Really, in MK the storyline matters imo and should always matter, maybe more than some other fighting games. I really wouldn't mind having a little longer cut scenes only if they were better. And i wish that they stop trolling/downgrading the characters. Or, what they did with chars like Quan Chi and even Scorpion over the last years.

The gameplay was alright. That is what remained for both Scorp and Quan Chi. But it was a really boring game overall. Mainly because after a couple multiplayer fights and a couple of walktrought the arcade ladder boredom showed up.

There are other things that matter in the modes. But it was a really fast trip unlocking everything.

They should probably keep the what ifs for ending since many characters have really redundant reasons for coming back but they are used to create cool one game chars that have a canon ending or not and end up forgotten for ten years. I think better storytelling could benefit many characters but they were still all trolled for the most of them this time. Kabal for instance will never interest me storywise but he's great in terms of look and gameplay every time. Still, trying to upgrade his looks would be a waste of time.

Sorry to say that, but some characters stories are what can bring them back stronger or keep them on top imo. This time the look was awesome nonetheless. Gameplay alright. But the fun i've had with the 3d MK games was not there. I did not have that feeling of wow and mainly because the story didn't offer much as to where it could lead. And i don't have the means to travel and compete so, from my own living room, i demand to be wowed once in a while. Suggestions: Stories are always entangled and messy in fighting games. The engine for gameplay is damn right this time. But some respect towards the characters wouldn't hurt, even if they're not a muthaf***ing Scorpion. Making the guys from Outworld go into war against Shinnok is alright. A nice storytelling about each one no matter how short this is, and a nice and gentle ending like: They together defeated Shinnok and freed the zombified warriors from the Netherealm would be cool instead of the everyone died we saw too often since MKDA.
MK9 shouldn't be remembered for its story imo. But they shouldn't bother coming back to that time for another 15+ years, and never do unless they decide to respect their own stuff and try to make it better.

To me, both the story itself and its execution weren't done well. That isn't to say that NRS didn't put a lot of time and hard work into the story mode. I still feel that MK's story needs to get off of the track of idiot plots and delve more into mythologies and character studies. If MK games are going to keep the chapter format in the story modes, we should go back to characters we've played before. There should be more than just cutscenes and fight scenes, and I would love to see story mode have elements from MK: Deception's Konquest mode in which characters can roam a fairly big environment. However, that could be for a separate game itself.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Each character needs their own individual story. Especially for MK. People care too much about individual stories of each of these characters to have them all tying into one plot.

Plus not all of these characters are involved in the main plot anyway. I'm still saying that MK could benefit from doing their stories similar to Dead or Alive 4. If anyone else remembers how they did their stories feel free to comment.

I'm not afraid to say that I loved story mode. Not to say that it didn't have its share of problems but I've never seen anything like that in any other fighting game.

In my opinion all future MK's should do a story mode. I'm sure they'll eventually work out all the little kinks that came with this new one. After all it was basically the first attempt to do a full blown story mode in a fighting game there was bound to be a few things that needed to be fixed.

I'm looking forward to story mode in MK 10 baby!

Hell yeah.
Having an MK game nowadays without a story mode would be a massive disappointment.

Yes, the MK9 story mode was severely flawed, and disappointed many (including myself), but it has set the standard for fighting game story modes.
However, I hate character chapters. It sucks have to learn a new combo to spam every four fights. Something else needs to be implemented.

Just because there were (multiple) flops in the story mode doesn't mean we need to remove the whole damn thing from future installments. (Some of NRS's staff (Vogel/Boon) are at least aware of the community's backlash on certain elements, so I think they may have gotten a (slightly) better idea of how to move the story ahead.)
I'm optimistic.

Agreed that storymode should stay. There must be a way to make it more interesting though. Doing a chapter with the character you choose or unlocking a couple of them each time so you can decicde which chapter to do next.

Honestly, I love this forum and and alot of people on it are awesome, but I think that there was a lot of undue criticism about Storymode. Yes, it has its flaws and it's fine to nitpick, as we all care and that's what we all do, but people calling it a failure and saying it was garbage etc?

I would like to have seen chapters for every character in the game. Not just the heroes. I also hated the fact that one character killed so many others. In the future, it'd be nice to see them find other ways of working story in to the fights. But beyond that? I thought that it was very well executed, especially for a first effort at something like this.

Sure, people are entitled to their opinion, but it's now a rather widely regarded belief that MK2011's story mode has set the gold standard for storytelling in fighting games.

