Baraka407 Wrote:
As far as new characters versus 3D era characters is concerned, I see a few issues.
For one, NRS rebooted their whole story. So in order to bring 3D era characters in now that appear post MK4 and have no ties to Shinnok, they'll have to use some creative storytelling.
This isn't the case for all characters, but certainly some. Li Mei, Bo Rai Cho, Mavado and Hsu Hao enter the fray because of a deadly alliance that never occurs since Shang Tsung's dead.
Reptile and Nitara never meet because he never goes to inform on the deadly alliance to Shao Khan because there is no deadly alliance and Shao Khan's dead. Nitara wouldn't show him Kitana's resistance base because Kitana's dead. In short, she has nothing Reptile wants.
He doesn't fight Cyrax and destroy his arm panel. Cyrax doesn't pull the orb from the lava because they're not there. Reptile doesn't chase them there, no beam of light, no Dragon King.
No Dragon King, no Hotaru, no Havik. Going down another path, no Sub Zero reforming the Lin Kuei because he's dead (no idea who the guy in the video is), no Frost. No Kabal, no Kira and Kobra.
Now... I know that stories can be reworked. Events that happened in the new timeline can create other events that can necessitate these characters.
All I'm saying, is that it would likely be easier to create new characters with new stories that work with what they're trying to do with their main through line, than rework existing characters' existing stories to fit the new through line.
The other issue is that with new characters, they'd be starting with a blank slate. They can look any way NRS wants and as previously mentioned, have any story that NRS wants or needs to help with the narrative of the new timeline.
Existing 3D era characters, in contrast, are seen by many fans, especially casuals, and in some cases openly by Boon as well as being flawed in one or several facets.
Maybe it's their appearance or their moves or their story or maybe it's a combination of two or all three of these.
As an example, Mavado has a cool look, but many fans hated his moves, having Kabal's hook swords and some didn't like the whole Black Dragon / Red Dragon story.
But everyone has characters that they feel are deserving of a second chance and characters they'd rather never see again (or would at least need huge changes in order to want to see again).
The issue here is would NRS rather have a blank slate and a chance to build something cool from the ground up, or would they rather take a character that's flawed in some way or many ways that even they might not like and somehow find a way to fix them, appearance, moves etc and THEN reconfigure their background and story to shoehorn them in to this game?
I'm not saying throw the 3D era characters away. Really, I'm not. I used Mavado as an example because he's one of my favorite 3D era characters and I still think that he has massive potential.
All I'm saying is that I find fault in this idea that NRS would be better off using these characters as opposed to new characters or that they deserve a second chance or that NRS should try to fix them before adding more.
Story-wise, maybe NRS reworked the timeline to kinda permanently flush some of these character out of the MK universe and end any obligation to try and improve upon these designs? Maybe going forward with new designs instead of trying to rework what they might see as flawed designs is more appealing to them?
Just thinking out loud here. I know that some will hate these ideas, and I certainly do too. I still want to know what happens to Drahmin. I still think that some have potential.
But if this is the way NRS chooses to go, and they have created cover enough to go that route, then sure. Use the larger team, the time, the assets etc to make new characters. Two, five, ten, whatever. But they'd better be damn good if 3D era characters are to be left in the dust.
Fantastic points. This is actually a great argument for fresh new characters. I do think many of the 3D era characters need another shot, but I can definitely understand why it might be easier to go with brand new characters.
That said I'm still not wanting too many of them in this game.
