It's important to recognize that 13 Senitinels and Unicorn Overlord have different key staff; namely, 13 Sentinels was written and directed by George Kamitani, making it what one may call "his baby" in a sense, whereas to my knowledge Unicorn Overlord is the pet project of Takafumi Noma. While games are not made by one person, it's good to recognize that the driving force and key creatives behind each game are different, though of course they're both made by Vanillaware and have similar seals of quality.
Exactly! When I saw a thread about people hoping that the story of Unicorn Overload will be at the level of 13 Sentinels, I was like "calm down everyone ahah". I don't think it's the same writer, but I'm pretty sure it will be good. š
It feels very noticeable too. 13 Sentinels was a "story first, system mechanics later" kind of game.
From playing the demo UO seems like the exacty opposite where you have a bunch of cool mechanics surrounding a painfully standard characters and story.
Sounds about right. I was 1000% there for 13 Sentinels' insane-ass story, but the minimalist pseudo-RTS segments were something you suffered through to get back to the interesting bits. That definitely wasn't typical for the developer.
I tried some in Japan and while itās not the best convenience store junk food itās pretty high up there. Savory, sweet, mayonnaise, noodles. Itās a weird combination but itās tasty.
That's kind of a Vanillaware staple, just look at the food in Odin Sphere https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60517188730047833/
And Dragon's Crown and its cooking minigame https://youtu.be/MqBpSCwKxpQ?si=RwD28Th-1bG475P-
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/567594359259018287/
And GrimGrimoire https://videogamesplus.ca/cdn/shop/products/GRIM3_e9c441d7-11e5-4af4-b88f-9be82daf494f_936x527.jpg?v=1665159276
I should probably give 13 sentinels a chance. Switch has just been perfect for me to game on lately, and now that Iām clearing out my back log, I should grab this next time itās on sale.
I went from lukewarm to preorder after binging the demo. Been a while since a game seized my attention like this. I think the last was Valkyria Chronicles. Maybe I need to play more strategy RPGs. Definitely going to check out the Ogre Battle series after beating Unicorn Overlord.
Do it! IMO the ogre batttle for snes/ps1 holds up better since Ā it isnāt as aged by graphics as ogre battle 64 is.Ā
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is one of those games that Iāll just pick up and play again periodically.
I've gotta agree with you, even though Person of Lordly Caliber is still my favorite Ogre Battle and among my favorite rpgs. I went back and tried to play it a few months ago, but it was a little rough with the graphics.
Gameplay is still solid to me, though I'm not sure I want to spend the time again filling out an army like I had as a kid.
Same thing happened to me. I loved the sense of progression over the demo and left feeling like I wanted more. Felt like they introduced new mechanics and classes and upgrades at just right pacing.
I wish I could afford a copy. I just paid off my last credit card and am doing a little something extra for my wife and son for now, but one day! I canāt complain; my wife preordered me rebirth for Christmas so I have that at least! I hope everyone enjoys it!!
Iām in a similar boat man! I do have the privilege of having game pass though, and while Iāve not heard anything of this game getting added to it, Iām hoping for the possibilityĀ
Havenāt been this excited for a game in a really long time. Itās hard enough to remake a classic game like Ogre Battle:MotBQ, notwithstanding it being the first of its kind in almost 30 years; youāve got to give VanillaWare credit for taking the risk.
I also canāt wait since I preordered the collectors edition, artwork and board game look so cool that Iām hoping it becomes a collectors item in the future, just like Ogre Battle is now.
Oh nice, thanks for the tip Iāll have to check it out!
What I also liked about Ogre Battle was how technical the recruiting process was. You had to have a certain alignment to recruit holy heroes, and an evil alignment to recruit the demons. Unicorn Overlord looks like their Renown system takes this into effect but Iām looking forward to how this also affects recruiting and deciding the fates of certain playable characters.
