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Final Fantasy Tactics director will get his Unsung Story
Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story Director Yasumi Matsuno's episodic tactical-strategy game Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians has been successfully funded through Kickstarter. The Kickstarter campaign earned Unsung Story developer Playdek a total of $660,126. While the successful funding ensures Unsung Story will release for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android in 2015, the campaign failed to reach the $1 million goal necessary for a PS Vita port, let alone the more expensive milestones needed for ports on PS4 and 3DS. Prior to Unsung Story's launch in 2015, Playdek plans to release two digital card games set within the Unsung Story universe. The developer is also exploring the idea of cross-platform play in Unsung Story, but Playdek has yet to confirm the feature for any platform. [Image: Playdek]
Longtime Square Enix artist Akihiko Yoshida joins Unsung Story team
Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians, the tactical RPG from Level-5 and Square Enix veteran Yasumi Matsuno, will feature the character artwork of Akihiko Yoshida. The news comes from an update on the project's Kickstarter page, which revealed an excerpt of the game's story as well. Yoshida departed Square Enix in December after an 18-year stint during which he provided art and character designs for games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story alongside Matsuno, as well as Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy XII and Bravely Default. Unsung Story is seeking $600,000 on Kickstarter by February 14 in order to continue development. With 16 days left to hit its goal, more than 10,000 people have pitched in $438,947 to the project, which has multiple $1 million-plus stretch goals to reach platforms like Vita, PS4 and 3DS.
Matsuno's Unsung Story shuffles handheld stretch goals, adds PS4 port
Unsung Story publisher Playdek has reorganized its Kickstarter stretch goals in response to backer feedback, giving the game's PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS ports higher priority over other previously-announced funding milestones. If funding reaches $1 million, Playdek will begin production on a PlayStation Vita port, and will hire on Final Fantasy 12 composer Hitoshi Sakimoto to score the project. Playdek additionally announced that a PlayStation 4 version of Unsung Story will be developed if funding reaches $1.25 million. A total of $1.5 million will ensure development of a Nintendo 3DS port. Helmed by Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story director Yasumi Matsuno, Unsung Story will bring its unit-focused tactical strategy gameplay to Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android platforms in 2015. Playdek is currently exploring the possibility of cross-platform play. Unsung Story's Kickstarter currently sits at just under $400,000 earned toward its initial funding goal of $600,000, with 23 days left in the campaign.
Matsuno tactics RPG Unsung Story seeks more platforms via Kickstarter
Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy 12 designer Yasumi Matsuno's new tactics RPG could come to PC and Mac if a newly launched Kickstarter proves successful. Developer Playdek says it will release Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians on iOS and Android regardless of the crowdfunding campaign, but the studio hopes now to raise $600,000 to turn the page onto Windows PC, Mac, and Windows tablets, then 3DS and Vita via stretch goals. The game's spread across platforms might not end there, as Playdek CEO Joel Goodman told Joystiq. According to Playdek's press release, the San Diego studio will also use the $600,000 to "deepen the content and add to its creative 'dream' team." With "Kickstarter funds and stretch goals," Playdek wants to bring in FF Tactics and FF12 composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, as well as translators Alexander Smith and Joseph Reeder of Kajiya Productions, who've worked on the Final Fantasy and Phoenix Wright series and Matsuno's Vagrant Story. Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians is due on iOS and Android next year, and it features a "completely envisioned Matsuno world" according to Goodman. The game is centered around the "77 Years War," a multi-layered conflict that draws inspiration from the wars of 16th and 17th century Europe, and the fractured rule of Saxon Britain. The game's name derives from Matsuno wanting to focus on the more ordinary heroes of war who come to the fore in the gameplay. As for that aspect, Matsuno has said we can expect Unsung Story to play somewhat similarly to FF Tactics, which he directed.
Console releases for Matsuno's Unsung Story may be dictated by cross-platform play
Yasumi Matsuno's Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians features cross-platform online play, and that may affect which platforms it comes to. The tactics game from the Vagrant Story director is only confirmed for iOS and Android curently, but developer Playdek is definitely looking at other platforms, and their policies towards cross-platform play. We asked Joel Goodman, CEO of tabletop studio Playdek, whether or not that could close off the game from certain platforms. "It potentially could and it potentially couldn't," Goodman said. "We're not speaking [about] any secrets here, we know for some platforms that will be more feasible to do than on others. At that point, then, we'll have to look at it and say, well, what's the more important part here? Is it that we end up with a platform that has a pragmatic community, and we don't want to do that, or that it's well worth it because it's still a gaming community that we want to address and make sure that they get this product as well." Asked if it was fair to say it sounded like he was talking about previous-gen and current-gen consoles, Goodman replied, "That would be fair." Well, then.
