Draw from sufficient distinctive inspirations, and ultimately, a sport begins to really feel fully novel. That’s the feeling that emerges as you play Unicorn Overlord, Vanillaware’s huge fantasy journey of ways, technique, and storytelling. I used to be constantly reminded of different methods and mechanics from prior style releases, however the ensuing mixture felt constantly authentic and entertaining, even after many hours of battle and exploration.
Players management a younger, exiled prince in a excessive fantasy world as he regularly gathers a military to take down an omnipotent empire. There’s a big deal with story and character improvement from starting to finish. The incontrovertible fact that the plentiful “thees and thous” body an particularly trope-heavy and acquainted plot doesn’t diminish the enjoyment. Instead, I used to be delighted by the assured and well-written dialogue and its willingness to embrace the enjoyable of numerous long-lost siblings, figures in disguise, and redemptive character arcs. By the top, some fascinating selections allow you to form the sport’s consequence, however this isn’t a sport of daring narrative surprises – merely well-told comfort-food fantasy antics.
Unicorn Overlord is awash in methods that govern your military’s development and enchancment. Whether it’s gear, honor, renown, gold, or character degree, the first aim is rising your military, selling your combatants, increasing the potential dimension of every unit, and organising a staff that may triumph within the subject. Everything works collectively admirably, and it’s nice enjoyable to tweak every small squad unit to create unstoppable combos of harm, protection, and therapeutic.
Battles are an intriguing mixture of real-time troop motion and small unit-to-unit skirmishes. By adjusting every character’s formation placement and tactical decision-making earlier than a melee, you set them up for achievement. However, as soon as an trade begins, your function as commander is within the again seat; you possibly can’t have an effect on the result anymore – solely watch because it performs out. As such, a lot of the gameplay is about intelligent unit placement, motion, use of things, and pre-battle powers. I loved overseeing a big and numerous military of knights, witches, gryphon riders, and elven archers as they strode right into a righteous riot.
Vanillaware’s consideration to element and excessive manufacturing worth are on full show. The huge top-down overworld is stacked with element and vibrant, illustrated backdrops. The rating is grand and dramatic, accompanied by an incredible bounty of memorable voice appearing. Most notably, each story moments and unit battles unfold that includes the studio’s placing trademark artwork and animation type, which leverages exaggerated deformation of every little thing from weapons to character curves and musculature to intensify the fantasy setting and tone.
While I constantly loved my dozens of hours with Unicorn Overlord, the latter half of the sport begins to indicate some cracks within the enjoyable. Because you possibly can preview the result of every battle (which is sweet), many gamers will ultimately do what I did, and start to skip the bombastic visuals of a given skirmish to get on with the bigger battle. The thrill of these lavishly illustrated scenes sadly begins to lean towards tedium.
Likewise, the plentiful unit sorts you each recruit and face in battle are initially intriguing however ultimately grow to be extraordinarily difficult to maintain straight. Imagine a sport of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” the place you possibly can throw any one in every of dozens of distinct hand indicators, and you may see the dilemma. Tactical complexity is sweet, however I in the end discovered holding all of the distinctions straight slowed down the pacing and sense of mastery somewhat than enhancing an already wealthy tactical simulation. Combine these two issues, and late-game battles can really feel repetitive and muddled.
Even acknowledging these frustrations, I really like the number of encounters Unicorn Overlord presents and the seamless manner so many interlocking sport methods contribute to an overarching saga of magic and warfare. From starting to finish, the sport feels crafted, balanced, and deep, with out sacrificing approachability. Set apart preconceptions from the bizarre identify, and also you’ll discover an epic nicely value exploring.
