Your guess is as good as anybody else. Maybe the question isn't can he, but, does he even want to?

Last I read about what he'd officially been up to was here...

http://www.mortalkombatonline.com/content/News/read.cds?article=1726

You can find his Twitter here...

http://twitter.com/therealsaibot

He'd be the best person to ask about his future.

I for one would love to see JT or perhaps someone completely new come in and sort out the shitfest that is this new timeline's story.

During the entire 25 years of MKX's story span, not one character of significance died who wasn't evil.

Then there's the fact that the old timeline seems to be repeating. In a way that's ok, because it shows certain events would have happened anyway no matter what, but where do they go from here? Another armageddon? Then what, another reboot?

I highly doubt it.

Apparently the circumstances of his departure are going to be revealed in that documentary they're doing about classic Midway, but from what I understand his departure from Midway and Ed Boon was not amicable. Whether or not Boon and Tobias have since "made up", I have no idea - I believe they are on friendly terms. AFAIK they don't speak ill of each other and there have been people who say Ed and John speak and hang out frequently. His contribution to MK v DC wasn't a fluke, and he does have a very high appreciation for Mortal Kombat - he co-created it after all. Business-wise, the fact that they went as far as to digitally remove his head from the bottom of the pit in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and subsequent re-releases of MK1 speaks worlds, though - that doesn't happen unless there's an unfriendly split. They may be okay with each other personally, but professionally there is probably tension. They may not be able to work together due to creative differences. I believe Tobias has mentioned in the past that he was frustrated with how Special Forces and MK4 turned out.

It could be that JT doesnt feel intrested to work on MK anymore. But when i see his twitter tweets related to MK, it looks like he still feels part of MK. He names himself "the real saibot" after all.



I agree that the story might benefit with JT on board. My guess is that the overall game would benefit. He made up 70% of the characters art and story wise. Same for the lore of MK. Atleast has he proven to make intresting story and characters. I think we can all agree that the best characters and parts of the lore were made when JT was still on board.



I knew about the kickstarter but not about the details of JT's departure. That's great, really looking foreward to that. To me, it always felt like Ed. wanted to take MK another direction since the departure of JT. It's something that still bugges me as we cant be sure. With the recent decisions like the reboot and changes towards the mytholgies it doesnt help me to think otherwise. About the fact they went as far to digitally remove his head from the bottom of the pit in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and such is a really confusing part aswell. It's kinda looking like NRS (Ed. Boon?) is slowly removing or changing, so far they can, what JT made up. Time will tell.

I have said it here before and i'll say it again - Tao Feng, while it may not have been a success in terms of critical acclaim or unit sales, was most definitely an incredible game. Notably in terms of story. Each character had not a small paragraph but almost an entire page of backstory. Strong details regarding who did what to whom, and how they all fit together in this parallel universe Metro-China. Not to mention the music, the style, the damage graphics and interactibles all make up the whole package of what an awesome game this is.

It showed us that JT was largely responsible for all the Asian themed-setting and deep characterisation from the MKT era. No wonder he was disappointed by what came next, because all that seemed to get pushed aside. However if he had stuck around, maybe Kai, Fujin and Reiko would have had much greater influence in the games to follow, garnering as much fan favouritism as Reptile, Kung Lao or Johnny Cage.

I have no doubt that he is still proud of his contribution to the series. How could he not? He helped lay the foundation for a game that, not only has stood the test of time, but changed video games, period.

Creative people just seen to have a tendency of not wanting to go back from something they've moved on from. Plus, writing the game's story now isn't going to be as free an experience as the days when he was actively involved. Just reading tweets from John Vogal and Brian Charred about what and who they might've had planned being cut out due to time, and technological constraints. There's no way that Tobias would be able to weave the intricate plots that he did in 1-4/Tao Feng.

I agree. I remember Tobias saying he was interested into eastern mytholgies. Many books he read, eventually inspired the lore of MK. Mixed with psi fi elements such as star wars. Recently their source of inspirations seems not based on eastern mythos unlike it used to be (unfortunatly)

If i remember correctly Tobias also read a book about chinese ninjas that inspired him to come up with the Lin Kuei. A book that id love to read. If anybody knows what im talking about, i would be very happy to know which book he was talking about.

Probably not. They maybe able to get on professionally for awhile, but when you realize the MK ads always consists of Boon's favourite [Scorpion] killing Tobias' favourite [Sub-Zero] its clear that there is still bitterness on Boon's part.

Exactley. I am almost to believe that Ed. Boon envy's what Tobias did for MK. And is slowly trolling and removing, so far he can, what Tobias came up with. Once Tobias left, Ed. Boon failed to do what Tobias did best. The 3D era of MK is considerd as the worst era of MK.

With that in mind, i could believe that Ed. Boon is eternally butthurt by how the fans recieved his work. Maybe it created some jalousy towards John Tobias's work?

Also explains why Ed. Boon doesn't want the Mortal Kombat encyclopdia made.

Man, normally when I read stuff like this, I'll just shake my head and move on. However, there are just sooooo many baseless assumptions and flat out wrongness here that it has actually made my head hurt.

