The wait must be killing you

You would think so, but not really. lmao

I suppose can enjoy the voting and what not till, plus having a life helps ;)

If by life you mean playing video games and chatting on the interwebs at the same time, then yes it is a life. XD

Mortal Kombat took my life...

FATALITY!

Actually, MKO has taken my life. I've read through a third of the entries. Still so many to go!

Edit: @Crow: Are we going to get anymore eliminated character reviews tonight? I do look forward to them.

Did you read mines(Karundi)?




:D

I have a question... Somewhat unrelated to my character but still relevant to character design.

This MK is filled with barely dressed women(while DA-Armageddon saw several women being relatively covered in comparison... Tanya, Kira, Ashrah, etc... All wore clothes while only Mileena wore shoe laces and electrical tape), while most of the male characters are covered from head to toe.

MK has a following of female players and a surprisingly large gay male fan base(no word on lesbians, they'll have to get back to me)....

If a male character in k-a-k was presented in a fashion similar to Mileena, how would you react? I guess this question applies to if a character were introduced in the actual game as well... But less so.

I ask because I watched some silly tv show that had previously featured a female pole dancer who was talented and such, she was unanimously praised as being spectacular. A few weeks later a male pole dancer performed, being significantly better at what he does than her, like... Made her look completely amateur by comparison, but he was ridiculed and criticized for his performance.... I was reminded of something I saw on this forum(I think... Maybe somewhere else...), where one poster wrote that the women are supposed to be dressed the way they are, because they're women, while saying that any atypical male character(not butch/sexually objectified) was being shoved down their throat.

Since this competition exists outside the limited creative minds of the development team, I would think it is a breeding ground for different and out of the ordinary characters, both male and female.

I feel my character demonstrates a certain degree of blurring the lines between gender roles, and that was my goal with that aspect of her story. To exist beyond a certain one sidedness that exists in series' like this.

So... If you were presented with an effeminite and/or scantily clad male character, how would that affect your opinion of him? It's been established that more masculine women are generally accepted, so I do not ask that.

I think it's a matter of logistics as well as style, how exactly would you have a male wearing so little? With a woman it's easy, as our genitals can be hidden with any scrap of clothing or armour whatsoever, males are more.....packed in the area. So just curious what sort of thing you'd be considering.

In general, as many female gamers as there now are, character design will always aim sexy characters at males. The characters females are into in that way, don't necessarily need to be so undressed. Our brainmeats respond to different stimuli.

Indeed they do, but a it doesn't hurt. Though I have met many, many girls who enjoy drawing their favorite male characters in various states of undress...(And the females... especially the females.) They may prefer a little bit more imagining than boys. Still, I've also met many who are immediately drawn to male characters who are quite obviously portrayed sexually or wear little clothing.

By scantily clad, I do not mean wearing a thong with his wang hanging down his leg............. I mean relatively. That aside, the question also stands about a feminine male.

Well if you don't mean in just a small item of concealing clothing, they already have a few shirtless males.

And Goro is only wearing a pair of speedos isn't he?

Goro is not portrayed in the same light as say... Mileena, however. He's supposed to be an oozing pile of barbaric-dragon-man-musclery.

I think I'd like to place emphasis on the more effeminite quality(not that overexaggerated Japanese archetype) portion of my question.... Maybe....

I just think fighting games are so body concious, they are obviously showing a LOT of their characters physiques and anatomy, that it's extreme to actually show any true nudity. In other games I'd say it's fine.
I'm very much against censorship in all media, so I'd like to see more male nudity in games, sure. I just think it's a severe extreme to see it in a fighting game.

Not that I wouldn't certainly enjoy seeing some advanced dangling animations If I had the chance, of course.

Personally, I go back and forth on the matter frequently.

At times I'm disgusted by how exposed the women folk are, and other times I find myself saying "more power to em'..." and would encourage it even more... Partial nudity is a fickle mistress.

