Étrange Von Rosenburg has been convicted of treason, sentenced to death, beheaded at the guillotine, and sent to hell. What to do about it? Beat a few demons into submission, commandeer a vehicle, and take over the underworld for herself. Such is your premise for Etrange Overlord.
Oh, and there’s musical numbers.
This is easily one of the joyously weird games I’ve played in quite some time, but we’d expect nothing less from Sōhei Niikawa, creator of the Disgaea series. Although it’s basically an action RPG at heart, there are more than enough unique elements to push it along through its somewhat short runtime.
The experience is split into two elements. First, there’s a lengthy narrative to work through as Étrange comes to terms with her predicament. These mainly involve her interacting with the characters she meets along the way. Some are allies who have joined her from the real world (her cat, for instance). Most, however, are hell’s demons and/or employees/contractors who she has bested in battle and have decided to join her.
The great thing about these plot dumps is that many of them include brief musical numbers. They’re choreographed and delivered with the misguided earnestness of a high school theater production, and I found myself wishing they’d been used more often.
But even when they’re not singing, the characters are engaging and comical. Most waver between fear and awe of Étrange as her powers and determination combine to make her a dangerous person to be around.
That danger, however, is useful on the battlefield. Combat is set in small arenas in which you usually control four characters who must combine their powers to achieve various objectives (eliminate the enemies, collect items, capture all zones). You control one character at a time, and can swap between them at will. The other characters act on their own, but you can assign basic commands to keep the group focused on the set goal.
Of course, each character comes with a unique skillset. You decide who to pull into a battle at the start, but each level is replayable if you want to try again with an optimized party. And you will need to try again. Level grinding is necessary, unfortunately, but at least you’re given new objectives to achieve so you feel like you’re getting something done.
Upgrading and adjusting your party isn’t the only step to victory, however. The main gimmick in Etrange Overlord is the inclusion of musical lanes that provide upgrades, weapons, health, etc. The lanes feature these items in rotation like kaitenzushi, you just need to pick up what you want and put it to use. You can even hop on platforms to ride the lanes to otherwise unreachable areas. Unfortunately, you can also grab items you may not need, and it can take a while before they return. I learned to be very careful about not grabbing bombs or cakes (for health) until the moment really called for them.
These lanes become a very important part of the pre-level strategy, too. Yes, you can use collected items to upgrade weapons for your characters, and you can obtain recipes to cook for combat boosts. That will only get you so far, however, so you should also customize what items to add to the musical lanes. Coming up on a boss that’s impervious to your standard weapons? Load up on bombs. Does the level include turrets that need to be powered up? Add some electricity. The various items cost different amounts to add, so you’ll need to juggle the items to make sure everything’s optimized for your approach.
One other element, I guess, is world exploration. Between combat and narrative dumps, you can drive around hell to pick up various items for your weapon upgrades and recipe ingredients. They replenish frequently, so there’s always something to grab.
All of these pieces combine for a pretty chaotic experience, but that’s not always good. Despite all of the strategic elements involved, I found the battles relied a bit too much on chaos. I would lose a couple times, then suddenly win easily without changing anything in my approach; things just bounced my way that time.
The game also starts to look and play the same after a while, even with all of the customization options. The setting doesn’t change much, and the basic combat remains stagnant even as you add new characters and abilities. The online and local multiplayer component can add some spark to your gaming sessions, but it’s relegated to combat sessions. You cannot play through the story mode with a friend, and the multiplayer arenas actually include some spoilers if you haven’t progressed far enough.
Etrange Overlord is still quite enjoyable despite these drawbacks, I just found it easier to enjoy in small bursts. I played a level or two, put it down for a while, then returned when I didn’t feel like playing something more involved. The basic combat and guided progression is easy to hop back into, and gaps between gaming sessions make the necessary grinding easier to tolerate.
More importantly, it’s all goofy fun. The characters are charming (including the villains), and the rather dark story is delivered with a joyful sense of humor. If you enjoy its approach enough to reach the final curtain, you’ll surely be calling for an encore.
