No.



Good for you.

I will say that the method for representing the story in the new "story-mode" inhibits a bunch of information and shortcuts are forced to be made. Which sucks.

For instance they have a linear story mode, (only moves forward in time) yet limits you to one character for a certain segment of time. While you are this one character they are forced to show you side things happening from that characters view point.

It is not so much the writer's sucking, as it is the method of telling the story is limiting and stupid.

I hated the mk9 story, not for what it was, but for the method. They could have used a much less restraining story-mode.

My one hope is that since MKX is a brand NEW story they will write it to fit the method. Rather than taking 3 games worth of story that was told in certain way and cramming it into 1 story mode of a completely different fashion.

I'm sorry, I was under the impression that this was a discussion forum.

Apparently that was my mistake and I apologize. Carry on.



I feel like I've seen an interview where they already confirmed it'll be the "same character for four fights" Chapters system again, but I could be wrong about that.

Still better than the crap DC has shovelled out for the last decade...

I dunno, I would say DC only started to suck about HALF a decade ago.

I mean Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run, one of the industry high points, started in 2005.

Oh I am not denying that there are critically acclaimed stops. Overall, DC is ran by Arkham asylum, not sure wether by the inmates or the staff, but neither are sane.

Death of the family left me cold and bored.

I have heard that interview as well. That is what I am saying, it will be the same as mk9.

I just hope this time that since the story will be completely new and won't have to rely on past material they can cater the story to fit the mk9 model.

I think the main reason the mk9 story missed so much detail is because the story telling method varied so greatly from the original way of telling it in mk1-3.



..but who knows maybe the mk9 story-mode type is just destined for bad story telling.

Apology accepted.

In all seriousness, though, I know that if I cite specfic examples, you'll just come back with more counter-examples, and then I'll try to pick apart your counter-examples while providing new counter-counter-examples, and bleh. That's just exhausting, especially when I know that neither of us is going to alter the other's opinion.

You clearly feel the MK writers aren't capable of writing a good story that has shades of gray. Cool, good for you. Personally, I believe you're expecting too much. We're not going to get Shakespeare, GoT's, ect. We're going to get a story good enough to advance a fighting game and keep us mildly entertained. It is MK, afterall, so I'll be happy either way. Even if it's total shit, I'll still get to see the MK universe advance into unknown territory.

So, do I expect the MK writers to churn out a masterpiece story? Nope, but then again, that really is an unrealistic expectation and it's unfair to criticize the writers when they don't meet it. If you're looking for something deep and profound, with every character multifaceted and uber-complex, you may be following the wrong franchise.

However, do I have faith that the writers, limited as you feel they are, can show moral ambiguity? Well, I already answered that, obviously.

Fact is, Razor, I'd rather not get into it with you over something as trivial as the competency of the writers. And yes, while this is a discussion board, some discussions all too often devolve into senseless arguments (this likely would have been one). So,at least for today, it's just better to answer your question (Do you have really believe these writers can portray moral ambiguity? Yes) and decline to elaborate further (Can you cite examples? No).

Besides, I've seen the *Sausage* thread. Looks like you have enough on your plate as it is.

I don't know why anyone ever uses the "it's not Shakespeare", "it's not Citizen Kane", etc. argument. I feel like there's a technical term for that kind of debate fallacy but I don't know what it is.

Nobody was ever expecting Oscar-Bait, they were just expecting something that matched the depth of MK2 and 3. And if being optimistic, one might hope as high as Deadly Alliance's quality level.

Those are not unreasonable expectations. The very writers who work for NRS right now are the ones who set the bar so high in the first place.

But those writers either lost their touch or became supervisors while someone new does the plotting now.

Injustice did show improvement in that characters like Lantern, Arrow, Aquaman, etc. didn't stop getting lines and stuff to do when their chapters were over like Sonya, Smoke, and co. did in MK9...but there's still no indication that they care for giving development to villains and neutrality since the limited format of modern Story Modes requires the plot to be as linear as possible and avoid sideplots or giving focus to characters that don't keep the main story chugging along.

Oh I can always make time to talk about writing/storytelling.

Cool story, Razor.