Though my original post came across very concerned with the cosmetics of the topic, I've edited it to reflect my intentions better. I'm not big on the "macho" thing, and find that men who are not absurdly masculine in this series get faced with stupidity such as "Smoke is gay because he got emotional over another man", and "Rain is gay because he is purple" ..... I know for a fact if my Annette's alter ego were in this game, he'd face "male dancer=gay", and if a character is actually by some off chance gay, he is accused fo being shoved down the throats of unwilling players.

I don't want to imply that a scantily clad man and a gay man must go hand in hand, but I think the aversion to both stems from the same thing.

Just to bring all of my babbling around to my original point:

While I haven't seen one yet, well, maybe one, not really sure, if you were to vote between a provocatively dressed or feminine male character and a more typical character, how would that affect your decision? (I'm also trying not to have this come across as argumentative or preachy... I just have an opinion and am interested in what others think of the topic)

I really like femenine male characters. The only character I like in Soul Caliber is a handsome, but very elegant swordsman in classical central European eveningwear.

I'd be quite alright with anything, really. I would find great difficulty in being offended by such things. Although plenty makes me groan with annoyance at how predictable things in games are. (lesbians, for a start. Lesbian characters are usually detestably bland characters put in solely to titilate, and usually have no other discernable character traits. )

Raphael? Only guy I play in that game.... For the exact things you listed, hahaha... Also because I adore rapiers. Though Setsuka is my boo in that series.....

Ah yes, lesbians. I despise the portrayal of lesbians in much of the entertainment industry... Despite the occasional good seed, they are not real women or characters, they are either eye candy(see "heterosexual") or some kind of home depot joke. I'm also slightly irked by the "Sonya's a lesbian" trend... Though I am not completely without a sense of humor about things like that.

I am also quite open minded with things of this nature if that wasn't apparent, I actually spend the vast majority of my time drawing naked people.............. Male, female, and everything in between.... Though I don't particularly like to get raunchy... I feel similarly about costumes that lack modesty. As long as they aren't too raunchy like... I don't know.... Teaching us that Mileena shaves her hoo hoo.

Come to think of it, I'm surprised there weren't very many characters in this k-a-k that pushed this particular boundary of gender roles, standards, etc... Usually fanfiction is sooo... Freaky deaky..... Maybe I'm just in the minority in the MK crowd or something, but I think the series should broaden its horizens.

So is Eternus' match next?

Yes.

@iheartxenomorphs: Haven't gotten to you yet. Soon, I promise

And for the next round I've got one of my favs fighting. Go Krustacean! Moonlantis is counting on you!

iv'e read all the characters that start with the letter a. still got alot more to read but will post of what i think of all the characters good and bad. here i go.

abyss - like the use of bones during combos. dont care for the fatalitys though. you have an interesting match taunt. not digging his alternate outfit.

adsler - like her fighting style. like the special move alabaster spear. the xray is not that great.. both fatalitys are unique in a good way. why restore the gods. why not take the power for herself.

ail - like primary outfit. not really caring for the victory pose. it would of been better if he embraced chaos instead of embracing both sides.

akari - enjoyed the ending. liked his alternate outfit.. liked the luminous sphere special. xray is kind of generic. his entrance is kind of cheesy.

akkro - liked the robotic leg. don't really care for his alternate attire. like the grab+missile to face special. xray is kinda boring. liked his match taunt.

alexandra - liked her fighting style. like the spear throw and sword spin special. her match taunt is to happy. didn't like the remorse in her ending.

annette - i liked that your character could communicate with spirts even though she eventually felt overburdened by it. i disliked the rapier but liked the use of the whip. liked the xray. don't care for her entrance. didn't care for her losing the spirit.

ataxia - like the chaos shield special. like victory pose. like aternate costume. don't like fatal 1.

aurore - like her alt outfit but don't care for her main attire. like 1,2,flip. match taunt is a bit generic. why relocate to new mexico in her ending.

i'll do more characters tomorrow while i read through them. not bashing characters just letting them know what i think of them the good and bad. so don't get mad get glad and gladware press acessories.

I decided to look up my character's opponent, Malice.

