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Li Mei's combos are so satisfying to pull off visually. https://i.imgur.com/PL09xik.mp4
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Sep 18, 2023 14:38
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If we get periodic story mode dlcs with character packs that advance the plot of the new era that's actually a cool model. I'm glad I don't have to wait till MK II to see more of this era. I'll accept the guest character jamboree if we get good fun MK characters and goofy mk plot as well. TulliusCicero fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Sep 18, 2023 |
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Sep 18, 2023 14:40
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I hope they have Fletcher from Whiplash skin for Omni Man. Also a few lines from that movie
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Sep 18, 2023 14:43
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Mover posted:Shang Tsung talk: I think it’s unclear whether Shang Tsung et al were being explicitly punished with awful lives or if Liu Kang just gave them humble lives without superpowers, and Shang is just so intrinsically a little poo poo that he still immediately turned around and started selling bottled piss to sick little kids because it would give him even the smallest advantage in life. Spoilering for story talk: Shao very clearly was made to be poo poo because Liu made sure he was sickly growing up and then something changed to make him a big boy. Quan Chi was stuck in the mines doing back breaking labor. Shang Tsung was stuck being a huckster. Even if Liu didn't "intentionally" do it, he subconsciously was petty as Hell
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Sep 18, 2023 14:53
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Diabetic posted:I know it's been said to death on this one but I think, had they had enough time, the New Era would've been more focused on the past with the first Kung Lao. They had to change it at some point to just use the standard roster as the template. I tend to think so too but on the other hand, it's not like they didn't walk back all their other big obvious teasers for their other games - MK9 supposedly wiped the slate clean but being dead didn't really keep many characters out of the game or even keep them dead, MKX promised edgelord Raiden going against other realms but rushed through that and literally deleted him ASAP, etc. I still think they could have kept a lot of the supposedly-necessary characters had they done the Great Kung Lao timeline, too - a ton of the characters have super-long lifespans, others like Scorpion and Sub-Zero are mantles they could technically throw onto other characters without having to change them too much, etc. TulliusCicero posted:He made him even WORSE than before Yes and also in the sense that he's a Reptile-tier jobber in the story
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Sep 18, 2023 15:00
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Mover posted:Shang Tsung talk: I think it’s unclear whether Shang Tsung et al were being explicitly punished with awful lives or if Liu Kang just gave them humble lives without superpowers, and Shang is just so intrinsically a little poo poo that he still immediately turned around and started selling bottled piss to sick little kids because it would give him even the smallest advantage in life. That's the way I read it; the Hourglass makes you the Keeper of Time, not the Abrahamic God with total power of all of reality. Everything that happens is still, broadly, going to happen -- there will be the same realms, all the same people will exist, etc. What you can do is influence the paths their existences will take, whether the realms will exist in harmony or discord, whether specific people will have great opportunities in life or be minor players. But they still have free will within those paths -- Shang Tsung's fate wasn't to be a snake oil salesman, it was simply to not be a powerful sorcerer working for Shao Khan. He's just such a irrepressible bastard that he ended up doing something scummy even as a powerless nobody in the boonies. Quan Chi probably did something similar to earn himself that place in the mines because he's a grade-A motherfucker at heart, necromancer or not.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:03
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Liu Kang should have made Shang Tsung a gamer so that his bitterness couldn't be directed toward anything meaningful.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:06
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exquisite tea posted:Liu Kang should have made Shang Tsung a gamer so that his bitterness couldn't be directed toward anything meaningful. Shang Riccitiello
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Sep 18, 2023 15:07
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Shao was just given Captain America's backstory, but he had none of the traits that made Cap a good person.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:08
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Going forward: We've now experienced essentially 3 Armageddons, the difference now, is that the universe is continuing on, but I do like how everything has circled back 3 times, it just didn't mean the end in this one, at least not yet.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:08
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I think it would have been interesting if Liu Kang had made Shang Tsung a monk or something. A life where Liu can train him to do good while also being able to keep a close eye on him in case he goes bad. There's probably an interesting story you can tell there where a seemingly good Shang Tsung becomes Earthrealm's champion, and Liu Kang still isn't sure if he can trust him or not.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:16
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Rhonne posted:I think it would have been interesting if Liu Kang had made Shang Tsung a monk or something. A life where Liu can train him to do good while also being able to keep a close eye on him in case he goes bad. There's probably an interesting story you can tell there where a seemingly good Shang Tsung becomes Earthrealm's champion, and Liu Kang still isn't sure if he can trust him or not. That's what makes it so interesting: He can't because he can't let go of the fact that he just hates him, even if it's not even his Shang, same with Quan, same with Shao
