If you are a fan of mostly niche action role-playing games over the last two decades, you have likely at least heard of Vanillaware. Known for its 2D approach to visuals and emphasis on characters in games like Unicorn Overlord, this studio gives its all for its art.
Dating to its start as Puraguru in 2002 under studio president George Kamitani, Vanillaware has created over a dozen titles in partnership with companies like Atlus and Square Enix, spanning different genres but always focusing on action or tactics. This includes several massive hits, projects that ended poorly, and the company spending all of its money during development multiple times. Now, with the release of Unicorn Overlord looking like a third straight hit for Vanillaware, here is an overview of every project Kamitani and his team have worked on over the years.
Every Vanillaware game in order: What else have the Unicorn Overlord developers made?
In total, Vanillaware has released 13 games since George Kamitani founded the company as Puraguru in 2002. This is split into nine releases and four remasters. This does not count the development of Princess Crown, which was Kamitani’s first work as a game director and led to him founding his own studio because it was published in 1997 while he was working with Atlus directly.
- February 2006: Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion
- An MMO RPG published by Square Enix, while the company was going through a merger.
- Kamitani and Puraguru left the project before its release, splitting in 2004 on poor terms that he cites as “taking [Fantasy Earth] away from us,” according to a 2009 Gamasutra interview.
- April 2007: GrimGrimoire
- A real-time strategy game published by Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) and developed as the Vanillaware team’s take on Starcraft.
- Developed in less than a year following Odin Sphere’s completion, though it was released earlier because Atlus pushed Odin Sphere’s release date back due to the success of Persona 3 at the time.
- May 2007: Odin Sphere
- An action RPG published by Atlus and developed as a spiritual successor to Princess Crown. Development was finished in 2006 but Kamitani noted the release date was pushed to 2007 due to Atlus wanting to give Persona 3 sales more time to breathe without another release.
- A critical success for Vanillaware that would go on to fund the company’s next big game, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and build the studio’s notoriety for the future.
- September 2008: Kumatanchi
- A live simulation game published by Dimple Entertainment. It was directed by Vanillaware artist and designer Shigetake who also created some of the characters the game was based around, such as a food mascot named Habanero-tan.
- April 2009: Muramasa: The Demon Blade
- An action RPG published by Marvelous Entertainment that was meant to evolve the gameplay design started in Princess Crown just as Odin Sphere evolved its predecessor’s story.
- September 2011: Grand Knights History
- A tactical RPG published by Marvelous Entertainment that never released an English version despite being well received at release. It is also notably Vanillaware’s first tactical RPG title.
- Director Tomohiko Deguchi would go on to develop Grand Kingdom with Monochrome Corporation, which would utilize some similar and unused concepts from Grand Knights and be released globally in 2015.
- March 2023: Muramasa Rebirth
- A port of Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the PlayStation Vita with additional content added for this new release.
- July 2013: Dragon’s Crown
- An action RPG published by Atlus that acted as a resurrected attempt by Kamitani to provide a proper, spiritual sequel to Princess Crown. It was a big success for both Atlus and Vanillaware, selling more than one million copies despite several controversial design choices and sparking the companies’ continued partnership through 2024.
- January 2016: Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
- A remake of Odin Sphere was released for PlayStation 3, PS4, and PS Vita with changes and new content added.
- January 2018: Dragon’s Crown Pro
- A remastered PlayStation 4 port of Dragon’s Crown that includes visual and gameplay enhancements alongside new and cut content from the original release.
- November 2019: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
- A real-time strategy game published by Atlus that started development in 2015 that was designed to build off ideas not used for GrimGrimoire and delved into sci-fi to give the team a break from its preferred fantasy setting.
- Another marked success for Atlus and Vanillaware, becoming the second straight title to sell more than one million units as of 2023.
- July 2022: GrimGrimoire OnceMore
- A remaster of GrimGrimoire that expands on the original title with visual enhancements and new gameplay features like a skill tree.
- March 2024: Unicorn Overlord
- A tactical RPG published by Atlus that has already been met with critical praise for its incredible art, music, and modernized take on 1990s tactical games.
- It was the brainchild of former Nintendo programmer and long-time Vanillaware employee Takafumi Noma, who conceptualized the game in 2014 and acted as the director alongside being the lead artist and programming.
