Unsung Story - Steam Page and Trailer

Shagnak spotted that Unsung Story has a Steam page and a trailer now:

Unsung Story

With nearly 4 hours of expected gameplay, the upcoming Early Access edition includes:

• Nearly all major gameplay systems.
• The first 7 missions that make up Chapter 1 with all the story cutscenes and initial dialog.
• Fully-implemented missions with turn-based combat, the Harmony Songbook system, and varied objectives.
• The first 6 jobs out of 20, including the Mercenary, Physician, Guardian, Elementalist, Archer, and Sage. Players can reach level 8 in each job to gain various abilities.
• The player hub which allows players to recruit new units, purchase items, mix and match jobs, and customize units.

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More information.

Wishlisted

Pass the troubled development and it looks nothing as promised is a major turn-off. This is one of the few kickstarters I wish I never backed when crowdfunding was popular.

Nearly FOUR HOURS of gameplay, you say? The past seven years of development have certainly been well-spent.

Hexprone said:

Nearly FOUR HOURS of gameplay, you say? The past seven years of development have certainly been well-spent.

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Actually its about 2 years, since the original developer abandoned the project entirely without producing anything.
I also backed this, so I'll give it a chance. The new developer does at least seem devoted, if inexperienced. Character models have been overhauled and changed 3 times, for example. I still like the current look much better than the cartoony WOW look they initially wanted to implement.

forgottenlor said:

Actually its about 2 years, since the original developer abandoned the project entirely without producing anything.

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Okay, but the appeal of the original Kickstarter was that it was by Yasumi Matsuno.

If this version of the game is new from the ground up, what's the hook other than that it's one of several FF Tactics imitators on Steam? Or is Matsuno working with Little Orbit as well?

forgottenlor said:

. I still like the current look much better than the cartoony WOW look they initially wanted to implement.

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It was supposed to be similar to Final Fantasy Tactic's. So Wow graphics was not the original idea, and they even lost the famous creative director Yasumi Matsuno.

He was never paid or even signed up with Little Orbit it was a lie.

This article does the history of this project very little justice. Playdek went beyond scamming the kickstarter backers, quite literally everything they promised they failed at, and then as a cherry on the cake they completely changed the game entirely from a FFT inspired game to a multiplayer game. Then they abandoned it completely after they spent all the money on other projects. That is why Little Orbit trashed everything that came from Playdek.

Little Orbit has, in theory, gone back to the original design documents that supposedly came from Yasumi Matsuno. However, who really knows how much involvement he really had. He certainly has zero involvement since that very start before the kickstarter even happened.

I'll cross my fingers, but have little hope. That is far more hope than I have for Project Phoenix though.

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Looks unappealing with lame animations. Bland. Definitely not a Hype-Grenade.

Hexprone said:

Okay, but the appeal of the original Kickstarter was that it was by Yasumi Matsuno.

If this version of the game is new from the ground up, what's the hook other than that it's one of several FF Tactics imitators on Steam? Or is Matsuno working with Little Orbit as well?

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According to the director of Little Orbit (who has led a very transparent process since he took over and who appears to be a big fan of the work of Mastsuno, so that I'd be inclined to trust his word and good intentions) Matsuno created a game design and world lore document before the Kickstarter, which they originally tried to implement and then verged away from in some cases, when they found the practical implementation didn't work (mainly the triangle based grid system). The director also says he went to Japan about halfway through the development, met Matsuno at a cafe and discussed the project with him. So its not new from the ground up. The original artist was basically cheated by the original developers who never signed him on or paid him, so that he had no desire to work anymore on the game, so Little Orbit had to completely change the visuals of the game, which in my opinion is too bad, as the original art was excellent.
Whether it will be better or more original than any FFT clone or not is harder to answer. I suppose the Steam reviews of the first chapter should give us a hint. As I said, I've already bought in, and will play whenever Little Orbit ends development.

Sorry I can't be as optimistic as you. Once burned is bad, second time is worse, and if you get burned a third time your an idiot. I had a few kickstarters fail after funding.

Bottom line I will rarely crowdfund a game anymore. The last one I did already had a Beta version & Steam page. Just needed money to finish and add a few more features.

I also rarely ever fund Kickstarter projects anymore. The last 3 were Pathfinder WOW, Knights of the Chalice 2, and Solasta, all of which will appear. They were still very conservative picks, and I would never fund a project like Unsung Story now.
Still what I have already seen makes me optimisitic. In the abandoned projects I have funded, updates became very rare/content poor, and development slowed down at some point (Like in this project when the original developers were working on it). Since Little Orbit took over that has not been the case, and now there is an EA release. That doesn't mean the game will turn out good, but I am optimistic that they will release a game.

I'm with Forgottenlor, gone are the days when I'd sponsor practically any game that came down the pipe. After being burned a few times and also seeing how the expectations can change during the course of development (and rarely for the better), I take a very hard look at potential projects now, at least gaming ones. I'm far more likely to sponsor an art project these days over a video gaming one. I can still be convinced, but it takes an expert pitch now, usually from someone that has a proven track record.

Honestly, I'd rather risk throwing away a small amount of money by giving a boost to someone without much of a proven track record than simply be an alternative funding source for people in the industry who don't want to raise capital in the normal way.

Even though nothing ever came of the project, I don't have a bit of regret for supporting the oddball Americana Dawn -- I was glad to give a young creator a chance. But I'd never give money on spec to Obsidian or InXile again -- it's not my job to pad an established company's budget.

By proven track record I meant someone alone the lines of the Trease Brothers, or BlueSalamander, not Obsidian, InXile, or Biotrash. Anyone that cranked out a decent independent once is quite likely apt to do it again, and those people I'll happily contribute to.