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Vanillaware ran out of money for Unicorn Overlord’s development (as they did for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim)

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Atlus and Vanillaware’s tactical RPG Unicorn Overlord launches worldwide in just one day’s time. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) counting down the last remaining day before the release, Vanillaware’s CEO George Kamitani admits to having run out of development funds for the game “as usual” and having to cover for the maxed-out budget out of pocket.
Unicorn Overlord is a fantasy tactical RPG with overworld exploration and real-time battles. The game’s development has famously lasted over 10 years – as it was first conceived by Takafumi Noma in 2014. But, as the title’s programmer Onishi has revealed, it is also Vanillaware’s most ambitious title up to date in terms of content. Apart from its rich gameplay and story and impressive volume of hand-drawn assets, it has also been revealed that Unicorn Overlord will feature over 60 companion characters and over 60 classes of units that the player can freely combine in parties.

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However, it seems that Unicorn Overlord’s ambitious scale also took a toll on Vanillaware’s budget, as Kamitani jovially revealed on March 7 that the company had run out of development funds “this time too,” and had to operate hand-to-mouth while covering expenses out of pocket. On the other hand, Kamitani assures us that their 10 years of hard work on Unicorn Overlord were not just for show, and will be apparent in the final product.
 
They're a small studio so I'm surprised that they managed in getting a simultaneous release across 3 different platforms (PS, Switch and Xbox) in the first place.
Sega ported it to Xbox and very probably helped them develop for both PS4/5 and Switch concurrently

13 Sentinels only got ported to Switch 2 years later because Vanillaware actually did that port themselves
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Publishing on Steam is far cheaper then doing any single console release. If a single developer with almost no money can do it then I'm sure they can as well.
But they were already busy simultaneously releasing on 3 different platforms, I don't think they had resources for to do another one.

My bigger question is why the hell Atlus decided to release this game right beside big release like Rebirth?
I don't have much interest in this game from them.
have you tried the demo? It’s REALLY good.
 

midnightAI

Member
impressive volume of hand-drawn assets
I feel their pain, hand drawing art is very time consuming (even more so if you hand animate using sprite sheets, but they arent doing it that way they are using bone/rigged which I dont particularly like (currently) but hey, thats their choice, and I may change my mind as I may try it myself just to save time)
 
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jm89

Member
have you tried the demo? It’s REALLY good.
Will give it a go after rebirth.

Been watching some demo clips and reading up on the story details we know so far. The story just hasn't clicked with me. But then again it's quite early to know from a demo how the story will end up being.

Maybe playing the demo my self can convince me there is more to it.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Will give it a go after rebirth.

Been watching some demo clips and reading up on the story details we know so far. The story just hasn't clicked with me. But then again it's quite early to know how the story will be.

Maybe playing the demo my self can convince me there is more to it.
It’s has almost 7 hours demo and this demo has more content than some full price AAA game out there.

This game is getting majority of positive reception because of the demo.
Absolutely, been saying since 13 aegis that there the new treasure of this generation
Vanillaware always been treasure in gaming industry since Princess Crown.
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Bt
Publishing on Steam is far cheaper then doing any single console release. If a single developer with almost no money can do it then I'm sure they can as well.
But what about sales ?I'm sure sales on console would be higher
 

Perrott

Member
Ran out of money? You're really telling me that Atlus/Sega couldn't afford to keep Unicorn Overlord's ~20 people team working on the game until it was ready? Greedy fuckers, this project's R&D costs amounted to a rounding error in Sega's bottom line.
 

gladdys

Member
I might buy this at full price on Xbox to help them out. I liked the demo, although the mechanics were different to what I was expecting.
 

Hudo

Member
By the way, is there a shortage of physical Switch SKUs of Unicorn Overlord? My friend wanted to buy it as well and said that its not in stock anymore (Amazon UK)
 

Guilty_AI

Member
actually, their precarious budget situation might explain why there is no PC version.
But they still decided to make a xbox port. I'm sure a PC version would sell more than a Xbox one at the very least, in their homeland especially. Vanillaware seem like one of those studios that make great games but get held back by poor business decisions and management, i'm honestly surprised they haven't gone under yet.
 

