It's a lot, but somehow it's not unwieldy
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 IGN | 2024-03-08 00:11:42 |  441,824 Views |
Review of Unicorn Overlord
It's hard to write a review of Unicorn Overlord: the game is huge, and after over 30 hours I've covered a little more than half the map, crossing grasslands, desert, winding mountain paths and a magical forest on my prince's conquest to liberate the fantasy land of Fevrith and reclaim his throne. It's hard because a lot of the games I've seen people compare Unicorn Overlord to – Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics – were released before I was born. I was worried about not getting it, about not connecting with the supposed fun of spending hours in menus when the tactics games I played mostly growing up on a DS found their wider appeal through other systems, like romance. And it's hard for me to write a review of Unicorn Overlord because I have to stop playing it long enough to write.
Unicorn Overlord's map of Fevrith is an open world with five kingdoms that sprites explore from above. The presentation is similar to Square Enix's use of HD-2D but with more painterly environmental art. It is here that Unicorn Overlord makes its strongest break from convention, eschewing a traditional level-based structure. When battles do happen, they happen on this map at this scale, just with shaded borders boxed into the area and new UI elements. When battles begin, sprites are deployed at forts and cities; siege weapons and barricades are laid; and forests, roads, rivers and mountains all become part of the strategic puzzle.
Characters do not fight alone, but in units. Each consists of characters, whether unique to the story or customizable mercenaries for hire, on a 2×3 grid. As they collide, the scale shrinks from a sprite on the large map to the character within each unit to focus on tactical mechanics. Each character in a unit uses a mix of active and passive abilities unique to their class to deal damage, support allies, and fend off enemies. With many, many variations of fantasy combat archetypes, from hoplite to witch to gryphon rider to elf archer to angel knight, there's no easy way to break down combat. Type advantages exist but unit composition creates complications, such as a hoplite defending a lancer from a gryphon knight. The placement of units on their grid may be even more important. There are basic strategies like keeping tank classes in front, but some classes can take advantage of that with abilities designed to penetrate the back row.
