Everything before 50% story completion was great.

[PeaceThroughPower]

Things went to complete ♥♥♥♥ after the 50% or 60% mark, shame. I was completely fine with 1 new timeline with re-imagined character roles. The world building was going great. Then, we go down the path of several existing timelines at war with one another where anything can happen in a split second with dozens upon dozens of alternate character versions popping up when needed. Oh boy.

[GLiTcHeD]

Agreed, I kinda liked the whole back-to-basics style they had and they could've taken that in a whole new direction but then at the half point mark it's basically the same story as usual.

They could have shown how certain characters started up factions and stuff like that or how lives played out but nope...

Missed opportunity to say the least.

[InvaderDib]

I wanted to see a new take on old characters. Which we got for the most part and would love to see them explored even further. But I'm kind of on board with the multiple timelines as well. For the simple reason that it kind of makes all of MK11's tower endings cannon to each character. Something MK has never really done. Which makes Kano being mentioned in the story of MK1 hilarious to me. It also made me very happy that my head cannon of Shang Tsung winning Aftermath a reality. I could also see this as a jumping off point for new stories within different timelines. Fingers crossed they come in form of Shaolin Monks style games.

With that said. I completely understand why people aren't to happy with it. It is kind of easy way out incase players didn't like the character changes. They can always just jump timelines with other ideas. I also wanted to see Liu Kang to learn a lesson for messing with people's lives. Like no matter what he does. Some things are inevitable. Like Shang Tsung being evil, Jarrod dies, balance is never achieved, etc... I also wanted to see Sindel craves power with a firm hand. While didn't mind her being good I think her turning would show some things cannot be changed. But hey, let's see where the story goes from here. If nothing else the Armageddon act was great for some fun and laughs.

[sg1darkcalling]

Yeah but if you think about it the time line story is simply to justify and sell skins. Since each skin is an alternate time line version of a character. It also allows them to sell all of the DLC KOMBAT packs they want over the years

I'm not complaining. The game plays great and i'm looking forward to maining DOOM SLAYER and ONAGA and MOTARO one day

[rckrz6]

yeah when they went full multiverse i was like damn it

[Cheezie]

Originally posted by rckrz6:

yeah when they went full multiverse i was like damn it

I kinda of liked it except...until they blew right into infinite timelines in a giant war. Hated that. Why not have a Mortal Kombat between Liu Kangs timeline and Shang Tsungs timeline? Man that would have been better...

[Peerington]

Usually this is always a BS cop out when introducing timelines, but In my opinion, this is a necessary cop out. Mortal Kombat has always been inconsistent with it's lore. If they are capable, they should use this advantage to explain the timelines are inaccurate from the smallest details (Sheeva's blood color mentioned in a mirror match in MK11) and major ones (Sindel's retcon in MK11).

=========*Spoilers*=========
Geras mentioning timelines concurrently moving alongside the main timeline makes the theory possible.

Timelines in MK is still vague and mysterious that even Geras doesn't fully know and he has lived billions of lifetimes.

Liu Kang despite his wisdom, can be wrong in some cases. For example, he said that Rain taking away godhood was a good thing because he never uses it for good. Yet, we have a good demigod Rain in the final chapter aiding Liu Kang against Shang Tsung, if selected. He also took Raiden's godhood due to potentially going mad with power, but he forgot that he conquered that darkness. Mortal Raiden, even acknowledged this:

"Making me mortal and incapable of such anger was to keep me from following his footsteps. Though I understood the reasons why, I felt I had been done a disservice. To survive the coming battles, I may need the edge that only great rage can bring."

Bringing in Titan Havik can potentially turn out good for the story as a whole if the writer does it right. Since his nature is chaos, seeing the MK lore in constant disarray would make him impressed and enforces his belief in the nature of chaos.

[Narky]

Originally posted by InvaderDib:

I wanted to see a new take on old characters. Which we got for the most part and would love to see them explored even further. But I'm kind of on board with the multiple timelines as well. For the simple reason that it kind of makes all of MK11's tower endings cannon to each character. Something MK has never really done. Which makes Kano being mentioned in the story of MK1 hilarious to me. It also made me very happy that my head cannon of Shang Tsung winning Aftermath a reality. I could also see this as a jumping off point for new stories within different timelines. Fingers crossed they come in form of Shaolin Monks style games.

With that said. I completely understand why people aren't to happy with it. It is kind of easy way out incase players didn't like the character changes. They can always just jump timelines with other ideas. I also wanted to see Liu Kang to learn a lesson for messing with people's lives. Like no matter what he does. Some things are inevitable. Like Shang Tsung being evil, Jarrod dies, balance is never achieved, etc... I also wanted to see Sindel craves power with a firm hand. While didn't mind her being good I think her turning would show some things cannot be changed. But hey, let's see where the story goes from here. If nothing else the Armageddon act was great for some fun and laughs.

It was already firmly established that Sindel only went evil because of Shao's influence in the original timeline where he corrupted her with his magics.

Bi-Han is still an *sshole across all timelines—which plays into the Original story in that the evil in Bi-Han's bloodline is inherent, Kuai Liang - the younger brother and then at the time the new Subzero and Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei - has a conversation with Raiden in Mortal Kombat: Mythologies, showing that evil is within him as well. But Kuai Liang has a good heart and is able to rise above it. No matter the outcome, Bi-han is destined to become an evil b*stard.

