The roster feels almost incomplete.

Tanya and Rain have such a presence in story mode that the idea that they aren't playable is crazy. Fujin and Baraka would have also been logical inclusions. And Sindel would make as much sense as Kitana, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao. It's like they used to say at Midway, "we ran out of time..."

As for what we got in the end, I think it's okay. Jacqui is a weak character all around (very uninteresting moveset, and basically Cassie's clone as far as personality goes) and if I was in charge I probably would have put Li Mei in her place with an expanded role. Day 1 DLC is ass, and Goro would have been a nice addition to the main roster. But aside from some small complaints, it's a solid roster. I think all of the new characters aside from Jacqui are good or truly GREAT additions.

And I really appreciate the treatment Kenshi got in both the story and gameplay. As much as I'd like to see more 3D era characters as playable and hope that he doesn't remain the sole representative of that trilogy, it's nice to see that NRS at least cared enough about him to make him a star player in MKX. Hopefully in the future, more of those characters will get the same respect.

I think we're in store for a lot of character DLC, so it's hard to really give final judgement knowing that any of those story mode characters could become playable in time. I just hope the fascination with nonsensical guest characters doesn't take up too much of their development time.

Personally i loved Sub-Zero's role as a mentor to the kids, and how he showed up to beat back Kotal Kahn, so they can carry forth with the mission. In terms of Sub-zero my only wish was to actually fight Sektor, i feel that would have made his chapter great.

As far as the newbies go, i said it before, and i will say it again the only character imo you can cross of the " not coming back" list is Ferra Torr. Which is a shame the arcade ending for them is so interesting, but they served no purpose in the story sadly.

Idk about Rain and Tanya playing a big role in the story, IIRC you don't see either of them again after D'vorah's chapter. I originally agreed but after realizing they disappear a little after the half way mark, they really don't play a huge role at all, the same can be said for Liu, Kitana and Lao though.

Ferra/Torr is literally not necessary in the game at all. The revenants aren't really much as well, which is a bummer because I was hoping there would be a legitimate reason why at least some of them were back.

But, oh well, gameplay is gameplay.

/hopes for more story relevant characters next game

I dont mind the roster at all because sooner or later you'll have to suck it up and enjoy the game and i think some of the characters were in the game for a reason. But my irritation is coming from the DLC and the inclusion of guest characters.

Like last game we had Kratos and Freddy who was included for their "reasons", and so what? They sucked major ASS. I didnt understand wtf they were there for and i didnt even understand how to play those mo'fuckers.

And now we have Jason and Predator....seriously..-_- what is with these retarded decisions?! Their spots on the Kombat Pack couldve been reserved for someone ACTUALLY RELEVANT to the game! It's whatever tho...im just gonna wait and buy the characters i want seperately >_<

I don't mind Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Kitana being on the roster. What I don't like is that they were neither:

1. "revised" as normal humans in Story Mode

or

2. defaulted to be Revenants on the roster.

All NRS had to do was do one of the above and all would be well. Instead, it just seems cheap to have them on the roster, defaulted as "what-ifs" normal skins. "What ifs" should never be default, imo.

I understand it from NRS's perspective ($ and fanbase), but I still don't like it.

I know right?

My main gripe regarding the roster is the fact that it is mostly based around the Special forces. I always found them bland and boring. MK to be is more about magic and even alien type characters. The Elder God shinnick defeated by a mere young mortal with a gun as a special move? It was more about Sonya and Cage babysitting and because of that characters like Ermac, Sub Zero etc were bit part players.

So you believe they should have went all out and spoil the story mode by making them revenants by default? With characters like Sub-Zero and Jax as revenants gone good, it would have set up flags right away.

Liu kang and kitana make perfect sense for the roster, if you take in account the end.

The roster isnt just about during the story but immediately after also.


Kung lao, reptile, and ermac though dont add much to the story, but I dont mind them in, cus they are fun.

I'm still trying to figure this out; fans play MK for the story now?

I don't really think the roster is all that bad, but i think it was a big cop-out. Lui, Kung Lao and kitana should have their revenant costumes by default. Also most of the new characters either being offspring or related to older cast members, just seems like a let down. Their great in their own right, but MKX seems like it's trying to move beyond previous barrier that have held the series back with fans and the community being stuck in that MK1-3 mentality. I just feel it's a huge cop-out to go and include johnny cage and Sonya's daughter, jax's daughter, kung Lao's cousin and kenshi's son, that's also trained by scorpion.

It might have been more meaningful had Li Mei or Sereena had a bigger roll or even brought back Nitara.

MKX's ending doesn't make Kitana or Liu's role any more relevant in the actual story, is just a set up for a sequel. Shinnok's appearance in MK9's ending didn't grant him a spot in roster for that scene.

MK fans play the games for different reasons, characters, the violence, competitive scene and the story. It's a matter of taste and all of them are valid, imo

Lore has always been MK's greatest asset. If it wasn't for lore, half of us wouldn't even be here today.

I'd say most MK fans stayed because they had fun playing the games and the story was an extra bonus they began to appreciate only after a few installments.

As far as the roster I don't mind some of the characters not really being important to the story. Yeah it's cool when everyone is relevant but that only means in later games that no matter what story they want to tell certain characters can still show up.

Now if they'd try a little less hard to make the story have massive changes/deep ramifications and focus on it just being entertaining and better told, or some kung-fu film touches, we'd be perfect.

