Not all games support all character ideas equally well.  Old l5r was just making a person and letting them loose on the setting. You could care about the cultural ideals, you could cast them to the side, whatever. It didn't care. 
 
This version is very focused on getting your table playing like your game IS an old samurai film full of violence, drama, and personal choice. This isn't bad, necessarily, but it certainly is a more FOCUSED idea than the previous versions. Kind of reminds me of the game Dogs in the Vineyard. 

But this is abstracted for ease of use, not accuracy. Your looking at a hammer and getting mad it's not a screwdriver.  Near, far, really far, and too far to matter. That's all that really matters. Lots of really good games use range bands (or abstract zones) rather than any kind of accurate movement tracking. 
Come to think of it movement rates are kind of like exuberance rules: you either think they are really important or are a huge waste of time. There are lots of people in the second camp. 

One of my biggest disconnects from old l5r setting was the idea that magic felt like it was, quite literally, everywhere but most people had no way to deal with it. Dealing with rogue Kami, spiritual beasts, ghosts/ ancestor spirits, magic races. ****, one of the plot hooks from the core book is "a fortune appears before you on the street and demands you set right the misfortune that has befallen their shrine/ temple. " only shugenja and monks could deal with them. 
Now as a lion I can commune with my ancestors, or secure my traveling camp against angry ghosts. 

I have no issues with bushi being more magical/ supernatural.  If the shugenja can throw a mountain, the bushi should be able to cut it in half. 

One of my biggest disconnects from old l5r setting was the idea that magic felt like it was, quite literally, everywhere but most people had no way to deal with it. Dealing with rogue Kami, spiritual beasts, ghosts/ ancestor spirits, magic races. ****, one of the plot hooks from the core book is "a fortune appears before you on the street and demands you set right the misfortune that has befallen their shrine/ temple. " only shugenja and monks could deal with them. 
Now as a lion I can commune with my ancestors, or secure my traveling camp against angry ghosts. 

One of my biggest disconnects from old l5r setting was the idea that magic felt like it was, quite literally, everywhere but most people had no way to deal with it. Dealing with rogue Kami, spiritual beasts, ghosts/ ancestor spirits, magic races. ****, one of the plot hooks from the core book is "a fortune appears before you on the street and demands you set right the misfortune that has befallen their shrine/ temple. " only shugenja and monks could deal with them. 
Now as a lion I can commune with my ancestors, or secure my traveling camp against angry ghosts. 

Not all games support all character ideas equally well.  Old l5r was just making a person and letting them loose on the setting. You could care about the cultural ideals, you could cast them to the side, whatever. It didn't care. 
 
This version is very focused on getting your table playing like your game IS an old samurai film full of violence, drama, and personal choice. This isn't bad, necessarily, but it certainly is a more FOCUSED idea than the previous versions. Kind of reminds me of the game Dogs in the Vineyard. 

One of my biggest disconnects from old l5r setting was the idea that magic felt like it was, quite literally, everywhere but most people had no way to deal with it. Dealing with rogue Kami, spiritual beasts, ghosts/ ancestor spirits, magic races. ****, one of the plot hooks from the core book is "a fortune appears before you on the street and demands you set right the misfortune that has befallen their shrine/ temple. " only shugenja and monks could deal with them. 
Now as a lion I can commune with my ancestors, or secure my traveling camp against angry ghosts. 

I'm leery of allowing defense to jump too high. I've played games where the dedicated defender is almost impossible to hit by average combatants , and the whiff game is really, really boring. 
Even in 4th edition the ability to hit very quickly outstrips the ability to defend... And that is necessary for combats that move quickly. 

Things I feel the game needs: 
1) either more skills variety OR make it explicit that the biggest area of customization is going to be techniques and make sure there are A TON more to choose from. 
2) more "choose between these options" during character creation.
3) more schools (but those are coming so... eh.)
4) making subskills into emphasis. I can have aesthetics-> ikebana, and that lets me reroll any one die,  or ignore a single point of strife, or some other minor bonus

Thank God you like 4e and can happily continue playing it. 

Not all games support all character ideas equally well.  Old l5r was just making a person and letting them loose on the setting. You could care about the cultural ideals, you could cast them to the side, whatever. It didn't care. 
 
This version is very focused on getting your table playing like your game IS an old samurai film full of violence, drama, and personal choice. This isn't bad, necessarily, but it certainly is a more FOCUSED idea than the previous versions. Kind of reminds me of the game Dogs in the Vineyard. 

Here we go! 
Character creation: love the 20 question set up, but needs a quick reference sheet for those who have done it more than a few times.  I keep going back and forth on whether or not we need more xp thrown in here or not. While characters may look very similar on paper, just the difference in one or two rings will make them play very different at the table. 
advantage/ disadvantage:  keep them as is, absolutely love the way it's done. Please never go back to the way it was done before. 
weapons:  fine, would like some more please. 
schools:  just need more. SUPER interested to see how you guys deal with advanced schools or alternate techniques (if you feel you need to at all with the way rank progression is currently handled.) Also, keep the current rank progression system. 
school types:  one of my biggest issues with the previous edition was how monks and shugenja could dominate the dedicated courtiers and bushi at what they did. This doesn't appear to be the case anymore... Please,  PLEASE don't go back to that design idea.
base system/ dice/ strife:  it's fine. Maybe a little adjustment to how quickly strife is gained but otherwise fine. 
This system is designed to inform the story, not just to resolve actions.  it's effective at it, to.  You may not like it... and that's fine. But don't say it's bad. It's very good at what it's made to do. 
 

