Mortal Kombat X Review - Your Very Own Kung Fu Flick

[sageoftruth]

"The story mode in MKX is like nothing I've ever seen before, essentially offering up an extended cut-scene-based cinematic experience interspersed with the player taking control for periodic fight scenes."

It's weird how you say the story mode is like nothing you've ever seen before (unless you never played the previous game or Injustice I guess), when the previous MK game did the same thing, or am I missing something? Seems to me like it's more of a return to what the previous game did, but perhaps better I would assume by this statement.

Also, I hope the final boss isn't complete bullshit like it was in the previous game.

Or how it was nothing innovative when MK did it. Seriously, it seems to me like all they did was rip off the vastly superior story mode of Blazblue. Then again we also have some people acting like the alternate versions of the roster is something new...when in fact we've been doing that since Street Fighter Alpha and King of Fighter 98.

Wasn't Blazblue's story mode basically just sprites with their lips moving, dialoguing back and forth? I'm not sure if that's really comparable to 2+ hours of fully rendered cutscenes.

And Street Fighter Alpha? The only 'variations' I remember from that game were choosing between auto and manual guard.

After seeing some of the story mode in MKX I've been comparing the two. I think that as a fighting game, MKX has much better pacing in its story. However, I'm wondering if the characters hold up. They have personalities, but in what I've seen so far, Blazblue's characters are a bit more fleshed out. Still, kudos to MKX for making a story mode that doesn't try the patience of players who want to do some fighting.

Anyway, I've only just started to watch the MKX story mode, so I look forward to seeing more of it. In the end, this could be the fine balance between story and gameplay that modern fighting games have been trying to achieve.

 

[Megalodon]

But, did they bother to include one player arcade matches this time? Where's it's like the MP, but with the AI, so you can pick both fighters and play until someone wins. The lack of this (which I only realised after purchase...) really put me off MK9. Training mode and the ladder were not what I was looking for.

 

[JCAll]

Or a selfie fatality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVTv1pR0Vzg

Come on, that's obviously a Friendship.
Johnny taught her well.

 

[JCAll]

Wasn't Blazblue's story mode basically just sprites with their lips moving, dialoguing back and forth? I'm not sure if that's really comparable to 2+ hours of fully rendered cutscenes.

That's just the visual novel style Japan is so in love with. I've had 80 hour JRPGs that are totally rendered in that style. Must be a cultural thing.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Wasn't Blazblue's story mode basically just sprites with their lips moving, dialoguing back and forth? I'm not sure if that's really comparable to 2+ hours of fully rendered cutscenes.

That's just the visual novel style Japan is so in love with. I've had 80 hour JRPGs that are totally rendered in that style. Must be a cultural thing.

I'm not sure if the "Clutch Cargo" look of the Blazblue story mode was a decision by the developers, or a limit on the technology available at the time, my point was that, yes, various fighting games have had "story modes" prior to MK9, but to me, MK9 just took it to a whole new level. It's sort of like when people say "Doom" copied "Wolfenstein 3D". Ok technically yes, they're both FPS games, but Doom took things so much further that they almost can't be compared anymore.

 

[sageoftruth]

Or a selfie fatality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVTv1pR0Vzg

Come on, that's obviously a Friendship.
Johnny taught her well.

Now that you mention it, I wonder if this game has Friendships. I haven't seen any so far.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Or a selfie fatality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVTv1pR0Vzg

Come on, that's obviously a Friendship.
Johnny taught her well.

Now that you mention it, I wonder if this game has Friendships. I haven't seen any so far.

I'm gonna guess probably not. I can't say for certain, but it seems like the devs were going for a slightly darker and more serious feel for this one than with MK9, so I'd be pretty shocked if we saw Friendships, Babalities, Animalities, etc.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

After seeing some of the story mode in MKX I've been comparing the two. I think that as a fighting game, MKX has much better pacing in its story. However, I'm wondering if the characters hold up. They have personalities, but in what I've seen so far, Blazblue's characters are a bit more fleshed out. Still, kudos to MKX for making a story mode that doesn't try the patience of players who want to do some fighting.

Anyway, I've only just started to watch the MKX story mode, so I look forward to seeing more of it. In the end, this could be the fine balance between story and gameplay that modern fighting games have been trying to achieve.

Though in all honesty MK pales if only because its characters and plot are nowhere near as interesting as the BB cast. For all of BB's visual novel trappings, it never felt drawn and I never found it tedious. Plus it's completely honest in what it is unlike MK which feels like it has a serious case of penis envy at times, not helped when the cast isn't exactly charismatic.

 

[sageoftruth]

After seeing some of the story mode in MKX I've been comparing the two. I think that as a fighting game, MKX has much better pacing in its story. However, I'm wondering if the characters hold up. They have personalities, but in what I've seen so far, Blazblue's characters are a bit more fleshed out. Still, kudos to MKX for making a story mode that doesn't try the patience of players who want to do some fighting.

Anyway, I've only just started to watch the MKX story mode, so I look forward to seeing more of it. In the end, this could be the fine balance between story and gameplay that modern fighting games have been trying to achieve.

Though in all honesty MK pales if only because its characters and plot are nowhere near as interesting as the BB cast. For all of BB's visual novel trappings, it never felt drawn and I never found it tedious. Plus it's completely honest in what it is unlike MK which feels like it has a serious case of penis envy at times, not helped when the cast isn't exactly charismatic.

Possibly. I'm too much of a newbie to Mortal Kombat to say for sure. Basically, this is the first Mortal Kombat game that really impressed me. I've only seen some of the story mode, whereas I've pretty much covered the entire Blazblue story excluding the anime, so maybe you're right. All I've noticed so far is that the story mode seems to throw in fights a lot more frequently. I'm interested in seeing if the story goes somewhere and if the characters become more interesting than they were in the previous games.