Naruto Naruto is living a Video Game

daniel_gudman · Jun 10, 2012

On the Naruto Talk: Update thread, we were talking about a story that recently updated: "Naruto: Game of the Year Edition".

My thesis is, I want to design the "game" that Naruto will be "playing", and he's going to chase after every cheap bug and exploit he can.

I'm going to recap the discussion in this first post.

Skip to the <s>second</s> <a href='http://z14.invisionfree.com/The_Fanfiction_Forum/index.php?showtopic=21529&st=0&#entry22024550' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>third post</a> and I'll start talking about my ideas---and soliciting input from you.

Ashaman said:

Inaba said:

Ashaman said:

Altered Nova said:

daniel_gudman said:

Hardcore Heathen said:

Hardcore Heathen · Jun 10, 2012

If you ever played Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, it was essentially an exercise in munchkining.

There were so many exploits. Magic stacking with potions stacking with magic stacking with enchantments stacking with potions...combine that with the exacting nature of leveling (you had to level skills in the right combinations before you leveled or you would never max your stats) and it really just rewarded exploiting.

I think it'd be a good place to start. It also let you save whenever, so quicksave abuse was possible.

daniel_gudman · Jun 10, 2012

Naruto dies.

Game Over.

And, in a metaspace, like inside the seal, he has the opportunity to try again.

His life has become a "video game".

He only gets one save slot though; he can save-scum, but he can't backtrack to before his one save point, he can only move forward.

I see this "feeling" like an RPG blended with an action-fighting game (much like the actual Naruto videogames).

I think the Tutorial Chapter will be the first chapter of the manga; if you fail the test, you can do the Mizuki mission; or you can pass the test on a New Game Plus and skip the tutorial (and also unlock bonus content because Mizuki is still free. That might not occur to Naruto right away, ie until it punches him in the balls during the Invasion Arc).

Statistics
Strength
Speed
Durability
Chakra Capacity
Stamina

etc.

I dunno how many I want (5? 8?) let alone how many... they should "feel" balanced though.

I think I might want to break into the "Physical/Mental/Social" brackets like you see in some games, too...

In that case, I think it would be best that the ones that would be too meta (ie, if Naruto triples his intelligence and charisma scores but drops empathy to zero; is he even the same person anymore, since he turned himself into a psychopath?) should be "grayed out"; like, he can look at his mental stats, but he can't change them, and trying to drop other stats below certain values throws a "what? No" message.

Genetics
Pretty straightforward for you to understand, probably; inborn (or not...) parts of the body that grant advantages.
1) Bloodline (Hyuuga, Sharingan, etc)
2) Natural Elements. Wind is default; I kinda like the idea of any one can be chosen, but picking more requires unlocking achievements. With two natural elements, a unique thing like Mokuton can be learned/developed/unlocked.

Skills
This list should be pretty big.

Kunai/Knife
Sword (Short)
Sword (Long)
Throwing
Taijutsu (Striking: Hard)
Taijutsu (Striking: Soft: Hyuuga)
Taijutsu (grapping)
Genjutsu (battlefield)
Genjutsu (torture)
Ninjutsu (Summoning)
Economics
Public Speaking
Math (Algebra)
Surgery
Physiology
Ninjutsu (Medical)

and they inter-default in a big complicated web like it's friggin' GURPS. Actually I'll probably scam a lot of this from GURPS; I like the sound of that.

Specials
These are special parameters that allow unique commands, or otherwise aren't represented by stats/skills. Things like being a jinchuuriki, or quirks of luck or personality.

I'm not sure whether Clan Jutsu (like having a colony of the Aburames' bugs) should be in here or in "genetics". You must acquire Elements to use their ninjutsu, but acquiring your natural element is the easiest by like an order of magnitude.

The number of Specials that can be equipped is limited. But, some don't count against that limit, and some can be equipped over the limit--for some penalty, like a -25% hit to Chakra or something.

