Unicorn Overlord evaluate for Nintendo Swap

System: Swap
Launch date: March 8, 2024
Developer: Vanillaware
Writer: Atlus

It’s not fairly often you discover a developer that’s so actually keen about their recreation that they’ll fund it out of their very own pocket when the finances runs out, so decided are they to comprehend their inventive imaginative and prescient that cash ceases to be an element. However that is par for the course for Vanillaware, who’ve delivered constantly glorious titles for over twenty years now. With Unicorn Overlord, a recreation ten years within the making, the corporate has crafted one of the crucial intricate, partaking, and mechanically dense tactical RPGs I’ve performed in years.

Admittedly, Unicorn Overlord doesn’t get off to the strongest begin, and initially paints a really by-the-numbers situation with the Kingdom of Cornia below assault by the forces of Galerius. The Queen entrusts her son Alain to Josef, who spirits the boy away to security as she makes a futile final try to withstand her nation’s subjugation. Quick-forward ten years and Alain, now a succesful warrior and chief in his personal proper, returns on the head of the aptly-named Liberation Military, intent on releasing the lands from Galerius’ rule. As Alain you’ll journey throughout the land of Fevrith doing simply that, recruiting like-minded people to your trigger, passing judgment on those that have taken benefit of the final chaos, and returning the land to a state of peace.

When measured in opposition to its contemporaries Unicorn Overlord’s overarching narrative does little to impress. As you progress by means of the primary marketing campaign it is going to take some twists and turns, however these are fairly formulaic and pretty straightforward to foretell when you’re even passingly conversant in fantasy tropes, and I used to be a little bit upset that it by no means appeared to step outdoors of its consolation zone to current one thing a little bit extra thrilling. This isn’t essentially a degree in opposition to it as dialogue is suitably dramatic (helped alongside by pretty good voice performing within the majority of situations) and the archive entries which are ceaselessly added assist to maintain issues shifting at a cushty tempo, while offering some extra lore and context for many who are inquisitive about immersing themselves extra deeply within the varied relationships and politics. Unicorn Overlord can also be notably mild on particular fantasy jargon, making it simpler to digest than many titles that prefer to throw terminology at you and depart it to you to puzzle out the context as finest you possibly can.

However I nonetheless discovered that this barely underwhelming central plot did little to reduce my enjoyment of the sport. You possibly can focus fully on the story when you so select, speeding throughout the land to sort out the following story quest, however the recreation actively discourages this by largely leaving you fully to your personal units when you’ve completed the opening tutorial. A number of huge territories unfold out earlier than you, and the way you work together with them is nearly fully as much as you – and there’s a lot to work together with. Liberation is the primary focus of Unicorn Overlord, and every thing you do ties into this wider aim, superseding the restricted narrative to make this a recreation extra concerning the journey than the vacation spot. The place the primary story did not curiosity or shock me, I discovered myself captivated by the assorted facet tales that the sport threw at me with nearly each new location I visited: as you journey the land you’ll encounter varied characters, lots of whom you possibly can recruit to your trigger. Assuming, in fact, that you simply make the suitable selections.

Though your selections won’t ever influence the primary story of Unicorn Overlord, they will have a profound influence in your journey. Close to the start of the sport I used to be given the choice of releasing a personality or handing them over to the native constabulary after I’d bested them in fight. After listening to their barely-believable sob story about their circumstances I made a decision at hand them over and acquired a pleasant hefty money reward for my troubles… and in addition earned the enmity of that character, which wasn’t with out repercussions down the road. I wasn’t fairly so fast to dismiss or execute the following few troublemakers who got here my means after that, and the chance arose greater than as soon as, with my very own sanity being questioned by my celebration in some situations after I determined, but once more, to indicate mercy to those that didn’t essentially deserve it on the off-chance I would both recruit a useful ally or no less than keep away from making yet one more enemy. Though lots of the facet tales aren’t fairly this dramatic, it offers an actual weight to your selections, and makes your slowly burgeoning military really feel extra personalised when these characters elect to affix your trigger. You possibly can deepen your bond with these characters later within the story through the use of them in battle or giving them items, prompting small occasions that additional increase on their tales, regardless of the minimal influence this can usually have on the overarching narrative.

After all, the true motive to hunt out allies is to bolster and diversify your forces for the sport’s many battles. Fight in Unicorn Overlord walks a skinny line between real-time technique and turn-based fight, mixing the 2 for an expertise that feels fairly completely different from both. Models on the map will transfer in real-time to the factors that you simply direct, and the battles themselves are technically turn-based, however by means of intelligent manipulation you possibly can finish the battle earlier than the enemy has an opportunity to land a single blow at occasions. To stop you from storming by means of battles with a single unit, every has a set variety of motion factors – as soon as these are used up, you’ll have to relaxation that unit, and there’s a timer as effectively. Happily that is fairly beneficiant, and feels extra designed to cease you from merely resting in a safer place on the map to get better motion factors than it does to rush you alongside. Motion will be sped up and battles will be sped up or skipped outright when you’d want to not watch them unfold, and previews of battles can be proven on-screen earlier than they play out.

There are an enormous number of lessons to select from in Unicorn Overlord, that are launched to you at a cushty tempo as you progress. There’s so much to digest right here, and though the sport solely offers you transient tutorial introductions on each it does present some options about attainable celebration composition to make finest use of them; that is greater than sufficient to get by on the bottom issue setting for these much less within the trivia of fight. For many who need to go all-in, Unicorn Overlord presents a staggering vary of alternatives to take action. For instance, when contemplating Models, you’ll want to contemplate the quantity, lessons, and formation of characters. That is simply the tip of the iceberg: a bigger variety of models might sound extra useful, however may imply that a number of characters might be hit directly by enemies who can strike each the back and front row on the similar time. The chief of the celebration can decide their motion capabilities: placing a mounted character as celebration chief will make them journey quicker, however will make them weak to completely different lessons.

