It adds a better variety of characters to fight in the story mode rather than just characters that are on the roster. Makes it seem more realistic to me in a way, idk

I don't really see why it matters. Many of the lackeys, playable and unplayable ones alike, were fought twice. Reptile and Kano could have been NPCs, and it wouldn't have changed much.

I agree Ferra/Torr was just punching bags but seeing the updated fighting moves in all of three you mentioned especially the bubble graphics in Rain's water moves. I'm still hoping its a Kombat Pack 2 in the future

There could be a hundred different reasons why NRS picked who they picked to be NPC's. Why dwell on it?



Updated fighting moves? Bubble graphics? Their movesets were bare boned versions of their MK9 movesets. As for the "bubble graphics", everything got a fresh coat of paint. It's a new system. Far from a confirmation.

Well I guess, that could be the reason than

I think NRS simply didn't count on the fan base collectively explode into a writhing sea of pure rage by adding NPCs. Now they'll view it as an opportunity to make mo' money.

They spent their time thinking up fighters and cool things to do with them. You know, the *game*. And that turned out great.

But the story mode really is a mess. It was an afterthought. They stretched the story so hard to incorporate the new characters that barely make any sense. There were characters that they had to include for continuity sake, but didn't get finished in time for release. And even then they left some out. (For example Sheeva, Jade and Cyrax are totally missing for fuckall reasons.)

The new characters are good, but could have waited till MK11. A simpler story about Mileena becoming Khanum, then joining forces with Earthrealm to fight the forces of the Netherrealm.

When has a MK game ever said what happened to every character from the previous? Hell, some of the newbies from MK3 where never spoken about until Deception. At least this game did something most of those who didn't make the cut instead of mentioning them in a sentence of a bio/ending or adding a easter egg of them. The NPCs are a way around the fighting game mechanics to enhance the story.

Think of the NPCs as the Art Leans of MKX. Nobody is going around calling the movie writers lazy because Art wasn't a fully developed character with a backstory or arc. They are bonuses to enhance the scope of the game while keeping the fans updated on the whereabouts of other Kombatants who didn't make this game.

Think about if during Mavado's Konquest in Deadly Alliance we actually fought a NPC Kabal using the Hooksword style. It would have helped Mavado's cred and been much more interesting than, "Then, Mavado killed the Black Dragon member Kabal and took his hookswords."

Not enough time/resources to make them all full characters and balance them out before the game launched. Now that they have more money and time, they can either make them full characters as dlc like Tanya or just leave it as is.

Uh... all of them? These were just from Character Bios because that's all they had. All of them before the 3D era at least.
MK2
Sonya and Kano were captured and held hostage by Shao Khan. Sub-Zero's little brother is trying to avenge the original.

UMK3
Johnny Cage is killed by Shao Khan's extermination squad. (Originally the ninjas were absent because of contract disputes and trying to move towards a more western motif.)

MK4
The Edenians are absent (before Gold) because Shinnok conquered that realm first. Johnny Cage is revived by Raiden.

Then, with the introduction of winners like Kai and Jarek began the era of "no effort" which included characters like Hsu Hao and Movado.

MKII did explain the only two non returning characters and MK3 brought in everyone for UMK3, but Nightwolf, Kabal, Ermac, Smoke, Rain, Styker, Jade, and Motaro where never talked about until either Deadly Alliance, Decpetion (some were just there as an easter egg), or Armageddon.

So they haven't explained every absence from a game in 20 years, the first 2 out of 9 sequels, when only a couple characters didn't make it in.

No? This was one of the reasons why Deception's Konquest ended up being half-assed.

They took a bunch of completed characters and decided to gut them for no reason other than to make them not playable.

Because being a complete, playable MKX character takes MUCH MORE than just copy/pasting them from MK9 and call it a day? Why can't people understand this?

I believe they will put them in eventually and not only that but they'll go huge with dlc this time. I'm expecting atleast 10 to 12 fighters more + 6,7 arenas, new towers, secret fights with actual secret characters that are available only at certain time and some towers and they go away. More costumes, modes, new moves, finishers, krypt updates and what not. Wait and see!

I like the sound of it but I have a hard time believing people wouldn't bitch about the secret characters not being playable unless they were complete jokes (cyber-reptile).

I mean imagine if they made rain playable but smoke was a dlc only as a secret fight and not even for sale. People would bitch that there was content not even for sale the same way they bitch about content they have to pay for.

I agree with what's already been said. Makes the game feel more special / more real.

I liked it when the boss, sub-boss and hidden fighters were NPC. Has that arcade feel.

Also in terms of developing the characters, an NPC has no variations, no fatalities, no skins, no endings and so is easier to fit into a game than one extra character

How is making a model for Kabal and giving him another Kombatant's moves "taking a completed character and gutting him?"

they ran out of development time for them. They didn't want to delay the game so they launched it without those characters being fully playable

People bitch all the time. Fuck that. We must see eventually what's the reaction will be. Maybe they'll keep em secret for certain amount of time and when it get's old and they are no secret anymore they'll release them!

Alright then, then why make Kano a full-fledged playable character instead of Baraka or Sindel? Did he prove that much more important than either of them in the story that he needed upgraded gameplay?

Anyway, my gripe with this comes from all of the playable returnees with the exception of Shinnok, Tremor and Tanya being predictable, and how fresh Sindel and Rain would still feel as playable characters. As for Baraka, while not as fresh as those two, he's too memorable to get stale imo, and there was no logical reason to exclude him as a playable character but not Kano or any of the other returning enforcers.

Bump.

Just wanted to add that another reason I think it was a bad idea not to make them playable is because they were the only three fightable NPCs. If there were like seven or more, I'd understand not wanting to put in the extra effort for all of them.

They should've added all the npc's from the story mode to fight against :D I don't care if they have moveset from MK9. And actually include them in towers, not only in story.

This

I think the NPC fights in story mode were great one of my only critisms about the last game was the repetition of fights in story mode and making more of these NPC fights alleviates that somewhat.

People just always want what they can't have the choice of sindel, Baraka and rain made sense they were important to the story and warranted a decent story Involvement however none of them are that popular that they needed to
Be included in the game as playable so NRS left them out in favour of new and more Popular characters a very good move and I hope to see more of it in future NRS games.