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

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.   

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. 

Unicorn Overlord is scheduled to launch on March 8 for the PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.