking" like what happens in wrestling sometimes (where two characters trade wins and losses almost evenly, preventing someone from looking strong), but I do think Shao Khan has looked particularly weak in the Netherrealm era.
@@robchuk4136 oh definitly hell i think kronika would of brought Onaga back to spice things up but neather realm would fuck it up by making cassie beat him round 1.
I find it funny when you say that mindless NRS fanboys say that you complain too much about the NRS MK games and their stories, and say that you don't care about the series, when you constantly make it point to say that you do, and with all of your analysis, I'm just glad to see that you still can prove your points without making things personal. Yes because someone complains about something means they don't care. Which is also a comment that I have gotten many times before, complaining about WWE and the poor state of both RAW and Smackdown, stating that their third brand NXT is the best thing WWE has going for it, but I'm quickly met by fanboy retort saying that I just like indy darlings, and that I want WWE to die because I watch wrestling in other promotions or if i were to have my way, WWE would already be dead. I know this is an understatement, but we seriously live in a day and age where people have become so desensitized that they've just accepted mediocrity.
It's so strange to get this reaction when people say that WWE is dying, which is true, and that they can do better, which is also true, is somehow wanting WWE to die and we're horrible people for wanting wrestlers to move on from WWE or want WWE to do better with them for the sake of their character or in general, wanting better wrestling matches, which is never a bad thing. In fact, a well constructed wrestling match can tell people about a wrestler's personality better than giving them a mic and letting them speak can, but apparently we need a narrative shoved in our faces because we're too fucking stupid to understand who these people are and what they bring to the industry.
Man... as a fan of MK and drifting away WWE fan i feel this. I like the business and what it gives us but brand (company) power is a no go. The measure of a good promotion is to engage the audience with a good blend of story and match irrespective of who is in the ring. It well and truly has fuckall to do with people who watch indie as if there's something wrong with that. Damn people are stupid some times 😂
Like, the WWE fanboys don't even use the derogatory term within the right context anymore. That's how bad it has gotten. A smark or smart mark (it pains me to even type that) is someone who is a know it all about wrestling, but now they just use it to denounce anyone who likes a promotion that isn't WWE. When NXT is the only consistent show in WWE, who wouldn't jump ship to other promotions for their style of wrestling?
TheFVguy considering smash style story mode like subspace or the story mode in CN Punch Time explosion are different then the nether-realm style story mode so they shouldn’t qualify 1. The player before levels and fights get to directly chose or even switch what characters they play as 2. The gameplay is different in that while both fighters there also plat-former RPGS
I like story modes in fighting games, but I think individual character openings, rival cutscenes, & endings tells better stories. In story modes, you'll always have some jobbers and even some of the previous character you played will be a jobber.
I think SFV 's Story Campaign was poorly written but cohesive, and probably the best of the bunch. If MK did it that way, it'd be beautiful. I don't mind the chapters at all, but like the video said, they would be better with smaller stories than in the overall plot. SFV's individual Character Stories are probably the best way to do that idea. I'm not the biggest fan of jumping around timelines like Dead or Alive 5 and 6 did (it seemed like several times in DoA 6 certain characters where at two places at once, like Nyotengu or Rig) and it was never not confusing to me. Ideally I'd want the Dragon Ball (sans leveling system) or Guilty Gear movie style, but with fights in between.
I would say a possible good thing for Injustice 2 could’ve done is work something with the Reverse Flash thing, where he mention that one of his ancestors(I’m assuming either Meloni Thawne or Eddie “Cobalt Blue” Thawne) were killed, leaving him in the past, this could’ve made him neutral, and given him a chapter in wanting to kill the regime in retaliation, As for Captain Cold, you could say he works with the insurgents again, have Mirror Master(McCulloch) work with Cold to recruit a new era of Rogues like Weather Wizard’s son becoming the new Weather Wizard, Owen Mercer taking the mantle of the new Captain Boomerang, Axel Rotten becomes the new Trickster, and add some of the insurgents. For Deadshot, a chapter could’ve been done where Batman removes the implant and recruits Lawton, Lawton takes out the rest of the Society and work for Batman full time There’s just so much potential for these guys yet it was never done
I'm curious. As someone who isn't really a fan of the games, but interested in the characters of the franchise, how would you feel about this NRS timeline being restructured into a game that features Shaolin Monks beat-em-up style of gameplay? The reason I ask is because as someone who doesn't play the games, but is interested on people's opinions about them for some strange reason, it feels like MK as a franchise is often at odds with itself, narrative-wise and gameplay-wise. For instance, its penchant for indulging in copious amounts of gore is hurting its reputation more than it helps it when you see a father, Johnny Cage, bash his daughter's, Cassie, skull in. And then there's the narrative that restricts itself for stupid reason that lead to more problems than it superficially solves. I think taking a step back and going into spin-off territory again might be good for the franchise at this point. I think MK as a franchise neatly fits itself into an over-the-top action brawler like Bayonetta. In games like that, the ridiculous amounts of gore that MK built its franchise on is more acceptable because you're beating up faceless mobs the main characters have little relation to 90% of the time. So, you're free to be as over-the-top as you want to and no one will raise an eyebrow. As oppose to what MK does now where the over-the-top-ness in tone poorly contrasts with the more grounded tones the stories try to convey to the audience. And since this modern timeline is effectively a war story, you should have a shit-ton of faceless mobs to smack around. On top of that, the modern games' affectionately titled 'dial-a-combo' system would probably be more forgivable in a beat-em-up/hand-n-slash style game as well. Not completely forgivable mind you as no one wants to remember a laundry list of combos. (I'm looking at you 3D Ninja Gaiden games!) But, say you streamline it similar to something like Nier: Automata's combat system where there's basic combos, but also 'command normal' type moves that the game doesn't explicitly tell you about, but are fun to figure out. Add a couple more combo variations between playable characters as well as an MK flair, such as fatalities being something like torture attacks in Bayonetta, and boom, you've got a satisfying combat system that won't be too taxing for the player to get a grasp of, but still has a fair amount of depth to it when you add in humanoid boss fights. I also think this approach can help focus MK's rather unfocused main story modes. Take the character chapters and make the playable characters in them be playable in that section. If buddy characters are there with them, then they're A.I. controlled. For instance, Kung Jin's chapter in MKX where it's just an all-out outworld brawl, I think, would be dope in real-time and if the game allows you to choose between Cassie, Jacqiu and Kung Jin (I forget who's all there with him) while the others fight along side you. This could open up the doors for good old multiplayer button-mashing fun online as well as drop-in/drop-out co-op locally. You can still do the A,B, and C sub-plot approach with the timeskipping NRS loves oh-so-dearly without totally sacrificing the capabilities of every character simply because the player can only play as one at a time and things won't feel as restrictive. I'm not saying any of this is perfect or will even make things better, but I do think it'll serve the franchise's exceptionally boggled tone better, especially if NRS wants to keep promoting the violence and its stories. Games like DMC and Bayonetta can still gives us characters that we care about in utterly ridiculous and practically nonsensical stories without sacrificing character integrity too much because it's not necessarily about the plot, but about watching these characters interact with each other in their respective universe. And let's face it, as "gripping" as NRS MK plots are... Everyone knows that the best writing by far is the pre-fight one-liners between characters. Imagine getting them every 5 minutes in an action-brawler game with these characters. It'd take a heavy amount of tweaking with the brawler style approach, but I think it'd be worth trying, even with this exceptionally screwy timeline. But what do you think, if you've actually made it this far? lol.
Couldn't agree more. Recently played the story mode of MK11 and it was pretty jarring how Sub Zero is never allowed to try and save Frost from herself, or Bi Han because we already did his chapter so no more development allowed, further adding in that because heroes only we didn't get any time as Frost which could have developed into rejection for her current path resulting in an excellent source of info for the heroes who are trying to deal with Kronica. Johnny wasn't allowed to mourn Sonya, we didn't get any time with Shao Kahn taking over Outworld, and what about Shinnok? Kronica has the power of time at her disposal and she didn't restore him to add as a powerful ally?! the structure is out right broken and I had to force myself to finish it. What a disappointment NRS have become.
IKR, frost goes the entire game telling about how everyone just shoves her to the side and only that kronca saw her potential, and what is the solution?? just fry her brains to stop the robots. there you go... her entire plot. shao kahn is just useless. also very true the sonya thing, just go "lol guys she dead, let's move on" that's exactly why multiple campaings would resolve lots of problems, not everybody needs to be shoved in the main plot also I just hate how kronica is like "no dont kill good liu kang we need his evil self" and I was like, ah ok, finally a reason to not just straight up kill the good guys when you have the chance, then in the end she goes on talking about how liu kang and raiden are the only thing unstable on her plains that could foil everything... WHAT but now, I think I just want this mk nonsense gone, there's no salvation, they won't change, they won't improve, the already have what they want
@@walteralmeida7064 Yeah MK really needs a break or better yet to have the rights taken away from NRS. I've been saying it for a few years but I honestly believe the Killer Instinct guys should get a shot at MK as I believe they would pay far more respect to the history than NRS does.
@@retroradiationkingofvideog8526 I agree but Kuai Liang should have tried regardless, instead he writes off his brother at every turn even in pre-fight conversations which just ain't right.
@@HOTD108_ MK8 sounds like a bootyful fanfic I'd have Snake and I write for these fools at NRS and have em make as a new story. I mean... would be rather sad that we're still tending to MKA's "ending" but hey I'll take the copy charcaters over the WB era stuff
@@gannonhunt4284 compared to NRS it is It has more than just the Trilogy Characters, Not everyone was a Jobber, Every Villain had atleast one time to shine, And we can't forget the Battle of Armageddon which still holds the Crown for Best MK Opening
@@Mimi._.Haruno_ i dont know why I commented so aggressively. I mean I dont love Armageddon. To me gameplay wise it feels very bare bones but in the end everyone can like what they want.
