Character Backstory - Death is no Obstacle

a wealthy noble, a general, a bandit, and himself…The King…Shadow Lords… Saviors… future characters?

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Time to quickly learn Kan-Ra before the “Rework”. Sorry @STORM179. LOL

.#Inb4MassExodus

think Tusk would be one of those “Saviors”, since Tusk is not of earth, don’t think he would ever have been aligned with Kan-Ra

His hubris led him to orchestrate a conspiracy against his monarch that involved a wealthy noble, a general, a bandit, and himself. The King, much wiser than the conspirators, was well prepared for this betrayal. He used all the powers at his disposal and the darkest magicks he could conjure to curse each of the four, damning them with unique punishments.

We know Spinal was the bandit that was cursed. But what about the other two?? Possible characters?? One of them the Vampire? =O

That would be cool.

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NO Matter what negative feedback you guys receive, just know what you do is greatly appreciated, I can’t think of any game period where the community behind (including those involved in development) it is so passionate, and it is rewarding to have these opportunities to be involved in the project outside of just simply buying & playing the game.

KI4LIFE

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Is there any “Imhotep” vibes somewhere in the story?

Go for it. Get all the Kan cheapness crap out of your systems before he’s nerfed into the ground. :smiling_imp:

I definitely think some of the other individuals who were cursed will wind up appearing in S3 as characters. I’m kind of against this (I dislike having too many people tied to the same ur-narrative), but it’s not the end of the world. I will be upset if the eventual vampire character is one of them - I think it shrinks the world unnecessarily. Vampires are like werewolves; they exist enough on their own that they shouldn’t have to be tied to this same Babylonian king idea.

Dude’s already responsible for like half a season’s worth of characters at this point. Let someone else have some monster creating fun :smirk:

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Am I the only one who thought “Time to tip the scales!” when I read those last few lines? lol

Seems a bit overblown. :neutral_face:

My main concern here is that, based on what @TheKeits said in that interview, they may go too far and make Kan-Ra a deliberately underpowered character for the sake of salty players who think zoners are illegitimate. I’m not a Kan-Ra player, but I think the idea that balance is less important than fun is a ■■■■■■, loaded way to look at things: not only are you denying the fun of players maining the character and robbing them of a realistic chance of being rewarded for the effort they put in, but you’re making the character’s matchups inherently less interesting by robbing their tools of consequence in optimal play, thus allowing their opponent’s strategies to be flatter, less varied and more consistent, and thus more boring.

If the complaint is that Kan-Ra is OP, or that he doesn’t have to adapt to the specifics of his opponent’s gameplan enough generally, then sure, nerf or adjust him so that more matchups matter. But don’t make him intentionally weak or uninteresting just so that people have more “fun” playing against him. Make him fun without stripping him of viability. KI is meant to be the game where characters with dirt get to be good, after all.

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Well said my friend, I wholeheartedly agree.

I really enjoy playing as Kan Ra, but it certainly sounds as though a nerf is coming for his curses. My guess is that he’s likely getting more power in his attacks in exchange for a hefty alteration to how some of his moves work. Just a guess though, and I’m fine with that if that’s the case.

At his core, I think he’s a really fun concept from appearance to abilities. One of my all time favorites in fact, and I don’t think some changes to how he plays will alter my perception on that front. If anything, it might strengthen it.

I’d love it if he could somehow steal his opponents moves, but I don’t think that’s what they were getting at. I think they were likely talking about story in that regard, rather than hinting at how he’ll play.

As for his story itself, wow. Man, you guys just keep taking it to another level! Really enjoyed this one. Gave a nice, comprehensive history of where he’s been, what he’s done, who he was and what he became and why. Really enjoyed all of it, especially the small bits of history added in here and there. Someone definitely did their research, and it definitely made me enjoy the story that much more. Really… Awesome job!

