Kanji, relax! You are spitting out these threads like there's no tomorrow! Take it easy, dude. :P

As for the main hero, I think Cassie might be a potential candidate for that, as she is the daughter of the two Earthrealmers who survived MK9. I could see her as being the main heroine of MKX.

But Scorpion and Subbie might take the lead this time.

I'd like to think so, but I don't see it happening. Hopefully it's not Raiden though. I'm thinking either Fujin or Kai.

We haven't seen Kiefer Sutherland voiced yet so for some reason I vote 24's Jack Bauer. He could do a fatality where he mauls his opponent's neck.

Honestly, I would rather the story not try to focus so much on a "main hero". Instead, I feel that the story mode focus on telling an ensemble story that develops the heroes in a way that could show potential for one of several heroes to develop into the main hero within the next game or two. That would be much better storytelling, imo. However, for the sake of simplicity, Fujin should be the main hero in that he should replace Raiden as the protector god of Earthrealm and focus on being that leader who recruits heroes.

I guess it depends on how you look at it. I see Sonya as the main heroine in MK9 with Kitana being the second heroine... and that's how I think Cassie is going to be like in MKX. Maybe not the MAIN main character... if that makes sense. XD

I can absolutely see Kai become a major character in MKX.
I also think Cassie will be playing a pretty big role during the "25 years later" portion of the game.

This.

Had MKX not gone with this 25 years jump twist, I would have said it'd be a close one between (most likely) Johnny Cage (I mean, look at his ending!) and Sonya Blade. The direction they have been going with both of them since MKA was a real indicative of this. They were the 2 main survivors of MK9.

At this point, however it could be anyone. Cassie has potential, but, we still don't even know the major part of the cast or story. It could be anyone, or more than just one.

I'm over Raiden. He was most interesting back when he was "Dark Raiden".

Well I'd actually argue that MK1-4 were more about telling a story in general than focusing on Kang as the main hero. I mean, he wasn't really a protagonist The only times we've had protagonists in MK were Shujinko and Taven.

Even if you look at the central figures of each game
MK1: Liu Kang, Shang Tsung, Goro
MK2: Liu Kang, Shao Kahn, Raiden
MK3: Liu Kang, Shao Kahn, Sindel
MK4: Quan Chi, Shinnok, Raiden (with Liu as essentially a tool to beat everyone up)
MKDA: Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, Raiden
MKD: Shujinko, Scorpion, Onaga
MKA: Taven, Daegon, Blaze
MK9: Raiden, Liu Kang, Shao Kahn

I think you see a core cast up until DA and then again in MK9. It gets even more interesting if you take away the main villain of the piece as we start to see characters you are tangential to the story creeping in
MK1: Liu Kang, Raiden, Scorpion
MK2: Liu Kang, Raiden, Kung Lao
MK3: Liu Kang, Sindel, Sub Zero
MK4: Quan Chi, Raiden, Scorpion (considering his relationship with Quan)
MKDA: Raiden, Scorpion, Cyrax (in terms of interlinking story I really think that MKDA was the highlight of the series)
MKD: Shujinko, Scorpion, Raiden
MKA: Taven, Daegon, Scorpion
MK9: Raiden, Liu Kang, Quan Chi (though Quan is a distant third really and a multitude of characters can be argued to be third)

I really do think MK is an ensemble piece. It just so happens that the story is of Liu beating the crap out of everyone until he gets killed, wherein a significant side story becomes his resurrection. I mean, the mascots of the series have never really been more than tangentially involved. MKM is probably the most heavily involved either SZ or Scorp have been in the MK story and that was SZ's own game. I mean, track the main story and SZ/Scorp's side story

MK1: the tournament vs resurrection and revenge
MK2: the second tournament vs supposed resurrection and revenge, followed by Scorpion backing off
MK3: the invasion vs SZ resisting automation and Scorpion hanging out in hell
MK4: Shinnok's invasion vs Scorp suddenly wanting to kill SZ again
MKDA: the deadly alliance vs SZ sorting out the Lin Kuei and finding Frost while Scorpion tries to kill Quan Chi
MKD: Onaga vs Scorpion as the champion of the elder gods and SZ discovering his heritage
MKA: Clusterfuck all round

Scorp and SZ have really never been more than tangental to the plot and yet they're still the first characters that comes to everyone's mind, be they hardcore or casual. The idea that Kang is the main character is flawed I think: there's no mantle for anyone to inherit, Kai or otherwise.

If anything, I'd think Raiden's story is the most closely aligned to the actual story of MK. Raiden in MK9 was certainly the closest we've had to an actual main character.

Oh, I'd really prefer this kind of story telling.

Guessing there won't be any heroes in this game huh?

Considering the span of time, I don't think we'll see Cassie until the final leg of the story mode.

That is, of course, unless the 25 Year Mark is the longest segment.

