History VideoGame / OverLord

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Overlord.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:As you can see, being [[EvilOverlord Overlord]] to such a band of minions requires a kind and gentle touch.]]

** And the minions themselves are basically bigger ''Film/Gremlins'' (minus of course the three rules).

* EvilVersusEvil: Pretty much the premise of all the games. Overlord provided the top-of-the-page quote for that article. Save for the [[HeroAntagonist Elves]] (who are portrayed as largely ineffectual), it's all you fight since they're trying to get in the way of your schemes.

** And the minions themselves are basically Gremlins (minus of course the three rules).

* CuttingTheKnot: In the Mother Goddess Temple, you're meant wait for the guardian elf ghosts to wander behind these doors attached to special cranks, and then send minions to those cranks to shut the doors, which will only remain shut for as long as you have minions allocated to those cranks... or you could just walk in there with an all-blue horde and order them to attack the ghosts directly.

* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: You get more and more titles the more heroes you kill, hives you obtain, and missions you complete. The Jesters Minions rattle off your accolades while you hang out in your throne room.

* FallenHero: A staggering portion of the [=NPCs=].

* FighterMageThief: The minions types are melee bashers, fireballers, sneaks, and revivers.

** Seeing how the Overlad skin seems to be blue, it might be a mutation.
** It's also worth noticing that the minions also have glowing eyes, though their glow is not strong enough to make their pupils invisible.
* GoGoEnslavement: If your chaos level is high enough villagers will offer you a virgin (actually the town's harlot) to calm you. Gnarl will come up with the idea of capturing women as maids and will dress them in skimpy outfits.
* InterfaceScrew: The first game took hits in reviews over poor responsiveness and awkward camera tracking. The second game boasted smoother controls, but still retained wonky camera, incomprehensibly capricious sweep controls, and negative criticism.

** After a few reveals, the karma meter in the first game becomes AntiVillain Vs. AxCrazy. The sequel doesn't give you a choice between allegiance; you're evil regardless and your karmic choices come down to MindControl or AxCrazy again.

** According to WordOfGod, all Overlords end up in the Abyss one way or another. That's not so bad for [[spoiler:the canonical NobleDemon protagonist of the first game since he's also its new ''[[HellHasNewManagement ruler]]''.]]
** This can lead to [[spoiler:KarmaHoudini, what with an Overlord now ruling the Abyss, it's unlikely he's going to play by the rules that would've screwed him over had he went there naturally.]]
** Considering the aforementioned, it probably won't suck all that much for [[spoiler:His son, either, considering the aforementioned canonical NobleDemon behavior, he'll most likely cut his own flesh and blood some slack.]]

* LightIsNotGood: A running theme alongside DarkIsNotEvil.
* LegacyCharacter: The title of Overlord has been passed around by several individuals. So far, at least four characters have been the overlord, three of which were playable. Subverted in Fellowship of Evil, in which the four Netherghúls are not actually Overlords and are explicitly Gnarl's subordinates.

* LightIsNotGood: You can change your flag/cape color to White and your insignea to a castle, and have a flower garden growing all over your doom fortress, but you're still the villain of the picture.

* MagicKnight: The Overlord is capable of casting magic, either to kill his enemies or to power up his army by driving them into a frenzy and his alignment in the KarmaMeter can influence how his spells will work. In the second game, the Overlord's status as a magical being puts him at odds with the Empire.
* TheMedic: The Blues. They are the most fragile Minion and rather useless in battle. They make up for it by being able to revive dead Minions and by being able to swim. They also have the most magical nature out of all of the minions; in the first game, there are some enemies that only Blues can attack, and in the sequel, they're the only way to clear away the glowing blue magical fallout; any other minion trying to touch it gets warped into an even-more-homicidal Mutant Minion and turns aggressive towards you.

** Note that the Overlord is really only slow compared to his minions, who are quite happy to scramble along as fast as their little legs can carry them in order to get to the thing that needs smashing, bashing, or killing.
* TheMinionMaster: Also the Overlord. You're pretty much reliant on your minions for everything, including combat and puzzle-solving.
* MookMaker: They tend to pop up from time to time; Halfling huts spit out halflings until you send in minions to wreck the place, and Beholders summon enemies until you take them down. On your side, any Minion Pit you can reach in combat functions as an effective Mook Maker as long as you have lifeforce to fuel it.