Yes, the MK team might not have set the bar at unattainable levels of awesomeness, but compare it to other games out there:

SFIV endings are completely nonsensical. They're poorly drawn anime that mostly do little to give any sense that there's an overall plot or even individual plotlines.

DOA's endings are a mixed bag to say the least. While one or two might acknowledge a main plotline, most of them do absolutely nothing as far as story progression, much less even acknowledging that a story exists.

Tekken's endings have improved over the years, but the most recent story mode in Tekken 6 was hot garbage. It was like tekken force mode, which in itself is a terrible attempt at a Streets of Rage style brawler, but the whole thing basically involved you running around, beating up people until you reached another character, then beat them up, then went to search some other place that opened. It was dull and repetetive, with only the thinnest of storyline threads holding things together. Weak.

Soul Calibur V, I honestly don't even know where to begin with this game. No arcade endings at all this time around, but the story mode? A few cut scenes, some still images, all but three roster characters unplayable and at least half of the roster not even in the mode at all. I can't tell you how many reviews of this game I read saying that the story mode couldn't hold a candle to MK2011's story mode.

That last part at least tells me that alot of other reviewers also believe that MK 's effort trumps virtually every other fighting game in this regard. So to cut out something that has become a very clear advantage over other fighters out ther? Makes no sense to me. Plus, personally? I honestly don't want to see another MK game without this mode. I can't go back.

In all previous MK's with the arcade "what if" endings, I loved the story elements, but really wished that I didn't have to wait until the next game to see if this character or that character actually won the tournmanet, killed his/her rival etc.

I don't want to go back to that. If anything, I want to see the storymode expanded. Include all characters, flesh out their motivations, their personalities, etc. Make it a little less campy and hamfisted and give each character more range and dimensions to them. I think it's possible, and I'd love to see it.

To me, cutting out a mode with this much potential would be setting the series back significantly. Go forward, make it better, and MK fans, fans of the story etc will love the game that much more for it.

I get what you're saying about MK 2011's story mode compared to the story modes of some of the other fighting games. I had recently watched all of the scenes of Soul Calibur 5's story mode, and I was shaking my head and rolling my eyes.

However, when we look at MK 2011's story itself and compare it to the way the story was told in some of the previous games, we see some really big problems. Like I said before, the series really needs to stay away from idiot plots and focus more on character studies and telling the story in an ensemble format.

Honestly...
Konquest Mode sucked according to a lot of people.
Story mode sucked.
Pure adventure mode sucked (Mythologies, special forces and Shaolin Monks were not pleased by fans for story and/or gameplay).

So what the hell are the NRS guys supposed to do next?

I think the average MK is insatiable, hard to please and way too much demanding.
Soul calibur story mode is way more lackluster, corny and poor in terms of both lenght and presentation.
And the MK mythology is waay deeper than almost any other game, including some RPG. C'mon except for Dragon Age, Elders Scrolls and MAYBE Mass Effect how many series out there can count on a such deep pantheon of characters?Stories and sub-plots?
Can we complain about some stupid plotholes? Yes, we can.
Can we complain about a story mode universally acclaimed by critics and non-mk Fans? This would be simply stupid.


I'd say...let's improve the script of the story mode, cutting off the stupid 2 vs 1 fights and all the non-senses, such as Smoke defeating Kitana, and Kitana defeating smoke and Johnny Cage at the same time.
But keep the basic formula, I don't give a shit about Taven or Shujinko travelling around Realms and experiencing un-canon events or canon events with misplaced timing-chronology.
Playing as Johnny Cage, watching his attitude, his charisma, his way to "comunicate"...it took the character to life, without using comic books, movies et similia. Keep the single chapters and please GIVE US a DEFINITIVE ENDING.

DO you remember guys how stupid and annoying it was to wait MK Deception in order to know how Deadly Alliance ended?
And how painful was to wait for the Armageddon ending AFTER MK vs DCU? Do we want to wait 2/4 years just to know how the story will go on, which ending would be canonical, etc?

You can keep "what ifs" endings and a solid story mode.
I'm for the current story mode.

Just thought of another idea.

Each character has their own story like I said. Each of these stories does indeed play into the plot or an important sub-plot. Like say Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Noob would probably all play into the sub-plot. While Raiden, Johnny cage, and Sonya would all be in the main plot.

Anway, you play and beat each characters story which consists of 10 to 15 fights. Then when you beat ALL of the characters stories, the end game story pops up which consists of how they tie into each other.

They could even play it into accomplishments

Story Seeker(Complete all characters story mode)

Then once you have done that you get to fight a mini story which is the ending of the game where each character has one fight each.

