The battle is won or lost on the field, with ingenious tactics and the need to make sure your wife and/or husband level up enough before the next round, with the need to rejig their power level and skills to streamline how you defeat the enemies as quickly as possible.
Unicorn Overlord is one of the most impressive Tactical RPGs that’s on the market so far that blends programming of all things and anime in the most positive way imaginable.
Presentation
The game introduces you to a colorful fantasy world from the get-go, with an amazing backdrop of a besieged kingdom as you and your mentor/guardian escape the clutches of the evil villain. The presentation of the intro immediately pulls you into the world-building of not only the main story but also how it presents itself.
The story of the rebellion set by our main character Alain and his companions is incredibly engaging, with the story beat that not only highlights the heroes and their struggles along the way but also the villains (who can be our companions should we decide to spear them) who have their own reasons in being within the side of the Zenoiran Empire, be it for power or something else and it’s this dichotomy that helps shape how we approach each round of battle beforehand, weather to spear or take down the foes for our gain.
The warm colors of the artstyle and direction that has it’s similarity to their previous games Dragon Crown, which is also distinct with their fantasy artstyle and I appreciate both games going wild with this art concept.
The sound design and voice acting are top-notch as well, with both JP and English voice casts bringing in top folks from even their rival series Fire Emblem to help lend a hand in voicing the cast. Not to mention the music direction feels quite in tune for those quiet scenes and even during the intense encounters that you’ll face during the tactical segments.
Gameplay
The gameplay for Unicorn Overlord is quite different from the previous two Vanillaware games in that it’s more of a tactical RPG in the vein of Tactics Ogre and of course, Fire Emblem, where you can create a unit from a starting two to a more robust 6 man party that have their own powers and such, with most battle going automatically unlike their competitors.
One aspect that you can change however is how your characters would deploy their attacks or healing aspect via their menu system where you can go “if Alain gets hurt, then Scarlet heals damage” in a sort of a computer coding way that feels like you’re making the attacks so streamline that enemies might have no chance to retaliate.
And with each battle, you can reshuffle your teams in order to make your damage output more o make it more efficient during battles, which not only increase the levels of your party but also increase their approval (or Rapport) rating just like that other game as well, and with enough ranks, can partake in holy matrimony (aka marry) your companion, no matter what gender you prefer, kinda like in Three Houses or even Baldur’s Gate 3.
One neat hidden feature is that, if you can grind the right materials for a certain questline, you can beeline towards the final boss if you so desire. It could be a suicide mission but the fact that the option is there tells me Vanillaware knows its audience well and putting it there within the first few hours tells me that they are confident that the players can figure out a way to finish the game that quick. And I do respect that.
Content
Unicorn Overlord is LONG.
Like this can be something that you can chip per day and it will still take you around half a year to complete everything. The total runtime is going to be at minimum, 50 hours, and that’s me with trial and error-ing some battles. It’s one of those games that are just incredible at time-sinking your senses as you take another round of battles with the forces of evil just to see if you grow the team better and stronger.
Personal Enjoyment
It has been a minute since my last proper Tactical RPG (FE: Engage was released around this time last year), so hopping into Unicorn Overlord for something that’s both familiar and different in one neat package was an incredible surprise. It has its quirks, sure but that feeling of beating a long battle towards the end is satisfying all the same.
And though I do have some reservations on how it relies on setting up the programming-style system to get the optimal output for your teams, it does emphasize the “tactical” aspect to many’s liking, which I agree is a good move, even if I just usually make one or two changes during the entire run at times.
Though those who came from 11 Sentinels might have some issues at first getting into the game (kinda like Dragon’s Crown) but you’ll be warmly welcome in the long run.
In short, it’s a pretty good tactical game to chill too.
Verdict
Unicorn Overlord is a fascinating tactics game about taking over the lands by making friends and programming yourself to be the best way to conquer enemies. It’s another banger from the folks at Vanillaware and they have outdid themselves to make their vision clear as day.
A clear contender for Game Of The Year and this year hasn’t even gone far yet.
Played on PS4, Review copy provided by Sega Asia.
Unicorn Overlord
A fascinating tactics game about taking over the lands by making friends and programming yourself to be the best way to conquer enemies. It’s another banger from the folks at Vanillaware.
- Presentation 9
- Gameplay 8
- Content 9
- Personal Enjoyment 8