Specials can only be equipped during character creation (ie, before the Tutorial Chapter), and change the Opening Animation. There are exceptions for equipment-based specials that can be found/lost, and Kabuto can surgically install certain Specials later in the game.

The rules governing Specials will end up getting pretty complicated, and naturally, Naruto will have to discover them mostly by trial and error.

Some specials:
Jinchuuriki
Have a tailed beast sealed inside; gain abilities. Technically these are nine (spoilers: ten) different specials.

Befriending
Can re-roll Reaction/Charisma Checks after combat, with a bonus.

Lucky
In any game of chance, roll three times and pick the best result.

New Game Plus
Obviously, starting the game over! I don't think equipables would be passed since Naruto doesn't have something like the pocket dimension, so I think money and items wouldn't (shouldn't) pass over. Certain items that are more like "treasures", such as that lightsaber the Second Hokage had, might count as "Specials" though.

Endings
Naturally, this is a multiple-ending game... so it's possible to achieve multiple endings. Naruto, like you, knows that a "Bad End" and a "Good End" are not quite the same as the "True End"... or "100%" completion.

What kind of endings can he achieve?

I've got some ideas:
Note mine are what I thought interesting, not what I thought immediately obvious. Winning the Ninja War going on in the story right now would probably be a Normal End.

Bad End: Mangekyo Sacrifice
This one is pretty obvious; he's killed by Sasuke to achieve the Mangekyo. I think this would give him a deep understanding of why Sasuke pulled him in and pushed him away, emotionally.

Normal End: Golden Rule
Achieved by becoming the World's #1 Super-Wealthiest Person. Grants a unique "Special" that can break the in-game economy (or something similar). Achieved after Naruto foolishly selected the "New Game Minus" option where he can't get past Level One, so he had to live a civilian life.

(False) True End: Tobi Gaiden
Is this whole Video Game thing a side-effect of the Moon Eye Plan? Tobi doesn't know, and (big reveal) he's the one that used the damn genjutsu. (Naruto calls the idea of a "False True End" bullshit.)

..

And, that's what I've got.

Please submit any ideas you have, from suggesting another line item, to challenging the underlying rules with a better mechanic set-up.

Hardcore Heathen · Jun 10, 2012

I think we should have three "main stats," Health, Chakra, and Stamina. Underneath that are attributes, such as Constitution or Intelligence. You can spend points to directly raise your health by, say, 50 points. Or you can spend them to raise constitution - and the same expenditure will only increase health by 25 points, but it will also increase your resistance to poison, Stamina, etc.

Using the standard D&D setup it would look like this:

STR: Melee damage increase, carry capacity increase, needed for wielding larger weapons.
DEX: Increases speed, dodge, hand seals, ranged weapon attacks.
CON: Increases health, stamina, resistances to physical ailments.
INT: Increases speed of skill acquisition, chakra control.
WIS: Increases chakra, willpower.
CHA: Increases appearance and diplomacy skills.

Character creation goes like this:

Pick Your Name!: Naruto is already filled in, and you can't actually change it.

Select Your Class: Ninja is the only option. Of course, there are Prestige Classes for when you get higher level...

Pick Your Clan!: Uzumaki is default. There's a drop-down box to pick others, but they're all just ??? until you unlock them.

Pick Templates!: Jinchuuriki is default. This is more of a series of checkboxes; you can theoretically stack on as many templates as you want...though you'll start off with appropriate penalties to compensate. (Of course, some templates combine to more than offset their penalties...)

Pick Gender!: Male is default. Nothing is required to unlock female.

Generate Stats!: You can take an array (16/14/14/12/10/8), roll 4d6 drop lowest, or do a point buy. Hardcore Mode requires you to roll 3d6 straight down.

Distribute Skills!: Based on your stats and templates, you can pick from various starting skills. Your tutorial will change based on this distribution - if you put a lot of points into Bladed Weapons (long) then you'll have a kenjutsu class.

