I’m morally obligated to second that 13 Sentinels is a must play. It is truly incredible with a story so tightly constructed that every seemingly little innocuous detail is actually extremely well thought out and likely plot critical - even the horny bits are actually running off amusingly rational world building.
I've never formulated the complete thought of how Vanillaware is a dev that makes primarily 2D Action games or Strategy games until I read the title of this video. That's such a strange coupling of genres to specialize in for a small dev.
Im not wrapping my head round why this is so anomalous. You would think a studio specialized in 2D be a logical candidate to make other 2D games. Althought I understand in gamer/nerd culture anything remotely off the beaten path is talked about for its novelty for the next 10000 years whereas in other subcultures this type of niche is normal.
@@Sennacherib-e9gIt's more the action game vs strategy game thing, since those two genres appeal to very different desires and require radically different dev skills, which makes it odd for a small studio like Vanillaware to do.
Christ, Kbash is SO. GOOD. At describing things! It's actually poetic sometimes how this guy can make me feel things I didn't even know I felt about stories I've digested YEARS ago, off of a one liner.
@@jmz2144We already got Dragon's Crown Pro (PS4 only; Switch port has yet to be announced) Not sure why they aren't also bringing back Muramasa though.
I've been waiting for the 13 Sentinels segment for months and I'm glad to finally have it. I'm a little unhinged for this game and I love what you have to say about it, even if I have some disagreements. I do really wish you were more willing to go in depth on spoilers but I understand why you weren't. I suppose I should be grateful you covered it at all. Thank you, KBash.
It is the truly lamentable cost of Kbash's format. Offering commentary and vignettes into some of the most interesting games out there but also striking that balance to ensure that viewers who haven't experienced those games can use his content as a jumping off point. I do often find myself wishing there was extended thoughts segments on patreon for spoilerific analysis, but our boy already works too hard as it is.
Been looking forward to this one. Unicorn Overlord may not be game of the year, but it was 100% the most addictive for me. I can't recall the last time I beat a game in as few number of days as I did with UO.
This is one of your best vids kbash, all your vanillaware vides are amazing. Been watching for years and this video is whats gonna make me play some of these games finally. Thank you KBash!!!!
Not only do I love ogre battle, I don't like Tactics ogre, though maybe I would if I played the cling together one and not the knight of lodus one or whatever it's called, the one where you need some mermaid spear logincolus to kill the big bad angel dude. Maybe that's in both, I dunno. But yeah, they finally did it guys, we finally got a successor to ogre battle (and 64). PLEASE don't make me wait that long for a game that's a successor to Dragon's crown!
@@Ghalion666 knight of lodis is a prequel to let us cling together. If you don't do the secret ending to see how both games connect, the game is kinda bland story-wise. Even then, you're meant to play let us cling together first, cuz the revelation is more impactful that way. But it's fun to mess around with snapdragons. If you're gonna play let us cling together, do yourself a favour and play either the original psx version or the one vision mod for psp. Reborn is a terribly balanced scam, and the original version on the psp is just barely not as bad.
You got any tips or something to get into them? I tried but I was always filtered out by the mechanics (esp. balancing my strength and the alignment bar)
@@Konradix05 since you mentioned a bar, that probably means ogre battle. To overly simplify it, you want to be just as strong or weaker than the enemies you fight, as that gives increases your alignment. Being stronger decreases it. Having a dedicated squad or two for liberating cities could help you out. Last time I delved into ogre battle was more than a decade ago unfortunately, so a lot of it is a bit of a blurr in my brain. I relied a lot on the guides from gamefaqs tho. I'm pretty sure there was a huge one that explained all the mechanics and how they work and interact in too much detail.
@@dimitrisharatzas158 Yeah, Ogre Battle. I kinda knew the basics (strong vs weak makes you lose points etc.) but I tried to manage party levels then the enemies were just kicking my ass. I guess I'll just have to follow with a gamefaqs guide myself.
I've given up on making art. At this point, I just create stuff to placate my sanity. I have no idea how you make money with creativity. But I am thankful for Vanillaware, and for you Kbash, sharing your art, and bringing happiness to strangers. I hope you, and Vanillaware, will continue to be able to afford to eat, and afford to create.
UO was such a wierd game for me. I have not attention span. But with how light each of the systems were I completely 100% my tactical playthrough. Receuevery chatacter, getting every report, every sidequest. You are absolutely right, the story isnt the most compelling. But the whole package was so unlike everything I normally play. I didn't need to but I found myself tweaking all my tactics. Grinding the arena multiplayer. I love all vanillaware games, I think muramasa is still my favorite, but UO was definitely a huge suprise and I am glad I played it. (Rant over, Great videos as always!)
I vaguely remembered XPlay reviewing this game as a teenager, so I downloaded and played GrimGrimoire off the PSN in 2010. Loved it and I wish that another game like that could be made (which sounds unlikely from this videos description of the studio).
man, grimgrimoire was my personal hidden gem, even to this day it feels so obscure and like a dream I had rather than a game I played, kinda like finding an anime movie in cable as a kid and never finding out its name after decades
Would love to see you do a Magical Vacation/Magical Starsign video. I know you've mentioned Brownie Brown in your Mana video but I never see anyone talk about those two games!
