Final Fantasy Tactics Creator’s Next RPG, Unsung Story, Is On Kickstarter. January 14, 2014 . 11:15am
Unsung Story Stretch Goals For Vita And 3DS Lowered, PS4 Added. January 21, 2014 . 9:02pm
Unsung Story, the upcoming RPG being developed by Yasumi Matsuno in collaboration with PlayDek, has newly-updated stretch goals, which were announced this evening.
The most significant change to the stretch goals is that the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita versions of the game will be greenlit at a lower stretch goal than before. Previously, a Vita version required a $1.8 million in funding, while a 3DS version would have required $2.8 million.
Now, the Vita version will require just $1 million in funding, while the 3DS version will require $1.5 million. PlayDek say that many fans asked for the stretch goals for both versions to be lowered. Additionally, at the $1 million mark, composer Hitoshi Sakimoto will work on the project as well.
A PlayStation 4 stretch goal has been added for the game as well. At the $1.25 million mark, the game will be ported to PS4. You can find the full list of new stretch goals here.
Thus far, Unsung Story has amassed nearly $390,000 in contributions, with 23 days left to go before its Kickstarter campaign comes to an end.
Final Fantasy Tactics Creator On His Involvement With Unsung Story. January 22, 2014 . 9:31am
Upcoming strategy RPG Unsung Story is “envisioned by” Yasumi Matsuno, the creator of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and Crimson Shroud. Publisher Playdek say that the game is designed by Matsuno on the project’s Kickstarter page, too. That having been said, Matsuno isn’t directing the game on a day-to-day basis.
Over Twitter, Matsuno recently tweeted: “Just so there’s no confusion: I won’t be doing the day-to-day directing, but I will be involved throughout development of Unsung Story.”
He added: “I am the visionary of the game, from mechanics to story. Playdek is realizing this vision with me.”
If Matsuno is the game’s visionary and designer, the director would be Joel Goodman, who is the CEO of Unsung Story publisher Playdek. Goodman’s profile says he’s been developing games for 17 years and has worked at THQ, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Interplay and Incinerator Studios.
Unsung Story is in development for PC, Mac, Linux and Windows tablets. Stretch goals for the game include versions for Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4 and Vita.
Thanks to puchinri for the heads up!
Unsung Story Leaning Toward Character Customization (And Other Details). January 31, 2014 . 8:30am
Playdek have shared a brief Q&A on Unsung Story via the game’s Kickstarter page. A video in the latest update on the game answers a few questions submitted by fans, and you can watch that here. Additionally, we’ve included the most relevant points in a bullet list below for easy perusal.
- State of game: Got a good story basis; building the battle system right now
- High or low fantasy? Playdek are fans of high-fantasy, but exact level of fantasy not final yet and still being decided
- How many classes in the final game? So far six classes and six professions revealed; leaving it open for Yasumi Matsuno’s design in full game
- Leaning toward visual character customization using equipment
- Undecided on permadeath so far; will decide later
- Game will include a mix of rendered and in-game cutscenes
- First user-end tool being created is the map editor; leaving option for other user tools open; will figure it out later
- Matsuno is reviewing fan suggestions and design ideas for the game
Unsung Story is currently in development for PC, Mac, Linux and Windows Tablets
Unsung Story Battle Designer Wants Enemy Behaviour To Be Unpredictable. May 27, 2014 . 4:31pmsource:Siliconera[/COLOR][/COLOR]
News of Unsung Story, a tactical RPG being developed by Playdek in collaboration with Yasumi Matsuno, has been fairly quiet ever since the game’s Kickstarter campaign ended a few months ago. In a recent Q&A, however, the game’s battle designer answered a few questions about the battle system you’ll see in the game.
Christophe Boelinger, who is serving as “Game Battle Designer” on Unsung Story, says that the game will feature unpredictable opponents, rather than enemies that simply follow a static script of coding.
