Dead, or undead? Maybe they’re planning to use him as the vampire trope character I’ve seen a lot of people talking about.
Maybe. I would rather he stay a background character but whatever 
Not gonna happen! We want a REAL vampire!
For what isn’t the first time, a nonsensical response. If the King happens to be a centuries old bloodsucker, explain how that makes him something other than “a real vampire.” Why does the fact that he was a Babylonian king mean he can’t be a vampire? Does he need a prominent widow’s peak in his slickly gelled hair, a red cape, a suit? It sounds like you’re looking for Dracula. Not every vampire character throughout every single instance of fiction has to look the same or have the exact same origins.
I’m sure you have a post of your own idea up in the suggestions at this point already. Go through the pictures and look at how many of them look like the typical depictions of Dracula.
1 Like
I’d prefer not to know the real name or aspect of Spinal. It’s a secret, a mystery, gone in the dawn of times. I think Spinal would lose something of magic. We don’t need to know everything. The mystery is cool
1 Like
The king of Babylon is becoming the most important person in KI’s storyline, since he created Kan-Ra, gave Aganos free will, and cursed Spinal with the Mask.
I guess this kinda makes Spinal and Aganos enemies now.
Good story, less convoluted than others, straight to the point and without wtf moments.
I give it a 7/10
1 Like
rather than knowing his name, I’d like to know why he is called Spinal. Maybe he used to skin alive his enemies when he was a pirate.
Or maybe he sent shudders down the spine of his enemies when they saw his ship.
Maybe for next game, we’ll hear more about the Babylonian king. He’s a good guy.
Cool story. I’m kind of bummed that Spinal is connected to the king…I actually think it’s cooler to let the world just be big, with a bunch of different magical items from different places and times floating around. It’s not a huge sticking point or anything, but I really don’t want every third character to wind up being connected to that King and Kan Ra. Just makes the world feel smaller IMO.
Why do people keep saying Kan stole the mask’s power? Is that in the S2 story mode or something? The implication from this story blurb seemed to point far more in the direction of Aria somehow draining it of its power, at least in my reading of it
Interesting about the (presumed) Spinal curses nerf. I’m thinking that in general IG might prefer to move somewhat away from safe-ish, infinite vortex play styles like Spinal with skulls or Kan Ra after an ender. I’m actually ok with that - I’m generally fine with vortexes, but Spinal’s is pretty OD. He gets 50/50 left/right/high/low mixups into more 50/50 left/right/high/low mixups even if you block the first one, which is kinda bunk. Only real way to deal with it is to simply never let him knock you down, which can be a somewhat problematic endeavor to say the least :-p
4 Likes
What if the King is actually Dracula or rather a being so powerful and mighty that he himself created the myths of Dracula, and Terrakons, and creatures of the Night. I mean this King seems Mighty as he took out Kan-Ra, Spinal, owned Aganos’s very Soul. This King bested these mighty warriors in ways they absolutely cannot best eachother in.
@TempusChaoti @rukizzel Why does it seem this King was a Demi God with sorcerers, golems, curses, Loyalty. What sorta King can have so many fantastical things under his control with his respect and Still Best his Enemies so viciously and completely e.g. Kan-Ra and Spinal?
For being so influential in the KI universe, ‘The King’ is pretty anonymous… as if the king of Babylon is somehow a mysterious figure.
1 Like
I don’t think Aria drained it, it sounds like he will be after whoever did in s3.
I also don’t think the vortex will totally go away, as discussed in my post above I think if he loses his curses then he will get his green skulls back and so gain skulls on hit. He will keep the vortex but not necessarily deprive opponent’s of their ways out (although it still won’t be free). Instead of spending skulls to get meter to get instinct to get skulls to get meter he will be spending skulls to get skulls, cutting out the middleman and strengthening his momentum outside of instinct.
No, a curse nerf wouldn’t eliminate his vortex, but it would make it a bit less self-sustaining. One of the things that makes Spinal’s vortex so devastating is that he’s stealing your resources to fight back every time he opens you up. If he can’t feed his shadow meter quite so effectively, then he won’t be able to hit you with shadow searing skull to end off practically every combo, thereby removing your ability to pop instinct and regain at least a bit of momentum.
