Story Line Discussion and Questions

Hello everyone,

I’ve slowly been playing through Story Mode, Season 1, and I’ve finished reading all the character bios on the official site (I still need to read Aganos’, and the expanded guest characters Bios in the Definitive Edition Hub), and one thing I’m curious about: This game is a reboot of the original and it’s sequel, correct, and not a proper continuation of those game’s stories?

I ask because multiple times, not one but two Tournaments are mentioned, which do not seem to appear in the game’s actual Story Mode, but of course they were in the original games. Several key points and character moments from the originals are mentioned as well (i.e. Sabrewulf getting metal arms).

So is Killer Instinct (2013) actually a complete reboot of the franchise?

I do like how a lot of the characters are intertwined in their backstories, that’s written quite well.

It is a complete reboot of the franchise, but it only started going down that direction when Iron Galaxy took over. Before then, they were treating it like a sequel. So Season 1 content has some inconsistencies with Season 2 and 3.

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Ah, that makes more sense. What are some of the inconsistencies you mention (I don’t mind spoilers)?

Also, Shadow Jago. So the character is Jago possessed by Omen, but when Omen gets expelled from him, apparently another Shadow Jago materializes, so he exists on his own now independent of Jago and Omen.

Is that explained in any of the in-game story modes?

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Thunder’s intro was originally meant to show him sidelong with Ultratech in this installment, as in the original series Ultratech ruled the world. Orchid’s was about flushing the executives out of hiding after their loss in KI 1 and 2. Stuff like that. Little things.

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Ah, okay. I was just reading on the wiki. Apparently Season 1 is a Tournament, Season 2 introduces more elaborate and extraordinary characters into the series leading to the Shadow invasion, and Season 3 of course deals with battling and stopping said invasion.

That’s how they ended up justifying and explaining it.

Like, retcons are frustrating, but I hate that they were doing retcons within the same installment via patches. I get that it changed developers and all but… I think the game would have benefited more from having one solid narrative that they decided on at the beginning and stuck to till the end. Something I really hope they take to heart for KI’s next installment

Well, the impression I get is they didn’t expect the game to do as well as it did or to be actively developed for as long as it did.

If that is indeed the case, things being a little jumbled make sense, regrettably.