Select Feats!: Various feats allow for enhanced use of ninjutsu, new taijutsu techniques, increases in certain skills, whatever. If you can think of it, there's probably a feat for it - as long as you meet the prerequisites.

Spend Money! (Feature to be added later): Obviously this game is still in development; it only has one class! So you always start off dead broke.

Leveling up takes you straight to the character sheet where you get to fiddle with options. Various derived statistics - such as melee damage - will automatically change when their underlying stats are changed.

Avider · Jun 10, 2012

Too much focus on combat. Where's the Social Links?!

Hardcore Heathen · Jun 10, 2012

Avider said:

I suppose we could do Old World of Darkness? That would probably work a lot better than D&D anyway. The Vampire sheet has enough statistics doo-hickies all over it to cover a lot of social interactions, the dicepool is simple...

Leonite · Jun 10, 2012

I think that there might need to be a cap on the "Tresures" that Naruto can carry over, so he doesn't end up pulling a Killer Bee Impersonation with the Lightsaber, Kubiriki Hocho, the Dragon Sword from that one game, and so on. It means Naruto has to strategize about things, he has to think about it even when he has a lot of stuff.

We should also consider if Naruto has access to a pause option or a Help menu... or a manual. I know that GOTYE has the former, and another inspired by it has the latter, but its something we should be concerned on.

Also, as for skills, I think that some extra ones should be added... but only if Naruto has access to them (As in he has to learn the skill first, or be able to use it. Examples are: Bloodline Techniques (In the case of a Rinnegan or Sharingan Naruto, this would be divided into appropriate cattagories too, such as Basic, Mageyoko Ninjutsu, Mageyoko Genjutsu, and so on), Senjutsu, Family Techniques (Stuff like an Akimichi's multisize technique, in the case of a Naruto Akimichi) and such.

You might also want to consider the templates. Say have Naruto as a Hyuuga being stuck as a branch member unless he spends the extra points to become main family, or give main family a bigger penalty, or needing a greater unlock requirement.

Skill checks are good, but only for dialouge trees, interrigation, stuff like that. Perhaps the skill tests simply give an enhancement to said skill if it succeeds outside of said situations?

Are we going to include cheat codes? Debug mode?

Should we allows Naruto to take a Deus Ex style approach to boss fights, as in you don't HAVE to fight all the time, you can try talking them down or activating something nearby as a trap? Sure this wouldn't work most of the time, but leave it as an option?

Maybe even have an option called "New Game Double Plus", allowing Naruto to, for the one playthrough, get another character to pull a New Game plus (essentially, for them, Time Looping)

daniel_gudman · Jun 10, 2012

If it's the World of Darkness, I hated their books; the fluff was badly written and too thick for me to drive down and understand how the game worked.

If it's DnD, I'm personally tired of it, and more than that, I'm nervous about dragging the conception that "this is Naruto D20" over this whole thing like a blanket and confusing people.

Actually, I'd prefer not to have a "level" mechanic, instead he can pump his attributes/specials with XP conversion.

My desire is... Naruto's getting like a "metastate" where he can see a description of himself. He can't "pause", but he can "look inside himself" by entering the seal. And absolutely zero gameplay/story segregation. There's no such thing as a "boss fight" mechanically. There is never a time where he can't talk or sneak or fight--but the consequences for any action are logical.

I'm thinking he'd get like an in-game reference help manual, but only for things he already knew or experienced himself, and/or it should be comically useless. That is to say, the real help manual was the booklet--which he can't read because he's inside the game.

So for example, if he throws 100 kunai, and 80 hit, and then he saw he got a "rank up" in his kunai skill, and he threw another 100, he'd see that 90 hit. But at no point would he ever "make an attack roll".

Ditto Charisma tests; sometimes he'd win people over, or not, and if he save-scummed he might notice the statistical distribution was different depending on his Convince skill, but he'd never know when exactly he was making that skill check.