The whole "Why does Scorpion always kill Sub Zero in promotional material?" thing is such a weak and contrived argument for this supposed rift between Boon and Tobias. Maybe more people like Scorpion(it's a stretch, I know). Maybe they just had a flashier way of ending the video with Scorpion. People love looking at fire, how many people get excited over watching ice? Have you ever watched ice? Played with ice as a kid? Not snow...ice. Moving on...

As far as Boon being jealous of what Tobias brought to the table...why? Why would he ever be jealous, they complemented each other well. Tobias was the story/art guy. Boon has never been the story/art guy, period. To this day he has little to no hand in it other than saying, "yeah, sounds good", or " no, we're not using that character". That's it.

Let's also examine how Boon "failed" after Tobias left. You mean how he and the team stayed with the series after Tobias jumped ship to make(let's be real here) two truly awful games? How Boon and company helped resurrect the fucking franchise after MK4's low point(which happened on Tobias' watch for those not keeping up)? How he kept up with the times, moved the franchise to 3d(hate it or love it) and continued to innovate and flourish? Oh, and the story during the 3d era still stands as one of the best creative times the series has ever had with the exception of Armageddon.

If that's not enough evidence, MK:DA and Deception both sold around 2 million copies back when games were lucky to break a third of that. Armageddon sold around a million, hell, even the bastard of the series(MK vs DCU) sold two million copies. Oh, and MK9 and MKX, THE BEST SELLING GAMES IN THE SERIES A QUARTER CENTURY AFTER THE SERIES STARTED. All without Tobias on payroll.

Also, how is this supposed feud standing in the way of the MK encyclopedia? The truth is, nobody knows what the man's reasons are. Until the day Boon stands on a soap box(or Twitter) and says "this is why I don't want MK encyclopedia to happen", it's all just conjecture.

And there it is. That magic word. " Conjecture ". That's what all this Boon vs Tobias nonsense has been for as long as I can remember. Both men still claim to be friends. Both men speak highly of each other, and their time working together. Hell, Noob Saibot is still named, Noob Saibot.

Until the day these guys announce their hatred for each other or IGN posts a story about a knockdown, drag out fight between them at the game developer's conference, everyone just needs to stop with the conspiracy nonsense.

Tobias' mark on MK is still there, he will always be the co creator of this great series. Will he find his way back to it? Who knows? But I certainly admire the mark he left while he was there, and would much rather appreciate that than hear a bunch of tall tales, years after the fact.

That's pretty much what I thought Detox. If Tobias wanted to come back, he would've by now. Will he? That remains to be seen. But he is still a part of Mortal Kombat and helped start it up. I don't get the hate towards the 3d era, it has it's good and bad parts but it also expanded the universe and revitalized the franchise. How many times does Earthrealm have to fight against Shao Kahn? I got sick of it by 3. You can't do Mortal Kombat Trilogy over and over again. Then again, some of the MK fanbase tend to put nostalgia goggles for the first three games and crap on the 3d era games because it didn't give them nostaglia. The first three games had flaws too you know since people like to make fun of the 3d era.

Thank you.

Tobias is ghostwriting for MK since he left. He told me.

I never said not liking the 3D era. In contrary, i love the 3D era of MK. I even prefer DA and D over MKx. (Problably not in the gameplay department) But defenitly in terms of story and visual art. Deadly alliance and Deception are quite high on my list. I don't care much for Armacrappon.

All i said is that it's considered as the worst era of MK. And what Tobias did best, Ed failed to do.

What i meant with that is, creating/designing characters and their story bio's. I think we can all agree on that. or can't we?



This has nothing to do with nostalgia goggles bro. Im just aware that Tobias is a very good writer and designer. And that Ed. is a very good programmer. MK9 and X are a good example why we could use new blood for writing and imo designs aswell.



So far i remember the killing off Sub zero gimmick is since Tobias left MK. Even if Scorpion is the favorite, i dont see a reason to always kill sub zero. They even have a statue where Sub is speared by scorp. And the part where they tried to change Sub into a cyborg. Still, It's not like i am convinced about it, i just see some returning patterns related to Tobias designs.




Ed. made 25 plus characters that failed for the biggest part. It's not that weird if he would got offended by it. And there is a reason why i put a "question mark" at the end of my sentence there.



No not like that. And i can't agree that Tobias made 2 awful games. I dont blame Tobias for MK:SF as he left half development. Tho i agree is an awful game.

MK Sub zero is a really cool side scroller with MK mechanics, graphics and story. If you can't appreciate that, i don't know what you liked about the old MK games. The game had some hard parts and was far from flawles. No game is perfect, it still was fun to play, especially if youre a fan of the series.

Tao feng was a good game just poorly programmed. That's why Ed. Boon and John Tobias should stick togehther. Like you said, they compliment each other very well.



I said "maybe" Could be very possible that WB commanded Ed. to say no or any other reason.

