Li Mei is my favorite female character. But since you made the case for her already, I'll use Havik here.

His design always interested me, I feel like he's a wildcard design and story-wise. It'd be fun to see how for the team would go with how crazy his moves could be, especially with all that self mutilation. He's been teased in MK9, and been included heavily in the MKX comic arcs, and now there's an intro between Raiden and Scorpion teasing a new threat from Chaos Realm. The anticipation is killing me.

Kai. The handstand stance was and remains unique, and can be developed in a capoeira kind of direction like they did slightly with Tanya in MKX. He also pulls away from the stereotype that black male characters need to be big and grapply and intimidating.

*gives Geras the side eye*

Maybe give him liquid fire streams instead of fireballs and more circular, fluid movement. Not many male characters get to be acrobatic, and Kai is a good choice to see that kind of action. Just gotta try not to step on Eddie Gordo's toes too much in the process.

I cannot agree more with this statement... you gotta respect the amount of work that goes into each new title of MK.. there is some give and take as fans that we have to be content with if we want fresh gameplay content every 4 years.

THANK THE ELDER GODS that MK is not a biannual repackaged garbage heap like call of duty. (They are probably pigeon holed to the 4 year sales model based on fighting game popularity vs FPS genra, but I think that works in the fans favor). We don’t have endur the same recycled bullshit every game but the fall back is that the roster needs to be smaller for logistic purposes.

Li Mei, Kenshi, Bo' Rai Cho, Havik and Onaga are the best things, imo, to come out of the 3D era. It is a fucking crime that only two of those 5 have truly made it out thus far when there is so much potential for the other three.

Nitara, anyone? Completely forgotten. Had a lot of potential. But with Skarlet being the blood-type character (and being more popular), I don’t see Nitara making any sort of comeback for this cycle. Maybe MK12?

Totally, we can even just throw in the entire vampire realm in general as far as I’m concerned. An entire realm foreshadowed in Raiden’s MKDA ending as a future threat for Earthrealm that never materialized. I’m down for some Nitara for sure.

I don't think Li Mei is a good example to this. She wasn't dropped the way many other characters have. She was playable in the very next game after her debut one.

However, she IS underutilized, compared to the MK1-3 characters, like every other MK4 and up character. I've always liked her. And when news about a Kombat Pack 2 for MKX came out, I was SURE she would be the token female DLC spot we'd get. But instead, we got 4 males, including 2 guest characters, and Bo Rai Cho was the 3D-era rep. I was so sad.

I think NRS used the mk9 reboot to clean a lot of the sub plots (& major plots) that they do not want to revisit.. like the vampire realm.

@directhit yeah, compared to someone like Kira she’s definitely much better utilized. However like you said she has essentially gone MIA after Deception (I don’t count Armageddon), and the MKX cameo left me rather salty. Li Mei is a personal choice for me within the context of this thread, but who’d you pick to make a case for aside from her? There are a lot of intriguing characters out there.

@thisiscourage I suspect you’re right. However, let’s think about this a bit. Why is the vampire realm interesting? Well, within the world of MK the vampire realm gives a tangible explanation for stories of vampires within Earthrealm. It also provides proof that there are far more different realms out there (aside from the big ones like the Netherealm, Chaosrealm, etc.) that can host their own histories, heroes, villains, and general threats. To me that’s incredibly interesting.

Nitara is also an interesting character too, acting as sort of a self-serving neutral character. Plus, in a franchise filled with freaks from Outworld Nitara actually doesn’t seem too out of place. There’s also been nothing to suggest the vampire realm has been freed in the current timeline, so presumably the vampire population would exist still within Outworld (could be wrong though...).

There’s definite potential there.

You know, somebody brought Kai up on this forum the other day, and I was actually reminded that Ed Boon once indicated that Kai's handstand move in MK4 is among his favorite moves.

Another lowkey character he mentioned, in terms of favorite moves, was Dairou, who has a move in MK6 called the tombstone drop or something... basically he bashes himself backwards against the ground, and it results in his opponent being knocked down.

I do have to say... I find it odd when very bland characters are brought up (like Kira). She was a largely irrelevant character storywise, had zero character development, and ripoff moves. Oh, and she looks like a generic fighter you could make in MK7's create a fighter mode.

More often than not I do agree with most characters people call unrealized potential - Li Mei is an interesting choice by TS here. While I absolutely could not stand her in MK5 (boring character, boring), MK6 brought her back with a bang - awesome special moves, good storyline, much better design. So I would actually call Li Mei a character they brought back better the next game... and pretty much forgot about for this era (MK8 and on).

My unrealized potential character choice is Shujinko - after what I saw at the MK11 reveal, I am now 90% sure Shujinko will not be a playable character in this game. It's a shame because his design was cool (like a Shaw brothers kung fu guy), his special moves are ripoffs but you understand why in MK6, and his story is still a fun concept - he is the guy who pretty much connects every single character in the MK universe in a weird way, in MK6.

Though we only saw 6 full characters and a small taste of MK11's story, I think it's evident NRS do not see the upside to revisiting the original 3D era. While MKX essentially retold MK4 (and MK5 to an extent), it appears this game will completely deviate from a linear quality.

Ashrah had decent potential. So far there haven't been any other characters with "holy" power in the canon, and maybe there's a cleverer way to play her misguided-redemption story arc in the new timeline.

Plus, voodoo dolls are a thing we haven't really tried yet. It's a disturbing and sinister kind of tactic to use when you're trying to be "good," which can set her up to be an anti-heroine who earns the heroes' allegiance but not quite their respect. Probably get along okay with Dark Raiden though, if he sees fit to weaponize her talents and willingness to push the moral line farther than the other heroes would.

I think they chose the vampire realm to begin with because it was very popular in pop culture at the time. Now, vampires are a tired thing in media and overdone. I doubt they revisit it.

I do hear where you are are coming from and I don’t disagree. I think would like them to expand on the realms and introduce more. I think that would be very cool. & it would deepen the story imo.