Killer Instinct Season 2 Arcade Mode Endings Idea

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I’ll be making a few of these, but seeing how KI only has Season 1 characters to have a Arcade mode, each having 3 endings (Good, Bad, Neutral) Thought I’d provide a suggestion for any plans for Season 2 & 3 (3 coming soon).

Season 2
TJ Combo
Good Ending: TJ defeats Ultratech, and finally regains his title as champ
Bad Ending: TJ is unsuccessful at earning his crowd back, leading to a bitter sweet ending.
Neutral Ending: TJ finally meets with his rival, the one who took his title. Taking this opportunity, he finally challenges him for one last duel, winner take all.

Maya
Good Ending: Maya is successful at defeating Ultratech, and allowed the NightGuard to grow after all those who were taken.
Bad Ending: Maya failed her mission, now left to look over the ruins of the now extinct NightGuard clan.
Neutral Ending: Mira greets Maya’s success, and tells her they are siblings, Maya now forced to fight her only sister, who has now took a crooked path.

Kan-Ra
Good Ending: Kan-Ra managed to summon power beyond all human life, and has now opened the gateway to the Shadow Realm. The world is now helpless as Kan-Ra becomes everyone’s new master.
Bad Ending: Kan-Ra has opens the gate, but is left trembling of the sight of the true master of darkness, Gargos. He has freed the Shadow Lord, and cased Earth to perish in chaos.
Neutral Ending: Aganos has stalled Kan-Ra before he could open the gates, this moment finally deciding who lives, and who dies. Both begin to charge, as their last battle begins.

Riptor
Good Ending: Riptor has shown dominance in her kind, thus ARIA sending her to slay all heroes, alone. Each being slayed by the ravage beast.
Bad Ending: ARIA is not pleased with your betrayal. She plans to terminate you, but Riptor declines the only way she knows how. Destroy.
Neutral Ending: Riptor has developed a human conscious, thus giving her a human side she never thought possible.

Aganos
Good Ending: Aganos has fulfilled the King’s wishes in killing Kan-Ra, the war golem is now returned to it’s immobile state.
Bad Ending: Aganos has failed to kill Kan-Ra, thus allowing him to be possessed by his sorcery.
Neutral Ending: Aganos has Killed Kan-Ra, however Aganos is still here. He takes this as a sign he is more than what was presumed. He now wonders, searching his purpose in the role of life.

Hisako
Good Ending: Hisako has stopped the threat that is Ultratech, now her soul can finally rest.
Bad Ending: Hisako has failed, her soul becomes furious, almost to the point of evil. Her soul will never be cured.
Neutral Ending: With Ultratech defeated, Hisako still wonders the forest, still uncertain who ordered their deaths.

Cinder
Good Ending: ARIA promotes Cinder for his efforts, thus allowing him one more fight. TJ Combo, finally The Pyrotech, fights the fraud.
Bad Ending: Cinder’s core is going unstable. Since the company building has been dismantled, he’s out of options. If he’s going out, he’ll go out with a FLASH. Anyone in his way will be burned.
Neutral Ending: Glacius plans to fight with Cinder, being the bastardization of his kind, the battle of Fire and Ice will now unfold.

ARIA
Good Ending: ARIA has destined global takeover. Her A.I. runs through every machine, and she now controls the world.
Bad Ending: ARIA has come to realize her soldiers are not worthy. Fulgores, Riptors, even Cinder show failure, thus self destruction of the company begins.
Neutral Ending: ARIA sees a portal open over in the distance, a dark void with evil Omens flying through. Gargos is on his way.

Omen
Good Ending: Omen has proved usefulness of the Shadow Lord, a portal opens, revealing Gargos. The world is now his for the taking.
Bad Ending: Omen has destroyed all adversaries, but his freedom begins to corrupt his mind. He is no longer a slave, he is now his own soul.
Neutral Ending: Omen has defeated Jago. The monk has no choice but to accept his fate, and become the shadow warrior he was meant to be.

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I can assure you that there is no reason whatsoever as to why Aganos would become inanimate once his task is complete. So, no his “good” ending is NOT actually good at all because it’d be a terrible waste of free will.

Also, no ending with Kan-Ra winning is a good one…

…unless there’s soup. :stew:

There are other issues with others that you mention too, that simply don’t make sense. For example, why would a spirit of revenge, who’s already been around for centuries prior to Ultratech even existing finally rest upon defeating them? How would her story continue once Kan-Ra, who’s unrelated to the evil company, releases a much more sinister evil upon the Earth?

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Aganos’s ending where he becomes immobile I’d see as a “He fought the war, but in the end, his life was never meant to last forever.” But then the third ending is kinda the alternate to that.

