The Musical Combat Game Etrange Overlord Is an Adorable Trip Through Hell
Through fire and flame.
In Etrange Overlord, you play as the most fearsome villain in the world, who has a desperate need to eat sweets — because it literally sustains her life force. Also, you’re in hell. Oh, and it’s a musical.
There’s a lot going on in Etrange Overlord, but if I told you it’s the new game from Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa, it would probably make a lot more sense, as he has a real penchant for setting games in the afterlife. After playing Etrange Overlord for two hours, it’s quickly gone from a passing fascination to something I’ll absolutely be sinking more time into. It’s a delightfully charming and sometimes delirious little game that fully carries on the Disgaea DNA, from its humor to its surprisingly complex gameplay.
Etrange Overlord follows Lady Etrange von Rosenburg, a noblewoman executed for an assassination attempt on the royal family. Etrange awakens in hell and finds herself facing demons ready to punish her, but the villainess’ overbearing personality and magical skill let her bend the demons to her will. She then sets out on a journey to conquer the forces of hell, prove her innocence, and get her cushy life back.
Etrange Overlord shows the same sense of humor as Disgaea, as it seesaws between dry humor and outright slapstick. Etrange’s face gets gaunt and skeletal whenever she hasn’t had enough sweets, and there’s a running gag that she’s actually far scarier than any of hell’s demons. And, of course, there’s the musical elements, as characters burst into song during cutscenes and wax poetic about the dastardly schemes they’ve hatched.
Etrange Overlord is a full-fledged musical, with charming song performances scattered throughout the game.
This fusion might not work in a long-winded game, but Etrange Overlord succeeds thanks to its snappy pacing. You travel across a world map to tackle combat missions, each of which usually has a short cutscene before and after battle. As you progress, you’ll unlock side quests, optional cutscenes, and additional cooking recipes, among other activities.
The combat is quick-paced to the point of being deceptively simple. Up to four party members take part in an action battle, with each character having a single combo attack. Etrange can fire magical arrows, for example, while the hulking Chuckie hits with slow punches that can knock back enemies. The system feels too simple for the first few battles, but Etrange Overlord makes things interesting with new mechanics and clever map design.
Etrange Overlord’s hell is dark and desolate, but also weirdly cute.
The game introduces a Lane mechanic, where musical lines appear across the battlefield. Power-ups ride down these lines like a conveyor belt, offering a variety of stat boosts and perks, from raising your attack power to giving you bombs to throw. This significantly shakes up combat, giving you an extra element to juggle as dozens of enemies make things increasingly chaotic.
You can order your teammates to focus on certain enemies or objectives, and on top of all this, the game throws in some unique missions and map designs. In one, you might have to capture specific points on the map as enemies swarm you, while in another, you and your foes need to dodge giant blade traps that swing around near the power-ups. The combat system grew in leaps and bounds across my two-hour session, and despite the simple attacks, it became much more about managing a chaotic battlefield. You can also see a clear influence from Disgaea in how you recruit over a dozen characters who each feel drastically different.
Etrange’s battles quickly get chaotic.
Outside of combat, you unlock a train that lets you ride through hell in style. It becomes your base of operations, letting you upgrade your weapons, cook meals to get stats boosts (and see an adorable little scene where everyone feasts), and otherwise aid your journey. Etrange Overlord’s systems grew in leaps and bounds during my time with it, although it’s hard to say if things will remain that way throughout its entire runtime.
Still, I had a blast with the combat system, and I’m fully invested in seeing how Etrange and her band of weirdos break out of the fiery plains of hell. Etrange Overlord makes an exceedingly strong first impression by putting all its cards right on the table, and I’m buying in.