I love Vanillaware. I wish I got to know them back during my NIS days of gaming. I did not know that Grim Grimoire was their work. I thought it was another game from NIS where they decided to go a different route. A friend and I were big fans of the "Marl Kingdom" series. Altus USA put of the first installment under 'Rhapsody' moniker. We didn't get 'Little Princess' the 2nd installment or 'Angel's Present' the final installment. Then came 'La Pucelle, Disgaea, Phantom Brave, then Makai Kingdom and finally GrimGrimoire. That was the one game that I found to be so different than what they had done. Again never knew it was a Vanillaware game. Now looking the designs I can see it clearly. My exposure to Vanillaware was when 'Odin Sphere' was released and I was truly amazed at the design work. I said, "I'll be keeping my eye on them!" And I have. When I started doing collection development the first title we got was "Oboro Muramasa'. I regret us missing out on other games by them, but we weren't collecting PS2 games and there was no request to start a collection. It was after their 'Odin Sphere', that I came across an interview by founder George Kamitani. He stated that after the success of 'Odin Sphere', that they wanted to be able to create all types of games for ALL types of system. So they have never limited themselves. And look what they've done when they get around to putting a game out. I think 13 Sentinels is probably the most different type of game play I've seen where the fighting takes place off screen and the story is animated. It reminds me of Super Robot Wars. Vanillaware's style is unique and they have a promising future because you never know what to expect from them.
Subscribed to this channel four months ago just to see this video when it popped up. Excellent work, even if I disagree with some things like being so harsh on UO's story. Other shame is that I can't show this video to others thanks to the 13 Sentinels and UO spoilers haha. But I'll stick around for more videos down the line.
Enjoying the video like usual. :) Somebody probably already mention this but all Gammel Dansk means is “Old Danish.” So basically they just names the characters “Old So-and-So.” I’m Swedish-American but thankfully there’s a ton of cognates and near cognates between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
Funnily enough, the game I want to play the most after this series is the one I can't. A 2D action combat game with laser focus and several games of iteration? I REALLY want to play Muramasa now.
I wish Kbash did a video on every game series ever. There's just something you do, that honesty, it's something that I want to hear about every game series ever. Please talk about Kirby :)
I still remember falling in love with Odin Sphere when it first came out in all it's PS2 lagging glory and have kept an eye on Vanillaware ever since. I was very aware of Grimgrimoire at release but limited interest (was my days before I branched out much in my taste) just gave it a hopeful nod and moved on, being sure to pick up Dragon's Crown day one of course. Since then I've kept up with all their titles and even remember the online discussions and disappointment when Grand Knights History didn't get a US release back when the PSP was still extremely viable. When 13 Sentinels was first announced along with all the hype from the Japanese release I was expecting something special and was somehow still completely blown away when I did play it, to the point I picked up the Switch version as well just for an excuse to replay it. That Unicorn Overlord got so much attention made me so so happy and it's been an absolute delight so far with the limited time I've been able to spend with it. Easily one of my favorite game dev groups out there and always look forward to their output (and pray for a Princess Crown remaster for the US one day).
Y'know, I have a weird relationship with Vanillaware games, because while I think they're beautiful and unique and worth checking out... I also tend to find them really repetitive. It frequently happens just as you said, I play them for a few hours and then just disconnect, having the sensation that I got everything that I could get from the game. However, as it happens when I watch your content, this video gave me some incentive to try again and see things through a new perspective. Hell, I had to try Vagrant Story four freaking times before it became one of my favorite games ever, just to give an example. I'm well aware of the concept of "acquired taste", and maybe this is a similar case. Anyway, thank you again, K-Man. You keep consistently being one of the best in this platform IMHO. Keep it up.
51:22 I feel like a bomb went off in my head. Even outside that punky stuff immediately explained; it makes so much sense that the entire game is revelation after revelation realized by each of the different characters, only giving pieces of information about what's actually going on in the world. I don't know if you get into that later but I feel like holding onto that realization for 15 minutes of watch time will make me explode.
Something about the whole "Unicorn Overlord is too easy" argument I hate is that the it allows the game to have way more freedom of choice and challenge than other strategy games. Game's too easy? Do a Norbelle run; Go against the odds, get crushed, do what you can with your self-limited powers. Use only mercenaries. Execute everyone. Refuse Selvie. Find your own challenge, it's there, you're just too stubborn to go find it.
I get what you're saying... This is kinda backwards. I agree with your sentiment in this situation, but disagree on principle lol. Normally I hard disagree with the 'use these self-imposed challenges' argument for games that are too easy, where said self-imposed challenges are ignoring/depriving yourself of core game mechanics that otherwise add depth to the game. Challenge alone isn't the goal, but the combination of challenge AND a deep gameplay with lots of choices, gains, drawbacks is the goal, and making it so you just neuter a core mechanic that makes a significant portion of the player's strategy is not a good way to add challenge. Unicorn Overlord though does seem to have slightly more cusotmizeable mechanics that compound into each other to fit the whole package that you can probably ignore 1 or 2 and still have a proper strategy to the game's guts though. Though I do think the game is pretty slow with how long you have to wait before you can finally make meaningful choices on these things. Like you have to hit level xx before you unlock other active/passive abilities on characters, as well as when you decide who to upgrade, as well as when your army gets sizeable enough that you really have to consider who to keep and who to bench, or what classes to use and what classes to bench, etc. I started off thinking the game was less deep than ogre battle until I reach elf-land (I too skipped Darken-whatever without realizing it until later) myself because up to that point it kinda is.