Also, you can never have too much Mah-soup :stew:

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Why wouldn’t it be? The Babylonian King gave him free will. What’s the point of that if all he has time for is defeating the evil sorcerer? It was meant as a gift, and Aganos is no longer bound to the task - he simply CHOOSES to do so, in order to honor his former king’s memory (and because he realizes the need in doing so, since the betrayer to the king represents such a threat).

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Good point

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I like what you did here from a creative standpoint, OP. I think a lot of what you did makes sense and fits well within the model of what season one was aiming for, even if some of it might require a bit more detail that might be hard to come by in the confines of the concept itself.

Personally though, I thought season 1’s endings were sorely lacking in anything approaching a coherent story, and that’s what I want to see out of something that’s, well, story related. I feel like Shadow Lords should’ve been able to provide the main through line of the story, so having an arcade mode with multiple endings should be more like a supplement to that.

Again, this is just my own preference so feel free to disagree, but I’ve never been huge on “what if” endings because there’s no narrative. You don’t actually learn anything because any of those three endings could be the actual thing that happens to the character, or none of them. So what’s the point? Wait until the next game to find out what happens?

No thank you. That may have worked in the 90’s with Mortal Kombat, back when many games had almost no story at all, but in this day and age, I shouldn’t have to wait years and pay for a new game to find out what actually happened in the last one.

If I’m proposing an alternative, I’d rather see the endings serve the character’s individual plotlines both within the main story and outside of it, like say with a rival or a new ally or a betrayal of an ally or a romantic interest or whatever.

For example (and no, I’m not tying this to anything that’s actually happened because I don’t know about 90% of what’s happened yet)…

Hisako:

Ending 1 (Gained by defeating Kim Wu without using an Ultra): In Kim Wu, Hisako sees the warrior she could’ve been had her village not been cut down and her family butchered.

But ARIA awakening her has given Hisako a second chance. Having tested her in battle, Hisako finds Kim Wu to be deserving of her help.

Together, the two of them will help put an end to Gargos and the invasion that threatens us all.

Ending 2 (Gained by defeating ARIA with an Ultra): Revenge is sweet for Hisako. After this mechanical monstrosity desecrated her home, she is able to destroy the body of the artificial intelligence running Ultratech.

But ARIA is nothing if not resilient. She switches to another body and gazes down at the ghost, preparing to attack.

She stops however when she sees Hisako holding the head of her previous body. Studying it. Her visage flickering out of, and back in to existence. Perhaps there is another way…

Ending 3: (gained by defeating Cinder with an ultra): When Cinder went rogue, ARIA had lost her favorite pet experiment. In seeing Hisako’s desire for a new body to inhabit, she was able to manipulate the spirit in to handling her dirty work.

Hisako defeated Cinder and nearly killed him. No matter. ARIA can send one of her lesser assassins to finish the job. In the mean time, ARIA has a promise to keep; a new body that won’t reject Hisako possession abilities.

Sure, we don’t know who that could be. But we at least get some story here. We know Hisako has a new friend and ally. We know what’s motivating her and why she’d make a deal with the entity that desecrated her home. We also see what direction her story could in for the next game.

Maybe that’s a main part of her plotline in the next game. Maybe we find out whose body she takes as a host. Maybe she becomes a female Fulgore. Maybe she possesses and ARIA body with ARIA inside it. Maybe ARIA convinces Hisako to possess her one and only friend, and Kim Wu winds up being this sort of hybrid character that’s battling Hisako’s possession.

Or maybe she finds out that ARIA intends to go back on their deal or use it as a way to control her and this rivalry is reborn.

Either way, you get both information as well as a future for her. That’s what I want to see for every character, even in an arcade mode. Not “You defeated the bad guy and saved the day” or “the bad guy killed you and destroyed the world.” Ya know?

By the way, NONE of that was meant to disparage the work you were doing here. I enjoyed it! I’m curious to see what season 3’s characters will look like. I was just talking about how I’d prefer to see arcade mode play out, which is completely independent of what you did here.

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I like it! Good job!

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No worries there friend, appreciate all the responses. Just thought I’d throw a couple ideas out there to match whats established in the game is all. I mean it still kinda bothers me 2/3 of the characters don’t have traditional arcade modes, when you’d think that would’ve been a default mode to focus on to a degree.

I do agree, I’d love to see more in depth character/story moments throughout the game. Cinematics and everything. I mean Rivals was close, and Shadow Lords was a pretty big tease. From what I’ve understood, budget is what results in these lackluster ends, to which I must reply. “Who is gimping this game’s budget?” This game that now rivals Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat in next gen, yet somebody STILL doesn’t have faith in this game to give it the kind of budget Halo games usually get? Pardon my ignorance, but this game deserves so much more than what it has, granted they at least made it work to their advantage despite the limitations, but this game could have had the big ordeal ever since the beginning.

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Maybe there can be a fan fiction thread

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