That IS a lot of cleavage but at least her face is that of a good looking woman. Not exactly standard for MK females.

Agreed from what we can see her face has vastly improved but I still need a upclose shot to be 100% sure.

This thread had me in stitches, posters are in an uproar over excess cleavage and stiletto boots, all that’s left is for NRS to add an alternate S&M outfit and the mass kool aide drinking will ensue
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But seriously come on its just a game and we’ve already been though a MK era where Sonya was butch looking and heavily attired, it’s time for a change and if that results in losing her modest attire then so be it and let’s not forget Sonya was a lot younger in MK3, she was probably in her early twenties. Her outfit in this game is a step up and more appropriate than that rip able white/grey top she was wearing in MKVsDC.

That being said I do agree her look would be perfect if she was wearing a green top underneath but they should keep the heels as it’ll make the kicking and stomping more enjoyable. I think at this point Sonya fans are used to making compromises, hell I’m just glad they decided to include her in the game because for a while there I was dreading she would still be chained alongside Kano in Shao Khan's arena.

This is not to say she can't also look sexy. I don't really care if she looks like a total skank if she also looks like she is in the military. I don't understand how ANYONE can defend the heels. They look stupid and are completely impractical. I really have no qualms about the rest of the outfit. I understand why people would want her to have a shirt under the vest, but I could live without it.

Realism is boring as Mr boon said!!! I agree she is from the military and need to be more conservative but i love it! It shows a woman who looks badass and tough b*** who just wanna have sex with Jax lol *just kidding*. But still it shows a badass chick

Pretty much. Swap the heeled boots for flat combat boots and give her the beret and I'm happy. Am I the only one that actually liked her in the beret?

Ick. Not a fan of the beret on her. I was even less of a fan of the baseball hat in MK4. No headgear necessary for Sonya.

You know I must say I'm truly in AWE at how many pages this thread has gathered! Nothing but the BEST for The First Lady of MK!!!

If realism is so boring, why not give her three boobs, eight nipples and a beard.

If no one wants to buy realism then wtf have the last 30 pages been about?

That would be a Slaaneshi Keeper of Secrets. As awesome it might be, it would massacre the entire MK cast. No fun in that.

Problem is, realism is more versatile than stylized fantasy. Why? Simple: not bound pretentuous trends and stereotypes. The only thing that can restrict realism is functionality.

That is why the MK cast still pales to real life warrior cultures in both style, appeal, and yes, even brutality. MK for example would pale in comparison what the crusaders did with the populace of Jerusalem in the first crusade.

Everything is relative. Things are based on "the real", but are stylised and changed somewhat. When someone says "realism is boring", this implies that "too much realism" is boring. It doesn't mean that people want to see abstract shapes and white noise on their screen and hear whale noises coming out of the speakers. As stated many times before, fiction is a balance of reality and unreality. What's ideal depends on the observer.

It also depends on personal taste, and then arguments based on reality or unreality are used to promote the person's personal preferences.

The "realism is boring" argument is why we have four-armed creatures, centaurs, mutants, vampires, robots, demons, elementals, gods, and reptiles in MK. If I missed any, my bad, but I'm really tired from the ongoing weekend. Either way, the argument in itself is badly flawed.

Sonya is none of those. She is a human, and should look and dress (with some leeway as to tops and bottoms... not with shoes) the way her character dictates. I fail to understand how the MK team nails the appearance of nearly every male character in the series and manages to botch most of the females. I mean, come on, they put high heels on all of them. I think Kitana's look is fine apart from the heels. I can live with Sonya's look, minus the heels. Mileena's outfit doesn't to a lot for me because it's impractical, so the heels aren't the only issue there, but they're still significant. Am I supposed to brace myself to see Sheeva in high heels too? How about Sindel? Jade?

Listen, NRS - take a page out of Namco's playbook. Give us Tekken 5-esque customization options for each character so I don't have to put up with calling bullshit on half the fights in the game because one or both characters is parading around in high heels. I thought this was supposed to be a serious MK, and if you're putting heels on all your female characters, I can't take it seriously.

you guys are misplacing what i trying to say. Some complaining about her boots and say how she can fight with those. I trying to say realism is boring.!
she looks good with it

You guys need to stop bitching about how it's innappropriate for a special forces agent to be showing cleavage when in MK1-MK3 she looked like an aerobics instructor.

And in MK4 if you looked at her from the sides you could see boobs. this is just in reverse.

sonya should show cleavage. she's a confident woman ;)

So as long as she looks good, they can put her in anything they want?