I'm tempted to say skills can't be purchased; he can only grind them, in-game.

Hmm... maybe he can't even select Specials or anything from a menu in-game, only between play-throughs; everything he sees is merely descriptive. In that case his "score" would dictate how much he could "add" to his start template, with the option for "swapping out" as well. This would be punishingly hard to code as an actual video game, but we're not actually writing a video game....

But on the other hand restricting rebuilding that much is going to make "exploring the game" harder.

Clan
I don't like it. Clan: Uzumaki implies he's not a lonely orphan, which was central to his growth as a person. I feel like "having a clan" would be a "template" you could purchase that would include Genetics, Specials, and access to some "Skills".

Likewise...
Template
That's too easy.

The thing is... since Naruto can save, and then load if he fucks up, from getting killed by Zabuza to dropping his ramen, a huge amount of story tension is gone. (Actually, taking away the save-slot and making it autosaving, where he gets punted back to a checkpoint at "death," and the start after an Ending, would help alot with that... yeah, I'm not sure.) We have to recover that tension somehow, and the most direct way is going from "Man vs. Man" (ninja battlez) to "Man vs. Environment" (the game). So Naruto has to figure things out essentially blindly.

So, the gameplay mechanism should be deliberately opaque to Naruto. From a gameplay perspective that would be frustrating Fake Difficulty, but we're not coming up with a game to play, we're watching Naruto struggle with the game. The reward isn't winning at chess precisely, it's figuring out how all the pieces move.

Basically what that means is, any kind of packaging that would let Naruto start with a balanced build and then expand on it, he doesn't get that.

And I don't want too many categories of abilities; originally I was thinking "Attributes--Skills--Specials" but Specials ended up getting so big I broke it into "Specials" and "Genetics".

Skills...

Skills should be really hard to exploit, because they're from experience grinding, and Naruto is hunting for exploits specifically to avoid grinding. And they might take a big % hit on restart? I'm not sure.

EDIT: Oh shit who runs the Tiger Dojo

Avider · Jun 10, 2012

You know, all this talk about saving and loading and whatnot when Naruto dies just had me thinking.

"Proper stories supposed to start at the beginning. . .ain't so simple with this one. Now here's a Brat whose whole world got all twisted, leaving him dead beneath the crashing of the falls.

Nah, I'm just fooling."

Jansviper · Jun 10, 2012

If you want to maintain tension without the idea of starting from a save point, take the route that Demon's Souls did. Naruto dies, but instead of game-over you have to fight your way through the underworld/shadowworld to get back to your corpse... with significantly less health and fighting all the enemies you've already killed over again. Game does it without bosses, but that might be counter-productive in a setting like this. Finally managed to gib Orochimaru in the Chunin Exams? The next time Itachi or Kisame takes you out he's waiting and out for revenge. The meta-point was that you lose all your unused upgrade materials (souls, useable for items and stats) temporarily when you die in the real world, getting them back when you revive, or losing them permanently from a death in the shadowworld, leaving you to meticulously grind your way back to your body with no reward.

I suppose that wouldn't really have a game over screen until you hit one of the Endings or start a New Game though.

Game of the Year does a lot of things... oddly. I've noticed the odd changes in character personalities as well, and it bugs the crap out of me. Even Naruto is guilty of it, usually from observing something happen one moment and being surprised by its results the next. The "pause" and "skill check" functions are annoying as hell, breaking away from the action in ways that detract from the story quite a bit.
Worst offender is the Kyuubi though, who the author has taken to running his own brand of humorous commentary through, often in the middle of the action.

I approve of anything that avoids this brand of silliness, especially if it doubly frustrates the character that he has no obvious clues as to whats going on until he drops everything and goes all the way back to check.

