''Unsung Story'' is an upcoming

tactical role-playing game Tactical role-playing game (abbreviated TRPG), also known as strategy role-playing game or (both abbreviated SRPG), is a video game genre that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical (Turn-based tactics, turn-b ...

developed by Little Orbit. The game was announced via the

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

platform

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

in early 2014 by developer

Playdek Playdek is an Independent video game development, independent video game developer, video game development company founded in 2011, based in Carlsbad, California. Playdek specializes in developing board games and card games for Android (operating ...

, and originally marketed as being under the creative direction of

Yasumi Matsuno is a Japanese video game designer and writer. Matsuno was first introduced to video games in arcade game, arcades while waiting for the train, and first played ''Space Invaders'' and ''Xevious'' there. He attended Hosei University for foreign ...

and was meant to be a

spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous product or work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue th ...

of ''

Final Fantasy Tactics is a 1997 tactical role-playing game developed and published by Square (video game company), Square for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation. It was released in Japan in June 1997 and in North America in January 1998 by Sony Computer Enterta ...

'' (1997), a game he directed.

History

Original concept

Matsuno announced the project in September 2013, before moving to Kickstarter in January. The project raised $660,126 off a projected 2015 release. Artist

Akihiko Yoshida is a Japanese video game artist. Yoshida was born in 1967 and joined Square in 1995, before the company merged with Enix. He then left Square Enix in September 2013 and became freelance. In October 2014, he became the company director of CyDesi ...

and composer

Hitoshi Sakimoto is a Japanese composer and sound producer. He is best known for scoring the video games '' Final Fantasy Tactics'' and ''Final Fantasy XII'', though he has composed soundtracks for numerous other games. Sakimoto first played music and video games ...

were also attached to the game. By September 2015, the game was delayed into 2016. In February 2016, Playdek announced that development had been stopped for lack of resources. This also marked the end of the involvement of Yasumi Matsuno with the project, though it was still marketed as is sometime in the future.

Change of developer

In August 2017, Playdek announced that Little Orbit would continue the game's development in their place, with Little Orbit buying all of the rights and assets and starting development from scratch.

Early access release

''Unsung Story'' was released in

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

on December 17, 2020. The early access version offered Chapter 1 of the game that consist of 7 missions and approximately 4 hours of gameplay. Ports for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

, and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

were planned at full release. In 2021, Matthew Scott of Little Orbit shared to Kickstarter that Matsuno not been involved with day-to-day development of the game since 2018, and felt uncomfortable with his name being used in connection with the game. As a result, Little Orbit stopped using his name in the game's marketing. The early access release was met with mostly negative reviews and Little Orbit were working to improve the game up to 2022, however the last time the game did receive an update was in 2021. Since 2023 Little Orbit faced difficulties and no progress on the game was made until the October 2024 announcement that the work on the game would be resumed.

References

External links

* Early access video games Kickstarter-funded video games Tactical role-playing video games Upcoming video games Windows games Video games scored by Hitoshi Sakimoto Single-player video games Little Orbit games {{tactical-rpg-videogame-stub