I'll hold my breath for a g-string. stiletto heels and star stickers over her nipples.

You want realism so the game is believable. You want everything- including four armed creatures, centaurs, and mutants- to look at least a little real. That's why movies spend so much time and money on special effects so the unrealistic things come to life.

So you want the game to be fantastical, but with a realistic base. Why do you think Stryker wasn't popular in MK3? Because he wasn't believable. I mean, what riot officer would wear a stupid blue shirt and backward cap while fighting monsters and ninjas?

Lots of people wear backwards caps, the hat was fine.

Stryker didn't work because his bluescreen actor was a chubby guy with a goofy lookin' face. Stryker's supposed to be a worthy chosen protector of Earthrealm, not a patrolman on donut break.

So... anything ugly or everydayish is automatically bad?

So gar, MK3 Stryker is among my favourites.

Well you can like what you want, but I won't hold my breath for all the pudgy, out of shape ticket writers around the world to step out of their cruisers, wipe the powdered sugar off their uniforms, and start proving that they are in fact the world's greatest kung fu fighters.

No a truly confident woman wouldn't be so insecure with herself to think she needs to show clevage to gain stature amoung those around her. More to the point Sonya's confidence isn't what all this was about. A woman doesn't need to show clevage to show confidence, and in fact has the opposite effect. Confidence is going into a fight not giving a shit if your boobs are parked just right in your iddy biddy vest, its going into a fight dressed like an aerobics instructor because it gives you the best range of motion to defeat your opponent.

This is more or less what I'm trying to say. I want to be afraid to fight Goro, and I don't mean creating bullshit AI so that he fights cheap and I can't beat him. I want to believe that he could tear me up if I'm not playing the game soundly, but know that I can still win without having to play a style that I'm uncomfortable with or being cheap myself. The last few MK games have not had convincing boss fights, and I think with a return to the roots of what made the franchise successful, the team has to make a more concerted effort to ensure that the game is an immersing experience.

For the record, I didn't mind Stryker's costume in MK3 very much. I thought it could have been better, but it was passable for me. His MKA look was brilliant, however. Anyway, back on point. I could get nitpicky about Kitana's outfit, like the fact that I'd rather see her appearing slightly more covered up, but given the storyline in the earlier games, you can get away with the outfit they've given her, and so I think it's alright. It all comes back to the high heels though. I really can't stress enough how nonsensical it is that anyone would wear high heels in a fight. I get that it isn't realism to the letter. That's fine, I'm not asking for that. I'm asking for practicality, which is something I feel that every fan of this series should want.

Agreed on almost everything you said, but cops and riot patrol/ S.W.A.T. forces sometimes wear backwards caps see S.W.A.T. and/or Bad Boys for example. Cops aren't all lean and muscular but I agree that Stryker should be a bit leaner and muscular.

My point about Stryker was that he looked nothing like a SWAT leader. He looked more like a vigilante of sorts. Which is why he was unrealistic and unpopular. Although I personally have no real issues with the costume.

Both Mileena, Jade and Kitana have worn heeled boots since Deception in both their primary and secondary outfits, I havent been around here that long, but did people complain about those looks back then or not?

The female assassins, I can (sorta) look past wearing high heeled boots because it's become pretty standard in a lot of comic books and media is for women to fight in heels. A perfect example of that is Catwoman (obvious homage to MKvsDC ^.^) who only made the swap to flat boots again in 2001 after nearly 30 years of springing across rooftops and backflipping whilst wearing 6inch heels. A lot of NRS's artists would have grown up seeing the likes of this where kick ass fictional women do their jobs well whilst rocking a pair of heels, which is probably what inluences their designs so strongly.

It's just a pity that the original femme fatale of the series has fallen into that bracket and seemingly gone down the "sexy" road. Sonya never relied on being sexy, she relied on being tough. Her sex appeal was always that she never HAD to try be sexy, she just was, and the best thing about her was that she never relied on her good looks. She was quicker to knock you out with her fists than her cleavage. If anything, I'm more let down with how her design fails to reflect what I've grown to know about her character than I am about them heels. I thought Boon would have had more respect for her character than that.

I have no problem with the whole suspension of disbelief associated with women doing crazy agile gymnastic martial-arts shit wearing stiletto heels in a game. My preference for Sonya in flat combat boots was more for aesthetic preference than realism. It fits the concept of Sonya better in my opinion as I've sort of came to view Sonya as a female Guile in her later incarnations.

This image sums up this thread.

It's like an addiction; I want to stay away but I can't because there's something that keeps drawing me back into this thread.