UNSUNG STORY: TALE OF THE GUARDIANS: TRPG KICKSTARTED BY YASUMI MATSUNO

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Check it out.

Some of you are aware that Yasumi Matsuno, (mastermind of Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and to an extent, FFXII) are among the list of 'game creators I'm most likely to fellate'. A few years ago Yasumi Matsuno stepped down from Square Enix and went freelance, and this is his next big project he's trying to fund with Kickstarter. Unsung Story will be in a similar creative vein as he's previous projects, with a tactics RPG approach with a detailed world, usually based off of real world themes.

At the time of this topic, about 250,000 dollars has gone into Unsung Story, and since it's Yasumi fucking Matsuno, I'm pretty confident in it. Talk about this!
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Wow, this is pretty amazing! I wonder why they're doing it this way instead of with a Japanese team. Either way, definitely cool.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
HOLY SHIT MATSUNO? SAKIMOTO? what the fuck. w h a t t h e f u c k

goodbye $20


also matsuno's really cute, fuck
Yeah, right!? This is pretty much the shit if you've ever been a fan of their work. I donated 20 bucks, because it feels good knowing you're actually invested in producing works you know you'll enjoy.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
...and for cheap. Pillars of Eternity, Unsung Story, Pier Solar, and the latest Shantae I've all been able to "pre-nab" for less than retail price. I don't usually pre-order things, but this is different. At least it feels different. It's almost exactly the same really but I'm going to pretend otherwise.
I think I'll wait until they have something more substantial to show before pledging.
I'd argue that MATSUNO is substantial enough but of course that's understandable. I'm looking forward to more stuff myself.
I'm a fan of Matsuno's work as a story writer, but I haven't always been a fan of the games he was involved in. Tactics Ogre, for instance, I failed to get into early on, even though the story as I've heard it described sounds brilliant, because I found the gameplay really plodding. Also, it shares a hallmark of the Ogre Battle series which I really hate, where it bombards the player with a bunch of obtuse, tarot-themed questions at the very beginning of the game before you have any information whatsoever to offer you any sort of grounding, so my overriding emotion at the beginning of the game is frustration ("what do these questions even mean? What am I determining? Did I just screw myself over by giving my character terrible bonuses or railroading him into a playstyle I don't like?") And Vagrant Story was really interesting, but had some game mechanics which are never introduced to the player which make or break your combat effectiveness. Plus, the constantly dark visual aesthetic got on my nerves, and I kept getting lost (I have a terrible sense of direction.)

So I'm definitely interested to see him on board with a new project, but I don't consider his involvement to be a guarantee of quality gameplay-wise.

Also, while it seems like a lot compared to the baseline of making games completely for free, $600,000 sounds like a really small budget for a commercial game.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Happy
Someone seem to have linked this to the comments:

http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2014/01/14/matsunos-job-on-unsung-story-isnt-gameplay/69778/

Well... I'll keep paying attention to updates, I suppose.

EDIT: Also from the KS's comments:

Dave DeVetter about 2 hours ago

So I just saw on Facebook someone has already asked Playdek about Matsuno's inolvement in comments and they replied:
"Yes, he is writing the story and the plot line (I've been lucky enough to see the design documents and they are amazing by the way!). And I like that term of "Co-Director" because that is basically what he will be. He will have his hands on everything involving game play and creatives and our CEO Joel Goodman will be the other co-director and will manage all of the smaller details and business side so Mr. Matsuno will be able to focus on what he does best; creating amazingly rich and immersive worlds.
We will be rolling out with more information as time goes on, and hopefully it will be enough to get you to hop on board and join our Kickstarter Adventure!"
That sheds some light, but it's still a bit unclear as to how involved he will be with gameplay IMO.
I'd like there to be as much collab work on Matsuno on the gameplay as possible. But I'm okay with what I've read so far. I'm fine with Eastern and Western game designers making solely Eastern and Western games, but gaming needs there to be more collaboration and meshing of ideas between the two philosophies.

They're very distinct type of mindsets that go into the two worlds and the gaming world has evolved to the point where we'd benefit immensely from a trade of ideas.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Well, I mean, it sounds like, say, March of the Black Queen or so with front/back lines and groups of characters moving together. We'll just have to see though, I guess. If there's absolutely nothing I'll probably remove my backing, but as long as we see some mock-up diagrams and explanations of mechanics over the next month I'll be happy.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Quotes from Yasumi Matsuno's twitter, in chronological order:

Just in case anyone's confused, my involvement with #UnsungStory is limited to the original game proposal, world design, and story.

I'm not directing #UnsungStory , I won't be involved with the nuts & bolts, and the game design may change from my original proposal.

Just so there's no confusion: I won't be doing the day-to-day directing, but I will be involved throughout development of #UnsungStory

I am the visionary of the game, from mechanics to story. Playdek is realizing this vision with me.


Appears he became concerned that people thought he was just doing the story and clarified his first statement. It sounds like he is not the lead gameplay director and so he realizes that some of the gameplay details may change from how he envisioned them, but the planned gameplay design was originally his idea.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
All good to know.
I hate how the KS page reveals nothing except for the word, IMMERSIVE.
I haven't checked the latest edits or whatever they and as much as I love Matsuno...nothing really about the game stands out to me (ㆆīšã††)
Those bigger projects rarely reveal much of the gameplay, because it would be too expensive to even just make a prototype.

I mean all we've seen of gameplay on Project Phoenix was a drawn GIF illustrating the strategical aspects of the game. Some projects never show more than concept art.
Even if you've already pledged, I urge you guys to spread the word about this to other communities/interested parties. Whether their goal succeeds or fails depends on how good their team sells it, but at least fans deserve to know about this project.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
i feel like the backers will go up up up when they release more actual gameplay info. people want to see something that reminds them of fft/to instead of being told "remember those games lol," maybe?

we'll have to see.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Four days left and it's not there yet.
They actually released quite some info on the gameplay now. But I'm afraid that everyone interested in such games that actually participates in crowdfunding has already pledged. The increases the game receives is mainly from pledgers upping their pledge in hope it still succeeds rather than new pledgers (only 900 new pledgers the past 15 days).
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