Armageddon and Trilogy are why I don't care about having a bigger roster. Crappy unbalanced gameplay is just too big of a sacrifice to me just to satisfy lore fans. And honestly, I can't remember the last game with a huge roster that was actually balanced.

What I do want is a better implemented Variation system. It shouldn't just be an extra move or two like it is for some characters, but a true change in style like Kenshi.

Bigger roster by far.

While some variations do give the same character a diferent flavor, they're not better than having them at the expense of other characters.

Besides most players stick to one stronger variation of a character:

Liu Kang's dragon fire is better than the rest
A-list Johnny Cage is also better than the rest (stunt double has it's perks but the cooldown time is too big)
Goro Tigrar fury
Kitana royal storm
Mileena piercing
Raiden thunder god
D'vorah swarm queen
Kotal Kahn war god
Ferra/Torr vicious (the one where they don't have the health sacrifice for damage boost)
Kung Lao saw hat (don't remember the name of the variation)
Kung Jin bojutsu
Reptile nimble
Sub-Zero grandmaster
Quan Chi summoner
Jacqui full auto
Jax wrestler
Sonya special forces (covert ops is pretty good too)
Takeda shirai ryu
Erron Black outlaw
Ermac master of souls
Scorpion (only character with two equally good variations. Hellfire and the one he summons a minion)
Shinnok impostor (well every variation he has sucks because he has low damage outside of impostor. If you want combos that do more than 20% meterless while mid screen... well you're not gonna get them in necromancer or bone shaper)
Kano cybernetic
Jason slasher (relentless has it's perks too. Unstoppable is ass though and not viable at all)
Kenshi balanced
Cassie Cage spec ops

While not necessarily the ones I use (prefer stunt double, tempest, bone shaper, pumped up, covert ops, sun god, cryomancer and kuatan warrior) I know they are the best ones for each character.

An it'll likely stay like this throughout the whole game unless some serious rebalanced is made.

First thing they need to do is make Shinnok's 22 a goddamn overhead. That or have his 321 ( or 312 don't know the exact order or the string) a low, overhead mid string. It wouldn't hurt having his BF+3 become a comboable launcher in mid screen. Dude's low tier as they come and quite frankly the worst character in the game... by far. He needs stuff. Zoning doesn't work unless you're quan chi and have a spammable bat that needs to have a 3 second cooldown between each summon.

Second they need to nerf Cassie. She's too good and quite frankly doesn't have a bad matchup outside of Summoner Quan Chi. Spec ops needs a nerf on the missiles. Non-ex missiles need to not launch anymore. Hard knockdown and that's it.

Third they need to nerf Raiden. Thunder God is too strong. He's too safe outside of a risky B+2. He has really good wall carrying combos and really good damage couples with hard hitting 50/50s.

Fourth they need to nerf Erron Black. Outlaw is very strong. The character has really good 50/50s coupled with some really good variation specific specials. Once you're down, you better guess right.

They need to make some Kitana's strings safer. She's very unsafe. She has damage but it's hard to get it if everything you do gets you killed if blocked.

They need to either make Mileena's overhead faster or make her roll hit low again. Faster startup on tp kick woudn't hurt too.

Jax should have some strings made unsafe (dude has some disgusting pressure).

They need to nerf Kung Jin's Bojutsu damage (particularly on his specials)

They need to either make Kenshi's normals faster and safer or make his recovery on specials a lot faster. Currently he has issues on both.

And finally they need to nerf D'vorah's damage.

After that they can balance the variations.

I almost want to say bigger roster, but I'm kinda a fan of the exclusivity. Makes the next appearance of left out characters all the sweeter.

So, variations. And I probably wouldn't have said that if I was asked prior to launch. However, the variations work VERY well in the favor of some characters (Mileena, Kitana, Kotal, Erron) but there are a few others that just seem a bit lackluster when compared to the rest. (Reptile, Ermac [yes, I'm mad about that variation exclusive Tele-Push], Johnny Cage, Quan Chi)

A story like MK is a tough one to write when you want to keep certain characters alive and relevant. You see the backlash they are getting for the simple fact that Liu Kang, Kitana and Kung Lao look like they're alive and well when in fact they're dead.

The sole reason that this is, is because they are very popular characters and nobody wants to see revanent versions of they're favorite characters UNLESS they are fans of the lore. Sadly the majority of the people who purchase an MK game couldn't care less about the lore leaving us hardcore fans to deal with crap like this.

I feel that in order to truely move the story forward certain characters that die should stay dead both in story and in game (Liu Kang's revanant skin being his primary). NRS would have to actually let the new school of warriors take over while the classics take a back seat. Will NRS do this? I highly doubt it. Scorpion was on the cover of the freaking game and he wasn't even the main focus of the story.

Bigger roster for sure. Hardly use other variations aside from the character's main one. And even then, there's hardly any major differences amongst the variations themselves...just a few tweaks here and there. It's all a gimmick.

Give me Reiko already!

So it's not just me being crazy? She IS ridiculously unsafe then?

If you put Takeda in Scorpion's clothing, gave him a spear throw variation, would anyone be flexed? Would anyone even notice? Also, did you see Frost in the story mode? She's literally wearing Sub Zero's clothing. None of the other Lin Kuei are dressed like that. Plus, Scorpion and Sub-Zero are supposed to be mortal enemies, not best friends. And guess who has an irrational hatred of the Shirai Ryu? Frost.

