To hell with this boss, all she doe sis encourage spammin and chease. She is that bullshit. And also the fact that ya cant even fatal blow her is the worst part
@@tonmoymirza2884 no, you could combo corrupted shinok, hit him with x rays, and actually become better at the game, not like Kronika who just encourages spam
"Oh no, my greatest champion has been doomed to sink into an endless ocean of blood for all eternity... If only someone had the power to turn back time and prevent him from suffering this horrible fate!"
Holy shit... I genuinely didn't even think about that part. It's like the writers themselves didn't even think about how many plot holes the time warping would cause to the story overall 😂😂
Maybe Kronika did not care since she was going to reset the timeline anyway, but I dunno lol The good news is Geras escapes the sea of blood after getting swallowed by a giant fish that then beaches itself (not even joking. We learn this from intro dialogues)
@@joshrubio1336 Sometimes they are. Or at least some are accurate. The Geras intro dialogue is so specific that it seems canon. Plus the stage itself shows the beached fish that swallowed him dead on the shore
One thing id like to add: Geras' tower ending confirms Kronika's goal was impossible. Geras tries taking over and making the timeline perfect, but he fails again and again. He even says "its no surprise Kronika went mad from so many failures" and he decides to give up and merge with the hourglass so the timeline can choose on their own free will what will happen, while geras gets his peace he wanted for so long. So it is pointed out that Kronikas motivation and goal would NEVER come to light
Cetrion had a similar Klassic Tower Ending, where she attempted to purge the timelines of evil, only to find that the mortals would always take the first excuse they can find to go to war to each other. You'd think she'd go insane and repeat the process forever, but she instead decides to make the forces of good battle the forces of evil until the former eventually win (as oppose to starting an endless war), which would cause the survivors to be humbled by the harrowing experiences and more than happy to embrace the light. In other words, if Kronika was replaced with either Geras or Cetrion, the entire Mortal Kombat series would have never happened.
Kronika would’ve been more interesting if we saw her go “mad from so many failures. Maybe if she shown to be a super stubborn character refusing that “perfection” was never possible and that she has to keep doubling down to finally prove it. It would’ve added to her character to see her frustrated and angry with herself that she can’t get it right or something like that.
One thing I’ve found weird about her was this…. “I cannot erase Raiden from the timeline cuz reasons but I can trap his brother in a pocket dimension”……..huh??
@@waterpillar1977 I think she can turn back time on him but not erase him completely which I'd assume is just due to the influence he has on the dimension/timelines and if he is then it would cuase the timelines to start destroying themselves or something I mean like think of it; if he never exists that means Liu Kang never reaches his true power don't you think she'd try to have done something about the 2 that wasn't just pushing them away from eachother However I digress I do think she has some amount of control over Raiden but not that much and while Raiden is able to sit outside of time for kronika to talk to him I think that only lasts for so much time before he succumbs to the power of the sands and loses his memory of the previous timeline until something happens that jogs it back I would also like to point out her entire plan was to set back the timeline to the beginning so if she had the ability to bring someone back then she had the ability to reverse time anyway so why not just follow the rest of the plan and at the end of the game that's what she successfully does but the issue is that now the Liu Kang and Raiden combined they are able to keep their memory of "past" events and beat the everloving shit out of her until she crystallizes
I’ve always hated when time travel or the ability to control time was introduced because to me it feels like there are no stakes. I think Dark Raiden would’ve been a way better boss and had a better story
Dark Raiden would’ve been an anti hero I feel like they could’ve made the time thing a lot better maybe have Kronika severely nerfed maybe she’s weaker than the elder gods without her crown
Also I hate how the unnamed elder gods DON'T DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN BE RAIDEN'S UNDERLINGS THAT SIT THERE especially since they are supposed to have so much power
Yeah, time travel/manipulation is probably one of my least favorite plot points. Sure, you can make a good story/character out of them, but it's so easy to mess it up.
@@blazingocean4206 the way the did it in 9 was cool though. Like it wasn't as if raiden could just controle the flow of time willy nilly he had to deal with his situation as it was. It also seems like he can only do that once so there was tension about Wether or not it would even pay off, which it barely did pay off and inly at great sacrifice. Plus it was interesting watching him not understand and fuck up the whole storyline by changing things for the worse. Honestly 9 is the best example of a good time travel premise ever. 11? Not so much.
This makes me realize, Onaga is by far the only MK boss who had a cool gimmick. He super strong but doesn't spam so much. Destroying Kamidogu's makes him weaker, and sadly he never appear again after Armageddon.
"Dear Pesky Shaolin Monks; Me and my undefeatable Army have taken over Outworld! Your "lovely" Primcess Kitana is now a permanent guest at one of my 7 Dragon temples! I dare you to find her if you can!"
Honestly I think what went wrong with Kronika is that they tried WAYY too hard to make her some super important and badass villain that they very much implicated her own flaws and motive as this time-god.
Story mode wise, she was a really stupid villain. She could've easily won with the powers she had. The only thing I liked about her was her fatality and her character design.