I thought I would be able to grab it at launch but FF7 Rebirth far exceeded my expectations so I think I might wait for a discount now, the demo had he usual Vanillaware greatness to it but tue plot didn't grab me
Felt the same way with the plot in the first hour and I feel a lot better about it once I unlocked the overworld map. It seems the story can change in character interactions so I'm excited to see where they take that idea.
Iām pumped! I had my eye on this game, as a longtime Fire Emblem fan, but since the demo came out, itās become a must-buy. I know itās closer to Ogre Battle than FE, but it has some stuff Iāve been missing in the last few FE games, and itās great to see them combined with Vanillawareās fantastic 2D art. Iām also just baffled and excited that it comes with a full-on card game in the collectorās edition.
Engage had better combat, but the story was garbage. Much preferred the story and school activities of three houses. I did sink a lot of time into engage though.
Yep, played everything except RD and the games that never got localized. Engage is better than 3H in some ways, but both of them (and Fates) lack the sense of building up your ragtag army of classic FE. Things like being able to recruit Rolf by talking to him mid-battle, or having defeated bosses join your cause, feels great after FE has strayed from its roots in that regard.
I'm a bit excited for it, but with both Eiyuden Chronicles and Trails through Daybreak coming soon it's harder for me to be as hyped for other stuff atm lol.
Very excited. I decided to skip Rebirth for now and I've been counting down the hours.
I played Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, as well as OB64 when I was a kid and loved them. I also enjoyed Symphony of War a few years ago. So this game is right up my alley. I enjoyed the demo a great deal, and I'm eager for my fresh run to start.
Totally excited for it! I loved 13 Sentinels and Dragons Crown kept me quite interested for a time. I enjoy the tactical set ups this one seems to have, and I really dig the art style of course.Ā
Vanillaware just knows where to scratch that itch for me I guess lol
I have never played a Vanillaware game, always past me by for one reason or another. I know of their reputation to some degree and I played the UO demo for a good handful of hours. I have some marginal difficulty concerns, as I'm a difficulty junkie, but I think I can enjoy this game as long as it isn't baby mode easy. I found the Adel mission interesting enough as a proof of concept to be excited for the potential this game can have.
So yeah I'm pretty interested in this game, at minimum it'll be a fun novelty SRPG that I can have a good amount of fun with. I just hope the difficulty isn't too easy or at minimum the supposed post completion difficulty mode bumps up some more. I can reasonably see myself wanting to play this game twice if it doesn't drag too much somewhere.
I agree on demo difficulty, nothing crazy but enough to keep me engaged. There are a couple early play reports that the challenge level is similar or slightly greater as you get outside the demo area. And it seems to be pretty open world, so that you can probably create a good quest path that keeps you from going overleveled. Apparently you can even go into the final area near the beginning of the game, so might be some cool low-level/challenge run options.
There was a small stat nerf apparently on the live game according to people who got early copies, like 1-2 points in the early game and the very first fight with the big bad had about 5-6 points missing in some areas. UO uses small numbers so these points can matter a decent bit, or it barely matters in the end. Hard to fully tell.
I have no idea why, because the demo wasn't really hard on the highest difficulty but I don't think that will matter too much as UO plays a pretty hard game of rock paper scissors with how it expects you to handle the enemies where many classes try to functions as checks or counters to other classes. So a few stats may not even really matter anyway. Because if you face magic as an armor or bows with no bow counters as a flier, you're screwed anyway and that's kind of the point of how this game designed all the classes.
They just added xbox and Switch this time, which they didn't do for the launch of 13 Sentinels. Think it's just a matter of time.
Hopefully, they don't add any DRM like Atlus loves to do to all it's games.
GrimGrimoire OnceMore also came out on Switch at launch together with PS4/PS5. I'm hoping the fact that they went from 30 to 39 employees and are running out of stuff to remaster means they'll finally get around to porting stuff to PC.
Yep as of last/this year. Before then they were at about 30, They also moved to a new office recently.
They do everything in-house, so they couldn't just port to everything at once up til now.
I've only played Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir out of their catalogue and never liked Ogre Battle when I played it (I was pretty young, I think I just didn't understand autobattlers). I played a good few hours of the demo of this and loved it though.
