No weapons. One fighting style. The style-switch combos were nice, but we killed that horse, raped it, and burned it. Flexible, strategy-driven chain combos are the best way to go.

As for weapons, they should really only be given to characters who really warrant using one, if to anyone. Kori blade made sense for subzero, and the Troll Hammer made sense for Noob (Yes, I'm serious).

Noob Hammer ftw.

Depends on what you mean by "named." If you mean that the name of the style shows up on the bottom of the screen like in the last few MK games, then no, I'm not in favor of that at all anymore.

I am however in favor of one weapon and one style being named in each character's bio. I'm not saying that each character has to use their weapon the exact same way. But maybe they could have a sort of "draw out, put back" button that changes your move set from fighting to weapon. I know, it's a small, tiny difference than the way it was before.

But I do think that each character should have their own unique fighting style and those styles should be similar to authentic, but also fun to use. Honestly, Bo Rai Cho's drunken kung fu or whatever was so lacking in anything even resembling enjoyable.

Check out Shun in Virtua Fighter or Brad from DOA. Those moves both look cool and are fun use. Bo Rai Cho just ambled stiffly around the arena while doing moves that were mostly similar to everyone else. Made ZERO sense.

So yeah, I'm not married to the idea of weapons, but I do like them somewhat. As long as they're unique weapons and half the roster doesn't have swords. Fighting styles? Yes please...

Oh, and the fighting styles should MATCH the character!

The characters should have one command list which specialises in one type of martial arts. If a weapon is to be used by the character then they have either incorporate it as apart of the hand to hand style or have a stance change command to draw their weapon and vice versa. It'd be similar to how Soul Calibur does its stance changes.

I dunno, I'd almost be in favor of something even simpler than the stance changes in Soul Calibur tgrant. I liked how easy it was to switch in MK:DA, but my problem was always the usefulness of doing so.

It always seemed like there was an endless amount of boring pokes, jabs and half combos (you know, a 2 hit combo that was basically worthless by itself) when it came to weapons.

I'm really hoping that if they bring back styles and or weapons, that they'll be useful this time around. No more BS where everyones moves are the same and they're all basically useless outside of long combo strings and special moves.

No. I dont want multiple styles like the ones establised in MKDA. I never liked it and I never will. It's the biggest mistake the franchise ever made.

one style per character, half of roster old characters half new, bigger moves lists badly needed.

Well, I don't know if it's the BIGGEST mistake. It ranks somewhere in between Hsu Hao's existence and Scorpion turning into a penguin and laying an explosive egg.

And anyway, I think fighting styles were okay. I just think there were too many worthless move options in them.

I dunno, I think the worst mistake the series ever made was getting away from MK1/MK2 style of fighting in favor of those godawful dial-a-combos from MK3 and then continuing them for the most part on throughout the series.

They take the casual gamer out of the equation almost completely because only MK fans who love the series are willing to learn A,X,B,B,L,Y,X,L,A,Y type of combos. They're unintuitive, they're choppy, they're boring, they're unrewarding and this whole style of system severely cuts down on any type of uniqueness a fighter might have.

The multiple styles stunk so much because even though a character jiggled like a crab, they still had the same stupid dial a combos as someone doing shotokan, tae kwon do, mantis or any other "style." They were all basically the same. Same types of combos (the aforemontioned dial-a-combos) and they all sucked because of it.

If you have a drunken martial artist, they should at have real drunken style moves, not just "have dude sway around, then pull off completely normal moves that look like they could go to any other character or style in the game." I mean, look at a movie like Drunken Master or a character like Brad Wong from DOA or Shun from Virtua Fighter.

I'm not saying MK has to imitate those games at all. I'm just saying that characters should PLAY like their style. Not simply have it in name only and then fill up their move lists with little jabs or pokes or half combos (you know, those useless punch punch combos that don't link to anything) and then a bunch of MK3 style dial-a-combos.

Dial-a-combos: Reason number 1 through 280 why MK3 was the worst MK game in the series. Just my opinion, but MK:DA would've been AWESOME if they styles had been even remotely authentic (in terms of movies, games etc).

they need to bring in tekken style multi throws like what king had, been screaming out for ages about that.
Would really like some kind of mixed martial arts ground fighting nothing would beat the ability to slam your opponent head first into the ground. A new character whose style is a cagefighter that would be cool.

Weapon attacks should stay relegated to special moves, and combo hits. That way, characters kept their style/skills, and didn't end up being abused or getting repetative.



Ka-Tra

How about just have an unnamed fighting style with weapons as special moves if the character have any. And the game play should be so easy that, pressing any button in a row can be a combo. Also, juggle combos shoule be easier to do too. It should not be like MK3 where we have to know what combinations we must press in order to do a combo. Also, I wouldn't mind the gameplay being like Armageddon's with one fighting style and one weapon style as long I'm able to do more combos with the moves provided. Oh, and one more thing, Kira, Frost, and other cool-looking characters should be easier to play as and not have such fighting styles that are just so weak.

