Japanese content creator The Lore Knight Narunii (hereafter Narunii) has announced an update on the status and future outlook of his somewhat ill-fated game, Chikai no Fuchi (which roughly translates to Oath’s Abyss). The project was funded through crowdfunding, but development is long overdue (and currently still at a standstill) due to the departure of key staff. While Narunii is attempting to rebuild the project under a new development team, he also says he’s fully willing to provide refunds to backers who request them.
For context, Narunii is a YouTuber known for analysis videos about popular games like Dark Souls. As of the time of writing, his YouTube channel has approximately 608,000 subscribers, with over 230 million cumulative views on his videos. In 2023, he announced that he would give game development a shot. He pitched the dark fantasy action game Chikai no Fuchi on the crowdfunding platform CAMPFIRE to raise development funds. The project quickly attracted attention, reaching its ¥30 million target just four days after the campaign began. In the end, it raised over ¥50 million (about $320k USD), and development commenced with a planned release in 2024.
However, Chikai no Fuchi was not released in 2024 and was postponed indefinitely. Then, on December 31, 2025, Narunii revealed that the person serving as both director and programmer had left the project, causing development to stall completely. The YouTuber also explained that he himself lacked sufficient experience and knowledge in game development, making it difficult for him to even assess the project’s progress.
Narunii eventually found out that work on Chikai no Fuchi had not progressed significantly at all, and that what little code was written for it would be better off rebuilt from scratch. Meanwhile, of the funds raised through crowdfunding, only about ¥10 million remains.
Still, in his most recent statement on January 9, Narunii stated that he has not given up on completing Chikai no Fuchi, and that he plans to rebuild the project by reassembling the development team. At the same time, he expressed his intention to “respond sincerely” to those who wish to receive refunds for their pledges. However, in order to actually process refunds, he first needs to determine the scale of the requests, and thus will begin by establishing an administrative structure. After confirming the total amount, he plans to draw up a refund plan that is realistically feasible.
As for the source of refund funds, Narunii says he intends to avoid drawing on the remaining development budget as much as possible, and instead use income generated from his other activities. He hopes to honor his promises by compensating those who request refunds through his work while also aiming to complete the game. During January, he will focus on building the new development structure, with further details (including specific refund methods) to be announced next month.
