Reason 2: "They didn't get enough screen/fight time, so they don't have enough skills to become playable characters!"

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PRESENCE OR PLAYABILITY OF ANY OF THE CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE BELOW SECTION. I'M JUST TRYING TO PROVE A CERTAIN POINT BY CITING THESE CHARACTERS AS EXAMPLES.

Okay, I really hope this isn't a legitimate argument, but I'm gonna address it anyways.

What I noticed is that if the devs want a character to become playable, they WILL figure out how to fill in their extra abilities. For example, Mabui's "Secretary Fight" chase. What the heck is that? I don't ever remember Mabui stomping on people in the anime. (correct me if I'm wrong though.)

Another example would be Karin's "Kick flying" chase. Sure, Karin did punch Suigetsu a lot. But I don't think she really kicked that much. (once again, correct me if I'm wrong.)

Then there are the Defender/Protector/Guardian/Power Of skills, the ones that characters like Mabui, 5 Kage Conference Temari, Cee, Ao, Fu Yamanaka, et cetera have. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to represent these characters’ wisdom and insights empowering their allies or something like that… but Fu Yamanaka wasn’t particularly wise (or if he was, he didn't show it, mainly because he had no personality whatsoever).

Then there’s Iruka’s “Demon Wind Shuriken” and “Double Shuriken” attacks. I guess the devs wanted Iruka to be a character so badly that they just came up with something on the spot. Many of Iruka’s attack abilities involve large shuriken. Despite this, I don’t remember Iruka ever actually using a shuriken in the anime. The closest thing would be Iruka getting impaled by one of Mizuki’s shuriken in Episode 1.

In fact, the shuriken he uses in game are much more reminiscent of Mizuki’s. As far as I can tell, the devs took Mizuki’s skill set and gave it to Iruka, just so he could be playable in game.

There are a bunch of others I could cite as examples. Tenten’s Critical Hit Tips. Killer Bee’s Yo. Enma’s entire skillset. Deidara’s Art of Blasts, which makes no sense lore-wise. Hanzo’s Poison Eliminating. (is he like sharing his gas mask or something?) Wind Blade Asuma’s Pose of Invincibility. Kurenai’s Genjutsu: Mirror Return. Many of the barrier moves, including Darui’s. And so on and so forth.

None of these make sense when you try to line them up to the Naruto lore. It’s pretty clear that the devs are willing to pull some strings to add characters into the game, so what’s stopping them from adding just a few more?

"So... so what?"

Honestly, I actually really like that the devs did this, because it added a lot of interesting effects in the game that we couldn't see otherwise. Things like Killer Bee's "Yo", or Kabuto's "Human Experiment" combined with the "Curse Mark" p@ssive. This kind of idea gap between the anime and the game lets the developers get really creative with their builds. If they want to add/remodel Dosu, Zaku, and Kin as legitimate characters, it would give them new opportunities to experiment with more interesting and creative chases and p@ssiives, like the kind of stuff we've been trying to come up with in the fanmade character thread.

One of the core aspects of the game that make it appealing to me personally (and probably to numerous others) is the multitude of characters and abilities, leading to a potentially diverse meta and an open sandbox full of potential creativity with team compositions. Teams such as Kedium’s Choza Akimichi team, the Chikushodo-Konan team, ProtoZero’s Suigetsu @ss@ssin team, most Kabuto Curse Mark teams, and hopefully my own Sakon/Killer Bee team exemplify this; we utilize these unique character mechanics to create interesting effects with the characters.

(none of the links work since the forum got transferred and I really don't feel like scouring for them again, sorry)

Conclusion

Okay, I've written a lot so I'll try to wrap it up.

One aspect of the game that I really enjoy is the huge character variety. Characters such as Anko, Iruka, and the Sound Four, despite having secondary and tertiary roles in the plot, are still playable characters. I really like that the devs did that - it’s one of the things that makes this game stand out from other similar games, like Unlimited Ninja. (To be honest, I'm still extremely bitter that Unlimited Ninja replaced Team Dosu with generic Sound ninja, but that's a story for another time.) All I'm trying to ask for here is a slight expansion of one of the good aspects of the game.

I understand that there are some other, more important things that should probably be changed first, like Mood Scrolls in the lucky wheel, Mystery Treasure for Jonin Medal users, server merges, et cetera. But please at least consider implementing these characters.

Also, if you do implement Team Dosu as playable, please DO NOT PUT THEM AS SIGN-IN REWARDS LIKE HEBIHIME. In my opinion, a sign-in reward character should be someone who’s moderately powerful, enough so to be at least somewhat hard to get. That would be motivation enough for people to sign in every day. Putting in collector characters (like Team Dosu in this instance) would just be a *n opportunity for players.

I think that’s why people were so disappointed by Sannin War Jiraiya, and Hebihime [Amber] as signins.

I personally think it’d be best if Team Dosu's fragments were buyable in the Shop, just like what you guys did when the Hebihimes first became playable. After all, I don’t think anyone would want collector characters in events either.

So that’s my appeal. Thanks for reading.

TLDR - Add Team Dosu as playable.

- Zaku's already playable in CN (and even Germany now), so why aren't the other two?

- There are many subtle clues that hint that Dosu was originally intended to be a playable character.

- For those complaining about Team Dosu being too minor to add, there are several other characters arguably more minor than them who are playable, such as Enma, Hebihime, Hanabi, et cetera.

- For those who say they have too little screen time, one may notice that the developers will often come up with something on their own. In fact, adding Team Dosu as a legitimate character instead of a collector could open an opportunity to add more interesting game mechanics.

- Adding Team Dosu is an opportunity to expand one of the game's most prominent and best aspects: the wide variety of interesting skills that creates a diverse game.

That's all I've got. Once again, thank you for reading and I hope both the mods and the devs consider this.

You put too much time into these kind of things.....and I like it! I agree witch each and every reasoning and argument you stated! If a non-cannon character can make it in, what about a minor cannon-character?

But I feel like that there is at least only a 15% chance of happening. Well, we c*ways hope

If they've added Zaku, it won't be long until they add Dosu and Kin too. They will eventually run out of characters so I bet they'll be added. I'd say they're trying to stretch it now that there are so many of them out, so they always have a new release from time to time. I don't see the point of releasing Zaku on its own, but that might be the reason. Although, story wise, they should have already been added, since they're from the early chapters of the story and were one of the first villains that the genins fought on their own. There are a lot of characters that only appear in half an episode during the GNW, or filler lol, like most of those seven swordsmen of Kirigakure. I kinda agree with the Mabui thing, and I'm sure when Rin is added, she'll have some decent taijutsu chase, even when she couldnt even avoid getting kidnapped. Twice. Mind you, I dont want Rin but I guess eventually they'll add her too.

Interesting theory. I'll have to think about that.

I honestly don't mind characters like Rin or the Seven Swordmen since it helps bring this game more personality and uniqueness... but I feel it's just plain unfair to prioritize them over Team Dosu, who logically (if we're following the story chronologically) should've been available a long time ago.

Good read this thread is needed to be seen by more people.