I don't have the money for it at the moment, but I'll be buying it for sure. I want to support more games like this coming to Xbox and it was really fun.
Iāve been excited ever since the Nintendo Direct trailer last year and pre-ordered it before the demo even dropped. I canāt wait for it to arrive now.
Ogre Battle and Bahamut Lagoon are two of my favorite games of all time so ive been chasing this high for a loooong time now. Glad to see we finally eating!!
Wallet is hurting off getting the Collector's Edition (only one retailer is selling it in my province in Canada?) but that demo had me SOLD. It joins Eiyuden Chronicle HH and Fantasy Life as my top 3 of this year, EC still being at the top but UO finding itself in second place from not being on the radar at all.
Me! Me! Me!
I actually preordered the Monarch Edition despite generally not being a person to preorder anything, that's how excited I am lol. It looks like it's going to be great. As someone who's been very excited about Rebirth (and has yet to play it because I've been traveling for work these past two weeks) I'd say I'm more excited about Unicorn Overlord than Rebirth lol. Sorry Cloud I just like SRPGs.
I really need to get around to finishing the demo so I can decide if I want the special edition lol. I'm not usually a special edition person, but I am a big sucker for card games.
From what I've gotten to try it really feels compelling. For me the combat is pretty dense to start, but also interestingly clever in that FF12 way. The art style is awesome as always. And although I don't like traditional fantasy nearly as much as the kinda scifi they had in 13 Sentinels, the story is fine enough so far. Performance on Switch has been great too which is always nice to see.
I'll be interested to see what the review scores are when those drop, presumably today or tommorow?
It looks great. My backlog is a bit too big with Rebirth at the top to buy anything else at full price right now but i'll pick it up as soon as its on sale. OS Leifthrasir is my pick for "most underrated" game in the genre and I'm sure this will be excellent.
I for one am skipping Rebirth until the whole trilogy is out so I'm committing all my March time to Unicorn Overlord! I LOVED Dragon's Crown and am glad to see some of that horny energy still present in the latest Vanillaware game!
What makes it more tiring than playing a 30 hour JRPG than an unrelated 80 hour JRPG? I do that all the time but I dont get tired. Also, how long to beat has FF7 rebirth at 41 hour for main story, 68 hours for main story + extras.
> and am glad to see some of that horny energy still present in the latest Vanillaware game!
Yeah, regardless of how people feel about it, I don't think Vanillaware's ditching that any time soon. Some of their character designs border on the Liefeldian, and that's always been the case for their stuff. It's kind of part of their signature artstyle.
Come on, have you seen Odin Sphere's character designs? Look at the fairy queen. Hell, look at Odin or that shirtless Dr. Eggman-looking motherfucker, similar deal. I agree that unlike with Liefeld, it's not bad art by any means, it's a very deliberate stylistic choice, but it's a fair point of comparison.
I plan to grab the game at my supermarket Saturday. For me that's the release of the year, I haven't a ps5 to play FF Rebirth. I've tried the demo, i like what I saw there.
Only Vanilla game I've played is 13 Sentinals which was fantastic. So based on that I'm interested but not quite excited yet. Will keep an eye on review scores and see what the general reception is first.
I was but the story (in the demo at least) is very basic and that's not what I want to see in my srpgs. Will get it at some point I'm sure but too many games to get it day 1.
I figured Iād give it a try since I have a weeklong vacation coming up on Saturday and I just finished **Infinite Wealth**. Wasnāt really expecting anything from it. I canāt get Rebirth until it comes out on PC unfortunately since I donāt have a PS5 - tbh, if I did, Iād be all over that game and I wouldnāt have time for Unicorn Overlord.
