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Following the exiled prince Alain as he embarks on a journey to regain his reign, Unicorn Overlord is the latest upcoming tactical RPG from Vanillaware, the makers of Dragon’s Crown, Odin Sphere, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
As the anticipated launch of Unicorn Overlord approaches on March 8, we had a fortunate opportunity to have a 3-hour play session of the game while visiting the headquarters of SEGA in Japan. In fact, we got the opportunity to play the first English demo build of Unicorn Overlord.
Vanillaware is no stranger to tactical RPGs and Unicorn Overlord is unsurprisingly packed with interesting gameplay and a rich premise, presented with wonderful English voiceovers.
The developers are also known for their distinctive art style and Unicorn Overlord follows an aesthetic direction similar to Vanillaware’s previous games, beautifully rendered with memorable painting-like visuals like no other. The visual is just mesmerizing, you could even see shadows of tree leaves casting on characters, something rare in 2D games. Of course, typical of Vanillaware; if you are familiar with titles such as Dragon’s Crown, expect some interesting physics on female characters, albeit a lot milder this time.
Exploring Fevrith
Playing into the narrative of war and conquest, the general gameplay of Unicorn Overlord revolves around exploring the vast reaches of Fevrith, clearing any quests along the way, and bringing the place to be under your rule. The overworld of Fevrith is packed with many things to do, whether odd jobs from an NPC awaiting help or materials to collect for various upgrades.
Unedited Image Credit: SEGA, ATLUS
Image Credit: Atlus
Image Credit: Atlus
Image Credit: AtlusAs a matter of fact, controlling areas is a huge part of the game, and collecting materials is important to rebuild or upgrade facilities around the map, such as forts, watch towers, and taverns, just to name a few. Trusty companions you meet along your journey can also be assigned to guard certain areas you had controlled, improving resources generated in the vicinity.
Relationship parameters between characters known as rapport also play a big part in the game and you can interact with stationed companions, give them gifts, or invite them for a piping hot meal to improve relationships. Having a high rapport with a team leader of any unit is pivotal as it bolsters their stats greatly, enhancing battle capability further.
There are also minigames to be found around Fevrith for you to experience such as one where you time your swing to mine ores more efficiently.
Stage and Progression
Despite falling under the same umbrella, Unicorn Overlord does things very differently compared to other tactical RPGs. Throughout the land of Fevrith, you may enter something called battle stages, fields of combat where ally and enemy forces wage war in real time. Each stage has a condition to fulfill in order to achieve victory, such as defeating a specific target for example.
These battle stages can be either part of the main story or side quests, usually accompanied by a story cutscene before plunging you into a map littered with enemy troops to battle. You essentially lead an army in this game and each unit consists of a maximum of 6 members for your command.
While in battle stages, each unit can be deployed via spending Valor points, which you can earn by liberating fortresses or defeating enemies. When your unit encounters patrolling enemies in the field, you can then initiate battle but you cannot flee from one.
Brute forcing using a single unit is not a piece of sound advice as Vanillaware had incorporated a stamina system, reducing them by 1 each time you engage in battle. Once stamina is depleted, the unit will be unable to move and left in a completely defenseless state, and enemies can choose to strike you at this vulnerable moment.
To replenish stamina, you can place your unit in towns you’ve captured or choose to rest through action, regaining them after a period of inactivity. Even so, resting can still be dangerous as enemies can ambush you, so it is best to station units nearby to safeguard your recovering troops. Battle stages also have a time limit as displayed on the top of the screen, so you are incentivized to clear enemies as fast as possible.
Combat
Combat in Unicorn Overlord is rather unique as it initiates automatically and you would have little control over it. Every character will have a set of both Action Points (AP), indicated in red diamonds and Passive Points (PP), represented in blue diamonds. These points essentially act as the resources for characters to act, and the battle would end when either all combatants use up their AP or are defeated.
Image Credit: Atlus
Image Credit: Atlus
Image Credit: Atlus
Unedited Image Credit: SEGA, ATLUSOnce a troop uses up all their AP, they will lose the battle and be knocked off slightly in the battle stage overworld, incapacitated for a duration and making them easy picking. Meanwhile, PP acts as a resource for Passive Skill, which triggers automatically when certain conditions are met. Characters also start out with only 1 AP and 1 PP, but you’ll gain more points for both as you level up your characters.
When defeated, the character is not exactly killed but simply incapacitated and requires rest and you would need to bring them to town for it. Passively, characters do regain a small amount of health every set interval. There are also items you could use in both battle and overworld, from your basic potion to camps and barricades that can be set up to slow down enemy advances.
While combat happens automatically, there are still ways to control conditions and how your characters act in battle. There are strings of tactics that you could assign to each character to react and behave in certain ways when conditions are met. For example, you could make it so that the healer would heal the frontline more than the backline, even if their HP is low.
Classes and Strategy
Speaking of frontline and backline, your unit is split into a formation of 6 characters with 3 at the front and 3 at the back. Generally, your durable tanks take the front while the backline favors support or highly offensive combatants who may not have the best defenses.
The available characters, whether named companions or nameless soldiers, are made up of diverse classes. These classes affect how combat works greatly as Unicorn Overlord emphasizes a lot on the rock-paper-scissors dynamic between them.
For example, horse riders are great against walking troops but are countered by flying characters. Meanwhile, archers excel at combating flying characters and Guardsmen possess high physical defense but are weak to magic. Thieves can take on the role of a highly evasive tank but are very defenseless when they run out of PP to trigger dodges or against archers due to their 100% hit rate ability.
Every class is unique on its own and even the generic nameless soldiers are equally important. Even if there are classes that have similar roles, they can still have wildly different abilities. Because of the rock-paper-scissors dynamic and how the AP and PP resource system works, certain classes would perform better than others in certain situations.
You can even train your generic classes with specific stat growth, pushing them toward a certain role such as being highly offensive or mega-defensive. Stats aside, there are even options to customize their name, color, and even voices for added personality.
Assigning certain classes to guard territories would also change how you engage in battle. For example, mages assigned to the watch tower can support you in battle by casting magic from afar. Liberating different towns would also allow you to recruit soldiers of different classes, further emphasizing the importance of conquering territories.
Verdict
Vanillaware indeed does not disappoint when it comes to art direction, delivering a game that will age beautifully with an aesthetically pleasing art style, from the environment and equipment to character designs – everything just looks pretty.
Fans of tactical RPGs would also be pleased as Unicorn Overlord offers a special combat system and gameplay loop with a lot of depth and strategic considerations. With an emphasis on the rock-paper-scissors dynamic between classes, you are encouraged to plan ahead on who to bring along to counter what enemy.
Battle stages in itself is a big board of fun for those who love a challenge as there are many tactics to consider. With limited time and Valor resources, you are asked to strategize your advances – plan out how you want to send out units, should you set up barricades to buy time, focus target on objectives, or slowly clear out the battlefield.
The growth options for recruited generic classes add to the whole tactical consideration focus, allowing you to think about how you want to build your army, whether highly defensive or hyper-offensive soldier. While combat happens automatically, you can assign tactics to characters with a list of “what if” conditions to put more control over the battle outcome.
Even only after the early few hours of game time, Unicorn Overlord is looking to be a promising title that offers a bunch of fresh elements and strategic depth for fans of tactical RPGs to mess around with. If you are already a fan of Vanillaware, Unicorn Overlord will not disappoint as its story, visual, and interesting gameplay system has a lot to offer.
Unicorn Overlord is slated to launch on 8 March 2024 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox Series X|S. A playable demo of Unicorn Overlord is now available on the Nintendo Switch.
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