Alright, I don't post often... only when something is really on my mind. After my own experiences with the game, I can't really sit silent this time though. So here I go...

/rant on

After picking up the game yesterday, I tossed it in and started playing, and since scorpion was in the first spot, I decided to start with him. After about 10 minutes of playing I was thinking to myself, "You know, the gameplay is actually better this time. Maybe midway did good..." Then I beat Blaze and saw scorp's ending...

All I could think is "WTF?!? Nah that can't be right!"

So instead of continuing to play arcade, I went over to Konquest. As it started I said to myself, " Hey, now this is better... actual story." Yes. Actual story... in all its horrible glory. "Wait! Onaga is allying with Shang and Quan? He killed them last game! Kahn too! Oh god." Taven wasn't even a good hero. He didn't go on any quest, he was just as bad a Daegon just in a different way. He abandoned the quest his parents gave him to seek vengence. Who though that sounded good? At least Daegon was still going after Blaze! In the end, it was an "oh yeah! that is what I was supposed to be doing!" moment and then his kata ending. I was waiting on baited breath.... for nothing!

I honestly don't know what Boon and co. were thinking. Even the Trading card bios were just recycled.

I honestly do not know what happened. I really liked the story from MKDA and MKD. I enjoyed Onaga in his badass goodness, even if shujinko was a flop. I was looking forward to a continuation of the story and I was horribly disappointed. MK has become too much about the trimmings. Motor Kombat?! Who cares! At least Konquest tries to tell a story. It tries to be relevant. It just fails. Better to try and fail i guess.

Since completing konquest I have been doing the one thing I can think of to salvage a game with a decent fighting but horrible story... KAF. I have been creating my own MK Fighters, with my own stories and endings for them. At least I can pretend the game had a good story this way....

All in all, I can only express the amount of my disappointment in one way... instead of playing tonight, i am going to go watch MK Annihilation. Even it has a better plot than this garbage.

/rant off

Maybe it's my seething hatred of bastardized videogame movies, maybe it's too early to wrap my head around the lameness of MKA's plot, maybe I'm still thinking "Wow, 60 characters? I bet at least one of them has an ending that doesn't suck!", but Armageddon's plot is still better than Annihilation.

Of course, that's like saying getting shot in the head is better than in the heart because at least you don't have to slowly fade into oblivion as you hemorage out.

I know the endings this go around suck, but I hope that with the next-gen games they can make better videos for the endings. Something like releasing the endings for download (like on the Xbox Marketplace) maybe a month or so after the games release. That way a big video ending for every character wouldn't take so much space and the excess can be put into the game.

I wouldn't be able to speak to the MK Team at Fight Night because of how it's handled and to be honest I'd probbaly have a go at them and they wouldn't like it.

And Soul Calibur is imo the best fighter out there. SC3, but moreso SC2 imo are brilliant games.They are quality buys and have a brilliant fighting engine and MK doesn't even come close to them and it's a great shame.

MKA in presentation should have been alot better than it is, but no we got trash. Sadly this seems to be the way of MK now.



I agree with all this as it pretty much goes for me as well. The story for me in MK was probably the biggest reason I play MK next to the characters and for them to do what they've done is unforgiveable.

As ever, bro, you made a great post. I agree with it all It sucks to see the story die like this.



Thanks, dude.

Sub's ending was one I didn't get to mention. I remember reading it before and laughing because the Elder Gods send their men to kill Sub-Zero. It sounds like the Lin Kuei saga all over again and the best bit is we know for sure none of the Elder Gods champs would be able to touch Sub-Zero, let alone kill him. What a wasted and crap story.

i'm sorry you and eveyrone else are having to read all this nonsense. I still can't believe this is all for real.



Knowing that pisses me off even further.

Oh I see. So we have to say please? I don't think there was anyone around before MK1 that said 'Please can we have a good story?' but we got that surprisingly. We in no way should be having to say please when it comes to the story or any other aspect of MK as a whole. Why? Because they should be delivering a quality product regardless. Time and care should be spent on every aspect to ensure that the fans get a quality product they can be pleased with. There'd be far less complaints then and I for one wouldn't have made this thread if the story had of seen some of this time and care. Given that, you need to ease up off of Chrome as you're being out of order as far as I see it.

It's a sad day indeed if we have to ask for a decent story and product though we have put forward many ways of improving the storylines or advancing them and this has been done all for nothing.