Every character additionally has Techniques, which helps you to decide what abilities they’ll use in battle, and when. The default settings are greater than sufficient to get by on decrease difficulties, and the AI is pretty competent at adjusting as characters achieve ranges to make the very best use of the Energetic Abilities they’ll study, however correctly managing this turns into important on larger difficulties to survival. You possibly can set characters to focus on enemies with roughly well being with particular abilities first, or prioritize therapeutic. Characters, in fact, have their very own particular person ranges and stats, in addition to Passive Abilities which give varied boosts, and Valor Abilities which you can activate your self in battle as you amass Valor factors. If you’re managing a number of Models and lessons, it’s straightforward to spend hours on micro-managing your celebration, and this solely turns into extra advanced and fascinating as you progress by means of the sport and extra choices develop into accessible to you.

At occasions it may be so much to course of and I’ve barely scratched the floor of the intricacies of fight. However I can’t overstate sufficient simply how straightforward and pure all of it is in observe, and the way snug the pacing of the sport is. That is with out the JRPG staple of grinding as effectively. This can be very tough, if not inconceivable, to grind in Unicorn Overlord in a conventional sense. Regardless of this I by no means discovered myself missing in energy on the default issue, nor the problem too overwhelming on larger difficulties. Josef serves as a really dependable clutch character for a lot of the sport, being a number of ranges larger than everybody else to begin and an especially sturdy mounted unit, and the quite a few choices to enhance fight proficiency makes failure really feel extra like a studying expertise for these techniques than a punishment. Vanillaware have crafted an exceptionally balanced recreation, which is all of the extra notable for the staggering variety of choices accessible, and the truth that, proper as much as the tip of the sport, I used to be continually discovering new methods and choices, be that in a brand new class, new abilities for my current characters, or new methods to make the most of the quite a few gameplay mechanics to deliver all of them collectively.

Outdoors of fight, you’ll be spending your time roaming the assorted landmasses that make up the overworld map, which provide its personal wealth of facet actions so that you can take part in to additional the event of your characters and liberation of the land. Due to course, your job shouldn’t be achieved when you’ve cleared out the realm of enemies, and nor do it’s worthwhile to liberate the whole map as a part of the story – however it’s positively in your finest pursuits to take action. Whereas fight is clearly Unicorn Overlord’s primary focus and its largest enchantment, I discovered that the facet actions had been equally partaking, and will simply spend a number of hours outdoors of battle exploring the encompassing space to see what I may uncover on the best way – and it was very uncommon that this was time wasted. That is helped in no small half by a superb quick journey system that permits you to hop between liberated settlements and mission aims at any time.

You’ll encounter a wide range of quests in Unicorn Overlord as you discover. Essential Quests are pretty self-explanatory, being these that may drive the story ahead, with Aspect Quests usually introducing a brand new character (and normally a brand new class connected to that character) so that you can add to your arsenal. Liberation Quests are barely much less fascinating, being one-off skirmish battles that may see roaming enemies disappear from the map upon victory, permitting you to journey that space unchallenged.

When you’ve liberated an space, you’ll additionally open up Overworld Quests, that are non-combative and subsequently extra various: though many are fetch quests for NPCs, you may additionally be tasked with exploring ruins, constructing bridges, and even catching chickens. Liberated settlements even have their very own Deliveries that require you to show in a set variety of supplies that you simply’ll discover from quite a few gathering factors on the map to enhance their services. This was the one a part of the sport I discovered to be barely irritating, as I shortly discovered myself working out of assets to finish supply quests for the numerous settlements I used to be liberating, they usually weren’t respawning on the world map shortly sufficient.

To cap all of it off, Unicorn Overlord is visually beautiful. For those who’re in any respect conversant in Vanillaware you’ll recognise the signature hand-drawn artwork fashion, which prioritizes element over animation but nonetheless manages to seize some dynamic scenes that make fight really feel partaking and breathe life into the extra static character artwork. Every character, even NPCs which you can recruit and customise your self from a restricted variety of choices, is visually distinct, with voice performing that’s of a superb customary and looks like a pure match for the setting. The extent of element current in Unicorn Overlord interprets completely to each situation and gameplay fashion, whether or not you’re in a fight animation, watching your models transfer into place, or on the world map itself; in each docked and handheld this recreation shines, and there’s no concern with lag, body charge spikes, and even noticeably lengthy loading occasions. It’s a visible feast for the eyes that by no means fails to disappoint and is the proper match for the Swap, which is an especially welcome shock when contemplating the generally chaotic nature of the fight and the final efficiency of many multi-platform titles.

Regardless of having performed the story by means of to completion and explored each nook of the map, I really feel as if I’ve barely scratched the floor of Unicorn Overlord. There are such a lot of smaller gameplay mechanics and interactions that I’ve unnoticed right here for the sake of brevity, and my playthrough was made up of so many of those moments that they greater than made up for any misgivings I had with the overarching narrative. The satan is within the particulars, and Unicorn Overlord is overflowing with them, every as brilliantly crafted and lovingly perfected as the following. The smaller character-focused tales and overwhelmingly dense gameplay mechanics make it among the finest technique RPGs I’ve performed in years, and a worthy jewel in Vanillaware’s already overly-decorated crown. For those who play nothing else this yr, ensure you play this.

Unicorn Overlord copy offered by the writer for the needs of this evaluate.