Shao Khan was annoying with his long range and quick attacks. But Kronika just straight up spam high damage projectiles that can combo you dead, and is no joke the epitome of BS!
Shao was the easiest one. Just dash, jump over and uppercut.. dont matter with who. You know how many flawless victories ive gotten on him.. i even flawless'ed the tower challenge #300 when i had to face 3 of em b2b2b
@@Deathmare235 in the first few attempts,almost everyone will struggle against her because you cannot combo her unlike in previous titles but she just easy when they know you can just spam jump kick because she don't even try to block it
She literally caused her own defeat. She's self-destructive. Merging the timlines not only made the heroes aware of her existance / plan, she also brought back good Raiden and Liu Kang. Then told them that them combining would be her defeat. If she didn't bother to merge, and just got on with resetting the timeline in private, nobody would know, while Dark Raiden and revenant Liu Kang would've continued to be enemies. It's like she wanted someone to end her because she didn't have the willpower to do it herself. But not to worry... her entire existence is a contradiction. Therefore she does not exist. Problem solved.
Her messing with time CAUSED the merge , she didn’t do it in hopes she would lose, Also she said the two of them being alive would be her downfall , not them literally merging because she never saw that coming she even says so herself
@@Monkforilla”your combined power is a threat to me” Is almost literally what she says. Even if she didn’t know they’d literally merge together, having done this thousands and thousands of times, why did she never get rid of one or both of them in any of those previous timelines? Her goal is just to get rid of Raiden in MK11 but why did she never do that before now? When is it ever explained that the heroes were brought in accidentally from her messing with time? She straight up says she brought Shao Kahn and his army to serve as guards and indicates she brought people back intentionally. When do they say it was an unintended consequence of messing with time?
@@Monkforilla like I said, even if she didn’t mean it literally, at the very least she knows they can stop her when working together, so everything else I asked still applies. Why didn’t she just remove one or both of them in any of the countless resets she’s gone through? Especially when she knows any of them could be a threat to her. Hell, WHY DOES SHE STRAIGHT UP TELL THEM THAT THEY CAN BEAT HER BY WORKING TOGETHER?! Why even put that thought in their heads if that can pose a threat to her?
"You need to forget about Kombos." Yeah, I did that in 9. My whole strategy in story mode after awhile was literally "jump in, punch, uppercut, jump in, punch, uppercut".
10:17 Because she isn't the Mastermind villan of MK11 story, Shang Tsung was. After Aftermath hitted the scene she became even more irrelevant to the plot and it was about she and pretty much everyone else was just being manipulated by him. So even in her debut game she wasn't even the main antagonist.
The sad thing is it’s true…….thst she wasn’t really the mk11 boss it was Shang tsung sho became mofe powerful than everyone by. A lot she made a complete joke of both shao Kahn and kronica so he deserves being the top villain in mk11 I’d kronica will be so naive and arrogant even more so than shao Kahn.
I thought her fatality the most badass ever...ripping you apart and putting you back together only to rip you apart and continue the loop an infinite amount of times
That whole rant with her armies full strength had me dying🤣, she lost the outworld army, black dragon and cyber Lin kuei, and still thought she should prepare the hourglass
@@GenerationGamexp that was the first think i thought when everything went wrong! "Shit, i'll send Cetrion to the past and warn me, so i can fix my mistakes" c'mon! That series is really funny
The easiest way to fix Kronika would be to make her entity that feeds on violence and energy expended while fighting, so she keeps resetting timelines so fighters will fight each other over and over again, so she keeps getting more powerful. Also not make her do it "thousand times", but only like once or twice, and she would be reason why series got rebooted with MK9, because that's the first time she reset timeline. That would also give excuse why some plotholes would be fixed or certain things retcon, because she "reset" timeline and new choices were made by characters.
Or it could be that she's like the Weeping Angels, feeding off of potential energy and change. She'd be technically the kindest of the bosses, zapping you back in time and letting you live to death, but every moment after you were sent back is energy she feeds on. Maybe even have moment in the story that says that the current kung lao who got brought forwards in time during the merge gets sent back 500 years to become the Great Kung Lao
“…an entity that feeds on violence and energy expended while fighting…” Dude, you just described Dark Kahn. DAɌK KAHN is a better villain þan Kronika! 😂⏳
A major issue with her is she was just too powerful from a narrative stand point to realistically write her being beaten. If Elder Gods are a huge deal in MK and she is above them all.....realistically no one should remotely be a threat to her. So the only thing left to do is write a super convoluted story and have her do the most stupid things so she can be beaten. Sometimes going stronger isn't always better
Then I'd recommend playing the older 3d titles. It's basically shinnok nation there. But I agree he's a cool villain, playing him in MKX was a lot of fun
Shang Tsung and Quan Chi from Deadly Alliance are maybe my favorite bosses from the series. On the higher difficulties, they can be a real bitch. I remember Quan Chi being ridiculously fast. But also, they won. The only villains to win in the series.
