Alright. First of all, I want to greet everybody here. I got pointed to this quest from a different forum and so I've spent the past few days reading it. Obviously, I read through the story thread because I'm not spending weeks reading through 4000 pages of discussion. So I want to share a few thoughts I had about it, starting with things I did like:
- It's pretty good, overall. It's been going for a while, and it has a very hefty length, and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon. You have some nice OC going, with good characterization, my favorites being Kagome and Akane. Especially Kagome. Every update with him is always a ton of fun.
- Love what you've done with the setting so far. The setting is the best part about the original Naruto, when it was just about sneaky ninjas doing ninja magic. You know, up to about the Chunin exam arc.
- Speaking of what made Naruto bad, you're actually good at controlling the powercreep. The quest started two and a half years ago, and there's a substantial lack of mechs punching giant demons in the face. It feels like the characters can still fail, and they often do, and there's often consequences for it.
There's also things I didn't like, such as the changes to some canon characters, like making Rock Lee a complete joke, but overall the positives outweigh the negatives. Also, before I forget! It shouldn't matter to someone reading the quest in real time, but to anybody joining in, there are some gaps between the end of a post and the begging of the next one. That's where the discussion, planning and voting are, but as far as I've seen, you don't mention it in your posts as to what plans won. For me it would have been great if I could see the plan that the players came up with, along with the post that the QM wrote.
I'd also like to chime in on the recent discussion. Again, I don't know what's the long-term goal of the hivemind, beyond what's been said in-game, so I'd love it if somebody could link me to that, or explain it in some detail. However, saying that in this quest it's impossible to achieve any kind of long-term goal is unfair. We went from wanted criminals on the run to the heir to a clan in control of the strongest military in the world. There is clearly some progression.
Also, what's the general opinion of our situation with Akane, and how do you guys want to proceed? I think the relationship can still be salvaged. Hazou was for two years the leader of a squad of missing-nin. Yes, theoretically it was Mari, but Hazou was the guy with the plan. It was only natural for him to think of everybody on the team as resources. But the situation has changed, and she's no longer part of our team out on a long mission, right? So, I think we give it a week or so for her to cool off, and then go in with some flowers and chocolate, say we're sorry, explain the whole thing to her. If she wants, we could still be a couple, and do normal couple things like on dates, and training ninja skills together and what not, but Hazou stops thinking of her as a part of his team that he has control over and responsibilities towards. What do you guys think?