But back in January 2011, Ed listed Shinnok (along with Tanya, CyberSmoke, Rain, Kenshi, and New Character) as a possible DLC candidate.

Fans have been playing for the story (Along with gameplay) for a long ass time, I remember back in the day one of my favorite parts was beating the game with the characters so I could read their endings and stuff lol

If i can say one major positive about the roster and the story overall - I'm very happy that Johnny has emerged as the top dog of Earthrealm. For so long he was basically the brunt of the jokes of the series, but now they actually went, fleshed him out, and made him legitimately funny - I laugh every time I hear one of his intros, and I'm still hearing new ones every time I play as him. He's constantly switching with Sub-Zero as my "Favorite Character" on my stats screen.

I was also surprised to see that Cassie was the "big hero" of the game. They really are focusing on the Cage family, which is completely different from any direction that they've ever gone with the series before.

This.

Always cared about the story first, and always will.

I agree, Cage has gotten pretty good treatment in this game and that is one of the most pleasing aspects I find overall in the story.

I think the Roster is honestly the safest route the producers went with the game. They retained mostly every single character from MK1 and MK2 who are guaranteed favorites. Although Baraka was not playable he was featured, and Shang Tsung, well for those that beat a few arcade endings you know what's up with him.

I was glad that we had both Shinnok and Quan Chi in the game but I wish I saw the two interact more.

There was a lot that I wished could have been added in to the story mode but overall I thought it was good.

I wished we got to see more of Jax dealing with his PTSD as a plot to device to build up his chapter. It would have been cool to see him turn down the offer from Cage and Sonya after everything only to surprise us when he decides to fight again to make that moment more epic.

I wish we got to see some of Noob Saibot and not just hear him being referenced as Bi Han. I thought it was a huge nod to mythologies to have Sareena involved in the story.

The biggest disappointments I would have to say with the roster in terms of the story are Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Kitana. All three are wickedly awesome characters and I am happy to say that we can play as them, but they had little to no interaction with any of the characters. The only satisfying thing I feel as a fan to see was Liu Kang and Raiden having their 2nd match up from the last game. However, we never saw Kung Jin deal with revenant Kung Lao, and we have no idea how Kung Jin and Liu Kang are in relation to each other. Towards the end when Cassie and Kung Jin moved on to fight Shinnok I wished it was Takeda that went with Cassie and Kung Jin stayed behind to take on his fallen Shaolin brothers. We were so close to seeing that.

Another thing that I wished we could have seen was more of Fujin, he was so badass in chapter one but that is all we saw of him. I was hoping he would be seen more but we never got to get into it that much with him. We could have easily seen him and Jax travel together in the Netherealm. Another thing that I felt a little cheated out on was that there was no Kenshi chapter which could have been written in right around the time Sub-Zero stepped in to repel Kotal Kahn's forces while Cassie and her unit moved on to Shinnok. Kenshi could have helped Sub-Zero ward them off for the time being.

I could keep going but I don't think I'd want to torture your eyes any longer.

Yet they weren't, sounds like something to appease the fans. But still, that's actually a good point, I wouldn't have minded as much if they were DLC along with Kung Lao and Kenshi.

Lol yeah I remember reading those endings and intros but me and my cousins would pay less attention to them and just kill each other in the gameplay

Reptile had more relevance in this game than any other game he was in besides Deadly Alliance. He was the informant that allowed Kotal Kahn to overthrow Mileena.

Ermac had less storyline, unfortunately, and honestly didn't need to be there.

Goro was completely irrelevant, I have to admit. I think NRS just wanted a "boss" type character for arcade ladder.

Kung Lao had no role. And you can't argue that his competitive play in MK9 was why he was included here. Kabal was also incredibly popular and powerful in MK9 and he's not here.

Liu Kang and Kitana had an important post-credits scene, and while that alone isn't enough to put them in the game, they were present throughout the story, albeit as mindless muscle. I'm fine with their inclusion, compared to the three above that had little to no story. What I do hate is how they got aged character models; the game should not be effected so dramatically to accommodate potential spoilers before release. Make a good game and spoilers won't matter. Or keep all three of them secret until release day. Non-canon costumes as defaults is bullshit.

Jacqui was poorly written, unfortunately. But hopefully she'll be better written next game?

Jax's chapter felt forced, but his outside of his chapter, he was well written and helped characterize those around him. His inclusion was fine, in my opinion. I don't see why he gets a million more skins than most characters, though. lol.

Kano had minor relevance. I think either the Black Dragon should have been considerably more involved, or not involved at all. Overall, if I had an opportunity to change the roster to better reflect story, I would have done this:

-Kung Lao
-Ermac
-Goro
-Kano
-Ferra/Torr

+Rain
+Fujin
+Tanya
+Baraka
+Bo' Rai Cho

And I would've replaced Jax's chapter with a chapter for Bo' to defend Raiden's temple to buy him time, fighting off revenants or whoever idr.

TBF, I think after MK4 - 6, Netherealm was worried about too big a shake up given the fanboys reluctance to buy into anything post the arcade era.

I see this game as a transition game into the next generation - sort of what MK5 was. Blood some new characters, co exist with the old, set up a world without Cage, Sonya and Jax.

Oh yeah that was a main thing for me too lol I was really young when I first played the first MK (way before I was in kindergarten) so the actual gameplay was what made me play it over and over but once I realized every character had their own endings I was hooked on the story too lol