Long story short, they're rebooting everything...AGAIN! After 2 games they're rebooting everything again! Another freakin' reboot! Let me explain, "Mortal Kombat" the previous continuity ended with Shoa Khan claiming victory over Blaze, dominating Raiden and finally conquering all realms, only for Raiden to send a message to himself in the past in order to prevent Armageddon. I thought this was genius, because not only did it reboot the series but it didn't mess with anything that came before it. And in doing it this way they managed to actually establish an actual canon and clean up some of the problems in the previous games. Now with better graphics and a better system, "Mortal Kombat" (2011) was able to rehash the plots of "Mortal Kombat, I, II & III", and considering how the 3rd ended there was no telling where the story would go from here.
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| Hell of an ending. |
"Mortal Kombat X" that's X and not "10" dropped in 2015 and I was again excited. Now it boasted new characters, a changing of the guard and a tie-in comic book (that really didn't matter) to go along with it. Despite my initial issues with the game, Shinnok being the main villain was sadly obvious considering Shinnok would steal desire revenge again Raiden. So Shinnok took center stage as the main villain and "Mortal Kombat X" was once again no longer about the tournament but protecting Earth Realm, and we gotta new crop of fighters fit for the job, Cassie Cage daughter of Sonya and Johnny, Jaqui Briggs, daughter of Jax, Takeda son of fan-favorite breakout character Kenshi and Kung Jin, ancestor of Kung Lao. Each character represented the legacy characters in their own right and was their own person. They weren't generic they were interesting and dynamic characters ready to take the helm.
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| You guys had so much potential... |
"Mortal Kombat X" gave us a familiar story ("Mortal Kombat 4") with unfamiliar characters thus making the story less predictable and in the end good prevailed, but the story ended with Dark Raiden now corrupted by Shinnok's amulet and effectively declaring war on any realm that sought to attack Earth Realm or at this point in the story The Netherealm (now ruled by Liu Kang & Kitana). The ending of "Mortal Kombat X" left many doors open for just about anything to happen. In the full scope of "Mortal Kombat" mythology, a lot of things could happen. Since "Mortal Kombat: Deception" new realms were introduced and thus new threats were created, the biggest being the former ruler of Outworld Onaga The Dragon King.
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| Onaga get so many bitches they call him King Bitches. |
In "Mortal Kombat: Deception" we were introduced to Shujinko, a young Earth Realm warrior chosen by an ancient spirit Damashi (The Dragon King in disguise) to become the chosen warrior. Foolishly Shujinko spent several years acquiring Kamidogus and eventually caused The Dragon King's resurrection. This was going on in the background of "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance" because, at the end of "Deadly Alliance" when Raiden goes to confront Quan Chi & Shang Tsung, Onaga returns. Something similar could have been happening during "Mortal Kombat X" where after Cassie defeats Shinnok we then see an aged man steal Shinnok's amulet from the safe house and place it on an alter announcing to Damashi that he's brought all the kamidogus together. That would have given legacy fans something to bite on and new fans something to ask about.
Or they could have had Cetrion (an elder goddess of virtue and what not) state that Shinnok is dead and an elder god mustn't die or else it would disrupt the balance between the realms and then have her charge Hotaru to restore order to the realms. This would have introduced The Order Realm, Hotaru and opened the door to his conflict in regards to the uprising in his own realm and the Chaos Realm. From there you could introduce Havik as a force who is keen on keeping the realms as disrupted as possible by maybe utilizing the Kamidogus to transform all realms into The Chaos Realm, and Hotaru who is attempting to use the Kamidogus to resurrect Shinnok and Earth Realm making sure neither happens. Or they could have Zebron arrive and declare he's fighting for the freedom of his people.
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| He'd be the most broken character in the game too. |
Anything would have been better than what actually happened. Now we were introduced to Kronika the Keeper Of Time, a Titan and the mastermind behind all goings-on in "Mortal Kombat", and she literally breaks the story because instead of reshaping time to eliminate Raiden, why not go back and stop Raiden from killing Shinnok altogether? All that aside, by the end of "Mortal Kombat 11" Liu Kang and Raiden (and maybe Kitana) work together to reshape the realms and thus begin a new era...except Liu Kang is a hero and thus wouldn't re-establish a tournament to prevent one realm from conquering another. So "Mortal Kombat 11's" ending could be seen as the literal ending of "Mortal Kombat" the franchise because no way was Liu Kang going to allow another Shao Khan to rise to power, no way was Liu Kang gonna allow another Shang Tsung to run around stealing people's souls. No way was Liu Kang gonna allow innocent people to be murdered.
