The Tether guys managed to capture this:

CASSIE CAGE

Her face definitely looks more feminine than it did at Gamescom, especially close up. Her eyes now have a little more makeup to them on the upper eyelids and her eyebrows are no longer so comically arched along with some softening to the planes of her face. A marked improvement, but her neck is still giraffe-like in this build.

We mentioned her face, hair and neck issues to Derek and he clarified that the team are aware and she is still being polished aesthetically as well as with her animations.

Universal Moves across all variations: Getaway Flip, Akimbo Shot and Glo-Kick.

Her EX Nut Kracker move (Hollywood variation) delivers two punches in a row and delivers a very generous stun time to the opponent. She drops to her knees and punches with both fists together.

You can instant-air her Air Akimbo special and they have excellent recovery frames.

Cassie's taunt (The American Way - Spec Ops variation) does not currently do anything at all at present. NRS have not yet determined its purpose.
If you tie in her Air Assault special after her Air Akimbo you can deal crazy air pressure to the opponent and essentially cage them in following on to the ground.

The Hollywood variation is definitely her strongest from what we dabbled with. We managed to string together some fantastic combos with her incorporating her Nut Kracker, combo string, Getaway Flip, a run, 2nd combo string, Air Akimbo, jump in punch, 3rd combo string and finishing with an EX Glo-Kick. Probably one of the easiest variations out of all characters at this point to pick up and be competent with.

Cassie will say “Suck on that!” after certain combos/moves.

As player 2, Cassie's costume is a yellowish-green colour.

FERRA/TORR

In the Lackey variation, Torr has a 'Torr Charge' special that looks and acts just like Bane's charge in Injustice. EX version adds armour and allows you to hold Torr in a stance until you're ready to unleash him.

Also in the Lackey variation is the 'Boulder Roll' and the 'Rising Torr' which are both incredibly fast.

We tried to unmask Torr with Scorpions Fatality but as the face begins to slide off, the cloth remains stuck to his face. It seems deliberate that they are obscuring his face. Are they keeping his identity under wraps or is he merely a nameless brute?

We performed Raiden's Fatality on Torr and both of his eyes popped out. His covered eye bursts through the cloth.

D'VORAH:

Universal Moves: Bug Blast, Ovipositor Rush, Spawn Puddle.

D'Vorah is Derek Kirtzic's firm favourite in this build and one of his favourite characters overall.

You can do a standing reset in her Venomous variation if you time her Acid Spray special right and you can get a 50/50 mix-up off of that too.
As player 2, D'Vorah's costume is purple.

KOTAL KAHN

Kotal Kahn's body markings will begin to brighten as you power him up using chain-combos after performing his Blood Offering special move.

NetherRealm Studios will be explaining his various Totems in Blood God along with his other variations in the coming weeks.

EX Sun Ray deals a little more damage to the opponent within its reach and heals Kotal Kahn marginally faster.

RAIDEN

In his ‘Master Of Storms’ variation, you can place static lightning traps above, in front and below where Raiden is standing.

In his ‘Master Of Storms’ variation, the static lightning traps will disappear after a set time if not connected.

It is possible to connect two lightning traps at full screen in the air if you're quick to navigate from one end of the stage to the other before they disappear.

The opponent can jump/walk through an unconnected lightning trap and not receive any damage.

You can connect lightning traps by performing an electrical special move at or towards them. His Lightning Blast and Lightning Projectile will enable the traps.
He does different poses during his mid-match victory pose depending on which variation you are playing. ‘Thunder God’ Raiden will discharge electricity all around him and ‘Master Of Storms’ Raiden will raise his arm and strike lightning into the air.

As player 2, Raiden's costume is red.

KANO

His standard Eye Laser special in ‘Cybernetic’ only has sweep range unless you use the EX version.

Some of Kano's combo strings in his Cutthroat variation can be meter-burned to extend them further.

Kano will yell “I’ll slit your throat” after certain combos/moves.

He also says ‘Gotta stay sharp, ha ha’ in his mid-match victory pose.

SUB-ZERO

Currently you cannot create an Ice Clone in the air in his ‘Grandmaster’ variation. This may be because NRS have not yet finished an animation for him to grab and throw one from the air? Fingers crossed.

In his mid-match victory pose, Sub-Zero will say “I will freeze your spine!”

