You have to block the first hit the moment it hits you. There’s no need to memorize strings. But you have to be able to predict the move and land the block with perfect timing.
So how does everyone feel about the final Launch roster? I still don’t know how to feel about it tbh. It’s got a good mix of a variety of characters. And so many of them are ones that I remember people constantly and consistently asking for. IncubusLord (wherever the hell he went) even got Jade back! But I still feel like a few more characters could have been added. And now I get to feel what Baraka/Rain/Sindel fans felt with my beloved Cyber Ninjas. I also feel that we could have had a few more 3D era characters, though this could easily be rectified with DLC. Honestly, all I really want are Ashrah and Sareena. I may have soft spots for Fujin, Kai, Kobra, Kira, and Daegon, but those two are my favorites. And while I absolutely LOVE most of the characters on this roster, it is hard to not feel that it has too many Trilogy/MKX characters.
I could do without Jackie, Jax, Frost and Sonya.
Would have liked to see Reptile, Ferra Tor, Takeda (even though i cant stand him lol), Smoke, Ermac, and Kanos son or more “family” spin offs like in MKX.
BUt IM happy witht he final roster…IM df not disspointed. BUt if I had to choose , above would have beeen my ommisions and additions.
Sorry for the double post, but just some spoiler free comments on the story mode from my point of view.
The story - ie the plot - is basically nonsense. That sounds harsh, but I have yet to see a fighting game where the story was anything but nonsense. If you try to analyze it, it’s filled with paradoxes and internal inconsistemcies. Characters randomly pair off and wander around basically just for the purpose of running into other characters and having fights.
But the story telling is terrific. NRS is really making masterful cut scenes and as far as I can tell they are the best in the business. They combine film style editing and composition and then throw in scenes that you really can only do in a CG environment. It all flows seamlessly into fights - which helps disguise the fact that each chapter is still a pretty formulaic series of “new bad guy shows up” “fight new bad guy” “other new bad guy shows up.”
And in the context of this formulaic, nonsense story, they manage to actually show character growth and development in a way that you can connect with. There are both melodramatic and subtle moments that I find really relatable and impactful.
Overall it’s an impressive piece of work as far as story telling and NRS is just pulling further and further ahead of everyone else in the business. And I think this includes all games not just fighting games. I don’t think anyone is doing this well with their storytelling. Maybe a few narrative driven games like The Last if Us. But not many games out there come close.
Is it fun? Well, kind of. The fact that you are constantly switching characters means that you are always just scratching the surface of the gameplay with each one. And enjoyment is largely dependent on how much fun you can have with a character in five minutes. Some
Characters are much better for this than others since simple strings and obvious special cancels are about all most players will pick up while playing this way. For my money kung Lao and Liu Kang are great this way, as is Katana. I enjoyed the Khan’s fight (which has been shown on NRS YouTube so I don’t think spoils anything for anyone). I also enjoyed Katana. Other characters that are more interesting to me have been less fun. That doesn’t speak to the characters gameplay over time but I didn’t get much out of my 20 minute Cassie Cage for example. And Jade was meh.
I’m just over halfway done so there’s still plenty left to do. So far I haven’t been tremendously shocked or surprised. It’s an impressive piece of craftsmanship for sure, even if the story itself is not Shakespeare.
Couldnt agree more! Im currently at chapter 3 Lao and Kang…the SHaolin monks! I cant wait to get back at it after I finsih this steak dinner lol
BUt man there are sooo many KI influences in the towers of time and other names of gear ect… like seriously someone in CHicago on this team has to have extensive KI knowledge. Tower of time is basically KI3 story mode…what sit called…IM drawing ablank OMG!!
Now we can only hope we get a Mortal Kombat x Killer Instinct game in the near future.
Here’s my own set of spoilers.
Let me just say that I did like the story. I feel like some moments of it were really cool and we’ll handled, but I also think some parts were odd and poor. I’ll start with the good and say that some of the past-future interactions were kinda cool. Namely Johnny, Scorpion, (especially) Liu Kang and Kano. They did a good job showing the contrasts and similarities between the two sides and it was nice to see. However, I will also say that some past-future interactions were wasted. Kitana, Kung Lao and Jade had almost nothing to say to each other. As a matter of fact, I can’t even remember if the Kitana’s actually met or not.
