What a ride

If they downsized the guests to 1 per pack, then we'd all be happy campers. That would be an additional 10 MK characters. But sadly, I think we have to expect AT LEAST 2 guests per pack- which would mean 8 MK characters altogether. I'd be absolutely satisfied if we got 2 more solid 3D characters- then that would mean-

Shinnok

Frost

Skarlet

DLC 3D era character (Fujin/Havik/Reiko)

DLC 3D era character (Li Mei/Sareena/Nitara)

This would definitely be great diversity and representation for obscure characters <3

But if we get 3 guests per pack...we're supremely fucked.

Need more leaks

To rewind a few pages, incase there was any lingering doubt, that lava-monster-onaga-reptile-lizard-predator-blaze thing has been definitively debunked as fake. This is the actual model used...

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dO4a8x

So yeah, was very skeptical about that one to begin with, but we can definitely put it to bed now. Much like the fake Shinnok image and the fake Shang Image.

But don't most dislike the 3D era Fighters? With the exception of Fujin, Kenshi, Havik and maybe Reiko anyway.

Not me

I stopped reading as soon as I saw that Hsu Hao is not part of this leaked. Thus confirming this is fake.

Hmmm... I think you might have a bit of a "nostalgia-tinted glasses" effect going on that's somewhat distorting your view of the 3D era.

The base roster of Deadly Alliance had a ton of new characters (proportionally, more than MKX) but the subset of returning characters was incredibly "safe." Killing off Liu Kang was a true shock, and bringing Kano back from apparent death was a mild surprise -- but Johnny, Sonya, Jax, Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero were all very familiar faces; and if you count their appearances in MK Gold, then Cyrax, Kitana, and Kung Lao were pretty safe guesses as well. The roster surprises had more to do with who was missing ("Where the hell are all the MK3 characters? All we get is Cyrax?!! No Baraka!!?!?") than who was in.

Deception was a strange beast indeed. Midway saw a total revival of its dying franchise after killing off Liu Kang, and so they thought, "Let's do more of that. Let's kill off seven classic characters." So they massacred a whole swath of 'em in the opening cinematic -- heroes and villains and all. But then, with nearly all of Earth's mightiest heroes destroyed, the figures who crawled up out of the woodwork to take their place kinda felt like the B Team trying to make the best of a fucked up situation. These guys got the spotlight... as the leftovers.

So yeah, we got to see some old favorites like Kabal and Baraka and Mileena and Sindel make a comeback, which was awesome. But the simultaneously massive-yet-inconsequential discarding of a large population of staple characters, just to make some room to bring back a few forgotten ones -- and to have Kira add insult to injury by being an unnuanced clone-hybrid of two classic characters we'd rather have seen come back on their own terms -- made the returning roster feel a little hollow despite being fairly interesting and diverse. Plus, the game also stuck with Deadly Alliance's rule that the roster should have no more than one MK4 representative at a time. Not helping: many of the new characters were totally irrelevant to the story of Onaga, making Deception feel more like a game full of side quests for Shujinko and the random encounters they needed to populate those side quests.

Don't get me wrong: I loved both those games, Deception in particular. I just think it's worth addressing that in terms of rosters, Deadly Alliance has very much in common with MKX. And Deception can fairly be read as a case where just because a roster contains a lot of rarely-seen surprises, it takes a bit more than that to make the roster "good."

The funny thing about these roster complaints is I remember when MK9 came out and people gave it a bunch of flak for having too much post-Trilogy representation. (I understand the reasoning of course, but still I can't help but find it ironic.)

The puzzling thing about these roster complaints is that people talk like the team has a long depressing history of ignoring characters from Deadly Alliance and Deception, when MKX was the first game since that era to not have an anthology roster -- the first game with actual choices to make. And we still got Kenshi and Bo' Rai Cho, plus Quan Chi, Tanya, and Shinnok from MK4 and Tremor from a little-regarded spinoff game as if anyone should have expected that. That's not nothing. And the rest of the guys we last saw in Deception (Havik? Li Mei? Sindel, even?) As of this moment, we only know for sure that they've sat out one single game that wasn't an anthology game.

I can see why exclusions like Fujin can reasonably be maddening, since he missed three consecutive story progressions. Not so much the Deception guys.

Call me an old sexist but there is way too many females on this roster for my liking, generally I find female characters dull and uninteresting much like female superheroes.

I don’t mind a few in there for variety but honestly we are looking at close to half the roster being female it’s just too much especially if the rumoured DLC is true. But I guess that’s the way of the world these days!

You old sexist.

Well. I don't know.

If I were forced to estimate, from my perspective, I would say no. But I'm biased. A poll might be a good reference, because I'm a hardcore fan, honestly, and so I'm not sure what a more casual opinion would be overall. The characters you listed are definitely the more popular bunch from that era.

