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‘Unicorn Overlord’ review: An old-school tactical RPG with modern updates
Atlus
If you’re a fan of Vanillaware games, know this: Tomorrow is an event. It marks the first new game from the developer since 2019’s “13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim” and the first tactical role-playing game the team has made since 2011’s “Grand Knight’s History.” In this visually impressive adventure, you’ll rally your troops and fight enemies in challenging battles with a variety of units. If you love games like “Fire Emblem” or “Final Fantasy Tactics,” then this is a game you should have on your radar.
“Unicorn Overlord” is set to debut on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch March 8. No matter which current-generation video game console you have, you’ll be able to play it.
Atlus provided me with a code to try out “Unicorn Overlord” ahead of the multi-platform game’s release. I completed the game on PlayStation 5 so I could share my thoughts on it — and whether it’s worth your time and money.
Read on for my take on Vanillaware’s newest game. Or, if you’ve already made up your mind (hint: the game is worth it) tap the button below to pre-order a copy.
Why I love ‘Unicorn Overlord’
Atlus
“Unicorn Overlord” focuses on the exiled Prince Alain of Cornia, who seeks to free the continent of Fevrith from the despotic Zenoiran Empire. As you lead the Liberation Army, you’ll march through five nations, freeing them one village or fort at a time.
While the story is pretty linear aside from some key divergent points, “Unicorn Overlord” could be classified as an open-world game. While you can easily beeline through the game by moving from required battle to required battle, there is a vast amount of side content and secrets to find as you explore the world map.
You also might want to take the time to help rebuild the areas you liberate. Ten years under the Zenoiran Empire has left most settlements in ruin. By delivering supplies to rebuild, you can gain helpful items and gear and unlock new services.
Going out of your way can also score you new recruits for the Liberation Army, as well as side stories that help build out the lore of Fevrith. From a practical point of view, you’ll want to get as many units as possible, because your combat strength largely depends on party composition.
Atlus
Each character, or unit, has its own level and equipment, which influences its individual strength. However, you’ll rarely use a lone character. Instead, you’ll group up to six characters into a party, which can then be deployed to a battlefield.
Combat is played from a top-down perspective, much like that seen in “Fire Emblem.” However, unlike “Fire Emblem,” which largely depends on a rock, paper, scissors-style system, “Unicorn Overlord’s” combat is a bit more complex. Party composition is crucial to victory, as different classes synergize with each other to significant effect.
For example, if you have some cavalry units and you want to prevent them from getting hit, you can place them on the back row and put a thief, which naturally has high evasion, on the front row. So, when enemies attack, your thief will easily dodge most foes, which leaves them open to counterattack by your cavalry units. On the flip side, a party consisting of hunters, who can hit thieves with their bows, and griffon knights, who are strong against cavalry, can counter the previous party easily.
However, fighting is only partially hands-on. You’re in charge of maneuvering parties across the battlefield, but once they engage in combat, their actions are automated based on gambits you can set (or that can be set automatically). Unfortunately, this is where the game’s interface gets a bit convoluted.
Atlus
You’ll eventually have an enormous number of units on your roster, and you’ll have to equip each of them with gear and gambits. There’s an optimize button that can be helpful, but there’s no way to make it affect just gear or just gambits. Instead, it’ll change both, which can be frustrating; some character’s gambits are not set properly by default. The solution is to not auto-optimize units that you’ve set custom gambits for, but it’s easy to accidentally fudge this when you’re handling 60-plus units at a time.
Of course, as a Vanillaware game, “Unicorn Overlord” features magnificent 2D sprites for each character. These are truly the pinnacle of 2D art in gaming and give the game a retro charm while also being impressively contemporary. Even more remarkable is that each unit has a wide array of animations, negating the traditional weak point of sprite-based productions.
‘Unicorn Overlord’ final thoughts
Any fan of classic tactical RPG should adore this game. It feels like a step back to the golden age of sprites with the quality-of-life features of a contemporary game. It’s also a great entry point to the genre and presents a challenge without requiring long grinds and ridiculous levels of min/maxing.
It was hard to miss the massive American flag towering over the Butler Farm Show ground on July 13 as it waved over the rally site where former President Donald Trump was set to speak, just days before a crucial running mate selection and the Republican National Convention.
On July 13, the two of us, who had been tag-teaming coverage of Trump’s third run for president for over a year, went to what we thought would be a typical Trump rally in an open field in a Pittsburgh suburb, a crucial electoral area in a crucial battleground state. It ended with a gunman trying to take Trump’s life, and the death of a fireman, Corey Comparatore.
We stood front and center in the press area at 6 p.m. and Trump took the stage (an hour late, as can be the case) and knew right away that something wasn’t right when what sounded like firecrackers went off to our left. That’s where shooter Thomas Crooks had climbed up onto an unprotected building just outside of the security perimeter and fired multiple shots.
A hydraulic lift that held up a massive stack of speakers was struck, sending smoke shooting out and the speakers slowly fell towards the ground, and as we took cover (ground twice), all we could think was to pull out our phones and get to work. Olivia recorded the sounds of panicked journalists and attendees alike huddled along the press riser and bicycle racks separating us, the shrieks of scared children, and, realized only upon listening many times since, the sound of those around Corey Comperatore yelling for assistance.
Jake spoke with emergency room Dr. James Sweetland, who ran to help Comperatore, and said that he heard the gunshots and went to assist, finding Comperatore “jammed between the benches” before attempting to save his life.
We both stood in shock as the crowd turned on us in the moments after Trump’s motorcade sped out of Butler, with one man yelling “This is your fault!”
What was to be a typical Trump rally wasn’t so typical anymore.
Eighty-four days later Trump returned, and so did the two of us, taking the same route from downtown Pittsburgh, parking in the same location, and enduring a similar heat with no shade in the press pen alongside fellow reporters who, just like us and the former president, chose to return and confront our trauma.
The stage was set up in the same location, with that same American flag looming over Trump and the crowd behind him on that day.
But for everything that was the same that day, there were striking differences. The building where the gunman had climbed up, crawled across, and ultimately fired fatal shots, was completely obstructed from the view of the crowd by tractor trailers. Several teams of snipers were stationed throughout the rally site. It was perhaps the largest crowd we have seen thus far at a Trump rally.
And we are not the same people. Witnessing the events of July 13 took away our feeling of safety while doing our jobs, and the effects of that continue to impact us. There was a moment of shock at one point, when the speaker on stage paused as the crowd shouted “medic” for a woman who fainted. We were frozen in fear hearing the same words that were shouted in the seconds after Trump’s assassination attempt, as people were shouting for a medic to take care of Comperatore.
But like July 13, we had to go to work. Like those in the crowd of tens of thousands that chose to return, there was a sense of unfinished business on this fairground. We had continued on to Milwaukeee and the Republican National Convention to cover Trump’s first public appearance since Butler, but we knew that we had to come back here, no matter how painful it was to land back in Pittsburgh, head north on Route 79 and pull off at the Butler Farm Show, and finish the job: for the two of us, for CBS News, for the country.
Unlike other speakers on the stage Saturday who championed Trump’s words of “fight, fight, fight,” Sweetland went out of his way to mention he is a former Democrat and pleaded with the crowd to reach out and find five Democrats with whom they could find commonality.
“Democrats are like teenagers,” Sweetland said. “You think they aren’t listening, but they are.”
Eight-four days later, the entire race has changed, and so have we.
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