There’s a satisfaction that comes from being informed you’re too weak to face a problem after which shortly handing your enemy their defeat on a silver platter regardless. Being the David to your enemy’s Goliath and leveraging not simply bodily however strategic energy to beat the percentages is a thrill that by no means will get outdated. That’s why regardless of what number of occasions I end a battle in Unicorn Overlord, I stay keen to seek out my subsequent combatant and train them to not underestimate me.
The self-described tactical RPG (that’s in actuality extra of a real-time technique sport) involves us from Vanillaware, the developer behind video games like Odin’s Sphere and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, and it’s a marvel of system design that blends planning forward with fast-paced reactions. Simply while you assume you’ve realized every little thing you might want to learn about find out how to strategy and win its large-scale tactical battles, it unveils one more piece of the puzzle you might want to take into account. Whereas the narrative of Vanillaware’s newest launch doesn’t attain the heights that followers of the twisting 13 Sentinels might hope for, it doesn’t have to—not when its fight is so meticulously designed and fascinating. Unicorn Overlord is without doubt one of the most spectacular techniques video games in current reminiscence, and it’s to not be missed.
Welcome to Fevrith, now let’s go to battle
Unicorn Overlord takes place within the medieval world of Fevrith. Solid within the position of Prince Alain, the rightful inheritor to the throne, you’re charged with liberating the world from the clutches of an evil emperor. It’s all pretty generic and largely acts as set-dressing. All you actually need to know for now could be that Vanillaware’s techniques RPG is about assembling a military and profitable battles throughout the map as a part of your play to reclaim the throne.
These battles are the sport’s bread and butter. Scattered throughout the expansive overworld that’s the 5 kingdoms of Fevrith, encounters can vary from small skirmishes to huge, multi-stage battles throughout a big swath of the map. The sport eases you into the size of fights in addition to the sheer quantity of methods it’s a must to interact with via the opening couple of hours (which make up the at the moment obtainable demo). This early stretch contains some battles which will really feel gradual to style aficionados, nevertheless it serves a obligatory goal, dishing out vital data on the sport’s workings in bite-sized chunks. Earlier than lengthy, you’ll discover that battles are nothing if not fast-paced and stress-inducing (in a great way).
A typical Unicorn Overlord battle performs out as follows. You begin at a Command Publish on one aspect of the map and sometimes should defeat a boss on the different finish and seize the enemy Command Publish. You summon items by spending Valor Factors, after which direct these items via the map. Valor Factors accrue over time by defeating enemy items or capturing enemy outposts. Along with appearing as a useful resource to summon your combatants, Valor Factors may also be spent to make use of characters’ particular skills, referred to as Valor Abilities. The opposite principal useful resource to maintain monitor of is Stamina, which each unit has a set quantity of. Each encounter with an enemy unit consumes stamina, and when it’s depleted, a unit can now not transfer or defend themselves.
All of this happens in real-time on the map, although you’ll be able to (and may) pause at any time to take a second and assess your troop actions. And when you do inform items the place to go, they’re fairly self-sufficient in the case of really clashing with enemies. That’s because of the Ways system, which is the most effective riff on Last Fantasy XII’s gambit system since…nicely Last Fantasy XII. Earlier than battle, you’ll be able to positive tune how every character in a unit acts, comparable to telling a healer to solely use a therapeutic spell when an allied unit’s well being goes beneath a sure share, or advising a cavalry unit to make use of a particular assault when clashing with a unit that has a thief in it.
It’s like extra-complicated chess
That’s the best rationalization I can muster, nevertheless it hardly scratches the floor of how advanced these battles turn out to be. A lot of that complexity is as a result of sport’s unit system. Items are teams of fighters organized into two rows of three. Although you direct your items in actual time throughout the map, when two opposing items conflict, you’re despatched to a separate display screen the place these forces duke it out. The result is decided by the way you’ve organized the unit, and what every character’s benefits or weaknesses are in comparison with these of their foes. Whereas Unicorn Overlord attracts on many different techniques and real-time technique video games for inspiration, the most important affect is Ogre Battle 64, whose mixing of each genres was sufficient to safe it a cult standing. Like that Nintendo 64 title, Unicorn Overlord pulls from each spectrums of affect to create a fight system that equally values strategic planning and on-the-fly unit motion.
Items can embody as much as six fighters, however Unicorn Overlord begins you off small with two items, every with a restrict of two characters. Every character has a category with its personal advantages. The Thief class, for instance, effectively dodges assaults, whereas Gryphon Knights provide the benefit of with the ability to fly throughout the map. Many of those characters are collected by finishing aspect quests all through the world. Given the sport’s pretty fundamental narrative, although, probably the most attention-grabbing factor about these characters is their beautiful artwork design, however the full glory of the studio’s signature model is just seen in cutscenes and through unit clashes. Whereas exploring the overworld or directing items on a battle map, Unicorn Overlord renders the world in a bite-sized, nearly chibi trend. It’s certainly not ugly, however you’ll be able to’t assist however want that the complete sport was rendered in its full scale.
Items may also be upgraded over time, providing you with entry to extra items and extra characters inside every unit—to not point out upgraded lessons additional into the sport. That’s carried out with Honors, one other forex earned by finishing varied duties like making deliveries and even rounding up chickens.
Ultimately, all these methods (and others which I haven’t talked about as a result of there’s simply a lot on this sport) come collectively in these superb large-scale battles I discussed. The sport opens up the world to you after you full your first huge battle, just for it to supply up ever-more-complex fights, as if to say “you ain’t seen nothin’ but.” These greater battles that make up the sport’s principal quest are all extremely well-designed challenges that repeatedly add to or subvert what you’ve already realized.
