Explaining My Problems With The Mortal Kombat 1 Story 

This was just a retelling of MK11 Aftermath. They could've just told this story and the direction they wanted to go in a hour long cutscene in Aftermath.

Absolutely agree!

​@@michaelpenirelli9003Don't say stupid things.

Yes the ending blew.Still good all around but the ending was eh.And Scorpion and Sub Zero being brothers was trash

@@theseeker7711 Nah, there's nothing wrong with Scorpion and Sub-Zero being brothers.

Don't say stupid things.

​@@scottchaison1001Not judging but how do you find the energy to say this on so many comments?

The tournament was always a side to the actual plot the invasion

​@@scottchaison1001 Multiverse hurts the game bruh

Fr 😂 It's like if the Mcu did a Reset and was Retelling the first Avengers Movie and you're rebuilding this new Mcu with new Character growth and team building then all the Sudden it went From a Avengers 1 to Endgame in a Heartbeat

It won't get fixed, NRS has been filling their story full of plot holes since MK9. Their only saving grace is that the gameplay has improved, and most gamers don't play fighting games for the story.

​@@JordanFanaticDon't say stupid things, MK9 and this game are great.

@scottchaison1001 The game is fantastic. The story? Not so much

@@JordanFanatic Nah, the story is pretty good.

It depends on your standards. If your standards are low, then it's bad. If you're standards are non-existent then it's decent.

😤😤😤💯💯💯🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

To play Devil's advocate, there are 2 possible concerns with that. The first is that it risks the game's story feeling hollow and safe. Like, we have had fighting game stories for over 2 decades with such a premise where the main heroes just defeat a powered up villain. Hell, MK9, X and 11 arguably followed that model. And 11 at least had Kronika's time travel as a way to raise the stakes. From Neatherrealm's perspective, it is a reasonable fear that players would be like "what the hell? Why are we going back to a more basic style after the past several games cranked it up?". To use analogy, it would be like if after Avengers Endgame, we had "Iron Man 4" that was about Tony Stark coming back to life and learning how to rebuild his armour all over again as essentially a "remake" of Iron Man 1. After everything that happened in the last movies, this feels like step down. The second issue is that time isn't on MK's side. You say "Save all the epic stuff to build up for later games (MK2, MK3, MK4, etc)". But consider that it's not 2001 anymore. A studio can't just release a sequel to a game in a couple short years anymore. Game development times have gotten really long. Like, Santa Monica originally wanted God of War 2018 to launch a trilogy of games. But after seeing it took nearly 5 years to make a single game, if they insisted on a trilogy players would have had to wait for over 10 years to see the story conclude. And that's assuming players even stuck around. So that's why they compressed a 3 game plan into a 2 game plan so players only had to wait around 5 years. MK11 came out in 2019. MK1 came out in 2023 nearly 4 years later. And Neatherealm was only able to do that because they didn't make an Injustice 3 like everyone expected. If they had, MK1 would have come out at least 2-3 years later. Lets just imagine if NeatherRealm decided to save the Endgame style event for MK3. Assumming 4 years per game and no more Injustice games, you'd have to wait until 2031, nearly 8 years to see it. And if they decided to do Injustice 3 at any point during that time, then it would be over 10 years. On top of that, Neatherealm is the only AAA fighting game company that is still operating like that. Street Fighter and Tekken operate by supporting a single game for over 7 years. It's entirely possible that Neatherrealm might consider that approach and opt to support a single fighting game for multiple years. Then what? Do we have to wait even longer for an Endgame style event? By doing it now with MK1, it at least gives us the event before it has a chance to be cancelled or delayed.

Part of the issue is the nature of the game. Because MK1's story is told in a fighting game, and one with very expensive production values, it limits the way the story can be told. Injustice 1 and 2 demonstarte this clearly as the games really skip through much of the content and context in order to accomodate the fights and gameplay. Wheras the comic was able to really take its time and explore and build up to stuff. MK1 is in a rough place. It can't expand its story as doing so would require way more resources and also reasons for the player to fight.