Unfortunately, there is more bad. Once again in an NRS story, there were some completely overshadowed characters that did practically nothing. Erron Black was just there so that they could say once or twice that he was a Black Dragon member. Kabal, both past and future, existed to lose just like MKX. Baraka had 1 or 2 important scenes. The Kollector had the same problem as Ferra/Torr where they were a new set of characters with only a small amount of exposition. His main purpose was really just to say, “If only Shao Kahn were here.” Cetrion, an almighty Elder God, also just loses.
Also, why did Kronika say she’d make a world without Raiden but bring back Past Raiden while killing the new Raiden? She kinda lost because of that. No Past Sub Zero (if you don’t count Noob Saibot)? Why didn’t some of those past characters kill those other characters as easily before? A TON of problems would have been solved if they did that.
Finally, as they’re resetting time again, it seems like they’re rebooting the story again. Only this time, with new villains and obstacles to overcome. I kinda expected this, seeing how time was the theme again. Hopefully this means that everyone doesn’t get replaced.
Whatever story we get next, i expect it to be half MK9, one third MKX, one sixth new stuff. I don’t just mean characters, I mean plot points too. I expect it to be a new version of the Shang Tsung/Shao Kahn arc but without the effort to stick so exactly to the plot of the original games.
-sniffles proudly at people’s appropriate and prolific use of spoiler tags-
not necessarily, i seen vids of people doing 3 hit strings. thats where you got your chance to do a flawless block
Finished the story. As it is confusing, (temporal paradoxes and anything to do with time itself is) the story is amazing. Writing this, I’m kinda feeling a bit emotional and amazed at NRS’s story telling and the way they present that story. I understand some of the stuff in the story, but there are a lot of inconsistencies. However, I’m excited for the future of MK. They could go anywhere from here and with a team as talented as NRS, I’m excited.
Real talk, this credits music is kinda chill and my type of music
Time to explore the Krypt
That’s interesting. It’s certainly implied in the tutorial that you do this in the first hit. I don’t know how you could manage it against a block string. You would need the time to come off block and then hit the button at the precise time if the hit you are trying to flawless block. Do you have links?
In either case, it’s one of those things that I don’t see myself spending days in the lab memorizing block strings for 28 characters so I can try for a perfect block. I suspect this is something “pros” will use against characters with high pressure under a narrow set of circumstances, but that it’s not going to show up much in the rest of the world.
Edit: You are not wrong. Found this PND Ketchup and Mistard video:
There has to be a gap in the string so they are doing it either in the third hit of a string with a gap, or else on the startup of a second string following a plus on block string. I’m not sure, given this, why they chose to have the tutorial require you to have to flawless block Jade’s lightning fast staff poke. The overhead at least you have a chance but the other hit…
I still feel pretty much the same way. It’s a mechanic that uses two bars of resource and all you get is an end to pressure. I don’t see why it has to be so difficult, and if it does then certainly I don’t see an mortals using it. If I need this to beat someone then frankly, I’m just going to take the L.
yeah its certainly not easy, and i wasnt aware that it used resources either. i was going by the assumption that every fighter will have a basic string with more or less the same cadence during the attack, at which point if you play the musical rhythm (sp?) game you can learn the timing to do so. muscle memory will eventually kick in, but thats the theory anyway. thats cool though man, i was just tryin to help is all and if you dont see it being worth the time it is all good
Hey, I have a question for those of you that already have MK11…does it have the option to adjust blood and fatalities? As in turn them off if you want?
Haven’t seen it. Why?
Just curious. I’m still debating on possibly getting the Switch version, maybe not right now, but maybe later. With it being portable, I could see possibly having the situation arise where maybe I want to play it but it might be in an environment where the gore would be frowned on.
I find it strange that people are complaining about the gore this go around. Look at a couple reviews and they’re saying it’s “tiered”.