“I think we should follow the rules of life. When you are facing an opponent you can never be sure of his reactions or his future course of actions,” Boelinger says. “Of course judging from his look or outfit you can have a good guess on how he should try to act. But if he always acts the same way, where’s the fun? And most of all, where are the surprises?”
“So to my POV I would say that most units will react according to their class or sub-class, but every now and then they could and should go for another direction / type of action that will totally surprise the player. And that’s real life again!”
Boelinger also says he isn’t a fan of situations where one or two strategies tend to be the best solutions throughout the entire game, rendering any other tactic pointless.
“I think the variety of scenarios, objectives, missions, and classes and sub-classes evolution should bring sufficient challenges and choices to avoid that,” says Boelinger. “Each scenario should place the player in front of difficult situations that he should have to adapt to. Trying the same strategy on each and every scenario should tend to fail at some point.”
He adds later, “Once the basics are acquired, I would like the players to be successful in their mission only after a few tries, not right from the start. The players should learn from every failed attempt and try again while changing their strategy, deployment, selection of troops, etc…”
Finally, Boelinger also comments on how much the game’s battle system and its story will tie into one another. Unsung Story’s world and characters are being designed by Tactics Ogre creator Yasumi Matsuno, while Boelinger is working on the game’s mechanics.
“So for each story or scenario that Matsuno creates, my goal is to adapt it as best as possible, bringing a new twist and challenge to the player for each one of those scenarios,” he says. “I will create and input little twists that will surprise the player and always push them to review their strategy and experiment new tactics.”
Unsung Story is in development for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and Windows Tablet devices.
An Update On How Unsung Story Is Coming Along. August 1, 2014 . 4:00pm
Playdek have shared an update on the ongoing development of Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians, the crowdfunded strategy RPG being developed by them in collaboration with Tactics Ogre creator Yasumi Matsuno.
Details of the game’s story and character development have been hammered out over the past several months by Playdek and Matsuno. The first three full scenarios from the game are currently “completely mapped out with their component stages”.
On the character design front, Akihiko Yoshida (Bravely Default) will be focusing on the development of key characters from the main story. The first art pieces from Yoshida are expected in early Fall. Meanwhile, additional concept art to define the rest of the game’s world is also in the works.
On the music front, composer Hitoshi Sakimoto and his team are “reviewing the storyline and the current scenarios” in preparation for composing the game’s music.
Finally, development on the game’s battle system has been “moving forward,” specifically with regards to the triangle/hex system, battle actions, character action turns and movement. Some level design work has been completed and playable scenarios are presently being built within the battle system.
Playdek have also made some changes to their marketing plans. The focus of the Unsung Story brand has shifted from the card game to the strategy RPG instead, and the RPG will be released first with the prequel card game coming afterwards. The reason for this decision is that the RPG helps convey the tone of the world better, which Playdek want to have in place for the card game’s late Summer 2015 release.
More details on upcoming events regarding Unsung Story can be found here.
Read more stories about Android & iPhone & PC & Unsung Story on Siliconera.
This Is Unsung Story’s First Character Designed By Akihiko Yoshida. December 5, 2014 . 3:01pm The Unsung Story development team recently updated its Kickstarter backers with news of how the Yasumi Matsuno RPG is coming along.
Recently, the team said, they’ve been busy integrating the Unity engine with their own proprietary game. This will allow them to have a 3D graphics layer on top of their game logic, AI, general code architecture and online systems.
In terms of content, preliminary scenario development has been done, and job and class systems have been designed, too. They are currently being incorporated into the ongoing work with Unsung Story’s battle system.
Finally, the image above is a look at Sir Vensniel L’Brasca, one of the first characters you’ll encounter in Unsung Story. Designed by Akihiko Yoshida, he’s a knight in the Alionne Royal Army whose sense of justice leaves him inflexible and stubborn.
A release date has not been announced for Unsung Story yet.
Read more stories about Android & iPhone & PC & Unsung Story on Siliconera.