* NiceHat: Besides your own spiky helmet and Quaver's jester hat, the minions in general are fond of strapping random stuff to their heads, be it actual hats and helmets to flowers, pumpkins, and dead rats. In ''Overlord II'', some bosses will drop special minion hats, as well.
* NoGearLevel: An original variation, since the minions are the Overlord's weapons. This is expanded on in ''Overlord II'', when the Overlord has to recover each minion individually after a shipwreck.
* OopNorth: Most of the characters have northern accents which is best shown by the villagers of Spree, Melvin Underbelly and his halflings

* PokeThePoodle: Several such pastimes are provided that don't even nudge the KarmaMeter, such as slaughtering sheep and stomping sunflowers. The early parts of ''Overlord II'' feature a lot of killing of baby seals.

* PyroManiac: If you use your fireball spells to set scenery on fire in the first game, all of your minions get way too excited about it.
* RapePillageAndBurn: Essentially your modus operandi if you're more focused on Destruction (though less of the former and more of the latter). Otherwise you're encouraged to keep conquered citizens alive and content to some extent so that they can continue serving you.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The Minions, surprisingly enough. According to the developer's FAQ, no one knows how old minions get because no minion has ever died of natural causes. Gnarl, in particular, is by his own account old enough to remember what the long-extinct dragons were really like, and Giblet has served at least three different Overlords.
* RedRightHand: the spiky helmet that leaves your face as a mass of shadows with pinpricks of light for eyes, pretty much SCREAMS 'villain' from the moment you boot up the game. Not that you need the hint. The Overlad was creepy-looking from birth, having blue skin and glowing eyes that caused him to be viciously bullied by the children of Nordberg.
** On the other hand, [[spoiler:it turns out that you were actually the last Hero, one that joined in defeating the previous Overlord. So really, this is what you looked like then as well.]]

* SexGod: The Overlords have to be to have sex that ''shakes an entire monolithic tower'' with the force of an earthquake. Doubly so for the Fourth Overlord as, not only does he do it multiple times, he has a four-way and does it for an implied ''hour''.

* ShouldersOfDoom: you grow spikes in many places as you get eviler, but your shoulders are where they get REALLY big.

* SilentProtagonist: The Overlord never speaks, which actually raises his intimidation factor considerably during cutscenes. Compare the Wizard possessed by your predecessor in the first game who never shuts up.

* SorcerousOverlord: Depends on how you want to play the character in combat though you look mostly like the warrior type and rule over your kingdom like a sorcerer. No matter what however, the Overlord is always a MagicKnight.
* SquadControls: The game has the commands Sweep (the whole cluster of [[PlayerMooks minions]] follows your cursor, smashing, killing or looting anything they find along the way), Send (minions charge either straight ahead or towards a selected target, again smashing, killing and looting) and Return. These commands can be used for anything from a single minion to one tribe to the whole horde.

* SuperDrowningSkills: Any minion that aren't Blues will instantly drown. The Overlord will simply wade through waist-high water and will not enter anything deeper.

** Kelda in II has this opinion of the citizens of her hometown, to her, the minions are actually an improvement because "They can at least think and act at the same time."

* ToiletHumor: If you order your minions to go drink up the booze that someone left lying around, then after downing it all in a few seconds, a short moment later the minions will step aside a bit and openly piss it all out.

* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: You get more and more titles the more heroes you kill, hives you obtain, and missions you complete.
* UnicornsAreSacred: Justified; the whole forest is tainted by evil and you can (and should) mercy-kill them.
* TheUnintelligible: The Overlords never speak; they just make a sound like an organ chord or gesture imperiously

* VillainousHarlequin: All the games feature a jester who's there to sings of your deeds and to be kicked around.

* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: But without the hardware. Gnarl, and sometimes one or more mistresses, can communicate with the Overlord over any range through the Tower Heart. Later, [[spoiler:Rose can talk to you directly using her mind...somehow]].
** Gnarl uses the IsThisThingOn line as he fires up the spell in the first game.
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Minions. Halfing? Send minions. Empire tries to TakeOverTheWorld? Send minions. Emperor tries to become a god? Send minions. Forgotten God tries to regain his powers? More minions! you can count the problems you can't solve with use of minion with one hand.
** Which you'll then clench tightly around the handle of your weapon of choice, and pound said problem out of existence.

** Your typical attitude to the Minions. ''Dark Legend'' has you throttle minions to turn them into suicide bombers, but subverted in ''II'' where you can resurrect fallen ones that you've taken a liking to.