Sure Raiden and Fujin sat by while all sorts of atrocities were happening but they're gods and have been around long enough for such a thing to be expected from mortals and beside Raiden and Fujin didn't have a hand in shaping the realm or its inhabitants and therefore were merely observers to what was already established. Liu Kang, on the other hand, can longer claim to be an observer, by the end or "Mortal Kombat 11" he is ALL THAT EXISTS and therefore is able to shape ALL REALMS and ALL PEOPLE to his whims and at the end of "Mortal Kombat: Aftermath" it's revealed that Liu Kang has allowed "Mortal Kombat" to exist and has chosen Kung Lao to represent Earth Realm...NO! Believe you me if controlled history, I wouldn't have allowed slavery, The Holocaust, or any massive killing of people to happen.
Also, the idea that Shang Tsung designed Kronika's crown is beyond stupid, Kronika can't operate her hourglass without her crown yet she didn't invent said crown, a mortal did and she is somehow The Keeper Of Time despite the fact that she needed a mortal to make her an object in order for her to perform her duty as Keeper of Time? If that's the case than did Shang Tsung invent The hourglass too because how would The Crown control the Hourglass, if the Hourglass is part in parcel with Kronika being The Keeper of Time she wouldn't need the crown. Consider this, Mjolnir doesn't make Thor The God of Thunder, Mjolnir just helps him channel his power, Thor is God of Thunder with or without Mjolnir. But apparently, Kronika had this Hourglass and before Shang Tsung came along the poor girl just had no clue what she was doing with it...seriously?
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| I actually have no clue what I'm doing, lawl! |
Passing that nugget of stupidity by for a moment let's get back to brass tax which is, THEY REBOOTED THE FREAKIN' SERIES AGAIN! They didn't have to! They could have ended it with Liu Kang defeating Kronika and thus becoming a God, now instead of Raiden it'd be Liu Kang being the defender of Earth Realm instructing Cassie, Takeda, Jaqui and Kung Jin on how to protect Earth Realm with some other Elder God (probably Cetrion) taking over as Keeper of Time, an uninvolved figure who has no concern for either side and just wants to keep history and time flowing, that'd have left things in an interesting place and would have taken Liu Kang out of the spotlight and turned him into a mentor figure to this new generation. But no, we've rebooted the series and now everyone is dead and Kung Lao is now the star of the show.
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| You're gonna fight in this suck ass tournament that I honestly could have abolished but didn't because I'm a total dumbass, enjoy! |
That's not gonna cut it! We had new stars! We had a new generation and Nether Realm Studios pissed it all away! "Mortal Kombat: Aftermath" had the potential to show us where we would go and instead it's showing us where we've ready been. The next "Mortal Kombat" game is going to feature Kung Lao as the main character and possibly a new villain, maybe some new faces and a few old ones but the story won't be that interesting...because everyone's dead...and if they're not than Liu Kang is an idiot for allowing Shao Khan to exist because let's be clear here by the end of "Mortal Kombat 11" there are No Gods, No Elder Gods (they were all gone) , No Realms, No People, just Liu Kang (and some times Kitana), Raiden and an Hourglass. Liu Kang had to reshape reality so if Shoa Khan does exist in the next game Liu Kang fails at everything.
All this to say I'm pretty disappointed in how this game turned out. I was excited about the DLC but it let me down. This isn't to say I didn't enjoy playing it, I had fun playing it but the story left so much to be desired. Even getting choose who won felt inconsequential because it didn't tell me anything about the next game. All in all, I'm still very curious about what the next "Mortal Kombat" game will bring us but I might skip out on buying it when it comes out and wait for a Komplete Kollection for $19.99. I'll catch you guys for the next "Mortal Kombat" game probably dropping in 2024. Take it easy, ya'll.
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