Without quality gameplay a game just wouldn't be worth playing, but storylines and characterization give meaning to the fighting, and keep us coming back with ravenous curiosity. GameReactor recently went one-on-one with Story & Voice Over Director Dominic Cianciolo to uncover more about the highly anticipated story mode of Mortal Kombat 11!

Since the series adopted its linear, guided presentation format with Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe; Story Mode has grown to be one NetherRealm's most lauded features. According to Cianciolo, data shows it remains one of the most popular ways to experience the games, resulting in an estimated 8 hour-long mode for MK11!

The recent Story Mode Trailer and MK11 Prologue have given us a lot to chew on, but the developers aren't giving out too many details just yet. Cianciolo did reveal the emphasis we can expect on young and old versions of characters meeting, such as the comic encounter between 20 and 40 year old Johnny Cage seen in the trailer, and Intro dialogues. The Story Director touched on the value of these intros for advancing characters who may not get a chance to feature significantly in Story Mode.

How do you juggle a 25-character storyline?
"Very carefully. In the storyline we try to make sure that we give everybody a star turn, if possible. Unfortunately, the nature of our story is, if you look at a graph of how much screen time everybody gets, there's a sliding scale of core stars getting the most and it gradually going down from there. That's where the introduction of our intos feature which started back in Mortal Kombat X, evolved through Injustice and now to MK11 really helps out because it lets us fill out the presence of those characters that don't get a ton of screen time in the story. These introductions lets players learn more about their personalities and why they fight. Also what we've done for individual players, we're continuing what we started in Injustice 2 where those little story vignettes are told in the first person by the person you're playing when you defeat the boss of the game. That allows the story of those characters to become much more meaningful and adds a ton of layers to peel back if you will, off of the onion of who they are."

Mortal Kombat X left some characters in the cold during its plot, with pre-order incentive Goro mostly notably nowhere to be seen in Story Mode. As the recent story trailer reveals, that kind of ommission has been addressed, with MK11 bonus Shao Kahn featuring prominently as one of the allies Kronika will seek to recruit from the past. Check out GameReactor to read the full interview.

Mortal Kombat 11 is just over a month away, shipping for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch starting April 23rd! Don't miss your chance to get early access by signing up for the Online Beta Stress Test! Discuss story, characters, and gameplay on the Mortal Kombat 11 forum!