An Addicting & Fun Ride On the Unicorn Overlord
After over 80 hours to roll the credits, Unicorn Overlord never ran out of steam, nor did it once become tedious to play. Having a detailed map to freely explore, deeply layered strategy mechanics, and a perpetual gameplay loop will give strategists a hard time to put down this tightly knitted tactics RPG adventure. Although the story is predictable, the way all other aspects of the game tie together will leave a lasting impact on its players.
A Safe Story
While the narrative of Unicorn Overlord is sprawling it’s also as simple as it gets. Queen Ilenia of Cornia is slain and overtaken by Emperor Galarius who proceeds to take over Cornia and the surrounding kingdoms. Alain, child of the late queen, goes into hiding until he is of age to avenge his mother’s death and take back Cornia from the now established kingdom of Zenoira. You command Alain and his army as they travel across the lands to liberate each kingdom and amass an army to take on Emperor Galarius. Doing so will spread the word of the Liberation Army which will appeal to leaders who may offer to join your cause to get back at the common enemy of Zenoria.
In the story, characters have moments of intriguing arcs or motives, but in the end none of them particularly stick out. For example, there’s a mini arc where a certain villain of Zenoria has created a plague that you need to stop from spreading. This small plot does nothing to connect to the main overall plot though. There’s really no twist to the story and the ending, even though it is satisfying, is quite predictable. Unfortunately, the writing of the story or characters doesn’t do anything too memorable. The most memorable thing about them are their class types and what weapons they wield.
A Real-Time-Twist!
Unicorn Overlord’s most unique mechanic is the real-time strategic twist it puts in its combat system. All units move in real time! Yes, this means all battles are given a time limit in which the player needs to complete the mission’s objective (usually defeat so and so) to win. This is interesting because you can set your cavalier unit on a path to a specific enemy garrison. On its path the cavalier may encounter an enemy unit you may have not anticipated. When those units cross paths a battle outcome will be displayed, you have the option to use items, or rearrange the positions within the unit before the battle commences. This can be challenging because the battles are mandatory if units cross paths, no matter the outcome. So it’s imperative to set characters on a path where there are no enemies that directly counter them.
Luckily, the player has the option to pause time at any moment (that’s not combat) and course correct their path. The overall time limit for battles may be a few minutes, but with all the pausing and planning these battles will not be as quick as they seem. Some battles are only to overtake a garrison or two, some battles cover multiple towns and cities. Cleverly, all battles take place on the overworld map which means both inside and out of combat you will be traversing through potential war territory. This clever design just makes it intriguing to see how the inclusion of bodies of water, forests, and other environmental factors will affect combat.
Map Traversal
One of the most interesting things about this journey is being able to openly and thoroughly explore the world map at your leisure. There is a set path to take, but there are many opportunities where the missions open up and leave it for you to explore. You come across towns naturally and literally choose which branching path you want to follow. The story battles are mandatory, but side missions aren’t which makes the journey even more self-made. There’s plenty of secrets to discover and it never felt pointless to walk across the map and see what there is to find.
The Gameplay loop
This game does a great job at introducing the gameplay mechanics and slowly building upon its layers to full capacity. In the beginning of the journey, each unit will only permit two characters in its roster. As battles are won throughout the land you will be rewarded by gaining renown. The more renown attained allows access to upgrade your army level which will open the promotion of units and characters. Honors (in-game currency) are spent to promote character classes and expand the size of units.
Additionally, characters from the army can be stationed at liberated towns and cities to collect neighboring resources. These resources are used to fulfill deliveries needed for towns and cities to be rebuilt. Rebuilding towns and cities will reward you with equipment, useful battle items, and honors. Not every town is able to be rebuilt immediately, this requires you to check on areas that are not stationed or not yet discovered. It is an addicting effort that will have you continuously checking on both new and old open areas to expand and upgrade your characters and units.
Variable Units
The ever growing and customization of units is what kept me so addicted to this tactical RPG. In addition to the number of characters per unit, a unit leader is to be assigned. Each character gives a specific benefit when assigned as unit leader such as reducing wait time or assisting another unit in battle from a short distance. Furthermore, so much significance goes into the positioning of each character within their units. It is recommended to place more beefy characters, like hoplites, in the front row of their units. More fragile characters, like healers or witches should be placed in the back row. It is very fun to try different combinations of characters with varying positioning, and it is really satisfying to find characters that synergize well in battle.
Deep Tactics
The technical mechanics don’t stop there, because character abilities and items diversify gameplay even more! To optimize a character’s effectiveness to the first degree you are able to set conditions to a character’s abilities. For example, a healer by default is set to restore hp to an ally after they take any damage from an enemy. However, the game gives you the control to set conditions to all abilities. Instead, you can make it so that said healer restores hp to their ally after they take a certain amount of damage, you can set that healer to restore hp a certain ally ONLY or you can remove that action entirely.
This can also be a strategic move to give priority to their other abilities or to use secondary weapons the healer may have. Speaking of which, most weapons and items will offer alternate or additional abilities to utilize in the heat of battle. Equipping these weapons to a suitable character can be enough to tip the scale in the heat of combat. Unicorn Overlord’s combat system is as deep as Marianas Trench and not once did I feel too overwhelmed to change anything because it does so well to explain the mechanics.
Performance and Visuals
Unicorn Overlord sports solid and colorful visuals that especially POP on the Switch OLED. Cutscenes and story beats are presented on a 2D lay out, kind of like pages in a book. The simplicity of the cutscenes compliment the visual aesthetic nicely. As for performance, I encountered no issues whatsoever in my play through. Battle segments do run very slowly by nature because the game is turn based. Moving character by character, ability by ability the game can grow tiresome to do every battle. Fortunately, the game gives you the option to fast forward through the battle segments by holding the ‘right trigger.’ You can even skip the whole battle sequence entirely by pressing ‘start‘ to initiate the battle. Although, with vivid visuals and how satisfying it is to outsmart your enemies you will not be skipping all the battles throughout the campaign.
The Verdict
Unicorn Overlord is a cleverly designed Tactics RPG whose strategic systems will hook its player early on. The openness of the map warrants a quest that is full of objectives that are all self-fulfilling and purposeful to complete. It does a fantastic job at teaching its tactics mechanics and excels at allowing its players to find their way to strategize against the countless enemy types to encounter. Unicorn Overlord’s captivating gameplay loop will trap its players into wanting to do everything they can to optimize their units. The narrative is not as interesting as its name ensues, but Vanillaware has proved that the name should be remembered as one of the strongest Tactics RPG to stand on its own. I cannot recommend this game enough to new or veteran tactics RPG players.
Great review!