The same person who pays extra for any DLC MK character. Duh

It's not this insane preposterous idea, I'm not talking about Scorpion or Sub-Zero, those two are essentially the only two "required" characters needed for every core roster. Everyone else is completely expendable.

Besides, people went into this game expecting several popular favorites to sit this one out completely. Most people actually believed NRS would follow through with keeping all of the characters who died in MK9 dead- so why exactly would people get angry over some of the MK9 vets becoming DLC when they didn't expect many of them to make the core roster anyway? It seemed pretty obvious at the time that we'd be getting a roster overhaul with the MK9 vets taking a backseat and possibly being released as DLC, however, that's not how things played out. But nobody was expecting folk like Kung Lao back so soon, least of all in the core roster, so who exactly would get pissed about him being DLC if there was no other expectations but? No one.

I think NRS being afraid to "piss people off" is the main reason why these newer games lack solid story telling and direction, NRS is too afraid of taking risks. I'm not wanting them to just dump all their long-term popular characters, but it's very clear that we have a problem when several characters who did jackshit in story mode are playable when others who were pretty integral are forced to sit out or be DLC. It's a lot like if you take Jade, Sindel, Ermac, Tanya, and Nightwolf out of Deception and replace them with Sonya, Jonny, Kitana, Jax, and Kung Lao- would we have been OK with that? Did NRS take a risk by not doing that? Yes they did.

Eleven years later- NRS are living in complete comfort these days, they are owned by WB and Mortal Kombat is bigger than ever- so why are we still afraid to take risks? We should be forced to include Kitana, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Jax, Reptile, and Kano in MK11, MK12, MK13, MK14, MK15, and MK16 because people will be "pissed" if we don't? People are pissed either way you cut.

I say again, there wouldn't have been any backlash considering most of the fanbase was aware that those characters stood a chance in not returning. You must be spoiled if you'd bitch about your favorite being DLC, the rest of us just have to deal with our favorite not being in period.

Mortal Kombat can definitely do it. Those characters will be re-imagined, redesigned, and completely overhauled. Give them great gameplay, some wicked fatalities, and they're good to go. It's not as difficult as us fans keep making It seem. It worked in the past for several characters and would work again. It nor more of a risk than filling the roster up with "half assed offspring" of classic characters.

What I appreciate most about SFV's roster is that there's only 5 staple characters right now. Think how easy it would've been to put in the entire SF2 cast with some new characters, but they didn't. Now we all know more staple characters will be DLC later on. You can't have Nash or Karin in without Guile or Sakura. But those staple characters not being in gives these Alpha characters who haven 't been seen in years some rightfully deserved spotlight.

And if you ask me, MK could've fixed the roster very easily. All they had to do was delay the game for 2-3 months and just add in Fujin, Rain, and Tanya. That way everyone wins. You aren't losing staple characters but you're also adding in those highly requested characters. With the addition of those 3, I guarantee there'd be a lot less complaining about the roster.

The problem is not just one or two characters left out, it's:
- having upgraded NPCs as a tease
- having all the old good guys and their children in
- not having enough monsters / evil / dark characters

I'm not doubting they can revamp those characters into great ones. We've seen that with Shinnok, Tanya, Tremor... What I'm saying is that a cast made up of too many of these characters would be received worse than the actual MKX cast we got, especially with the more casual fan.

Characters like Karin and Mika while not obvious returners are still popular and were heavily requested, topping polls. I can't say the same for most of the 3D MK characters. There's still a bad stigma attached to those games.

All said and done, with Tanya, Tremor and the high possibility of more (Fujin, Bo?) This fixes my issue with the lack of oddball characters in the cast. It's my personal favorite.

Exactly.

All I ever wanted with MKX, dating back before we learned who was also in the game besides Scorpion and Sub-Zero- was an even roster comprised of classic characters, 3D era characters, and new characters. That's all. A good even mixture linking the generations and I think that's what most people were expecting at least.

But the way things went every slow, torturous reveal leading up to the game was an MK9 returnee "Hey look, there's Kano...again!" "Uh oh, Reptile!!!" "Oh my....Kung Lao!" and then we get a random story mode trailer like a month away from release showing off the rest of the newbie characters and that's it lol. It would've been nice if we had gotten a few reveals like Tanya or Fujin or Rain- that would've gotten many of us really talking and actually probably would've quieted some of the talk of a stale roster if not all of it..

I'm happy that it seems like they're trying to fix this with DLC(If it all pans out as hoped we'll have Tanya, Fujin, Bo', Tremor and even Sindel to bring some diversity to the cast, maybe Rain as well if he becomes DLC later) , but at the same time it's kinda sad that the wait for DLC is more exciting and suspenseful than the wait of the actual game itself. DLC should feel like a bonus to me, but sadly it feels like a vital patch to fix this stale roster.

honestly though, who is going to give a fuck about this game by the time the dlc comes out in 2016? hahah i mean, people already stopped giving a fuck due to the shit roster after 2-3 months.... and online is empty..... why ? coz no one wanted to wait for a completed game sold as new an fresh to release new and fresh content that was not delivered upon release.....me personally i couldnt give a fuck about predator and jason...that shits whack.


the roster should not have has the dead mk9ers nor all the kids it did.

This defenitly. Even the newcomers look meh.