Wow, MK11 is getting review bombed on Metacritic for its microtransactions. The user scores on PS4 and Xbox One are below 3.0 right now. Yikes. I’d like to throw this question out to the group and see what you all think:
Do you think review bombing should be a valid way for gamers to send a message to devs about issues like predatory microtransactions in their games?
On one hand, I think that this is a very important issue and WB needs to be told in no uncertain terms to stop treating their consumers this way. On the other hand, I believe NRS was already intending to put out a patch to help fix some of these issues, but I don’t know for certain.
I ask because my issues are:
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What happens when the problem is fixed? Those scores are still there. Or do review bombings tend to get removed?
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Those scores don’t help anyone actually find out if the game is good or not. Sure, they have the regular score to go off of, but how does the average player know why there’s a divide in the two and if the problems have been fixed to the satisfaction of fans?
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Reviews scores are supposed to be a critique of the entire game, not an opinion on a single issue within a game. It feels like people are weaponizing their scores to complain about something specific. That doesn’t seem like the purpose of reviewing a game and giving it a score. Can you imagine if all scores were like that?
Anyways as far as the story goes, I’ll say this:
Absolutely loved the storytelling, the voice acting (even Rousey was tolerable most of the time), the amazing facial animations, etc. It’s by far and away the best fighting game story mode of all time. NRS has certainly perfected their craft in this regard.
As for the actual story itself, there are some issues, some logical inconsistencies, some temporal paradoxes and more inconsistencies. Thankfully, I don’t think that many characters act against their own self-interest or do things that I’d label completely ridiculous or against their own self-interest or who they are as a character. Those were all issues in MK9 and MKX and I think MK11 does a much better job in that regard.
As to specifics, well (spoilers):
I think that watching the whole story play out the way it did was really fun! I loved that Baraka, for the first time in the whole series, wasn’t just the lackey that got beat up in every chapter. They depicted the tarkatans as sympathetic, which is definitely not something I would’ve foreseen going in. But the fact that Baraka had to be convinced, and that the Tarkatans were needed to get the shokan on board… That was all really nice and I thought it did an admirable job of making both Baraka and Sheeva feel like necessary characters and not just goons for the big bad guy. Very nice.
I also loved the Sub Zero / Scorpion story. The full arc did a great job and touched on several beats. Sub Zero got to confront Sektor, try and save Cyrax and confront his brother. That’s a lot for him, especially compared to the last game where he was an afterthought. I still think there’s a better showdown in the future for Bi Han and Kuai Liang, but this was a nice table setter, if nothing else.
I also dug Scorpion getting to confront his younger self. He had to actually try and reason with the hell-bent-on-revenge version that never seemed to listen to anything. I thought that was a fun dynamic. I liked the twist of having young Scorpion survive and have to try and convince the good guys that he wants to help.
It was also great to see both Raiden and Liu Kang subvert expectations. The story was actually aware of the path they’d taken previously and it gave the characters a chance to break out of their pattern, which was nice. It was so nice to see Raiden almost give in to doing something stupid, only to resist it. After all the bad choices he’s made in the last two games, this arc felt somewhat redemptive for him.
It was great to see both Liu Kang and Raiden come to terms with their future, understand how they got there, and try and find a different path (and the fun way they figured out how to do it). I think that’s why we don’t see any redemption for dark Raiden or dead Liu Kang. Both of those characters were beyond redemption. That was the point. They were the result of everything that had happened in the last two games and the result of everything playing out to Kronika’s wishes (minus Raiden taking Shinnok’s head and messing with time). It was young Raiden that young Liu Kang that still had the chance to break the cycle. It was their story.
I think the biggest plot hole that some point out is the fact that Kronika brought them back in the first place. To that, I’d say this… Kronika needed to occupy the heroes AND the villains while she gathered the power she needed to reset the timeline.
Maybe this could’ve been clearer in the story, but I never got the impression that Kronika’s promises to the villains were promises she intended to keep. I think her goal was just to reset everything. Not plunk these villains back in to the timeline as they were. To me, she was lying to them. Using them to keep the heroes busy, but also to keep all of them occupied.