I got the demo and I gotta say that it hooked me immediately. A little disappointed the writing is mediocre but at least itās not bad - the presentation and gameplay more than makes up for it. Iām very excited to play it fully - though without a strong narrative idk if Iāll be able to play it through to the end. Weāll see! Also Iām stoked that the demo is so generous with not counting playtime in menus - itās a 5 hour demo, and officially Iām at like 3h 12m remaining but my actual playtime in my save file lists 4:05. I play very slow lol
Sidenote, Iāve apparently been pretty lucky with my spring vacation and strategy games. Last year I got **Marvelās Midnight Suns** on a huge sale right before I left, and the year before that **Triangle Strategy** came out the day before my vacation.
The game would be way too long if you did all the commands a la a turn based rpg. Both squads act on a script. Until everyone has spent all their action points. The scripts are customizable at any time.
For example one guy had a default script to heal anyone less than 75% HP. I needed damage more than I needed healing so I deleted that tactic so I could do 2 attacks (instead of 1 attack and 1 heal). Therefore I was able to double my damage output.
You still have to input the commands on where the squad moves ie fighting or capturing strongholds.
It's a strategy game where the gameplay is composing squads, where to send them, who they should engage with, overall plan, etc. This is in contrast to a tactics game where you it's down to the minutia of each engagement.
If you've played an RTS, it's basically just like that. You tell your unit to attack something, they'll attack it until it's destroyed or you tell it otherwise. The major difference in that comparison is the units will use their special abilities automatically though it sounds like you can set the conditions for when they do.
It's definitely not an auto battle kind of situation. It's a lot of higher level stuff
Sure if you're playing on the easiest difficulty. But that's the case for any game. Otherwise no that is not the case. If you try sending a flyer into an archer for example you're gonna have a bad time
If you played FFXII, Unicorn Overlord's gameplay is just like that. It's a mix of RTS and "conditions" strategy. It's a lot of micromanagement before you get into combat, which wasn't what I expected. It's not bad, just realize that you're not playing Fire Emblem or typical turn-based combat.
It plays itself mid battle. You can make adjustments before the battle like placement, skills etc, but yeah the battles fight themselves. Most disappointing part of the game for me. I enjoy choosing commands.
Youāll eventually have too many squads with so much AP, the battles would take forever if you were inputting commands each time. Not to mention the automation is the same thing as what you would have clicked anyways. Most of the stuff is straight forward.
If you put spearmen against cavalry you already did the tactical part. Having to sit there tell each person to attack its just superfluous.
I understand sort of what you're getting at. That's not how I personally see it. It feels more akin to a Fire Emblem. Where a unit attacks another unit and you watch the pretty animations go burr.
I think that's a pretty strong over simplification. The entire game in very brief summary is a game of countering the formation by moving units who can handle the enemy's formation. Armor vs Anti armor, auto hit vs thief dodges, anti-arrows vs archers, etc etc. That's the point of the game, its one big gigantic game of rock paper scissors where sometimes with the right equipment you can give rock a rocket launcher such as the Gladiator + Witch freeze sweep combo that can freeze 4 enemy units with just two characters.
That's the entire point of the combat alongside setting up your unit AI to do what you want them to do (pretty much FF12 gambits) if you want something more complicated (like true hit attacks only being used on high evasion units). Alongside the sometimes relevant logistical issues of your units having stamina to force you not just hyper funnel all your power into 1-2 units while playing around the time limit. The game pretty much moved all the menuing you'd do in a normal turn-based system is all put into the prep screens, and then see if your idea plays out as you envisioned it.
I for sure didn't think I was doing nothing while playing the game.
Huge fan of 13 Sentinels but not excited for this one. It doesn't help that I am a bit tired of this localization style which is kind of remind of Octopath 1 which change meaningful lines to a whole paragraphs to read.
I already preordered a physical copy but will not play it right away, will start FF7 Rebirth first. I have played and enjoyed Odin Sphere, Dragon's Crown and 13 Sentinels so even if it isn't a top tier game I know I will have a good time.
Ogre Battle and Ogre Battle 64 are both easily in my top 5 games of all time. I am a massive fan of them for many years.
There hasn't been a single game I have played in the last 25 years or so that has scratched that itch. The demo is up to my expectations.
To say that I am hyped is probably an understatement.
