I'm playing with Freddy right now in the lab, and you can tell that while it's remake Freddy, NRS shows it prefers Robert.

Just look in his move set. All his moves and combos are named after one liners or movie titles, especially the lines "Kung Fu This Bitch" and "Power Glove Toss" which are direct references to fighting and vidya.

Even in his move set, Freddy has this low projectile where the glove starts crawling across the floor. That's a direct reference to New Nightmare.

His Nightmare Stance seems very Freddy like, his throw is perfect. Everything just screams respect for the character. The only thing that's wrong with him is that, he's Freddy Krueger, and he has no dialogue. Then again that was a problem with all the DLC characters.


The point brought up about how crossovers and guests can help bring in new lifelong fans is very true, seeing how I'm an example of that, being introduced to MK via MK vs DC.

And as I've said before, I think Stryker should be the discussed character for Ep 6

Stryker is the plan for Ep. 6. Any questions? Last minute, because we'll be recording in 20 minutes, but if anyone has any that sees this, feel free to post them.

What exactly do you think made Stryker cool on MK9? Considering the big backlash against the character, and the only thing that really changed visually was that he wore his cap the right way, what else could it have been?

And how would you implement Stryker into MKX, move wise, x-ray, fatalities, ect..

Also I recommend that these posts be made a day earlier so more questions can come in, rather than at the last minute.

If there was one depiction of Stryker that I liked the most, it was one voiced by Ron Perlman in that accursed Defenders of the Realm TV show. His hypochondric tendency toward Nigtwolf's wolf never ceases to amuse me :B

That's on Mick's end. I suppose we could make a thread ourselves, and just update it each episode with the new topic/character.

I like both Frost and Nitara but I too would pick Nitara over Frost. Just barely though.

I'm pro guest, console exclusive and DLC. I feel guests do more good than bad. I know several God of War fans who bought MK9 just to play as Kratos. And I remember a lot of buzz about Freddy being playable in a video game for once. Guests have a chance to branch out to fans of different franchises.

I'm down for crossovers as well. Mostly with other fighting games such as Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, and Darkstalkers.

For MKX, I'm hoping for console exclusive characters. Playstation should get Sweet Tooth, and Xbox should get Fulgore or Jago. DLZc guest must be Ash Williams.

Awesome Legacy of Kain throw-in. Raziel is Michael Bell and The Elder God was Tony Jay.

There was a next installment planned, called Dark Prohpecy what would have dealt with the Hylden and Janos Audron. There however is no chance of Raziel coming out of the reaver post Defiance:

Deleted scene: after the ending, there should have been another confrontation with the Elder God, hence the whole, On that inevitable day line TEG spits at Kain. It was supposed to take place in the ruined future. HOWEVER there is another scene.

In order for events to unfold as they do up until the first defeat of TEG Kain needs to place the Purified Soul Reaver back in avernus cathedral for his younger self to find it, hold onto it up until the moment in the future where he shatters it on Raziel himself.

Raziel is sadly de3stined to be forever trapped in the blade, eventually going mad. He has to do this in order for it to be reattachedto himself and purified. One of the things Ariel purifies out of the Reaver is Raziel's madness. The reaver cannot work without Raziel first going mad.

http://legacyofkain.wikia.com/wiki/Legacy_of_Kain:_The_Dark_Prophecy

OK, so where do I post my questions?

Yeah! Where do we post OUR questions, thoughts and views for the next episode?

Episode 6 is up on our channel. I'll create a permanent thread for questions.

There's not much I can say about the stages so far, just that none of them do anything for me, so I'll mostly focus on Stryker.

Stryker is one of my favourite characters in the series, like in the Top 10, maybe even Top 5. I was first exposed to him through the cartoon and then properly through Trilogy. I must admit, when I first checked out MK forums I was surprised at how much people despised him since I've never seen anything wrong with him. I don't even think he looks that fat.

My favourite appearance of Stryker is one we didn't even get to play as. It's the 3D MK3 costume from the Armageddon roster poster. I was so pissed when it was neither of his costumes and we got that awful SWAT costume that looked nothing like him. I mean, even with Jarek's MKA costumes, you could tell it was him from the face. At the time, I was sure this would be Stryker's final appearance, because no way will they bring him back after Armageddon, and I just wanted Stryker to appear as himself and not "we are so desperate to make him look cool".

MK9 was much better, but I'm actually not a fan of the supercop parts of him. I always liked the idea that Stryker never knew his full potential or why he was chosen and went back to his normal life, not knowing his potential until maybe Armageddon.

For the next character I'm gonna vote Mokap. I'd just like to see how you guys manage to get a whole segment out of him.