How much this helps the defender will ultimately lie in the details of how much less meter he’s able to steal, but overall I think it has the potential to make his pressure quite a bit more manageable.
According to wikipeida, the King of Babylon during the time of Kan-Ra’s expulsion was named Neriglissar.
Who knows if IG/MS is going to try and stick to the real-world in this case, but regardless, I find it interesting that they are harping on Babylon as much as they are.
Cinder could probably use a small damage buff, but I’ll be surprised if they change too much with him. Kan Ra will likely get his scarabs nerfed. Maybe his command grab becomes blockable or sandsplosion becomes more punitive damage-wise. But I think he’s got a great move set at his core.
Omen could certainly be one of the characters, especially with Shago having the slide. I could see them removing the randomess of the projectiles and reducing the variety (probably eliminating the dud), but if they fix anything on him, my guess is that it’s his look or perhaps some animations. IG knows what people dislike about him. I tend to think that they can fix him without having to rework him, but who knows.
I’m kinda hoping it’s TJ and Maya.
I like parts of their movesets, but TJ’s autobarrage and instinct could be completely reworked and that’d be fine by me. Wouldn’t mind seeing his moveset get streamlined a little, maybe have his animations touched up some. If they maybe removed a few things and added one new thing that fit more with what they were trying to do with him and rebalanced him, I think that’d be great.
I’m probably in the minority here, but I’d love it if they took Maya’s dagger mechanic, the meter, and most of what’s associated with the daggers back to the drawing board. I know that’s changing her significantly and basically reimagining her as a character, but for me, that’s kinda the point. I tend to think she could use it.
That said, I’m perfectly fine not loving every character on the roster. I know both of these characters have a lot of fans and their preferences are just as valid as my own, so if these two are largely unchanged, that’s totally, 100% fine by me. I’m just throwing out two characters that I’d personally like to see more changes than an added move or a tweak to this or that.
Back on topic…
I don’t think Spinal’s the one getting the full rework. Of all the characters, he’s probably one that could use it the least. He’s also one of the best tourney-caliber characters. So I think they’ll go for more of a tweaking approach with him. Maybe nerf the amount of meter gained and lost on his curses a little, while balancing that out with something new in his instinct.
Overall, I don’t think he’ll be affected too much, and I think he’ll remain an upper tier option. That’s just my guess though.
1 Like
I want Cinder and Maya to be the reworks. Neither one of their movesets feel thought out to me. Almost like they were done quickly and without any real consideration
I honestly feel the same way.
Spinal is supposed to be 660 years old…they just retconned that, now he’s just as old as Kan-Ra. That isn’t a bad thing, it just isn’t what I expected, and now we have 3 characters from that time period, all connected via an unnamed king. If this King is going to be someone of note, we need to know more about him.
Spinal was thought to be a Viking as well…now he’s presumably a Babylonian who I guess was talked about by the Scandinavian people in lore and such as he plundered the sea. Still a cool story, but I would have loved to hear more about it if possible.
The bio also didn’t go into ARIA’s reasoning for “needing” Spinal. She lured him in with the mask, only to give it to him after the tournament? Why? What was the point of luring him in in the first place? We know that Eagle was defeated by Spinal; did she bring him in just to take down Eagle? Was Eagle that much of a threat that she needed to track down and get a 2000 year old undead skeleton to defeat him? WTF?
That just doesn’t make sense to me. ARIA is supposed to be guarding humanity against humans, but in this case she just seemingly doesn’t care about Spinal being a potential threat…or whatever he is.
Another thing too…
The bio states:
“Knowing there are greater powers at work, Spinal sets out to find what robbed his relic of its faculties, hoping to defeat that entity and absorb its might so that he can infect the world with a glorious and maniacal frenzy.”
I think the power that is being talked about here is Gargos. Gargos’ power is probably the genesis of all these curses and the like, and his return is probably sapping up the vestiges of his power across the Earth, and beings like Spinal are being affected.
I think Gargos is the one who is infesting everyone with the Shadow energy too. The Shadow energy is the manifestation of Gargos slowly corrupting everyone through combat
1 Like
What do you mean? Who else is/was “infested” with Shadow energy other than Jago?