Wizards, Naruto, and Game Balance

[DungeonMaester]

Heh. There's some truth to that, but some differences too. The thing that bugged me about Dragonball Z is that everyone had basically the same powers. It was like watching a roomfull of Superman clones square off with each other every week. The main thing that Naruto does do well is that it gives every character a gimmik that it then spins it into an largely unique fighting style. The show can be juvenile (It is aimed at kids after all) but it's a goldmine of yoinkable fighting character ideas.

I never liked anime for the same reason I never liked Comic books (expect Savage Dragon )

---Rusty

 

[I'm A Banana]

High level fighters should be Rock Lee?

Works for me.

The idea that wizards are the only PC's that can be superhuman needs to go the way of the dodo, fast. 4e would appear to step in this direction, using Bo9S as a base, but timidly -- my guess is that it's going to be more "hulking out" and less "energy shockwave and semi-mystical bond"

I think there are some great possibilities for classes: Shinigami, Quincy, Spiritual Human, Arrancar, Mod Soul, Vizard, etc.

I'll confess, Zanpaktou make me want to use intelligent weapons as "trainers" in my next game. I think 4e, in getting rid of the Christmas Tree Effect, will help me achieve this.

 

[Ahglock]

I love Naruto it has entertaining stories, characters, and looks awesome. The American versions are more kid oriented though the original material isn't targeted at adults. It one of the most recent American releases they called Sake a secret potion or something.

And yes I even like a lot of the filler episodes.

 

[PeterWeller]

If there is a rpg based of him i'll play Fritz.

---Rusty

You win the thread, and I want to be Peace.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Having never seen any Naruto, I will now mentally substitute every instance of the name with Dragonball Z. I'm told the difference is largely superficial, especially for the purposes of this discussion.

Heh, whoever told you this is wrong. While there are certainly a number of similarities between the two (which are probably deliberate, considering that Masashi Kishimoto claims he has been greatly inspired by the works of Akira Toriyama, among other people), there are a number of major differences. The fact that Naruto is far more focused on character growth, psychology, and relationships than Dragonball by a significant degree, and that the battles in Naruto are rooted in ideological conflict and personal motivation, rather than the strict good vs. evil of Dragonball. As others have said, the characters in Naruto all have unique abilities and styles, and use them in very tactical battles. Dragonball characters tend to all use punches, flight, and energy blasts, and battles are pretty much slug-fests.

Also, the power scale in Naruto doesnt even resemble Dragonball. Dragonball has an exponentially diverging power scale, based on uniquely powerful characters gaining so much strength through obscure, insane training methods and unlimited super-transformations that no one can match them. As Dragonball progresses, fewer and fewer characters can even keep up with the rising power, mostly leaving Goku and Vegeta as the only real combatants. Being able to shrug off bullets and level cities is considered the power level of the average grunt soldier, and main characters can blow up planets.

Naruto, on the other hand, has a very shallow power curve which flattens out quickly, and most power increases occur because of learning new techniques and methods of attack. Every character is mortal and subject to being killed by a single stab or solid blow, and any increase beyond a certain level of power comes at incredible cost and risk. Pretty much all of the characters are soldiers of equivalent power who work in an organization, and the main character is grunt who is much weaker than the elite ninja, and aspires to become recognized (as opposed to Goku from Dragonball, who is just strong, and everyone aspires to be him).

Also, the characters in Naruto all come from a wel-established community, and they all have family and traditions which highly influences the plot and the character's abiities (and is a major theme of the manga). In Dragonball, there are only one or two characters who really have a family at the start, and only one or two families which really matter once the story starts crossing genreations.

I could probably keep listing differences for a while, really.

Certainly, Naruto and Dragonball have similrities, but the similarities are the superficial elements, and the differences are fundamental.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'm going to have to be "that guy" here. If D+D is 30 minutes of fun crammed into 4 hours, Naruto is 30 minutes of plot crammed into 12 episodes. Believe it! And for anyone considering going to an anime convention, please note that buying a headband and an orange sweat suit doesn't count as cosplaying. A papier mache gourd won't help, either. Believe it!

 

[Ahglock]

I'm going to have to be "that guy" here. If D+D is 30 minutes of fun crammed into 4 hours, Naruto is 30 minutes of plot crammed into 12 episodes. Believe it! And for anyone considering going to an anime convention, please note that buying a headband and an orange sweat suit doesn't count as cosplaying. A papier mache gourd won't help, either. Believe it!

Gah, i have to watch the subtitled Japanese language versions because of Believe it all the time. Sure I usually do anyways, but if I'm watching an Naruto uncut as I go to sleep i don't want to have to focus and read, but believe it, believe it, believe it irritates the heck out of me.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

That seems like urban legend to me. I could believe the Avatar creators are gamers, but I'd like to see proof of that. Can you cite an interview or something from them?

Seriously, I don't see this.

The only real connection is martial arts and the four classical elements...of which Exalted has FIVE (wood being the other). I've never seen anything that could be remotely construed as the other exaltation types, gods/primordials, fair folk, the Guild, the Realm, etc.

I *suppose* that the creators could be into Exalted and used it as inspiration, but it's very, very loose.

Brad

 

[DungeonMaester]

You win the thread, and I want to be Peace.

Yet..No one every wants to be Weehawk...

Also, Avatar's brother is a CE cleric/palemaster!

---Rusty

 

[PeterWeller]

Yet..No one every wants to be Weehawk...

---Rusty

Probably because he's a tool and a fat jerk.