It could have been interesting putting Mileena and Baraka in the same game and developing them. In deception, they had a little story arc with Bo Rai Cho of all people.

My story mode predictions was actually Mileena and Baraka side by side taking over the throne. Mileena is half human, but she's given an important role so no reason for Baraka to be another lacky. That's just lazy writing. With Mileena having a rebel army and Baraka leader of the Tarkatan, who are feared and used by any major evil character to kill whoever they want killed, they could've easily made Baraka her #1 general!

If NRS can come up with 3 variations for Kano they can come up with 3 for Baraka lol

Anyway im not sure, maybe they didn't think he was relevant enough to this games main story to be a playable character. I would have liked to see him in though.

Knife fighting, lasers, grappling -- all classic components of Kano's repertoire since MK3.

Baraka has... sword arms. That is his one thing.




This requires that they change Baraka so that he has blades coming out of every appendage, and thus fundamentally change what he actually is -- or take away the one gimmick he has just to make more variations. That's the whole thing here -- if you have to redraw the whole species from scratch or change how the character naturally acts to fill up variations, that's the problem. I'm not sold on a variation where you have to grind his bladed crotch on a dude's face just because you ran out of ideas after "sword arms."

Yes, they can make variations for Baraka with some imagination. As I outlined in my first post, a rushdown mode, a turtle mode, and an "Injustice power" variation that either makes him faster or temporarily unstoppable or whatever. Each of those styles would play very differently... but visually, and thematically, you're still just chopping up people with sword arms, all day long.

Don't get me wrong, I love Baraka. If you'd seen the massive boner I got when they used an updated Baraka as the terrifying mascot of MKD, you'd have been at least twice as impressed as you were offended. And he's fun as hell in MK9. But he just doesn't have a lot to offer for the Variation system. When you consider the fact that they had to give Kitana a whole other character's moveset just to make her interesting enough for three modes, and Baraka has far, far fewer tricks than she does, it really shouldn't be too much of a surprise if he doesn't make it.

I just gave you 3 variations and they don't have to re-create him that much..just some more blades..also please stop with the nerdy sexual references, makes this board really creepy! They found a way for Reptile who actually has all moves across the variations, just one where he can do longer combos, one where his stink causes damage and one where it slows down.

This is why I think variations suck.

I don't care for Baraka, but ever since Shaolin Monks, I've wanted to see him utilize the multiple blade sparks at once.

3 variations for Baraka:

Blades (emphasis on the blades themselves)
No blades (emphasis on grappling moves and hand-to-hand)
Shards (emphasis on shards projectiles)

There you go. Wasn't too hard at all.

Hey mate, you were the one selling tickets to this creep show with all the knifey face rape.




Reptile also has a lot of different things he can do across all variations, with his acid and forceballs and ninja moves. There is a lot of variation in just the base character. Then they give him his invisibility for one variant, a persistent acid cloud in another, and super reptile reflexes in the third. None of these require him to grow new body parts (although he could totally do that too!) or sacrifice his one and only weapon to create a tactically inferior fighting style.

Baraka? I really do hate to have to keep bringing this up, but sword arms. That's it. You can change up his playstyle for three variations, but you'll never be doing anything other than hack-'n-slashing because that's what Baraka does.

Baraka has enough Special Moves throughout history to get variations.

Universals: Blade spark, blade charge, chop chops

Variation 1: regular attacks get augmented to blade attacks like Scorpion's sword variation

Variation 2: He gets his MKSM air blade spark, and a ground spark like Nightwing

Variation 3: Blade spin and how about some bite attack because those teeth.

He could even hold his blade spin and spin across the screen like Kung Lao does.

Nope, it's not too hard to say that one variation is all about the blade spark. You'll notice, though, that Kano's zone-laser variant also has some grenades to keep things lively, so you're not just shooting three kinds of lasers all day. Plus more variety from his universals.

So far we have one Baraka with a little more blades than usual, one with a little more sparks than usual, and one where he grapples you while using less of the one weapon he has. That's not much "variation," guys. Once again, you're changing the playstyle without actually adding real variety to the character. Some people seem to think that making good variations is dead simple, but it's really not.

