Opinion: At Last, Vanillaware Hit The Big Time With Unicorn Overlord
In 2009, in the run-up to Christmas, I remember poring over a recent issue of Official Nintendo Magazine looking for games I might want for the holiday season. Flicking through the pages and taking in every single word, one review in particular jumped out at me. The art style was something I’d never seen in a video game before. I was obsessed with Japanese folklore at the time. And, even though the gameplay sounded like nothing new, it scratched my 2D action-platformer itch.
That review was for Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and this was my first brush with Vanillaware. My love of the Osaka-based developer, and this game in particular, is documented, but it was established at the very moment I saw Muramasa on the TV screen, with Edo Japan rendered in beautiful watercolour visuals. Vanillaware has always been known as the studio that makes pretty games with pretty food – and, sometimes, the studio that gives us, um, very exaggerated art – but over the past four years, I’ve seen a real shift in appreciation that I’ve been hoping for.
It feels like Vanillaware is getting the flowers it deserves, finally, and that’s largely down to its last two (new) game releases – 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and particularly this year’s Unicorn Overlord. These are two sides of the Vanillaware formula: visually gorgeous games that tackle niche genres, while giving them just a little twist.
Both games have sold extremely well too — Dragon’s Crown, the developer’s most successful game, took four years to reach one million sales, and we don’t know how well the Pro rerelease sold. 13 Sentinels hit one million in 2023, in a similar timeframe. For Unicorn Overlord, though, it’s taken just six months to sell a million. Perhaps that’s down to its multiplatform release, but it’s still the developer’s fastest-selling game by far.
13 Sentinels is very different from Vanillaware’s latest. It’s a game that absolutely shouldn’t work, untangling and weaving together 13 different stories, multiple characters, and lofty ideals into a beautifully knotted conclusion. RTS and Adventure games don’t usually come as a pair, either. But the magic comes into play as the narrative slowly seeps its way into your mind, with every single conversation, every detail, and every plot twist and pin drop reverberating in your memory. At least, that’s how I felt when I played it.
But even with the bombast, it was the simplistic beauty that stood out the most: the quiet character moments, the gorgeous set pieces, and the simple conversations about movies, music, and food of 1980s Japan. There’s nothing else quite like it, and I came out the other end a sobbing mess.
Unicorn Overlord plays it a lot safer – at least, that’s what it wants you to think. It’s a return to Vanillaware’s love of fantasy and its most tried-and-true genre, strategy. The main character, Alain, is more of a blank slate, and the narrative is much, much simpler. Where 13 Sentinels excels with its story, Unicorn falls short – it’s charming, but the story isn’t trying to challenge you. But the gameplay absolutely is, and it’s a sheer masterclass in moreish strategy-RPG tinkering.
When I sat down to play Unicorn Overlord for the first time, it immediately hooked me. It wasn’t the Liberation Army’s return to the continent, the kidnapping of Scarlett (Alain’s close friend), or the promise of the Ring of the Unicorn’s power that kept me playing. It was the allure of building my own army and watching them absolutely wipe the floor with every enemy on the map. And, as the Liberation Army grew in size throughout the story, so did my appetite for experimentation.
It’s games like this that make me understand why people love completing jigsaw puzzles, putting together models, or building PCs. Finding characters and classes that synergise to build the unit that can just obliterate an entire map is a rush. Early on, I put together a unit that consisted of Travis, a thief, in the front. Then, in the back, I had Mordon, a warrior with a hammer, and Fran, a gryphon knight. With Fran as the lead, I could fly all over the map, ignoring terrain and sneaking up on enemies and archers – which was a risk, because Fran was weak to archers.
But it didn’t matter, because Fran and Mordon were hard hitters, and Travis was the MVP of my early playthrough, expertly dodging attacks, dealing poison damage, and taking out enemies faster than they could even get a turn. In many early maps, Travis, Mordon, and Fran could simply go around and do their business while other units picked up items, and it never got old watching Travis backflip and expertly dodge numerous attacks.
Every time I got a new character, I wanted to build a unit for that character, whether it was for gameplay or narrative reasons. Berengaria had to go with Travis in the front – what he brought to the table in pure speed, she delivered in raw power in equal measure. But it was her range of debuffs from attack and defence downs to stunning enemies, that made her and Travis a perfect pairing.
Wyvern Knight – and eventual Wyvern Master – Hilda led one of my best end-game units, a veritable glass cannon of flying units and sharp, fast attackers. Not the easiest units to keep alive, but absolutely deadly against cavalry and knights. Plus, they can fly everywhere. Not much the enemy can do while I’m chilling out atop the mountains, right? (Well, unless they have their own wyverns and gryphons…)
If there’s a ballista on the battlefield, you could bet I was going to gun for it. And for every bridge on the map, you’re sure to find my hoplites guarding them and my cavalry marching past. And I always, always wanted support fire from my archers and mages, so if I saw a tower on the way to my final destination, I always took it over.
There are so many systems and things going on in Unicorn Overlord that, even for me, felt a little overwhelming. But the game isn’t super challenging because of how much you have at your disposal. I appreciated that you always have the tools to overcome adversity and, if you’re struggling, you can always change your teams up, go take on another mission, or do some training.
Do I wish the narrative was a more nuanced look at war and how conquered nations rebuild and pick themselves back up? Yes. Would I prefer it if Alain wasn’t the main character or if he had more of a personality? Absolutely. While 13 Sentinels let me get lost in a thread of plots, Unicorn Overlord enabled me to pluck the gameplay strings.
For the sheer buffet of stuff that blends so well, Unicorn Overlord is amazing, and one of my favourite games I’ve played all year. I’m glad so many people have picked it up, and I hope this success continues for Vanillaware.
Have you played Unicorn Overlord? Is it one of your favourite games of 2024? Let us know in the comments down below.