Highlights

  • Unicorn Overlord and Sea of Stars pay homage to the golden age of RPGs by drawing inspiration from classic games and combining various influences from the entire genre.
  • Sea of Stars takes inspiration from multiple JRPG classics like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Golden Sun, and Secret of Mana, putting its own modernized spin on each element.
  • Unicorn Overlord aims to reinvent the strategy and tactics RPG genre by combining the best elements of games like Ogre Battle, Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics, creating a new experience that pays respect to the genre's past.

Though there's an argument to be made that the genre is stronger today than it ever has been, it's hard to deny that the 1990s and the coinciding fourth and fifth console generations represent a heyday for JRPGs. The noteworthy output of developers and publishers like Square, Enix, Atlus, and many others still rank high on fans' "best of all-time" lists, and for good reason. Last year's Sea of Stars tapped into the nostalgia fans have for this era while simultaneously combining its various inspirations to bring something worthwhile to the genre, and now Unicorn Overlord looks to do the same in its homage to the strategy and tactics RPG greats of the 1990s.

Key members of the Unicorn Overlord team at Vanillaware have gone on record stating that the game's genesis dates back to a desire to reinvent the modern tactical RPG by pulling various inspirations not just from one game, but from the entire genre. Similarly, Sabotage's work on Sea of Stars has its love for the legendary Chrono Trigger front and center, but it also happens to pull from several other excellent SNES and PlayStation-era JRPGs to bring fans a new experience that hearkens back to the past. In doing so, both titles are providing the kind of genre "comfort food" that many players are in search of.

Sea Of Stars Chained Echoes
Related
Sea of Stars is 2023's Chained Echoes

Sabotage Studio's Sea of Stars is 2023's standout indie RPG, earning its place alongside other recent classics such as last year's Chained Echoes.

How Unicorn Overlord and Sea of Stars Pay Respect to Their Genres' History

Both Sea of Stars and Unicorn Overlord are RPGs that strictly adhere to the foundations laid by the all-time greats that came before them. More than just imitating the past to cash-in on fans' nostalgia, though, both titles combine a variety of influences from across several noteworthy titles along with the benefit of advanced technology and modern quality of life features to create something new. While the most obvious inspirations for Sea of Stars and Unicorn Overlord are Chrono Trigger and Ogre Battle, respectively, the truth is that each title benefits from an entire genre's worth of inspiration.

Sea of Stars' JRPG inspirations are many and reach much further than just Chrono Trigger, despite that game being the most obvious catalyst for the game's design. In terms of classic JRPG titles that Sea of Stars borrows from, each of the following games contributes something to Sabotage's award-winning indie:

  • Chrono Trigger (overworld map, music, enemy encounters, story)
  • Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario (combat mechanics & character progression)
  • Golden Sun (environmental puzzles & dungeon design)
  • Secret of Mana (dungeon traversal, character & enemy design)

While not an exhaustive list, each of these titles has an element that Sea of Stars clearly takes inspiration from while simultaneously modernizing and putting the developer's own spin on it.

Similarly, Unicorn Overlord began its life as a project intended to specifically pull the best elements of the all-time great strategy and tactics RPGs to create something new. After Vanillaware's work on the action-RPG Dungeon's Crown, which sought to reinvent the classic beat 'em ups of yore, the key members of the Unicorn Overlord team would set their sights on envisioning their next project as a similar approach to TRPGs, or simulation-RPGs (SRPGs) as they're known in Japan.

And, just like Sea of Stars, Unicorn Overlord has one obvious primary inspiration that stands taller above other games that it pulls from. The SNES classic Ogre Battle is the closest title that fans could draw a comparison to, but Vanillaware's upcoming game also features a variety of influences coming from Nintendo's Fire Emblem series, Square Enix's Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics, and even the Sega Saturn hidden-gems Dragon Force and Dragon Force 2. Given the pedigree of the developer and the quality of its inspirations, it's entirely possible that Unicorn Overlord will mimic Sea of Stars' success and become yet another great RPG that pays homage to the genre's past.