That could be an accomplishment as well

Destiny Fulfilled(Complete the Final Story ending to MKX)

Also each character would have their own boss in their own individual story.

Sub-Zero's story:
Boss: Quan Chi
Sub-Boss: Scorpion

Scorpion's story:
Boss: Quan Chi
Sub-Boss: Sub-Zero

In the example above I have an MK4 scenario play out. Say both Scorpion and Sub-Zero fight each other. Then after the fight Quan Chi reveals that he was indeed the one who murdered Scorpion's family. There Scorpion and Sub-Zero team up to face Quan Chi. However, in each of their story's it's just Sub-Zero vs. Quan Chi or Scorpion vs. Quan Chi. Not both of them against him though.

Jade:
Boss: Tanya
Sub-Boss: Rain

Tanya:
Boss: Jade
Sub-Boss: Kitana

Smoke:
Boss: Noob Saibot
Sub-Boss: Havik

Raiden:
Boss: Shinnok
Sub-Boss: Quan Chi

Do you guys get the gist of it? What I'm saying is they each get their own story, even though their story may play into another story. Basically you are just seeing different perspectives of one story.

It sounds complicated I know but I would have to talk forever to fully explain.lol.

The final ending would begin where Raiden's story ends.

After Raiden defeats Shinnok, Shinnok then begins to transform himself. We see Shinnok turn into his Demon form then. Raiden then has to have everyone help him defeat the beast that is Shinnok. Leading to all of the heroes having one fight each against Shinnok.

This would also be completely seperate from Arcade mode. Arcade mode would be filled with endings that hint on what is to come in the next game. Possibly the Dragon King Saga.

@Scar_subby

I get your point and really like your idea. Especially the end, with Raiden having the help of others to defeat Shinnok. I suppose this would be with the good guys only but, chilling.

The separated stories for each character would be a good way to get to know them and appreciate them for their own personalities i guess. And i once posted an idea not too different from yours, basically the character would have to defeat his arch enemy in the story when meeting the boss or sub boss. I am still in favor of the story mode. Could lead to really cool stuff.

Thanks I'm glad you got my idea. I was afraid I wasn't getting my point across.

I feel that's how the story should go, not the chapters that we have been getting.

I hate the chapters approach.

The problem of chapters - the fact that once a character's turn is over, they don't do anything interesting again the whole rest of the game, would be fixed quite a bit by giving the game TWO story modes like how MKvsDCU had one for the MK characters and one for the DC characters and they were intertwining with one another, so if a character went off-screen to do some side mission in the MK one, you'd see where they went in the DC one by fighting against them.

Except of course that instead of "MK" and "DC" sides, it'd be one for good guys and one for bad guys, which would fix the OTHER problem MK9's had, the fact that you never got to play as the villains, causing none of them to ever win any fights or get any real development.

On top of that, I feel the next game ALSO needs to have more detailed bios like MKDA thru A's, the arcade endings need to be canon continuations of what happened in Story Mode like the ones in MKDA, Deception, and vsDCU were, and the krypt needs to be used for more than just concept art, like how MKDA's was full of story-related stuff like pictures of characters' belongings that explained where they got them and what they do.

Thanks for the response man, but I'm curious to know what problems you're referring to when compared to the previous way in which the stories were told. Do you mean in reference to the opening intro and "what if" endings or are you talking about the konquest modes?

For me, the konquest modes had some major advantages as well as disadvantages to the chapter format in MK2011.

On one hand, I agree with Razor's assessment that the chapter format takes a lot of the fluidity out of the story, as you play a small part of a character's story and then all of a sudden they're a background character with little to nothing to do with the rest of the game.

I almost get the sense that NRS realized this at some point in the process, and came up with the conclusion to simply kill most of the good guys off, since they were the only ones that had storyline chapters anyways. It was either do this, or have no stories resolved in any way whatsoever.

So clearly a konquest mode would have the advantage here, as far as fluidity of story. But to me, that's where the advantage ends. I personally hated MK:D's konquest mode. I thought that it was long and dull, with minimal interaction with the environment and a main character that I couldn't connect to.

What would be the solution there? Would you use all of the characters instead of just one? Then you're right back in to the chapter issue as far as fluidity is concerned.

As far "what if" endings go, I never want to see them as a main source for story info ever again, since more often then not, what happens in them doesn't even come to pass at all. There are a decent number of exceptions of course, but that fact along only serves to illustrate their main issue: They make the story so convoluted and confusing that only the most diehard of MK fans can actually parse together what's ACTUALLY happening in the full story.

