Okay, what the...

Christmas characters? And no Dosu or Kin?

I mean, ET Utakata is pretty sweet though. I can't complain about that.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

First Akatsuki Orochimaru.

Then Guren.

Then Christmas characters.

And now... Fricking Chiriku?

Seriously? This is Enma all over again.

I swear, this game...

It's true that Zaku and Kin weren't exactly remarkable – as much as I try, I can't defend them in the same way I can with Dosu – but I believe that brushing Dosu off as unremarkable is a disservice to him. Yes, when compared to later villains like Nagato, Tobi and heck, even the majority of the Akatsuki, Dosu isn't remarkable.

But remember, at the time of his initial release, there was no Akatsuki. No overpowered eye jutsus. None of that type of thing. The world of Naruto was much simpler. Heck, the most powerful ninja we saw in action was probably Kakashi or Orochimaru, which is really saying something since both of them get super powercreeped later on.

If we compare Dosu to the people relevant to him at the time (the Exam Applicants, the Exam Proctors, Kakashi and his Jonin buddies, Kabuto, Orochimaru, etc etc...), it's clear that he's pretty remarkable compared to the other Chunin Exam participants. Sasuke even considered him one of the four "elite" applicants – the type he wanted to fight – along with Neji, Rock Lee, and Gaara.

I could go on for a while about this if you really want, but this isn't the time or place for it. Anyways...

The issue here is one of priority. I can't logically comprehend why they wouldn't prioritize adding Dosu and Kin as playable before the filler characters. If they released Team Dosu in the same pattern as they released treasures (i:e, chronologically) then the entire team should already be playable. But no, instead they're adding filler characters, much more obscure characters, and even non-canon characters like the cats and Hebihime instead.

The motive you explained earlier probably provides an explanation for this though, which does make me kind of disappointed. But hey, in reality all I can do to change the matter is write more arguments and hope.

Okay, hang on.

At the core, Dosu didn't want to fight Sasuke to get revenge for losing to him. He wanted to fight Sasuke as an act of defiance to Orochimaru. It was a response to realizing that Orochimaru saw him and his team as expendable and didn't truly care about their lives: in response, he decided that fighting, beating, and probably killing Sasuke would be a suitable final "screw you" to Orochimaru. It was to prove that he was, in his own words, "more than a mere puppet" (or, "not just Orochimaru's guinea pig" in a different translation). After that, he'd probably have gone rogue and detached himself from the Sound entirely, perhaps becoming a missing-nin or maybe even joining a different village.

But you are correct to some extent: when he confronts Gaara, he is clearly arrogant. When one steps back and compares this to the rest of Dosu's scenes, it's a pretty major Out-Of-Character Moment. He doesn't really display extremely blatant arrogance to the same level anywhere else in the series; in fact, he even warns Zaku after the latter is being arrogant and overconfident towards Sasuke. Instead he sways towards the more cautious and calculated side of things: he usually stops and an@lyzes the situation before acting.

So he should've been able to an@lyze that he was no match for Gaara. He already witnessed Gaara's power firsthand in his match with Lee. Keep in mind that at this point, he is aware that Lee would be able to beat him in a 1v1 even with his Ninjutsu, so why would Gaara, who's stronger than Lee, be any different?

What does this mean? Either he goes completely against character and doesn't an@lyze all of this, or he still goes through this an@lysis, but goes completely against character and (extremely) arrogantly decides that he could beat Gaara anyways. No matter how you look at it, he was bent by the plot to hype up Gaara, and one anomaly of a moment shouldn't get in the way of his status as a remarkable character.

Sorry for the rising waves of text. Of course, everyone has a few topics they're passionate about and Dosu is one of mine.

Okay, I already know that Zaku is in the CN version right now. Seeing this actually made my day.

But... seriously? Why would they dummy Dosu and Kin out then in the early stages of the game...? The only thing I can think of is to release things at a slower pace. But why? It's not like people are going to whale out for Dosu or anything like that. Only a select few, myself included, would do that...

You know, I have to hand it to Tencent on their details. The Mystery Icon of Dosu's Resonating Echo Drill Mystery depicts the Melody Arm on his right hand, just as it is in the anime/manga. The scratches and details are all there too, albeit a few are a little off but that's ok since it's a tiny symbol.

If they put so much detail into him... what's the point of not releasing him? It just feels like wasted work.

I could go on for a while about this, but I'll keep it short and sweet because I'm a bit pressed for time right now.

Long story short, I have a soft spot/penchant for minor characters. Dosu in particular was, coincidentally, the first minor character who I started fanboying over in this way. I first noticed him because he had a cool-looking design imo, but later kept with him due to a variety of factors: specifically, his wasted potential in the storyline and the fact that most people forgot about him despite the presence he had in his story arc.

Yeah, it's true that there's only a handful of Dosu followers but many of them are pretty dedicated.