System: Swap
Launch date: March 8, 2024
Developer: Vanillaware
Writer: Atlus
It’s not fairly often you discover a developer that’s so actually keen about their recreation that they are going to fund it out of their very own pocket when the price range runs out, so decided are they to comprehend their artistic imaginative and prescient that cash ceases to be an element. However that is par for the course for Vanillaware, who’ve delivered persistently wonderful titles for over twenty years now. With Unicorn Overlord, a recreation ten years within the making, the corporate has crafted one of the vital intricate, partaking, and mechanically dense tactical RPGs I’ve performed in years.
Admittedly, Unicorn Overlord doesn’t get off to the strongest begin, and initially paints a really by-the-numbers situation with the Kingdom of Cornia beneath assault by the forces of Galerius. The Queen entrusts her son Alain to Josef, who spirits the boy away to security as she makes a futile final try to withstand her nation’s subjugation. Quick-forward ten years and Alain, now a succesful warrior and chief in his personal proper, returns on the head of the aptly-named Liberation Military, intent on liberating the lands from Galerius’ rule. As Alain you’ll journey throughout the land of Fevrith doing simply that, recruiting like-minded people to your trigger, passing judgment on those that have taken benefit of the final chaos, and returning the land to a state of peace.
When measured towards its contemporaries Unicorn Overlord’s overarching narrative does little to impress. As you progress by means of the primary marketing campaign it should take some twists and turns, however these are fairly formulaic and pretty straightforward to foretell for those who’re even passingly aware of fantasy tropes, and I used to be somewhat disenchanted that it by no means appeared to step exterior of its consolation zone to current one thing somewhat extra thrilling. This isn’t essentially some extent towards it as dialogue is suitably dramatic (helped alongside by pretty good voice appearing within the majority of cases) and the archive entries which can be regularly added assist to maintain issues transferring at a snug tempo, while offering some extra lore and context for individuals who are interested by immersing themselves extra deeply within the numerous relationships and politics. Unicorn Overlord can be notably mild on particular fantasy jargon, making it simpler to digest than many titles that prefer to throw terminology at you and depart it to you to puzzle out the context as finest you possibly can.
However I nonetheless discovered that this barely underwhelming central plot did little to minimize my enjoyment of the sport. You’ll be able to focus fully on the story for those who so select, speeding throughout the land to deal with the subsequent story quest, however the recreation actively discourages this by largely leaving you fully to your personal gadgets when you’ve completed the opening tutorial. A number of huge territories unfold out earlier than you, and the way you work together with them is sort of fully as much as you – and there’s a lot to work together with. Liberation is the primary focus of Unicorn Overlord, and the whole lot you do ties into this wider purpose, superseding the restricted narrative to make this a recreation extra in regards to the journey than the vacation spot. The place the primary story didn’t curiosity or shock me, I discovered myself captivated by the assorted aspect tales that the sport threw at me with virtually each new location I visited: as you journey the land you’ll encounter numerous characters, lots of whom you possibly can recruit to your trigger. Assuming, after all, that you just make the appropriate selections.
Though your selections won’t ever impression the primary story of Unicorn Overlord, they will have a profound impression in your journey. Close to the start of the sport I used to be given the choice of liberating a personality or handing them over to the native constabulary after I’d bested them in fight. After listening to their barely-believable sob story about their circumstances I made a decision at hand them over and acquired a pleasant hefty money reward for my troubles… and in addition earned the enmity of that character, which wasn’t with out repercussions down the road. I wasn’t fairly so fast to dismiss or execute the subsequent few troublemakers who got here my method after that, and the chance arose greater than as soon as, with my very own sanity being questioned by my occasion in some cases once I determined, but once more, to indicate mercy to those that didn’t essentially deserve it on the off-chance I would both recruit a helpful ally or at the least keep away from making yet one more enemy. Though most of the aspect tales aren’t fairly this dramatic, it offers an actual weight to your selections, and makes your slowly burgeoning military really feel extra customized when these characters elect to affix your trigger. You’ll be able to deepen your bond with these characters later within the story by utilizing them in battle or giving them presents, prompting small occasions that additional broaden on their tales, regardless of the minimal impression it will sometimes have on the overarching narrative.
In fact, the actual purpose to hunt out allies is to bolster and diversify your forces for the sport’s many battles. Fight in Unicorn Overlord walks a skinny line between real-time technique and turn-based fight, mixing the 2 for an expertise that feels fairly completely different from both. Items on the map will transfer in real-time to the factors that you just direct, and the battles themselves are technically turn-based, however by means of intelligent manipulation you possibly can finish the battle earlier than the enemy has an opportunity to land a single blow at instances. To forestall you from storming by means of battles with a single unit, every has a set variety of motion factors – as soon as these are used up, you’ll must relaxation that unit, and there’s a timer as effectively. Fortuitously that is fairly beneficiant, and feels extra designed to cease you from merely resting in a safer place on the map to get well motion factors than it does to rush you alongside. Motion may be sped up and battles may be sped up or skipped outright for those who’d choose to not watch them unfold, and previews of battles will probably be proven on-screen earlier than they play out.
There are an enormous number of courses to select from in Unicorn Overlord, that are launched to you at a snug tempo as you progress. There’s so much to digest right here, and though the sport solely offers you temporary tutorial introductions on each it does present some options about attainable occasion composition to make finest use of them; that is greater than sufficient to get by on the bottom issue setting for these much less within the trivialities of fight. For individuals who wish to go all-in, Unicorn Overlord gives a staggering vary of alternatives to take action. For instance, when contemplating Items, you’ll want to contemplate the quantity, courses, and formation of characters. That is simply the tip of the iceberg: a bigger variety of models may appear extra useful, however may imply that a number of characters could possibly be hit without delay by enemies who can strike each the back and front row on the identical time. The chief of the occasion can decide their motion capabilities: placing a mounted character as occasion chief will make them journey quicker, however will make them susceptible to completely different courses.