So what are you left with? You suggested to stay away from idiot plots and focus more on character studies and telling the story in an ensemble format. How would you do that? I'm not being rhetorical, I'm just curious.

I would certainly stay away from the chapter format, but I would tell the story from every character's perspective, switching characters on the fly as events take place. Sure, this would make for a VERY long story mode, but if we're going to find out what happens to each individual character throughout their battles, I think that this is the only way it can be done.

Besides, who ever complained about having too much story in a story mode? I think that this wasn't really possible in the past since the story spanned three games, but hopefully they won't be so bold in the next iteration. Maybe they can just focus on Shinnok's invasion in the new timeline and what happens to each of the characters throughout the events that take place.

To me, that would be the idea way to go. Drop battles in throughout the story that make sense, either because the tournament calls for them or the story calls for them and work the storyline of each character around and through the overall storyline. It wouldn't be easy, but a good writer could do it and make something that puts MK2011's story mode to shame.

I have a Question guys? In reference to story Do you feel that Raiden's arcade ending could have some meaning to it?

Maybe he sacrifices himself in the first part of the next storymode to have the warriors souls back. He sacrifices his godship, allowing fujin to pick up his spot, and they then banish him to the netherrealm in exchange for the warriors souls. Then towards the end of the game we see Dark Raiden Emerge along with maybe Shinnok. That could be the next deadly alliance. Two former gods=epic win.

That's just me looking at his ending though. Who knows maybe he will split himself up into 4 ways though. If so, who do you think the "four" warriors would be? Just from their silhouettes I got Sonya, Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero?, and another female(possibly Kitana).

Raiden and Shinnok as the deadly allaince? Great idea.

But i think that for this one game only they will make Raiden go in the Netherealm and sacrifice someone else than himself, if he ever has to. I prefer if he never becomes dark again but even though i hope Raiden will just do something great this time, who knows what time will bring?

I was referring to the story itself being told in an idiot plot format. Basically, the story works simply because Raiden is a fucking moron. MK: Shaolin Monks' and MK vs. DC's stories were also centered around idiot plots. Liu Kang and Kung Lao were utterly stupid and naive in MK: Shaolin Monks. In MK vs. DC, the characters should have been quicker to learn who exactly they are dealing with. At least with MK vs. DC's story, it can't be taken too seriously since it's non-canon anyway. I'd like to see the characters have actual intelligence and for the plot to be solid.



I enjoyed MKD's Konquest overall, but I do understand how you feel about Shujinko. He and Taven both suffer from the problem of introducing and force-feeding a protagonist to us instead of introducing a character and naturally progressing that character into the role throughout a number of games.



You don't necessarily have to use all of the characters. If that were to happen, I'd imagine that some characters would get more prominence over others since not everyone has a big story.



I feel that the endings should set up what will happen to the character in the next game instead of going with a "what if?" format. The problem that MK 2011 particularly had was that the endings didn't seem to connect with the actual events of the story mode since a lot of characters died in the story mode.



When it comes to staying away from idiot plots, the simple solution is to not make the characters idiotic. I go back to MKDA's story where we had a solid, coherent plot where two of the major villains of the series team up together, eliminate two of their greatest enemies and build an army to supply them with military power. A solid, coherent plot should be center to the story of the game and set the characters around that solid, coherent plot.

As for telling the story in an ensemble format, it's a little bit tricky. I feel that NRS should get away from this "Team Good vs. Team Evil" format, because MK's story is not that simple. Of course, you have "The Forces of Light", but when it comes to the villains, you have the different groups of villains from Shao Kahn's forces to the Black Dragon clan.

I would probably do what Heavy Rain does by switching back and forth through the different characters so that we get a playable continuation of that character's story.



That's not a bad idea, but I will say that not everyone is a major player, so I imagine that we'll get more time with some characters and less of others. I'm not against a chapter format in itself, but a chapter format in which playing as one character per chapter and not going back to that previous character doesn't work well in MK's story.

What can be done for a chapter formatted story mode is to have the chapters be based on important points in the story as opposed to being based on playing as one character. For example, in MK 2011's story mode, there was a mention about Liu Kang and Kung Lao searching for their fellow Shaolin (IIRC), so that could have been its own chapter.



I feel that trying to cover the stories of the first three games was one of the big problems with the story of this game. They were trying to re-invent the wheel and appeal to nostalgia instead of doing something truly refreshing. I'm sure that the story of the next game will focus on Shinnok as the main villain, so it won't try to cover as much as MK 2011's story did.