You as an MK fan need to open your eyes and see the truth.



No problem dude.

It would seem the game was made just to make a quick buck as you put it. There's nothing else there to say otherwise. they just disguised the tragedy with the whole 'every character returning' and 'ending this generation of MK' nonsense.

Midway essentially are at fault, but so are the MK Team as a whole. People keep tellign me that Vogel does care about the story, but why would he write something as shockingly bad as the stuff we got in MKA? That's not care. Just by reading the stories and endings you can tell there's no creativity in any of them.

I dread to see the next generation stories after MKA. I really am appalled and disappointed.



People have and what we got for that was a sub par wake up game and a parry. The joy!!! Yet apparently infinites have been discovered within a day of release. Some good the good the complaining did, eh?



Sad, but true...

Im re-posting this here---and adding more, as I didnt see Tgrant's request until after I posted in the Ending thread.

Wow...this is what happens when you create so many pointless characters at the cost of classic character's development. Now we have 62 fighters with a billion different stories. Not only that, but if they do decide to 'kill' off several characters---theyll be looking at the stale ones...and those stale ones are only like that because they were pushed aside for the Jareks, Frosts, and Drahmins of the world. Even if they dont get 'killed off' for being stale, half of them are losing popularity. (Cyrax being a great example of losing popularity and high tier status [notice how bitter ive been regarding Cyrax the last few days?]...Sonya, Cage, Kitana being great examples of just getting stale).

I think after MK3, they should of worked on developing those characters more, with a few new ones here and there. They went overboard in MK4 and Deadily Alliance. Theres already proof when Stryker, Sheeva, Sektor, Smoke, Motaro, and Kabal were all neglected immediately after MK3. Instead of developing them further, they opt to create Shinnok, Kai, Fujin, Frost, Mavado, Drahmin, Li Mei, Bo Rai Cho, etc. Really, of all the new ones since MK3, id think only Quan Chi, Fujin, Mavado, and Kenshi could be useful under MK circumstances. Maybe Reiko. If you're a fan of the pointless Frost, Jarek, Drahmin, etc. then I apologize, but im being unbiased here. (except for Cyrax, which im still annoyed about...)

Midway created a monster. Reading those endings, they sound more confused then we are. I dont have the game yet, and im not saying its bad. Hell, I dont even consider this bitching...its just discussion in my book. Bottomline is, they once again lied to us. They said the stories would be tied up, and instead theyre more loose than Britney Spears'---ugh, yeah.

Id imagine next generation we'll see even more new characters, and eventually the classic ones will return (they always do)...its good they listen to fans, but seriously. MK3 was the stepping stone they needed. The big chunk of characters they introduced there were needed at the time. They really need to just go with 2-4 new characters a game from now. At least Kabal, Cyrax, Sektor, Smoke, Baraka, and Kung Lao added something on their debuts. They all had something that seperated them, and created personalities for them. Kabal was the fast guy with the freak face. Cyrax was robot shark that had the net. Sektor was the heartless badass. Kung Lao was the hat guy. Baraka the aggressive blades guy. Hell, Stryker was the comedy act---but what made him pathetic was that he was unintentionally pathetic. They all added something personality wise, and gameplay wise. In regards to Stryker, Mokap and Bo Rai Cho are forced, and are just immature and pointless. Now its rinse and repeat.

What did Frost add? Jarek? Whats Shinnok been doing recently? Li Mei? Drahmin? They just exist, pretty much.

I cant say I hate the KAF yet, but I will definitely prefer the old school instead. Part of it is the reward feeling. Part of it is the eye candy. Part of it is sheer entertainment. The most important part of it was, and I feel no matter what---automatically makes the KAF feature feel like a failure---is that there was seperation in personalities. Every character's fatality had their unique stamp on it. Now everyone is the same. Fireballs do the same thing, just come in different colors. Kicks are kicks. Swords and Pulse Blades arent much of a difference except to the eye. The fatalities was what did it. Thats what made the characters loveable...now it just doesnt feel right, and I dont even have the game yet.

I realize my post is large, and probably wont be read by many, but I do appreciate allowing me to vent. Gotta be cautious as so many people here seem to take it as 'the sky is falling' instead of just being a discussion.

While I'm late to the party, and disagree with some of the specifics of the initial post, I just want to throw my name in among the disappointed.