TMNT: Tournament Fighters and the Art of Fighting Trilogy also had Story Modes. They weren't as in depth of course, but they were my first exposure to a fighting game having a plot to motivate the characters.
Wasted potential: Shinnok when? Seriously, an elder god who battled against all of his peers and could only be sealed, not destroyed. Ends up losing to brats. Yes, i'm still salty.
Shinnok sucks, Shao Kahn is literally stronger than him as a boss character and arguably also as a playable character. 🤡 It's funny that Raiden keeps consulting the Elder Gods when he can stomp at least two of them (Shinnok and Cetrion). 😂
8:05 thats what i freakin hate about MKX. Of all the characters you play as during Story Mode, 7 of the 10 are part of the Special Forces. I thought this game was about mystical realms, creatures of all sorts of shapes and sizes, fighting to the death, defending your realm... Not glorifying the fucken US military
To fix the chapter problem in my opinion 1. Once a character has been used in a chapter don't use them unless its a duo chapter with someone who hasn't yet. 2. Pick people based on the situation 3.if there not as strong as the opponent then have it end in a tie. Or have it that it was a tough fight but in the end you still loose and now there's a excuse on why you would win in the next fight
Here's something I came up with. At some point in this story, the characters are split into groups of 3. In each chapter, you choose a group of characters that you get to choose for each fight. When the next chapter starts, you see that some characters are blacked out, indicating that they are dead. This adds replay value as the player can replay the mode multiple times to find out what happened.
26:26 Finally someone said something about that also, I dont know if anyone seen it but... Have you noticed this? 1. In mk9 one of kabal's eyes is white in his damaged variant while it's fine with the mask on (edit: this actually isnt an issue the eye is still damaged, it's just harder to see) 2. In mk11 how did Hanzo BURN Scorpion!? Edit: AY! Whoever liked my comment, thanks :^)
Finally someone said it. I always found it so weird that Johnny Cage only wins 4 time in the whole history of Mortal Kombat 9. He even gets his leg broken in the arena, i have no idea how he made it there. Even though the Arcade ending says that he has a super good powerful, stronger than almost everyone.
I thought that there was no potential for fighting game story telling, but because of this video my fourth eye has *GROWN* . And because of that I now truly understand the potential for story telling in fighting games
My personal opinion should be each character should have a individual mode, what they did during the story. Basically Smash Bros Ultimate's classic mode but with cutscenes
Hey, I think Persona 4 Arena actually features a story structure like the one you're proposing. Like, in that game, there's an overall narrative, but you don't simply play as the main protagonist, you also get to play as the other characters, and they have specific segments dedicated to what they're up to during the events of the story, and you even have the option towards the end to break away from the narrative and unlock character specific endings for each of them! Like, that's awesome! Why don't we see more of that?
6:28 I really love this part of the video because it has a really cool fade in and out effect that makes it seem like it goes into a transition from Dick Grayson to Damian Wayne during the same Nightwing intro. Keep up the good work on the editing software you're using, The4thSnake.
When your favorite character gets so little screen time and no one cares about them so they don't even get a wasted potential episode: *SAD BARAKA FAN NOISES*
You make valid points about fighting game story modes, and as a man who wants to be a voice actor and writer for fighting/action games, I will take inspiration from this. I thank you the4thsnake
Another thing that I just don't like is how a character is exclusive to a chapter cause the problem with that is you always know who's going to win in a fight
The overall issue I had with NetherRealm's MK trilogy was a simple one: if you're going to make a single narrative, end that story with some FUCKING CONSEQUENCES IN THE END. I was interested in the time travel thing in MK11, but then I realized it largely made irrelevant the plot from the last two games. "Oh, no, Dark Raiden is going to run wild on NetherRealm! Better get ready for a final plot about the war between earth and--oh, wait, never mind, he CEASED TO FUCKING EXIST."
15:17 actually in MKA konquest mode we can see diversity in kombatants goals and motives. Tekunin,SF,Lin Kuei,red dragon,shujinko,shinnok four main allies of forces of darkness showed a lot of personality and the chemistry betweeb then in a little cutscene(kahn,onaga,shang tsung,quan chi),they could not stand each other and knew they would stab eachother in the back,but decided to work with eachother for the time being
Old Story Mode = Action and exploring as well as fighting enemies and getting items and keys to unlock coffins in the krypt New Story Mode = More movie than actual gameplay With the new technology, I was at least expecting a story mode in the style of konquest from Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon mixed with each other, telling the story of each and every single character in a huge environment you can explore and at the same time, understand the story of the character you selected earlier and as soon as you finish the story of that character, you move to another and it goes on and on, and also, give the option to keep playing even after you finished the story of a certain character so you can go back and explore a certain part you forgot before, that would be good and it is possible to do it, but nrs rather do movie movie movie and less gameplay in the story mode, I don't know why they wanted to make a movie about mortal kombat if the games are literally that already...
What kinda irks me in MK11 is we FINALLY get Liu Kang to not be a whiny villain tweener at the end of MK11 and he and Kung Lao actually have somewhat friendly diolauge when Kung Lao calls him his brother but that just gets yeeted away because the writers are so inconsistent that they decided a 2nd reboot within 3 games was a good idea, and Kronika is some SUPER strong time titan but she can't beat a Demigod, which are usually weaker then full gods which Raiden is, and we see Current Erron Black, the good version, but he never shows up as playable or EVEN speaks, Troy Baker is a great VA and they can't have him interact with his younger immature self or maybe Skarlet since it's hinted they have a "relationship" also I feel Kollector was just a cool design so they shoehorned him in the story and he literally is there for exposition... He legit recaps for Shao Kahn and then I believe he disappears, MK11's Story is a joke
Kollector is a new character, the only one of his race, and the only thing we know is that he has 6 hands (but only uses 4 in fights like Goro and the other Shokans) and he is a greedy a$$hole. Also yes the villains are jokes (MK1 boss Shang Tsung who is also a DLC for MK11 never won a fight in MK9 wtf). And I can't understand either why didn't all the (not dead) characters have a scene with their younger selfs.
Seems the Netherrealm stories share something in common with superhero films more than they do other fighters or even their own MK heyday. Whether it's MK, Injustice or MvC, they're being presented to you as an interactive blockbuster rather than the lore exploration even the arcades used to offer. If they weren't prepared to go back on themselves, I'd question whether going a TV serial route rather than a film one would work better? Ala Game Of Thrones (with a little more care for the ending though) or Walking Dead?
NRS Mortal Kombat is so fucking overrated. I remember how disappointed everyone was with MKX and then MK11 came out and suddenly everyone started praising MKX wtf. I don't like X or 11 but 9 was pretty good. My all time favorite is Deception.
I'd say its justified salt. I personally am not a fan of turning Heroes into villains unless theres a payoff or its something temporary. I feel like from MKX up until 11 NRS wanted to make us hate Kitana, Liu, all those characters and force us to like Cassie instead
NRS knows that the lore is a huge selling point but each installment has less and less lore and story to it. My idea has been to have a cinematic story without chapters that shows the climax and ending of the story while having a konquest mode that lets people learn more about characters, having them win canon fights, explore the lore, while learning their gameplay.
I feel like if this video was seen by somebody at NRS, they'd probably see it as an attack and try to get it taken down despite the fact that this video could be interpreted as advice.
A hard yes from me for the suggestion at 29:48...I see they have the day and night cycle for arenas in the concept art and I wished they included it in-game as well. Let's tweet this video to NRS every month-end until MK12: Scorpion's New Life releases
heres what they should do for mk12 and injustice 3 1: get rid of the chapter system 2: everyone is played at least one time or more 3: make the bosses have at least 3 or 2 fights, fighting popular characters or strong ones this is what think they should do because it makes villians and heros not look pathetic
It's crazy how NRS could still learn many things from a 3 years old video. This video is actually one of the reasons you got me interested in the Soulcalibur and I can't thank you enough for that Snake. I'm not that much into fighting games but I had a blast with SCVI; much better than Injustice 2 which got old pretty fast. Side note: don't know if you're already aware but Geralt's story is supposed to be canon.
One thing they could also do if they just can't get rid of the chapter based story is use the gimmicks they have in game to make the fights seem more interesting and challenging. For instance in MK9, when fighting Reptile, he can turn invisible, so have him constantly invisible during the fight so its more unique and it actually has Reptile being intelligent and using his powers. Have A Shang-Tsung fight where he's healing and your health is being drained at a point where he's using his soul stealing abilities on you, have Kabal move faster, have the player character have a bleeding effect if they were injured prior to the fight. MK9 had so many little gameplay gimmicks that could have fit into the story and yet do nothing. Injustice was smart with the minigames as it allowed characters to do more than just punch each other and it had an actual consequence so you could bring that back as well. Have a minigame where Johnny Cage is tossing Force Balls or whatever his green ball attacks are at a horde of Tarkatan's to keep them back or have a running minigame with Kabal where he has to avoid obstacles at high speed. Again, you get to show off the character's powers and they get to do more than punch people. You brought up another good idea with the QTE's, let some of the non playable characters have them so you still get to play with them in some aspect and they still get to do something. With this concept, you actually could control all the Kombat Kids where you could have a QTE where they are all dodging attacks and fighting people and at the end, the player character gets to fight the villain while the rest are dealing with the minions but they weren't just easily knocked out to get them out of the fight, they are actually doing something so they seem more impressive. Also, yeah, have arcade endings be canon. With most, if not all of them being non canon, it means that only the major characters like Liu-Kang, Cassie and Raiden actually do anything of note. Sub-Zero trains the Kombat Kids and has an offscreen fight with Kotal's army, his arcade ending could show how that went. We could see what Erron Black did afterwards, what happened with Kano, what Raiden did after threatening Liu-Kang and Kitana, etc. The only point where non canon arcade endings made sense was in MK11 because there really isn't much the other characters can do since time is reset so that actually makes sense to have it be what they do with the Hourglass but every other game? Just makes the characters seem less important because they don't have anything else going on besides the main plot. So many different plots were going on in old games, every character got some time to shine. Ashrah even gets a bad ass moment of hunting down Ermac and we don't even see how the fight went, just that clearly Ermac didn't die but Ashrah didn't either so either Ermac beat her or she beat him which makes her potentially more impressive as a new character. I think a major issue besides the chapter things is also that everything is exclusively focused on the main plot so any character not involved has nothing going for them which makes them feel wasted. Do more with the Storymode, use fun gimmicks to get diverse fights and unique playable moments and let your characters have their own designated story and ending within the larger story so everything feels important instead of just non canon or useless filler.
