Developed by SuperNiche, in partnership with Gemdrops, BROCCOLI and NIS America, Etrange Overlord is an upcoming musical action RPG, expected to release in early 2026. It is actively being developed for the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 and for any fans of the Disgaea series, this game is simply unmissable. Why’s that, you might ask? It’s because Etrange Overlord is the brainchild of Sōhei Niikawa, the former president of Nippon Ichi Software and legendary creator of the Disgaea series.
Having departed Nippon Ichi Software to become more involved in video game development and founding SuperNiche, Sōhei Niikawa is back, creating games with a renewed passion and concocting the humorous hell-bound stories he is known for. Make no mistake, Etrange Overlord is well and truly a Sōhei Niikawa title.
With strong inspiration from Disgaea and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Etrange Overlord feels like a spiritual successor to both, and the Rhapsody connection becomes even stronger when you realise the current president of Gemdrops, Yūichirō Kitao, worked with Niikawa on Rhapsody, so to have both Niikawa and Kitao and their studios come together to work on Etrange Overlord, it’s a full circle moment of fate bringing them back together, but what of the game itself?
Etrange Overlord is the story of Étrange von Rosenburg. Born the daughter of a duke with black hair, a troubling sign in itself, Étrange von Rosenburg is wrongly accused of assassinating the king, prompting her immediate execution at the beginning of the game. But because Étrange prides herself on being “a most fearsome villainess”, capable of wielding the dark arts, in death, she finds herself winding up in Hell.
With no regret or pity about ending up where she has, Étrange is rather accepting of her fate, just as long as she can have a nice cup of tea, served alongside delicious cakes and sweets. It is the little things that make a big difference after all. And just for context, if you wanted a peek behind the curtain to know exactly what kind of humour you’re letting yourself in for with Etrange Overlord, here’s a little scenario that plays out during the first twenty minutes of gameplay.
With Étrange seeking to spend her afterlife becoming a powerful overlord, an overlord needs minions, and the first three she recruits to her cause, she ends up naming them after the sounds each demon makes when they laugh. It’s a rather amusing moment to experience, giving the reactions it incites.
As for the actual gameplay, Etrange Overlord is a story of three stages. Before a battle, players are free to prepare, but then comes the actual fight itself, followed by a little musical number. There is no English VA for Etrange Overlord, as all audio is Japanese VA only, with the voice cast including Japanese Vtubers, but the lack of English VA does not let the game down in any capacity.
During the battle phase, combat is real-time, with players being able to run around the small arenas, attacking each enemy until all are defeated. When first starting the game, you only have Étrange to play as, but when other characters become available, you can swap between them at the press of a button. But there is more to the game’s combat than just that.
You see, one of the earliest ideas for Etrange Overlord was to make a game built around the idea of using sushi lanes. With these lanes, items can be distributed around each arena, such as bombs, which can be picked up and thrown at your enemies, resulting in frantic action and rewarding gameplay.
In fact, the deeper down the rabbit hole you go, as one of the game’s customisation options, players can customise what items they want each lane to distribute, helping to adapt all gameplay to match their own unique playstyle. If you ever get bored of playing against AI enemies, Etrange Overlord even has multiplayer support, in the form of 4-player minigames, which really turns up the heat and turns the fun dial up to an 11.
Having played the demo as long as we did, and appreciating the character designs of Shinichirō Ōtsuka, we can easily say Etrange Overlord is a delightful title that will win over any Disgaea fan, with many pros going for it. One thing we do wish to mention, however, is that while a Sweets Mode exists, allowing for much easier gameplay, it makes the difficulty too low, resulting in an effortless experience. So, we recommend playing it in the game’s default setting for a true representation of what Etrange Overlord has to offer.
Nevertheless, for a game with a lot of heart, humour and Sōhei Niikawa charm, Etrange Overlord is certainly a game worth adding to your wishlist for next year.
