After two decades since the first release of Mortal Kombat: Deceptionreleased during the series' 3D fighter era, this title contains a standout feature that still shines against modern releases. Featuring an RPG-inspired, story-driven adventure that takes players all over the world Mortal Kombat in Konquest mode, few other fighting games have ever come close to this level of commitment to a single-player story.
What made Konquest unique was how it addressed one of the primary problems with story modes in the genre by blending multiple game types together relatively seamlessly. By integrating mission design and popular characters into an immersive set of maps, Mortal Kombat: Deception could transcend the typical limits of a 2D fighter's narrative expression.
The RPG-like depth of Shujinko's Quest remains a pinnacle of the fighting game genre
Mixing third-person development with MK's core gameplay
Fraud sees players follow protagonist Shujinko throughout his life, with multiple time jumps and pivotal moments shaping his development into the character players may be more familiar with today. Guided by an entity known as the Damashi, he crosses Mortal Kombats realms in search of sacred Kamidogu artifacts through a mix of third-person exploration and subsequent triggerable 2D combat encounters. Education under various MK fighters found during this journey then allow the player to transform into them in later battles, which also makes the mode double as a tutorial for learning the game's playlist.
To realize the world building of the series
Being able to go through sex of MKs spheres provided what remains an unprecedented look into the franchise's world-building. By exploring Earthrealm, Netherrealm, Chaosrealm, Outworld, Orderrealm, and even Edenia, Shujinko gets to experience the distinct environments and cultures of each locale in a way only hinted at or referenced in more recent entries. The actual map design of these spheres is based on their core concept and a variety of recognizable characters, several of which appeared exclusively in Konquest in Fraudcan be found in them for various side quests and rewards. Over decades of Shujinko's life, the player can see many of the main icons Mortal Kombat history that naturally inhabits spaces with its own goals in a way that can still seem remarkably organic.
Mortal Kombat: Deception's open-world design in Konquest mode was ahead of its time
A plea for replayability in an often linear genre
While it's been a big trend to feature open world exploration in games for years now, this type of approach was anything but when Mortal Kombat: Deceptions rich Konquest mode experimented with the concept in the early 2000s. This level of freedom hardly made sense in other fighting game franchises, which still often limit the player to completing fights to progress through simple cutscenes, if at all. In Konquest mode, however, being able to roam the realms can make it worth returning for hidden unlockables, like costumes and art, or taking on side quests assigned by playable characters.
The innovations in the Konquest mode overshadow its weaknesses
Despite some clunky mechanics that were hard to avoid at the time, the ambition and scale of Konquest largely outweighs its technical shortcomings and cements it as one of Mortal Kombatbest story modes. For a PS2-age fighting game to include open-world elements, in a title that already experimented with the likes of Chess Kombat, it could be considered representative of one of MKs creative peaks. In the current state of the series, where more linear chapter-based storytelling has been the norm for multiple games in a row now, the polish and advancement of modern fidelity might even make a return to an idea that Konquest a valuable prospect.
