Review | Unicorn Overlord

Tactical strategy fans will be in for a treat—because developer Vanillaware’s and publisher ATLUS’ latest title ‘Unicorn Overlord’ is both gorgeous as it is fun as a somewhat real-time strategy and unit management role-playing game. Set some 10 years after a coup overthrows the world into chaos, a prince that was whisked away in all the kerfuffle now finds himself taking it all back, meeting a lot of friends on the way.

Your leadership will be tested on this quest. Stick close and watch why Unicorn Overlord is just so much fun.

Follow the Leader

In Unicorn Overlord, players are tasked with clearing out enemy Zenorian encampments all across the game’s five continents. You will traverse the overworld, scouring for goods and resources to help your fellow citizens in need. And, when the time calls for it, you’ll bear arms and take on bad guys in a semi-real-time tactical battle. Here, you’ll need to route enemies under a strict time limit as they spawn from their encampments and encroach toward your sole base. There are usually a lot of baddies, but no need to fret because you can spawn out allies in great numbers all the same.

See, in Vanillaware’s latest SRPG, there are no tiles to speak of. You’ll spawn units, point them in a direction or place and they’ll walk as best they can around obstacles and tough terrain. You can set relay points to make units walk in a specific path, however, which can be very helpful at times. But usually, auto-routing works just fine, and anywho you’ll spend most of your time figuring out which units to send out and how best to overwhelm fortified positions while occasionally keeping an eye on your bases so they don’t get clapped.

Getting to the units themselves, each squad can hold up to six troops at a time, though they start at a measly two. As you clear through the game, you’ll get a currency called “Honours” which is used to hire new troops and enlarge your existing squads. These squads are set up as a set of six tiles for you to adjust troop positioning and to fit them in the best spots possible to minimise damage received and maximise output. As for the troops themselves, there are a lot of classes to choose from and so many kinds of setups you can build out of these guys. Hiring units, too lets you choose how they look and set up their growth targets.

For starters, your troops have base skills and will unlock more as they level up. But one thing I haven’t mentioned is how the combat actually plays out: based on your squad’s tactics and positioning in their squads, they will automatically battle other units once they’ve made contact. That’s right, your job isn’t to dictate battle commands but to lead the right troops to battle at a given time and, later on, learn how to set behaviour conditions for your allies to do their magic. This system feels incredibly rewarding as I messed around with a lot of positioning and different classes to mow down foes faster than they can spawn. It can get daunting, so feel free to just press “optimise” and let the game set it all up for you.

Now you’ve got your units, but you still need to lead them to victory. Maps are usually filled to the brim with not only baddies but garrisoned troops at command points, spawning enemies over time among other fortified positions like watch posts, ballistas, and whathaveyou. Not to mention, your units might have a tough time crossing terrain that they’re not suited for, like strong desert sand. Unicorn Overlord gives you a lot of ways to fight these, some in the form of Valour commands and free item usage whenever you so please. But either way, varied map design helps keep the game fresh even if objectives remain the same.

Valour Points dictate how many units you can put out at a given time among special commands each of the game’s classes carry. These commands range from support, healing, and attack abilities that can help give you a serious edge against a particularly annoying garrisoned squad. As for items, these can give stat boosts, level-ups, healings, and all that good stuff. It pays to be well-stocked and Unicorn Overlord is happy to rain you in money to do so. Seriously, stock up because some boss fights can be a royal pain in the butt.

Slowly Home But Surely Sweet Home

Technically, the game’s combat isn’t really all that long. Most of the game’s stages are set for about two minutes, but you’ll spend a lot of time paused as you set up unit positions and order troops to do battle. Though the game’s presentation is gorgeous (more on that in a bit), it can be a little tiring to see battles play out over and over again. Thankfully, you can skip these fights and get to the end result. See, each time allied units and baddies collide, you’re given an outlook of the battle. Whether you win or lose based on a whole bunch’a stuff I mentioned earlier. Almost all the time, it’s accurate, and winning battles will be a surefire skip. But if you get stuck in a funny position where a squad of yours has no way to back out of a battle, you should watch the fight play out to see why you got whooped.

