Takahashi Takeda Is My Favorite Next Generation Mortal Kombat Character

I was having my second thoughts on whether or not I should get Mortal Kombat XL some time ago. I've heard of how the Story Mode is disappointing -- and yes, I'm among those who think it pales to comparison to the Mortal Kombat (2011) in that area. Fortunately, there were some interesting parts that doesn't make it into Mortal Kombat Annihilated 2.0 and one of them is Scorpion's redemption and his relationship to Takahashi Takeda -- the very first student of the newly reformed Shirai Ryu. While Scorpion started out as a villain -- but his revival of his clan made him from neutral evil to good. Plus, the very first student was Kenshi Takahashi's illegitimate son he didn't know exist until he was eight years old. Plus, he resented his own father for suddenly showing up and not being there.

So I was wondering did Netherrealm want a new generation Liu Kang since he does look like a cross of the franchise's two popular characters. He's got Liu Kang's hairstyle yet he's trained by Scorpion in the ways of the Shirai Ryu. It's pretty much a challenge to make sure that Takeda doesn't fall into his father's shadow since it happens way too many times -- people expect the sons to be just as good if not greater but that doesn't always happen. But how did Netherrealm actually succeed in putting Takeda as his own character? Well, unlike Cassie who I think still pales to her mother Sonya -- Takeda utilizes some unique attacks in his variations.

As far as variations are concerned -- I tend to prefer to use the Ronin the most though Shirai Ryu and Lasher have their charm. Shirai Ryu gives him his own rather limited grappling move which reminds me of Spiderman's web grab while it has its own charm. Ronin gives him laser blades as his primary weapon plus a rather limited projectile move, a Star Wars reference move in dropping his blade and calling it back or how the fancy blades appear so much in the combos. For Lasher, I think it's pretty cheap but still fun.

From the new generation -- I thought his fatalities were the coolest. Kung Jin, Cassie and Jacqui didn't really beat their predecessors. I thought Cassie was too generic and the selfie was meh IMHO. Jacqui doesn't seem to do better than Jax's either. But for Takeda? Well, I gotta admit I love how his fatalities do complement what I dreamed of doing to certain people. I thought of how each one ends up actually using more of his Shirai Ryu training than his telekinesis. It starts to make him stand apart from his father Kenshi. Speaking of which -- I wasn't such a huge Kenshi fan either!

So who's your favorite next generation character?