Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, where we discuss the wasted potential of our favourite
plotlines. Though, I'd hardly call this one of my favourite plotlines.
One of the biggest issues with Netherrealm story modes is that the villains very rarely
get to actually achieve any victories, which makes them impossible to take seriously as
threats. Let's look at the final bosses: Dark Kahn, Shao Kahn, Regime Superman, Brainiac,
Kronika: all 0. Shinnok gets to beat Sonya in a cutscene, which is something. I guess
you could count times when two playable characters face off at the end, like in Injustice 2.
I don't count easily batting people aside or stealth kills here. Then, other villains
that are supposed to be among the most powerful characters: Bi-Han, Shang Tsung, Quan Chi,
Goro, Kintaro, Regime Wonder Woman, Doomsday, Revenant Liu Kang and Kung Lao, Geras, Cetrion;
even an Elder God doesn't get to win any fights here. For all its flaws, Street Fighter V
at least got this right. Every character gets at least one win, including Bison's victories
over three of the most powerful fighters in the canon. Bison comes off as a genuine threat,
while Elder Gods and Kryptionians do not. This is something I want to fix here.
Another thing in serious need of fixing is the mass deaths of the heroes. The sheer number
of losses wouldn't have been so bad, if they'd spread them out more. Having it happen in
one scene is already a contrivance, but the way everyone has to engage Sindel one at a
time with no weapons or powers is an even bigger contrivance that ruins the entire scene.
Part of the issue with fixing it, though, is that most of the characters that die here
are introduced in the final third, need time in that third to show off their augments,
or would have the most impactful deaths if Sindel killed them. So, it's not an easy thing
to fix, but we'll see what we can do.
Naturally, we're going to assume the chapter system is gone, removing that crippling limiter
from the story. If you think I'm adding too many fights to the existing sixty-seven here,
bear in mind that some existing filler battles are being cut to make room. This also fixes
another issue: that certain characters are only played as before they attain their iconic
status - Jax before the metal arms and Cyrax before the cyberisation. If they can be used
at any time, we get to use these.
Something SFV had that worked really well (certainly moreso than in MVCI) is generic
NPCs the player can fight. This game has them in challenge towers, so I don't see why the
story mode can't use them. You could easily take all those generic extras watching the
fights, give them the moveset of an existing character but without special moves, and let
us fight them. That way, characters get to win more fights, without having to make other
characters look weaker by losing these fights. I'm not going to get into these fights much
in this video, but you can easily imagine there are a few sprinkled around the narrative.
Let's begin with a character who needs these alterations: Goro. Since there's no real tournament
structure, you can easily showcase Goro's might by having him quickly toss aside a ton
of generic goons, like that scene in the movie. Of course, to prove he's not just mighty in
comparison to these nobodies, have him beat a real character. But, since we need the heroes
to live past MK1, we need a reason for Goro to not kill them when he wins. Heroes disliking
killing is a good enough reason for the villains to live, but we need something more specific
for the villainous victor. Goro has dominated the tournament since his defeat of Kung Lao
and no one since has really come close. He's bored of this tournament and is just happy
his service to Shang Tsung is almost over. Let him fight someone who can give him a run
for his money: Johnny Cage and/or Kung Lao. He defeats them, but they put up the best
fight he's had in centuries. As a sign of respect, he lets them live. With Kung Lao,
this could be set-up for a later rematch, with him impetuously trying to avenge his
ancestor here, only to lose the fight. Goro sees the potential in him, however, and wants
to see how much better he can become before their next fight. Their rematch in Outworld
sees Lao successfully defeat Goro, but return the favour by showing him mercy, as the two
warriors have now earned each other's respect.
Shao Kahn, likewise, needs to score some wins. Some are obvious. Rather than snapping Kung
Lao's neck, he fights him in a tournament bout and defeats him. Unlike Goro, Kahn has
no respect for Kung Lao and finishes him. During the invasion, Kahn defeats Johnny and
Sonya in an endurance match while Raiden is mourning his big mistake. Raiden himself then
loses a fight to Kahn, before the Elder Gods power him up for the rematch. But, the main
villain needs more than three wins, even if those wins are against some tough opponents.