The undeniable point is that this is allegedly the end of this era of Mortal Kombat and it's characters, and this was an incredibly unfortunate way to see them off. Thoroughly disappointing, and perhaps one of the greatest marks of laziness on the MK team's long record.

What potentially could have been the ultimate Mortal Kombat has instead fizzled out. Bittersweet because of the potential therein, and the positives, but overshadowed by the easy mistakes so regularly made.

Not sure if I want to buy, or more to the point, continue to buy Mortal Kombat games into the future. Dramatic, but as elements of each of the new wave games have climbed to new heights, others have gone to new lows.

It's just disappointing.

fuck u. and who buys a game for the story.

Tgrant, I agree with you 100%.

I just have the slight hope that there are hidden bios and a canon video ending hidden somewhere.

Ok, I'll add my 2cents:

Mortal Kombat's story has always been followed by almost all fans because it was something very entertaining to read, and also was written with care and consistency.

We like to imagine that, when we are playing the game, the fighters are not just fighting because they are brainless people and don't know how to solve problems talking... we like to think they are fighting for their lives and there is a real motivation for them to crush their enemies.

Why can't we follow the Mortal Kombat series because of its great plot AND its great gameplay and fun? Why limit it just to the gameplay?

Videogames is an art that depends on 2 things: the story (because videogames are very similar to movies these days) and the game itself (the most important part of the game).

Unfortunately, from what I saw from MK Shaolin Monks and the bits I'm seeing from MK Armageddon, they are trying to place the story in the lowest level of importance, and that is a great mistake. Did you think that people awaited a MK4 sequel for 5 years (1997-2002) because of the "great" game MK4 was? NO WAY...


I don't want to sound pesimistic, but it was said that MK8 will start from scratch in terms of gameplay, characters and stories.

Killing the present storyline this way, just for the sake of having a new one is a very risky move... have you forgotten Street Fighter 3?

And how many SF games have been released after the "all new" SF3?
You get my point.

I do, apparently, and in a competitive market, It's just disappointing that so many simple things seem to have been skimmed over here.

We all vote with our wallets, and basically, I'm not sure Mortal Kombat has my vote.

hey hey hey. you guys suck. ive finished arcade with like 30 people and i think one of them might have had an almost good ending. i forgot cuz they DONT SAVE THE ENDINGS. game play 10/10 endings and storyline -5/10

I have yet to play the game because my Pre-Order import from Barnes and Noble has been delayed for a month because they turned round and said they were out of stock (This dispite that they whole point of pre-ordering it was that a copy would be reserved under my name, but thats a rant for another topic!)

However I have been reading this thread and others that discuss the story, as I've never really been too fused about being spoilt on whats going to happen. I can still enjoy playing/watching something even after I have been given the jist of it.

I have to say that I, like a lot of people on this thread, am dissapointed, and actaully border line angry how botched up the story is.

I'm a sucker for a good story, and thats one of the reasons I am a big MK fan in the first place. I really can not put my finger on what has caused the story in this latest installment to go so horribly wrong. Many on here have offered their opinions on the cause, and I get the feeling it a bit of all of them.

All I feel like doing now is......

"Jumping up and down!"
"Mr Boon! I just found out that there is a Midway office in Team Vally, Gateshead which is not that far away from where I live in Durham."

"Please can I be employed as an Idea Man, and Story/Script writer?"

I don't want to seem like I am totally dissing Vogel here. I know some folk say that MK took a nosedive after Tobias went, but to be fair I think Vogel and his team of story writers did a great job with DA and D story wise.

I think the main problem with Vogel story writing is that its not his main job on the team. First and foremost, he is one of the lead programmers. I know the human brain is a remarkable thing, but I wonder if it is too much for him to maintain his knowledge and add more to the MK story, as well as cope with all that number crunching with programming games.

I'm not just some guy who think he can do major story lines just he's done a few fan fiction stories, that got praise from maybe 10 other members of the fiction site.

But I do feel somewhat frustrated with my drama background, that I currently, on the odd occasion do performence work in front of a paying public, and a NCFE Using Video qualification, which covered basic scripting, storyboarding, pre and post production methods, that its all going to waste just being an IT Support technician (who is currently out of that sort of work to make matters worse!), and right now can't do anything to try and help a story that has been a major part of my teenage and young adult life, from falling tottally on its face.

Damn, I need a drink!