@@MilestheDirtyMindedGoblin2099 Yeah, I feel like since super speed is his whole deal he should be the faster but all I think he's done is block bullets, I think even the weakest MK characters are bullet timers where as Raiden is confirmed in the Deadly Alliance game to be as fast as lightning and yet I have never seen Kabal speed blitz Raiden or others. I feel like its a Quicksilver situation where his main power is super speed, but so many other characters are faster than him so he really has nothing special.
Apart from the BlazBlue part(I never had an issue understanding its plot, but that's neither here nor there)and Tekken 7(I generally liked the focus on the Mishima family as the main story) I agree with everything you said here.
I’d say SFV is probably my favorite structure I like the one single narrative combined with individual character story’s to give characters agency’s and advance their arcs if the story can’t accommodate them plus the obvious everyone gets to be played as which just works from not just the obvious narrative advantages since it means your villains can take Ws and can thus be taken seriously but gameplay wise since your guaranteed to find to find a character you may like with the whole roster since your sampling everyone I’m interested if SF6 will be doing the same or something different given what little we saw so far it might be a description style conquest mode so we’ll see
I think that a lot of these problems can be avoided by having the losses of playable characters be integrated into the story. That is something I'd love to see.
One fighting game story mode i really enjoyed was Marvel Nemesis Rise Of The Imperfects where you could only choose to play as 4 different characters as they deal with whatever is happening on their end. To further down the story (and it's timeline), you had to choose which character to kill off where you face that character as one of the original characters they introduced in the game, which would showcase their backstories, while at the same time showing off the actual strength of these characters by literally having them kill off heroes you were already playing as beforehand. I mean, it'll make you think twice about taking on a ballerina after learning that she has a power to cause miniature earthquakes and kills off The Thing. Sure the big bad of the game is a knock off Lex Luthor but it was wildly entertaining where the heroes try to save what's left of NYC during an alien invasion as they pass on information to each other, or even some don't see each other at all. Even had a plot device to have fights between the heroes through knock off Luthor's mind control device
I do agree that there’s some problems, but I don’t see too much issue with Batman and Liu Kang having multiple chapters. They’re the protagonists, the focus of the story, it makes sense they get more screen time. Another thing is that Injustice uses characters that fans already know the badassery of those characters. It also doesn’t make sense that you take issue with too much Batman and Liu Kang, but no issue with Kilik in SC6.
Something you didn’t mention about MvCI’s story mode is something kinda interesting about the villain, Ultron Sigma. In the opening chapter you actually get to fight him but it’s a fight that’s so hard and basically built on you getting your ass kicked. I just think that’s a nice middle ground between “never playing as a villain” and giving them some wins to make them feel threatening, since you know they’ll be just as unforgiving the next time you fight them.
Nrs explaning story fights be like Mk Vs Dc: the fights happen because of kombat rage and power fluctuasion Mk9: idk Raiden? Ijgau: power pill Mkx: i don't care Ij2: me ether Mk11: it's because of time travel fuctuating their pow... oh sorry no idk
Corrections and Clarifications:
-MK11 had Sonya lose her gauntlets for a couple of fights. I forgot about that.
That's cool but I mean Jacqui should have not been able to use her Gauntlets when killing D'vorah (yeah this is my take) so she doesn't think she is just a clone
The4thSnake I was just about to say that lol
To be honest this entire system sucks IMO. The fact that the campaign is not playable is a complete mistake. All I do is sit in my chair with one hand holding my head up and the other hand ready for QTE(s). I can have the exact experience of playing the campaign as from watching it on UA-cam. I feel cheated for buying a half playable game. I'll take Deception, Shaolin Monks and Armaggeddon over MK 9-11. Not only are the stories better but they are actually fucking playable!!!!
Hey I just thought of something when radian used the amulet perhaps it had affect on the timeline and same with the time merger but I don't think neither realm has thought of this
Once again, I'm reminded of Blazblue's story mode, where many story mode fights end well before the opponent's health is depleted; where the villain gets to say "that was a good warm up!" and show the player character just how outclassed they truely are in a cutscene.
This, you know, keeps everyone's power levels consistent, and means the villains are consistently threatening.
EDIT: also, a few very strong characters need to be fought several times in a row before finally being defeated.
And some times, a character will have their 'drive' sealed, forcing them to fight without the use of one their 'buttons'.
EDIT 2: Blazblue uses time loopS for the first 3 games, this means each arcade mode and story mode are their own "loop"; which makes them all cannon, but are also all "duds" until the "true end" is reached, and that last "loop" becomes the "base" for the next set of time loops.
... the funny thing is, is that I originally got into Blazblue because it had a "relatively" easyer to follow story compared to other fighting games at the time.
I don't know, maybe I just have enough patience to read through a novel's worth of text... maybe because I still read novels.
Soul Calibur 6 fleshing out everyone on a shoestring budget, including DLC fighters, while MK doesn't even bother for the simple visual novel style stories on a triple A budget is both hilarious and sad
Soul Calibur Simmer facts...imma actually start making character analyses because of it
Soul Calibur Simmer, I’m actually more convinced to get the completed addition of Soul Calibur 6 on my PS4 then MK11 because I only got MK11 on my Switch because of it having Spawn.
My first impression was disappointment, but over time I've come to appreciate how SC6 handled the Soul Chronicles with a main story and a path for every character.
Also I wouldn't be surprised at all if you told me it was made on 1/5th the budget of MK11.
@@DriveTr4in after how much of a flop SC5 was
I wouldn't be surprised
Soul Calibur Simmer and yet mk got nominated for fighter of the year and the other didn't sad
I love how Kano hasn’t won a single time in this entire timeline. I can’t help but think back to a video about him sucking in MK11 that joked about him being overtly sexualized.
Good vid.
What video
What was the video now
@@kilianengelhard2743 Kano Sucks MK11 search it on youtube, their is also a Kano Sucks MKX video.
Oh yeah that video is hilarious 😂😂
Mortal Kombat Deception’s Konquest mode was a glorified tutorial but holy crap what a tutorial. Being able to explore all the realms was a treat for me and my brother as fans. I wish they would bring it back.
I remember renting that from Blockbuster back in the day, had a blast. I agree with you
It could be possible with the hour glass now I guess. But it's too much potential for NRS to handle
The best tutorial I've played.
Was my favorite as well by far
@@slinkbradshaw8674 did you see the last blockbuster by kevin smith? I miss that store
Honestly they wouldnt even really have to get rid of chapters if Netherrealm would stop being so obsessed with turning heroes evil. I've even started questioning if the writing staff was just obsessed with revenants and too lazy to find a suitable conclusion to that whole plot point. Again, turning not only Kitana, but also Sindel and Jade all 3 into revenants was a awful decision because it leaves no one on the other end who really cares to help them.
You are forced to sit there as a fan and play as Cassie and friends beating them with no real closure, revenge, or any kind of feel good moment for those characters.
Another possible explanation to your well written comment is the comicbook philosophy which nrs employs in storytelling. Characters are either good or bad, without any complex conflict that defines them. MK 2011 proved how much of these characters were turned into comicbook archtypes. The revenant story is similar to the midway era revenants (see ermac's mkd ending). The grey area and character complexities are defined mainly by the voice acting (jax for example).
@@musicmodjoe2139 oh my god I forgot the MKX comic even had half the cast go blood code lmfao they are obsessed with that plot point aren't they?!
Just annoys me how much disrespect they had for Kitana thinking time travel would fix everything. You go back and see how much development they gave her and everyone else and it's very frustrating knowing she ends up becoming this useless minion revenant for not 1, not 2 but 3 different characters never getting her revenge or closure she deserved. Again they need writers who are actually fans who understand every character to handle the stories.
@@mecha_nemesis_6897 Like that super strength pill in the early injustice comics?
@@musicmodjoe2139 NRS just like mind control. They did it fine in the old timeline because it was temporary. Here it just feels like they're taking a steaming dump on both characters and fans of said characters with that cral
The fact that netherrealm has kept the god awful chapter system is ridiculous. Not choosing characters based on the situation at hand is destroying the narrative. The excuse that chapters help us learn one character at a time has also become irrelevant seeing as now we have character specific tutorials in mortal kombat 11. Why not give the player an option to try one before they start a fight with any new character? Sure it may slow down the narrative for newer players, but it beats DESTROYING the narrative.
They could put their effort of implementing that, instead of the amount of character intro dialogue in Multiplayer.