I’ll never understand this way of thinking lol. It’s like playing Pokemon and telling people it’s actually a very hard game because you make your own set of hardcore rules, so stop complaining it’s easy cause actually it can be the hardest game in existence. Same with complaining about using summons in Elden Ring. If a game is easy, it’s easy. Whatever self-imposed rules you add to make it more difficult is cool, sure, but means absolutely nothing.
Grand Knights History honestly seems like a very Etrian-esque game, which is really cute. The whole "Create a team of OCs to then go explore around" is super compelling and I wish it was more or a thing in games, especially given how you Can absolutely still tell a compelling story without having a party of distinct personalities at play, as said Etrian Odyssey series demonstrates
Maybe not Etrian Odyssey specifically but I'm sure both are inspired by Wizardry/DND in that regard. Wizardry specifically being an astronomically important game for JRPGs.
@@newdawnhorizon9879 Been hacking away at 2020 actually!! I beat the first 7th Dragon for posterity and found it kinda mediocre but loved the start of 2020 so
Boy do I have good news for you then, a huge portion of the CRPG and dungeon crawler genres for the last 40+ years are just waiting for you to dive in, generate a party, and go exploring.
@@newdawnhorizon9879I’d literally never heard of the series before, but I just looked it up and it sounds wild. I’ll have to see if I can find a fan translation sometime
It's weird how a game about an oppressive empire and war is more 'toothless' than odin sphere where the cute underage protagonist who probably has the most tragic backstory, who is the most innocent, DIES
Strong disagree that you can spoil 13 Sentinels. The game is so complex and interwoven that you cant really get the story until you can piece it all together in your head. One reveal does nothing when everything twists multiple times. That being said, love these retrospectives! Thanks for giving more love to vanillaware.
Honestly kind of insane you still haven't gotten into Gundam. At least as far as the person you present in your videos, Mecha and Gundam are extremely Kbashcore. Can't choose between fanboying for Gundam or enjoying your obstinance. Aside from that, another amazing video as always Kbash, thank you for being around.
"We all know somebody who restarted their pokemon game 800 times to get a shiny legendary." So, fummy story, in my first (and only) playthrough of Emerald, I got a Shiny Latios. Legit. No save-scumming, no cheat codes, no RNG manipulation, NO RESETS. I wish I was kidding. I was like 14 years old at the time. I didn't even have access to, know about, or even just consider most of those things. It was pure, unadulterated luck.
Learning that VanillaWare has been near failing *since the beginning* is insane. Despite it all I enjoyed the games I've played from them and hope they'll still make games in the future. Hopefully even get out of hanging by a thread.
I've had a lot of respect for the vision and love Vanillaware bestow in their games. Hell the detail they put into their food alone says a lot about what they do and what they value. It's honestly heartbreaking to hear about them always scraping by and making just enough to survive. Though for pity's sake I wish they would bring their games to PC They remind me of the devs behind Fuga (The Little Tail Bronx games in general) or Millennium Kitchen (The Boku no Natsuyasumi games including the more recent Shin Chan game). I feel like these guys know that they are niche, but just love what they do so much that they are willing to go for as long as there is just enough money in the till to continue forward. To those tenacious few, I salute you
I agree some of male ring-rite options are more explicit, but not by much. I mean, sure the praise kink wizard is more explicit than most male options but you square it up against the women who would onscreen kiss Alain, become Alain's queen and bear his children. Unsubtle subtext, at the end of the day, will never be text. I guess it just hurts a little that they decided it had to be that way.
for UO, you actually can find the rapport scenes easily, in the rapport menu you can click the available one to fast travel as long as the area is liberated LMAOOOO
The idea of a 2D RTS Grimgrimoire initially seemed weird to me - until I was suddenly reminded of Lobotomy Corporation. And then I realized that I've already played and enjoyed a very hectic 2D RTS. Stairs included.
I’m still just reeling that my Collector’s Edition for Unicorn Overlord came with an entire f*cking tabletop game. Who does that? Who just puts in an entire other game into the Collector’s Edition? It’s beyond wild and I treasure the hell out of it.
Man, I haven't been more excited for a game than Unicorn Overlord in a long, LONG time...but I only have a PC. I have no desire to buy a whole ass console for one game. God I wish Japan would embrace the PC more.