I've always found that the best way to "cheat" the system in any game is with buff stacking. Simply cherry-picking cool skills isn't enough, sometimes you have to hunt high and low to find ways things work together and then even more for things that build off of that. D&D gives you your Dexterity bonus to AC (Armor Class, what people need to beat on a die roll to actually hit you), being a Monk (or, amusingly enough, a Ninja) gets you a further bonus in your Wisdom to AC but at the cost of not being able to wear armor. A magic item (the monk's belt, bracers of armor, etc) can help you get around that so you're stacking armor in there too. Being a Duelist lets you stack in your Intelligence bonus, certain kinds of Paladin can stack in their Charisma bonus, etc. etc. etc.

Other systems work off the concept as well. Stacking auras is the key to kicking ass in Dragon Age and multiple kinds of shield in Mass Effect makes you nigh unkillable. Hell, in Bioshock you can buff the shit out of your wrench and do an entire play-through at melee range.

For Naruto, it would depend on what your character is looking for that time. Want to be a Kunai master? Raising the throwing skill is cool, but how about sealing scrolls and shadow clones? Wind or magnetic techniques for guiding weapons and crazy attacks, explosive kunai for shrapnel goodness, eye techniques for improved accuracy, chakra sensing techniques linked to automatic attacks for surprise encounters. Ninjutsu more your style? It isn't enough to simply have a bunch of them, you want to be able to fire more than one each turn. Have them stick around and feed off of or combine with other techniques. Have the kind of chakra capacity and control that you can spam all day. Summon or create dozens of minions who can do it for you while you charge up your wave motion canon. That kind of thing.

As a side note, I'm actually working on New World of Darkness rules for Naruto. It is... significantly less complicated than Old World. They're coming along pretty well through play-testing, and its where a lot of these thoughts came from.

Ashaman · Jun 10, 2012

Leonite said:

Bad idea. I think this would make things too complicated.

I actually really like this idea. The closer Naruto gets to someone has small video game effects.

Like if he has a Rank 3 with Lee, his Tai-Jutsu get a bonus. Or the only way to unlock certain bonuses is to acheive Level 10 with a particular person. Like, the only way to unlock Hyuuga Naruto would be to be Level 10 with either Neji or Hinata.

Kyuubi and a mysterious person who later turns out to be Minato or Kushina. Of course, due to game constaints, they can't reveal their relation to him until he already knows their relation to him.

mishie · Jun 10, 2012

A problem with a lot of these types of fics is that they either a) keep on looping the same period of time to take advantage of the fact that Naruto can keep reloading, or B) have Naruto start off having just died, having knowledge from at least one previous life and then never dieing again. What could be a good midpoint between these two would be to give Naruto the ability to save and reload, and since Naruto would eventually end up playing as if he were a gamer, it would result in him using it to save scum to proc random events or to reset a conversation.

To stop Naruto from being able to abuse the saving system too much, you can make it so that when he reloads to a previous save, he goes back to whatever stats/skills/whatever he had when he had saved. If he dies though, he has to go back further to a checkpoint, and he gets to keep them, but he has to spend more time getting back to where he was, although he would need to rebuild his relationships with both options since the other person obviously wouldn't remember them. This means that you can still have the "Kakashi dojo" for when Naruto dies to give him clues.

Also, to prevent Naruto from being able to abuse his future knowledge too much, is that although he is able to personally try to take advantage of it, if he were to say, try to tell Iruka or the Hokage that Mizuki was a traitor he would be told off for making up silly stories and Mizuki would kill him in his sleep for almost getting him caught. This would also allow for an easy Kakashi dojo where he explains that most people wont believe his story of having knowledge of the future unless he has built up his relationship with them enough so that they would trust him.

As for relationships, the social link idea could work out very well, you can even steal from Persona 3/4 having the bonus from rank 1 being: "X will now die for you", which would also allow for a reference to Sasuke in the Wave mission. When Naruto unlocks further social links though, instead of getting an automatic bonus from it, instead, he gets a passive bonus to trust for each level, and at say, levels 3, 7 and 10, he can go to the person for extra training. Using Sasuke as an example, at rank 3 he would tell Naruto that he's going to help him with his Taijutsu so he's not as useless, which would permanetly increase his skill by a large amount, at rank 7 he would offer to show him some tricks with shuriken that Itachi taught him to increase his thrown skill, and at rank 10, Sasuke would ask if Naruto would be interested in learning Katon jutsu, which would unlock the Katon skill tree.