SCORPION

Scorpion’s face (Seen by performing his fatality in a mirror match) strongly resemble Ian Anthony Dale, the actor who portrayed the character in Mortal Kombat: Legacy, but with a moustache!

As player 2, Scorpion's costume has a more orange hue.

GAMEPLAY INFORMATION

Derek emphasized that game balance across the characters and their variations is a top priority and are accommodating this task accordingly.

Characters may have different mid-match victory poses based on which variation you are using, for example ‘Thunder God’ Raiden will discharge electricity all around him and ‘Master Of Storms’ Raiden will raise his arm and strike lightning into the air.

Currently all trade hits are +0 as fair advantage for both players.

Cross-ups have taken the majority of influence from MK9 rather than Injustice.

The stamina meter will refill during combos. Whether you are delivering one or receiving one.

Runs can be cancelled into back-dashes, forward-dashes, special moves and normal attacks. They can be cancelled also by blocking, but it is not in any way similar to dash cancels in MK9.

Some character variations will allow you to meter-burn combo strings to extend them further. At present, Kano has this ability in his Cutthroat variation. We didn't check with other characters unfortunately as we discovered this later than we had hoped.

DIALOGUES

Kano: "You talk too much, Torr."
Ferra: “You can't hear Torr!"
Kano: "Whatever."

Raiden: "Sub-Zero..."
Sub-Zero: "Fear their powers Raiden."
Raiden: "That is my challenge...”

D'Vorah: "Your times passed [Inaudible]."
Sub-Zero: "My day is finally dark."

Kano: "Bedtime baby."
Cassie Cage: "Ha, you'll be the one taking a nap."
Kano: "*spits* COME TO ME!"

Scorpion: "You must restore my family!"
Raiden: That ship has sailed."

Ferra: "{To Torr} Do you remember lightning man?"
Torr: "*Roars*"
Raiden: "[Inaudible] I can help you."
Ferra: "Yeah you talk, [Inaudible]."

Raiden: "Step aside cretin!"
D'Vorah: The emperor suggests YOU do it!"
Raiden: "I do not heed the emperor."

D'Vorah: "It's time for you now Raiden."
Raiden: "I can protect you D'Vorah."
D'Vorah: "Protection? It's pointless!"

Cassie Cage: "Scum...”
Kano: "Babe, first swing is on me."
Cassie Cage: "You’re full of it!”

D'Vorah: "[Inaudible] Kotal Kahn.”
Kotal Kahn: "[Inaudible] not angry with you."
D'Vorah: "How can I [Inaudible] don’t listen [Inaudible].”

Kano: "[Inaudible]"
Kotal Kahn: "[Inaudible] joining of the realms."

Kano: "[Inaudible] again."
Cassie Cage: "[Inaudible] don’t try it with me!"

Kano: "[Inaudible] your mother."
Cassie Cage: "[Inaudible]"

D'Vorah: "Your [Inaudible] nemesis.”
Scorpion: "[Inaudible]"
D'Vorah: "Ignorant just as [Inaudible]."

D'Vorah: "Kotal....”
Kotal Kahn: "With which face do you see me?"
D'Vorah: "There is no other power greater than ours!”



Interview with Derek Kirtzic

Goro has been announced as a pre-order exclusive for Mortal Kombat X but fans are wondering if he will in fact be a fully-fledged character with three variations and all the other bells and whistles the main roster has. Is this correct?

Yes, of course he will.

In this game build at EGX, which characters would you say have the strongest variations and why?

I think that they’re all pretty good, I really really love D’Vorah because she has the poison ovipositors so you can almost like sit back at times and just watch her opponent die from the venom; it’s really rewarding and feels good. I really appreciate Scorpion’s ‘Ninjutsu’ variation just because of that additional reach it gives you, like the ground bounce with forward 2, because you can link it with so much stuff. Sub-Zero with his Grandmaster variation, with the ice clone and what you can now do with it like launching it at your opponent. It’s so fun to play with; throwing ice clones at people is just the best feeling in the world. Also I really enjoy playing the ‘Lackey’ variation with Ferra/Torr because it gives them a different move-set further making them unique. Cassie Cage and her ‘Hollywood’ variation – zoning people with the air guns is fun. Kotal Kahn is great as when you buff him using the Blood Offering special, the additional damage that it does is crazy. All in all it seems pretty balanced but as you know, things are bound to change.