@@UnifiedEntity they did for short period of time,they beat and killed every earthrealm heroes outside Raiden who was disadvantage and basically no chance to beat them. Though it was unlucky for them that Onaga revived at right time when they finally won. Like compared to other villains outside mk9 where it basically a stalemate but villain have better advantage because Quan chi is basically mastermind behind this,created revenant heroes who died and summon Shinnnok to rule Earthrealm after prepared for years though he was butched in mkx and basically lose to Sonya and died
Classic story. If you make an omnipotent super-intimidating villain standing above all the existence and reality itself, then the only way to defeat them is to make them ultimately dumb. "I can shred you apart with just my though - but I'll better grow some tentacles from the ground, or throw some giant rocks into you, and so on". This happens every time.
Yes. Because instantly winning is not fun. Gods are sadistic more often than not, and don’t care about winning too much. They care about playing around with their subjects and seeing them squeal. When you are omnipotent and immortal, you often lose meaning in life after doing everything and anything. Then you go back to basics.
There is one other exploit when fighting her. Jade. She has a move that makes her immune to projectiles, and sense most of what kronya does is just projectiles it’s really easy to win with her. Arcade mode only though
Finally someone said it! I constantly hear how amazing the story was, but with Kronika who’s whole thing was controlling time, the story just has a major plot hole that she created herself just so she can lose. How can she have certain powers one moment and then not have it when the hero arrives?!
If you "constantly hear how amazing the story was" you must be living in a very small and weird pocket dimension... Let me guess, you mainly hear the opinions of bootlicking "yes man" fans like History Behind the Warrior.
I just don’t understand how she can f up her fights that bad that she loses. She can literally reset time to before she loses and try again. Not that she should lose with her powers anyway.
If I remember, originally geras was supposed to be the final boss but somewhere near the end someone was like "what if we made a female boss" and the scrapped their plans in favor of kronika. I don't mind that we have a female boss but if this was true then they scrapped a good idea just for a checkmark.
@@scottsholtey691 Boo hoo, you probably shit your pants in rage on command anytime some youtube reactionary tells you what "woke" thing you should be triggered about.
6:38 Quick correction; while not a boss character, Blaze did appear prior to Armageddon, in both Deadly Alliance as a secret character, and in Deception as part of a quest in Outworld. In Deception he was wandering around, confused without any memories of how he got there. This allows for interaction with Shujinko, and establishes him as a fully realized character, and he was even added as a playable Kombatant in the PSP remake / update, Mortal Kombat Unchainted, the technically definitive version of the game that fixes continuity errors and inconsistencies due to the story of Armagedding having not been written when the side quests for Deception were made. Prior to the development of Armageddon, Blaze's appearance in Deception was little more than an easter egg for fans of Mortal Kombat II and Deadly Alliance. His first appearance was in the background of MK2's The Pit II stage, fighting a palette swap of Liu Kang, dubbed Hornbuckle. This background battle was later recreated in the background of the Pit area in Mortal Kolmbat: Shaolin Monks. His first PLAYABLE appearance was as an unlockable character in Deadly Alliance. After unlocking everything else, and beating all Konquest missions for all other characters, highlighting Raiden during character selection, and hitting Down + Start would let you play as Blaze. Completing Arcade has his story end with the hatching of a single dragon egg wherein he was its enslaved guardian. Once the egg had hatched, he was simply free to leave, returning to some nebulous mission that had never been alluded to before. This was repeated in Deception, though slightly modified for Unchained so that it would better line up with Armageddon. In MKX and MK 11, he returns to his roots as a cameo background character in The Pit, though this time, he's fighting Rain rather than Hornbuckle. The point is that he had a story prior to Armageddon; it just wasn't really known by that many people. In Deadly Alliance, you had to effectively 100% the game to completion just to have the option of playing as him, and THEN you had to know how to select him without any indication that you had the option to do so. In Deception, I'm pretty sure he's a completely optional sidequest character that you can miss if you don't actively explore Outworld, though I admit, it's been almost 20 years since I last played the game. Point is, he's interacted with Shujinko, the main character of Deception, and his bio has been available to players ever since Deadly Alliance, so he WAS more than 'just a big guy you have to beat'.
@@KombatGod I'm sorry the US public school system told me to be clear and concise, and that the whole world would expect a minimum of 500 words, which my comment failed to reach. It only had 438 words, and 2,565 characters, making up 16 sentences. I could have gone into more detail, but I wanted to keep it quick.
I definitely think that if Kronika was written better, as in what you said about her being a feeder of people so she keeps rewinding time to live forever, she could've been a cooler kharacter, especially because she's a Titan a being unknown before MK11, so she could've allowed for the exploration of more of her kind, but instead she makes you want to forget about Titans.
It's her design that does it for me. Her, cetrion and geras feel like they don't fit the Mk aesthetic which I admit was probably intentional but their looks are kinda generic aswell anyways. Doesn't matter what series it is, if it goes on long enough they will always end up putting in "futuristic" sleek robot enemies haha
You mentioned Blaze, and I just wanted to say that one thing I think is interesting about him is that, despite being an end boss, he isn't evil. While beating him could help hold back Armageddon, he himself is just a figure, something powerful to prove yourself against. Now, I play Armageddon on Easy (I may be a fighting game fan, but that doesn't make me good at them), so this may be different on higher difficulties, but it really feels like Blaze is not all that powerful. He just feels like another incremental step up in difficulty that happens every time you move up the ladder. And aesthetic-wise, he doesn't really look as threatening as you'd think he would. I don't know what it is, but he could have used some more fine tuning.