No worries about getting bonked, however, as there is no permadeath. But units not yet allied, potential allies that might show up on the battlefield and require a talking-to to get them on your side have a potential to get glassed in the process. These events, among others, really help keep the battlefield from getting stale as you will be forced to adapt if you don’t want to get a bad end. On the bright side, restarting a stage is as easy as pie and, once you’ve had a go-around, the second time usually goes faster and much smoother. Note that sometimes units group up a little too well and you’ll have to do a bit of pause shuffling to split them up from one another, which can get a little annoying. The pausing, too, does get annoying, especially when a lot of units begin to collide or the map conditions alter. Expect to hold the right trigger to fast-forward at all times even with relatively simple battles.

Once outside of a fight, you’re back to the overworld. As I mentioned before, you’ll run errands here but also find quests and new places to do battle in. These quests and items found in the overworld give you lots of goodies, but you will also use them to level up towns you’ve rescued back to their former glory. This will give you access to more facilities, which in turn gets you better geared up for future battles.

Now I get to tell you just how beautiful Unicorn Overlord is. Vanillaware is well-known for its gorgeous 2D sprites from games such as Odin Sphere and Dragon’s Crown, and this game is no different. The overworld gleams with life as the time-of-day changes, there are so many backgrounds and battle sprites that all animate oh-so beautifully with great sound effects. And the music does a solid job of alternating between movements depending on the course of action. Mind, it doesn’t stretch too far out from the typical fantasy melodies but that goes for the game’s narrative as well.

As you liberate the overworld, you’ll have plenty of cutscenes from all sorts of points of view. Primarily many of them will be through the eyes of Alain, a young prince who seeks to clear out the Zenorian outposts from a hearty bad guy with a big stomach named Gallerius, who has seized control of not only the land but key commanders who can see nothing more but to serve the big guy. Beat ’em up, sometimes decide their fates through story choices, but most importantly free those that are under the big man’s rule.

I will say this, normally I’m not all too keen on medieval-inspired fantasy narratives like this one. Overthrowing the crown, bad guys claiming land, all that stuff. But I’ll say this: Unicorn Overlord does a good job with its pacing and almost always keeps you at the centre of the action. As in the big events always happen with you around, which might not sound like much but many a game narrative seems to love the major off-screen event that gets told to you via messenger or a brief cutscene.

Not only do you get a lot of different viewpoints in this game’s tale, but they don’t drag, character motivations are reasonable, and the English voice acting delivery is enjoyable. Rapports are available as fellow troops battle alongside each other or are stuffed with food at the tavern, which gives you bonuses and more narrative. Mind, there are a lot of characters, and with a lot of dialogue that reacts to how you behave in battle at times. It’s really cool to see and it makes Unicorn Overlord feel like a tight, compelling experience.

The game delivers story cutscenes no matter how you progress, so long as you are progressing. Technically there are a lot of junction points that let you tackle later story beats sooner, but I suggest taking your time and smelling the roses. Heck, speaking of time, if my glowing remarks about this game aren’t enough for you, Unicorn Overlord has a demo across all platforms that not only offers a lot of playtime but will even let you transfer your save file to the full game. Who can say “no” to free?

As for me, I’ve said my piece: Unicorn Overlord is a fantastic strategy game that is both gorgeous as it is fun. Tactics fans are in for a treat, and even those weak to the genre find this game to be a fulfilling experience. ■

Unicorn Overlord

Played on

Xbox Series X

PROS

• Gorgeous spritework and presentation.
• Fun tactical combat with more emphasis on management than move execution.
• Story is tried 'n true, but paced and told well.
• Game does its best to change up the pacing of its battles through random events.

CONS

• Units can become clustered at times and hard to choose on the battlefield.
• The game likes to pause a lot.

9.0 out of 10

UNMISSABLE

XboxEra Scoring Policy

Available on

Xbox Series | PlayStation 4 | PlayStation 5 | Switch

Developer

Vanillaware

Released on

March 8, 2024

Publisher

ATLUS

Rated

Teen

Price

$59.99 / $69.99 USD

See on the Xbox Store