Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians
What it is: Initially billed as a spiritual successor (aren’t they all?) to Final Fantasy Tactics, Unsung Story was unveiled at January 2014 by Playdek. FFT and Vagrant Story designer Yasumi Matsuno was listed as a big name draw and promised a story heavy strategy-RPG that fans have been craving for, with a promised release date of July 2015.
How much did it make? It ended its Kickstarter campaign at $660,126.
What’s going on? Earlier this week, Playdek CEO Joel Goodman wrote that the game was delayed to late next year, which isn’t really a big deal. There was zero communication up until recently, which threw backers for a loop, but that could’ve possibly been waved off. What broke the camel’s back is that the game received a major shift, going from story driven strategy RPG to PvP multiplayer game. Here’s just part of their new timeline:
Phase Three October 2016: Online skirmish mode against the A.I. will be added, allowing for A.I. balancing and testing that will include all of the feedback gathered from the online PvP beta game play. The Design and Art backer tiers will be involved with their respected character and scenario creation process.
Certainly not what backers were expecting to hear, and they rightly vented their frustrations and demanded a refund. That won’t be happening, as Goodman explained that they’re “delivering the game and rewards that the backers are entitled to.” If you’re a backer, sorry to say it– you’re in it for the long haul.