I have two ideas. One is that when Kitana learns the truth about her past, she fights
him and loses. Kahn spares her to make an example of her at the coliseum. The other
is that, when Sub-Zero challenges Scorpion, Kahn agrees, with the proviso that he has
to fight Kahn afterwards, should he win. Kahn has heard of Bi-Han's victory over Shinnok
and wants to face such a mighty foe, even if it's not the same Sub-Zero. Kuai Liang
agrees, figuring that, if the pecking order goes Scorpion, Bi-Han, an Elder God, then
Kahn will be no trouble if he can beat Scorpion. Sub-Zero beats Scorpion, then loses to Kahn.
Sektor and Cyrax interrupt Sub-Zero's execution to reclaim him for the Lin Kuei, offering
their aid in Kahn's takeover of Earthrealm. Satisfied with his win and seeing the value
of an Earthrealm faction to speed up his conquest, Kahn agrees.
Fellow boss character, Kintaro, gets to defeat unburnt Kabal, who uses Stryker's moveset.
Stryker intervenes before he can finish him off.
Bi-Han, for one of the best fighters in the old timeline, is a complete joke in Netherrealm's
storyline. An easy fix is to give him a flashback after he first encounters Scorpion. The flashback
is to their battle in Mythologies. He then scores a victory over Sonya in Goro's lair,
but Raiden intervenes to help her escape. This also explains her not competing in the
tournament after this. As Noob, he could defeat Kuai Liang, who holds back against him in
the cemetery, and kill him, the latter's holding back making his death more believable.
Ermac is another heavily nerfed top tier in need of some wins. His defeat of Johnny Cage
is now playable. As is his ruination of Jax, which is an endurance match with Sonya thrown
in. He also receives a victory over Stryker in the invasion. He's about to finish him
off when Nightwolf intervenes and uses his spirit powers to cause him serious harm, forcing
him to flee.
Shang Tsung can fight Ermac right after this to keep the souls bound to Kahn's will. He
also fights Quan Chi during the invasion to put him in his place. A flashback to his younger
days as the champion could also be included.
Upon her resurrection, Sindel immediately attacks Quan Chi, who can defeat her thanks
to her weakened state and applies his mind control afterwards. This lets the Desert stage
be playable in the story as well. And obviously, Sindel has some sort of tattered burial attire
on instead of being naked. We can also give him a flashback win against Bi-Han when Noob's
identity is revealed.
Mileena poses as Kitana to get close to Jade and then defeat her, only to be scared off
by the appearance of Raiden's group. She can also defeat Stryker, only to be taken down
by Raiden.
Sheeva is on the hunt for Kitana in Earthrealm, but Jade intervenes to save her friend and
is killed after the endurance match. Jax then arrives to fight Sheeva, giving us our metal
arm Jax fight.
Kano ambushes Sonya and Jax during the invasion and manages to kill Jax, as a play on the
whole "Sonya's murdered partner" thing. Kano is only spared Sonya's wrath by the presence
of Baraka, who defeats her. Her rage is such that she gets right back up and blasts Baraka
off a building to explain his absence from here on, but Kano has made his escape in the
confusion.
The massacre is now a joint attack by Sindel and the Lin Kuei together. The cyborgs justify
Sindel getting to fight everyone one at a time to make it less contrived.
Sektor can have a win in the lead-up to the Outworld tournament. Raiden seeks the renegade
Cyrax out to ask for his aid. He agrees, but he is ambushed by Sektor shortly after Raiden
leaves. He later kills Smoke during the joint attack. I mean, why put Smoke in peril here
and have him live, if he's just going die later in the same scene? Let him die to Sektor
instead to make the massacre more believable.
On a related note, we can swap Cyrax and Sektor's Outworld battles and have Cyrax defeat Smoke
before Raiden intervenes. The generic units throw their lives away so Cyrax can escape.
Giving him at least one win prevents the cyberisation from looking like it made him a worse fighter.
Reptile joins Sindel's assault and has a rematch with the two cops. Stryker takes a lethal
acid shot for Kabal to make up for not saving him from Kintaro, leading to Kabal taking
Reptile down. Reptile escapes with Sektor and Cyrax as Kabal is attacked by Sindel.
She then kills him and Kitana in proper fights before Nightwolf dies to stop her, leaving
only the original four alive.