* WhatTheHellHero: Almost everyone in this game who is supposed to be "good" is actually pretty corrupt. Ironically, despite the fact that your character is the EvilOverlord, he can be played with more redeemable traits than almost anyone.[[spoiler:This is a plot point in the first game; the former Overlord corrupted the seven heroes so they accumulate enough evil such that when the eighth hero--namely you--kill them, they release the enough energy for the Overlord. All possible because the seven heroes left you for death when the Tower collapsed.]]
* ZergRush:
** Really, there are few situations you can't solve just by employing more minions. For those, [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer you have to find the right way to employ them.]]
** [[TheAllSolvingHammer ...or just employ even more minions.]]

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: As bad as [[EvilOverlord The Overlord]] may be he is still usually better than the [[FallenHero Seven Heroes]], especially if you go down the AntiVillain path.
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Oberon Greenhaze actually ''begs'' for you to kill him so the tree will die.]]

* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: A recurring theme in the games is that Evil Always Finds A Way and that there will always be someone to fulfill the position of Overlord.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Somewhat averted in the beginning, where the player characters tend to be fairly weak and dependent on the Minions in a fight. However, with the proper upgrades the player character becomes a powerful MightyGlacier MagicKnight armed with an InfinityPlusOneSword.
* {{Backstab}}: The Green's special attack is to jump upon an enemy's back and stab 'em until they die.
* BigBad: The entire series is based around the premise of being one of these. Each of the games also has a major villain.
* BlackKnight: In the first game, your armor gets blacker the closer you get to [[KarmaMeter 100% corruption]], with SpikesOfDoom sprouting from your skin, you're more a KnightInShiningArmor at lower corruption levels.
* CanonIdentifier: In the first game you play as, appropriately enough, the Overlord. The final boss of the game is also the [[OneSteveLimit Overlord]] (the ''real'' Overlord, who wiped the PC's memory so he'd reconquer the land for him) and the protagonist of the second game is a new Overlord, named the Overlad.

* ColonelBogeyMarch: The minions will sometime whistle this.

* CrapsackWorld: This is the default state of the Overlord's world. The conceit is that an efficient evil Overlord is likely preferable to well-intentioned (or not so well-intentioned) incompetent rulers.

* DarkIsNotEvil: The game teeters back and forth on this option. Some games present options for being a good guy with scary armor while ''Overlord II'' has you merrily massacring hippies while slaughtering stadium crowds. The sequel suggests that darkness is somewhat necessary for when LightIsNotGood, however.
* DieChairDie: One way to leave yourself a crumb trail is to smash everything to crumbs. You know you've already been down a passage when the furniture is splintered, feast tables are empty, and the minions have pissed on the carpet.
* DismantledMacGuffin: The Overlord's tower. You start out too weak to survive without Browns backing you up in each fight, but the more Tower Objects you recover, the more powerful you become until you're able to take out an arena full of Battler Beetles single-handed.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Among others, the minions, the halflings, and some of the human farmers are barefoot.

* DumbMuscle: The minions are this, especially the brown ones. Gnarl even comments in one of the games that "Thinking only slows them down".

** Gnarl serves you in this regard. Fortunately, you're evil too. [[spoiler:Not that that stops him from betraying you the moment your predecessor turns up, though this is depicted as merely a duty and encourages you to defeat the Old Overlord so that he can rejoin you.]]

* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Where you park your armour after a hard days' smiting and pillaging. The Dark Tower of the first game changes tone drastically depending on where the Overlord's Karma Meter. By the second game the original Tower's been obliterated, with your new Tower being located in [[AHellOfATime the Netherworld.]]
* EvilVersusEvil: Pretty much the premise of all the games. Overlord provided the top-of-the-page quote for that article. Save for the [[HeroAntagonist Elves]] (who are portrayed as largely ineffectual), it's all you fight.

* TheExtremistWasRight: A possible justification for the Overlord's quest for world domination.
* FaceHeelTurn: Quite the big one, in fact. [[spoiler:It turns out that you were an "eighth hero" that suddenly showed up on the original seven hero's journey to defeat your predecessor. You, the eighth hero, killed your predecessor and gravely injured yourself, The overlord before you hitched a ride in the wizard's body, and serves as the game's final boss]]

* OurElvesAreBetter: Subverted in that while the Elves are usually less evil (being at the worst {{Jerkass}}es) and are the closest thing to {{Hero Antagonist}}s that the Overlord has, they are still generally ineffectual and just as dumb as anyone else. For the record, they're whiny emos in the first game and hippies in the second. Fellowship of Evil has the Dark Elf prince Cryos as a playable protagonist.