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Sep 18, 2023 15:24
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Diabetic posted:Also another thing that wasn't rightly explained is that Shang Tsung when he fights transform into his old man version in and out, which makes no sense, as the opening cutscene shows he uses that look as a disguise and it was just make-up. The old man disguise does make me realize there's a fantastic piece of foreshadowing in the opening bit. Damashi compliments Shang on his use of the old man disguise, pointing out that he's using a form that makes him seem far more trustworthy, making it easier to fool others. All the while, this is being said by another version of Shang Tsung using a soothing and almost angelic disguise in order to fool someone with a false bargain.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:27
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TulliusCicero posted:That's what makes it so interesting: Exactly right, same goes with Raiden. Raiden isn't HIS Raiden, but you can tell he absolutely has a soft spot for him. I would argue it's not even Raiden incarnate at all, just some poor schlub that is dealing with Kung Lao being second all over again.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:28
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This all makes Sub-Zero really funny because Liu Kang gave him a pretty drat good life, and he still turned on everyone. Bi-Han is just an rear end in a top hat.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:31
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Rhonne posted:This all makes Sub-Zero really funny because Liu Kang gave him a pretty drat good life, and he still turned on everyone. Bi-Han is just an rear end in a top hat. Which makes it hilarious to me that Liu probably thought Scorp and Sub were brothers originally and never thought anything else cause he never got to know them.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:34
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Diabetic posted:Exactly right, same goes with Raiden. Raiden isn't HIS Raiden, but you can tell he absolutely has a soft spot for him. I would argue it's not even Raiden incarnate at all, just some poor schlub that is dealing with Kung Lao being second all over again. And now Shang has found his island of horror again and about to get into all sorts of shanigans, he didn't renounce evil or something after Armageddon II, where as if Shang had a better start in life from Liu Kang, God Shang might have tempted him and he might have been like "nah that sounds pretty evil". Liu made Shang's desperate pathetic existence, and Shang readily accepted any better deal. Liu Kang planted those seeds. Like imagine your life was awful and desperate, and someone tells you "actually it wasn't this way before, God just personally hates you, but I can help you!" You would be pretty pissed and ready to take that offer
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Sep 18, 2023 15:34
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Malcolm Excellent posted:I hope they have Fletcher from Whiplash skin for Omni Man. Also a few lines from that movie lol his kombo challenge making you redo the juggles over and over while saying "not quite my tempo" It'd never happen but Psycho Goreman is probably my dream DLC character
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Sep 18, 2023 15:37
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Rhonne posted:I think it would have been interesting if Liu Kang had made Shang Tsung a monk or something. A life where Liu can train him to do good while also being able to keep a close eye on him in case he goes bad. There's probably an interesting story you can tell there where a seemingly good Shang Tsung becomes Earthrealm's champion, and Liu Kang still isn't sure if he can trust him or not. we essentially see "good" Shang and Quan Chis during the final chapter so it's very possible they come from an alternate timeline where Liu Kang had this foresight As it currently stands in the new era timeline, Liu Kang only had one shot to get things right so he mightve just assumed "give Shang and Quan and Shao humbling lives so they can't cause any damage since I've seen in the past that they are tempted by ambition and opportunism". With only one whack at it, can't exactly blame the guy and as pointed out if it weren't for the alternate Shang Tsung timeline invasion it looked like it would've worked perfectly fine
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Sep 18, 2023 15:37
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Side note: I actually love the little detail that current Shang doesn't have his counterpart's super martial arts wizard form, he's scrawnier and has claws to supplement it, and he's more of an alchemist in his moveset from his snake oil background. I wish evil Shang Tsung had been Tagawa, would have thematically made more sense, but eh TulliusCicero fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Sep 18, 2023 |
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Sep 18, 2023 15:42
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I hope Shang Tsung and Quan Chi remain best buddies and never try to betray each other in this timeline. I liked their banter together during Shang's chapter.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:46
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Rhonne posted:I hope Shang Tsung and Quan Chi remain best buddies and never try to betray each other in this timeline. I liked their banter together during Shang's chapter. loving same I like their bromance, they are weirdly enduring in this era
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Sep 18, 2023 15:48
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TulliusCicero posted:loving same That was the best, especially: Shang and Quan Chi save Raiden and Shang is like "Remember this Raiden, we didn't have to save you" Not Raiden: "Yeah, thanks but this all happened because of you." Shang internally: "poo poo, yeah you right." At least they seem a bit different.
