Mortal Kombat 1 Developers Struggled Featuring 24 Characters

Mortal Kombat fans are waiting on the next major installment to land in the marketplace later this year. However, we’re still in the dark if you’re itching to see the entire roster. But fortunately, NetherRealm Studios has been teasing fans with new character reveals over a series of teasers and trailers. Today, we’re finding out that the roster should contain a total of 24 fighters, according to a new report from Temple of Geek that surfaced online. This publication managed to speak with Dominic Cianciolo, the story director behind the upcoming game at SDCC. 

During the conversation, it was asked to Dominic about balancing characters with the new cast when it comes to the narrative. After all, we have a rebooted storyline, too, so we’re also getting introductions for these characters and how they are involved in this new narrative. But according to Dominic Cianciolo, the storyline was challenging, with the game featuring 24 characters. The story director said that not every character will have the same amount of screen time, so knowing how to fit them into the narrative and provide enough storyline to keep things flowing was hard.

It’s definitely hard. We have 24 characters in the game, and not all of them can have the same amount of screentime, and so you’re trying to make things pop as much as possible. So what we try to do is not only look at just the experience in the story, but also to the other storytelling that’s in the game, whether it’s through the intro dialogue . . . or the ladder endings that are part of our single player experience traditionally . . . it’s a real challenge because the roster gets decided not just by myself, we got Ed [Boon], we ask everyone in the studio who [they want to see come back] and the fans, who do they want to see come back, and it’s sort of putting all together and making a stew out of it.

Dominic Cianciolo – Temple of Geek

Apparently, fans might not see some of the character storylines play out entirely through the campaign specifically. Instead, there will be small instances in intro dialogues to even some ladder endings. So it seems that all these characters will have bits of their storylines told differently throughout the game. Meanwhile, we also know that there were multiple people involved in determining who would make a return to this game. This went from the top of NetherRealm Studios to everyone working at the company. Then the development team even looked at fan feedback to see who might make the cut. 

While we wait and see just how the narrative holds together with all the characters making a return, we do know the latest character reveal. This past weekend NetherRealm Studios released a new trailer highlighting the return of Mortal Kombat 11’s Geras. Meanwhile, if you haven’t been paying too much attention to this game, Mortal Kombat 1 is a soft reboot for the franchise. We’re being tossed into a new timeline which means a new storyline and even characters being reintroduced. Some of these characters may even have new allegiances compared to past installments. 

Mortal Kombat 1 is set to release on September 19, 2023. When the game does launch into the marketplace, you’ll find it available for the PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch platforms.