We had zero impact on the combat. Mari took charge and our last vote was a non-entity.
I tried to address this issue in the post immediately after the update, but I think I didn't get the job done.
Mari short-circuited your plan, and I regret that. You put together a reasonable strategy and it would have been good if it had gone off; the whole point of a quest is for y'all to have agency over the story, and Mari's choices took that agency away. Unfortunately, when I sat down to plan things out I realized that there was a problem: given the character that we have defined for Mari, she wasn't going to let that plan happen. She's all about letting him be in charge, as long as there is time for her to hear Hazou's plan, evaluate it, and decide that the potential failure modes are acceptable. In a life-or-death conflict with no time to talk, she wasn't going to do that. Furthermore, your plan wasn't the kind of plan that Mari would choose on her own, so I could not have it coincidentally be what she chose to do. She's a non-physical fighter -- she socials, she uses genjutsu, she seduces and cons people. She's reasonably good at punching, but it's her last-choice conflict resolution strategy. I think this has been pretty thoroughly established over the last 8 months. (!)
As soon as I realized this, I had two choices: (A) I could respect player agency and have Mari act antithetically to her established character or, (B), I could sacrifice player agency in the interest of character continuity. I spent some time considering that, and finally I decided that this is supposed to be a rational world so tropes don't apply and characters have to behave consistently.
Despite her taking over and doing something different than your plan, I incorporated as many elements of the plan and the thread's discussion as possible. The characters were positioned where the diagram (someone?) drew showed them. Mari used a genjutsu. Keiko stayed in the corner and threw things. Akane tanked and shouted about Youth in order to cause SAN damage. Hazou used a MEW to squash Joutarou into the ceiling. [The plan actually said "hit him in the knees" but at that point Hazou was actively looking to bring the house down as a means of escape.]
Again, I regret that your plan didn't come off because I don't want y'all to feel like your choices don't count. Unfortunately, it didn't fit the characters of the characters, and Hazou isn't actually the leader. If a similar situation comes up in the future, I will once again choose consistency of characters over strict adherence to the plan. My suggestion for that case would be to make a plan for Hazou's actions alone; had he simply turned and blown the wall down with an explosive tag, or thrown a MEW at the door, or etc, then he could have forced Mari's hand. Your plan made sense as a way to use team skills but that only works if you're actually the one with the authority to give orders.
I have a feeling that there are some ruffled feathers in the player base (not just yours,
@Twofold), and I hope that this post has helped to smooth them down.