I declared myself a black licorice hater as a kid, and discovered I loved it as an adult. But I don't think this was due to aquired taste, or my personal tastebuds changing as I aged. I think it was caused by my exposure to black licorice being eqclusively the cheap artificial twizzlers, where the red ones are relatively normal candy in comparison. However, upon trying actual quality dutch salted licorice, I discovered that licorice was good. I wonder if you have the same thing, where the ice cream was actually quality, and all the black licorice you tasted before was the cheap carp. In my experience, many many beer haters have a similar experience. I've converted people more than twice my age who hated beer their entire life into liking it just by handing them one I thought they would like based on my intuition of their personal tastes, and no I'm not super aggressive about it, I casually get one 'for myself' and offer them a sip and say I doubt they think it tastes like any of the other beers they hate, and they try it and are like wow it's actually good! They don't just say so to shut me up or to give up or anything.
This is an amazing video about a bunch of amazing games by one of the best devs in the biz. I don't have anything to add here that hasn't been said before, so I'll just say... you pronounce "rapier" HOW??
I was entirely unaware that they rereleased one of their earlier games between the 13 sentinels port and Unicron overlord (I will destroy the matrix of leadership)
On unicorn overlord’s difficulty, the only complaint I have is that they made such an interesting, in depth system of combat, but gave no fights where you’re rewarded for fully exploring that system. Like… they took gambits straight out of ffxii, give us a weak mode like ffxii had with no/limited leveling. My ffxii playthrough in that mode was the most fun I’d ever had with it Imagine playing where the leveling speed is slowed and the level cap was halved or something like that.
I actually spent like 2 years building a game that would combine ogre battle and final fantasy tactics, and I never finished it, but happy to see a lot of the ideas used here in unicorn overlord. But nothing from fire emblem. Fire emblem is boring trash and I'll die on that hill.
![[FULL] RETROSPECTIVE : Final Fantasy Tactics](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RUBmYqs1jZ0/mqdefault.jpg)
I’m so glad you experienced these games. Vanillaware is one of my absolute favorite developers in the entire industry.
So true! All their games are outstanding.
I’m morally obligated to second that 13 Sentinels is a must play. It is truly incredible with a story so tightly constructed that every seemingly little innocuous detail is actually extremely well thought out and likely plot critical - even the horny bits are actually running off amusingly rational world building.
I've never formulated the complete thought of how Vanillaware is a dev that makes primarily 2D Action games or Strategy games until I read the title of this video. That's such a strange coupling of genres to specialize in for a small dev.
Yeah, I never made the connection until now. In my defense, I only played their action titles.
I just want a 2D fighting game from them.
Im not wrapping my head round why this is so anomalous. You would think a studio specialized in 2D be a logical candidate to make other 2D games. Althought I understand in gamer/nerd culture anything remotely off the beaten path is talked about for its novelty for the next 10000 years whereas in other subcultures this type of niche is normal.
@@Sennacherib-e9gIt's more the action game vs strategy game thing, since those two genres appeal to very different desires and require radically different dev skills, which makes it odd for a small studio like Vanillaware to do.
I love their art direction , no matter what kind of game they made
Christ, Kbash is SO. GOOD. At describing things!
It's actually poetic sometimes how this guy can make me feel things I didn't even know I felt about stories I've digested YEARS ago, off of a one liner.
Yuri Lowenthal's IMDB page has gotta be longer than the bible
Almost
Was watching my friends play Psychonauts 2 (I had already finished it myself) and they LOST IT when Yuri's character showed up
Until the GrimGrimoire Remake on Switch was announced, I was convinced no one remembered one of my favorite games I ever played growing up.
I'm contused. Its a remake? This whole time it looked like a remaster.
The original lived rent-free in my head for years. Glad it got a second chance.
@@badwrongfun5541 It's a bit of both, since they were able to add in things they couldn't originally.
Why cant we get Dragons Crown or Muramasa?
@@jmz2144We already got Dragon's Crown Pro (PS4 only; Switch port has yet to be announced)
Not sure why they aren't also bringing back Muramasa though.
1:41:05 Amazing detail here where the main character is forced to look up in order to meet his GigaStacy Amazoness wife's gaze.
VANILLAWARE is such a great developer they deserve soooo much success. They’re incredibly talented and need the recognition
If I’m gonna get grimgrimoire too
I've been waiting for the 13 Sentinels segment for months and I'm glad to finally have it. I'm a little unhinged for this game and I love what you have to say about it, even if I have some disagreements. I do really wish you were more willing to go in depth on spoilers but I understand why you weren't. I suppose I should be grateful you covered it at all. Thank you, KBash.
It is the truly lamentable cost of Kbash's format. Offering commentary and vignettes into some of the most interesting games out there but also striking that balance to ensure that viewers who haven't experienced those games can use his content as a jumping off point.
I do often find myself wishing there was extended thoughts segments on patreon for spoilerific analysis, but our boy already works too hard as it is.
Been looking forward to this one. Unicorn Overlord may not be game of the year, but it was 100% the most addictive for me. I can't recall the last time I beat a game in as few number of days as I did with UO.
13 Sentinels was my first Vanillaware game. It was so good I cannot wait to play the rest!
13 sentinels my beloved....
Man, I need to finish that. I'm still at the beginning...
I had a hard time getting past the first hour or so, I’ll have to give it another try
@@firebirdstark as someone that loves Vanillaware but hates visual novels, stick with it
I was the head exploding meme through the back half of this game…
13 sentinels is everything
Working through Unicorn Overlord right now and massively enjoying it
13 Sentinels is an amazing gem. One of a kind and will probably never happen again. Great video dude.
Now will you ever to Trails/Kiseki?