I agree! Onaga makes much more sense as the bad guy-especially if you played Deception!

The story went out of the window as soon as they went with the multiverse trope. It threw all of the struggles from MK11 out of the window and made the plot meaningless. Geras told Liu Kang that a titan is killed in all timeliness after they die, but the whole plot of this game is about 2 Titans fighting each other after creating their respective timeliness (Liu Kang and Shang Tsung) Actually rebooting the timeline would have given this franchise a much needed break from the constant plotholes that the writers can't help but keep digging for themselves. I get a lot of gamers don't play fighting games for the story but getting this many inconsistencies from the originator of story-driven fighting games is mind-boggling to me.

@@JordanFanatic 100% , i hope in the future they just somehow completely delete this whole theory of multiverses being a thing

Exactly there would be cutscenes with what they would do as a keeper of time but there's something wrong liu kang fight with Shang tsung shattered the timeline making different timelines but not because that there's difference keepers because of that there's different timelines so with different timelines the results of the fights with kronika would change by who beat her

Yea, but the purpose of MK11 was to fix the mess that MK9 and 10 created and start over, and instead we're stuck in parallel timeline limbo.

So they can monetize how many steps you can take...

so a new and improved version of the story mode of MK Deception?

a Subzero Mythology’s sequel would be cool too imo

​@@raidbenachoure1330are you referencing the johnny Cage mansion invasion thingy?

I wish there was a Rpg like where you can kreate your own fighter choose your lineage choose your own special powers by the sub categorys of the lineage you choose

So the split of timelines happened in many points as long a decision is taken a new timeline is created some I think, including when the new era was created, so there is a timeline whereby instead of Liu Kang building the new Era like in ending of MK11 Kitana was the one who created the new Era whereby in that timeline Liu Kang was also reborn like the Kitana in our timeline

So was aftermath Liu Kang the Shang Tsung ending? And MK1 Liu Kang is the end of the original story of MK11?

@knox7945 both endings are cannon . They split into two different timeliness. Ome where lu Kang won and one where Shang sung won.

@@tarrellwilks6998 yeah I know, but the original ending of MK11 was just Liu and Kitana and Aftermath was the continuation without Kitana. So I'm wondering if MK1 Liu Kang is the same one with Kitana or the one who won over Shang Tsung?

@@knox7945 titain katana is the one at the end of MK11 she said he was her lu Kang

Powerscaling was always messed up ever since mk4. NRS Managed to amplify that to even more bs levels.

@@nabilahmed579exactly man it’s like the powerscaling is none existent though lmao

I think glowing eyes means you are a demi god. Titan doesnt have them. Kronica eyes are normal

@@jennyxie5382raiden is full protector god, not demigod. It’s NRS fucking about with the pantheon titles

Still the story was pretty good for the most part.

A choose your path at the end would have been awesome. This was one expensive mobile game, even then, it has less game modes than an actual app. I feel like this game was a huge step back as far as content and fine tuning. Like wtf does Reptile's enhanced invisibility do?

This game had a lot of potential to do way more but I feel like nrs felt the need to connect it to mk11 love the game but the story made it feel so bland to me, makes me wonder what the next game will be about especially with all the cliffhanger endings they gave at the end (the pictures) and the last cutscene. There's not much to go off of, they just need to make a standout fighting game.

Yeah, Kung Lao should have been replaced with either Meat or Blaze. But Kung Lao and Liu Kang are friends, so idk if they would ever remove him from a roster

@@FatalShotGG I would prefer him replaced with Kai by far, but I would welcome Meat back for sure. It’s beyond overkill with Kung Lao already. He can be in story as a NPC. No reason he had to be playable again

@@rockybalboa4593 Or they could have also replaced him with Motaro and made him a Kameo character

​@rockybalboa4593 to be fair though Kung Lao is the most fun he's ever been in MK1

We don't really need another fire user..

Onaga does get teased in the one of the arcade endings though, and unlike previous games they seem really confdiant in making all of them canon as they acually flow very well together

​@@nightwish1453all of them are canon because they'll tie in with the story expansion, meaning we might see Onaga.

