I don't think that GameFAQs thing is real, but I think there are more surprises in store than people probably realize or expect. That's just what NRS does.

Since when?

I'm not saying chock full, but who saw Cyber Sub-Zero coming, or Zombie Liu Kang? Smokes hair in MK9! Mokap, Blaze. Secrets are part of the DNA of the franchise, specifically secrets that are totally out of left field. "Safe: is a word that has often been used to describe this roster, "imbalanced" as well. You can't tell if something is imbalanced without getting the full picture, and I promise you, we don't have it, and they probably love that so many think we do.

Hans Lo was asked in an interview as GDC if 25 would be the final roster. He smirked, paused for a second, and said "You'll just have to wait and see on the 14th." On the brutalities stream, it was strongly implied that brutalities would be tied to variations and that there was relevance there would be over a hundred. 25 x 3 = 75.

Ed Boon said early on there would be 3D era characters, as well as "30 some" characters in the final roster. If it's not clear to you that there is a lot of this picture we aren't seeing, the only thing that will convince you is the game itself.

It'd be cool if you unlocked all the characters with new costumes that were unplayable (the revenants, Fujin, Rain ect.) after completing story mode. It's unlikey but it'd be cool.



I really think we'll get a third row added to the character select screen. Itd be amazing to boot the game up and see Fujin, Tanya, Havik, Reiko and loads of others just there and for it to be a complete surprise.

"The select screen is not final."

"We don't want to tell you how many characters."

"Everything you see is subject to change."

They've been telling us all along that what we're seeing is not necessarily what we're getting. Why not just be candid? They could have said from the beginning "Yes, 25 characters, but they all have 3 variations so we had to cut down a bit on our roster this time." Simple as that. They're being coy, and they probably have a reason.

To be honest, it can go both ways. Its either going to have a third row or there it isn't going to have a third row. There's lots of evidence supporting both, but I'm personally not getting my hopes up. At the moment, I love the roster, but a third row would absolutely blow me away. So right now I'm hoping for three rows but expecting two. If they do announce more characters then great. If not, I can live with it. I do agree that they've been super coy around the roster number and they've never said 25 is what we're getting. If I recall correctly, I'm pretty sure someone said in an interview that they'll be more than 25 characters in the roster. Either way, I'm happy with the game.

Very interesting, this list seems to be what ppl wanted..And everyone seems to love it..Even if this isnt the real roster. I hope NRS does something like this...

They said the same stuff about MK9 and Injustice's select screens. They never changed numbers from the initial reveals.

Better off just assuming we will get 25 at launch and that's it, that way you don't get disappointed if the roster doesn't live up to what you were hoping for.

I agree, and I don't mean to get hopes up. I'm satisfied with the roster as well, and at this point we should expect that's all we're getting. But with all of that other evidence in mind, NRS love for their secrets, and the prevailing theme of MKX seeming to be "going above and beyond," I think people have reason to be cautiously optimistic.

They never said that about MK9. All they said was the character select was 'changing' and all they did was change some of the character icons around. They were never this coy about MK9 's roster and Injustice's too and they certainly didn't talk about final roster numbers, unlike now for MKX.

That stuff does sound cool. Gimme Tanya on top of that and I'm set.

There's one flaw to the assumption you suggest; the fact that on the latest stream there were 26 slots and Goro wasn't one and it's been said that the ? is just a placeholder and will be for a character/unlockable, so there would be at least 26 slots at launch.

Which would be in line with when Boon said the main roster will be comparable to MK 2011's, at least as big if not a little bigger. Sure if it's 26 then it's not as big let alone being "a little bigger" but it's better than 25.

Personally hoping there's 28 with 8 DLC or 30 characters and 6 DLC, that way we'd have 3 even rows instead of MK 2011's disjointed roster menu.

I know this is really getting tin-foily right now, but hear me out. I didn't notice the fact they got rid of Goro means there was an extra blank spot. Recently there was another blank spot added, IIRC, in the stream before this.

They know these things are getting hyperanalyzed. What purpose would they have to change the select screen so arbitrarily in a build without those characters?

What if every time they do the stream they're going to add one more character spot to the screen? Was I the only one who thought it was suspicious Shaun Himmerick's hat kept changing between videos? What if that was a clue that we should be paying attention to the way the select screen is changing between videos.

I thought he said something like that but a person here did not believe me. Oh well.

So glad you mentioned Shaun's hat changing! I'd not slept much the night before and thought he'd changed his hat twice, but then couldn't recall what colour the one before had been so I actually shrugged it off thinking I was just over-tired and mistaken. hahaha

What you theorised is a possibility.; It's also worth keeping in mind that Shaun also confirmed on Twitter that only "a majority" of the roster would be revealed before launch; what if the 25/26 is the majority we'll see but not all we'll get on disk?

I didn't notice it until the third time and I also shrugged it off, just think he was being goofy, which is possible. But the more I thought about it the more it seemed strange that he'd have three hats on hand that he'd wait specific intervals for to change. Could mean nothing but it was very strange.

I wasn't aware of that Himmerick quote. That's very interesting.

that not the case iasked him about the hat thing and this is what he said" @timbo869 it was a joke on @DKirtzic and his hats. Also a subtle "3 variations" joke."

Oh okay, that's good to know, thank you.

Yeah thanks for clearing that up.

I stand by the rest of what was said though; really think there's more than what most are expecting just so their hopes aren't dashed come release. Too much points to there being and there's no evidence for counter-arguments.

Lol you know what I mean, just assume we will only get however many slots we actually see with our own eyes, nothing more until DLC is released.

Yeah I do.

I am but my speculative and creative parts of my mind take over at times and I think 26, nah, more like 28-30 because of everything said by NRS. Can't help that though, I write, so those parts of my mind are almost always on, even now at almost 4:30am. lol

Damn 4 30? Lol its only 12 30 am where I am :)

Well it is like lunchtime in China right now, lol

930 in SOCAL and a cool 80° it was hot af today