She does this to everyone who tries to actually *fight* her, like a normal opponent. Then you realize you can't launch her in air, that microstun of 1-2 hits is the win tactic, and she becomes worse than a joke.
According to Ed Boon: Kronika was created just so MK has the "first female final boss." Was Kronika the best he can do? No one asked Boon for that character.
There's one thing you forgot to mention. The devs claim she's above the one being which is not only impossible but the feats she shows makes her just seem at (and I'm very generous here) about lesser god tier not on the tier of the thing that created the universe
"Blaze doesn't have any connection to the story or it's heroes and villains" Me: taven, daigon, their parents, all the elder gods. Was a literal background character in the older games... Yeah... No connection at all.. literally everything and everyone was pursuing him in Armageddon... Got captured by Onaga in one of the previous games.. dude is super connected
In terms of the plot for Armageedon , Blaze basically sat on top of the pyramid and waited for the victor to fight him is what the video is talking about. He had no agency in his storyline. He puts zero plans into motion as he is just a plot device for the story everyone is fighting over. A tub of jello could been waiting at the top of things for the victor to eat, as it would made about as much sense.He has no goals as he just fights whomever attacks him and grants them godlike powers when they kill them.
@@Lastjustice for one he was created by the elder gods. Two he even guarded Onaga's egg. Which corrupted him along with him prematurely awaking daegon. His whole point was to originally restore the realms once Armageddon occured but I after his corruption, he couldn't do so. He would be the end. He knew this which is why relied on taven in the story mode to defeat him and save everything. And why he waited, which is what he said he would do.
@@RozwellMunchausen I am aware of all the backstory but in terms of what he actually does for the game storyline...Nada. He isn't a very interesting villain for this reason. He's basically an attack dog for the elder gods who guards his post, nothing more. He doesn't do anything to make sure the plan happens. All the elder gods plans involve blaze dying and neutering the victors or killing them all assuming either of the sons prevail as this a shitty plan to thwart armageddon which leaves way too much to chance.(and fails.) It's not like Taven is finding a way to thwart Blaze the whole game...no, his brother is the main threat in story mode. All the other villains in the story have far more skin in the game than Blaze does, hence why you fight them and they are actting out plans and creating alliances between each other that they ultimately break.
The secret to defeating Kronika should have been Gerrus. Make him more than just a boring servant she created. Imagine if Gerrus was once a hero who gained great power in an effort to defeat Kronika and save his realm. He came close, but she won and broke his timeline, destroying his ability to die and remaking him to the point that he forgot himself and began to serve his enemy. The fighters find a way to free Gerrus and restore his memories. Gerrus then uses his lesser mastery of time to hinder Kronika and allow the mortals a fighting chance to defeat her in mortal kombat. That's the boss fight. This makes Gerrus more interesting as a fallen hero who forgot himself, and further paints Kronika as a monster who likes to turn her enemies against their convictions after defeating them. Keep the soul sucking, then rewind time thing as her motivation. It can also be used to show how she keeps gerrus weak. You can even add a bit of rivalry romance between her and gerrus, where the reason she keep him a servant is due to some quiet infatuation for him. Cetrion could also be expanded upon, harboring a jealousy towards Gerrus, as she is envious of the attention he received from Kronika
Shao Kahn in MK2 was a nightmare until you figured out how he responds to all your attacks. After that you could pattern cheese him and win 99% of the time. The other 1% was when you didn't time something correctly as one mess up meant that you were probably going to lose 50% of your health.
Please do more MK game reviews/retrospectives and/or character reviews. I really like your structure and your thought process. It’d be very interesting to see your thoughts and opinions overall on the games and characters
Correction: MK2 Kahn was hard but Kintaro before him was literally the most OP boss in MK history. Try playing the arcade mode. He can throw you 1/4 screen away
@@lead.farmer yeah all of MK2 was ridiculously hard, but Kintaro would just throw you if tried to sweep him. Jump kick, he’d block then throw you. Then while you’re bouncing you’d get thrown again. Try to trade fireballs you’ll go flying and literally get stomped. Both were broke hard but Kintaro was where many got stuck.
@@rockstar450 i seem to recall having a easier time with kintaro than shao kahn. that shao kahn was a pain. lucky for us, we managed to whoop their asses in the end. hahahahaha.
To this day MK2 is one of my favourite games... yet I've never been able to get pass Kintaro. That guy is impossible for me. I beat Shao Kahn in MK3, so I guess Kintaro is harder?
I think bringing past Raiden is what undid current Raiden. Raiden is constant and can't exist in two places at once. So I think that's why his future version went away?