I'm just thinking, I really believe NRS would benefit from the novelty of a surprise character that nods to not just a time in MK lore but also a time in history (the 2000s). I will argue Ed Boon doesn't see the potential despite it being there. While critically those games are generally weaker than the previous 2D era and the post-3D era, there was fun, charm, and good story during that time, and if I had influence, I would say more 3D era characters would sell and be welcomed by the masses.

I wanted Shujinko in this game, despite my knowledge of it's unlikeliness. I also thought if not Shujinko, Taven. But nope, two rather important characters ignored. The novelty of playing as somebody not playable since MK7 is appealing, to me. So I'm hopeful when I hear rumors of Frost, Reiko (DLC?). In conclusion, though I'm happy about this rumored roster, if I did have the ability I would've influenced at least a couple more 3D characters (replacing some MK9 characters in the process).

It's a sad day for us Smoke bros :(

F

At least my boy Noob is coming back to deliver some spankings.

Fingers crossed for DLC, please work your eyebrow magic, Boon

This isn't school, you know. They make something, we buy it or not. It's not up to them to decide "oh well, some people leaked information, so you're all punished now". Again, it's a bussiness, not a schoolyard. They make, we buy.
You also don't go to a restaurant, didn't like the food, give a bad review and next time the owner is saying: "Well, you didn't like my food the last time, so now you're only getting a salad (or you're going to pay more for the same)".

There were never plans to do a kombat pack 3, it was just wishfull thinking of "fans" and just assuming there would be. If Ed Boon says "everything is possible", a lot of "fans" immediatly assume everything will be in. Or that if they complain enough, that NRS will just comply.
These days "gamers" pump each other up with desinformation and expect developers to fullfill them.

You sound VERY sexist. I suspect mommy issues.

Oh let me make something CRYSTAL CLEAR- I'm not saying that the roster for Deception was perfect- absolutely not. It was a very flawed roster for me, especially in terms of characters like Kira, Dairou, Darrius, and Kobra who I think ALL were giant wastes of space. So no, my post wasn't about "Oh boy, we had PERFECT rosters back then"- my post was about the fact that there was legit surprises. Sure, you may say having surprises doesn't make a good roster and that is true- but having a minimal is a bore to me. Remember, this is how Ahnka sees things, I'm not meaning to speak for every one else who dislikes or loves the roster.

As I stated before- My post wasn't meant to be "Oh poor 3D era characters" nor was I saying that I crave a roster of Dairou's and Kobra's- I was simply saying that seeing some of them(Fujin, Havik, Reiko, Sareena, Li Mei, Nitara ect) actually make it in would be a nice and much needed change for me. Frost and Shinnok are solid starts, I'll even add Skarlet to that considering she was such a curveball, I just personally need at least 2 more 3D era characters as DLC for me to feel as if this is a balanced roster. Once again, this is for me, others might feel like this roster is balanced enough- but if there end up being 2 DLC packs of 6 characters, then we are looking at a total roster of possibly 40 characters- I just need 5-6 of that 40 character roster to not be Trilogy era returnees. That's all I'm asking.

Quan Chi and Kenshi I PURPOSELY leave out of these discussions because they have been in the last several games and there have been NO shortage of them. So I rarely count their appearances as a win for 3D era characters.

So that's my line in the sand. If all we get Post-Trilogy/Pre-MKX are Skarlet, Frost and Shinnok even with DLC, then I'll have to bow out of MK11. I know, it sounds very childish and ridiculous- but at the end of the day, we all need different things from this series and I personally need this.

MK11 reminds me of MK3... where you look at the select screen and you just ask yourself "what the fuck is this?"

I am sure it'll grow on me once I start playing.

This is the 3rd game of the "NRS" era. Coincidence?

I THINK NOT

Sorry for yelling, I just woke up

Is MK vs DC not the first ??. So that will make this the fourth MK game in the NRS era.

No, because they were still Midway when they created MK vs DC.

Since my top favs include the likes of Scorpion, Kitana, and Cage my hype isn't so much the tension of "are they in?" as much as "will they be great, fun to play, and dare I ask VIABLE?". LOL. Every Mortal Kombat game plays SO differently that every iteration of them is almost a new character. I'm still eagerly awaiting Kitana and also Kano reveals for this reason. That said I do find the exclusion of Takeda to be odd as his reception was warmer than Jacqui and he had more story potential as well as being easier to reinvent and make badass, lol.

Probably because Takeda is a better DLC candidate than Jacqui would be.

I am the biggest Shang fan and whether he is in or not, this is a good roster with the potential of being an excellent roster with DLC.

You don't really have a valid point, though.

It's just, "They're female, so I don't like them." Doesn't really make a lot of sense.