And what a swell opponent she is. If I don't make it, I'll be following this character to the end.

Erebus

Story

First, let me start by saying I like the concept in general. Characters connected to what I feel are good storylines in the "old timeline" are necessary going forward. Erebus' being a necromancer makes sense as well since Onaga commanded an army of undead (or later would, it's never totally clear they were always dead that I remember). There are some problems however, which damaged this character a bit in my eyes.

The first problem, and the most glaring in my opinion, is his powers. The ability to transfigure himself into three creatures is a bit much (touch on this more in the gameplay section). From a story perspective, the vampire is the biggest issue since that is a known race that dwells in current Outworld. Lycan seems a bit too cliche and I am always hesitant to see a werewolf included in Mortal Kombat, despite it being an obvious step from vampire. There is room for a lich in Mortal Kombat though I believe, and I would suggest you limit Erebus to that.

The latter parts of your biography contradict the canon somewhat, as Erebus is originally from Outworld and would therefore be unable to fight for Earthrealm despite him residing there. He's much like Bo Rai Cho in this regard; bound by his birthplace. You'll need to reword your biography to state he's only interested in sabotaging Outworld's chances of winning the tenth tournament, or set his entrance after the tenth tournament has already taken place.

I enjoyed the ending, except for the inclusion of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung which felt a little forced and unnecessarily elevated the strength of your character. Typically, I frown on using newfound power in endings to kill off handfuls of major, powerful characters. However, I do like the betrayal of Raiden and the thought of Erebus standing near a darkened portal as Onaga is resurrected. The description of that creates a nice mental picture of what that would look like graphically.

Gameplay

This is what I like to call a "busy" character. Erebus is simply too powerful, even for a sub-boss character this would be a bit too much going on. The various styles of combat within his many forms is a good idea, but as I said above I think you should limit it to one or the other, preferably the lich in my opinion. It assists in more than just toning down his character, but allows you to deepen the style rather than having three styles which for balance purposes would have to be pretty limited. My suggestion here would be to have Erebus have different styles from his human and lich self, as well as special moves specific for each form. I find this to be a more interesting approach as not only does it force your opponent to react differently to your style of combat, but also to remember what specials could be coming.

The use of zombies is fine (not to mention this perfectly fits with lich) in his standard specials and fatalities. Being a necromancer, Erebus should be more true to this and use specials/attacks that make sense. This is another reason why I selected lich from your three; the other two seem woefully out of place for a necromancer. I assume you wanted to make him unique, but there are other ways to go about that than overburdening him with transformations.

Appearance

A typical sounding appearance, which I cannot speak badly of since MK lacks such a character. You may want to think of some way to increase the originality of the design, perhaps focusing on his skull belt. You could perhaps do something interesting with these such as giving them individual identities; trapped souls of victims who have fallen to him over the years perhaps. His entrance is quite good and fitting with my other suggestions. His other taunts should be tweaked to fit this form as well.

3 Major Suggestions

-Tone him down. The transformations into too many creatures was what really hurt this character the most. Use Lich form; or if you'd prefer, one of the others, but not all three.

-Avoid falling into "that grim reaper guy" cliche. Do something that sets him apart from the norm.

-Give more detail about his past; go into detail with his history with Onaga. Maybe add something interesting in between his fleeing Outworld and present day rather than simply hiding out on Earth. What did he do there?

Guys... I have just got back from my holiday!

I find that my KAK hasn't fought yet so I am glad I haven't missed it.

But has everyone's KAK bio's been released yet? If anyone can link me to the page(s) I'd be grateful.

Thanks!

Herethey are.

Excellent thanks!

Being selfish here but did anyone read my KAK's bio? Shoulen. lol

I will now.

Read it. Very interesting and unique character and gameplay style. Reminds me a bit of Glacius.

Not too fond of his costumes, but they work for your character well.

Having the name of the character as the same for his species seems kinda odd the way you mentioned his people and then introduced Shoulen.

Overall, a well done character.

So when will match 5 take place, involving Eternus and Snake?