Very true, but always that I see the storyline (bios and endings) of Tekken 5, that are more ridiculous, contradictory and absurd than MKAr, but still is the "best fighting game in this era", I question myself is really a good storyline is important in the fighting games...

Maybe it's true, if I want to see a great story with a lot of blood, it's better to see Sin City comics rather than play MK games...

If MKA turns out to be another glitchfest gameplay-wise over the coming month, I'm not buying it at all. The endings I read here are oh so fucking painful, embarrassing beyond belief.

I've seen fan projects here (including my own) with storylines 50x better than what Vogel and co came up with, and we're not even paid to do it. It's becoming obvious to me that this game is not made for "the fans" at all.

I'm teetering on the edge of leaving MK forever. Just waiting now how the gameplay will turn out...

After meditate some minutes about the endings... I think that Vogel is a genius, and none other but him can "catch" my feelings about what is the true significance of "Mortal Kombat"...

In few weeks, I will post my conclusions, when I see all endings, complete the Konquest and collect some "extra info"... well, maybe I give to him more credit than reserves, but if I'm right, my expectations about MK8 will be more higher than ever (with a complete new story or a new chapter in this saga...)

I've already posted on this thread, but I got some more to say. I've been sitting here thinking about this for the past 3 days straight constantly I havent slept since tuesday night and I cant stop thinking about this tragedy. The one thing I think Boon and co. should have done that would have probably made this game OK, not absolutely amazing, but OK. That would be to just keep the deception story, dont change anything really, just keep Onaga as the boss, keep the whole Kamidogu the same Konquest and everything. I think putting in the 62 characters could still work with the Deception story you know? They could just put in the newer added characters to the Shujinko Konquest story, I mean Jesus Christ he already meets everybody thats pretty much ever been in MK, they could add a few more and learn there moves and their story and it could still be canon to Deceptions plot. And Honestly, to me MK Deception had more of an "Armageddon" or "End of Days" type feel to it than MKA did. At least everybody was scared shitless that Onaga was gonna get the Kamidogu and bring The One Being back wchih would end all of our existence, that felt more like Armageddon than a bunch of power hungry fighters runnin up a pyramid for the power of a God or what not. How is that "End of Days" lol how is it the end of the world? I think this game should have been exactly how Trilogy was to MK3, the same story it just brought in all the characters and made their story coinside with the story of MK3, it was a perfect way of bringing them all in. They could have called MKDeception Final Battle, or something cool you know, hell they already got MK Deception Unchained, they could have just used that game with more characters and released it on all the home systems as well. I would have been more pleased with that than this, even though its still all the same story and everything, we're pretty much getting all the same recycled characters and bios, so why not just keep the same entire story and plot? Thats what I would have done If I was Boon and co. just keep the Deception plot and add the rest of the characters and make their story coinside with Decption. I mean, Trilogy didnt really have a story, it was pretty much MK3 with a bunch of characters, and I think thats what they should have done. But, thats not what happened and I cant freakin stop being upset with this B.S. I just pray to god that the MKTeam seriosly hears all these true MK fans and totally takes the MK story from now on serious. Hopefully the next MK game will do exactly what Mk:DA did, and thats save the franchise, they've done it before, MkDa was my fav. Mk game, so hopefully they can do it again. Because I think MK has got pretty much one shot to fix this story, and if they repeat this disappointment with the next MK game, I will truly just give up and pour the dirt into the grave. Peace out guys, and thanks once again to Tgrant for making this thread. It would have been a good thread no matter who posted it, but since an MKO god posted it, it really lets everybody come out and say how they feel. If you wouldnt have done this, I really doubt there would be this many replies, but you never know, this game is pretty sad. Either way, I salute you and this thread is great! peace


-Shredder-

Ok After reading this entire thread (tgrant beat me to making this thread lol),
I agree with crow, tgrant, mos3ph, and several others. After buying this game, I can safely say that overhyped would be a ginormous (thats an actual word sadly enough) understatement for this game. Its far worse than overhyped. Regarding there being a closure to any character's storyline, Its not even close to a closure. Some of them are just plain ridiculous. Others made no damn sense at all. I'll make several examples of this point.