Malus Phillips I feel like the more MK goes into multiplayer focused gameplay, the more and more the story will collapse. I wouldn’t be surprised if Netherrealm decided to say F you to the story mode entirely at some point. I definitely don’t want that, but that seems to be the trend for a lot of game franchises.
@@ChaseJonas75 I wouldn't want them to forget about Mutiplayer too of course since that's another big appeal to folks but characterisation has to play a big key factor in that and yeah, having them just forget about story would be terrible apart from the fanboys and kissasses that just want game play. It's funny that these same fanboys praise the "Savage" and "Flirting" in the dialogue when they say story doesn't matter yet, there's stories behind why the characters act the way they do around certain others.
I'm glad they started adding two characters to choose from but it does get stupid when you end having to fight your partner's opponent. Ex; Green arrow and Black Canary chapter in Injustice 2.
collin richmond The problem is not the chapter system, it's the writing and directing. Have a group of competent people tasked to do the story, and it would certainly be better. There is no perfect formula for a story mode in a fighting game. No matter the sugestion, there will always be pros and cons.
MK12: Fire God Liu Kang loses every damn fight he participates in during the Story Mode.
zl3m if MK12 took the approach of having Kitana as his mentor in MK12 instead of Raiden in the secret ending in MK11, I could see that happening.
Ain't he the electric flame god?
Well he won in the MK1 trailer, so there’s hope yet!
he won 4 fights in Chapter 14 of MK12 (MK1 [2023])
Dark Raiden sure dodged a bullet not being MK 11 didn't he?
yeah they didn't ruin me cause he never got a chance
Mileena too lol
He consulted with the elder gods.
I was actually hoping for Dark Raiden in 11 😂 i mean imagine Revenant Liu Kang some how finding out that Raiden reanimated his corpse in the original timeline and sent him on a killing spree 😂😂😂 Liu got reasons to hate this dude in every bloody timeline 😂😂😂
The writers didn't know to progress with his story so they just removed him. Kinda pathetic.
I mean, for as simplistic as it was, I think the Subspace Emissary handled it's story better than modern Netherrealm. With a focus on small groups of characters at a certain time until they ultimately team up together, no character feels robbed of spotlight (Aside from Sonic showing up last minute). Fights between heroes are typically chalked up to misunderstandings, are instigated by the canonically fight-happy Meta Knight, involved a Pokemon, or are broken up before it becomes a playable fight. Finally, non-boss villains feel on top of things even when they aren't playable until the end, as opposed to NRS making their villains out to be basically stronger mooks.
Shame that Wolf never gets used in the main story with the other 4 baddies
Shame the current story mode sucks.
They did do my boy Sonic dirty though, at least he got to look overpowered
And they did all that without a single line of dialogue
I still believe SSBB still has the best fighting game story
Netherrealm: Has massive potential for so many things in their stories, like characters, settings, and structures. Also Netherrealm: How about let's only have the hero's win and make villains complete jokes. Oh yeah, and let's completely ruin klassic and iconic kharacters.(note)
@Ironbay Knight G In the words of the heavy, "I do not understand"
@Ironbay Knight G got ye
But instead chooses to spite the established MK fans with every new release since WB bought MK
@Ironbay Knight G Even though it didn't have a dedicated story mode, this was pretty much Deadly Alliance's story.
Purposely putting a k in classic makes this entire comment look stupid
Face it, there's TOO MUCH INJUSTICE crap on NRS minds that they can't even separate the franchices. The fan beloved MK mystic atmosphere is just not there anymore. The focus shift to SF characters speaks volumes about the story direction. Cassie and Jacqui are more important than Shao Kahn, Shinnok or anyone with a challenging character arc.
Fun fact:
Wanna know WHY so much focus on revenants? Because that way writers do not have to compile a good script for them, so they reduce them to mindless jobbers.
Mortal Kombat deserves a better studio. Boon and his baffoons had their chance.
The bit about the mystical atmosphere of MK being thrown into the trash can is exactly what I have been complaining about since the last 10 years but those competitive nerds cannot look anything beyond "MUH 50/50s MUH fRaMe dAtA" and my criticisms are shut down because I don't blindly lick NRS' balls.
Ed Boon is trying way too hard to make MK a generic DC comic book. MK's soul and identity extends way beyond its gratuitous violence but sadly NRS has forgotten that and I honestly don't think we will ever get an MK game that has the dark, surreal atmosphere of Deadly Alliance and Deception.
@@TheWitchking123 Preached! It's not even Mortal Kombat at this point. It's all about dumbed down to oblivion good guys vs bad guys souless clichès, with an extremely biased focus on SF and the despicable NRS dev team's favorite obnoxious forced characters, that fit their standards.
Mortal Kombat needs a better studio, a "thirsty", devoted dev team that appreciates the lore and it's legacy, with Tobias and Vogel as figure heads, but that's not something that will happen in this timeline, sadly.
Boon and NRS have made me almost HATE Scorpion and Kitana in this installation.
P.S. MK Deception's intro is what The Godfather is to a Adam Sandler movie (mk11 "story" mode).
@@dommo2803 OMG I still fail to understand why people praise the story mode in MK11 to no fucking end. It so atrocious with enormous plot holes, major inconsistencies in lore that I struggle believe it was written by someone who even remotely cares about having a good story. What we have is a Wal-Mart version of Avengers Endgame
Now, from a gameplay standpoint I think MK11 is really solid and fun but unfortunately the atmosphere and intriguing mythologies of the older titles that drew me into the franchise has been completely butchered. The only thing Ed Boon cares about is the fucking eSports money at this point and I would not be surprised at all if they completely get rid of the story and single player elements in a future title in favor of eSports much like Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V.
@@TheWitchking123 Deadly Alliance had no story outside of arcade endings & Deception strapped us in with Shujinko, a character whose main function in the story is fetch-quests and training montages. When he finally gets to fight as himself, he has nothing interesting or unique to offer. He inevitably runs away from the villain after giving him exactly what he needed to enact his plan. NRS isn't the greatest team of storytellers, but at least they allow me to play as characters I actually like.
@@TheWitchking123 I do agree that MK story modes have been ass and gameplay is not that good but you just sounded like someone who sucks at the game because all you mustered up was insulting competitive players
One detail that I really liked in DOA5: you can actually piece together the tournament, and the brackets line up. And the way they did it was really simple. It would be like, you're playing Hitomi, she wins a quarter final match, then a semi final match, then it skips ahead to after the tournament, where she's talking about her loss. You don't know who she lost to, but you find out later when it gets to that person's chapter. And the two people that Hitomi beat, you already knew beforehand that they lost to somebody.
The 3D Era has proven the old meme true once more: John Vogel is a genius
The 3D era MK games are brilliant in every way except being solid fighting games.
@@InsidiousOne yeah I agree but still they are not as bad as all of nrs's games but it's impossible to make a game worse than mk11 that would be a world record if a miracle happens a really big one needs to happen lol
@@ViniciusJunior17 hey just one question, why is MK11 bad? I don’t play fighting games except MKX and MK11 so I want to know why they are considered bad
@@bluesyrupgc4224 due to the way the story letdown The longtime fans of Mortal Kombat and the animation locking in a lot of departments primarily in the fighting oftentimes we compared to games like Street Fighter or Tekken or many other games of the original timeline it feels like you've been betrayed that is why many of us really I hate Mortal Kombat 11 though I won't fault you for liking it I understand if it is the only one that you play you most likely have lots of fun playing with family and friends or just by yourself so I understand why you like it
@@loganboyd6609 Ahh thank you I understand what you meant. I also don't like MK11 combat because I prefer the fast mobility that MKX has to MK11 clunky slow one. I'm considering trying out the 3D era MK
Many questions arise as to how this storytelling philosophy has reached its current iteration. However, looking at the Midway era I can't help but feel that this is where some traits began. In the midway era (post John Tobias) much of the new cast of mkda was scrapped (hsu hao, mavado, drahmin, nitara) and co wizard quan chi began to become more and more central to every nut and bolt that comprises that storyline machine of that era. This culminated in mk vs dc's portrayel of quan chi (nevermind the fact that he survived raiden's kamikaze attack, alongside tsung in mkd, how?). Since than you begin to see a hierarchy of character centric chapters, you get to see the progression of heroes and villains, while story wise they are portrayed differently. I will go to quan chi and kano, look at how they were treated, ever the punching bag of the main cast, or reduced to a glorified few scenes, remaining the punching bag.
The problem with post Midway story structures is how the characters are watered down to basic components, while they ended in the midway era with much more. Let's take Raiden, in the Midway he was excellently voiced by Hernan Sanchez (in MKDA) and later Richard Epcar. I feel that Raiden's character went through some of the most drastic changes in the series, he went from arrogant god (mk1) to the mentor (mk2-4) to the leader in the trenches (mkda) to a fallen diety (mkd and mka) to a leader of enemies and allies (mk vs dc, all be it with the obsessive need to use quan chi as the leader idea progenitor). Compare him to NRS Raiden, voiced epicly by Richard Epcar, beyond mentor figure and retracing the mkd dark raiden character what can you say about him? Raiden doesn't develop any sort of questioning of his fellow gods, he is blindly following their advice and never suspecting their constant ambivalence towards earthrealm's fate.
I thank you for adding your points to this discussion, as I hope that NRS will listen to you and many others who share these questions marks on characters' placement in the story and in the universe.
I totally agree
Unfortunately Quan Chi isn't one of the lucky 17 characters in Amageddon to get a (out of game) character bio. Neither was Shinnok - but Shang Tsung and Onaga were and in their bios it's implied that either it's Quan Chi who started the Forces of Darkness alliance with Shinnok being the first to sign on or it was Shinnok who started it who ordered Quan Chi to go out and spread the word.
