Wild Arms + Shadow Hearts creators Kickstarter (Armed Fantasia, Penny Blood) [Funded!]
- Thread starter werezompire
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Sadly I think the writing is on the wall with this one
I do hope their roguelike game manages to be successful at least
I do hope their roguelike game manages to be successful at least
Yeah, if after 2 years of a successful, very visible KS campaign they still have no publisher then there's simply no interest from anyone for taking the project. The reasons we can only conjeture, but clearly there's something in the pitch that even with the backing of a very successful KS campaign pubs are shy to actually commit to the project.
Kickstarter funds are just to get a concept built to attract a publisher, it's nowhere near enough to build a game like Shadow Hearts.
thing is the last double kickstarter favored heavily toward armed fantasia like 2:1 or 3:1....
I dunno what made it unappealing to the public, shadow hearts being a niche title? the theme does not resonate? not weeby anime enough artstyle?
The current video game dev purgefeels like hardly anyhting is happening right now.
Was that their initial pitch? To get development kickstarted (for lack of a better term) in the hopes of finding a publisher?
Some Kickstarters do use the funds to make a game or at least a sizable portion of it, but Penny Blood was not one of them yeah.
I honestly feel that a game like this would be up Devolver Digital's alley. I know the game is inspired by a super snitch property, but I'm sure the fact that it's a JRPG with tons of weirdo influences and a quirky cast of characters would be interesting to some publisher out there.
Gotcha, thanks. Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed that they do find a publishing partner, and one who cares about JRPGs.
If so that would be rather strange I think, one of the backer rewards was a physical copy of the game (for both Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood), and that's already been paid for (at least in my case).
Armed Fantasia :"-( …….
AND SONY WON'T RELEASE the remaining Wild Arms games on PSN, DAMMIT !!!!!
AND SONY WON'T RELEASE the remaining Wild Arms games on PSN, DAMMIT !!!!!
This would also be good to know. Their updates are written as if they aren't concerned about it, so... hopefully? 🤞
Armed Fantasia looks like it's going through development with no real issue. They're talking about the gadgets that will be available in the game and how each character has even more gadgets because of the stretch goals than the project was going to initially implement. It's just Penny Blood that seems to be 'stuck', they're still having discussions with publishers which is good and I just hope somebody foots the bill for it. It's such a niche genre though a horror turn based JRPG, we don't even have all that many games in that style besides the two other series/games that are the direct predecessors of Penny Blood.
I think Armed Fantasia has found a publisher and has started full development unless I am just completely misremembering.
I was really looking forward to Penny Blood, but at this point I think we just have to accept that it is not happening. If a miracle happens I would be overjoyed, but I have accepted the sad state of things and am ready to move on.
I was really looking forward to Penny Blood, but at this point I think we just have to accept that it is not happening. If a miracle happens I would be overjoyed, but I have accepted the sad state of things and am ready to move on.
OP
OP
I don't think horror turn-based JRPG is THAT niche. I mean, that's Atlus' bread & butter and they seem to be doing just fine.
I assume the current market is the biggest reason why it is having issues being picked up. If they were looking for a publisher 2 - 3 years ago they would probably have found one by now, but publishers seem to be very conservative and carefull at the moment.
I'd actually die... it would hurt a lot compared to other Kickstarter upsets lol
Shadow Hearts is just a weirdly special game like that. I nearly died when they announced this already, and to think it's just not finding an audience is so sad.
I'd only really call the SMT games horror themed, and I think they have only ever done alright.
Persona since 3 has only felt horror adjacent at best, and 5 didn't really feel much like a horror game at all.
My guess is most publishers don't think there's any money to be made by committing to an AA jrpg project that caters to a very specific crowd like nu-Shadow Hearts (I don't think the original series sold all that well either). That tier of rpgs has sadly been eliminated since the PS2 days and now we either go AAA big or resort to smaller indies. Maybe if your name is Square Enix, Atlus or Nintendo you can rely on classic turn-based franchises that have a decades long legacy behind them, but otherwise I'm afraid the signals are clear.
I think I'm due for another replay of the whole series.
I think I'm due for another replay of the whole series.
Just as an aside, I ended up this roguelite they released to try and see if it helps any to support the project. I only played for like half an hour so far but for somebody who's not a fan of roguelite/likes at all I'm enjoying the little I've played of it. At least the tidbits of the Hellhounders themselves looks to be interesting and I just really like the artstyle of the characters.
99.9%. But it's worth remembering that the creator of Wild Arms (Akifumi Kaneko) followed up that 7 game long franchise with a huge multimedia hit in Symphogear, so he's got a lot of cachet and was doing the Penny Blood side a favour by partnering up.
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If this is true then at least one title made it, thank god. Hopefully the Kickstarter side of things isn't inelegant like it is in Eiyuden (backer names in towns, etc.)
I went for the digital pack that has both games, but as usual Kickstarters are not projects that you're getting for sure.
If we get Armed Fantasia and it's good then I'll already be pleased.
If we get Armed Fantasia and it's good then I'll already be pleased.
This really sucks, ugh.
Game concept trailer from the Kickstarter looked cool as well.