"Now will you ever to Trails/Kiseki?"
We can only dream.
"If you have cat, there is no danger."
Unless you name your cat "Danger," at which point all you have now is cat.
Honestly though, for some reason 'damage' seems like an oddly appropriate name for an actual RL cat.
@@Ghalion666 Indeed. The innumerable scars on my lap are a testament to that.
Vanillaware try not to burn through development budget challenge any%.
This is one of your best vids kbash, all your vanillaware vides are amazing. Been watching for years and this video is whats gonna make me play some of these games finally. Thank you KBash!!!!
"The war story genre" is my favorite video you've ever made and I'm glad to see this pseudosequel to it. Keep on keepin' on, duder.
You are not alone, Kbash. There's at least one more Ogre battle fan out there. And I'm outraged we'll never get the missing 5 games.
Not only do I love ogre battle, I don't like Tactics ogre, though maybe I would if I played the cling together one and not the knight of lodus one or whatever it's called, the one where you need some mermaid spear logincolus to kill the big bad angel dude. Maybe that's in both, I dunno.
But yeah, they finally did it guys, we finally got a successor to ogre battle (and 64). PLEASE don't make me wait that long for a game that's a successor to Dragon's crown!
@@Ghalion666 knight of lodis is a prequel to let us cling together. If you don't do the secret ending to see how both games connect, the game is kinda bland story-wise. Even then, you're meant to play let us cling together first, cuz the revelation is more impactful that way. But it's fun to mess around with snapdragons. If you're gonna play let us cling together, do yourself a favour and play either the original psx version or the one vision mod for psp. Reborn is a terribly balanced scam, and the original version on the psp is just barely not as bad.
You got any tips or something to get into them? I tried but I was always filtered out by the mechanics (esp. balancing my strength and the alignment bar)
@@Konradix05 since you mentioned a bar, that probably means ogre battle. To overly simplify it, you want to be just as strong or weaker than the enemies you fight, as that gives increases your alignment. Being stronger decreases it. Having a dedicated squad or two for liberating cities could help you out. Last time I delved into ogre battle was more than a decade ago unfortunately, so a lot of it is a bit of a blurr in my brain. I relied a lot on the guides from gamefaqs tho. I'm pretty sure there was a huge one that explained all the mechanics and how they work and interact in too much detail.
@@dimitrisharatzas158 Yeah, Ogre Battle. I kinda knew the basics (strong vs weak makes you lose points etc.) but I tried to manage party levels then the enemies were just kicking my ass. I guess I'll just have to follow with a gamefaqs guide myself.
I've given up on making art. At this point, I just create stuff to placate my sanity. I have no idea how you make money with creativity. But I am thankful for Vanillaware, and for you Kbash, sharing your art, and bringing happiness to strangers. I hope you, and Vanillaware, will continue to be able to afford to eat, and afford to create.
UO was such a wierd game for me. I have not attention span. But with how light each of the systems were I completely 100% my tactical playthrough. Receuevery chatacter, getting every report, every sidequest. You are absolutely right, the story isnt the most compelling. But the whole package was so unlike everything I normally play. I didn't need to but I found myself tweaking all my tactics. Grinding the arena multiplayer.
I love all vanillaware games, I think muramasa is still my favorite, but UO was definitely a huge suprise and I am glad I played it.
(Rant over, Great videos as always!)
I vaguely remembered XPlay reviewing this game as a teenager, so I downloaded and played GrimGrimoire off the PSN in 2010. Loved it and I wish that another game like that could be made (which sounds unlikely from this videos description of the studio).
I primarily know Vanillaware for their art style, action games (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, Dragon's Crown), and their gorgeous food.
It's been awesome watching your channel develop. Your videos are so fucking good.
I just finished Odin Sphere earlier this morning. Your video came in just in time canadian youtuber Karlos Bash. Cheers.
Never heard of Grimgrimoire in my life but can already tell, If I don't have it, I'll die.
do yourself a favor and play the original, not the shitty remaster
I've played both, I have no idea what the dude above me is talking about. Just enjoy whichever version you can get your hand on~
man, grimgrimoire was my personal hidden gem, even to this day it feels so obscure and like a dream I had rather than a game I played, kinda like finding an anime movie in cable as a kid and never finding out its name after decades
This video might have been extremely critical of Unicorn Overlord, but it got me back in the game. Now on my second zenoiran run
While playing UO, I couldnt stop thinking about what you would say about it. Glad the day is finally here!
Would love to see you do a Magical Vacation/Magical Starsign video. I know you've mentioned Brownie Brown in your Mana video but I never see anyone talk about those two games!
I love Vanillaware. I wish I got to know them back during my NIS days of gaming. I did not know that Grim Grimoire was their work. I thought it was another game from NIS where they decided to go a different route. A friend and I were big fans of the "Marl Kingdom" series. Altus USA put of the first installment under 'Rhapsody' moniker. We didn't get 'Little Princess' the 2nd installment or 'Angel's Present' the final installment. Then came 'La Pucelle, Disgaea, Phantom Brave, then Makai Kingdom and finally GrimGrimoire. That was the one game that I found to be so different than what they had done. Again never knew it was a Vanillaware game. Now looking the designs I can see it clearly.
