Finishing this beautiful tactical RPG with Fire Emblem and Suikoden vibes after 10 years has left its developer without any money - just like its last hit

The developer of the highly anticipated Unicorn Overlord admits the studio ran out of money during development - just like it did with its previous RPG.

As highlighted by Automaton, Vanillaware CEO George Kamitani has told fans ahead of Unicorn Overlord's release this week that he's been paying for the game's development himself after the studio ran out of funds. In a tweet (machine translated), Kamitani celebrates the eve of the game's launch and shares an insight into the ambitious RPG's 10-year-long development. 

Unicorn Overlord may be published by Persona developer Atlus, but its developer, Vanillaware, is a pretty small team. That's potentially one of the reasons why the CEO admits to having to cover the remaining development budget of the game out of pocket "as usual." 

Kamitani hints that this is a regular occurrence because it isn't the first time this has happened at Vanillaware. Supposedly, the studio had a similar situation when developing 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim back in 2019. 

Don't let that worry you, though. In the same tweet, Kamitani reassures fans that the 10 years we had to wait are worth it and will be reflected in the final product. In fact, in our Unicorn Overlord preview, we praised the game's overlapping RPG systems and gorgeous art and said it could fill the Fire Emblem-shaped hole in our hearts.

Unicorn Overlord is set to release on March 8 and will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. 

Find out what else we've got to look forward to this year with our new games 2024 list.