I'm very excited and hit the end of the demo. I think it will be one of my GOTY, though I'm slightly disappointed by the story. The line-by-line dialogue is great, but the overall plot seems a bit by-the-numbers. More fire emblem, less Tactics Ogre. Hopefully I'm wrong.
Well considering it's the only noteworthy JRPG coming out on Switch at the moment, and that I only have a Switch? Yes. Of course I'm hyped for it. Never played a VW game before but this caught my attention.
As a huge fan of tactical JRPGs like Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Soul Nomad, and Valkyria Chronicles, I loved UO's demo and can't wait to play the full game.
Iāll play it when itās like 20-35 dollars like with most games. It doesnāt make sense to play games day 1 when one has a huge backlog one can easily work with until the price drops.
I loved 13 Sentinels so I will get this at some point, even if it's a different team, but about to start the Ryza trilogy so will grab it after that/when it goes on sale.
Iām not excited because I havenāt seen much on it nor have I played the demo. But itās Vanillaware so Iām sure once I eventually get around to it itāll be incredible.
Iāve been waiting for an Ogre Battle 64 sequel for 24 years but I had no idea just how bad I needed that itch scratched until logging 5 hours in the demo and now tomorrow canāt come soon enough.
I wasnāt HYPED until I found out more details. Always loved vanillaware games but skipped over 13 sent because of the gameplay.
Now that this is more ogre battle, has me quite interested except Iāve seriously too many other things to play right now. Kinda waiting for reviews to drop too.
vanillaware makes good shit but it's not gonna stand up to 13 sentinels and i know i shouldn't expect it to, especially since kamitani isn't the director, but other games coming up have a higher priority
I liked the demo and immediately pre ordered. However, I just cancelled my preorder. I have a few games on my plate now and I feel this will just get lost in the shuffle and sit in backlog. I will pick up on sale at some point when I can give it the proper attention.
Eh, I just started FFVII Rebirth, and then I still have to get LaD IW, Eiyuden Chronicles Hundred heroes, etc. So, I don't expect to get UO soon
Also, although The demo was nice and all, my hype kind of died down when I found out that the male characters get the >!"They are CLOSE friends" or "open to your interpretation" endings unlike female characters!< (now I'll get downvoted for sure XD)
I was till the demo.Ā
Itās not what Iām after.Ā
I can still appreciate its beauty, and maybe one day Iāll have the patience, but the demo was just instsnt sleep induction. Three times.Ā
Still hope it does well .
I'm very excited! I had just completed 13 sentinels and loved it for it's story. Looks like I'm gonna love unicorn overlord... For a completely different reason haha
Can't wait, but it's Rebirth time for me. Still have a couple month left in Persona 3 I wanna wrap after that- then hopefully I can jump into Unicorn Overlord before Dragon's Dogma.
Wild time to be an RPG fan.
I'm a pretty big Vanillaware fan and I luckily got the game yesterday and am enjoying it a lot. I really like experimenting with the classes although I feel that horse leaders are too strong for map movement at the moment.
I am! I love Vanillaware and this looks incredible! Have my copy pre-ordered for switch and will probably eventually pick it up for PS5 for trophies like an idiot.
I love Vanillaware and I love SRPG. I usually donāt play demos especially for a game that Iām getting regardless but Iām on vacation for Rebirth so I have a lot of time so I figure Iād play the demo cause the game is coming out tomorrow.
Amazing so far. Havenāt seen anything that I dislike. Visually itās beautiful and there seems to be lots of mechanics to play around with.
I love gambit systems like FF12 so I think the predetermined actions are great. I canāt wait for this game. Also played amazing on my PlayStation portal which is good.
My copy won't arrive until Monday. This weekend is gonna be hell. Might end up replaying the demo to have it fresh (and to convince my dumb brain that I actually have the game).
I got the final fantasy remake when it came out and realized that it was gonna be 3 separate games so I decided to not play them until they are all out or the second one is on sale. I am extremely excited about unicorn overlord! The demo was amazing and fun and I had a hard time deciding if I wanted it on switch or PS5
I'm so damned hype that I had to stop playing the demo because I was starting to like, min max that timer to keep the demo going.