Also, as an elder god, I don’t think she really saw Raiden and Liu Kang as a threat to her, especially since she’d had so much success against them before. She resets things, they go at each other, etc. Now, I am a bit confused on the whole “I’ve been resetting the timeline several times now” aspect. She doesn’t really explain why this needed to be done if Raiden kept killing Liu Kang. Anyone hazard a guess?
I also enjoyed the Jaqui / Jax / older Jax storyline. Older Jax might be the dunce of this game in terms of making counterintuitive decisions, but at least with him (unlike Scorpion in MKX or Raiden in MK9), we can more easily rationalize the decision; where he was in his life, what he wanted and why, etc. He also figured out his mistake and rectified it.
My main issues with the story were Cetrion having no real story arc whatsoever, which seems especially wasteful given that she’s an elder god, and the ending itself.
For one thing… Why did we have to end up THAT far back in time? What’s the purpose? Doesn’t doing that essentially negate EVERYTHING that happened not only the story we just played through, but in every MK story? Is it all just gone now? All timelines? I dunno, it just seems like there are easier ways of merging the timelines than throwing it all out essentially.
Also, and this might be a smaller issue, but how the hell is Kitana there with Liu Kang at the very end? Last we saw, she was rewinding lol. How does she even exist in the time before the dinosaurs? Was he somehow able to pluck her out of time? Wouldn’t he have to travel forward in time and then back again just to get her? I mean, he wouldn’t even have that power, would he?
I dunno, that’s probably just one of those “don’t pull at the thread” types of issues and it’s certainly not a big issue, but it’s still a little odd. The whole thing makes me wonder where we’re going to start off in the next game. Will it be at the Great Kung Lao vs Shang Tsung tournament? Are we going back to MK1 AGAIN? God, I hope not.
I’ll say this, now that this trilogy is complete, NRS really needs kinda rebalance their roster in terms of who appears in each game and how much attention they get. In my humble opinion, Cage, Sonya, Jax, Jaqui and Cassie should all be left out of the next game. Either have a new Special Forces character (just one) or leave them out entirely.
I get that a lot of people expect trilogy era characters, but you can do that without using so many of the same trilogy characters each and every game while also using several somewhat overused post-trilogy characters.
Ah well, they’ll never make everyone happy in this regard, but still… If you’re wiping the slate clean (again), I’d hope it’d be for a reason, and not just to have a roster that’s 80% the same again.
Anyways, loved the story mode and if anyone wants to talk about it, I’m certainly game!
I think the idea of a “Great Kung Lao Tournament” is a really interesting place for the series to go in the wake of this. The problem is that most of the “staple” characters of the series would not be able to be included. Which would give is the whole “Marvel Infinite/Street Fighter 3” problem. I highly suspect that they will be going back to re-do the original trilogy again, only this time as a full “lots of things change” reboot rather than a kind of HD remake like MK9.
I actually think now would be the perfect time to create an Armageddon/Tag Tournament style side game. It even has the perfect framing device. Lord Liu Kang and Lady Kitana want to create a sort of testing field to decide what to keep and what not to in the New Era, so they take everything they can think of and throw it together to test scenarios. That would be the game we play. They bring back EVERYONE, with the goal of making each character the best possible version of that character. You see everyone at their best and see what works and what to keep. That’s what I’d do anyway.
I wish Cetrion had a bit more of an arc. She basically had a personality 180 in the middle of the plot. I also wish we got to see the other Elder Gods. But that’s just me.
I saw someone somewhere say that this was genius. That the series can now do whatever it wants without the specter of time travel hanging over it and effecting the narrative. I never saw that as an issue, but that could very well be their reasoning for rewinding.
I just hope that we get to see Liu Kang and Kitana finally have kids. Now they can be cool time god kids instead of zombie kids or whatever. They would be a nice through line from the old era. Like, enforcers of sorts, stopping people who try to mess with the timeline like Raiden did before. Think Legends of Tomorrow.
And yes, The Kombat Kids will probably get left out of next game. Sonya, Johnny and Jax, probably not. But definitely the Kids are gone. We might even still have some of MKX’s newcomers, just woven into the plot of the original tournament.