Gameinformer has dedicated the month to MK in honor of their Mortal Kombat 11 cover story. An exclusive Cetrion Reveal Trailer has been followed by a snappy interview with creative lead Ed Boon. It's well worth a watch, with plenty of surprising topics covered, including meetings with Marvel, moviemakers, and more:
166 Rapid-Fire Questions with Mortal Kombat 11's Ed Boon may sound like a lot, but at a breezy seventeen and a half minutes -- it's a jam-packed pleasure with tidbits ranging from the obscure and comic, to the very juicy!
Incoming boss Kronika will be the series' first ultimate threat who is female, but that decision was a recent one. During development she was a male threat possibly called "Kroniko", but they thought it would be cooler to switch. It's certainly fresh! She will also introduce an entity that is higher than an Elder God, confirmed through her reported parentage to newcomer Cetrion. That's a surprising development -- much more so than the general population's obliviousness to the existence of deities, who have always been selective about who they approach.
Boon offered a very definitive 25 characters for the starting playable roster of Mortal Kombat 11, with "thirty-something" by conclusion suggesting more than the confirmed six DLC additions. He tips pre-order incentive Shao Kahn to be an early Evo Championship favourite. And, yes: the roster has leaked.
Mokap, referenced in a Cassie intro, will likely never return. Ed revisited the revelation that The Matrix's Neo nearly featured in Injustice 2, and welcomed the prospect of featuring a crossover character from WB developer Rocksteady Studios.
Easy fatality micro-transactions, first introduced in Mortal Kombat X, and playfully acknowledged by Boon as a "necessary evil", will return in MK11. As previously noted, "loot boxes" will not be part of the gear system. There won't be cross-platform play available at launch, but the developer is not opposed to the idea.
Boon's favourite gear in MK11 is, perhaps unsurprisingly, klassic Scorpion. However, he says watching the character he's voiced since series inception battle Sub-Zero isn't fun any more. That might have something to do with taking little more than a week from thinking about MK! On that classic voice, he reveals the famous catch cry "Get over here!" was a holdover from High Impact Football - a game he was working on before MK. Players shout and holler during the game, and Boon's voice contributions there bled over to his time working on the '92 fighter.
Story mode cut scenes will span an estimated two and a half hours, with an unknown number of multiple outcomes confirmed. Previous talk of an eight hour playtime won't be extended by Quick Time Events - there are none.
Sadly, the importance of in-fiction tournaments seem to be a thing of the past. The developer says it hasn't been as tempting to return to the plot device since the "first ten years". A little disappointing for those of us enticed by the prospect of Kotal Kahn's Outworld contesting a new tournament, as teased by MKX endings. Despite all that, Boon suggests MK's klassic champion Liu Kang may yet emerge as MK11's most important character. [We shall see!]
The age old question of what encompasses a realm doesn't have a definitive answer, but the plane known as "Earthrealm" encompasses neighbouring planets, such as Mars, without 'physical limitation'. Those who've perceived realms as esoteric dimensional realities will be pleased. We've seen strange new locations since the first trailer, but Boon confirms no new realms will be introduced in MK11. If you're wondering, he forgot Outworld when naming the key realms, overlooking more obscure offshoots like Vaeternus, the vampire realm.
If you noticed the different look to Krushing Blows, Boon confirms they run at 30 frames per second while the rest of the game is 120. An aesthetic decision. Switch versions will be 60fps, as already noted. User selected Factions won't be making a return in MK11, but new modes will offer players ways to tag team boss fights, and Boon showed interest in concepts relating to persistent online play.
Boon confirmed he attended a meeting concerning the new Mortal Kombat movie around five months ago, where a script was present. The existence of early drafts has sparked controversial rumors already knocked back by Boon, who shares the prospect for disappointment in a poor live-action translation: "In the wrong hands... I wanted to get killed." We'll assume that's a shoutout to Annihilation.
Surprisingly, Boon says there has been talk with Disney and/or Marvel Entertainment with regards to a Marvel versus DC video game! A majority 45% of 117,286 fans polled on Twitter chose the concept as their preferred crossover game, beating out the long sought after MK vs Street Fighter, and horror movie mash-up. These types of crossovers are common for DC Comics, but it's now been fifteen years since the last time the two comic book companies played nice for JLA/Avengers. Even so, Warner Bros has handled the Marvel license in video games, publishing the popular Lego series.
If you've desired something different from the developer - all hope is not lost. Boon puts the desire to work on a new IP at a 9.6/10! He discussed an interest in exploring new persistent online gameplay: "There's something about persistence and, like, how we'd deal with somebody, y'know - turning off the game, going to sleep, you know. I'd love to have something where you have to hide -- hide your body.somewhere while you're not playing, and if somebody finds it, they loot it, or kill you, or something, like that. Something where you're nervous to not play the game for too long." An interesting concept, if a slightly terrifying glimpse into the future of capitalism and gaming.
An HD Shaolin Monks elicited a strong "I wish" from the developer, who thinks that'd be awesome. It remains a possibility requiring coordination. He was also a fan of Armageddon's Motor Kombat kart racing mini-game, describing a belief that dedicated development could've produced a satisfying release. He floats the prospect of a mobile release -- a good choice!
It's unlikely, but not impossible, that the developer will ever revisit a three-dimensional fighting plane, ala Deadly Alliance. Likewise, there have never been any serious considerations to take the series into the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) genre. As we know, there have been serious attempts to explore a new game using live-action digitized sprites, but Boon isn't convinced it would endure as more than a week-long novelty. It's hard to argue.
The evasively titled Mortal Kombat X is now the highest selling title in the series' history, reacking up an estimated 11 million units sold! That's a lazy 6 million more than the Wall Street Journal's report, in 2015! Surprisingly, the team never seriously considered any title other than Mortal Kombat 11.
Watch the full video interview on Gameinformer and discuss all the talking points on the appropriatley named forum!