Don't worry. I'm sure MK12 or MK13 will have another magical time-travel plot so they can go relive the golden age again.

2 Variations and MORE characters

Yes. Yes. True. YAASSS.

I swear I hate how slow Mileena's telekick feels this game.

A lot of people ask for a bigger roster over variations but let's look at the numbers...

-DLC included.
-Kratos not included
-Gold and UMK3 used instead of 4 and MK3
-Armageddon and Trilogy not included

X : 29
9 : 31
DCU : 23
D : 25
DA : 23
G : 20
UMK3 : 22
MK2 : 12
MK : 7

Most games have between 20 and 25 characters.

If we don't consider Kratos since he was a Sony consoles exclusive, MKX will end up below MK9 by only 2 characters(and that's if we don't get more characters, like Injustice ended up getting).

What exactly are you guys looking for with "Bigger Roster?". The last 2 games had ~30 characters. Clearly the variations didn't affect the roster's size.

Does that mean you guys have always been uhappy with the size of Mortal Kombat rosters, or are you extrapolating and assuming the variations prevented a larger roster?

I like the variations and I think this roster size is fine. I wouldn't mind if it's just two variations per character though if it meant two more characters.

Bigger roster. Like World of Warcraft, giving each character/class 3 ways to play sounds great in theory, but reality conveys the impossibility to find any notion of balance. No matter how much developers tinker, there is always clearly a superior choice of the 3 options to play.

Having a bigger roster with one, "ultimate" version of each character is the better choice.

However, put more time and effort into each character so they play and feel unique. This includes the fatalities!

Getting rid of the variations would have to drastically increase the roster. It would have to be 30, Fujin, Reiko, Havok, Noob, Smoke, and Cyrax would make me consider the variations being gone. But given that, each character would have to have a few of their variation moves included so they feel more robust.

Well when you pull up the numbers like that, asking for a larger roster almost sounds absurd. But I'm almost certain that it has a lot more to do with certain characters not making the roster so the idea is to fix that by expanding the roster which should make everybody happy in theory.

I'm wasnt saying that I was necessarily against Takeda and Frost replacing Scorpion and Subby (even though I am kind of against it lol). I was really trying to say that it's just not gonna happen. It's facts. There's no way that NRS will give up they're bread and butter that is Scorpion and Sub-Zero. It doesn't stop with them either. Going forward I don't think Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Kitana, Mileena, Sonya and Cage will ever be left out another MK game.

Sub and Scorp aren't supposedto be mortal enemies. The only time I can think of that actually being a thing in the story is back in mk1. Their rivalry is really more a media thing than actual story based.

Bigger Roster of course.

Exactly. And even if you wanted to say "oh that timeline is no longer relevant" in this "new" timeline, it is clear that Scorpion and Sub-Zero are no longer enemies.

...and how is your assumption any different? You're basing your assumption on numbers in the same way that people are assuming that 3 of the same character would have an affect on how many original characters we got.

It's even more interesting that some of the characters variations have "taken" the moves of characters we do not see.

It isn't what they did, it's what they could've done. Your numbers show there possibly could have been more, but comparing roster sizes across platforms (especially first and second generation systems) doesn't make sense IMO.

Costumes are not keeping the story from progressing. I understand what you are saying, however like I said a costumes are not preventing the story from going anywhere.

SZ and Scorpion are not going anywhere, but do they really need to? Liu Kang, Kitana, Kung Lao(?) may not be going anywhere, but the story is still going somewhere. I would think that if anything was keeping the story from progressing it would be the fact that they included all of the kids AND whoever they came from. They added the likes of Kotal, D'vorah, Ferra/Torr, but what did we really get from that?

Bad story telling is what keeps the story from developing.

You guys got to remember that MK is trying to emulate a USF4/KillerInstinct/MOBA style of content. A longer shelf-life through the periodic release of content. I expect us to have at least DLC (Devs already eluded to at least 3 kombat packs already planned.)

Look at all the characters they already have set up in the Story Mode. Complete with hiring voice actors.
Frost
Li Mei
Sareena
Baraka
Sindel
Striker
Kabal
Fujin
Smoke (Hell they even bothered to give him a new identity)
Nightwolf

And even then there are the characters shoehorned into the comic:
Tesia
Havik
Reiko
Skarlet
(Even Khameleon appears in the game AND mobile version.)

Bro, I've been thinking this for the longest and I hope you're right. I hope that we get a crap load of DLC including more stages..

Having (FINALLY!) recently getting the game, for right now I'm going with keeping the variation system rather than adding a bigger roster. I know some of the characters have useless variations, but surely NRS can take some time and tune them up enough where the next game will have a much better system that is both balanced and enjoyable. A bigger roster just means more characters taking up space/memory and having a game that is less in quality; in MK's case, that is.

I don't get why you'd automatically assume that more characters would mean a less quality game, especially when you've admitted some variations are useless. MK has some really great character concepts that a lot of people want to see revitalized on the latest gen consoles. And judging by the amount of detail in this game, I highly doubt memory space is an issue anymore. It's more about the amount of development time.