I'm not really for this idea, because even when Raiden was dark, he didn't trust Shinnok and wanted to gain the upper hand on him by finding out what he was up to. I do however like the idea of Dark Raiden returning, and I'd like to see him form his own team of defenders, sort of like how Magneto from X-Men has his forces.

I still don't get why Raiden is considered a moron.
He worked with the "source material" he had.
"He must win" is a sentence that might be intended in so many ways, that I felt sorry for Raiden.

The entire "Raiden is a moron" thing is so false, that I'm beginning to doubt if someone really watched/played the Story Mode.

I don't know I'd say he was portrayed as a pretty big idiot.

He obviously had visions as well. Like the one where sub-zero was bowing down to him. That still pisses me off. He saw that Sub-Zero was a huge ally and still let him get taken by Sektor and Cyrax without lifting a finger. That says idiot to me.

I mean if you get that vague of a message though, and you start acting on it like a crazy man then you are an idiot. He should have straight up thought things out better. Instead he chose to just change whatever he saw fit. Leading to everyone dying. He's an idiot for interrupting with events period because as a god should he not know that messing with time has major consequences?

Raiden changed so much and that is why i'd love for him to do something great in the next game.

He might have made mistakes despite the fact that he was trying not to. he was so insecure about himself and his choices during all that storymode, only to have the heroes trapped in the Netherealm in the end and accidentally kill Liu. Not saying it is Raiden's fault. But they really made him an idiot for the sake of the plot.

Wish he gets angry (Not as angry as a god who would take everyone's head off.) but enough to take back what was stolen and defeat Shinnok.

That's a load of crap. I think YOU need to rewatch/replay the story mode.



Making Raiden an idiot for the sake of the plot is exactly how an idiot plot works. The story of the next game probably will be a redemption story for him.

He couldn't interfere with the tournament.
Cyrax and Sektor ask permission to Shao Kahn in exchange of their loyalty.
What Raiden could possibly bargain with Shao Kahn?
So, obviously, Raiden saved Smoke but cannot do the same with Subby.

The point is: Shao Kahn is allowed to do anything he wants on HIS Realm, including twisting the rules of MK.
That's why Raiden couldn't ALWAYS heal the heroes (like he did with Jax in the first part of the story) nor save Subby. He must play by the rules.

The only thing I have to recriminate about Raiden's behaviuour is: why in hell he brought Liu kang with Him? Does he need Liu kang in order to speak with the Elder Gods?
The only real reason why the heroes die is just because they are a bunch of useless idiots, compared to Raiden and Liu.

@lastfighter89

Well, i disagree. Even though Raiden is my fav in the game and i hope HE doesn't ever start to see his allies as useless idiots. He's the one who's been one this time. Even bringing Liu to the Elder Gods with him only to knock him down with a blast in the end before he takes on Shao Kahn?

He was first convinced that Liu had to win to avoid all that was to come and then he thought Kahn had to win or something along that line? But why in the hell did he act in the end to put an end to Shao Kahn if he was so convinced that having Liu defeating Kahn was not a solution?

He clearly needs the help of Sonya and Cage for that matter and maybe fighters from other more neutral realms/spaces now that Shinnok is coming imo.

Just so that Thundergod finally realizes that the Elder Gods never even cared unless things were bad for their own health. They created Armageddon and would have let that all happen in one word. They couldn't care less about Raiden himself. That is his mess. Wish he'll clean it up cuz i still love him.

Raiden kills Liu kang because, I don't how to say it, it was a kinda "Far West" situation. I Kill you first, before you kill me.
Liu was about to kill Raiden with his burning fist Fatality. Raiden merely used a thunder of his to defend himself. Basically Liu Kang killed himself with his own FIRE. Liu it's not elctrocuted, he's burned to death.
So Raiden Killed Liu kang after a instinctive reaction, that was an accident that added a lot of drama to the gran finale.
Waiting for death by Liu kang's fiery hand would have been a more idiotic behaviour IMO.

About the second part of your post: there is a bit of misconception.
Raiden realizes that the Elder Gods are not interested in the invasion itself, but in the merging of the realms, which is forbidden.
So, in order to get Shao kahn punished by the Elder Gods, he must allow him to merge the realm.

Think about : "Nation A and Nation B are military allies. But Nation B tells to A "I 'll help you only if you get attacked".
So Nation A will do anything to get attacked by a hypothetical Nation C, in order to have help from B.