Some new character as hero would be nice and refreshing.

They tried that with Shujinko and Taven and...yeah. We all know how that turned out. Why do we really need a main hero tho? I don't get why there has to be one guy that will save Earthrealm over and over in a fighting game with 60 characters? Liu Kang was always boring to me. I'd love it if they focused on each and every person's storyline separately and have the forces of light/darkness fleshed out in general? Like having the ability to choose an alignment and then be able to watch the characters' stories.

Same.

*Nods in agreement*

Honestly, I believe the elder gods will have something to do with Raiden being demoted from elder god because of what he did to liu kang and the mk9 fuck ups. I honestly think Raiden will play a significant role in the fact that his actions maybe one of the reasons shinnok and quan chi travel so far into the future. I mean in honesty The Amulet can do many things and depending on who's in possession of it this could be the reason we are moved so far forward. Look at MK9 was a re-inventing of the first three games but it did not ignore Armageddons ending.

MK9 problem was that it focused on a series of fights for character A, then character B, etc...

This had 2 problems:

- If a character was used early on the story, then his development stops and he's just an spectator. Liu Kang had to invade another's character chapter to get his fight against Shao Kahn.

- Some characters are essentially never developed and act as punching bags (specially Baraka, Reptile and Sheeva).


With this story spanning over 25 years, that system could be very damaging. Some characters will have to be featured much later for obvious reasons (like being a baby on the 5 years later part for example), but I'd like the story to feature short fragments of each character story divided on that amount of time.

For example, say that the theory of Sub-Zero being Kuai Liang is true, then we could have:

- A fragment of the story showing the event that allowed him to scape. For example Quan Chi convinces him to kill Scorpion in exchange of his body to corrupt him, Sareena warns him about this and Sub-Zero defeats Scorpion but tells him the truth about Quan Chi instead of killing him, which would develop in a later chapter for Scorpion chasing Quan Chi and in the middle of this Sareena could have her own fight agains Quan Chi or Reiko when she decides she wants to help Sub-Zero.

- Later we're shown how Sub-Zero, maybe now aided by a freed Sareena, tries to defeat Sektor and becomes the grandmaster of the clan, giving him for later fights his grandmaster style.

- After more events and more story development, we find Sub-Zero exploring his outworld origins, maybe fighting someone along the way, maybe finding his own brother or something, and he finds the cryomancer ruins, unlocking the cryomancer fighting style and probably an alternate costume for the next time he's seen on the story.

This way the character gets as much usage as before, but each story fragment develop other characters too and the character gets developed over time instead of being featured in a single moment on time.

Ferra/Torr for example could get a similar treatment, say that we have a part where Torr still didn't meet Ferra and he uses his lackey style, or maybe there is a moment on time that they're separated from each other to feature that, then we have another moment featuring how Ferra's people was oppresed or something like that.

Dividing each character's interventions over the span of time would be much better for everyone's development. You could even have some fights where you could choose which character will fight against an enemy.

From everything that I've heard, it sounds like the primary events of this game will take place 25 years after MK9. The other periods will be temporary jumps to fill in story gaps. So for the main plot, Cassie will likely be replacing Sonya (who will likely die) and possibly Cage as well.

I REALLY hope we don't have a "Main Hero." That is really boring, easy storytelling. Good vs Evil is too basic. I'd like to see way more of a spectrum between black and white. With Good vs Evil storytelling we get characters relegated to henchman and punching bags or almost left out all together.

If we DO have a primary hero, my vote goes to Kotal Kahn.

Seems to me that Sub-Overused and Scorpion are still trapped in their endless quarrel, if we may believe the pre-battle conversation.


Something that really gets OLD now...


I hope Cassie Cage is the new heroine, its about time that women take over that role.

Haha, women taking the hero role. That's cute. They'll either be utterly pathetic or suffer the the Trinity Syndrome. Not saying that the writers are extreme sexists, but the way women are portrayed in this series doesn't give me an ounce of thought that women are gonna take the leading role.

Cassie Cage may surprise ya'll!

It sure as hell won't be Sub-Zero which uses Shao Kahns armor in a winning pose and still has this extremely boring, neverending conflict with Scorpion.

If you're talking about the OT Raiden, he relinquished his Elder God status in MK: Deadly Alliance plus he was reborn during MK: Deception. In MK9 itself, Raiden was just in his protector god role (sans intro scene). As for Shinnok's Amulet, that is just a huge mess in of itself, because Quan Chi is wearing that fucker out in the open, including his conversation with Shinnok. That's just one big plothole that will not likely get a proper explanation.



Neverending? Eh, to be fair, Scorpion and Sub-Zero didn't really have anything to do with each other in MK: Deadly Alliance and MK: Deception. In MK: Armageddon, we only seem to know that they fought each other in Edenia only for some unexplained reason.