KenshiMaster16 Wrote:Spaceman Wrote:
No. The ship has sunk. The netcode sunk it and KP2 was the rogue wave that took out the life boats. Also, lets be honest, the variation system sucked. MKA/MKD cheap ass stance change 2.0.
Bring on Injustice 2!!
See, I think the variation system can work but ONLY if they play to the characters strengths and not this off the wall bullshit they tried to pull with uncharacteristic things and stealing movesets. Not to mention several characters felt incomplete in the variation department and uninspired (Reptile, imo, being the worst offender). Two prime examples I can think of off the top of my head that were unnecessary are;
- Johnny should not have been playable in this game. Not only was he made redundant gameplay wise by Cassie but in order to make him a fully realized character in the moveset department, they had to borrow from Noob. He should have sat out and been strictly an NPC.
- Kenshi having a demon variation was overly bizarre. That should have gone to a character that can actually do demon-y things like Shinnok, Quan Chi, Ashrah or Sareena.
They did make some strange decisions with the variations. Possessed Kenshi and Mournful Kitana should have played into the story somehow if they were going to do those. I personally liked Stunt Double Johnny; that seemed like a logical and organic way to expand on his powers. It would have been even better if he had learned to do that through his supposed "Seido training" in Story Mode. If they had done that, not only would the variation (and his defeating of Shinnok) be completely justified, but it also would have distinguished him from Cassie enough that people wouldn't write Cassie off as just "Johnny Cage with a gun" or Johnny as just "half of a Cassie."
With Reptile, I think they were trying to be clever with the variations and make just one character, unique in the roster, who has all of the same skills in all variations except for one additional ability that completely changes his possibilities. In theory, this would make Reptile the most accessible character because you don't have to worry about what combos and specials you've gained or lost between variants. Simple learning curve for variation-system newcomers, and each separate ability does fundamentally change the way you play Reptile (Deceptive is the mixup master; Nimble gives him longer juggles; Noxious encourages getting up close). Unfortunately, the effort
looks so lazy that, well, it looks lazy even if they did it completely on purpose.
On the matter of KP3, if they did do one, I would bet that it would be at least 3/4 fanservice, if not 4/4. You gotta remember that fanservice is what NRS loves to do above all other things, and THEY KNOW how serious the backlash against KP2 has been. Even some video game news outlets have picked up on the negative reaction. The last time the team disappointed this hard (MKvsDC) we got MK9, which was basically NRS saying, "Jesus Christ, we'll give you everything you want if you just
put down the guns and let our families go please oh God we don't want to diiiiiie!" The pendulum swings both ways. They fuck up, then they make up. That's the way it's always been, ever since they threw out all the ninjas in MK3 and promptly brought them back in UMK3, and responded directly to audience reactions in practically every release since. So the next character pack release (or the next game) will more than likely be the makeup phase. Even WB's heartless marketing squad would probably relent if it looks like MK's image is hurting before the next game release, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if we got at least 2 more characters who were highly requested MK icons.