My exposure to Vanillaware was when 'Odin Sphere' was released and I was truly amazed at the design work. I said, "I'll be keeping my eye on them!" And I have. When I started doing collection development the first title we got was "Oboro Muramasa'. I regret us missing out on other games by them, but we weren't collecting PS2 games and there was no request to start a collection. It was after their 'Odin Sphere', that I came across an interview by founder George Kamitani. He stated that after the success of 'Odin Sphere', that they wanted to be able to create all types of games for ALL types of system. So they have never limited themselves. And look what they've done when they get around to putting a game out. I think 13 Sentinels is probably the most different type of game play I've seen where the fighting takes place off screen and the story is animated. It reminds me of Super Robot Wars. Vanillaware's style is unique and they have a promising future because you never know what to expect from them.
1:04:51 sneaking in a ninja info card reference during the nostalgia laden section is diabolical work
Subscribed to this channel four months ago just to see this video when it popped up. Excellent work, even if I disagree with some things like being so harsh on UO's story. Other shame is that I can't show this video to others thanks to the 13 Sentinels and UO spoilers haha. But I'll stick around for more videos down the line.
I wish these games came to pc.
You can emulate all of them, with the exception of maybe Unicorn Overlord.
@@daniellion5291 I’d rather support an indie dev if I can
@@joearnold6881 You can do both. Buy the game and then emulate it. No need for the console ~
@@daniellion5291 but can you play dragons crown online on pc
@@joearnold6881If they want support, make the games accessible natively on PC
Honestly Unicorn Overlord is probably my game of the year unless something else knocks my socks off
I've been meaning to play a few of these! Thanks for the insight, I already jam dragon's crown because of you
Enjoying the video like usual. :) Somebody probably already mention this but all Gammel Dansk means is “Old Danish.” So basically they just names the characters “Old So-and-So.”
I’m Swedish-American but thankfully there’s a ton of cognates and near cognates between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
My first Vanillaware game is Unicorn Overlord and I can't wait to see more from them in the future.
A video I didn't know I wanted but certainly a welcomed one, thanks 🙏.
Funnily enough, the game I want to play the most after this series is the one I can't. A 2D action combat game with laser focus and several games of iteration? I REALLY want to play Muramasa now.
I wish Kbash did a video on every game series ever. There's just something you do, that honesty, it's something that I want to hear about every game series ever.
Please talk about Kirby :)
I really want to get a copy of Princess Crown on the psp. I just want to physically own it in my hands, even with the language barrier.
The fact that Princess Crown never got brought over here may be our biggest failing as a species.
I’ve been collecting Vanillaware physicals. Unicorn Overlord I grabbed for PS5 and Switch. I love that game a all vanillaware games
Great video, thanks for your work! Vanillaware is one of my favorite developers. I love all their games so much
This heatwave ain't the only thing that's hot, cause here comes KBash with a *FIRE* Upload
I still remember falling in love with Odin Sphere when it first came out in all it's PS2 lagging glory and have kept an eye on Vanillaware ever since. I was very aware of Grimgrimoire at release but limited interest (was my days before I branched out much in my taste) just gave it a hopeful nod and moved on, being sure to pick up Dragon's Crown day one of course. Since then I've kept up with all their titles and even remember the online discussions and disappointment when Grand Knights History didn't get a US release back when the PSP was still extremely viable. When 13 Sentinels was first announced along with all the hype from the Japanese release I was expecting something special and was somehow still completely blown away when I did play it, to the point I picked up the Switch version as well just for an excuse to replay it. That Unicorn Overlord got so much attention made me so so happy and it's been an absolute delight so far with the limited time I've been able to spend with it. Easily one of my favorite game dev groups out there and always look forward to their output (and pray for a Princess Crown remaster for the US one day).
KBash your vids have consistently improved so much it's actually insane
Excited for this one. 13 Sentinels and Unicorn Overlord were both some of their best works.
The old algorithm comment. Love your shit bro keep doing what you want to do it's why I'm a patron.
Y'know, I have a weird relationship with Vanillaware games, because while I think they're beautiful and unique and worth checking out... I also tend to find them really repetitive. It frequently happens just as you said, I play them for a few hours and then just disconnect, having the sensation that I got everything that I could get from the game.
However, as it happens when I watch your content, this video gave me some incentive to try again and see things through a new perspective. Hell, I had to try Vagrant Story four freaking times before it became one of my favorite games ever, just to give an example. I'm well aware of the concept of "acquired taste", and maybe this is a similar case.
Anyway, thank you again, K-Man. You keep consistently being one of the best in this platform IMHO. Keep it up.
my head snapped upward the moment I heard Billy
love cameos :3
glorious video all round tho
13 Sentinels!!!!! One of the most rewarding and immersive I've had recently with videogames!
51:22 I feel like a bomb went off in my head.
Even outside that punky stuff immediately explained; it makes so much sense that the entire game is revelation after revelation realized by each of the different characters, only giving pieces of information about what's actually going on in the world.
