Japanese YouTuber behind troubled $320K crowdfunded game receives death threats after new update on refunds and development goes awry. Remark implying backers are “the gullible type” sparks backlash

Japanese YouTuber Narunii (The Lore Knight) recently made a new update regarding his upcoming dark fantasy game Chikai no Fuchi (Oath’s Abyss). In a YouTube video posted on October 23, Narunii talked about the current progress of the project, as well as the refund policy for backers of the trouble-ridden crowdfunding campaign. However, due to how certain parts of his video were worded, the video has since sparked considerable backlash, which has escalated to Narunii receiving death threats.

To start with the positives,, Narunii announced that he is currently in the final phase of discussions with a certain game studio that will co-develop the project. It was also revealed that veteran writer Tomoyoshi Nagai would be joining the project to work on the scenario. Nagai has previously created scenarios for games like 428: Shibuya Scramble, Kamaitachi no Yoru x3, Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn and Digimon Survive. As his most recent project, Nagai recently announced the horror side-scrolling adventure To 666 Deliver to Die.

To provide some context, Chikai no Fuchi started out as Narunii’s passion project, with a crowdfunding campaign launching in 2023. Remarkably, the crowdfunding campaign hit its initial goal of about $192k USD in just 4 days after launching, ultimately raising $320k USD by the end of its run. But despite such a strong headstart, Chikai no Fuchi was postponed indefinitely after missing its initial release window in 2024. In December 2025, it was announced that the director and main programmer of Chikai no Fuchi had left the team due to internal turmoil, leaving Narunii with roughly 10GB of development data, and no means to open the Unity project and verify the degree of the game’s completion.

After commissioning professional programmers to tackle the Unity files, it was revealed that Chikai no Fuchi was only 20% complete despite being in development for several years. Since most of the crowdfunding assets had already been spent, and development was scheduled to be restarted from scratch, Narunii explained that the the project would require 10x the current budget in order to cover the originally planned scope of the game.

Consequently, providing refunds to backers would be extremely difficult, and in the October 23 update, Narunii revealed that he in fact does not have the funds to immediately return all the money. With that in mind, Narunii says he will be making monthly transfers of about 50,000 yen ($320 USD) from his personal funds to the bank account of the company that is currently handling the title. The company will then use that money to refund those who request it, although, as Narunii put it, “it may take a considerable amount of time” for everyone to get their refunds. Apparently, further development costs will be covered by Narunii’s YouTube revenue, and he has also been considering taking out a bank loan.

Closing off the video, Narunii said that, despite all the turmoil, he would “not give up” until he succeeds, thanking backers and former team members for their support.

However, his messages towards supporters have not been taken well by Japanese viewers, which has only intensified the backlash he’s been facing ever since he announced that development would restart from scratch despite using up most of the money from the campaign. Specifically, in his video, he makes a remark that those seeking refunds are likely “the gullible type,” which was strongly criticized across Japanese social networks and media outlets. In the aftermath,, Narunii reported on his X account that he had received death threats and bomb threats addressed to his home, and would report them to the police after consulting with his attorney.

As the situation gets more complicated, we’ll be keeping an eye on how the refund process mentioned in the video as well as the actual development of Chikai no Fuchi will move forward.

Related: “This is not a scam, I’m putting my life on the line,” Japanese YouTuber who crowdfunded $320k game development budget addresses controversy after project halts