The "perfect timeline" motivation is a tried and true classic (or "klassic" per se), and it's certainly one with a lot of potential, but the rub is, normally it's a motivation for the heroes, not the villain. The greatest weakness of a motivation like this is the concept of certainty, the notion that no matter how hard you try, some things are either unchangeable or almost impossible to change. This struggle is why it's given to heroes, as beings of certainty make much better villains. A perfect example is Rika and Takano from Higurashi, or Homura and Kyubey/Walpurgisnacht from Madoka Magica. In both cases, you have a heroine traveling through time again and again, trying through countless realities to defy a seemingly unstoppable fate brought on by a figure who swats them down no matter how many tries they make. So the catharsis of it is in finally defeating that seemingly unstoppable "fate", a scenario that just doesn't work in reverse.
honestly when i first saw Kronika in trailers i thought she's gonna be the neutral force that guards the timeline, resetting it manually and punishing all those who tried to break it. so kinda like an unstoppable force of nature simply stating that no one can turn back time. it felt good in a game post-mkx especially, since a good part of mkx roster would give a fight to that time-rewinding monster just because in the old timeline they might never be even born. but nah, they made her want her own empire (of course!) and even powerless without mcguffins such as hourglass AND crown huh
The problem with Kronika is they don’t really explain what she wants. We know know she wants a perfect timeline and balance but what exactly that means we don’t know They try to make her different but muddle what her true motivation even is
@@billmcdermott9647 well they made it look like she hates raiden personally for mutilating her son shinnok, but when she easily erases dark raiden - shinnok is never restored, so that motivation is not real.
Weird as it sounds, I think Guilty Gear Strive did this plot line a little better than mortal Kombat did. (Strive spoilers ahead) We had Happy Chaos, this brand new character who was revealed to be behind all the bad events of the Guilty Gear timeline, and he was fairly intimidating on his own. But when he combined with Ino, a character who already had control over time and had also proven to be a powerful force many times, he basically ended up creating a god. A God who, just like Kronika, wanted to create the perfect timeline.. complicated Guilty Gear lore aside, they managed to make this plot line work because it had been built up for years. So when it finally paid off, it was very impactful. It also felt a whole lot more personal because Ino herself had tampered with the lives of many of the cast while trying to achieve her goals, and took sadistic glee in doing so. So when they could finally take her down it felt good. It felt conclusive. This villain who had been a thorn in the side of most everyone in the Guilty Gear universe for 20 years had finally been killed. Mortal Kombat didn't feel that way. It wanted to, but because Kronika came so far out of left field it just didn't work.
Only real downside to Happy Chaos and god I-no is that we have not had the pleasure of fighting either one ingame yet. But that will probably come later, maybe. Reeling this back to MK, the big issue was they were quick to just reset everything again, after resetting everything two games ago. Kronika just felt like a convenient excuse to not continue the story and just start over again. A real bummer since the premise that was being set up with MK9 and 10 was interesting. The lists of primary antagonists you could have used for 11 was pretty big too. Obviously the revenants come to mind, Kotal Kahn, Dark Raiden, or hell, as someone else pointed out, NRS could still have had Geras and Cetrion come in and take up the role of antagonists too. The problem was this new story needed more games to be fully fleshed out. NRS went three games in and gave up when it was starting to get really good.
@@suguri2075 I recall hearing somewhere that they changed writers between x and 11, but that still doesn't really excuse them for all their poor writing choices. It really does feel like they thought they had written themselves against the wall so they just threw together some conveniently vague time travel plot to give themselves more openings. The world of mortal Kombat is full of so many characters they could have used. As you said, they could have expanded on the revenants. Or they could have used dark raiden. Or they could have taken a look into their backlog of boring 3D Era characters and retooled them with new personalities and gameplay elements to make them interesting. I wonder if they figured something like that could have alienated the fans though. I guess we'll never know. And for what it's worth, I'd love to play as happy chaos, and I'm sure he's going to be a DLC character at some point. Unless they pull an Aerials and have him be a non playable villain.
Strive had a very interesting story mode. My only REAL gripe with it was I-No allowing Sol to setup his ultimate weapon. She could have just destroyed it (or him) to prevent losing. But she just stood there and let him set things up
@@TrueUnderDawgGaming She did it so many times but thanks to That Man (Asuka) and Axl were present, it was very hard for her to do so. Heck, she tried to kill Order Sol to make Sol ceased to exist but That Man prevent her from doing so in AC+ story. Also, I found that XX and AC+ story are way better and heck MK11 literally copied from XX final boss story with Sol vs I-no 1st path. In the final battle, Sol (the player) literally play the boss ver. of him (Unlimited Tension, permanent Dragon Install AND HP regen) vs Boss I-No (also her actual boss ver. where she literally got HP regen, damage boost and fast Tension gain.) Not to mention, there is an exclusive intro to that story mode fight with Sol literally give I-No the middle finger.
@@TrueUnderDawgGaming I wonder if that was more out of vanity than anything else. Like maybe she figured since she was a god it couldn't hurt her or something.
Shinnok vs Cassie at the end of MK10 never felt like a true culmination of that story. Cassie wasn't given enough of the main character treatment in that story to deserve the final boss fight (even tho it was obviously coming from the beginning).