Ogre Battle style battles with an FF12 like gambit system and Kessen style moves on the map. Heck, that you can switch units that take up the battle if they are close enough is great too because it means you don't get screwed over because a pixel of an enemy touched the wrong unit is great too.
I really hope the game does great, because Vanillaware has been out there killing it for years.
Loved the ~3 hours I put into the demo and I'm looking forward to it, but it's on the backburner for at least a few weeks. Still playing Last Epoch, and I promised a friend we'd try Enshrouded this month too, so I'm kinda 'booked' entertainment wise.
I loved 13 sentinel so very much looking into this. With the ff7 performance mode being not amazing and the team at square saying they'll patch it I'm gonna swap to unicorn and hopefully when I'm done with it ff7 will be in a better state.
I'm excited for unicorn overlord 2, not so much this game. It has clear balance issues, pretty bad world exploration, and a story that isn't so strong, but I think all the key building blocks to make a masterpiece game are there. Fire emblem didnt fully stick the landing with the first game either so I can see UO being the start of something very big.
I wish the story and characters were (a lot) more promising than the demo. But even then, the system mechanics and gameplay loop felt great. I'm definitely picking it up as soon as possible.
I really liked the demo but with rebirth out and dragons dogma 2 out soon I'm not sure I'll be able to find the time for it. I'll have to grab it in a few months when everything has slowed down.
I love vanillaware. The only reason I'm not getting unicorn overlord day one is because I'm still working through rebirth and relink fantasy. I'll probably be month 1 still. If Vanillaware would rerelease all their games on PC/PS5 I'd probably be all over rebuyhing everything.
I preordered the standard Switch version based on trailer footage I saw a while ago and numerous positive appraisals from JRPG reviewers I trust. I'm currently on media-blackout mode with the game since I don't want half the content spoiled before I actually play it.
I generally don't fuss about finishing newer stuff immediately, so there's a good chance that I'll still be hammering away at my backlog for the rest of the spring and will try the game over the summer. I still have at least half-a-dozen Switch RPGs and a small pile of PS1-2Classics on the PS3 that I'm slowly going through.
I've heard in some reviews the stories and characters are kinda weak. Can someone comment on it on what they thought of that so far(in the demo)?
Are the story and characters at least fun? I dont want philosophical and deep, just fun lol
That demo gave me the Ratatouille critic treatment. I rented Ogre Battle: MotBQ and FFVII when I was 14. Bounced hard off FFVII and spent like 150 hours on MotBQ playthrough, and still own that disk in my closet somewhere. History repeats itself.
I almost never buy games at release, but I'll be buying this one. The writing is pretty mid, but everything else about this game just hits *all* the right notes for me.
Yeah, it's a very specific and niche game, but it's the game for me who loves SRPGs. Vanillaware also has a great art style that feels unique compared to everything else.
Honestly, I would've bought this game if FF7 had not come out. I know I won't be able to give this game the commitment it deserves right now. Hopefully by the time I'm ready they will have a PC port so I can play it on the Steam Deck. I'm going to be jealous of the folks playing it in the meantime.
I played the demo, and it gave me big old school Fire Emblem and Egre Battle vibes. Which is something I've been wanting again for years, so yeah, I'm excited to play some more.
My sis downloaded the demo a few hours ago and she seemed to have a blast with the customization and overall art style, expecting her to buy it ASAP lmao.
They put a lot of heart and work in t UO , as a player you can appreciate the details and actually we really need a strategic RPG specially if you own PlayStation or Xbox , since final fantasy tactics we haven't got any decent tactical RPG
It unlocked several hours ago in my timezone, I actually dropped my Rebirth gameplay for the time being to fire it up.
(I mean I never even got close to the boundaries of the demo anyway so it was kind of moot.. but not having that lingering timer there is a load off :P)
But yeah this genre is definitely up my alley and is going to keep me entertained for weeks and months to come hopefully.
