We’re a little over two days away from the end of Unsung Story‘s Kickstarter campaign, and it’s still not funded. That’s kind of insane.
When I first saw that Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno wanted to design a spiritual successor to one of the greatest games ever made, I expected instant success. I thought it’d hit at least a million, but we’re 56 hours away from the end, and Matsuno’s new project, Unsung Story, is only at $US511,000 out of $US600,000.
Considering the talent involved — Matsuno, artist Akihiko Yoshida, and composer Hitoshi Sakamoto — and considering the public’s general love for all things Final Fantasy Tactics, it’s strange to see a project like this go unfunded.
Maybe it was the marketing plan — Unsung Story‘s descriptions and stretch goals have changed quite a bit over the past few weeks, and the extent of Matsuno’s involvement has been a little unclear.
Maybe it’s the lack of pedigree from Playdek, a company better known for board and card games than deep strategy-RPGs.
Maybe it’s the fact that Playdek originally announced Unsung Story as both a tabletop game and a video game, which confused a lot of people.
Maybe it was Playdek making the mistake of announcing that the game will happen even if the Kickstarter goes unfunded.
Maybe it’s the generic concept art shown so far, which feels more like a western RPG than any of the exotic designs that Yoshida is traditionally known for drawing.
Maybe it’s just general Kickstarter malaise.
No matter the explanation, it’s a bizarre phenomenon. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to this one — and other big-name Kickstarter projects — as we ramp up on Year Three of the Kickstarter Phenomenon. (Full disclosure: I gave $US20 to Unsung Story, although I’m a little sceptical about the game. I sure hope it turns into the Final Fantasy Tactics successor we all deserve.)
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8 responses to “The Spiritual Successor To Final Fantasy Tactics Still Isn’t Funded”
might it be that a lot of people that would buy this aren’t aware of kickstarter or of this kickstarter project? I’ll admit I don’t trawl through the hundreds/thousands of projects each day seeing what’s new and who needs my money. I rely on stuff like Kotaku to bring stuff to my attention (for better or worse) and I imagine lots of other people are the same
I know I was unaware of this thing.
Have backed it now though.
Reading through this article, I was thinking “hell yeah, I’d love a spiritual successor to FFT! I’ll back it right now!”
Ok. Never mind, then.
Ummm… it only comes out on “iOS and Android”
If we want a proper PC/Console then we need the KS to succeed..
the triangle tile system has put me off a bit… but mostly i don’t care for the kickstarter only classes (cosmetic or not) – i want to be able to play a complete game not one that’s hacked into pieces and requires various amounts of money to actually get.
honestly, i’ll just wait til it goes heavily reduced on steam.
All those things listed, together, are the cause. Also, that the “spiritual successor” thing is looking more and more spiritual and less and less successor, especially after the latest FAQ. I love FFT but I cannot get behind this.
It doesn’t help that in the middle of the process they added Akihiko Yoshida as the artist, but he wasn’t originally leading into the kickstarter so none of the concept art reflects his artwork.
Also Hitoshi Sakimoto’s involvement was a stretch goal and then suddenly is a given.
But I think the biggest issue is that it doesn’t have the look & feel of a Matsuno SRPG. It sounds like a generic western RPG with a Matsuno wrapper, and that’s why I was pretty hesitant in backing it. Especially once they started talking about systems, because it sounds nothing like the games of his that would have gotten me excited. Plus the way they seem to be divvying up core elements of the game depending on how much you back it for.
I actually backed it when they announced Yoshida’s involvement for the art, but the details coming out recently have actually made me seriously reconsider again.
*cough*
It would help if you elaborated a bit on “it will still be relased w/o funding”. Before it completely turns people off some more =/
It “will” be released.. but only for iOS and Android. Which means it will be fairly bare bones mobile game. Funding means they can branch out to a “full” PC/Mac release.