Every character additionally has Ways, which helps you to decide what abilities they’ll use in battle, and when. The default settings are greater than sufficient to get by on decrease difficulties, and the AI is pretty competent at adjusting as characters acquire ranges to make the perfect use of the Lively Expertise they’ll study, however correctly managing this turns into important on greater difficulties to survival. You’ll be able to set characters to focus on enemies with kind of well being with particular abilities first, or prioritize therapeutic. Characters, after all, have their very own particular person ranges and stats, in addition to Passive Expertise which give numerous boosts, and Valor Expertise which you can activate your self in battle as you amass Valor factors. Whenever you’re managing a number of Items and courses, it’s straightforward to spend hours on micro-managing your occasion, and this solely turns into extra advanced and fascinating as you progress by means of the sport and extra choices develop into accessible to you.
At instances it may be so much to course of and I’ve barely scratched the floor of the intricacies of fight. However I can’t overstate sufficient simply how straightforward and pure all of it is in apply, and the way snug the pacing of the sport is. That is with out the JRPG staple of grinding as effectively. This can be very troublesome, if not not possible, to grind in Unicorn Overlord in a standard sense. Regardless of this I by no means discovered myself missing in energy on the default issue, nor the problem too overwhelming on greater difficulties. Josef serves as a really dependable clutch character for a lot of the sport, being a number of ranges greater than everybody else to start out and an especially robust mounted unit, and the quite a few choices to enhance fight proficiency makes failure really feel extra like a studying expertise for these techniques than a punishment. Vanillaware have crafted an exceptionally balanced recreation, which is all of the extra notable for the staggering variety of choices accessible, and the truth that, proper as much as the tip of the sport, I used to be always discovering new methods and choices, be that in a brand new class, new abilities for my present characters, or new methods to make the most of the quite a few gameplay mechanics to deliver all of them collectively.
Exterior of fight, you’ll be spending your time roaming the assorted landmasses that make up the overworld map, which provide its personal wealth of aspect actions so that you can take part in to additional the event of your characters and liberation of the land. Due to course, your job will not be achieved when you’ve cleared out the world of enemies, and nor do you’ll want to liberate the complete map as a part of the story – however it’s positively in your finest pursuits to take action. Whereas fight is clearly Unicorn Overlord’s essential focus and its greatest attraction, I discovered that the aspect actions had been equally partaking, and will simply spend a number of hours exterior of battle exploring the encompassing space to see what I may uncover on the way in which – and it was very uncommon that this was time wasted. That is helped in no small half by a wonderful quick journey system that lets you hop between liberated settlements and mission aims at any time.
You’ll encounter quite a lot of quests in Unicorn Overlord as you discover. Foremost Quests are pretty self-explanatory, being these that may drive the story ahead, with Facet Quests typically introducing a brand new character (and often a brand new class connected to that character) so that you can add to your arsenal. Liberation Quests are barely much less fascinating, being one-off skirmish battles that may see roaming enemies disappear from the map upon victory, permitting you to journey that space unchallenged.
When you’ve liberated an space, you’ll additionally open up Overworld Quests, that are non-combative and subsequently extra different: though many are fetch quests for NPCs, you may additionally be tasked with exploring ruins, constructing bridges, and even catching chickens. Liberated settlements even have their very own Deliveries that require you to show in a set variety of supplies that you just’ll discover from quite a few gathering factors on the map to enhance their services. This was the one a part of the sport I discovered to be barely irritating, as I rapidly discovered myself working out of sources to finish supply quests for the various settlements I used to be liberating, and so they weren’t respawning on the world map rapidly sufficient.
To cap all of it off, Unicorn Overlord is visually beautiful. Should you’re in any respect aware of Vanillaware you’ll recognise the signature hand-drawn artwork fashion, which prioritizes element over animation but nonetheless manages to seize some dynamic scenes that make fight really feel partaking and breathe life into the extra static character artwork. Every character, even NPCs which you can recruit and customise your self from a restricted variety of choices, is visually distinct, with voice appearing that’s of a wonderful normal and seems like a pure match for the setting. The extent of element current in Unicorn Overlord interprets completely to each situation and gameplay fashion, whether or not you’re in a fight animation, watching your models transfer into place, or on the world map itself; in each docked and handheld this recreation shines, and there’s no subject with lag, body fee spikes, and even noticeably lengthy loading instances. It’s a visible feast for the eyes that by no means fails to disappoint and is the right match for the Swap, which is an especially welcome shock when contemplating the generally chaotic nature of the fight and the final efficiency of many multi-platform titles.
The Verdict
Regardless of having performed the story by means of to completion and explored each nook of the map, I really feel as if I’ve barely scratched the floor of Unicorn Overlord. There are such a lot of smaller gameplay mechanics and interactions that I’ve not noted right here for the sake of brevity, and my playthrough was made up of so many of those moments that they greater than made up for any misgivings I had with the overarching narrative. The satan is within the particulars, and Unicorn Overlord is overflowing with them, every as brilliantly crafted and lovingly perfected as the subsequent. The smaller character-focused tales and overwhelmingly dense gameplay mechanics make it the most effective technique RPGs I’ve performed in years, and a worthy jewel in Vanillaware’s already overly-decorated crown. Should you play nothing else this 12 months, ensure you play this.
Unicorn Overlord copy supplied by the writer for the needs of this overview.