The Story of a Confused Tale: The Unsung Story Kickstarter
The Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians Kickstarter ended successfully, with developer Playdek raising a total of $660,000 though the crowdfunding campaign for a PC version and new features. But it could have been so, so much more if it was handled better.
Following the success of the Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter in September, many were looking forward to Japanese developers jumping on the crowdfunding campaign train to get their ideas realized — especially in this time of publisher uncertainty. And it’s happened…a little. Since then, we’ve seen projects like La-Mulana 2 (which finished today) and adventure title Blackmore (which is going at a merely OK pace) land on the service, and figured Unsung Story was also part of the trend. It sounded intriguing after Yasumi Matsuno and Playdek discussed the ideas at Tokyo Game Show in September.
That dream unraveled mere days after the Kickstarter began, when Matsuno came clean on his Twitter account. There, he confirmed that his involvement wasn’t as large as Playdek implied on the Kickstarter page, saying he merely served as the person who provided the original concept and gameplay ideas. Those of us hoping this would be a spiritual successor to strategy/RPG greats like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together felt deflated. And it turns out a lot of people felt that way, as the number of pledges the Kickstarter received dropped significantly afterward. Playdek obviously wasn’t happy about the result, but it was their fault for misleading people.
Really, we should have known something was awry from the moment this thing started. If this was really a Matsuno game , he would have enlisted the efforts Hitoshi Sakimoto (perhaps with Masaharu Iwata, and other members of Basiscape), Kajiya Productions (the localization team lead by Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder), and a familiar artist like Hideo Minaba himself from the start. That’s the game people wanted to see, and to making two of them stretch goals was proof that Playdek really didn’t research how to run a good Kickstarter campaign, and excite the community as much as possible in the process.
Playdek wanted to do the right thing, like when they eventually brought Akihiko Yoshida on board, but the execution of their ideas was half-assed. Nice of them to hire him, but they could have convinced more people to pledge if they had him draw a piece of concept art to prove that he was really contributing to the project. Not doing that made prospective fans feel his eventual involvement would be as hands-off as Matsuno’s — perhaps even less. Sadly, that’s likely an accurate assessment. Playdek also stomached the cost for Sakimoto and decided to hire him as a main staff member in the final days, when they realized it wouldn’t reach their stretch goal. There may not have been enough time for him to provide a sample, though.
Do you know what else could have seriously helped this campaign, though? Gameplay footage. I’m far from the only one who’s hesitant to pledge money for a future project from developers that don’t even have an alpha version of their project ready, especially if it’s from one with no track record in the genre they’re pursuing. (The Mighty No. 9 campaign ended up being an exception for many because developer Inti Creates has made eight games similar to that.) Late in the campaign, they provided plans on how they’ll approach the gameplay desgin, which predictably sounds similar to previous strategy/RPG titles that Matsuno was involved with.
Serious problems arose when the team members involved were describing how it played to the press during interviews and Q&As, compared to the descriptions on the Kickstarter page. There were a number of vague statements and contradictions, making it sound like there’s no cohesive vision for what they want the game to be at the moment. That July 2015 deliver date seemed optimistic initially, considering they had no gameplay footage to show, but coupling that with this makes it seem naive. They could make it if they rushed it, but no one in their right mind would want that.
There was also some disappointment when Matsuno confirmed more details himself, mainly pertaining to the story. He said it won’t have the equivalent of a protagonist like Denam Pavel (Tactics Ogre) or Ramza Belouve (Final Fantasy Tactics). Instead, it will focus on multiple protagonists and factions throughout the course of its tale. This could work assuming each faction and character is given a sufficient amount of focus, and their tales will likely weave together. Keep in mind that Matsuno only provided the initial concept; whether Playdek’s internal writers are talented enough to flesh the characters out remains to be seen.
In fact, that “remains to be seen” can be applied to the entire project at this point. Expectations will be high for the final project, and Playdek’s development team has likely never been under so much pressure to deliver a quality product. The results could be to our benefit if the developers are capable of handling pressure well, as they could potentially apply that to making the game the best it can be. This has been quite the saga to watch, and it’s far from over. Look for another spectacle when they finally show us what the game actually looks like, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, hopefully a real Matsuno game manifests itself one day soon, on Kickstarter or otherwise. That would bury this project even further, sure, but that’s the risk you take.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