Finally, although giving Naruto the ability to unlock abilities like the sharingan or shadow jutsu sounds like a good idea, unless Naruto is starting over from way back at the begining of the plot, it would only look really strange that they only just turned up to everybody else and it would be almost impossible to explain them. Plus, it would only end with him trying to collect them all and would remove the focus from other parts of the story.

dracklor · Jun 10, 2012

daniel_gudman said:

Quick question, does the Tiger Dojo mechanic show up in any game other than Fate/whatever? I had no idea what it was until I stumbled onto a few FSN discussion threads.

Raye_Terse · Jun 10, 2012

One thing I find quite interesting, is npc characters and how limited they are.

Say, for example that Naruto tries passing his genin exams with kage bunshin. Will Iruka go "Congatulations, Naruto! Here's your headband!" or will he actually realize how weird it is that Naruto knows kage bunshin?

Other examples include Naruto's knowledge about the Kyuubi, his parents and the rasengan. Jiraiya's reaction to the last two could be especially interesting depending on how you choose to handle it.

Ashaman · Jun 10, 2012

I'd suggest just treating them as AIs. How suffisticated they are depends on their plot importance and/or how intelligent they are supposed to be.

An unrelated video game idea would be Player vs Player. Like, say Kiba or Ino are also playing the game as Naruto's direct competitor. Whoever complete's their 1st C-Rank mission gets a special item or jutsu. The same applies to who does best in the forest of death and Chunnin exams in general.

mishie · Jun 10, 2012

Raye_Terse said:

The way I see it, if Naruto does something that he really should have no way of being able to do, like say, using the rasengan during the bell test, or saying something that he shouldn't know like about the invasion, that should get him a game over, not straight away, but by having say, an angent of Orrochimaru killing Naruto if he reveals his plans to invade as revenge and a Kakashi dojo explaining that showing off skills that he shouldn't have will result in people assuming something is very wrong. But if he were to do something a bit more subtle like taking advantage of the fact that he knows that the Wave mission will go wrong to try to get more training done with Sasuke and Sakura to make it easier.

Also, it really does need to be set how far Naruto got in his original play through, because the way I see it, the best place for Naruto's first game to end would be around the end of Part 1, simply because it means that he's gotten enough future knowledge to make some changes. Plus, any further and by allowing to bring his stats/skills back with him would just make things too easy for him.

Another way to make things interesting is that if the fic actually makes it that far, would be to have it that the movies and the filler from the anime never happened to Naruto, and that Naruto would be given the option to get an expansion that would add them. This would allow for Part 1 events that Naruto doesn't have any knowledge about, but the author has something that he can use as a base.

Deathwings · Jun 10, 2012

I would prefer a Kushina and chibi!Kyubi Dojo personally. Kakashi's too passive and Naruto would recognize Minato as the 4rth, but Kushina is a complete unknown, which make it funnier.

The movies and fillers as DLC. Sometimes poorly though out cashcow DLC that Naruto complain about because the way the are forced into the overall plot without having any long term effect on it doesn't make any fucking sense.

I like it. :lol:

EagleCeres · Jun 10, 2012

Clan Membership: due to a ban imposed by the 3rd Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto is not to know the name and nature of his birth parents until he is old enough (read as: competent enough) to defend himself; as such he will be considered an orhan and clan-less (aka: from civilian/non-noble descent).

Although, the current heads of the prestigious (and not so prestigious) clans of the Konoha Ninja elite may have known or have figured out part the young nin's lineage. As they were not allowed to adopt him due to bureaucratic and/or political reasons, they have contrived ways to bring in the young nin into their fold in the foreseeable future.