Here we go! 
Character creation: love the 20 question set up, but needs a quick reference sheet for those who have done it more than a few times.  I keep going back and forth on whether or not we need more xp thrown in here or not. While characters may look very similar on paper, just the difference in one or two rings will make them play very different at the table. 
advantage/ disadvantage:  keep them as is, absolutely love the way it's done. Please never go back to the way it was done before. 
weapons:  fine, would like some more please. 
schools:  just need more. SUPER interested to see how you guys deal with advanced schools or alternate techniques (if you feel you need to at all with the way rank progression is currently handled.) Also, keep the current rank progression system. 
school types:  one of my biggest issues with the previous edition was how monks and shugenja could dominate the dedicated courtiers and bushi at what they did. This doesn't appear to be the case anymore... Please,  PLEASE don't go back to that design idea.
base system/ dice/ strife:  it's fine. Maybe a little adjustment to how quickly strife is gained but otherwise fine. 
This system is designed to inform the story, not just to resolve actions.  it's effective at it, to.  You may not like it... and that's fine. But don't say it's bad. It's very good at what it's made to do. 
 

I feel the same way. Currently, there's no effective difference between First Blood and Death (unless someone has an unrolled healing power or other way to recover from Incapacitated). If you've Incapacitated your opponent, and no outside party breaks etiquette to interfere, you can just wail on him until he dies (or, more likely, just get the GM to let you finish him narratively).
In my opinion, the victory conditions should be:
First Strike: Any successful Attack with a legal weapon, regardless of whether it deals damage. The whole point of a First Strike duel is that nobody gets hurt, and the rules outright state that they're generally fought with training weapons, so wounds clearly aren't the goal here. First Blood: Any critical with severity 5+ (after the Fitness roll). Realistically, a lasting injury like that should leave you bloodied (especially from a katana!). Mechanically, a 5+ critical isn't guaranteed from simply spending two Opportunities, but it's not too difficult to work towards (and is very likely with a Finishing Blow), so it seems like a good sweet spot for a quick duel. Death: Exactly what the name implies.

I am the GM, as it happens. I disagreed that's it's gaming the system  - he wants to look like someone who's not especially competent; which is fair enough - but means that if he ever tries to come 'out of character' people won't trust him (because they all know him as 'that inept lecher from the emerald magistrate's courthouse' so saying 'follow me! I will lead you into battle' is likely to receive the response 'yeah..errrm..no.').
I thought that was a logical negative consequence of his behaviour - hence pretty fitting, and actually suggested it to him.
He can always choose to not flirt too much - that's the whole point of the disadvantage; you get strife when you're trying to keep a lid on it and not be inappropriately flirtatious.
It's at least better than Hida Takeshi, who has the twin disadvantages of Bluntness and Irrepressable Flirtation meaning that not only is he forever taking the opportunity to flirt but he's also extremely bad at it. His first encounter with a female Bushi came this close to him getting challenged over it.
 
 
 
 

One of my biggest disconnects from old l5r setting was the idea that magic felt like it was, quite literally, everywhere but most people had no way to deal with it. Dealing with rogue Kami, spiritual beasts, ghosts/ ancestor spirits, magic races. ****, one of the plot hooks from the core book is "a fortune appears before you on the street and demands you set right the misfortune that has befallen their shrine/ temple. " only shugenja and monks could deal with them. 
Now as a lion I can commune with my ancestors, or secure my traveling camp against angry ghosts. 

I'm like this to. Lion stereotypes are basically just the worst of the matsu family. The akodo are pretty well balanced, the ikoma love to party drink and brawl, and the kitsu are...... weird. 

Lets not forget that even though the lion were founded by blessed Akodo, the majority of the Lions are Matsu, a family founded by the proudest and most unforgiving personality of the Dawn of the Empire.
I usually portrays Akodos as compassionate and Matsus as arrogant and authoritarian.

In a moment of perfect clarity, the master of the school that produces the most legendary quick and precise swordsman can get to exactly where they need to be to use that legendary swordsmanship. Sounds pretty cool to me. 
 
This edition is starting to feel like magic is in all the samurai in one way or another, not just the shugenja and monks. And I'm all for that. 

Things I feel the game needs: 
1) either more skills variety OR make it explicit that the biggest area of customization is going to be techniques and make sure there are A TON more to choose from. 
2) more "choose between these options" during character creation.
3) more schools (but those are coming so... eh.)
4) making subskills into emphasis. I can have aesthetics-> ikebana, and that lets me reroll any one die,  or ignore a single point of strife, or some other minor bonus

shugenja (in most instances) are always described as holding a social position as priests. Makes sense they get access to the social power set. 

I have a bunch of faux Chinese coins with the square holes in the middle. Those are going to be my strife tokens.
 
p

The investigation sidebar(cant recall the page, but the kitsuki have a reference to it) is a must read as it tells you that every skill is an investigation skill, no more super sherlock by having one skill, but you can now do investigations into your areas of expertise. In short investigation is no longer a skill but a mode of use for every skill. However this is rather unorthedox so i can see why some might feel investigation is missing/not covered.

The kitsuki then has the school tech of being considered school rank in skill rank when using a skill for investigation.

I too really like Shuji. They make Courtiers both special in courtly settings, and useful in combat scenes.