It’s hard to write a review about it Unicorn overlord: the game is grand, and after over 30 hours I’ve covered just over half the map, traversing grasslands, desert, winding mountain paths and a magical forest on my prince’s conquest to liberate the fantasy land of Fevrith and its to regain the throne. It’s hard because a lot of the games I’ve seen have people comparing each other Unicorn overlord Unpleasant – Tactics Oger, Final Fantasy Tactics – were released before I was born. I was worried not getting it, with no connection to the supposed fun of spending hours in menus, while the tactics games I played most growing up with a DS found their wider appeal through other systems, such as romance. And it’s hard for me to write a review about it Unicorn overlord because I would have to stop playing long enough to write.
Unicorn overlordThe map of Fevrith is an open world of five kingdoms that sprites explore from above. The presentation is similar to Square Enix’s use of HD-2D, but with more painterly environmental art. It’s here that Unicorn overlord makes the strongest break with convention and abandons a traditional level-based structure. When battles do happen, they take place on this map at this scale, just with shadowy area boundaries and new UI elements. When battles begin, sprites are deployed at forts and towns; siege weapons and barricades are laid; and forests, roads, rivers and mountains all become part of the strategic puzzle.
Characters do not fight alone, but in units. Each is composed of characters, whether unique to the story or customizable mercenaries, on a 2×3 grid. When they collide, the scale of a sprite on the large map shrinks to the character within each unit to focus on tactical mechanics. Each character in a unit uses a mix of active and passive abilities unique to their class to deal damage, support allies, and defeat enemies. With many variations on fantasy combat archetypes, from hoplite to witch to griffin rider to elven archer to angelic knight, there’s no easy way to end battles. There are type advantages, but the composition of the units creates complications, such as a hoplite defending a lancer against a griffin knight. The placement of units on their grid can be even more important. There are basic strategies like keeping tank classes at the front, but some classes can abuse that with skills designed to penetrate the back row.
Image: Vanillaware
Within the menus you’ll find equipment and customizable “tactics” that allow you to establish priorities and use cases for each character’s skills, allowing players to tailor movesets to each unique unit combination. While placement is ultimately up to the player and can change the tide of each battle, you can also simply press a button in the menus to optimize equipment and tactics. And in a battle preview screen (à la In the break), you can see the expected damage dealt and received during a battle, and adjust unit placement to influence the outcome. There’s also a whole ‘rapport’ system, which boosts characters with a strong relationship they’ve built by fighting together and sharing gifts or food in the tavern. Many characters also have dialogue to unlock with each other along the way, very similar to Fire emblem.
This large-scale, combining strategic gameplay with a 2D RPG, gives the impression of moving armies and making progress in a campaign. As the large cast of characters from the regions and cities where you fight for every inch of the game come together, these battles give the world a sense of place and vastness. Instead of a home base like a castle or school where you can actually interact with characters, they are located all over the world that you fight to reclaim, and they have homes and family there.
Featuring exploratory missions, smaller skirmishes, side missions that unlock new characters, the report system and main story progression. Unicorn overlord the pacing might be too good. I find myself skipping to all the parts and wasting a rainy Saturday playing the game in the Switch’s handheld mode on my partner’s couch: another battle; you just need to clear up these question marks on the map; well, all these new report conversations are available; let me just put all this new gear on my army; Well, I could go to the tavern while I’m at a castle.
Image: Vanillaware
Image: Vanillaware
Image: Vanillaware
There’s a lot going on, but it doesn’t feel unwieldy. The game strikes a careful balance in the detail it gives you and what control it may want to take away for the sake of simplicity. While playing on normal difficulty, I’ve encountered challenges, but I’ve also encountered them. I’ve even started using the tactics submenus to fine-tune unit combinations, something I never thought I’d want to do. It is approachable for someone who is not passing by Fire emblem or Valkyria Chronicles for challenging, punishing gameplay with childhood memories of tactical prowess.
If you’re not in the overworld or logistics menus, there’s the stage. These are sets rather than levels, places for battles and conversations. These stages are true Unicorn overlord comes down to the human scale, with battles animated in real time so you can see how your tactics are actually playing out. But these scenes show more than that: in Fevrith, the wind blows through lawns and kicks up dust. Flames flicker, water wheels turn. Waves crash and boats rock as birds fly. In one battle, a fairy forest becomes a fiery furnace, and after my elven archers use magical rain to extinguish the flames, the battles are fought amid lingering smoke in the ash and wood. Whether in battle or conversation, the characters in these scenes are animated and voiced in vivid ways. It brings drama to the genre and investment in archetypes.
The grand plot is a fairly generic fantasy story about a prince’s quest to liberate his kingdom, reclaim his throne, and unite the people of Fevrith through kindness and rebuilding efforts. I have some feelings about fighting for the monarchy to maintain the previous status quo, but a beautiful, orphaned prince, guided by his unwavering sense of noblesse oblige, is what shojo is made of. While there are no head pats and rapport conversations not a full dating sim, Unicorn overlord tries to evoke similar emotions. Personality and emotion are carried behind inflection, tone and humor as characters fight or talk, and aside from good performances and thoughtful translations, the voice direction of the dub cast is great. And no matter how much care goes into animating it, well, character in each character, with tailored body and facial movements during combat and speech.
Image: Vanillaware
This even translates into animated character portraits from voiceless dialogue boxes. There’s a craft of illustrating character portraits that doesn’t lend itself well to 3D, but Vanillaware’s signature painting style works well at conveying even subtle expressions. There are so many little animations in the game’s UI and baroque elements in the victory and save screens. It’s impressive how the game does all this without slowing down or drawing attention to itself. (Except the food. The food just shows off.)
After my first 10 hours Unicorn overlord, I came out of the class section feeling excited and daunted by the world before me. Things were built on top of each other mechanically and narratively, and I wanted more, but more can mean different things. Over the next twenty hours, nothing radically changed. It wasn’t more the way Vanillaware and Atlus’ latest outing, 13 guards, became. But what it did do was dish out new locations, units, and storylines that pushed the gameplay and exploration forward. Each new area requires some adjustment due to topographical restrictions (like the narrow mountain passes of Drakenhold) or new units that completely reshuffle my army. Unicorn overlord has held its own in the last 20 hours, and there is still so much to do. It’s a different kind of growth, but one that early game fans will hear as praise. It should scare them a little too.
Unicorn overlord was released on March 8 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a pre-release download code from Vanillaware. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.