MK9 suffered with its online component thanks to a temperamental netcode and subsequent lag in matches. Will the studio ensure online play for MKX will be stellar?

Well you said MK9 right, well with Injustice we improved on that and we will continue to improve on it as much as we can. We listen to the players and online is a very important part of the game and so I can tell you that we are constantly working on it and constantly testing it as we speak.

Will players who purposely disconnect and rage-quit in MKX be penalized or reprimanded online?

Erm, we have brought it up and have thought about doing things like that. I’m really excited about online and with what we are doing with online. I think the players are gonna be overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we are bringing into it. But for punishing players, I want to say that getting someone to actually quit a match is actually quite a reward at times. *laughs*

Ed Boon briefly touched on the possibility of a fourth, barebones variation at Gamescom. If ever implemented, how would this be realized?

*long pause* that’s really something I don’t want to touch on yet, just because it hasn’t been fully fleshed out. I’ll leave that to Ed. *smiles* Can you explain the difference now with enhanced moves and meter-burn moves? MK9 had the former and Injustice introduced the latter.

Oh absolutely, when you enhance something you’re committing to it, right. But when you meter-burn something you can do it after you’ve already made that connection so with Scorpion for example, you can do the enhanced Double Spear and then meter-burn if you choose to afterwards which sends a wave of fire down them which deals additional damage. Kano for example has combos that can be meter-burned. So if you decide you have the meter to do it, you can pop the player up with one of his grenades and extend your combo off of that. It’s all based on when –you- wanna do it versus committing to it with an enhanced move.

How does meter-burning throws work exactly? Does it allow you to combo into a throw and even after the throw has been performed?

You currently can combo into a throw, if you do a neutral jump you’ll bounce the player right, you can then grab them from the air, you can also grab them from the air with some air combos too. Basically you just meter-burn it, just connect the throw then burn it up with the right trigger. This can also give you a 50/50.

Is there currently a reason for the imbalance in terms of universal special moves across the roster? For example Kano has four universal moves versus Sub-Zero who only has two.

I think that it’s really just based on the characters, what are their most traditional moves; the most iconic moves? Scorpion’s is of course the spear, the teleport and the leg takedown and you’ve also got to think about the balance of everything too, right.

Are wakeups more in tune with MK9 or Injustice at this point?

I think that they definitely have more of that MK9 flavour, but things could change as well when it comes down to tweaking everything.

The flip stance button still perseveres. Will we ever see it replaced by something a little more useful?

The flip stance is a Paulo Garcia thing, he loves it. It’s basically just there if you want your back foot, back punch for example to be closer to the opponent.

With dash-cancelling discarded and running making its return, will the meta-game see a significant change with this new mechanic?

Running is a great addition and the possibilities that people are going to come up with are going to be amazing to see. It’s actually really exciting, plus we have the stamina gauge that will prevent it from being exploited.

At this stage in development, has the main roster been finalized, excluding any guest and DLC characters?

Things are always subject to change but for the most part we have a great idea of which characters will make the cut and who fit in the story and how the story will unravel. Great characters who will lend themselves to the story and you’re going to see a lot of new faces and some returning ones.

Speaking of new faces, where does the studio draw its inspiration from after twenty years of creating characters?

Well we have such a great, creative team and sometimes people want to have a character that they’ve dreamt of forever brought to life so to speak. It’s definitely great to see new blood joining this legacy of characters.

Even though interactables aren’t as big of a mechanic as they were in Injustice, some fans are wishing for an option of disable them altogether. Will the team accommodate this?

Erm, we are currently not discussing that, sorry.

If you could personally bring back one classic Mortal Kombat character to this game, who would it be?

Oh come on now, you know the answer to that! *laughs* [Mileena]

Has the studio thought of reworking messages you deliver to players online to list community events, tournament dates, results and other related information similar to how other games are doing?

Well we did have the ticker in Injustice that provided up-to-date information and we’ve talked about events like E3 with highlighting and I imagine we will do the same with MKX if not better.

Finally, if you had control over who would be a guest character in MKX who would you choose?

If I could choose it would have to be the main character from Shadow Of Mordor. It would be really cool to see another Warner Bros. IP inside of our game and what they’re doing with Shadow Of Mordor would lend quite well to MKX.