I honestly think it would be better if her goal was to essentially give information to the Past characters so they change time for her instead of having her just reset the timeline.
I like her I think she is very unique with an awesome design and performance - but the writing REALLY lets her down! As you said the decisions she makes in the story are stupid and the mistakes she makes literally leads to her downfall! (I remember when we first saw her in the teaser trailer, people thought it was the woman from Jade's MK9 ending - why did the writers not capitalize on that?!) Maybe it's just a curse of the Neatherealm era villains? MK9 Shao Kahn came across as a big dumb muscle guy - he literally spills his guts to Kitana about her not being his real daughter rather than being smart and using the situation to his advantage. Even in MK11 he still seems to lack the intelligence that he was supposed to have akin to the older games. Then there's Shinnok, who they hype up at the end of MK9 but then he takes 2 years to attack Earthrealm when they were basically on their last legs at the end of MK9! Then he gets his butt kicked at the very beginning by Johnny, so why would we be worried when he returns at the end of the game if he was already defeated once? Even the supporting villains are underwhelming as they for the most part in this era get defeated! Really the solution would be to have a more dynamic storymode like Soul Calibur 6 with character chapters, so everyone can be the lead in their own story and get to show of their strength and goals! :O
The design for Kronika is okay, but she has not earned the villain status like others do and it muddles the concept of the mysticism that Mortal Kombat is used to be known for.
Kronika should mop the floor with EVERY character ever created and yet Liu Kang can still beat her with ease, Shao Kahn should kissing her feet and yet even he can beat her, it's embarrassing.
That's the problem with giving someone a power to control time: you can't just let this character lose because no matter what you do to this char- he/she can just reverse time. Sure NR needed the way for her to lose but this still leaves us with thousand illogical plot holes
Well you can have a character that transcends time or exist beyond it as a concept. The problem is NR failed to convey this/do this within their narrative. So now we have a character with a power that should be unbeatabe in the context of MK lose to people she should never have lost to in the first place.
It would be so cool if you could choose to either fight as the hero or the villains , NRS villains have a ton of potential but all they can do is to be evil and defeated,
@@dabossman5650 though he wasn't a main boss in mk11,he was in older game but rn he just a mastermind behind everything. Also Shang was released as a dlc character before aftermath so you basically playing the same character without any unique stuff like fire god Liu Kang did even though he has the crown power unless you haven't play Shang yet or didn't buy dlc at all
Honestly, I think they should take a page out of SFV's book and give every character their own little side story to go along with the main story. It would allow them get some spotlight even if they aren't a big player in the main story.
The incompetence and story presence portions really stuck out to me. There was a lot of potential for he to me imposing, and intimidating. It's just that, with the Deadly Alliance dispatching Liu Kang, and just the severity of Onaga returning, Kronika could've upped the stakes significantly. If the DA and and Onaga were "Mortal" threats and Shinnok was a " Godly" threat, you'd hope the "Titan" threat would top it
You want to experience true fear... fight Idol in the original Killer Instinct Arcade Cabinet on the hardest setting! It's not just hard, it's the only boss experience that will make you nervous! It's the way he walks you down, the damage his combos do, and how fast his instant overhead opens you up!
How to balance kronika and make her a villlain that makes sense: 1:she can only stop/reverse/speed time with the hourglass 2:keep the other powers. That's it. She ain't the strongest character in all fiction anymore and still a big treat to our heroes
I think they wanting to make Kronica some kind of mastermind above all others just showed how failed the writting was. You cant just make a character overwhelmingly stronger than the good guys, a mastermind and expect to make the good guys win beliavable
I'd say calling her moveset as kreative is even difficult to agree, since they come off so underwhelming. So, you have a boss that is easy to beat ingame with a moveset that, other than a dinosaur, looks underwhelming, with a character that comes off as incompetent as opposed to intelligent. Also, she looks SO plain. All she has going is her voice actress. Meanwhile, old skool Shao Khan or MKX Shinnok felt lime a fight.
The biggest gripe I have is that her rewind attacks deal damage. If all it does is rewind your character back a few seconds, why is there suddenly damage that wasn't there before you were rewound? It already puts you at a huge disadvantage since it freezes you for a few frames, adding damage just feels cheap.
her abilities make her strong but outside of those abilities she's absolutely pathetic, like shinok was really damn strong but was only defeated by the energy cassie and johnny have since it's basically a free out from actual tension.
Honestly, MK11 being my first game back to the series (hadn't played since MK3) Kronika just felt extremely disappointing compared to the bosses I remember and she was more frustrating to fight than fun.