If wasn't for the lack of means for me to communicate (I use a Wii U for all my internet usage because my computer is a 7 year old shitepile), and just how incredibly awkward I would be in conversation (combined with my unintelligible Yorkshire accent), I'd at least like to have been in whatever episode Kintaro gets discussed, if not just to justify why such a minor character without much to him is my absolute favourite.

Desert stages in Outworld:

- Jade's desert
- Golden Desert
- Falling cliffs
- Dragon transport from MKDA, or at least what it flies over.



How exatly, or who exactly would Kahn rule over if Outowlrd would be inherently lethal to everyone everywhere? Even if it is so, this would necessitate fortress cities even more...

If Outworld would look like H. R. Giger's landscape, it would be cool I give you that, but that that would be the point where I put down the thing and call bnullshit on it given how there is population in Outworld..


Also, consider this: Kotal Khan... SUN god, SUNNY marketplace.

Fair point. I don't think it being sunny or placed in a desert is what makes it feel not "outworldly" to me, I just don't associate those things directly with Outworld when I think of Outworld. So you're certainly not wrong, but it's not how I associate Outworld. Wastelands, Pit II, Living Forest, and The Portal etc. are what I think of first and foremost.

But like I said, you're not wrong. With Kotal it could make complete sense. That's why in the discussion on the show, I made sure to point out that story relevance and the background for the environment, beyond visuals, will help depict a better understanding of the environment and will effect my liking of it. Visually, the Marketplace just doesn't appeal to me right now, not with what I desire from an Outworld location. It's certainly not bad, and it makes sense why a marketplace isn't pure chaos, but it's just not the most appealing location IMO.

Jade's Desert isn't in Outworld.

And I did complain about not liking MKDA/Deception stages.
But no one ever said it needed to look "lethal", the word we used was "alien". I just want a different colored environment and maybe more nonhuman citizens roaming around. Put two moons in the sky or something, I don't know, just make me feel like this is another world like trees with faces on them and pterodactyls flying across a red sky used to do.

Except jade's desert is still merged with Outworld in both continuities (UMK3, then disconnected / still part as Sindel's desert i guess)

Did they really just shovel her away under the dunes like cat litter? lmao.

I think the MKDa (and some MKD) levels were the absolute best in idea, not necessarily in execution. Half of the MK2 stages were, eh... there is basically nothing in them that would speak of anything discernible. Those stages are mute, like something I could see in any fantasy magazine.

While I do agree that some of the fantastical elements should be in there, we will see. I love the winter stage in its absolute simplicity. Sometimes being absolutely down to basics is the way you create character.

Yeah, Lung Hai with a floating arena leaves me more impressed than a bunch of trees with faces. Or the Dragon rider arena. Or Sarna ruins, what I guess IS in outworld and is a desert.

Also there are two things I sorely missed: storyline. What if that what you see is a result of something happening in the plotline. Remember, there is civil war, and we already have some clue that Kotal might not exactly be a clear cut villain.

Another one: MUSIC! You comnpletely missed over the point that the Armoury was good because it had that fucking awesome jingle! So, the overall impression is still up for questions.


Really? Watermelons?

It's good that you have started with introductions so we the listeners get a grasp of who's who :) Then there's some awkward pauses of silence at times, this is the time when the host kicks in and directs who should answer! Leaving questions open for anyone to answer leads to people waiting for someone to start.


And about Frost, instead of having her as an ice character, why not change her into a snowcharacter instead? Seeing as she is weaker and all.
+ her hair is awesome.

You mentioned her having chilling attacks that slow the opponent. Kan-Ra's throw in KI slows the opponent, so it's all possible :)

Just because the desert was temporarily located in both realms during MK3, because the realms were merging, does not make it an Outworld place. So was New York City, and I would HOPE we can agree New York is not in Outworld.

Despite the fact that it's "Jade's", a name that was NEVER explained in canon and it's not called that anymore in MK9...It's located on Earth in both MK3, where Cyrax gets lost there after MK3 ends, and in MK9, where Sindel is resurrected there BEFORE the merger starts, and the game tells us Sindel killed herself in Earthrealm.

Anyway, Chrome, your criticisms of the MK2 stages don't make any sense to me.

A Frank Frazetta-style fantasy painting or heavy metal album cover is exactly what I believe Outworld SHOULD look like, that's the specific identity I'm looking for in those stages that I'm not seeing and I think the artists who worked on MK2, when they went for that aesthetic, had a MUCH clearer idea on both what kind of world they were trying to create and how to give their franchise a more unique identity compared to other games.

