Unicorn Overlord is beautiful in its complexity

It’s laborious to jot down a assessment of Unicorn Overlord: the sport is massive, and after over 30 hours I’ve coated little greater than half its map, traversing 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 laborious as a result of loads of the video games I’ve seen folks examine Unicorn Overlord to — Ways Ogre, Last Fantasy Ways — have been launched earlier than I used to be born. I used to be apprehensive about not getting it, not connecting with the supposed enjoyable of spending hours in menus when the techniques video games I performed most rising up with a DS discovered their wider attraction by means of different methods, like romance. And it’s laborious for me to jot down a assessment of Unicorn Overlord as a result of I’d should cease taking part in it lengthy sufficient to jot down.

Unicorn Overlord’s map of Fevrith is an open world of 5 kingdoms that sprites discover from overhead. The presentation is just like Sq. Enix’s use of HD-2D however with extra painterly environmental artwork. It’s right here that Unicorn Overlord makes its strongest break from conference, foregoing a conventional level-based construction. When battles occur, they occur on this map at this scale, simply with shadowy borders boxing within the space and new UI parts. When battles start, sprites are deployed at forts and cities; siege weaponry and barricades are laid; and forests, roads, rivers, and mountains all turn into a part of the strategic puzzle.

Characters don’t struggle alone, however in items. Every consists of characters, whether or not distinctive to the story or customizable mercenaries-for-hire, on a 2×3 grid. After they collide, the size shrinks from a sprite on the big map to the character inside every unit to give attention to tactical mechanics. Every character in a unit makes use of a mixture of energetic and passive skills distinctive to their class to deal injury, help allies, and debuff foes. With many, many variations on fantasy fight archetypes, from hoplite to witch to gryphon rider to elven archer to angelic knight, there’s no easy approach to break down fight. Kind benefits exist however unit composition makes for issues, like a hoplite defending a lancer from a gryphon knight. The position of items on their grid might be much more vital. There are primary methods like protecting tankier lessons in entrance, however some lessons might exploit that with skills designed to penetrate the again row.

Picture: Vanillaware

In menus, there’s gear, in addition to customizable “techniques” that allow you to set up priorities and use-cases for every character’s expertise, permitting gamers to tailor move-sets to every distinctive unit mixture. Whereas the location is in the end left to the participant and may change the tide of every battle, you may as well simply press a button within the menus to optimize gear and techniques. And in a battle preview display (à la Into The Breach), you may see the anticipated injury dealt and acquired from a battle and alter the location of items to have an effect on the result. There’s additionally an entire “rapport” system, which boosts characters with a powerful relationship gained by preventing collectively and sharing items or meals within the tavern. Many characters have dialogue to unlock with each other alongside the best way as properly, similar to Hearth Emblem.

This huge scale, combining technique gameplay with a 2D RPG, gives the look of transferring armies and making progress on a marketing campaign. As the sport’s giant, giant solid of characters be part of from the areas and cities you struggle for each inch of, these battles imbue the world with a way of place and expansiveness. As a substitute of a house base like some citadel or college to truly work together with characters, they’re discovered the world over you struggle to reclaim, and so they have properties and household there.

With exploratory quests, smaller skirmishes, aspect quests that unlock new characters, the rapport system, and progressing the principle story, Unicorn Overlord is paced maybe too properly. I discover myself leaping round to all its constituent components, losing a wet Saturday taking part in the sport within the Swap’s handheld mode on my accomplice’s sofa: another battle; simply have to clear up these query marks on the map; properly, all these new rapport conversations can be found; let me simply put all this new gear on my military; properly, I may go to the tavern whereas I’m by a citadel.

Picture: Vanillaware

Picture: Vanillaware

Picture: Vanillaware

There’s loads occurring, however it doesn’t really feel unwieldy. The sport finds a cautious steadiness in what particulars it offers you and what management it’s keen to optionally take away for simplicity’s sake. Taking part in on the conventional problem, I’ve confronted challenges however met them. I’ve even began fussing with the techniques sub-menus to fine-tune unit combos, one thing I by no means thought I’d wish to do. It’s approachable to somebody who doesn’t come to Hearth Emblem or Valkyria Chronicles for difficult, punishing gameplay with childhood reminiscences of tactical prowess.

When not within the over world or logistical menus, there’s the stage. These are units fairly than ranges, locations for fight and dialog. These phases are the place Unicorn Overlord comes all the way down to the human scale, with fights animated in actual time so you may see how your techniques truly pan out. However these scenes present greater than that: In Fevrith, wind blows by means of fields of grass and kicks up mud. Flames flicker, water wheels flip. Waves crash and boats rock as birds soar. In a single battle a fairytale forest is remodeled right into a fiery furnace, and after my elven archers use magical rain to extinguish the flames, the battles are fought beneath lingering smoke within the ash and wooden. Whether or not in battle or dialog, characters in these scenes are animated and voiced in vigorous methods. It brings drama to style and funding to archetypes.

The large plot is a reasonably generic fantasy story a few prince’s quest to liberate his kingdom, reclaim his throne, and unite the folks of Fevrith by means of kindness and rebuilding efforts. I’ve some emotions about preventing for the monarchy to uphold the earlier establishment, however a reasonably, orphaned prince guided by his unwavering sense of noblesse oblige is what shojo is manufactured from. Whereas there aren’t any headpats and rapport conversations aren’t an entire courting sim, Unicorn Overlord tries to stir related feelings. Persona and emotion are carried behind inflection, tone, and humor as characters struggle or converse, and past good performances and considerate translation, the voice course of the dub solid is stellar. And as a lot care goes into animating, properly, character into every character, with bespoke physique and facial actions in battle and speech.

Picture: Vanillaware

This even carries over into animated character portraits of voiceless dialog packing containers. There’s a craft to illustrated character portraits that doesn’t lend itself properly to 3D, however Vanillaware’s signature painterly artwork type works properly with speaking even delicate expressions. There are such a lot of little animations throughout the sport’s UI and baroque parts within the victory and save screens. It’s spectacular how the sport does all this whereas not slowing down or drawing consideration to itself. (Besides the meals. The meals is simply exhibiting off.)

After my first 10 hours of Unicorn Overlord, I emerged from its tutorial space feeling excited and daunted by the world forward of me. Issues had constructed mechanically and narratively on high of one another, and I needed extra, however extra can imply various things. Over the subsequent 20 hours, nothing radically modified. It wasn’t extra the best way Vanillaware and Atlus’s final outing, 13 Sentinels, turned. However what it did do was dole out new locales, items, and story threads that compelled gameplay and exploration ahead. Every new space has required some transforming on account of topographical constraints (just like the slender mountain passes of Drakenhold) or new items that fully reshuffle my military. Unicorn Overlord has managed to keep up itself for the previous 20 hours, and there’s at the least that a lot to go. It’s a special type of progress, however one which followers of the early recreation will hear rung as reward. It ought to terrify them a little bit too.

Unicorn Overlord was launched March 8 on Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Collection X. The sport was reviewed on Nintendo Swap utilizing a pre-release obtain code offered by Vanillaware. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You’ll find extra details about gamerjive’s ethics coverage right here.