Personally, I think Shinnok being the founder is more interesting as Shinnok canonically sent a body double to the battle instead of himself, so it makes more sense that Shinnok started an alliance with all of the most powerful villains in MK only to allow them to die being blissfully unaware of the fact that Shinnok was the only one not in any danger whatsoever.
@@jaernihiltheus7817 realisticly shinnok is should be the ultimate villain of mk(i mean hes basically its version of the devil). However he has only really been done well in mk armageddon. In mk4 and mythologies quan chi was focused more on and in mkx he went out like a biatch smh
@@jaernihiltheus7817 I mean shinnok was cool with his previous VA in Armageddon, but his MKX was meh along with that personality.
@@jaernihiltheus7817 I mean shinnok was cool with his previous VA in Armageddon, but his MKX was meh along with that personality.
I honestly thought that MK9 Jade's ending and MKX's Kitana ending was setting up for MK11's story
And I was so hyped,
Kronika was this being that possessed Jade, that's why I thought she wasn't in mkx, 'Jade' or Kronika were showing Kitana what would have happened if Raiden didn't reset the timelines.
Yes Shao Kahns Mka ending would have been cannon, with him merging the realms until he goes insane, but it would have left an opening for Kitana to finally be able to defeat the man she has wanted to kill for her realm. Like Azula's final battle in Avatar, Kahn was unhinged, off his game, it would have been the perfect moment to show that Kitana has been practising and matches up to Kahn thanks to him moulding her into the perfect warrior and successor, and that the things Kahn saw as weaknesses in her 'that he tried to scuff out with Mileena's creation' were actually strengths.
It would have been kinda poetic by finally fulfilling Kitana's entire character motivation and possibly opened up new possibilities like, with her hatred for Daddy Kahn out of the way she could see that it is partly Kitana's fault why her 'sister' hates her, and make some kind of Nebula and Gamora make up relationship in the ends. And sooo many more opportunities for every other character, whether they be classic, 3D or new.
But we got.... Mk11
(This is written really badly, sorry)
Honestly, same. Like they even hyped up Jade's MK9 ending for her future story relevance on their own streams and it would've explained why Jade was completely absent from MKX minus her cameo in Kintana's ending which again, hyped up MK11's story. But instead we got MK11 and Jade was always a revenant but never mentioned nor seen for the 25 years that took place in MKX? Okay. Plus, it doesn't even make sense why she was in Kitana's ending if she was never possessed to begin with.
Fr they could’ve made such a good story but no
You worded it fine
Not as badly as MK11, zing! 😎
Scorpion: *Defeats the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman*
Also Scorpion: *Defeated by D'Vorah and Johnny Cage*
We all know that Johnny Cage can defeat anybody
Lucky Luxa With the power of Plot Armour, perhaps.
@@FookMi69 power of not getting ruined by nrs armor
Those versions of the DC Characters are weaker than most other ones, DC is a Multiverse after all
When did Scorpion beat Superman and Wonder Woman?
I just miss Deception’s RPG style story mode, I know a lot of it is definitely nostalgia for me but exploring all the worlds and interacting with characters whilst they were taking part in their own unique stories unrelated to Shujinko’s and seeing the story slowly reveal over the course of the game’s length was exciting and unique and if they’d had just fined the rough edges and kept working with this formula in-mind going forward, this would be an incredible and unique aspect to the series.
I miss konquest mode from Deception and even Armageddon.
Indeed.
I still think the Konquest Mode in Deception is the best thing that has ever happened in the history of fighting game storytelling.
Just went back to play it recently and it absolutely is however one thing NRS absolutely did better was the kombat part. Put the current gameplay style in the old games and we have a perfect MK game
I loved Taven and his and his brrother Daegon's story ! (liked Shujinko too)
...... but they added nothing to the over-arching lore. Shujinko almost destroys all of known-reality by giving Onaga phenomenal cosmic power, only to be slain by Raiden after correcting his mistake & Taven goes through the events of Armageddon in an effort to save the worlds only to get screwed by Shao Kahn. They were boring characters who did nothing but make pit-stops & say hi to characters we actually care about. Now, I'm not defending Cassie Cage & her win over Shinnok, but at least I got to fight as my favorites like Kitana, Sub & Raiden
@@jojo-b55 They're all my favourites: Kitana, Sub, Raiden, Taven, Shujink. No Cassie, that one I can;t accept though
Mk11 biggest plot hole:shao Kahn is killed/severely injured by kitana meaning that Kung Lao never died nor sindel killing half of mk9’s roster and raiden never accidentally kills liu kang
Since the younger selfs of the characters were brought into a present where quan chi is dead and then no one can transform them into revenants, their revenants shouldnt ever existed, and mkx story wouldve been different. Stupid NRS writing, they complicate it with time travel
@@DUflo100 I don't know time travel makes every story worse, but there are few exceptions.
@@ShiftyGuy777 i agree with that, my point is that NRS cant handle time travel properly, they cant even handle their stories without time travel well
Of all MK games I think Armageddon mixed the Story Mode with the Arcade Endings the best, we are given a story that explains the context of whats happening and why everybody is fighting, only at the very end of the story mode the equivalent of the "Tournament" starts, the arcade mode is the fights the character is in and the Endings are what happens if they win the prize, and we are left wondering who is the canonical winner for the next game.
All is well in the universe when i pop in my MKA in my PS2. I may never have been good at 3D era titles but just having a universe that is built strong instead of being centered on a small set of characters... ahhhh those blissful minutes
hope people are tweeting this to boon, would be nice if they simply took some of your advice on how to fix some of these issues they have.
Fancy seeing you here lol
I miss the start of the 3D era of story telling for Mortal Kombat, I remember how crazy it was to that Liu Kang and Shao Kahn were both dead in Deadly Alliance. It really helped establish the seriousness of the threat of the Deadly Alliance as well as giving the chance for new comers who have been since thrown to the wind sadly.
In all honesty all it showed was how garbage earthrealm was without liu kang almost everyone got they ass beat. Kung Lao should've been able to hold his own.
NRS story may have been trash but I'll give them credit for not relaying on Liu to come save the day
@@darthmisogyny3828 nigga liu Kang is now the fire lightening god
Three things can kill any good narrative on arrival, in my opinion: time travel, alternate universe plots, and any form of cloning. These KILL character importance and suspense. They'll always be back. You'll see it from a mile away. Who gives a damn about Liu Kang 64 dying when Liu Kangs 34, 27, and 19 are fine?
Speaking of characters dying... What the actual f*ck with MK11? They're rebooting the franchise. This is the perfect opportunity to actually kill some major characters without "losing" them for the next installment. What happens? Not a single win for the bad guys. Seriously. I pitied Kano. This guy has committed horrible atrocities, and I pitied him.
Yes, nothing really matters already, if a character dies we can bring a past version of him/her and its like nothing happened
Hanzo died by dvorah in mk11 but who cares if he will be brought back in mk12 by fire god liu kang
The Liu Kang 64 argument is kinda stupid, you care because he's his own unique individual who went through his own unique life and the value in that is just the same as if he was the one and only.
Spoiler for MK12: D'Vorah oneshots the One Being and then proceeds to get slapped to death by Kitana.
The thing about Netherrealm, MK, and Injustice in general is that they wanted to make it this singular, broad and partially cinematic spectacle so it could appeal to the masses, but they also want to simultaneously develop these characters, specifically the heroes, which is why they have their own arcs. There’s a method to the madnesses, which is also why intro dialogue exists: it’s used to develop the sideline characters and create world building, one of the better aspects that NRS has.
Him breaking down all the MKDA and MKD plots really made me realize how much I miss that method of storytelling. The world felt so much more alive, because the characters were all people with their own goals and methods and we got to see so much more through their eyes back then. The story is so condensed now that it feels less like a fantasy world full of different realms, cultures, heroes and villains, and more like a shitty action-scifi show that got unceremoniously dumped onto some random streaming service. The characters no longer live in the world, the world bends and breaks around the characters to fit with the protagonists' mission. Bare minimum worldbuilding, NO consistency in power level, personality and backstory has been sucked out of most characters and realms (you know, all THREE that exist in the new timeline), and literally the entire MK universe is now focused on the Cages, Raiden, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and maybe Liu and Lao if we're lucky, rather than every character having a unique plot and perspective.
Nah a game about Asian culture and Kung fu is now about a White family how did we go from Lui Kang to Cage family show, soon as Cassie was introduced Sonya should of been replaced by her but nope we get a water down blend of Sonya skin on a weaker Johnny Cage its honestly terrible direction. Takeda the only new character that justify his parents still be on the roster and maybe Kung Jin yet his kit all over the place.
Guilty Gear deserves more recognition in general.
Fighting games used to have the unique ability to present multiple possible outcomes for the overall story with each character's arcade ending, with the sequel revealing which ones actually happened and which did not. I always found that kinda of exciting, but lately that feels like it's no longer a thing.
Tekken 6 was the 1st fighting game I played that started that trend.
@@bigballzmcdrawz2921 What, you mean no longer doing the "multiple endings but wait for the sequel and see which ones are true" thing?
@@reloadpsi where it had the full on story mode.
@@bigballzmcdrawz2921 Ah okay.
Hey, remember when Guilty Gear XX's story mode had three endings for EVERY character and you had to wait till Accent Core Plus to find out which of the three was canon for each?
Guilty Gear Xrd R2 is a lot of fun.
They should just make story chapters centered around a theme, like "netherrealm warriors" where they can switch around for fights with fighters like scorpion, drahmin, or moloch while they defend the netherrealm from lets say outworlds forces, making good and bad sides for story
I still havent gotten over the fact that NRS transformed one of the most iconic fighting game bosses of all time into Donald Drumpf with a hammer.