So will these stories keep going now that we’ll know what the balance changes are after this weekend? I’m certainly hoping so, even if the hints at future changes might not be worked in at the end.

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I don’t know, could be good if done right. What if the King was influenced by Gargos? What if the four were the four horseman?

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That was awesome, I really enjoyed this backstory for Kan-Ra.

He also emntioned forces to stop them, is perhaps studying our hero group? or a new more powerful force from another dimension? a dimension of light?

We don’t do uninteresting. And we don’t do weak. I believe even S2’s lowest tier characters are very strong and can win tournaments.

<3

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Make 'em wanna have S2-Kan-Ra back when they see S3-Kan-Ra owning everyone, Keits :wink:

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Please don’t misunderstand. While I do hate Kan-Ra, it is not my actual desire to see him nerfed into irrelevance. It’s just more fun to say it like that. :slightly_smiling:

I didn’t get the sense at all from @TheKeits that their intention was to deliberately underpower Kan-Ra. The issue for myself and many Kan haters isn’t that Kan is a zoner. It isn’t that he’s a strong zoning character, and it isn’t that he’s got dirt. My issue with Kan-Ra is that at high level he doesn’t have to play KI, to the extent that “KI” is the philosophy of a continuous two way interaction throughout the fight. High level Kan is meterless level 3 one-chance break into setup ender into meterless level 3 one-chance break. All characters can circumvent the breaker system, but Kan is actively encouraged by his mechanics to do so, and wracks up not-inconsiderable damage while not ever having to really play the combo game unless he feels like it. That is a problem.

I don’t mind dirt (I’m a fan of KI after all, and everyone in this game has dirt), but I emphatically do mind when that dirt sacrifices neither damage nor resources nor a setup. I do mind when a character gets to come and go almost completely as he pleases unless you manage to catch him at the very beginning of the fight. A character who fills the screen with as much crap as Kan does, whiff punishing scarab-destroying normals and trip guarding jumps all the while, gets a half screen command grab that can be aimed and starts a combo? And gets a near-unreactable super-jump with one of the best cross-up buttons in the game? And probably the most damaging shadow cashout in the game? And an invincible reversal that can teleport him safely to the other side of the screen? Really? Does Kan-Ra actually need all of that to be viable?

I actually think Kan is probably the most impressively designed character in the game. The way his tools work together is incredible, and a testament to the talent that resides at IG. The problem is that he’s also a kitchen sink character, with tools for every occasion along with one of the nastiest vortexes in the game. A vortex that primarily consists of unbreakable strings that nonetheless manage to net him solid damage. If Orchid wants to trap you in a one-chance vortex, she’s sacrificing a lot of damage to do it. Kan-Ra generally isn’t, and yeah, I have a problem with that.

I don’t want Kan-Ra to be weak, nor do I want him to be uninteresting. I simply don’t believe that not being weak or boring means a character has to have level 3 three meterless one-chances into setups for another level 3 meterless one chance, alongside a phenomenal cross-up, great mobility, and command grabs. He doesn’t have to not play KI in order to be fun and interesting, and I happen to think that characters should in general be both fun to play as and fight against. Kan is very much the former - not so much the latter.

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There’s also this. IG hasn’t made a “boring” character yet. I have faith that reworked Kan-Ra won’t be the first :slightly_smiling:

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AFAIK his one-chance-to-break combo requires 1 meter, a jumping attack and a standing opponent (minus Aganos IRC)… Or are they versions I don’t know yet. Any video proof? It is the only thing that might need a lil nerf IMO

Jumping into a scarab (which sometimes you’ll do to avoid the command grab) will often let him do this also, provided he didn’t actually go for the grab and can close the distance quickly enough into scarab-spam.

If he’s willing to spend a bar, he also gets a lot of different level 3 one-chances off command grab shenanigans that I’ve seen. Unfortunately, he tends to have the meter for this in my experience, as Kan pressure (like all KI pressure) is pretty meter building when blocked.