Belonging to a clan will not change Naruto's last name, for political/bureaucratic purposed he will be considered as being "sponsored" by a clan, which includes limited status bonuses and/or perks.

It is rumored that Item Shop NPC's give certain clans special pricing while buying in bulk or offer special items when stock is available.

Default Clan: Uzumaki* (Only clan available at the begining of the game)

Additional Clans may become available depending on level of social links and/or story event completion (see achievements: Well I'll be a Monkey's Uncle, The Heiress' Consort, Invited to the Table, Part of the Pack, For the Swarm, The Orange Beast of Konoha, etc.)

Clan Uzumaki special addendum:
[*]White (or default color) Font: Naruto does not belong to any Clan, he is an orphan of unknown parentage.
> Grants no bonuses.
> Item Shop NPC's in Konoha will raise prices or declare stock unavailable.
[*]Silver Font: This change is permanent and only available after Quest "Hero of Konoha" has been completed.
> Item Shop NPC's in Konoha will lower their item prices to average and will have better stock available depending on social link levels.
[*]Gold Font: This change is permanent and only available after Quests "Hero of Konoha" and "Legacy of the Fourth" has been completed.
> Grants Naruto access to Konoha clan leaders who may allow clan kinsmen to temporarily support Naruto depending on social link levels.
> Some enemy ninjas may aggro/run away as they believe a certain legendary ninja has come back from the dead.
[*]Gold Font between Spirals: This change is permanent and only available available after Quests "Hero of Konoha", "Legacy of the Fourth" and "Scion of the Whirlpool" are completed.
> All Konoha clan leaders will recognize Clan Uzumaki (even though it's a clan of one) and will allow their kinsmen to support Naruto or join his party as needed.
> Item Shop NPC's in Konoha will considerably lower their item prices and will always have stock available depending on social link levels.
> Some enemy ninjas may aggro/run away as they believe a certain legendary ninja has come back from the dead.
> Friends/Refugees of Uzu-no-kuni will recognize the Uzumaki Clan and offer unconditional support.

*** Rock Lee's family is not a clan... but come on, we all know the green beast and Gai sensei want to "adopt" him and put him in spandex, you know... for the LULZ!

Inaba · Jun 10, 2012

Hm, I had some fairly random thoughts on this issue yesterday after reading GotYE, not all of which are necessarily good or suitable for use with others, especially because I like the idea of looping back and multiple reincarnations.
Here goes:

* Instead of a single-player game, set it up so that it's multi-player PVP with elements of PVE. Naruto takes on the position of a PC, but he's not the only one.

* Each PC can be separated into their game avatars inside each round and their over-selves, something similar to how Battler and Beatrice were both inside and outside the games in Umineko.

* Each round lasts from the last days of the clan wars to the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Victory is obtained either through one PC eliminating all the others or earning the highest score by the end. PCs do not automatically recognize one another and cannot do so except through explicit acknowledgement or in-game clues.

* Each player can choose to start the game using a combination of origins and backgrounds, which can be very specific or quite general. The earlier they start, the fewer points they have to spend building their character and the weaker they'll be at the start and vice versa.
PCs can eliminate one another before they even enter the scene, but this can range from easy to difficult depending on the others' build choices. For example, if a later PC builds a character specifying that he is a member of the Uchiha, then other PCs can eliminate him before the game begins by killing the entire Uchiha clan, assuming that they can correctly guess that PC's choices and muster up the strength to do so. In contrast, eliminating a PC with a character that has the more expensive 'Uchiha descendant' before he's born is much more difficult resource-wise because it requires finding and eliminating all 'loose-ends', something that may very well not even be possible. In general, the more specific the build choices, the more powerful but also the most easily disrupted.

