Final Fantasy Tactics director's Unsung Story put on hold

On paper, Unsung Story sounds like one of my dream Kickstarters. It is, or perhaps was, a new tactical RPG "envisioned by" Yasumi Matsuno, director of Final Fantasy Tactics. His name, and a few others including talented translator/localiser Alexander O. Smith, is likely the reason backers forked out over $660,000 for the Kickstarter back in 2014. Playdek is the company developing it, however, and their Kickstarter updates have become increasingly infrequent over the last couple of years.

The latest update—four months since the last—announces that Unsung Story is currently on hold.

"There has been another delay in reporting to you since our last development update, and we apologize for that. Our continued intention is to make a great game, and get Unsung Story to development completion and released to you and the gaming public. During the last few months we have had some development setbacks that are affecting our timeline and progress on the game, while also affecting what we need to do in the immediate future as a company.

"After we posted our latest development progress, we unfortunately lost a few key staff members that were part of Unsung Story development, and that has had an impact on any progress since then, as well as our product focus. We now have one internal team capable of working on a single project, and for the financial strength of the company we need to focus on a few products in the near term that have the ability to get to a retail release before Unsung Story is able to. While this is a difficult choice to make, it is one we need to do for the ongoing financial health of the company. For Unsung Story, we will explore options for outside development help, and will look to see if we are able to bring on an outside team that can assist us in furthering development. While we aren’t assured this will come to fruition, we do want to make sure that we are exploring any options at hand that can make progress on the game."

The most recent look at the now-on-hold game came last October, via a work-in-progress look at Unsung Story's combat system. It's not clear how far along development is, but the chances of it coming to fruition are obviously currently quite slim. Many of the comments under that update post are angrily calling for refunds.

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If you're looking for a Final Fantasy Tactics-style RPG that stands a better chance of being released, you might want to keep an eye on Endless Fluff's Fae Tactics.