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Sep 18, 2023 16:02
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As a counter to the Shang Tsung stuff, I think there's something genuinely interesting about Liu Kang's version of Raiden in his timeline. At first I figured they were just retconning his design completely for the game, but story mode shows that the thicker white guy Raiden still happened in the previous timelines. There's a feeling that MK1 Raiden is "god making man in his own image" but in both the sense that he is Liu's tribute to his god mentor and that he is Liu's self-insert protagonist. Instead of Raiden being reimagined as a human, it feels more like Liu created a son who he can live through vicariously, but named him after an old friend.
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Sep 18, 2023 16:02
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exquisite tea posted:Li Mei's combos are so satisfying to pull off visually. I always attempt to pick up a character in all of these before eventually getting frustrated at always dropping combos and bailing. Li Mei is definitely top of my list to fail at learning. Johnny Cage is up there too. I never really learned combo timing in the others, so I'll just start from scratch here. What it looks like to me is you dial up a string, likely ending in some kind of move cancel or kameo, pause for it to land, dial up the next section, pause, etc.? I have not been able to find these myself in training mode because every string I do ends at a point where I'm like "They are so goddamn far away from me now how could it possibly continue?" PostNouveau fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Sep 18, 2023 |
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Sep 18, 2023 16:04
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i am hearing things or is the one of the levels using mk movie music, not the theme but music sounds like it was from it edit: yeah round 2's music sounds like it has a riff from the mk movie, namely the art v goro track (or is that a riff from the first game too, i cant remember now) 2:14 (spoiled cos its last level) https://youtu.be/PiNaeR0V41I?si=CQS_0YDksNinhRIm&t=132 0:44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Vbi9s_z7Q&t=41s Johnny Postnemonic fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Sep 18, 2023 |
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Sep 18, 2023 16:05
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TulliusCicero posted:And now Shang has found his island of horror again and about to get into all sorts of shanigans, he didn't renounce evil or something after Armageddon II, where as if Shang had a better start in life from Liu Kang, God Shang might have tempted him and he might have been like "nah that sounds pretty evil". Liu made Shang's desperate pathetic existence, and Shang readily accepted any better deal. Liu Kang planted those seeds. I mean 'your life is filled with suffering because you were an absolute monster in a previous life' literally describes the buddhist concept of karma but most buddhist people don't try to end the world, I think Shang is just intrinsically a bit of a poo poo.
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Sep 18, 2023 16:17
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Diabetic posted:That was the best, especially: I think the fact that he even has the "oh poo poo I got betrayed and hosed up" and has the slightest bit of remourse shows he's not COMPLETELY his original in temperament I personally love this version of him: he's basically the Frieza of MK at this point: still very much a villain, but moving towards Antivillain ever so slightly, begrudgingly working with good if it's in his interest, and chewing the scenery and annoying everyone with his  He's great in this
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Sep 18, 2023 16:33
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lol avoiding spoilers in this thread until I get the game for my birthday on Thursday is a lot of fun, the thread's turned into a goddamn CIA document. I appreciate the effort you're all taking to spoiler stuff - you're real ones. 
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Sep 18, 2023 16:38
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I datamined the Nokia N-Gage version of MK1 and the guest DLC characters for KP2 will be Gollum, Audrey II, and Dark Betty from Riverdale.
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Sep 18, 2023 16:45
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Gavok posted:As a counter to the Shang Tsung stuff, I think there's something genuinely interesting about Liu Kang's version of Raiden in his timeline. At first I figured they were just retconning his design completely for the game, but story mode shows that the thicker white guy Raiden still happened in the previous timelines. There's a feeling that MK1 Raiden is "god making man in his own image" but in both the sense that he is Liu's tribute to his god mentor and that he is Liu's self-insert protagonist. Instead of Raiden being reimagined as a human, it feels more like Liu created a son who he can live through vicariously, but named him after an old friend. I like this take on it, especially because the old Raiden designs made zero loving sense to me. Even when they finally made characters like Kung Lao and Liu Kang distinctly more Asian in MK11, Raiden still looks like just some Polish guy in a straw hat.
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Sep 18, 2023 16:46
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Diabetic posted:Also another thing that wasn't rightly explained is that Shang Tsung when he fights transform into his old man version in and out, which makes no sense, as the opening cutscene shows he uses that look as a disguise and it was just make-up. This is actually explained! Old man make up is from the prologue where Shang Tsung is a nobody. By the time you play as him/fight him he has been working as a sorcerer in Outworld and learned shapeshifting magic from Reptile.
