Board Thread:Mortal Kombat X/@comment-25163804-20150206160429

As I lay here, feeling ill and having my feelings hurt by the current blast of snow my city is getting, I discover a trailer called 'Next'. I've watched it, and decided it was worth analyzing. As I may be the first one to discover this trailer, I have included a link  to the video so that you can check it out yourself. Without further ado, however, let's get to the heart of this trailer.

First, we get a look at the feelings about Mortal Kombat as a franchaise from the developers, with mentions of 'nostalgia' and it 'being bigger than us', with Tyler Lansdown even mentioning it being a part of his life for 20 years. As well as this, some bits of gameplay and even game



development are shown, including concept art of D'Vorah and, most importantly, work being done on a Shokan character, almost invariably Goro. It isn't even very long before we get another interesting showing: Someone with high heels is going to be in Mortal Kombat X. This might be a variation for Kitana (which I doubt) or a tease for a new female character, or maybe even something along the lines of an old design for D'Vorah's feet, as she has a similar look to her feet, albeit her feet



actually have spikes coming from her feet, not stilettos.

After a spat of gameplay and more developer interviews, with Shawn Himmerick and Tyler Lansdown, the studio head and community specialist respectively, we get to see some Kitana vs D'Vorah gameplay, and let's just say it's not just D'Vorah that can sting like a bee; those fans can do some serious work on an opponent. After this, we get a look at one of the online components and some of the modes that have returned: King of the Hill, Test Your Luck



(which I hope is also an offline mode, because that is always a good time), Survivor, Test Your Might, and most importantly, the Challenge Tower. However, now they are 'living towers' that change from an hour, to a day, to a special event one that is unlocked for events only which, while already mentioned in the past, is shown for the first time visually here.



Mentions of the story mode soon pop up, with another staff member talking about next generation characters briefly before Steve Beran explains how the story mode will be 'a blockbuster movie within a game', and with it comes the first, never-before-seen first showing of a part of the story mode: At least two dozen followers with Kotal Kahn-style tattoos walk ahead of someone sitting on a throne-type chair while large reptilian creatures carry it forward; this person is most likely Kotal Kahn himself. Following this, we are treated to the meat of the video, and thus, the analysis: The Online component and the Faction system, as well as what might be at least one new 'ality' mentioned by Tyler Lansdown in the previous stream.

First, we are shown how to choose a faction, with the White Lotus being highlighted for this



video, as well as several background-like images with dynamic elements for each faction. I hypothesize that this will be for the background in Mortal Kombat X's main menu, each showing unique elements from the factions: Black Dragon has Kano's gear including his cyber-'heart', Special Forces features a gatling gun, etc. What is then shown (and explained) is how this Factions thing will work: for example, by completing challenges for your faction (say, ten X-Rays), you will earn your faction points



to potentially overtake other factions. What is explained next is the 'Faction Wars' which are constant events that last about a week, that everyone will contribute to in some way, and if their faction has the most points at the end of the week, they win that week's Faction War.



Also mentioned is the fact that you can level up in your faction in order to get 'custom rewards', and this is where the new way to kill pops up. Called a 'Faction Kill', it seems that this finisher is tied to the faction you are with, and thus may differ per character, per faction. This could make things very interesting in the weeks following MKX's Launch.



Speaking of new ways to kill, while mentioning how everything a player does helps their faction, yet another way to kill has been shown, and it was one that was supposed to have returned 4 years prior, but was cut due to time constraints: The Brutality. Most likely the returning -ality Ed Boon mentioned in an interview a few months ago, it will be interesting to see how they re-implement it, seeings as how in the last game to feature a brutality, Mortal Kombat Trilogy for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, came out in 1996. Also worth noting is that at a random day



each week, any one of the five factions could be invaded by a realm; the NetherRealm and Chaosrealm being mentioned examples of realms that could invade. After talking some more about how factions will be helped along by all players of all skill levels, by those who prefer to play different modes, we get a showing of what might be Quan Chi's alternate fatality; somehow, he gets Kotal Kahn half-way through a portal, and he opens another portal to grab an arm and a leg before the portals close, cutting Kotal in half. That's a hell of a magician's trick, right there.

Much more gameplay is then shown, including what happens when Kitana meter burns her running attack I mentioned in a previous analysis, as well as a new arena that is likely the home of the White Lotus, followed by Kitana stabbing D'Vorah several more times (Jesus, she's gotten stab-happy in these 25 years.). And with that is the end of the analysis, and as always, thanks for reading. 