* WhatTheHellHero: Almost everyone in this game who is supposed to be "good" is actually pretty corrupt. Ironically, despite the fact that your character is the EvilOverlord, he can be played with more redeemable traits than almost anyone.[[spoiler:This is a plot point in the first game, the former Overlord corrupted the seven heroes so they accumulate enough evil that when the eighth hero, namely you, kill them and release the enough energy for the Overlord. All possible because the seven heroes left you for death when the Tower collapsed.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Almost everyone in this game who is supposed to be "good" is actually pretty corrupt. Ironically, despite the fact that your character is the EvilOverlord, he can be played with more redeemable traits than almost anyone.[[spoiler:This is a plot point in the first game, the former Overlord corrupted the seven heroes so they accumulate enough evil that when the eighth hero, namely you, kill the and release the enough energy for the Overlord. All possible because the seven heroes left you for death when the Tower collapsed.]]

** The Overlord. Interestingly, in Dark Legend and ''Overlord II'' the respective candidates have glowing eyes even before they become full-fledged Overlords, though the Overlad is justified since he is actually a EnfanteTerrible. Gromgard is apparently just destined for evil.

** Your typical attitude to the Minions. Dark Legend has you throttle minions to turn them into suicide bombers, but subverted in II where you can resurrect fallen ones that you've taken a liking to.

* EvilRedhead: Both Overlords have a thing for redheads. The last mistress in Overlord II, the Dark Fay, is likely an intentional play on this trope. However Rose and Kelda, the main mistresses are generally non-evil and support the Overlords for their own reason (Rose because she thinks he'll bring order and Kelda because she's the [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Childhood Friend]] of the Witch-Boy).

** The Overlord. Interestingly, in Dark Legend and Overlord II the respective candidates have glowing eyes even before they become full-fledged Overlords, though the Overlad is justified since he is actually a EnfanteTerrible. Gromgard is apparently just destined for evil.

* JustifiedTutorial: You can rest assured that every time you acquire a new Minion type (and Mount in the sequel) you'll be pitted against a series of puzzles and enemies that require you to master the abilities of that exact Minion type. The series is pretty good at setting up the tutorials without breaking the flow, for example in Overlord II an ambush by a squad of soldiers proves the perfect opportunity to demonstrate your new tamed wolves' ability to break enemy formations.

* NiceHat: Besides your own spiky helmet and Quaver's jester hat, the minions in general are fond of strapping random stuff to their heads, be it actual hats and helmets to flowers, pumpkins, and dead rats. In Overlord II, some bosses will drop special minion hats, as well.

* PokeThePoodle: Several such pastimes are provided that don't even nudge the KarmaMeter, such as slaughtering sheep and stomping sunflowers. The early parts of Overlord II feature a lot of killing of baby seals.

** The ending of Overlord II [[spoiler:implies that Gnarl may be planning to pull an EvilerThanThou and backstab the Overlord.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: The game teeters back and forth on this option. Some games present options for being a good guy with scary armor while Overlord II has you merrily massacring hippies while slaughtering stadium crowds. The sequel suggests that darkness is somewhat necessary for when LightIsNotGood, however.

Due to the series' playstyle, it's often seen as a DarkerAndEdgier Medieval {{Pikmin}}, though they don't [[FandomRivalry clash]] as much as you would think.

* DuelingGames: Basically the EvilCounterpart of ''{{Pikmin}}''.

%%* MascotMook: The Minions

%%* {{Troperiffic}}: Look at these pages!

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler: Oberon Greenhaze actually ''begs'' for you to kill him so the tree will die.]]

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: According to WordOfGod, this is what happens to the Third Overlord after the completion of the Infernal Abyss and the killing of the Forgotten God.]]

* CoupDeGraceCutscene

* EvilChancellor: Gnarl serves you in this regard. Fortunately, you're evil too. [[spoiler: Not that that stops him from betraying you the moment your predecessor turns up, though this is depicted as merely a duty and encourages you to defeat the Old Overlord so that he can rejoin you.]]
** The ending of Overlord II [[spoiler: implies that Gnarl may be planning to pull an EvilerThanThou and backstab the Overlord.]]

* EvilOverlord: [[CaptainObvious Well]], [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin duh]].

* FaceHeelTurn: Quite the big one, in fact. [[spoiler: It turns out that you were an "eighth hero" that suddenly showed up on the original seven hero's journey to defeat your predecessor. You, the eighth hero, killed your predecessor and gravely injured yourself, The overlord before you hitched a ride in the wizard's body, and serves as the game's final boss]]

* FallenHero: A staggering portion of the [=NPCs=]..
* FauxAffablyEvil: Gnarl.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Overlord. Interestingly, in Dark Legend and Overlord II the respective candidates have glowing eyes even before they become full-fledged Overlords, though the Overlad is justified since he is actually a EnfanteTerrible. Gromgard is apparently just destined for evil.