Shang Tsung is still an evil man - the only reason he sides with Liu Kang is because he's a coward with no choice. He was the same with Shao (Khan) in the original timeline; submissive because his life depends on it.

it all plays into the idea that Liu Kang's interpretation of the realms is inherently flawed no matter how many times a person tries - that's the point of the story. Kronika failed, Liu Kang failed.

The Hourglass isn't meant to be tampered with - time is meant to flow.

So if NRS plays their cards right, this is all going to lead into the Timeline simply repeating itself with differing spices of flavor involved. Such as Bi-Han murders the new Timeline's Hamuri and Kuai Liang and destroys the newly formed Shirai Ryu in revenge for his little Brother's betrayal, creating Revenant Scorpion 2.0, as an example.

Or Kuai Liang kills Bi-Han in a confrontation and inadvertently causes the creation of the Wraith, Noob Saibot; who in turn gets revenge by murdering Hamuri and killing Kuai Liang, causing the creation of Revenant/Demon Scorpion.

[Konel]

Originally posted by PeaceThroughPower:

Things went to complete ♥♥♥♥ after the 50% or 60% mark, shame. I was completely fine with 1 new timeline with re-imagined character roles. The world building was going great. Then, we go down the path of several existing timelines at war with one another where anything can happen in a split second with dozens upon dozens of alternate character versions popping up when needed. Oh boy.

I'd argue 75% of the story was good. It was a nice foundation to start a new universe on. New iterations of old characters. That meant heroes previously could be villains and villains could heroes. They didn't need to jump straight to what they did. They could have given us more time with the new characters a game or two. To give use time to invest in this new world. So when the stakes get to that point where it is universe ending you actually have investment into the end of the story.

Outside of the end I do have hopes for Bi-Han and his brothers feud and how that will expand. How Raiden will come into his role as champion. Whoever is the main antagonist of the next game has to be grand because of how big they went with this on. There are plenty of ways to play it as well going forward. Just hope it doesn't feel like a rehash as this one did. Right back to the old heroes take center stage while the new ones are brushed to the side.

[InvaderDib]

Originally posted by Black Magic:

Originally posted by InvaderDib:

I wanted to see a new take on old characters. Which we got for the most part and would love to see them explored even further. But I'm kind of on board with the multiple timelines as well. For the simple reason that it kind of makes all of MK11's tower endings cannon to each character. Something MK has never really done. Which makes Kano being mentioned in the story of MK1 hilarious to me. It also made me very happy that my head cannon of Shang Tsung winning Aftermath a reality. I could also see this as a jumping off point for new stories within different timelines. Fingers crossed they come in form of Shaolin Monks style games.

With that said. I completely understand why people aren't to happy with it. It is kind of easy way out incase players didn't like the character changes. They can always just jump timelines with other ideas. I also wanted to see Liu Kang to learn a lesson for messing with people's lives. Like no matter what he does. Some things are inevitable. Like Shang Tsung being evil, Jarrod dies, balance is never achieved, etc... I also wanted to see Sindel craves power with a firm hand. While didn't mind her being good I think her turning would show some things cannot be changed. But hey, let's see where the story goes from here. If nothing else the Armageddon act was great for some fun and laughs.

It was already firmly established that Sindel only went evil because of Shao's influence in the original timeline where he corrupted her with his magics.

Bi-Han is still an *sshole across all timelines—which plays into the Original story in that the evil in Bi-Han's bloodline is inherent, Kuai Liang - the younger brother and then at the time the new Subzero and Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei - has a conversation with Raiden in Mortal Kombat: Mythologies, showing that evil is within him as well. But Kuai Liang has a good heart and is able to rise above it. No matter the outcome, Bi-han is destined to become an evil b*stard.

Shang Tsung is still an evil man - the only reason he sides with Liu Kang is because he's a coward with no choice. He was the same with Shao (Khan) in the original timeline; submissive because his life depends on it.

it all plays into the idea that Liu Kang's interpretation of the realms is inherently flawed no matter how many times a person tries - that's the point of the story. Kronika failed, Liu Kang failed.

The Hourglass isn't meant to be tampered with - time is meant to flow.

So if NRS plays their cards right, this is all going to lead into the Timeline simply repeating itself with differing spices of flavor involved. Such as Bi-Han murders the new Timeline's Hamuri and Kuai Liang and destroys the newly formed Shirai Ryu in revenge for his little Brother's betrayal, creating Revenant Scorpion 2.0, as an example.

Or Kuai Liang kills Bi-Han in a confrontation and inadvertently causes the creation of the Wraith, Noob Saibot; who in turn gets revenge by murdering Hamuri and killing Kuai Liang, causing the creation of Revenant/Demon Scorpion.

I agree with pretty much all of this. I brought up Sindel because I thought her turning evil without Shao's influence would show that it is simply in her nature. Now that I think about it though. Now that she has dies (yet again) it's possible that her being brought back that may cause the need for absolute power.

[ClassicMetal]

I think opening up the option to have some of the old characters like old Raiden in the future made some sense.

But generally yeah the second part of the game wasn't interesting. Even in MK11 Aftermath I already found the timeline stuff tiring. You're not really invested anymore when there's always some guy jumping in deus ex machina from another timeline and tracking it all becomes a chore.

I want MK to stay focused on a something more grounded like a single tournament and training for it, instead of the millionth armageddon.

[PeaceThroughPower]

Originally posted by ClassicMetal:

I want MK to stay focused on a something more grounded like a single tournament and training for it.

Call me old fashioned, but exactly this.