Narunii, the Japanese Soulsborne YouTuber who crowdfunded $320k to make his own dark fantasy action game, has published an apology video regarding the troubled project. This comes after his previous 3-hour-long video (in which he explained ongoing issues with development) caused mixed reactions among Japanese users, with some criticizing him for “not being apologetic enough.” In the new update, Narunii addresses points he, in his own words, “failed to convey properly” in his original video.
As we’ve previously covered on AUTOMATON, Narunii (or The Lore Knight) is a popular Japanese content creator who decided to give game development a shot back in 2023. His pitch for Chikai no Fuchi, an original dark fantasy action game (with music by Dark Souls composer Motoi Sakuraba) drew a huge amount of interest, ultimately raising about $320k through a crowdfunding campaign on CAMPFIRE.
However, after missing its initial release window in 2024, Chikai No Fuchi was postponed indefinitely, and come December 2025, Narunii (who is the game’s scenario writer) revealed that the project suddenly remained without its director and programmer, which meant development was at a complete standstill. The YouTuber also explained that he lacked technical knowledge in game development, making it difficult to even assess the project’s progress. To make matters worse, he eventually found out that work on Chikai no Fuchi had not progressed significantly at all in the past two to three years of development, 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 remained.
In his new video from January 20, Narunii apologizes numerous times, explaining that in his original video, he tried to convey his situation in a composed manner so as to not cause doom and concern, but that this resulted in his feelings of remorse towards backers not being conveyed properly. Additionally, he announced that he will not be returning to his usual YouTuber activity for at least a month, due to the whole ordeal taking a bigger toll on his mental state than expected. He suggests he experienced a “painful betrayal,” but that he is not able to divulge any details about it, perhaps referring to some kind of internal strife related to Chikai no Fuchi’s development beyond the disagreements he’s already talked about before.
As for what happens from now on, Narunii reiterated that far from giving up, he intends to make sure the game is completed and released, no matter what. “This is not a scam, I’m putting my life on the line for this project,” he commented. His strategy will be to compose a small but elite team of developers to restart work on Chikai no Fuchi, as well as to look for a generous patron willing to give the project extra financial backing.