I would have to dub MKA the gigli of all the MK games (Gigli was that movie that had Ben Afleck, J'Lo, Al Pacino, and Christopher Walken and yet the movie sucked so hard that it was called the worst movie EVER) Sadly enough I have to compare an MK game to that movie. Also getting back to what I said about this game being overhyped being an understatement, I mean that this is a million times worse than overhyped. The storyline was just garbage. Also Meat's bio saying that he's a fun character that worked with shinnok. Wow anyone with no talent in storymaking could've came up with something far better than that for a bio and better than the storyline for this game.

http://www.mortalkombatonline.com/content/forum/showmessage.cds?id=86712&page;=28

Towards the bottom of the page is when things pick up. First thing you'll notice is that there aren't throw escapes (stupid, yes)... But yeah, I'm getting off topic. I'd definitely check that thread out.

Yeah, Vogel then see one amazing project, and say "damn, is really good" and put in the game. Later, the owner of this project say "Vogel copying my project" and denouces the MKTeam, and after the judgment, Midway comeback to the "red numbers" and bankruptcy. Congrats, you're the "One Being"...

Thanks for posting everyone.

It's good to see a majority of us agree on the matter. I was told by a friend that we should band together and send a letter to Midway, but such a thing probably wouldn't do any good. It's too late now for improvements, but perhaps it could bring a little hope for MK8.

It’s very clear you're not a fan of Scorpion, but this is ridiculous.

Storyline wise, he has been granted power beyond his imagine by the elder gods to slay Onaga.

Reality wise, the mk team is in charge. If the mk team wanted to make mokap stronger than all of the other characters put together, it will happen.


I agree the ending aren’t that great, but konquest is shaping up, I’m enjoying it.

Trust me, this is a very good idea... even Vogel think this "But I will say that if things don’t sit well with the MK fans about anything they need to let midway management know about it. I’m not dodging your question. I’m just making a suggestion." (Extract for a email from Vogel to another user in another forum)

Crappy storylines? In Mortal Kombat? No way!


Seriously though, this sounds pretty awesome. Like Shaq Fu x 50.

I gave up on this game making sense long ago. I currently view this as MK: Trilogy Part Deus.

While the new "Super-Unlockable" debate (the rumored 5 min. closure FMV) is now all the rage, I won't hold out hope. My money says it's just Scorpion's 3rd costume. Wow.

The simple fact that almost NO character has a pre-game bio tells you that, probably, this game is almost non-canon.

I'll admit, I am very disappointed in the storyline. Taven's quest was decent, and made a helluva lot more sense than Shunjinko's from MK:D, but it doesn't explain enough.

Shaolin Monks, I thought, was a fluke. A non-canon spin-off game in an alternate universe or something. But, this downward trend of story-writing has continued, giving nobody in this game proper motivation, and almost none of them closure. And isn't that what we all wanted? Closure.

I thought MK:DA and MK:D had good storylines. This doesn't come close. While this is the "funnest" MK I've played in a while, it doesn't work storywise, and so I will probably cease to think of the story as canon.

So, we are left with a lot of questions, aren't we? How did Kitana, Johnny, Jax, etc. escape Onaga's control? How is Reptile even around if he WAS Onaga? Why are the dead fighters back alive? What of the One Being? What of the Kamidogu? The ending of MK:D was not resolved, and neither is the beginning of this game. And if this Argus guy is the protector of Edenia, why the hell hasn't done anything since, I don't know, Shao Kahn ruled with a tyrannical fist for almost 10,000 years? *sigh*

MK8 will be fresh. Who returns, I assume, will answer the questions from MK:D AND MK:A... but I won't hold out hope.

What bugs me is how easy it could have been to make it coherent to MK:DA and more importantly MK:D. I mean there where some good endings in those games that could have been used to explain this far better.

i mean for example.

Scorpion deafeats the dragon King (that could have been cannon)

Ermac and liu kang free the minds of earth's warriors (that could have been cannon).

Havik takes the heart of Onaga and revives Shao kahn and from there in a bid to create even more chaos as that is his quest, he also revives Onaga so the two can start a war. This gives hiim even more idea's while im at it ill bring back quan chi and shang tsung to cause even more canage and so on until all 62 characters have returned from death assuming thats where they've been all they need now is motivation likely to come in the form of revenge now we have time to hear about taven and blaze and all that stuff.

Ok i admit thats pretty weak story telling but its also better than what ive read from midway and only took 10 minuites of my time if that.

Point is it wouldn't have taken a genius to come up with a good story to explain some of this and i just proved it cause im not a genius...yet.