Yasumi Matsunos Unsung Story Gets Early Work-In-Progress Screenshots. February 23, 2015 . 5:31pm 
Playdek have released the first screenshots of Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians, the strategy RPG they are developing in collaboration with Tactics Ogre creator Yasumi Matsuno.
Playdek say theyre in the process of making gameplay adjustments to their battle system to improve the flow and balancing. While the screenshots you see here are not final, they do give one some idea of what the battle system will look like in the game.
One of the key components of Unsung Storys battle system is the 8-Point Movement and Attack System. This allows your characters to move in eight directions (front, back, left, right, and four diagonals). With that in mind, the square-based grid you see in the screenshots is also a placeholder, and Playdek are currently working on a different visual representation for the 8-Point system.
Finally, Playdek have also released some information on the games story and events that take place during its opening chapters. If youd like to read up on the games story, you can do so on their blog.
Read more stories about PC & Unsung Story on Siliconera.
Unsung Story, the strategy RPG being developed by Yasumi Matsuno and Playdek, will have five “schools” that help characterize the various playable job classes at your disposal. These schools are: War, Nature, Divine, Man, and Arcane. Playdek have provided a summary for each of these, and you can read them below.
- Units within the School of War specialize in the use of martial weapons and skills. Soldiers and Lancers are examples of two Jobs found within this school.
- The School of Nature revolves around the use of weapons and skills that pertain to living alongside nature. Huntsmen and Beastmasters are just two Jobs found within this School.
- The School of the Divine promotes the use of powers imparted from higher beings which manifest as Miracles or Hexes. Priests and Necromancers are two Jobs that emerge from this School.
- The School of Man highlights the perfection, ingenuity, and vices of man. Incidentally, Apothecaries and Assassins are two Jobs found here.
- The last School, the Arcane School, uses magic instead of physical means to overcome obstacles. Here you will find Jobs such as Wizards and Summoners associated to this School.
In addition to their School, your units will also be affected by their Lineage, which is a system that will be discussed at a later date. In terms of attributes, your unit’s stats will be broken down into: Vitality, Strength, Dexterity/Agility, Intelligence/Mind, Fate/Piety, and Charisma. You can read about each of these attributes here.
Finally, Playdek have also released a few more work-in-progress screenshots of the game. You can find the previous batch of screenshots here.
Read more stories about Android & iPhone & PC & Unsung Story on Siliconera.
Unsung Story, the upcoming strategy RPG by Yasumi Matsuno (Tactics Ogre) and Playdek, takes place in the fictional region of Rasfalia. This region is divided into the Alionne Kingdom and Jheksal Empire, and the game will focus on the power struggle between the two nations and the provinces within.
Naturally, theres a combat system that youll need to learn and Playdek have shared a few details on the basic combat options youll have available to you. These are the five actions available to every unit under your control:
- Move
- Attack
- Switch Weapons
- Use Skills
- End Turn
The Switch Weapons option comes into play when a particular unit is carrying two different weapons. Like in Fire Emblem, youll be able to switch between the two, and the reason you want to do this is that weapons have the chance to come with specific abilities bound to them. By equipping a certain weapon, you may be able to grant a particular unit a skill they wouldnt otherwise have access to.
That said, in order to equip any given piece of gear, a unit will need to meet certain requirements. The different requirement categories for equipment are:
- Attributes: This category will require characters to meet or exceed certain attribute levels. The greater the item, the higher this level will be.
- School: Equipment with a School requirement will need the character to be a part of a particular school in order to equip it.
- Common: Equipment that is found to be common within the game will allow all characters to use these items, regardless of the school.
- Soul Bond: This tag on equipment means that the item can only be equipped once, and the character that equips will be the sole owner and user of this item.
Youll be able to acquire equipment through merchants, drops, rewards, treasure, and other means as well.
Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians is in development for PC and smart devices.
Read more stories about PC & Unsung Story on Siliconera.