Vagrant Story creator Matsuno working on digital game Unsung Story
After leaving Level-5 last year, Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story director Yasumi Matsuno is now working with tabletop publisher Playdek on a new strategy game called Unsung Story, coming to digital platforms. That'll include iOS and Android for certain, Playdek CEO Joel Goodman told Joystiq today, but he was keen to not limit the game to those platforms. At the Tokyo Game Show, Matsuno explained to us that Unsung Story will be based around nine small countries, each one fighting one another. Matsuno is taking inspiration from the Saxon Britain of the 5th to 8th centuries, an era following the Romans' retreat. As the name suggests, Unsung Story will focus on the more ordinary people of war - the footsoldiers rather than the Eisenhowers, as Goodman put it. As for the tactics-based battle system, Matsuno said Unsong Story will play somewhat similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, based around a small number of combatants rather than large armies. In contrast to having a story based around a main character as Tactics did, Unsung Story lets players select whichever country and its leader they want to at the start of the game, and how they work through the various countries. That sounds a little complicated to build a narrative around, but Matsuno said that despite the game's name, narrative isn't as big a part of the game. Speaking to Matsuno and Goodman, it sounded like much of Unsung Story is still in germination; I didn't see the game in action, and the pair still has to talk and agree about how multiplayer should exactly be implemented, for example (for the record, there'll definitely be online PVP). However, there are some concrete plans in place. A two-player digital card game set in the Unsung Story world , co-designed by Cristophe Boelinger, will precede the tactics game when it arrives in 2014.
Vagrant Story creator Matsuno leaves Level-5
Yasumi Matsuno, creator of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, as well as Final Fantasy XII, has left his most recent job at Level-5 after just over a year. While at the company, Matsuno directed Crimson Shroud, one of the games in the 3DS Guild01 collection, which will be released separately as an eShop game this year in North America and Europe."I'd like to formally announce my departure from Level-5, effective last month," Matsuno announced via Twitter. "With my work done on the domestic and overseas version of my latest 3DSWare game, it was good timing for me to step down and take a short break in order to recharge for my next project. My deepest thanks to everyone at Level-5 and everyone playing our games for your continued support." When asked what he's doing next, Matsuno replied "Sorry, it's a secret ..."
No More Heroes, Seaman and Vagrant Story creators making Level-5's 'Guild 01'
Level-5 has assembled a dream team of unconventional game designers for the 3DS "variety" game Guild 01, out in Japan next year. Four creators are each designing a single game, to be collected on a single cart. From Suda 51 comes Kaiho Shojo, a touch-controlled mech shooter starring a schoolgirl who is also "president" of Japan, and operates an 11-foot-tall winged mech. This game features animation from the studio Bones, suggesting a high-budget approach to these games (which are close to being considered "minigames"). Yoot Saito, creator of SimTower, Seaman, and Odama, contributes Air Porter, a game about managing luggage at an airport. There's really no overarching theme to these things! Yasumi Matsuno, the man behind Ogre Battle, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy XII, is making a "darkness fantasy" RPG called Crimson Shroud. Matsuno is actually working full-time at Level-5 now. And, weirdest of all, comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai (from the group America Zarigani) is designing a game about running an RPG-style item shop, called Rental Bukiya de Omasse. These details originate from Famitsu leaks; we'll certainly learn more this weekend at Level-5's event.
Tactics Ogre being remade for PSP by original staff
Square Enix is remaking the original Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, for PSP, under the (non-Queen lyric!) title Tactics Ogre: Wheel of Fortune. According to Siliconera's summary of the Famitsu article announcing it, it's more than a simple port, with many of the original Quest staff returning to work on it -- including director Yasumi Matsuno, who basically disappeared after leaving Final Fantasy XII's development, only to show up as a writer for MadWorld in 2009. Akihiko Yoshida, most recently behind the character designs forFinal Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, is doing new design work for Tactics Ogre, and composers Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata are once again providing the soundtrack. The game is being expanded and redesigned, with new characters, storyline elements, and upgrades to the battle system. The ten-on-ten battles can now support up to 12 party members against 18 enemies. Siliconera notes that the English title "Wheel of Fortune" was trademarked in Japan, suggesting plans for an international release.
Yasumi Matsuno resurfaces to discuss work on MadWorld
Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Vagrant Story creator Yasumi Matsuno left his position as director of Final Fantasy XII in the middle of development, and has been quiet ever since -- until last month, when the (weird) news came out that he had been contracted to write for ... MadWorld.On the IGN MadWorld blog, Matsuno posted about the narrative for the brawler. Under contradictory advice from the producer and the development team, Matsuno came up with the game show idea. The development team wanted a world where violence was accepted -- but the producer (not named, but probably Atsushi Inaba) wanted a world where "Violence should ultimately be denied in the end." To comply with both of those ideas, Matsuno devised DeathWatch. "In the extraordinary world of the DeathWatch games," Matsuno explains, "violence and brutality is not only required, but accepted. However, once you step out of the show, the world outside is ruled by normal conventions. In the conclusion of the post, Matsuno says that "it may be a little difficult to catch everything in the story by only playing the game once." We're happy to hear about some replay value!For more from the World: Over on the Platinum Games MadWorld site (which can now be viewed on the iPhone!), director Shigenori Nishikawa explains the motivation for adding the comedic narration to the game.%Gallery-22964%