They shouldn't need to switch though. That'd mean two full movesets again like in MKA and that's unnecessary.
Characters such as Kabal should have their weapons in hand from the offset. Their fighting style will be a mix of that weapon and hand to hand hits depending on the weapon. There will be no more of that increased damage due to have a weapon out as it would be a normal thing for these sort of characters.
By stance switching, I meant simply that they'd go into a pose or stance of sorts to do a set of special attacks. Imagine Ivy's Serpent's Embrace stance where her whip sword is wrapped around her shoulds or Taki's Possession stance. This would be done as easily as them by a doing a simple command and cancellable if needed for mind games.
As such, with the above set out, you'd have characters who utilise a full hand to hand moveset and no weapon. Those who are primarily weapon based with their attacks and have a martial art incorporated into the stance like in Soul Calibur and possibly those who are a mix of the two.

I think this would work nicely. For example, I'd like to see Jade fighting with her staff all the time, most of her attacks would be with the weapon and she could mix in a few kicks here and there, sort of like Kilik in Soul Calibur.

Other characters, who use smaller weapons, such as Mileena and Kitana, could easily put away their weapons during the fight. Since Mileena fires her projectiles from her sais, I think it'd be cool if she would automatically switch to sai style after she fires a projectile.

So yeah, I'd like to see one style that's a combination of unarmed attacks and weapon attacks for most of the characters (no need to press a certain button to switch between styles). Then there would be characters like Jade and Shinnok who'd rely mostly on weapon attacks (in the case of Shinnok magic attacks too) and finally there would be some characters that wouldn't have a weapon at all.

ohhh man. Did we ever layt the boots to that horse. The curb stomp might have been a bit extreme but it needed to be done. It wont be coming back.

I'm all in favor of having martial arts styles and weapons in Mortal Kombat games. I think it fits perfectly with the series, but I feel that it has to be done in a much better way. The dial-a-combos/chain combos and small movesets were huge factors in improper execution of the fighting styles.

I also hated how certain martial arts styles were given to the wrong characters. For example, they gave Aikido to Kano and made Morihei Ueshiba the founder of the Black Dragon clan. WTF?! They also gave "Ninjitsu" to Cyrax despite him being a Lin Kuei warrior assassin. Again...WTF?!!

Ahem *clears throat*....Anyway, I feel that when it comes to doing the martial arts styles and weapons for characters, they should take a deep look into each character and have a good idea on how each martial arts style is. I still have all sorts of ideas.

You could have some characters who specialize in one fighting style, others who use a combination of different styles, and so forth. You could even have characters that have an offensive and a defensive stance.

When it comes to weapons, I think that MK vs. DC had the right kind of idea in which there is a button that has the character use their weapon. I feel that like in MK3-MKT, weapon attacks could be incorporated into the combos though not necessarily lead to them taking their weapon out after the combos.

Some characters could have made-up fighting styles, but I think that for the majority of characters, even ones not from Earth, their fighting styles should have some basis in real martial arts techniques. For example, I'd like to see Shao Kahn's fighting style have strong influences from Bājíquán.

Overall, there is so much that could be done with martial arts styles and weapons for Mortal Kombat games. They don't have to emulate other fighting styles like Tekken or Virtua Fighter, but they could learn from them and still try to give an MK flavor to the gameplay while doing it right. I would like to see that sense of authenticity in the martial arts styles, and I feel the MK games didn't really do justice to them.

the multiple fighting style was a good idea, executed poorly.

i dont think mk should have multiple styles though, just one. and some should be custom made up styles like reptile.

maybe one or two people could have multiple styles like Shang Tsung because he has asorbed many fighting styles from warriors. so that would make logical sense for him to have mulitple styles. only old or "master" fighters should have mulitiple styles because of long traning over years.

styles should also relate to the type of character like reptile. he should have reptilian moves, slither, low to the ground moves. maybe even use his tail.

Hmm I personally think just one style, with the exception of certain characters incorporating there signature weapons or their special moves/powers. So for example if these characters make it into the next game:

Sub-Zero, I've always thought it would be cool if he created ice bladed weapons or something along those lines while fighting. Scorpion should use his spear, like in MK:SM, that would be cool. Jade using her spear, Kitana her fans of course, and Mileena her sais, Kung Lao his hat. Stuff like that, mostly what people have mentioned above.

Also in the styles should actually be right for the character, say Reptile, he should have very claw like attacks, sharp, quick and reptilian, etc.. yeah you get me. Of course this is if any of these characters I mentioned return, which I'm sure will, there quite classic.