* GoGoEnslavement: If your chaos level is high enough villagers will offer you a virgin (actually the town's harlot) to calm you. Gnarl will come up with the idea of capturing women as maid and will dress them in skimpy outfits.

* KarmaMeter: Odd though it may seem. It basically measures JerkWithAHeartofGold vs. StupidEvil.
** After a few reveals, the karma meter in the first game becomes AntiVillain Vs. AxCrazy. The sequel doesn't give you a choice between allegiance, you're evil regardless, your karmic choices come down to MindControl or AxCrazy again.
* KarmicDeath: According to WordOfGod, all Overlords end up in the Abyss one way or another. That's not so bad for [[spoiler: the canonical NobleDemon protagonist of the first game since he's also its new ''[[HellHasNewManagement ruler]]''.]]

** Considering the aforementioned, it probably won't suck all that much for [[spoiler: His son, either, considering the aforementioned canonical NobleDemon behavior, he'll most likely cut his own flesh and blood some slack.]]

* MascotMook: the Minions

* PhysicalGod: [[spoiler: This is what becomes of the Third Overlord after the completion of the Infernal Abyss.]]

** PyroManiac: If you use your fireball spells to set scenery on fire in the first game, all of your minions get way too excited about it.

* {{Polyamory}}: Averted in the first game with the choice of mistress. Gnarl says that you must choose either Velvet or keep Rose as there is only enough room in the Dark Tower for one mistress. Played straight in the sequel where you collect three mistresses over the course of the game, are allowed to keep them, and chose any one to be your primary one at any point in the game.

** On the other hand, [[spoiler: it turns out that you were actually the last Hero, one that joined in defeating the previous Overlord. So really, this is what you looked like then as well.]]

* SilentProtagonist: the Overlord never speaks, which actually raises his intimidation factor considerably during cutscenes. Compare the Wizard possessed by your predecessor in the first game who never shuts up.
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: The Fourth Overlord, for the The Third. [[spoiler: Despite him not technically being dead, the fact that Rose discovers she's pregnant with the Overlad after his father ends up permanently trapped in the Dark Abyss means it qualifies.]]

* SurroundedByIdiots: your Minions are loyal to the point of willingly embracing death at your merest whim. They're also dumber than a sack of particularly dull hammers. Ah well, you can't have it all...

* TakeOverTheWorld: your main goal.

* {{Troperiffic}}: Look at these pages!

* VillainProtagonist: Well, duh.

* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: But without the hardware. Gnarl, and sometimes one or more mistresses, can communicate with the Overlord over any range through the Tower Heart. Later, [[spoiler: Rose can talk to you directly using her mind...somehow]].

* WeHaveReserves: Your typical attitude to the Minions. Dark Legend has you throttle minions to turn them into suicide bombers, but subverted in II where you can resurrect fallen ones that you've taken a liking to.

* WhatTheHellHero: Almost everyone in this game who is supposed to be "good" is actually pretty corrupt. Ironically, despite the fact that your character is the EvilOverlord, he can be played with more redeemable traits than almost anyone.[[spoiler: This is a plot point in the first game, the former Overlord corrupted the seven heroes so they accumulate enough evil that when the eighth hero, namely you, kill the and release the enough energy for the Overlord. All possible because the seven heroes left you for death when the Tower collapsed.]]
* ZergRush: Really, there are few situations you can't solve just by employing more minions. For those, [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer you have to find the right way to employ them.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Almost everyone in this game who is supposed to be "good" is actually pretty corrupt. Ironically, despite the fact that your character is the EvilOverlord, he can be played with more redeemable traits than almost anyone.

* {{Badass}}: Just look at any of the presently-revealed overlords and just say with a straight face that none are badass.
** The one that serves as the protagonist of the first game. The reason being is that [[spoiler: if you take advantage of a certain GameBreaker, he can destroy a giant war machine piloted by the Dwarven hero without any help from his minions']]

** The one that serves as the protagonist of the first game. The reason being is that [[spoiler: if you take advantage of a certain GameBreaker, he can [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome destroy a giant war machine piloted by the Dwarven hero without any help from his minions]]]]

->''Evil always finds a way...''
-->--'''Gnarl'''