Unicorn Overlord Review – It’ll Leave You Unicorn Overjoyed

While it has been great to see the return of the big-budget RPG, Unicorn Overlord is particularly special to me. It stands as a testament to how great a game can be when it is made with a very specific type of player in mind. Abundant during the PS1 era, these games have long since been abandoned for a more streamlined experience. Unicorn Overlord is a strategy game that revels in its menu-shuffling, team-assembling TRPG goodness, and if that sentence has piqued your interest, you’re in for one hell of a treat.

Assuming you have eyes, you’ve probably noticed that Unicorn Overlord is gorgeous. Given Vanilaware’s pedigree, we’d be surprised if that wasn’t the case. Its beautiful, hand-drawn sprites fill the screen during each combat encounter. It’s the final evolution of everything classic TRPGs like Shining Force were striving for during their heyday.

While Vanillaware’s relentless horniness still rears its head here and there, it is reasonably subdued in Unicorn Overlord. Unlike Dragon’s Crown, you won’t need to reach for the remote nervously if your partner enters the room, though you may need to field a question or two about the odd character wearing a plate metal thong. The audio production is similarly quite strong, with excellent voice acting all around, and a rock-solid orchestrated soundtrack. The game is a treat for the senses.

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Unicorn Overlord Pre-Order Guide

There’s still time to pre-order Unicorn Overlord before its release on March 8.

But looks aren’t everything. Unicorn Overlord has function as well as form, and is defined by its unique combat that fuses TRPG and RTS mechanics with a razor-sharp focus on team management. This isn’t a grid-based strategy RPG, your units move across the battlefield in real-time – though you can pause the action to issue commands at any moment. Once one of your squads clashes with an enemy unit, the two parties will face off in a single round of combat. Easy peasy, right?

Well, here’s the kicker, you don’t directly control their actions. Instead, you build the team, give them their orders, and tell them where to go on the battlefield – the actual fighting is out of your hands once the encounter begins. If you have been around for a minute, this may all remind you of the Ogre Battle games, which Unicorn Overlord is a loving homage to. But it doesn’t just take Ogre Battle’s combat engine and call it a day, adding a new wrinkle: tactics.

While you won’t be able to select a troop’s commands during a battle, you will be able to establish their tactics before it begins – this is the beating heart of the game. These tactics give you an opportunity to dictate how each party member will behave. You can set certain attacks to only be used when a specific enemy type is present, or when an enemy reaches a specific HP threshold. We’re not talking about toggling between an option or two, here. The amount of room for expression you have is incredible. If you have a penchant for tinkering, your ability to build synergistic teams using tactics will be an endless fount of joy.

As well as Ogre Battle, the combat also has a distinctly Fire Emblem-esque Rock, Paper, Scissors element to it. Unicorn Overlord puts its own twist on this as well as your units being made up of multiple fighters makes it possible to cover these weaknesses. Sure, a Gryphon Knight will take substantial damage from ranged attacks, but Fighters have the ability to block ranged attacks for their allies. Finding these synergies is unbelievably satisfying. While you ’ll be able to form extremely potent combinations as you progress through the game, enemies start throwing together some shockingly efficient teams of their own. I could never just rest on my laurels, and found myself playing around with different teams during my entire time with the game. Always tweaking. Always tinkering.

Outside of combat, you can roam the map freely, finding hidden items scattered around the world. You’ll also be able to gather resources that can be used to rebuild the cities you have liberated, and even be able to position troops in these cities in order to help collect additional resources. This isn’t a Romance of the Three Kingdoms title, so don’t expect anything too in-depth when it comes to city management, but it does provide another means for interacting with the world with potential rewards attached. There are a few other pleasant distractions you’ll encounter along the way, ranging from the puzzle-like class sparring to a simple, yet fun, mining minigame – think Final Fantasy 9’s Chocobo Hot And Cold and you will be on the right track.

But what about that oh-so-important story? It’s fine…? Good, even! While Unicorn Overlord is pretty clearly inspired by Matsuno’s work, players shouldn’t come in expecting a Final Fantasy Tactics-tier narrative. The characters are charming, and the writing is evocative (and delightfully flowery), but the plot revolves around the age-old tropes of dark magic, mind control, evil empires, and one preordained hero destined to set things right. Said hero (Alain) is tirelessly noble and heroic to a fault. He’s likable, if a touch dull.

Other characters shine occasionally, but the cast of characters is so massive that only a few of them get to participate meaningfully in the story. Thankfully, this is somewhat mitigated by companion dialogues and side quests, which all do an admirable job of fleshing the ancillary cast out. Though the narrative can be effective, it isn’t a grand epic.

As a long-time TRPG fan, Unicorn Overlord is everything I wanted it to be and more. I suspect that some people will read this review and think that it sounds tedious, but that’s the thing about games that deliver such a focused experience: they aren’t going to appeal to everyone. However, by being so specific in everything it does, Unicorn Overlord ensures that those who do “get it” will be thinking of it fondly for decades to come.

Unicorn Overlord

Reviewed on PS5

Released

March 8, 2024

Developer(s)

Vanillaware

Genre(s)

Tactical RPG

ESRB

Teen // Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Mild Language, Fantasy Violence

Pros

• Incredibly satisfying combat
• Excellent variety paired with a ton of content
• Absolutely stunningly good looking

Cons

• The story is trope-heavy
• Female characters have some questionable designs

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