Like I said, no one here is going change anyone's mind, fallacy or no fallacy. As a writer myself, I think the folks over at NRS are doing a fine job, and will do a fine job with MKX. Do they make mistakes? Yes. Are there parts of MK9 and Injustice's story that I don't like and felt were *off* or strange? You bet. But in the end, I feel that both stories were more than adequate and succeeded, at the very least, in entertaining me. And that's really all that matters to me, personally; do I enjoy the story. If yes, then the writers over at NRS have done their job.

Anyway, on topic, I'd love to see a stern protector of Earthrealm who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Bi-Han could easily be that protector, and I think NRS can pull it off.

I never tire from telling how awesome you are, I guess.
Keep on going. You one of the few people here, who actually now what logic and rationality is. In this dark ages it means a lot!!

MK had only two really-really good stories MKM and MKDA. Everything before MKM was really basic. Everything after (except for MKDA) was mediocre to average to outright bad.

MK9 is good. It's not on par with MKDA, obviously, but clearly much better than MKD and MKA. Especially MKD. It was a mess. I'd take bad characterisations and questionable retcons anyday rather than horrible segmented story, where most of the characters doesn't serve any purpose and general story is such a mess, that it is easier to forget about it alltogether rather then trying to figure out what part is the canon, which part is not and which part "kind of canon, but not exactly". Brrrrrr....

Tempting idea. Though I think it would have been better as some sort of secret variations. Because from storyline reasons, they doesn't make much sense, honestly. Unless Noob is somehow merged with Kano at some point. Though it would've been interesting turn of events. Come to think of it: we had Liu Kang in Kano's body in MKDA. Now it could be Kano-Saibot...Sorry, I running ahead of myself with speculations.

If I recall correctly, Boon mentioned in one of his tweets that story mode is going to be way different and far better in comparison to MK9. Now, I interpret "way different" as in no more character chapters containing four fights each and only limited to the "good" side characters.

I am not a writer so I can't and won't go into the details of storytelling, but there are some basic principles they should keep in mind. If they want to make this story work, get rid of the linear character chapter storytelling. It is confirmed that the story will move back and forth in time which is a step in the right direction if done right. It would be nice to have the character fights mixed throughout the entire story as oppossed to all at once in a single chapter. The next thing would be to give EACH character in the main roster significance to the story. Don't make characters mere opponents/punching bags for the protagonists. This ruined Reptile, Baraka, Goro, Kintaro, and Noob among others.

DeathScepter Wrote:
It would be interested if they did a shout out to the "changing" forms(pallete swaps of characters) in Original Time Line with Noob Saibot. So a Variation might be inspired by Kano, Scorpion and Sub Zero. Should Noob Saibot have ties to Outworld and the Netherrealm(reference I do think it was a gameboy stated that his "realms" were Outworld/Netherrealm)? IF I am not pulling that reference out of my ass, of course.
Tempting idea. Though I think it would have been better as some sort of secret variations. Because from storyline reasons, they doesn't make much sense, honestly. Unless Noob is somehow merged with Kano at some point. Though it would've been interesting turn of events. Come to think of it: we had Liu Kang in Kano's body in MKDA. Now it could be Kano-Saibot...Sorry, I running ahead of myself with speculations.




Well I am borrowing some of Jerrod's ideas from many years ago. For example, that Noob can have an encounter with all 3 of them at one point and either "shadow" their abilities by observing or linking up with them.


Side note: In MKConquest, Noob Saibot was an Outworld warrior that has an ability to link to a warrior like a shadow. Him and One of the leads fought in a shadowy cave in that same episode.

Thank you. I appreciate that, a lot.

I remember something like that.
But back then Noob was pretty much a blank state and anyone could do with him whatever they pleased. In Malibu comics he was a good guy. In MK Anihhilation he somehow was spawned by Ermac.

NRS has make it a habit to borrow some elements from another MK media into the main storyline, so it would have been interesting, if they did the same with some of the Noob characteristics from MKC.

nm

Said points are indeed fuel for said argument, and I have brought them up before, however it's important to remember that the MKA endings, by and large, are terribly written and often ludicrous, and IIRC you can consider the 'Noob' Shujinko fights a generic brotherhood of shadow member. If the Parralax theory holds true you can bet they'll just say Shinnok grafted one of those on or something.