Scorpion also miraculously had his fire elemental powers before forming the shirai ryu and never becoming a revenant The story was good in the 1st half then NRS did what they've been doing since MKX and wrote themselves into a corner.

@@JordanFanatic Yah I agree. Also what did u mean by the Revenant point? As in he couldn’t get his superpowers without being a revenant?

@@mikemike7326 There's nothing wrong with Raiden getting his Powers from the amulet, what are you talking about?

@@scottchaison1001 it’s preference. I prefer the universe where these characters have the magic and ability to use those powers without an item to do it through like the previous canon

Subzero have his ice power, maybe Kuai Liang learn fire instead.

I almost thought, since Liu put Shang in a humbled life, eventually Shang would stumble on something he never should have (maybe a realm/portal/amulet), granting him some sort of magic.

A heroic Bi-han would have been cool. We got to see a good bi-han subzero they just didn't focus at all on him. We could have got what all fans wanted. A bi-han that redeemed himself after mythologies and sided with earthrealm.

Didn’t we see a good Shang Tsung and Wuan Chi briefly before they got pwnt by their titan counterparts on the pyramid?

Also in Lui Kangs chapter he actually says their is a version of Kano that became keeper of time making snow blind officially Canon

@@NaveRellim34He didn’t “straight up” that there IS a Kano who’s a keeper of time. He was telling Kitana that there’s many possibilities for each timeline to be ruled by someone we know. So it may be true or not. It’s not directly confirmed

Would have had more weight if the properly worked towards it. The whole multiverse thing is too overbearing with not enough new positives on the story

@@Timquan. I couldn’t agree more that’s pretty much all of our opinions too! They was on track on the writings halfway of the game

@jeffdcgamer1077 They really was too. Those first 6 or 7 chapters are good despite the chapter system and the first 5 chapters were absolutely great. I guess all I can hope is that they drop the timetravel/multiverse shenanigans fully for the next game. I don't mind them referencing it and stuff but they gotta stop revolving the story around it.

At this point anyone who played the old game knew about this point

Don’t worry Hanzo is in the game play the game you will understand also for more information play as Smoke in the tower and win the tower to unlock the ending for smoke and there will be a story for him smoke

The Best ending of MK 11 isn't canon because of Aftermath dlc.

@@paragon1172000 what about Lui Kangs white hair? Dyed it over the eons? How about other fighters getting magical amulets that let them control elements. Or tracking devices

@@tgonzalez1983 The out of universe answer is that it's a change in character design they do that a lot. The in universe answer is he probably changed it back to black once he gave up the time keeper role. That artifact is probably what he put Raiden's power in once he was done with it. Remember he also had Raiden's lightning power in 11. If he can give up the time keeper power he can probably also give up Raiden's.

@@paragon1172000 oooooh. Kung Lao just learned to teleport from madam bo & Shang Tsung only found out about 2 timelines & not the others I’m guessing. It all makes sense now. They just make up literally anything now

@@tgonzalez1983 I don't entirely disagree with what you are saying. There are elements I take issue with in the game as well. I was simply answering your points that clearly had answers.

If WB gets bought by Microsoft/Xbox then yes if not just wait for a sale with or without the DLC kharacters

@@parkerburrus289 I was thinking when it releases for everyone and they get enough sales they can remove mk11 from gamepass and put mk1 in there

also, just to dovetail off your note about the infinite timelines extension from MK11....I think what the writers were trying to show is that each of the endings in single-player mode from MK11 is a canon-ending of MK11. It's just that MK1 only focuses on the Liu Kang timeline as the story. I guess it's assuming though that FIre God Liu Kang had the ability to conscript all those other Titan versions of characters because he was the only God that recognized that possibility. Had Titan (Time Keeper) Kitana recognized it, she could've theoretically done it and so forth. Titan Shang Tsung recognized it, and therefore did it in his parallel set of infinite timelines, hence why everyone is an evil version of themselves in that "mirror-verse."

Oh yeahhh I forgot in MK11 each character has control of the hourglass