The other thing that kinda pisses me off about Kronika is how she makes the other villains kinda look like idiots for following her under the logic that she’ll just make everything better for everyone who sides with her (nevermind the fact that there’s a few people on the same side who’d eventually come in conflict with each other). Plus it never feels like Kronika is much of a threat throughout the game. With Shao Kahn 9 he’s the emperor out Outworld and Konquerer of realms. Anyone who works under him does so either because he’s a ruler or because he’s a brute who won’t hesitate to kill you if and when he feels like it. He threatens to merge Earthrealm to Outworld, and it’s believable because not only has he done it before but he seems like someone who will make good on that threat one way or another or to his dying breath, as most dictators do. Clear and present danger. Shinnok has followers mostly in part due to Quan Chi having everyone’s souls from the aftermath of 9. No one except Quan Chi really has any good REASON for bringing back Shinnok, but they’re spiritually enslaved to Quan Chi, and by extension Shinnok anyways. It’s less that anyone has a reason and more like a justification for Shinnok’s following. He threatens to destroy Earthrealm (I think?) and eventually the Elder Gods. While we never really see if he can do the second part (we just have to take the writers’ word that he can), he does successfully wage war on Earthrealm and almost wins at the beginning of the game as well, as well as getting even closer at the end of the game. Clear and present danger. (Okay maybe not “present”…) To a lesser extent Kotal Kahn is a respectable and charismatic leader who puts the safety of his realm above all else. Unlike Shao Kahn, where people only serve him for his power (out of fear or otherwise), it feels like people followed Kotal because they genuinely liked him. He’s not as much as a threat overall like Shao Kahn or Shinnok but I don’t think he was meant to. (Really only opposed the heroes due to having his opinion of Earthrealmers soured several times… and a misunderstanding brought from distrust which itself was brought from said soured opinions.) Kronika on the other hand… yes she can control time, which supposedly means she COULD theoretically give everyone the ending they want. But the thing about that is several characters side with her believing that she’ll help them come out on top. While it’s believable being that she can control time, there’s nothing that backs that up so it feels like an empty promise from the player’s perspective. Same with her supposed control over time. We see that she can freeze time and merge timelines together, but that’s really it. She rarely comes across as personally threatening for any reason and as a result she loses so much in story presence.
I agree heavily when it comes to initially fighting her. Her attacks are vague and you can't tell how big of a hit box they have or what type of block won't work against it. It really made her annoying to fight.
I'm sure that animations aren't the problem. Considering that they literally reuse getting hit animations from 2005 in some instances, only adding a few new ones except for the 2P animations every game, I doubt animation was the cause of the problem. It's one of NRS's biggest double edged swords. A great way to cut time and cost and make things feel natural, but it means "non-standard" bodies like Oracle, Motaro and Shuma-Gorath are off the table for any rosters.
2:30 as an old school player of the Mortal Kombat series she sounds like a completely standard boss: nothing normal works and you have to exploit the AI to win. Heck, with the floating, no falling, and summoning other characters she sounds (mechanically) like a copy of the Shang Tsung boss fight in MK1.
I also think that making her stage change over time whenever she changes periods would be neat, imagine she transports you to the ocean of pirates and a few galleons shoot at you, then a kraken pops out and grabs you, slamming you against a smaller ship breaking it in half. Then it changes to a western stage, cowboys and native Americans fighting in the background and you getting hit by some of the attacks, then a train has a chance to hit you leading you into a stage in the future with some spaceship stuff that fires at you. I dunno, I'm just spitballing, but using time travel and time stuff for a end boss has vast potential.
There's an inherent problem with stories that try to use some master of time and space as a villain, especially in fighting games. Realistically, they would probably never lose. When the stakes are so high and the hype is so high, no villain can live up to it. That being said, I like her design. I hope they improve on future lady villains.
I was chatting with a friend the other day, and found a way to make Kronika more believable. Instead of having her reset the timeline thousands of times, just have this be the First time she is attempting it. She has spent the last hundred years or so building the hourglass to enhance her powers, and she uses it to merge timelines as a test. Then she manipulates the villains to buy her a bit more time to reset the whole thing. That would give you a similar story mode, but make Kronika not an idiot or all powerful. Simply a secret villain who could undo everything if she isn't stopped. She could keep the same attacks for the boss battle too, but now she would not come off as incompetent if you defeat her. Since she is no longer a god. Just someone with the power to control time to a limited extent.
The problem I have with the villains with mk, there’s always “one behind the scenes who pulls the strings” who is worse than the one before. Also I thought they were trying to restore shinnok, she could just rewind time before he gets his head chopped off.
I literally just thought of this, but maybe you can't rewind god characters. I think they are immune to her time abilities. Remember at the end when she reversed time and everyone went away except for Fire God Liu Kang? Or when she froze time for everyone except for Raiden? I think Gods and Elder Gods are unaffected by her time rewind powers.
@@TrueUnderDawgGaming that’s a good point, it just leaves me with that Loki/Kang thing where, she’s done this how many times? So Shinnok was always suppose to be “incapacitated” this way but then they say they want to bring him back. So if she knew this was going to happen maybe during mkx tell him what’s going to happen? I don’t know, huge hole in the story lol. It’s always kind of bothered me(along with the other reboot to the reboot).