At the end of the day, Bi-Han is currently considered to have been simply transformed into Noob (who, remember, is happy enough to suggest that that his true nature's been brought out). If they change that specifically to say that he was never simply transformed, but "fused with a demon/brotherhood member"...yeah, it's a kind of retcon, albeit a minor one.

NOTE: I don't condone or approve of the Parralax theory. I'm just putting it out there because I feel it'll be a likely scenario if the current Sub turns out to be Bi-Han. The Noob identity is just too popular to vanish entirely.

I agree with you that the parallax theory will most likely happen considering Noob's popularity.

However the current cannon (that Bi Han became Noob in the afterlife) could still hold true in the parallax theory.

See, the soulnado is the "wildcard" (if you will). NRS can use it to make anything possible considering it is a fictional thing and we are all waiting for an answer as to what happened to Noob.

The Soulnado could simply rip Bi Han into the two parts that comprise himself. The side of him that embraced humanity and the part of him that embraced power.

That way Noob was not a fusion with Bi Han after Bi Han's death; rather Noob was a fission with Bi Han after the events of the soulnado.
EDIT:If I might add:
Noob has always been a physical incarnation of Bi Han's greed for power. He is the personified "dark" side of Bi Han. So it is not out of the realm of possibilities (for a video game) that Noob and Bi Han disconnect into two personified versions of one being.

Except it is not truly a retcon.

The community currently considers that Bi-Han was simply transformed into Noob, that is true, but it is an assumption based on the lack of explanation for such a transformation. An assumption that is made because there is not enough evidence in the games to truly justify it being otherwise (Because, as you pointed out, the MKA endings and MKD's Konquest have not enough...credibility?). But, as much as stating Noob is actually "possessing" Bi Han would really change the perception the community has of him, such an statement would only add information about an event we knew nothing of, it wouldn't change or contradict anything said in the games before and thus, it would not be a retcon.


Still, we are discussing just a technicality. But I do hope they go this route because that would mean that, even if Noob is not in MKX, he would not be lost forever.

I wouldn't call it an assumption, his Deception ending certainly describes him transforming on his own based on his true nature.

"Noob Saibot was surprised to see how much stronger his brother had become. If he were still Lin Kuei, still human, he would probably have shown some degree of pride. But, as Raiden had revealed during the ordeal with Shinnok's Amulet, his soul had been tainted when he died at the hand of Scorpion. Noob Saibot, the original Sub-Zero, had descended into the Netherrealm free from compassion. He ordered Smoke to assist him in slaying his brother - his first act as ruler of the Netherrealm."
Oh, also, from Ashrah's ending:
"Noob Saibot was not originally a demon, which might explain why Ashrah sensed such great evil in him: He had to earn his place in the Netherrealm. He actually desired to remain there."

Then there was a retcon during MK9:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfUO-FRO-gE

6:55 minute mark

Noob Saibot: "Yes Kuai Liang, it is I. Quan Chi restored me"

I don't know about all of this parallax stuff but I think it would be cool if the Soulnado tore the evil within Bi-han out, making him regular Bi-Han again but without that little bit of evil within him, and then the evil that was tore out, manifests into its own being, which would be Noob Saibot.

It would be SIMILAR to Kami and King Piccolo from Dragon Ball. Kami wanted to be the guardian of the Earth, but couldn't because he had evil within him, so he removed that evil completely, but that evil became its own being, Demon King Piccolo.

That's a valid observation, but it doesn't answer the question of whether or not Quan did something to possess him or actively change his personality, or if his demon form is just his INNER evil coming to the fore because his compassion is gone.
Nor does it change the fact that he was a douche before he died, that's the entire reason he went to Hell in the first place. Hell is the NATURAL destination for the souls of unrepentant sinners.
The guy above me just compared him to a Dragonball character. To illustrate my own point, I don't know if any of you watch the show Supernatural, and this is a spoiler if you do because it just aired yesterday, but I would compare Noob Saibot to

Double post

That was always what I thought, I thought when he died and was reborn/resurrected in the NR that the evil within him surfaced for some reason and became dominate, which created Noob Saibot.