Street fighter sucks /thread

pics of Lauren. The new Brazilian character that uses a mix of BJJ and Capoeira.

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2015/oct/01/new-character-laura-leaked-street-fighter-5/

I appreciate them bringing back Birdie and Rainbow Mika. They're two great designs that needed more love....

I'm sore that Fujin, Bo' Rai Cho, and Li Mei didn't get shots at the main MKX roster. In fact, it was downright *weird* that MK4-era guys didn't get much shine seeing as how the story was basically a retelling of 4....

But if you think any roster that includes about half (soon to be *exactly* half with the inevitable addition of Akuma) of the central Street Fighter 2 cast is a "risky roster", you aren't using your noggin.

I get the Sf2 cast is iconic but Capcom has really milked it for all its worth [though in fairness NRS has whored out the MK1-3 cast just as much] but they really really need to put some of the SF2 characters to bed now. SF4 should have been the send off for most of them. Hopefully NYCC reveals Alex and the Brazil conventions gives us our official look at Lauren.

I still don't understand how they're taking risks here. The usual suspects, a bunch of new guys, a character not seen in forever(Nash) and the most requested characters that got fake photoshop leaks during SF4 (Mika and Karin).

SF3 and Alpha didn't overuse the SF2 roster. It wasn't until SFIV that they did.

I do think Birdie was sort of ballsy. He wasn't a huge hit with fans and wasn't really requested. They just put him in because they wanted to.

And even though R.Mika and Karin were heavily requested by fans, who knows how the casuals will react to seeing them? They could've just put in a bunch of SF4 characters with the new characters, but they didn't. And I respect that.

Most of MKX's roster complaints come from the lack of fan requested characters. SFV is doing the opposite by bringing in highly requested characters by hardcore fans instead of just putting in majority of SF4 characters.

(At least for the main roster anyway. DLC is going to be all SF4 and Third Strike characters.)

Most of my MKX roster complaints came from the perception of how MK9 ended.
We kinda expected the surviving MK9 people, some that would be brought back alive (some for story purposes), maybe some MK4-D characters, and probably some new ones.

My major gripe was them including the "what ifs" of Liu Kang, Kitana, and Kung Lao and them not having much, if any story revelance.

The complaints were that the roster was too safe and predictable. Namely because a large portion of MK9 characters returned and dead characters like Liu Kang, Kitana, and Kung Lao were playable instead of characters like Rain, Tanya, and Fujin. The fan requested characters took a seat so we could have the MK1 and MK2 core cast.

Also my complaint haha. Personally, I think having Rain and Fujin in the main roster would have propelled them to have more fans. Seemed perfect to me.

Laura trailer.

http://shoryuken.com/2015/10/07/street-fighter-vs-laura-shocks-the-competition-in-official-reveal-trailer/

One of the biggest complaints I see about MKX is with the roster, something NRS should be looking at taking into account with the next game. Deception had a pretty eclectic batch of characters, so it's not outside of their abilities The biggest issue is that the 3D era games, though enjoyable, were seen by most outsiders and more casual fans as a less memorable or valued period of the franchise (though I disagree) and as a result of a lack of the kind of response the 2D games got, NRS is leaving elements from those games out in the cold. Characters like R.Mika and Charlie are far more appreciated by the larger community of SF fans than, say, Fujin, Havik and Li Mei are by the larger MK community.

Sadly, I think this trend will at least carry over into Injustice 2, I wouldn't be surprised if out of 24 characters, that game has about 19 returning from the first. Hopefully they pull some surprises out for MK11.

Dhalsim revealed and 6 more as DLC later, silhouettes already released. http://www.eventhubs.com/images/2015/oct/27/6-additional-characters-be-added-street-fighter-5/ They will have the 6 characters which you can earn with VC over the rest of the year (10 months top). Mortal Kombat X had 4 characters in 3 months post release and 8 total in probably 12-14 months.

Still don't see how Street Fighter V's roster is taking risks. Even after reading every post, I'm not seeing it.

It isn't. It's SF2 cast with 4 Alpha cast members who've been requested for ages and 4 new characters. It's pretty much exactly the same as MKX -- trilogy cast plus 8 new chars and four MK4/3D era chars.

If anything, MKX centering its story around new characters was way bolder.

I disagree.

It's not bold to have the parents of the descendants playable to act as a safety net for anyone who doesn't like the newbies. "Oh you don't like Cassie? Well don't worry we have Johnny and Sonya too."

MKX could've been bold, but folded to the fan demand. And alright taking risks isn't the right word. But I will say that SFV's roster is a hell of a lot more interesting and refreshing than MKX's.

Agreed. I Laura and most of the new cast. I'm happy to see R.Mika and Karin again but Dhalsim and Zangief really could have been left for DLC and those spots given to actual SF3 characters. Hell there's even some characters from SF1 that haven't returned yet that I would love to see more than the SF2 cast [minus the usual suspects.]

SF5 definitely taking risks in leaving out some staple characters. MKX did no such thing, since Baraka and Shang Tsung have missed games and mainly the former is treated like shit. Also only Shinnok from the post-trilogy games, Quan Chi is basically trilogy now. MKX was safe as could be with almost every character from mk1 &2 and family / descendants. New characters did not get a lo of story time at all. Kotal Kahn was just another replacement for Shao, not exactly daring.