They should've went with Raiden being the villian, rev liu being a big threat and Kotal preparing for a MK tournament like their MKX endings were Obviously they had an idea but I guess the reception with certain elements cause them to change course...similar to 343 with halo4s story and halo5s story and how it just said Fuck all to h4
I agree on both accounts, Dark Raiden would have made an interesting antagonist for MK11 and his setup in MKX's after credits scene was amazing. It could have been an interesting roll reversal to have an Earth Realm character go on the offensive for a change. As for Halo, they really did just throw everything setup by Halo 4 in the garbage in Halo 5 which is really sad to see. At least Infinite's story is looking way more promising than 5's (Hopefully it's not a let down).
They've done every possible thing they could do with the characters to the point where they had to completely start over in the next game, remember when Mortal Kombat was about a tournament? What the hell have they turned this game into?
You just described the Reapers from Mass Effect with your idea of the ideal Kronika! I loved it! xD (too bad they messed up the reapers at the end of the third game)
5:05 like it is really cool and inventive that she uses all these cool powers instead of brute force, but that’s a problem in and of itself with a series that’s always borrowed and used real life martial arts, this boss literally isn’t a fighter. Imagine her being playable, animation wise she just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the cast and established way of fighting. She only works as a boss, and nothing else
I feel like she has let her amazing powers go to her head. She has such a big ego that she makes Goku seem humble. That as a result makes her reckless, making stupid decisions while taunting her foes in any way possible. Hopefully, they’ll have a patch where she can be comboed.
I feel like that may be true, but it may be convenient for Netherealm to reset the timeline. She also teaches part of the game, how to zone and approach effectively.
I think I kind of actually like the fact that you have to play against her completely differently than you do the other characters. I just think of it as like her just having the buff to not being able to be knocked down and you have to find a new way to take down your opponent.
It’s the fact that Kronika didn’t need to involve anyone. No one has access to her Hourglass. Shang Tsung’s island was abandoned so there was no one to stop her claiming the crown. The only reason she’s stopped is because of her own doing - breaking time and bringing forth both Liu Kang and Raiden who would go on to defeat her. When your plot makes no sense, well… you PLOT makes no sense.
The Most Crazy Tropes in Fighting Games - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-X5CuHEweeN8.html Wow!! Can this Video Get 5,000 Likes for Better Boss Characters?? Click Here to Meet My Wife! - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P_B_QvD_E8A.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Best Buff NetherRealm has Ever Made - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-afqURuIHEmo.html The Best Rushdown Character - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I-agioKc2EA.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Identity Problem of Mortal Kombat 11 - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-w-Yhh9uIsY8.html Roster Already Leaked for NetherRealm's Next Game - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iYIpfteLDyU.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Most Creative Decision NRS has Ever Made - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-r9vZGceBt5M.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Most Broken Projectiles in Mortal Kombat - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nmivrgwJ074.html The Most Famous Attack in Mortal Kombat - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0VL46La5gDk.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Best Guest Characters NRS has Ever Made - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gDzTJK_rZ4Y.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Most Hated Moments of Mortal Kombat - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bIS59DJQhfc.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Most Depressing Flaw of MK11 - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gDZisnNVlIE.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming Best Special Moves in Every MK Game - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hczXhBI0Dfs.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Worst Special Moves in Every Mortal Kombat Game - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2E40pw4iy9g.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming The Worst Supers in NetherRealm Games - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-K9gSAqO31Mo.html&ab_channel=TrueUnderDawgGaming
You should do video on dlc guest characters as in if we didn't have guest characters like Kratos,Alien or Spawn in Mortal Kombat, who would you chose to replace them (and it has to be characters from inside the MK universe). For example in MK9 we have Kratos and Freddy Kruger, if these 2 weren't in the game we could a have instead Nitara and Havok.
Yeah, I never got the villain writing trope of "Oh, she's done this scenario 100,000 times, you are nothing to them", when in truth it just makes them seem even more pathetic that they somehow failed that many times, plus also makes them look stupid for falling for an obvious trap or ploy, I mean I much prefer your idea that she just feeds off everyone's souls slowly, then resets time to do that again and again.
true, they could have made ber much more sinister and evil instead she has all the powers in the world more so than any boss ever, and het she is the dumbest boss ever naahh its lame shao khan was a dumbass but he was also a badass who looked like a badass she just looks like a freak and has no character, just infinite power and no brains
There’s the savage Shao Kahn, the sinister Shang Tsung, the God of death Shinnok, the menacing Dragon king Onaga…..and the titan of time….who only manages to kill dark Raiden and gets wipped by multiple characters
I mean, a god like Raiden combined with a mortal like Liu Kang was enough to beat the entity that was supposed to be above everyone else. Do we really need to say more?
I love Kronika as a character design. But, I HATE bosses that just break all of the rules like not being launchable or comboable and forcing you to just spam your strongest move to win. This was the same with Onaga, Blaze, Moloch, etc. Samurai Shodown 2019 did this too with Shizuka. It's just boring and turns bosses into a chore. I love bosses that follow the game's rules but are just more powerful than everyone else.
I absolutely hate bs time traveling like MK11 because it just throws logic out the window. Along with Kronika being way to op to the point where the only way to defeat her is if she's an idiot.