Unicorn Overlord is a masterfully crafted video game. The player is given as much or as little to do as they wish, with every new nation, stage, backstory, and time-engrossing side venture all weaving into one another in a way that never feels forced. All of this is actualized with music and visuals to consistently dazzle and delight as the world is delved into deeper. This pacing is crafted with incredible flexibility such that one player may spend minutes doing something another will spend hours on and both finding their time well spent. Combat is a constantly shifting bout of delightful visuals as tactical options and classes keep things enticing. It takes a special title to reach all gaming sensibilities and Unicorn Overlord does so with such style and flair that everyone should test it for themselves.
Vanillaware lives up to its reputation by giving us one of the best strategy games of recent years. It may not be perfect, but it borders on perfection slightly, offering us in the process an experience that I could qualify as sublime.
From beginning to end, the game feels crafted, balanced, and deep, without sacrificing approachability. Set aside preconceptions from the unusual name, and you’ll find an epic well worth exploring.
A wonderfully weird console strategy game that’s inspired by the past but forges its own very distinct legend, with beautiful visuals and deep but accessible gameplay.
This game brings a lot of aspects of classic games and modernize it for today's generation of consoles and it is a overwhelmingly enjoyable experience.
I want to give this game a higher rating, sadly it has some issues that prevent me from giving it a 9 or even a 10.
The goods.
Firstly, I *love* the way the game shakes up this genre with an open world! I love that the game doesn't just do mission to mission with maybe something between. It's actually an open world with many different ways you can go to progress.
The designs are pretty cool I do enjoy seeing what new unit I come up on. Art design is generally well done mixing 2d with 3d in a way that doesn't feel like it's in the uncanny valley like I see many games fall into.
Gameplay is fairly solid I don't see much wrong mechanically. It's unique in it's style I just wish.. Well I'll put that in the bads.
Story is pretty solid one when you get into it with pretty good voice acting. Though it is a bit on the basic side overall with your generic rebellion vs empire plot. The interactions between characters well make up for that, though. They make you want to continue to see how the story develops.
The bads.
Several things knock off points for my overall score of the game.
The opening parts of the game. Honestly these were just.. bad. Not spoiling but the first hour of my game was just ripping on it because they honestly, in my opinion, put their worst foot forward. It wasn't until I was done with they lengthy tutorial/prologue before I actually got to see the best it has to offer and how great it was.
The animations, or lack there of, is one of them. It's the tired mobile style of trying to simulate movement by simply morphing a single image. This leaves an uncanney taste in my mouth that won't go away. From pushing full plate mail quite far to simulate breathing to moving a body part just by rotating that portion of the image. It could have been handled much better.
Combat is a bit iffy to me personally. I enjoy the idea of being able to change how your character acts, but I have issues with how it's presented. The idea is that you script an ai for your units to use. Attack a if enemy damage is x, guard if condition is y kind of thing. I think a lot of my issue boils down to how it really isn't explained why order these tactics. Honestly if they explained it by (character) delegating moves in the tutorial it would be more acceptable. Personally I would love they move towards hybridizing it with a JRPG and giving you the option to play it out personally or letting the ai do the script.
Overall the game is pretty fun and I'm glad I pushed through the opening to see a better game behind the crud. Maybe if they make a sequel it will build on these parts and make an even better game.
The game is great. I love the world, I love the characters, i love the graphics. But the plot is so lame and predictable. Moreover there are so many characters that you can assing to your team that at some point you just get bored and instead of thinking what units you should use, you just buff your main units with potions and EXP to charge to the finish of the game. Anyway it is nice to have game of this genre on PS5.
Play demo before buying the game. Vanillaware game does not mean that it was made by same people. Story is boring. Jrpg with a bad story is a bad jrpg.
SummaryFrom the masterminds that brought 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Odin Sphere, ATLUS x Vanillaware presents the rebirth of tactical fantasy RPG. Fight against fate and embark on a royal adventure to regain your reign alongside trustworthy allies. Unicorn Overlord combines the timeless tactical RPG genre with overworld exploration and innovat...