MK vs DC sold 2 million. Unfortunatly many poor games sell millions. It's MK vs DCU. It screamed for sells with 2 IP's in one game. Again i used a question mark. All i want is more information. maybe i should carefully describe my sentences. English is not my first language.

MindStrikes, the 3d era is considered the worst era of MK? By who? You? This forum? That's a matter of opinion and how you think. Most game reviewers gave good reviews for the 3d era games and said that Deadly Alliance revived the franchise after it was going stale in the 90's. The gameplay had to evolve in order to be relevant. I thought it was cool they decided to put actual martial arts for fighting styles and not dial a combo. I don't agree with you on the characters of the 3d era. Some of them were just bad but some were really good and brought new appeal to the series. They weren't really given a chance because the games were being rushed out by Midway. There's a thing in business and franchises if you don't evolve, you're done for. For your second response, if Tobias is a good writer, then why did he leave MK? I use nostalgia goggles because all I see on other forums in Mortal Kombat is how great the first three games up to Trilogy and everything else was shit afterwards. It's putting them on a pedestal if you can't see those games had flaws too.

In order for Boon to remove everything Tobias came up with they would have to practically erase the first 3 MK game and all of their characters from existence. I won't pretend he did it all singlehandedly, but I was always under the assumption he came up with most of the characters and story.

Didn't MKO post a main article featuring concept art of MK1 and MK2 before they ever went into production?

Random thought, I know, but it's just cool looking at that stuff and thinking "man....this is how it all began."

Wasn't Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Shang Tsung's names mix matched in the concept art too? Like Liu Shang or Shang Lao lol.

I'd honestly just love to sit and talk with the guy about his own personal creative process and how he settled on a main concept and story arc.

I believe so. Kitana was also named Kitsune, I believe Jax was meant to be called Kurtis Stryker as well or something like that. It is very interesting, if you haven't seen it yet, I would watch the On Blast Show interview with him, it's really great.

On the main topic, I doubt John will ever return, although I would be pretty ecstatic if he did.

That would be awesome.

There was a bunch of behind the scenes art n concepts on the 2d games forum.
]{ombat used to compile & post all that stuff.



Ka-Tra

It would be nice for him to return being an original member of the team and I believe he could shake up the character designs and add more to their back stories, but I don't think adding him would affect the story as much as people want to believe. He would still have to deal with the limitations the current writers do (i.e. a linearly presented plot with multiple fights in a row for chosen characters) and, personally, I don't think the plots for MKII and 3 are that great. MKII's base plot is entirely dependent on a sudden kidnapping/raid to make the heroes agree to an all or nothing redo, and MK3 is about the bad guys randomly coming up with a loop hole to do what the other two games were about preventing. Both ended with "lol Lui Kang wins! Flawless Victory"

The On Blast show starring Tobias was really cool. I stayd all night up to watch it. I noticed the behind the scenes and rare footage posted by ]{ombat. Good stuff indeed. Awesome dude to share it with us.

Also fun to know Kitana was named Kitsune. Nice details to read about.

@Venkman28 You shoulnd't compare me with random guys from other forums. I read alot of preconceptions in your post.

@Blade4693 i know they can't. Fortunatly most will remain.

The biggest part that annoys me, is that most of the lore and characters were based on eastern mytholgies. Now it seems more based on western fantasy instead. Even within the 3D era, the characters, stages, lore and designs looked eastern inspired. I know Ed. is capable of that. I guess Ed. Boon chills out and let the young blood do their thing. wich results in MKx.

Im good with adding more mythos, species. But it looks like a mixed bag now. Idk, hard to explain.


@unleash_your_tounge Now you mentioned that, i am curious what they came up with, Kotal khan and Kung jin before they named m like that :P Agree, would love to have a chance to talk with the men. His work is unique and inspired me alot.

@Killamore True i think it has to do that they started as Arcade fighting games in the 90's. Story was small and not that detailed. We wont know if his addition would improve the story direction. With all the shit they add now it's hard.

I hope he makes his return one day, even if it's for a small part or one game. Shenmue 3 is getting made, so we can dream.

Yes he did. Liu Kang was originally Japanese with a long name and Kitana was Shang's daughter and she was supposed to fall in love with him.

There was also one time I remember that Kintaro looked like a humanoid tiger before he made Shokan.

There was one article for EGM back in late 1995 where I think they interviewed him and Ed Boon and it was interesting the designs they had for characters. Liu Kang was supposed to look like a Shaolin monk, but wound up resembling Bruce Lee.

It would be cool to have him back, but I'm not holding my breath. It's been almost 2 decades. Oh and Mindstrikes, I wasn't comparing you to other users. But however, I've seen a lot of posts like yours bashing the 3d era and the worship of John Tobias. It's not also preconceived when I see you posting constantly criticizing the 3D era and constantly asking about John Tobias. It just seems to me some of the MK fanbase needs to wake up and see it's not 1996 anymore.

That's bs. I never bashed the 3D era. I always embrased the 3D era. If i bashed anything related to MK it is, and will remain MKx. Tobias did the lore and characters for MK. So basicley we all are fans of his work.