He should have made the cut. Plain and simple. NRS fucked up BIG TIME on this roster.....makes me so fucking mad. The roster is just as important as game play. Hype is at a 5 after the roster leak, when it was at an 11 when I had hope for good characters. Only thing that will save this game for me at this point is the dlc rumors of spawn. Hope that one is true, not holding my breath tho.

Didn't we see Baraka in the story trailer? Granted I don't think he'll be playable but at least he might have some role in the story as Mileena's henchman.

Bullshit. It just takes imagination and creativity. They could easily work 3 logical variations around Baraka. Saying they couldn't is close-minded. They could also plug him into the story 20 different ways.

I don't want to hear the argument that "he needs a break" either. If anybody needs a break it's freaking Sonya, Johnny, Cage, Jax, Kung Lao and all these other characters that are still in despite being worn out far beyond their worth AND their relatives now being in MKX.

Yeah he has always had his knives, eye laser, and cannonball moves, but how much did he utilize each of those things? Based on my memory he never used them all that much besides a simple special, he didn't even use his eye laser as a special until MKDA and it was one special with it.

Baraka uses his arm blades in multiple ways, projectile, charge, spin/wake up, blade shredders/trap. He can have a regular variation like in MK9 where the blades only really come out for specials, and a variation where his blades stay out for his regulars increasing his reach, all they would have to do is make up another one for him, which probably wouldn't be too hard.

Not sure what they could come up with but I know they could do it. I stand by what I said if they can make Kano work, they can make just about anybody work with the variation system.

Well... I agree with some of the stuff you said.

The roster is not impressive at all, unique characters like Kabal,Baraka,Nitara,Havik and others seemed to be pushed aside for fucking SF characters.

But not all the characters in the MKX roster are bad in fact a lot of them are good, it's just that you really don't feel like it's an MK game. For me, MK has always been a fighting game where there are a lot of unique characters fighting instead of humans just fighting humans.

We still have "some" unique characters in MKX but it's not enough, Kabal needs to be there. I just hate the fact they gave what should be his move to Reptile which is slowing time. Fucking sucks.

But WHO are you to say anyone's worn out their worth, especially with a Scorpion avatar and signature?

I must admit, that shit made me laugh.

Seriously if anybody has worn out their welcome, it's Scorpion and Sub-zero. But I still like them, probably because they were the two Original ninjas along side Reptile the Hidden ninja.

I will honestly never get tired of those 3 ninjas but he does have a point, I don't think anybody should be in a position to say this character has worn out his welcome without pointing out that the yellow and blue ninjas have been there since day one, and never missed a game. Scorpion missed one but subby never missed one.

Irrelevant. Scorpion and Sub Zero are permanent fixtures. How long do we have to beat this drum? They're not even the emphasis of the game. That is the Outworld Civil War which for some reason involves all the same Special Forces characters we've been seeing since the dawn of MK's time in every form of media, and their relatives, and not the leader of the Tarkatan Horde from Outworld who would make a ton of sense in this game.

No blades, blades and grapple biting style. Baraka makes a lot of sense, but DLC is our only hope. I bet he would sell a ton, just imagine how scary they can make him look!! He's very recognizable for players all over the world and in the story so.

Irrelevant. You say Scorpion and Sub-Zero will never miss a game because they are vital for whatever reason, but apparently so are Liu, Cage, Sonya, etc, that's why they keep getting in games. Your opinion on these characters will not change that. And what you said about them not being the focal point of the story really has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

That's a pretty...reductive way of looking at things. The first variation is of the same caliber as other variations deemed worthy. And if 'more blades than usual' means Baraka gets additional range or a popup then he would play way different, more aggressive. Likewise a low and air projectile would greatly improve his keepaway / zoning. I'll accept that Baraka's potential variations wouldn't give him brand new powers out of the blue but that's not what variations is about. With what he has his gameplay can vary a lot across variations.

Really hoping and fingers crossed for Baraka to be in the game.

I don't really like Baraka, but I would love for him to be one of the few actually offering Mileena blind LOYALTY as one of her generals, tarkatan allegiance.

Reptile is more popular than Baraka and offers more opportunities in terms of gameplay I guess.

There's a reason none of mileena's henchmen are in the game, and 2 of them are one of my favorites so i hope they dont get shafted.


We just don't know that reason yet.