Placing all of it collectively
One significantly memorable encounter comes within the kingdom of Drakenhold. After so many battles with the win situation of “assault the enemy throughout the map and seize the command submit,” you face one through which enemy forces encompass you and transfer towards you, whereas your job is now to defend the command submit. The sport tells you you can struggle your solution to a boss to finish the battle, although you may additionally attempt to make this a battle of attrition and easily outlast your enemy. It’s an expertly executed twist that makes you rethink the way you’ve been taking part in the sport.
And this occurs in battle after battle. One other tough encounter revealed that it was really a multi-stage struggle after I had wasted a lot of my items to defeat the boss, who then transported throughout the map and challenged me to beat them as soon as extra. (Tip: keep in mind to save lots of throughout huge battles, which is one thing you are able to do!) Generally climate impacts battles and restricts your imaginative and prescient of the sector, making planning out motion that a lot more durable. However these twists on the components by no means really feel like an inexpensive transfer that’s meant to punish you. Moderately, they’re a problem to assume smarter, which is what this sport is all about. Being strategic. Regardless of battles taking part in out in real-time, a lot of the result is decided earlier than you even begin an encounter. You need to take into consideration unit group, gear, and punctiliously tuning the Ways menu. However once more, that doesn’t imply the real-time motion inside battles is unimportant. Guiding your items deftly via a map and difficult particular enemy combatants is a obligatory ability. A participant must grasp each key factors of Unicorn Overlord’s fight to succeed.
The good thing about Unicorn Overlord’s deference to techniques is that in case you actually assume strategically, you’ll be able to all the time come out the victor. Throughout my time with the sport I used to be nearly all the time beneath the really helpful degree for an encounter. As a substitute of grinding to outlevel my opponent, I prioritized taking time to plot the most effective plan to beat them. This will result in deceptively easy approaches that make once-complex battles look like a breeze. One among my most dependable setups revolved round trying on the weaknesses of a boss and tailoring one robust unit composed of characters with benefit over the boss in query to take them down via establishing the right Ways and equipping the strongest gear. I’d then reserve one spot on the unit for a flying character as this allowed me to keep away from a lot of smaller enemies in my path and beeline on to the boss, taking them out and ending the struggle very quickly. With this strategy, I even accomplished one struggle in fourteen seconds. You possibly can’t actually grind to overpower enemies anyway, because the rock-paper-scissors-like system of strengths and weaknesses every character intrinsically has carries extra weight than their degree.
Precisely what it desires to be
A lot of Unicorn Overlord’s momentum throughout its tens of hours is maintained via these progressively tougher battles. What is not going to propel you thru Unicorn Overlord is its narrative. It’s not that there isn’t one. Like I stated, monarch is right here to rescue the world from the evil monarch. It’s simply that this narrative is so completely unoriginal, and the sport itself by no means appears to place a lot weight on it. The opening of Unicorn Overlord exhibits that the enemy emperor was as soon as a trusted help to Alain’s mom, the Queen, however he betrayed them together with a lot of different troopers. This units up the potential for an attention-grabbing story about why these folks selected to insurgent, suggesting that perhaps we don’t know the complete story. However throughout the first half hour, it’s revealed that the majority enemies you face down are literally simply thoughts managed. You repair that with magic and transfer alongside.
The one characters that appear to make their very own decisions are the grunts of the enemy forces. By and huge, the high-born individuals who betrayed you get off scot free. This isn’t an attention-grabbing commentary on how folks in energy can escape punishment within the fictional and actual worlds. It means nothing, as a result of the high-born villains have been mind-controlled and thus not accountable for their actions.
The try at bringing some degree of morality to the sport’s characters continues within the sport’s boss fights, however equally fails. You win and out of the blue the enemy provides you with some sob story about their sick sister or how they’d no alternative however to hitch the ranks of the evil empire. Then you definately’re given the choice to spare them or sentence them to some punishment, be it execution or imprisonment. However because the characters really feel so one-note and the battle lacks actual consequence, these decisions are bereft of which means. It’s not like this story actually tries to do something with the ethical challenges confronted by a ruler within the midst of making an attempt to overthrow one other energy. So on the finish of the day it’s in your finest curiosity to spare the enemy and allow them to be a part of you, since you might all the time use one other soldier in your military.
A lot of this narrative weak point additionally comes from Alain himself. Hes comparatively ineffective in fight, which makes you are feeling disconnected from him and his targets. To take the sport’s narrative and mechanical intertwining at a degree it definitely isn’t engaged on, there’s one thing eerily darkish about Unicorn Overlord portraying the machinations of a monarch who’s assumed to be “good” giving little care to the folks he drafts into service, past their utility in gaining his throne again.
Because the fast follow-up to 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, the shoddy narrative of Unicorn Overlord is especially disappointing. 13 Sentinels confirmed that Vanillaware is able to telling a posh and emotional story, however none of that’s current in Unicorn Overlord. Moderately, this sport is a direct inverse of its predecessor. The place 13 Sentinels prioritized narrative over its occasional RTS segments, Unicorn Overlord goes all in on tactical fight and places narrative on the again burner. In one other world, Unicorn Overlord might have blended each narrative and mechanics to nice success in the identical method that Hearth Emblem: Three Homes does.
However Unicorn Overlord just isn’t inquisitive about that, and albeit it doesn’t should be. This isn’t a sport that’s attempting to be a story masterpiece; it’s attempting to be a mechanical marvel, and it accomplishes the latter in spades. The endlessly creative and extremely well-designed tactical methods at play in Unicorn Overlord make it an exciting problem to deal with. It isn’t only a sport that longtime followers of Vanillaware ought to take note of, it’s for anyone desirous to play the subsequent nice techniques RPG. Unicorn Overlord is the sport you’ve been ready for.
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