Hudo

Member
But they still decided to make a xbox port. I'm sure a PC version would sell more than a Xbox one at the very least, in their homeland especially. Vanillaware seem like one of those studios that make great games but get held back by poor business decisions and management, i'm honestly surprised they haven't gone under yet.
I agree. I have no explanation for this other then them maybe betting on the wrong horse. Or someone at Atlus told them to include Xbox.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
But they still decided to make a xbox port. I'm sure a PC version would sell more than a Xbox one at the very least,
I agree with that, I feel like there might be more audience for Unicorn Overlord on PC rather than Xbox.

And this year Atlus release their games on such a weird timing….Persona 3 Reload close to GB Relink, Unicorn Overlord close to FFVII Rebirth and SMT5 V same day as Elden Ring expansion…..I don’t know what Atlus is doing.
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
So they should drop their usual consumer base to make an unfinished product on a platform they have no experience with? Steam fanboys aint any better than console fanboys, Jesus Christ.

Dropping consoles is all out of your mouth.

Point being if they’re that strapped for cash then early access on PC is the logical step - then port to consoles when it’s finished.

Putting the money out to port it to Xbox is even dumber. Vanillaware may make good games, but they make poor decisions.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
I agree with that, I feel like there might be more audience for Unicorn Overlord on PC rather than Xbox.
Yup, we even have companies like ProjectMoon making similar games with PC-first releases and seeing great success. I feel they're just stuck with old-jp-dev mentality.

They probably also think, or were ill-advised, that a PC release would require Denuvo or some other shit by Sega or Atlus (which costs a lot), even though their games are already fully pirateable on the platform anyway.
 
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Little Mac

Gold Member
I agree with that, I feel like there might be more audience for Unicorn Overlord on PC rather than Xbox.

And this year Atlus release their games on such a weird timing….Persona 3 Reload close to GB Relink, Unicorn Overlord close to FFVII Rebirth and SMT5 V same day as Elden Ring expansion…..I don’t know what Atlus is doing.

Plus it launches tomorrow and there are like no reviews out for it?! It's also rumored Dragon's Dogma 2 is going to launch a demo tomorrow ...
 

Fabieter

Member
Yup, we even have companies like ProjectMoon making similar games with PC-first releases and seeing great success. I feel they're just stuck with old-jp-dev mentality.

They probably also think, or were ill-advised, that a PC release would require Denuvo or some other shit by Sega or Atlus (which costs a lot), even though their games are already fully pirateable on the platform anyway.

So some pc gamers expect that console players should wait on more games in the future. I swear some of you are the biggest hypocrits.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Plus it launches tomorrow and there are like no reviews out for it?! It's also rumored Dragon's Dogma 2 is going to launch a demo tomorrow ...
Don’t count on reviews. For some reason majority big gaming site didn’t bother preview this game, not even EZA.
 
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This is not a great timing to release their new games, with so many games that just came out and more to come out soon.

A lot of people on YouTube are saying the gameplay is absolutely phenomenal, so if you like SRPGs (even remotely), it's worth checking out.

But they've been working on this for 10 years???
 

Fabieter

Member
Danjin44 Danjin44

I also want to pick it up, but damn the release timeline is making me sick.

Still not finished wirh rebirth and I have Dragons dogma and ronin coming up. Should I just buy it and let it sealed until iam ready.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Maybe release it on PC as well if your budget is that small? Just a thought.

I can't get my head around the fact that they ported Unicorn Overlord to Xbox Series S/X but not PC. The Xbox sales are going to be laughably low compared to a PC release.
 

Zathalus

Member
So they should drop consoles in favor of pc? Why would it matter if its cheaper. They did run out of money.

Most pc devs with almost no money do early access and dont support consoles for years and years.
I didn't say drop consoles, that would make no sense. Just that the additional cost of releasing on Steam is trivial and you would probably make a nice bit of extra cash from releasing on it.
 
Is that why it turned into an auto-battler?
I tried the demo and legit WTF'd at my TV... skipped 212 cutscenes hoping it was just some kind of intro... nope.. combat is all automatic. It a fancy japanese animated autobattler
 

Fabieter

Member
Dropping consoles is all out of your mouth.

Point being if they’re that strapped for cash then early access on PC is the logical step - then port to consoles when it’s finished.

Putting the money out to port it to Xbox is even dumber. Vanillaware may make good games, but they make poor decisions.

It was exaggerated. But seeing as pc gamers like you beg for Day and date games while suggesting other games should delay their console ports show some true colours.
 
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