I don't know if you get into that later but I feel like holding onto that realization for 15 minutes of watch time will make me explode.
Something about the whole "Unicorn Overlord is too easy" argument I hate is that the it allows the game to have way more freedom of choice and challenge than other strategy games. Game's too easy? Do a Norbelle run; Go against the odds, get crushed, do what you can with your self-limited powers. Use only mercenaries. Execute everyone. Refuse Selvie. Find your own challenge, it's there, you're just too stubborn to go find it.
I get what you're saying... This is kinda backwards. I agree with your sentiment in this situation, but disagree on principle lol.
Normally I hard disagree with the 'use these self-imposed challenges' argument for games that are too easy, where said self-imposed challenges are ignoring/depriving yourself of core game mechanics that otherwise add depth to the game. Challenge alone isn't the goal, but the combination of challenge AND a deep gameplay with lots of choices, gains, drawbacks is the goal, and making it so you just neuter a core mechanic that makes a significant portion of the player's strategy is not a good way to add challenge.
Unicorn Overlord though does seem to have slightly more cusotmizeable mechanics that compound into each other to fit the whole package that you can probably ignore 1 or 2 and still have a proper strategy to the game's guts though.
Though I do think the game is pretty slow with how long you have to wait before you can finally make meaningful choices on these things. Like you have to hit level xx before you unlock other active/passive abilities on characters, as well as when you decide who to upgrade, as well as when your army gets sizeable enough that you really have to consider who to keep and who to bench, or what classes to use and what classes to bench, etc.
I started off thinking the game was less deep than ogre battle until I reach elf-land (I too skipped Darken-whatever without realizing it until later) myself because up to that point it kinda is.
I’ll never understand this way of thinking lol. It’s like playing Pokemon and telling people it’s actually a very hard game because you make your own set of hardcore rules, so stop complaining it’s easy cause actually it can be the hardest game in existence. Same with complaining about using summons in Elden Ring. If a game is easy, it’s easy. Whatever self-imposed rules you add to make it more difficult is cool, sure, but means absolutely nothing.
Grand Knights History honestly seems like a very Etrian-esque game, which is really cute. The whole "Create a team of OCs to then go explore around" is super compelling and I wish it was more or a thing in games, especially given how you Can absolutely still tell a compelling story without having a party of distinct personalities at play, as said Etrian Odyssey series demonstrates
Maybe not Etrian Odyssey specifically but I'm sure both are inspired by Wizardry/DND in that regard. Wizardry specifically being an astronomically important game for JRPGs.
Have you played 7th dragon 2020 and 2020-2
@@newdawnhorizon9879 Been hacking away at 2020 actually!! I beat the first 7th Dragon for posterity and found it kinda mediocre but loved the start of 2020 so
Boy do I have good news for you then, a huge portion of the CRPG and dungeon crawler genres for the last 40+ years are just waiting for you to dive in, generate a party, and go exploring.
@@newdawnhorizon9879I’d literally never heard of the series before, but I just looked it up and it sounds wild. I’ll have to see if I can find a fan translation sometime
I wish Unioncorn overload had a more interesting story tbh
It's weird how a game about an oppressive empire and war is more 'toothless' than odin sphere where the cute underage protagonist who probably has the most tragic backstory, who is the most innocent, DIES
Yeah absolute snoozefest
I was screaming internally "WHERE'S NEW KBASH" a few days ago and voila, here he cometh!
even after all this time, i still watch all the Special Thanks.
The Grand Knights critique reminded me of Scarlet Nexus's big disconnect: YOU ARE AT WAR!
Strong disagree that you can spoil 13 Sentinels. The game is so complex and interwoven that you cant really get the story until you can piece it all together in your head. One reveal does nothing when everything twists multiple times. That being said, love these retrospectives! Thanks for giving more love to vanillaware.
With the release of Unicorn overlord. I am waiting with fingers crossed that we get a muramasa remaster soon
Joke's on you I'm already a Vanillaware fan and GrimGrimoire is one of my *all time favorites* .
Honestly kind of insane you still haven't gotten into Gundam. At least as far as the person you present in your videos, Mecha and Gundam are extremely Kbashcore. Can't choose between fanboying for Gundam or enjoying your obstinance. Aside from that, another amazing video as always Kbash, thank you for being around.
KBash is getting closer and closer to getting into Gundam. I was there once too, boy... you won't be able to hold out much longer
1:40:00 the souls believed Galerius would free them. Only when Galerius was betrayed did Alian have an argument to win them over.
Man, I love 13 Sentinels so much.
If more visual novels tried what that game does, it might be a genre worth a damn.
It's incredible how Grand Knights History is basically a prototype for Unicorn Overlord
"We all know somebody who restarted their pokemon game 800 times to get a shiny legendary."
So, fummy story, in my first (and only) playthrough of Emerald, I got a Shiny Latios. Legit. No save-scumming, no cheat codes, no RNG manipulation, NO RESETS. I wish I was kidding. I was like 14 years old at the time. I didn't even have access to, know about, or even just consider most of those things. It was pure, unadulterated luck.