And then came
Aftermath
... and made him go from getting his ass handed to him by Kitana and getting jerked around by some Shokan Grunts to somehow being more powerful than he ever was and beating half of the MK cast (including people more powerful than him) along with his cartoonishly evil retcon wife for just one chapter before going back to their weak and dumb selves and getting their asses merked by an actual good villain, the end.
Shao Kahn is only iconic if you're a MK fan lol
@@PASTELXENON no
I enjoy the games very much injustice and mk but I will not deny the story's are very much flawed and there are many wasted potentials on characters and plot points. Noob is basically a really cool looking jobber, Shao Khan is a joke, and so much more.
Well, I wouldn't want "50/50 booking" like what happens in wrestling sometimes (where two characters trade wins and losses almost evenly, preventing someone from looking strong), but I do think Shao Khan has looked particularly weak in the Netherrealm era.
@@robchuk4136 oh definitly hell i think kronika would of brought Onaga back to spice things up but neather realm would fuck it up by making cassie beat him round 1.
I think Injustice 1&2 is a 10/10 story’s same for MK9 and MKX 10/10. Mk11 I guess a 9/10 story mainly because of aftermath.
I find it funny when you say that mindless NRS fanboys say that you complain too much about the NRS MK games and their stories, and say that you don't care about the series, when you constantly make it point to say that you do, and with all of your analysis, I'm just glad to see that you still can prove your points without making things personal. Yes because someone complains about something means they don't care.
Which is also a comment that I have gotten many times before, complaining about WWE and the poor state of both RAW and Smackdown, stating that their third brand NXT is the best thing WWE has going for it, but I'm quickly met by fanboy retort saying that I just like indy darlings, and that I want WWE to die because I watch wrestling in other promotions or if i were to have my way, WWE would already be dead. I know this is an understatement, but we seriously live in a day and age where people have become so desensitized that they've just accepted mediocrity.
That's what I deal with the same thing too in terms of wwe
It's so strange to get this reaction when people say that WWE is dying, which is true, and that they can do better, which is also true, is somehow wanting WWE to die and we're horrible people for wanting wrestlers to move on from WWE or want WWE to do better with them for the sake of their character or in general, wanting better wrestling matches, which is never a bad thing. In fact, a well constructed wrestling match can tell people about a wrestler's personality better than giving them a mic and letting them speak can, but apparently we need a narrative shoved in our faces because we're too fucking stupid to understand who these people are and what they bring to the industry.
Jordan Porter I agree WWE is ass and mk needs to be better
Man... as a fan of MK and drifting away WWE fan i feel this. I like the business and what it gives us but brand (company) power is a no go. The measure of a good promotion is to engage the audience with a good blend of story and match irrespective of who is in the ring. It well and truly has fuckall to do with people who watch indie as if there's something wrong with that. Damn people are stupid some times 😂
Like, the WWE fanboys don't even use the derogatory term within the right context anymore. That's how bad it has gotten. A smark or smart mark (it pains me to even type that) is someone who is a know it all about wrestling, but now they just use it to denounce anyone who likes a promotion that isn't WWE. When NXT is the only consistent show in WWE, who wouldn't jump ship to other promotions for their style of wrestling?
Kind of surprised you didn’t talk about Smash Brothers Brawl’s Story mode: Subspace
TheFVguy considering smash style story mode like subspace or the story mode in CN Punch Time explosion are different then the nether-realm style story mode so they shouldn’t qualify
1. The player before levels and fights get to directly chose or even switch what characters they play as
2. The gameplay is different in that while both fighters there also plat-former RPGS
SkySlasher it would be interesting to see a story mode like that for MK though. I agree though that it doesn’t make sense for this video.
TheFVguy On that note, I’d like to see Smash with more emphasis on story
That story was perfect
@@alienfuck6940 I think some voice acting, locations from the games, and no Great Maze would be a perfect story mode.
I like story modes in fighting games, but I think individual character openings, rival cutscenes, & endings tells better stories. In story modes, you'll always have some jobbers and even some of the previous character you played will be a jobber.
I think SFV 's Story Campaign was poorly written but cohesive, and probably the best of the bunch. If MK did it that way, it'd be beautiful. I don't mind the chapters at all, but like the video said, they would be better with smaller stories than in the overall plot. SFV's individual Character Stories are probably the best way to do that idea.
I'm not the biggest fan of jumping around timelines like Dead or Alive 5 and 6 did (it seemed like several times in DoA 6 certain characters where at two places at once, like Nyotengu or Rig) and it was never not confusing to me. Ideally I'd want the Dragon Ball (sans leveling system) or Guilty Gear movie style, but with fights in between.
I would say a possible good thing for Injustice 2 could’ve done is work something with the Reverse Flash thing, where he mention that one of his ancestors(I’m assuming either Meloni Thawne or Eddie “Cobalt Blue” Thawne) were killed, leaving him in the past, this could’ve made him neutral, and given him a chapter in wanting to kill the regime in retaliation,
As for Captain Cold, you could say he works with the insurgents again, have Mirror Master(McCulloch) work with Cold to recruit a new era of Rogues like Weather Wizard’s son becoming the new Weather Wizard, Owen Mercer taking the mantle of the new Captain Boomerang, Axel Rotten becomes the new Trickster, and add some of the insurgents.
For Deadshot, a chapter could’ve been done where Batman removes the implant and recruits Lawton, Lawton takes out the rest of the Society and work for Batman full time
There’s just so much potential for these guys yet it was never done
I'm curious. As someone who isn't really a fan of the games, but interested in the characters of the franchise, how would you feel about this NRS timeline being restructured into a game that features Shaolin Monks beat-em-up style of gameplay? The reason I ask is because as someone who doesn't play the games, but is interested on people's opinions about them for some strange reason, it feels like MK as a franchise is often at odds with itself, narrative-wise and gameplay-wise. For instance, its penchant for indulging in copious amounts of gore is hurting its reputation more than it helps it when you see a father, Johnny Cage, bash his daughter's, Cassie, skull in. And then there's the narrative that restricts itself for stupid reason that lead to more problems than it superficially solves.
I think taking a step back and going into spin-off territory again might be good for the franchise at this point. I think MK as a franchise neatly fits itself into an over-the-top action brawler like Bayonetta. In games like that, the ridiculous amounts of gore that MK built its franchise on is more acceptable because you're beating up faceless mobs the main characters have little relation to 90% of the time. So, you're free to be as over-the-top as you want to and no one will raise an eyebrow. As oppose to what MK does now where the over-the-top-ness in tone poorly contrasts with the more grounded tones the stories try to convey to the audience. And since this modern timeline is effectively a war story, you should have a shit-ton of faceless mobs to smack around.
On top of that, the modern games' affectionately titled 'dial-a-combo' system would probably be more forgivable in a beat-em-up/hand-n-slash style game as well. Not completely forgivable mind you as no one wants to remember a laundry list of combos. (I'm looking at you 3D Ninja Gaiden games!) But, say you streamline it similar to something like Nier: Automata's combat system where there's basic combos, but also 'command normal' type moves that the game doesn't explicitly tell you about, but are fun to figure out. Add a couple more combo variations between playable characters as well as an MK flair, such as fatalities being something like torture attacks in Bayonetta, and boom, you've got a satisfying combat system that won't be too taxing for the player to get a grasp of, but still has a fair amount of depth to it when you add in humanoid boss fights.
I also think this approach can help focus MK's rather unfocused main story modes. Take the character chapters and make the playable characters in them be playable in that section. If buddy characters are there with them, then they're A.I. controlled. For instance, Kung Jin's chapter in MKX where it's just an all-out outworld brawl, I think, would be dope in real-time and if the game allows you to choose between Cassie, Jacqiu and Kung Jin (I forget who's all there with him) while the others fight along side you. This could open up the doors for good old multiplayer button-mashing fun online as well as drop-in/drop-out co-op locally. You can still do the A,B, and C sub-plot approach with the timeskipping NRS loves oh-so-dearly without totally sacrificing the capabilities of every character simply because the player can only play as one at a time and things won't feel as restrictive.
I'm not saying any of this is perfect or will even make things better, but I do think it'll serve the franchise's exceptionally boggled tone better, especially if NRS wants to keep promoting the violence and its stories. Games like DMC and Bayonetta can still gives us characters that we care about in utterly ridiculous and practically nonsensical stories without sacrificing character integrity too much because it's not necessarily about the plot, but about watching these characters interact with each other in their respective universe. And let's face it, as "gripping" as NRS MK plots are... Everyone knows that the best writing by far is the pre-fight one-liners between characters. Imagine getting them every 5 minutes in an action-brawler game with these characters. It'd take a heavy amount of tweaking with the brawler style approach, but I think it'd be worth trying, even with this exceptionally screwy timeline. But what do you think, if you've actually made it this far? lol.
That actually sounds pretty good.
Couldn't agree more. Recently played the story mode of MK11 and it was pretty jarring how Sub Zero is never allowed to try and save Frost from herself, or Bi Han because we already did his chapter so no more development allowed, further adding in that because heroes only we didn't get any time as Frost which could have developed into rejection for her current path resulting in an excellent source of info for the heroes who are trying to deal with Kronica. Johnny wasn't allowed to mourn Sonya, we didn't get any time with Shao Kahn taking over Outworld, and what about Shinnok? Kronica has the power of time at her disposal and she didn't restore him to add as a powerful ally?! the structure is out right broken and I had to force myself to finish it. What a disappointment NRS have become.
