Unicorn Overlord Dev Comments on PC portchans

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Summary

  • Vanillaware currently has no plans for a Unicorn Overlord PC port.
  • Publisher Atlus has previously expressed interest in a PC version of the game, but the decision is ultimately up to Vanillaware.



A PC port on Unicorn Overlord is not in the pipeline, a senior Vanillaware official has confirmed. The critically acclaimed tactical RPG will therefore remain confined to consoles for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever.

Vanillaware has historically focused on one platform development, making games for one system at a time. Before Unicorn Overlordthe only time it deviated from this pattern was with Dragon's Crownan action RPG that the studio launched for both PS3 and PS Vita in 2013. Unicorn Overlord marked the company's first comprehensive multi-platform release, debuting simultaneously on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch in March 2024. However, like all Vanillaware games, its 2006 debut title carried Fantasy Earth ZeroSRPG ended up skipping PC.


Key art for Unicorn Overlord

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Unicorn Overlord can't let its franchise potential go to waste

New Vanillaware job postings point to the studio moving on from Unicorn Overlord, but there's still plenty of uncharted territory for a sequel.

Asked about the possibility of one Unicorn Overlord PC port, game director Takafumi Noma recently told GamesRadar+ that no such project is in the works. “We have no plans for a PC version at this time,” the industry veteran explained. His comment came about nine months after producer Akiyasu Yamamoto also said the Japanese studio had no plans to bring the game to PC. Neither Noma nor Yamamoto went into any detail about what exactly is holding back a PC version of Unicorn Overlord from materializing.


Unicorn Overlord Publisher wanted a PC port

In an interview with Destructoid in March 2024, Yamamoto explained that Unicorn Overlord publisher Atlus would have preferred to have delivered a PC port of the game. But the final decision was ultimately up to Vanillaware. With that in mind Unicorn Overlord was in development for 10 years, it's possible that making one more version of the game would have stretched Vanillaware's resources too thin. At the same time, it's not like the port couldn't have been handled externally, which is a viable option when working with an experienced publisher the size of Atlus or its parent company, Sega.


We have no plans for one [Unicorn Overlord] PC version currently.

Unicorn Overlord is selling well even without a PC port

Skipping PC didn't stop critically acclaimed SRPGs from selling well. According to the latest update from Atlus, Unicorn Overlord exceeded one million sales by the end of September 2024, just over six months after launch. While Vanillaware didn't repeatedly dismiss the possibility of a PC port, the company's track record suggests that the game's chances of making the jump to PC were never great to begin with. So far, Vanillaware has only worked on one port: the Switch version of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rimreleased in 2022, three years after its PS4 debut.

Although the Japanese studio remains reluctant to bring its titles to PC, Unicorn OverlordThe multi-console launch at least hints that future Vanillaware titles may no longer be platform exclusives. This shift toward multi-platform publishing can be attributed in part to Atlus, which has recently adopted a similar strategy with significant success.


Source: Destructoid

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