I was not ready for the ninja info cards gag 😂
Learning that VanillaWare has been near failing *since the beginning* is insane. Despite it all I enjoyed the games I've played from them and hope they'll still make games in the future. Hopefully even get out of hanging by a thread.
I've had a lot of respect for the vision and love Vanillaware bestow in their games. Hell the detail they put into their food alone says a lot about what they do and what they value.
It's honestly heartbreaking to hear about them always scraping by and making just enough to survive. Though for pity's sake I wish they would bring their games to PC
They remind me of the devs behind Fuga (The Little Tail Bronx games in general) or Millennium Kitchen (The Boku no Natsuyasumi games including the more recent Shin Chan game). I feel like these guys know that they are niche, but just love what they do so much that they are willing to go for as long as there is just enough money in the till to continue forward. To those tenacious few, I salute you
I agree some of male ring-rite options are more explicit, but not by much. I mean, sure the praise kink wizard is more explicit than most male options but you square it up against the women who would onscreen kiss Alain, become Alain's queen and bear his children. Unsubtle subtext, at the end of the day, will never be text. I guess it just hurts a little that they decided it had to be that way.
Listening to you talk about Grim Grimoire and then spitting my drink when you casually mention it's a ps2 game
do you plan on doing NISS America series? Mainly Disgaea for sure, but Soul Nomad, Phantom Brave and others are pretty good too!
for UO, you actually can find the rapport scenes easily, in the rapport menu you can click the available one to fast travel as long as the area is liberated LMAOOOO
The idea of a 2D RTS Grimgrimoire initially seemed weird to me - until I was suddenly reminded of Lobotomy Corporation. And then I realized that I've already played and enjoyed a very hectic 2D RTS. Stairs included.
Recently had a dream that Vanillaware made a remake of Zelda's Adventure that made her character and gameplay more like Gwendolyn.
Bruh fr that spam rice bowl looks like it went pretty hard. I fucking love spam musubi.
I see or hear Vanillaware and my dopamine spikes through the roof.
I really should get around to finishing 13 sentinels...
I’m still just reeling that my Collector’s Edition for Unicorn Overlord came with an entire f*cking tabletop game. Who does that? Who just puts in an entire other game into the Collector’s Edition?
It’s beyond wild and I treasure the hell out of it.
Man, I haven't been more excited for a game than Unicorn Overlord in a long, LONG time...but I only have a PC. I have no desire to buy a whole ass console for one game. God I wish Japan would embrace the PC more.
I'm sure if Vanillaware releases their game on PC, it would assuredly relieve some of their being broke problem
I declared myself a black licorice hater as a kid, and discovered I loved it as an adult. But I don't think this was due to aquired taste, or my personal tastebuds changing as I aged. I think it was caused by my exposure to black licorice being eqclusively the cheap artificial twizzlers, where the red ones are relatively normal candy in comparison. However, upon trying actual quality dutch salted licorice, I discovered that licorice was good. I wonder if you have the same thing, where the ice cream was actually quality, and all the black licorice you tasted before was the cheap carp.
In my experience, many many beer haters have a similar experience. I've converted people more than twice my age who hated beer their entire life into liking it just by handing them one I thought they would like based on my intuition of their personal tastes, and no I'm not super aggressive about it, I casually get one 'for myself' and offer them a sip and say I doubt they think it tastes like any of the other beers they hate, and they try it and are like wow it's actually good! They don't just say so to shut me up or to give up or anything.
Goddamn, Vanillaware's art style really rustle's my jimmies in a funny way.
Seriously, thanks for idle booty shake animations
Grimgrimoire is one of those games that I love but whenever I talk about it people check out so fast
Never thought I'd see a Collab between Kbash and Cvit but I'll take it
This is an amazing video about a bunch of amazing games by one of the best devs in the biz. I don't have anything to add here that hasn't been said before, so I'll just say... you pronounce "rapier" HOW??
I was entirely unaware that they rereleased one of their earlier games between the 13 sentinels port and Unicron overlord (I will destroy the matrix of leadership)
Black licorice ice-cream sounds dope.
Haven't played UO yet, so I'm gonna dip and leave the video on for the watch minutes.
On unicorn overlord’s difficulty, the only complaint I have is that they made such an interesting, in depth system of combat, but gave no fights where you’re rewarded for fully exploring that system.
Like… they took gambits straight out of ffxii, give us a weak mode like ffxii had with no/limited leveling. My ffxii playthrough in that mode was the most fun I’d ever had with it
Imagine playing where the leveling speed is slowed and the level cap was halved or something like that.
Vanillaware is top 3 for me. Love your videos ❤
Patreon Peeps chiming in to let yall know this one is a BANGER
AYOOO! I recognize Cvits voice anywhere on UA-cam 😮🎉
Never imagined that anyone else would know about Ogre Battle in 2024...
Finally another K bash vid, thank the gods 😂🙏
Ingobernable? Vanillaware sounds like my kinda dev.
I actually spent like 2 years building a game that would combine ogre battle and final fantasy tactics, and I never finished it, but happy to see a lot of the ideas used here in unicorn overlord. But nothing from fire emblem. Fire emblem is boring trash and I'll die on that hill.