IKR, frost goes the entire game telling about how everyone just shoves her to the side and only that kronca saw her potential, and what is the solution?? just fry her brains to stop the robots. there you go... her entire plot. shao kahn is just useless. also very true the sonya thing, just go "lol guys she dead, let's move on"
that's exactly why multiple campaings would resolve lots of problems, not everybody needs to be shoved in the main plot
also I just hate how kronica is like "no dont kill good liu kang we need his evil self" and I was like, ah ok, finally a reason to not just straight up kill the good guys when you have the chance, then in the end she goes on talking about how liu kang and raiden are the only thing unstable on her plains that could foil everything... WHAT
but now, I think I just want this mk nonsense gone, there's no salvation, they won't change, they won't improve, the already have what they want
@@walteralmeida7064 Yeah MK really needs a break or better yet to have the rights taken away from NRS. I've been saying it for a few years but I honestly believe the Killer Instinct guys should get a shot at MK as I believe they would pay far more respect to the history than NRS does.
I was thinking that too but it didn’t happen that’s totally out of character for kuai lang
@@retroradiationkingofvideog8526 I agree but Kuai Liang should have tried regardless, instead he writes off his brother at every turn even in pre-fight conversations which just ain't right.
appeals to G.I. Joe fans so that why I've been seeing more guns and soldiers and less magic and sorcerers in my MK's.
I would say they should bring back the original MK timeline, but I feel like they would ruin it big time.
@@HOTD108_ MK8 sounds like a bootyful fanfic I'd have Snake and I write for these fools at NRS and have em make as a new story. I mean... would be rather sad that we're still tending to MKA's "ending" but hey I'll take the copy charcaters over the WB era stuff
Don't start acting like the 3d era was excellent.
@@gannonhunt4284 I never got experience them, but they don't look all that bad.
@@gannonhunt4284 compared to NRS it is
It has more than just the Trilogy Characters,
Not everyone was a Jobber,
Every Villain had atleast one time to shine,
And we can't forget the Battle of Armageddon which still holds the Crown for Best MK Opening
@@Mimi._.Haruno_ i dont know why I commented so aggressively. I mean I dont love Armageddon. To me gameplay wise it feels very bare bones but in the end everyone can like what they want.
8:58 Corrupted Shinnok is basically a Dark Kahn reskin.
TMNT: Tournament Fighters and the Art of Fighting Trilogy also had Story Modes. They weren't as in depth of course, but they were my first exposure to a fighting game having a plot to motivate the characters.
Wasted potential: Shinnok when?
Seriously, an elder god who battled against all of his peers and could only be sealed, not destroyed. Ends up losing to brats. Yes, i'm still salty.
Shinnok sucks, Shao Kahn is literally stronger than him as a boss character and arguably also as a playable character. 🤡
It's funny that Raiden keeps consulting the Elder Gods when he can stomp at least two of them (Shinnok and Cetrion). 😂
@@autobotstarscream765 Aren't you too young to have a YT account?
@@rageinducer2455 Nope, a salty old man just like you. 👴
8:05 thats what i freakin hate about MKX. Of all the characters you play as during Story Mode, 7 of the 10 are part of the Special Forces. I thought this game was about mystical realms, creatures of all sorts of shapes and sizes, fighting to the death, defending your realm...
Not glorifying the fucken US military
To fix the chapter problem in my opinion 1. Once a character has been used in a chapter don't use them unless its a duo chapter with someone who hasn't yet. 2. Pick people based on the situation 3.if there not as strong as the opponent then have it end in a tie. Or have it that it was a tough fight but in the end you still loose and now there's a excuse on why you would win in the next fight
Here's something I came up with.
At some point in this story, the characters are split into groups of 3.
In each chapter, you choose a group of characters that you get to choose for each fight.
When the next chapter starts, you see that some characters are blacked out, indicating that they are dead.
This adds replay value as the player can replay the mode multiple times to find out what happened.
I love how SC6 did their story mode and I hope this continues with SC7 whenever that happens. They even did a time line for each characters event.
26:26 Finally someone said something about that also, I dont know if anyone seen it but... Have you noticed this?
1. In mk9 one of kabal's eyes is white in his damaged variant while it's fine with the mask on (edit: this actually isnt an issue the eye is still damaged, it's just harder to see)
2. In mk11 how did Hanzo BURN Scorpion!?
Edit: AY! Whoever liked my comment, thanks :^)
My bad Kabal's eye is actually fucked with the mask on and off, but the Hanzo Scorpion thing still stands
1:25 kitana was originally gonna have her own chapter, i wonder why it got cut?
1:42
RIP in pepperoni, Sonya’s core values
Nobody:
Not a single soul:
They should hire you
Every viewer ever
Follow this unfunny meme format to get likes instantly 😱😱😱
@@SkyWarrior100 ?
@@SkyWarrior100 this guy gets it
@@HSnake5 exactly, as sad as it is
Finally someone said it. I always found it so weird that Johnny Cage only wins 4 time in the whole history of Mortal Kombat 9.
He even gets his leg broken in the arena, i have no idea how he made it there. Even though the Arcade ending says that he has a super good powerful, stronger than almost everyone.
I thought that there was no potential for fighting game story telling, but because of this video my fourth eye has *GROWN* . And because of that I now truly understand the potential for story telling in fighting games
My personal opinion should be each character should have a individual mode, what they did during the story. Basically Smash Bros Ultimate's classic mode but with cutscenes
Hey, I think Persona 4 Arena actually features a story structure like the one you're proposing. Like, in that game, there's an overall narrative, but you don't simply play as the main protagonist, you also get to play as the other characters, and they have specific segments dedicated to what they're up to during the events of the story, and you even have the option towards the end to break away from the narrative and unlock character specific endings for each of them! Like, that's awesome! Why don't we see more of that?
6:28 I really love this part of the video because it has a really cool fade in and out effect that makes it seem like it goes into a transition from Dick Grayson to Damian Wayne during the same Nightwing intro. Keep up the good work on the editing software you're using, The4thSnake.
When your favorite character gets so little screen time and no one cares about them so they don't even get a wasted potential episode:
*SAD BARAKA FAN NOISES*
*sad Reptile fan noises*
Sad Kabal noises
Sad Kano Fan Noises
*sad Bi-Han/Noob Saibot noises*
You make valid points about fighting game story modes, and as a man who wants to be a voice actor and writer for fighting/action games, I will take inspiration from this. I thank you the4thsnake
Nice.
Another thing that I just don't like is how a character is exclusive to a chapter cause the problem with that is you always know who's going to win in a fight
The overall issue I had with NetherRealm's MK trilogy was a simple one: if you're going to make a single narrative, end that story with some FUCKING CONSEQUENCES IN THE END. I was interested in the time travel thing in MK11, but then I realized it largely made irrelevant the plot from the last two games. "Oh, no, Dark Raiden is going to run wild on NetherRealm! Better get ready for a final plot about the war between earth and--oh, wait, never mind, he CEASED TO FUCKING EXIST."
28:27 you literally have the fastest man in the world in your hand, and you choose to throw him away from you
Me: Netherrealm is the best at fighting game stories! Change my mind.
*The4thSnake presents video that changes my mind*
Me: Huh. Well played.
I think for honor did something pretty cool with their story were its 3 chapters 1 per faction you get to play most of the cast in that chapter
More like devolution ba dum tsss
I love all of the valid points you always make, wonderful video as always
15:17 actually in MKA konquest mode we can see diversity in kombatants goals and motives.
Tekunin,SF,Lin Kuei,red dragon,shujinko,shinnok
four main allies of forces of darkness showed a lot of personality and the chemistry betweeb then in a little cutscene(kahn,onaga,shang tsung,quan chi),they could not stand each other and knew they would stab eachother in the back,but decided to work with eachother for the time being
5:01 The whole Johnny and Jax fighting in the armoury because Johnny's perving on Sonya wasn't needed.
I love your videos man. Everytime you post It really makes me think deeply about different aspects of games and storylines.. thank you
Old Story Mode = Action and exploring as well as fighting enemies and getting items and keys to unlock coffins in the krypt
New Story Mode = More movie than actual gameplay
With the new technology, I was at least expecting a story mode in the style of konquest from Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon mixed with each other, telling the story of each and every single character in a huge environment you can explore and at the same time, understand the story of the character you selected earlier and as soon as you finish the story of that character, you move to another and it goes on and on, and also, give the option to keep playing even after you finished the story of a certain character so you can go back and explore a certain part you forgot before, that would be good and it is possible to do it, but nrs rather do movie movie movie and less gameplay in the story mode, I don't know why they wanted to make a movie about mortal kombat if the games are literally that already...
What kinda irks me in MK11 is we FINALLY get Liu Kang to not be a whiny villain tweener at the end of MK11 and he and Kung Lao actually have somewhat friendly diolauge when Kung Lao calls him his brother but that just gets yeeted away because the writers are so inconsistent that they decided a 2nd reboot within 3 games was a good idea, and Kronika is some SUPER strong time titan but she can't beat a Demigod, which are usually weaker then full gods which Raiden is, and we see Current Erron Black, the good version, but he never shows up as playable or EVEN speaks, Troy Baker is a great VA and they can't have him interact with his younger immature self or maybe Skarlet since it's hinted they have a "relationship" also I feel Kollector was just a cool design so they shoehorned him in the story and he literally is there for exposition... He legit recaps for Shao Kahn and then I believe he disappears, MK11's Story is a joke
Kollector is a new character, the only one of his race, and the only thing we know is that he has 6 hands (but only uses 4 in fights like Goro and the other Shokans) and he is a greedy a$$hole. Also yes the villains are jokes (MK1 boss Shang Tsung who is also a DLC for MK11 never won a fight in MK9 wtf). And I can't understand either why didn't all the (not dead) characters have a scene with their younger selfs.