Whereas I feel some of the arenas in DA/Deception were just kind of bland and uninspired. There are several arenas I enjoy in DA, because they seem deliberately designed to recapture the "Chinese 70's kung fu movie" essense of Mortal Kombat 1. The Lung-Hai Temple (which I believe actually IS located on Shang's Island judging by the fact that the decor is identical to that of the Courtyard and Palace Gates), Wu-Shi Academy, and the like three different Shang Tsung stages are good examples of that (the buddha statues - with that uniquely MK touch of bellies full of acid, really do it for the house, and the soulnado helps the palace ones come across as uniquely Mortal Kombat themed). I also liked Quan Chi's fortress because it does the "alien environment" thing well with the fact that it's apparently floating in an astral void with a wispy purple sky.

Deception had some good Outworld arenas too that revisited the feel of MK2, particularly the ones set at night like the Onaga's castle stages, the main menu background, even the freeroam map from Konquest where everything was indeed purple with occasional lava flows.

The main problem with both games is those damned desert stages are so fucking bland. I don't want to be told a desert in Outworld looks the same as a desert does in Earthrealm with blue sky and yellow sand, that's just not using the concept of "realms" properly from a creativity standpoint. Shit, at least put some dragons or giant sandworms or some kind of fucking monster out there in the dunes.
Why are those stages even in Deception? The Dragonfly and Sarna Ruins in MKDA, as much as I didn't like the color schemes, were actually referenced in the plot, the characters used Dragonflies to get around, Frost betrays Sub-Zero and accidentally freezes herself on a Dragonfly, the pyramid is where Onaga's tomb and the mummies are located, etc...but who the fuck lives in the Falling Cliffs or the Golden Desert? What storyline scene could possibly take place there? WHY were they even designed? They're fucking irrelevant to the game!

As for the NRS era, I feel the current artists have no idea what the "style" that gave MK its identity even was, they strike me as unobservant/oblivious compared to other companies that have handled attempts to revive/reboot/reinvigorate franchises by placing emphasis on the most iconic visual elements and turning those up to 11, making sure that the most unique and memorable things about that franchise are at the forefront...not because of "nostalgia", but because identity is important to a brand.

Compared even to Shaolin Monks, which got the visual design side of doing a remake EXACTLY right, MK9's art seemed like the work of uninspired, uncreative newbies fresh out of art school and unfamiliar with the hallmarks of the franchise, just aping whatever's trendy in today's gaming market, in a shallow, fleeting attempt to ride the wave of modern fads.

I've said many times that one of my biggest complaints with the arena redesigns in MK9 and parts of the game's menu design, like the background of the Nekropolis, is how much they look like God of War, the Dante's Inferno game, or a Devil May Cry instead of Mortal Kombat.



There'll be a separate episode about music down the road. We didn't talk about arenas from past games anyway.
There was a bit of storyline talk in there though, I mentioned my hope that the boring snowy forest's reason for being in the game is that it serves a story mode purpose, that important scenes are set there for good reason like it's the front door to the Lin Kuei HQ or such.



Pus-Fruit.

In Outworld, we call them Pus-Fruit.

Yes. It did not belong to Outworld, but it did belong to the British for a time. :)



I am familiar with Frazetta, however, take a look at what you wrote: what if they had a completely different goal in sight, one, which may run paralel for a while with your perception but ultimately ends elsewhere?

Speaking of which, I have seen the kind of artwork that MK2 resembles, coincidentally. Or did you think that fantasy illustrations are only prominent in the western-antlantic hemisphere?

I would not call it entirely unique. MK is like a puzzle, each part not-unique. However, by arranging those elements in a certain way you may get something not-unique, but perhaps rare. MK may never well be independent from being a kung-fu, hi-tech, superhero(?) mesh, but it can make something interesting from using those elements ina certain way.

Not all of them welcome by me, though. I recall you mentioned the superhero-y colorfulness in the characters. To you, that is certainly apparent, because you have socialized in a space, where those things were accessible.

To me, however, MK's drawing power came from the raw, brutal kung-fu action stuff it had. Never once I had considered the characters as being superhero-y, because well, we had none. Comics here constituted something different, and our culture hasn't been receptive to it as much. Since they are prevalent in your culture, you might bat an eye over wearing your underwear utside, but to us mostly it is a joke in every possible way.

So yeah, be prepared that your audience might like or dislike your product on completely differently points than what you expected or intended. To me, MK is a bit more serious than to overlook that. MK hasn't been superheroy to me until MK3, and that is the second worst point in MK to me.

This does not mean I dislike colorfulness, I am an avid proponent of dark things lurking in sunlight. Like Lynch: make the ordinary unsettling, the common super.