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Sep 18, 2023 16:55
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TulliusCicero posted:I think the fact that he even has the "oh poo poo I got betrayed and hosed up" and has the slightest bit of remourse shows he's not COMPLETELY his original in temperament It's definitely the most compelling version of Shang to date and re-positioning him as an antivillain is a great call. Classic Shang is probably the greatest "I do evil" fighting game villains of all time but the shake up is cool. I like that the new era has very few villains whose core motivation is just "do evil". Shao and Bi Han feel their life's purpose is squandered and don't want to be subservient to a higher power. Quan and Shang are both nobodies who found out they're being punished for their sins in an entirely different lifetime. Reiko is a product of war and only knows to fight and make his general and surrogate father figure proud. Nitara needs her people to not starve and Havik sees himself as a liberator. It's a nice change of pace from the original timeline where most of the villain motivations are essentially just conquest and/or power- in the new era all of these characters can justifiably see themselves as the hero of their own story, whereas originally Shang and Shao just kind of knew they were evil and liked it
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Sep 18, 2023 17:03
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I do love the idea that Bi-Han is a huge rear end in a top hat in any timeline. The voice actor and his design really sell his assholishness in general. I hope in the story DLC he gets to be the main villain for a little while. Also I miss the Black/ Red dragons, interdimensional crimelord wars are cool as gently caress, (with the exception of Hsu Hao and Jarek and Kobra) and I hope they still exist in some capacity. Would love if Sonya ended up as a crime tyme lady or something due to Liu Kang fuckery
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Sep 18, 2023 17:15
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I'm giggling at the idea that In ANY timeline Sektor is like "HAVE YOU CONSIDERED PUTTING YOUR BRAIN IN A ROBOT SUB ZERO?!"  Like he is obsessed with that goal in any time line lmao, like the Elon Musk Neurolink of MK.
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Sep 18, 2023 17:41
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He killed so many ninja monkeys, but its ok they were all terminally ill
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Sep 18, 2023 17:48
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Jamesman posted:I datamined the Nokia N-Gage version of MK1 and the guest DLC characters for KP2 will be Gollum, Audrey II, and Dark Betty from Riverdale. Archie Vs Actual Bear dlc when?
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Sep 18, 2023 17:51
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I think you guys are giving Liu Kang a little bit too much credit/blame. One of the first things he mentions is that free will still exists, and it seems like some souls simply have to exist (or else why would Shang Tsung make a Liu Kang at all, or all the other titans make their own Shang Tsungs). It seems like he stripped Shang Tsung of his magic and gave him an inconsequential life in a rural village -- pretty close to the "just take him to a monastery" thing someone else suggested. He wanted Tsung to live a humble life and learn redemption that way, but Shang Tsung is inherently a deciever and he ran off to be a con artist. From the lesser fragments we know, it seems like he tried to do something similar with Quan Chi and Shao.
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Sep 18, 2023 17:53
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General writing thoughts: does anyone feel like the set up of Shang Tsung would have been better if he was manipulated by Damashi/ Onaga, like a variable Liu Kang couldn't possibly forsee? I was thinking how that might have worked better if the big bad is Onaga, because Liu Kang wouldn't even be aware of that fucker, being dead for all of it. He could even still help Shang and Quan set up the Deadly Alliance Although I guess without evil Shang this Shang and Quan would have no idea who they are in other timelines 
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Sep 18, 2023 17:57
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CapnAndy posted:I think you guys are giving Liu Kang a little bit too much credit/blame. One of the first things he mentions is that free will still exists, and it seems like some souls simply have to exist (or else why would Shang Tsung make a Liu Kang at all, or all the other titans make their own Shang Tsungs). It seems like he stripped Shang Tsung of his magic and gave him an inconsequential life in a rural village -- pretty close to the "just take him to a monastery" thing someone else suggested. He wanted Tsung to live a humble life and learn redemption that way, but Shang Tsung is inherently a deciever and he ran off to be a con artist. From the lesser fragments we know, it seems like he tried to do something similar with Quan Chi and Shao. Yea I didnt mind it at all in addition to what you said Liu Kang also mentioned that he basically had 1 shot at setting all the destiny's up at the beginning of time, and from there on he just let the things run and the free will would make or break it. Shao was not supposed to JUST be weak, its that he was weak but had a father who would push him and nurture him. He thought being weak as a child would have humbled him a bit. Shang Tsung was not destined to be a con artist who got beat up by everyone all the time, he could have just lived a normal life!
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Sep 18, 2023 18:00
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