Unicorn Overlord Assessment – Tactical Superiority

Draw from sufficient distinctive inspirations, and finally, a sport begins to really feel solely 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 persistently reminded of different techniques and mechanics from prior style releases, however the ensuing mixture felt persistently unique and entertaining, even after many hours of battle and exploration.

Gamers management a younger, exiled prince in a excessive fantasy world as he step by step gathers a military to take down an omnipotent empire. There’s a big deal with story and character growth from starting to finish. The truth that the plentiful “thees and thous” body an particularly trope-heavy and acquainted plot doesn’t diminish the enjoyment. As a substitute, 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 tip, some fascinating selections allow you to form the sport’s final result, however this isn’t a sport of daring narrative surprises – merely well-told comfort-food fantasy antics.

Unicorn Overlord is awash in techniques that govern your military’s development and enchancment. Whether or not it’s tools, honor, renown, gold, or character stage, the first objective is rising your military, selling your combatants, increasing the potential dimension of every unit, and organising a workforce that may triumph within the subject. All the pieces works collectively admirably, and it’s nice enjoyable to tweak every small squad unit to create unstoppable combos of injury, 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. Nevertheless, as soon as an trade begins, your position as commander is within the again seat; you may’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 performing. Most notably, each story moments and unit battles unfold that includes the studio’s putting trademark artwork and animation model, which leverages exaggerated deformation of every thing from weapons to character curves and musculature to intensify the fantasy setting and tone.

Whereas I persistently loved my dozens of hours with Unicorn Overlord, the latter half of the sport begins to indicate some cracks within the enjoyable. As a result of you may preview the result of every battle (which is nice), many gamers will finally do what I did, and start to skip the bombastic visuals of a given skirmish to get on with the bigger battle. The joys of these lavishly illustrated scenes sadly begins to lean towards tedium.

Likewise, the plentiful unit varieties you each recruit and face in battle are initially intriguing however finally turn into extraordinarily difficult to maintain straight. Think about a sport of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” the place you may throw any one among dozens of distinct hand indicators, and you’ll see the dilemma. Tactical complexity is nice, however I in the end discovered protecting all of the distinctions straight slowed down the pacing and sense of mastery somewhat than enhancing an already wealthy tactical simulation. Mix these two issues, and late-game battles can really feel repetitive and muddled.

Even acknowledging these frustrations, I like the number of encounters Unicorn Overlord presents and the seamless approach so many interlocking sport techniques contribute to an overarching saga of magic and warfare. From starting to finish, the sport feels crafted, balanced, and deep, with out sacrificing approachability. Put aside preconceptions from the weird identify, and also you’ll discover an epic nicely price exploring.