* So supposing a scenario where Naruto and Tobi are the PCs, an example round might go something like this:
Tobi chooses to start early- he has relatively few points to build a character but manages to survive and build up to a point where he's entirely overcome his earlier build disadvantage. He has no idea where his opponent is and spends much of time preparing to jump him once he discerns PC-like action. This course of action leads him to concluding that Minato is the other PC due to Minato's exploits during the war, causing him to jump him during his moment of weakness at the end point of his wife's pregnancy.
But this fails because Naruto went for a long shot and chose a build specifying that he's a demon container, that he's the son of the Fourth Hokage, that he is an Uzumaki, that he has a lot of advantages relating to charisma, et cetera. He's not Minato but thankfully for his build choices, Minato survived long enough to father a kid.
Naruto spends the next few years lying low and building up his stats while Tobi becomes more and more confused that the enemy PC hasn't showed up. Tobi settles for going for a score victory, settling on the Moon's Eye Plan to eliminate all his enemies in one swoop and winning the game in style rather than practicality. Unfortunately, he completely fails to realize that Naruto is the PC up until the point that Naruto beats Pain in Konoha itself and by that point, Tobi has made enough enemies for an anti-Tobi alliance to form. Worse, Naruto has a high enough charisma to propel him into a leading position in the alliance, meaning that he's set to win through points even if the alliance doesn't kill Tobi before the round ends.

* At the end of each round, all the players see their scores tallied up, see more options open up through their actions, and have the chance to see exactly how many PCs there were and who was playing whom. Players can communicate during the round through their over-selves, but this is the only time where they can reliably tell how many players are around and who was playing who because the players cannot hide from the score-tallying.

I'm not entirely sure how the story might end or how the over-selves might remain as themselves given the multiple reincarnations. But it could be that the game ends once one of the PCs either convinces all the others to side with him or her or forces all the others to concede defeat.

Edit:

Also, I was thinking that there are a lot more potential exploits and ultimate techniques in the game than the ones that popped up in canon but the only ones that have popped up in the first round are the canon examples because the PCs are the ones who drive their development either through personal action or through encouraging NPCs.

Oh and becoming a ninja is not the only in-game possibility. On a second round, Naruto might choose to settle the chaos through reincarnating as a Senju around the time of the Third Shinobi World War, succeed, but end up losing score-wise because Tobi chose to play a merchant who used Naruto's efforts to economically dominate the entire continent and puppet the daimyo.

Lord Raine · Jun 10, 2012

The Uchiha are fucking hackers.

Ashaman · Jun 10, 2012

Lord Raine said:

Pfft, like the Senju aren't.

Wildfeather · Jun 10, 2012

To be honest, some of this stuff sounds way more fun as a forum RPG than in a story.

Inaba · Jun 10, 2012

It could be fun, but I don't even want to think about all the work that'd have to go into it.

Ashaman · Jun 10, 2012

Clan modifiers.

Uzumaki - Born with the potential for enormous chakra and hardy bodies, Uzumaki Clan members specialize in endurance, stamina and the Sealing arts, giving them the ability to fight for longer than any other combatant on the field.

Clan modifiers:
HP +40%
Chakra +40%
Fuunjutsu +25%

Senju - The ancient Senju clan excels in ninjutsu and physical prowess, and are powerhouses of the highest order.

Clan modifiers:
Ninjutsu +25%
Strength +25%
Speed +25%
Chakra Control +25%

Uchiha - The Uchiha clan are renowned genius' blessed with a powerful doujutsu which has a variety of abilities, aiding all walks of ninja life.

Clan Modifiers:
Intellect +25%
Genjutsu +25%
Combat +25%
Chakra Control +25%
Sanity -25%

Hotaru of the 4 Emperors · Jun 11, 2012

You should add a secret boss that even with all the exploit's would make Naruto basicly freak out and cry at being killed over and over and over again. Kinda like MF in KH: BBS N.A. version.

I still Can't kill the damn cheap bastard stupid rape rope of death and clones :rant:

Naruto Naruto is living a Video Game

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