We'll also need to fix Johnny Cage. See, the idea of Johnny stepping up as the hero to
oppose Shinnok has been in place since his Armageddon bio, where he united the Forces
of Light against Shinnok's dark alliance. They then began setting it up again in 2011
with the new backstory they planned to pay off in MKX, since they knew it was the only
way anyone could buy into him beating Shinnok. This raises the question: why does Johnny
spend Chapters 2-16 getting his arse kicked in increasingly easy ways? He needs some wins
after the first act. He can get a tournament win before losing to Ermac, maybe moving the
existing Baraka or Reptile fight here instead. He also beats up someone like Scorpion in
Earthrealm before Motaro finds him, his long day of fighting excusing Motaro's utter dominance.
He can also lose to Sindel in a proper fight to make him stand out as the only person to
really stand against Sindel and not die.
Our final list of fights, making use of these ideas and player tag mechanics, dropping some
of the less important fights and replacing some to avoid repeat fights, goes something
like this:
Johnny Cage vs Reptile
Johnny Cage vs Kano
Sub-Zero vs Sonya Blade
Sonya Blade vs Kano
Shang Tsung vs generics
Sub-Zero vs Scorpion
Scorpion vs Kung Lao
Scorpion vs Sub-Zero
Cyrax vs Johnny Cage
Cyrax vs Sektor
Liu Kang vs Scorpion
Goro vs generics
Goro vs Kung Lao
Liu Kang vs Goro
Liu Kang vs Shang Tsung
Sektor vs Cyrax
Jax vs Baraka
Jax and Johnny Cage vs Jade
Smoke vs Kitana
Smoke vs Shang Tsung, posing as Sub-Zero
Cyrax vs Smoke
Sub-Zero vs Sektor
Ermac vs Sonya Blade and Jax
Sub-Zero vs Ermac
Sub-Zero vs Scorpion
Shao Kahn vs Sub-Zero
Kitana vs Jade
Kitana vs Mileena
Kitana vs Shang Tsung
Shao Kahn vs Kitana
Jade vs Reptile
Jade vs Sheeva
Mileena vs Jade
Kung Lao vs Goro
Johnny Cage vs Baraka
Ermac vs Johnny Cage
Kung Lao vs Shang Tsung
Shao Kahn vs Kung Lao
Liu Kang vs Shao Kahn
Quan Chi vs Sindel
Sheeva vs Kitana and Jade
Jax and Sonya Blade vs Sheeva
Stryker vs Reptile
Johnny Cage vs Scorpion
Mileena vs Stryker
Kintaro vs Kabal
Stryker vs Kintaro
Ermac vs Stryker
Shang Tsung vs Ermac
Kano vs Jax
Baraka vs Sonya Blade
Shang Tsung vs Quan Chi
Kabal vs Kano
Kabal vs Mileena
Kabal and Stryker vs Cyber Sub-Zero
Cyber Sub-Zero vs Sektor
Cyber Sub-Zero vs Goro and Kintaro
Quan Chi vs Sub-Zero
Noob Saibot vs Cyber Sub-Zero
Nightwolf vs Noob Saibot
Sindel vs Johnny Cage
Reptile vs Stryker
Kabal vs Reptile
Sindel vs Kabal
Sektor vs Smoke
Nightwolf vs Sektor
Sindel vs Kitana
Nightwolf vs Sindel
Raiden vs Kung Lao, Kitana and Nightwolf
Raiden vs Liu Kang
Shao Kahn vs Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade
Shao Kahn vs Raiden
Raiden vs Shao Kahn
And, there you have it. With only an additional six fights, everyone gets at least one win,
characters are useful outside of a single scene, and the huge losses are less contrived
and get more time for dramatic death scenes. It's not perfect, but I think this shows how
much better even Netherrealm's existing stories would be if they reworked the structure a
bit. Obviously, it would be even better if they built the narrative without character
chapters, rather than attempt to remove character chapters from a story that was built around
them.
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and support me on Patreon like these fine
people here? If not, then make sure to share it with your enemies so they can suffer along
with you.
Today's recommended playlist is Mortal May, by me, because the month is over and I can
finally move on from this broken fucking franchise for a bit.