To my perception and taste, MK works best as a semi-dark action thriller, at least that interpretation is what I tend to favour above all else, because that is what appeals to me, because that is what I have been socialized in.

TLDR\: Yeah, our comic books were different than yours.

P. S.:MK9costume-wise was a show of extremes. We had some very good, and some very bad choices. Shang Tsung's costumes come to my mind.

Also, I think it is pretty obvious by the way almost everything changes (one-handed freeze, Scorpion fire ball, tonal shift towards the murkier) that the NRS team got the classic MK out of their system because they do not wish to continue among those lines and wish to reinvent MK according to new prespectives.


And frankly I am all in support of that. Not the end-result, but trying. The series WILL NOT go on forever, and they need to keep it fresh.

It's difficult to criticize the choices an artist makes without knowing the REASONS they made them, the logic that was going on in their head behind the scenes...

...but without that information to perhaps justify those choices, all I can do is compare the MK I'm seeing to the things that gave the franchise its specific identity in the past, and consider what I would do if I were in their shoes as an artist myself.

And I find some of the choices they're making unwelcome and unfitting for this brand.

And like I said, nostalgia is not my motivation for that feeling. I'm speaking from a place of "brand identity".

Mortal Kombat needs to look and feel like Mortal Kombat no matter how many decades pass. There absolutely is room to change and add new things and stay modern withOUT betraying the central aesthetic. I do not feel that the people whose hands this franchise is in know how to do that. They've demonstrated SOME competence in recreating and improving upon costumes and arenas from the past when they stay for the most part accurate to how it already was...for example, MK9 costumes like Johnny, Stryker, Raiden, Baraka, and arenas like the Courtyard, Shang's Palace, Wasteland, Armory, etc...but they have not shown me much that would give reason to trust that they know what they're doing whenever they try to introduce radical changes to the look of things. (Granted Scorpion's toned down costume and the comments about not oversexualizing females show that they've learned a bit from their past mistakes...but that won't stop them from making all new ones...)

I legitimately fear that they (by which, I mean the young designers who do the most of the work, not Boon, Beran, and Vogel who seem to have become dispassionate, hands-off supervisors) may actually be incompetent and unsuited to act as the shepards of this work. I realize how supremely insulting that sounds, and also how meaningless it is for some nobody fan like myself to vote no-confidence in an entire studio of trained and paid professionals who own the rights to the brand I'm talking about and can legally do whatever the fuck they want with it...

But that's my opinion as one artist making a critical judgment of the work of another group of artists. I lament that that opinion is formed via outside observation, I wish I did know the reasons behind their choices. Perhaps if I did, those choices would make sense to me or be easier to agree with and I would change my opinion...or perhaps I would simply disagree with their reasoning and maintain my stance, but at least I'd know that the choices they made came from an intellectual place and not a whim or a desire to copy some outside fad like GoW...that they're not, in fact, incompetent or unaware, or only capable of being derivative.
But hey, when I say that, I'm speaking mostly of what I saw, past tense, in MK9, a game they made 4 years ago (although the fact that all the jaggy armored costumes in Injustice are stupid as hell doesn't help...). So...y'know, the fact that I think 4 arenas in the NEW game are boring, that doesn't mean much, they have plenty of time yet to prove me wrong and turn my opinion around completely. I don't want to feel negative about MKX, I want to like it. I want to be proven wrong...but I've been burned before and have a pretty thick layer of pessimism built up as a defense now, so it's gonna take a lot to get past that.

The entire episode would be just them trying to make him an actual character, kek.

Personally, I think either Kenshi or Sheeva should be the next character

Just finished episode 5.

I was not a fan of MK V.S. DC in fact i left MK over a year beacuse of MK V.S. DC. I felt like it was a slap in my face.

I dont mind guest characters. Freddy was quite fun in MK9. Plus he felt like he fit in more cause of the gore/horror aspect.

I still have not played MK V.S. DC and i'm not sure if id want to.

I dont mind cross overs and i wouldn't mind see a crossover with SF cause its a dream game, or a Darkstalkers crossover would work well with the gore.

If i had one guest character it be jedah from darkstalkers. He's got some gory moves like his head decap or his arm stretch mutilation.

Going to start watching episode 6 and ill post my thoughts after i finish the episode. Which will be when i wake up.

Yes, and I consider MK3 and MK4 to be the complete betrayal of what MK originally was aesthetically.


Also, what constitutes MK is dependent on those who make it. If they want to title MK vs DC mk8 and say it is is part of the continuity, then it is, no matter how people would want to differentiate or antagonize.

The creator's word is basically the word of god. Now, wether he exercises strict or loose control over the parts of the product, that is a different question. You have, and have to make only one decision: get with it, or get out.