Final Fantasy Tactics-esque Unsung Story is Shelved

People may be beginning to lose hope in Kickstarter, and for good reason. A couple years back, a spiritual success to Final Fantasy Tactics managed to raise $660,000. Dubbed Unsung Story: A Tale of the Guardians, this tactical RPG was going to please many fans: after all, it was envisioned by Yasumi Matsuno and other well-known names. However, just like with Ant Simulator and a bunch of other Kickstarters lately, it failed to live up to expectations... by being shelved.

According to the most recent development update, released yesterday, Unsung Story had some major development setbacks, including the loss of key staff members, which hindered development. Here's the whole disheartening paragraph:

"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 arent 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."

In other words, there's no way of telling if this game will now come to fruition. There's no absolute certainty, which can cause a lot of doubt. Since then, a lot of people have been asking for refunds.

Sadly, this is why I refuse to back a Kickstarter at this point. Too much risk nowadays, especially when management is an issue. Where did the money go, anyway? I mean, there have barely been any updates to the games...