I feel the same way with some of the King of Fighters. Series stories
Netherrealm after seeing this video: I'm going to pretend I didn't see that.
Also, in chapter 2 when kotal’s getting his arse whooped by Shao Kahn, Liu kang is in the background with a totally different outfit.
Sounds about right.
Trevor Anthony Yes, but if you look in the background, he’s in his default outfit
Seems the Netherrealm stories share something in common with superhero films more than they do other fighters or even their own MK heyday.
Whether it's MK, Injustice or MvC, they're being presented to you as an interactive blockbuster rather than the lore exploration even the arcades used to offer.
If they weren't prepared to go back on themselves, I'd question whether going a TV serial route rather than a film one would work better? Ala Game Of Thrones (with a little more care for the ending though) or Walking Dead?
You have given up on Blazblue. Well you do whatever you feel like. I will just say this it had better character relationships then Mortal Kombat.
far better.
NRS Mortal Kombat is so fucking overrated. I remember how disappointed everyone was with MKX and then MK11 came out and suddenly everyone started praising MKX wtf. I don't like X or 11 but 9 was pretty good. My all time favorite is Deception.
1:41 Jiggly Jiggly Jiggly
Down Hill, one of the few things good about MK Vs Dc was the jiggle physics in the game.
Ooooo... Snake makes another MK video that’s almost about an hour.
I got my popcorn ready... cuz this gonna be salty.
JK I love your vids snake.
I'd say its justified salt. I personally am not a fan of turning Heroes into villains unless theres a payoff or its something temporary. I feel like from MKX up until 11 NRS wanted to make us hate Kitana, Liu, all those characters and force us to like Cassie instead
@Mr Nemesis you literally speak nothing but the truth my friend
@@mecha_nemesis_6897 Very reminiscent of WWE's writing team
So what's your thought of the new Mortal Kombat animated movie?
NRS knows that the lore is a huge selling point but each installment has less and less lore and story to it. My idea has been to have a cinematic story without chapters that shows the climax and ending of the story while having a konquest mode that lets people learn more about characters, having them win canon fights, explore the lore, while learning their gameplay.
This would he cool
Something I dig about aftermath is the fact we FINALLY play as most of the villains for once
4th snakes my favorite videos bi han first subzero wasted potienal
I feel like if this video was seen by somebody at NRS, they'd probably see it as an attack and try to get it taken down despite the fact that this video could be interpreted as advice.
Midway > NRS.
My annoyance to the campaigns started in mkx when sub-zeros chapter was just fighting the new special forces characters
A hard yes from me for the suggestion at 29:48...I see they have the day and night cycle for arenas in the concept art and I wished they included it in-game as well.
Let's tweet this video to NRS every month-end until MK12: Scorpion's New Life releases
I'd rather have a adventure or beat em' up mode rather than a story/movie mode.
Honestly I’ve always wanted to write an Fighting Game story, but I’m not sure how I should structure it. I’m hoping to get some advice on the matter.
heres what they should do for mk12 and injustice 3
1: get rid of the chapter system
2: everyone is played at least one time or more
3: make the bosses have at least 3 or 2 fights, fighting popular characters or strong ones
this is what think they should do because it makes villians and heros not look pathetic
It's crazy how NRS could still learn many things from a 3 years old video. This video is actually one of the reasons you got me interested in the Soulcalibur and I can't thank you enough for that Snake. I'm not that much into fighting games but I had a blast with SCVI; much better than Injustice 2 which got old pretty fast. Side note: don't know if you're already aware but Geralt's story is supposed to be canon.
One thing they could also do if they just can't get rid of the chapter based story is use the gimmicks they have in game to make the fights seem more interesting and challenging. For instance in MK9, when fighting Reptile, he can turn invisible, so have him constantly invisible during the fight so its more unique and it actually has Reptile being intelligent and using his powers. Have A Shang-Tsung fight where he's healing and your health is being drained at a point where he's using his soul stealing abilities on you, have Kabal move faster, have the player character have a bleeding effect if they were injured prior to the fight. MK9 had so many little gameplay gimmicks that could have fit into the story and yet do nothing. Injustice was smart with the minigames as it allowed characters to do more than just punch each other and it had an actual consequence so you could bring that back as well. Have a minigame where Johnny Cage is tossing Force Balls or whatever his green ball attacks are at a horde of Tarkatan's to keep them back or have a running minigame with Kabal where he has to avoid obstacles at high speed. Again, you get to show off the character's powers and they get to do more than punch people. You brought up another good idea with the QTE's, let some of the non playable characters have them so you still get to play with them in some aspect and they still get to do something. With this concept, you actually could control all the Kombat Kids where you could have a QTE where they are all dodging attacks and fighting people and at the end, the player character gets to fight the villain while the rest are dealing with the minions but they weren't just easily knocked out to get them out of the fight, they are actually doing something so they seem more impressive. Also, yeah, have arcade endings be canon. With most, if not all of them being non canon, it means that only the major characters like Liu-Kang, Cassie and Raiden actually do anything of note. Sub-Zero trains the Kombat Kids and has an offscreen fight with Kotal's army, his arcade ending could show how that went. We could see what Erron Black did afterwards, what happened with Kano, what Raiden did after threatening Liu-Kang and Kitana, etc. The only point where non canon arcade endings made sense was in MK11 because there really isn't much the other characters can do since time is reset so that actually makes sense to have it be what they do with the Hourglass but every other game? Just makes the characters seem less important because they don't have anything else going on besides the main plot. So many different plots were going on in old games, every character got some time to shine. Ashrah even gets a bad ass moment of hunting down Ermac and we don't even see how the fight went, just that clearly Ermac didn't die but Ashrah didn't either so either Ermac beat her or she beat him which makes her potentially more impressive as a new character. I think a major issue besides the chapter things is also that everything is exclusively focused on the main plot so any character not involved has nothing going for them which makes them feel wasted. Do more with the Storymode, use fun gimmicks to get diverse fights and unique playable moments and let your characters have their own designated story and ending within the larger story so everything feels important instead of just non canon or useless filler.
Speaking about Kabal, they should have made him faster in mk11.
@@MilestheDirtyMindedGoblin2099 Yeah, I feel like since super speed is his whole deal he should be the faster but all I think he's done is block bullets, I think even the weakest MK characters are bullet timers where as Raiden is confirmed in the Deadly Alliance game to be as fast as lightning and yet I have never seen Kabal speed blitz Raiden or others. I feel like its a Quicksilver situation where his main power is super speed, but so many other characters are faster than him so he really has nothing special.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins yeah, this fact makes me sad boy since Kabal is my favorite character
Apart from the BlazBlue part(I never had an issue understanding its plot, but that's neither here nor there)and Tekken 7(I generally liked the focus on the Mishima family as the main story) I agree with everything you said here.
I’d say SFV is probably my favorite structure I like the one single narrative combined with individual character story’s to give characters agency’s and advance their arcs if the story can’t accommodate them plus the obvious everyone gets to be played as which just works from not just the obvious narrative advantages since it means your villains can take Ws and can thus be taken seriously but gameplay wise since your guaranteed to find to find a character you may like with the whole roster since your sampling everyone
I’m interested if SF6 will be doing the same or something different given what little we saw so far it might be a description style conquest mode so we’ll see
I think that a lot of these problems can be avoided by having the losses of playable characters be integrated into the story.
That is something I'd love to see.
One fighting game story mode i really enjoyed was Marvel Nemesis Rise Of The Imperfects where you could only choose to play as 4 different characters as they deal with whatever is happening on their end. To further down the story (and it's timeline), you had to choose which character to kill off where you face that character as one of the original characters they introduced in the game, which would showcase their backstories, while at the same time showing off the actual strength of these characters by literally having them kill off heroes you were already playing as beforehand. I mean, it'll make you think twice about taking on a ballerina after learning that she has a power to cause miniature earthquakes and kills off The Thing. Sure the big bad of the game is a knock off Lex Luthor but it was wildly entertaining where the heroes try to save what's left of NYC during an alien invasion as they pass on information to each other, or even some don't see each other at all. Even had a plot device to have fights between the heroes through knock off Luthor's mind control device
I still wish we could go back to the free roam Konquest story mode. Those had more play ability than just a 5 hour cinematic campaign.
I do agree that there’s some problems, but I don’t see too much issue with Batman and Liu Kang having multiple chapters. They’re the protagonists, the focus of the story, it makes sense they get more screen time. Another thing is that Injustice uses characters that fans already know the badassery of those characters. It also doesn’t make sense that you take issue with too much Batman and Liu Kang, but no issue with Kilik in SC6.
One positive thing about Aftermath's story was being able to play as Sindel during Fujin's chapter. Felt like a breath of fresh air.
Something you didn’t mention about MvCI’s story mode is something kinda interesting about the villain, Ultron Sigma. In the opening chapter you actually get to fight him but it’s a fight that’s so hard and basically built on you getting your ass kicked.
I just think that’s a nice middle ground between “never playing as a villain” and giving them some wins to make them feel threatening, since you know they’ll be just as unforgiving the next time you fight them.
I always knew something was off with the Story man. Like the material is AMAZING
In MK11 in the fight club, Sonya gets her wrist things taken away and you actually couldn't use them in gameplay
Nrs explaning story fights be like
Mk Vs Dc: the fights happen because of kombat rage and power fluctuasion
Mk9: idk Raiden?
Ijgau: power pill
Mkx: i don't care
Ij2: me ether
Mk11: it's because of time travel fuctuating their pow... oh sorry no idk
ScrewAttack once said that Street Fighter V should copy their story mode from MK9. Then again, ScrewAttack also founded Death Battle