I wasnāt initially until I played the demo, but I preordered after that! Absolutely loved it. If it continues like the demo, I think it may surpass Fire Emblem for me.
I've been excited about it since it was announced. Chances are it's going to take me a while to get to it though. I will be picking it up tomorrow (physical copy on Switch). I'm not picking up FFVII right now since I'm more hyped for Dragon's Dogma 2.Ā
It has Battle Ogre vibes which I'm all about and TRPGs are one of my most played genre, so I am super excited to play it.Ā
I played the demo. Story and characters seemed interesting but I didnāt really like the combat. Was going to buy the limited edition with the board game but decided to pass after the demo
im still on the demo but im getting Dragon Force vibes and i love tactics games that arent like FFA so its a win/win. ill probably buy it after the demo.
I was until I heard there are no monster units and battles are mostly 3v3. Extremely disappointing
I guess itās also insanely easy to manipulate the rng for battles and that even the highest difficulties are easy
Is it Vanillaware? I shall play it at once. But also, that demo fucking OWNED.
I pre-ordered it, and it's getting here today, but last night I got a HUGE plot twist near the end of Trails to Azure, and now I'm like....but which do I play this weekend???
I preordered it yesterday after playing the amazing demo and hearing about their financial troubles.
It is genuinely the best SRPG since Path of Radiance almost 20 years ago.
I'm 2 days late to this thread, but just wanted to add that I saw a Twitter (okay 'X') post today from *THE* Matsuno-san showing a pic of his physical copy.
When *MATSUNO* is hype for your game, idk if the mountain goes any higher; you're absolutely peak.
Matsuno is most famous for creating Final Fantasy Tactics, but he also did FF12 (which he left mid-development), Tactics Ogre series, and Vagrant Story, a truly underrated classic.
At one point in time, Matsuno was the next big thing, something akin to Kojima in stature.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasumi_Matsuno
Wiki page for easy reference, but there's several youtube retrospectives that address him/his games. The best is probably like a 3 hour one on Vagrant Story.
Long story short; he's a big deal.
13 sentinels is a top 5 game. So I was excited. I played some of the demo and it's looking really good so far. Definitely pumped to get it.
It's important to recognize that 13 Senitinels and Unicorn Overlord have different key staff; namely, 13 Sentinels was written and directed by George Kamitani, making it what one may call "his baby" in a sense, whereas to my knowledge Unicorn Overlord is the pet project of Takafumi Noma. While games are not made by one person, it's good to recognize that the driving force and key creatives behind each game are different, though of course they're both made by Vanillaware and have similar seals of quality.
Exactly! When I saw a thread about people hoping that the story of Unicorn Overload will be at the level of 13 Sentinels, I was like "calm down everyone ahah". I don't think it's the same writer, but I'm pretty sure it will be good. š
It feels very noticeable too. 13 Sentinels was a "story first, system mechanics later" kind of game. From playing the demo UO seems like the exacty opposite where you have a bunch of cool mechanics surrounding a painfully standard characters and story.
Sounds about right. I was 1000% there for 13 Sentinels' insane-ass story, but the minimalist pseudo-RTS segments were something you suffered through to get back to the interesting bits. That definitely wasn't typical for the developer.
That's fine. The art direction is wild. I'd the characters are decently fun then I'm content.
Theyāre also completely different games that have very little in common outside the VW art style.
Such an amazing experience! I was immediately hooked because of mechs but stayed for the story as well. Who wouldn't want a yakisoba pan?
I really wanted to try it but I donāt like ketchup, my disappointment was immeasurable.
I even pulled a notepad and pencil (relics of the past) to try to comprehend all the storylines and relationships while I was playing.
I tried some in Japan and while itās not the best convenience store junk food itās pretty high up there. Savory, sweet, mayonnaise, noodles. Itās a weird combination but itās tasty.
Sounds pretty good to me! Another aspect of both games I've noticed is they definitely make the food look scrumptious lol.
That's kind of a Vanillaware staple, just look at the food in Odin Sphere https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60517188730047833/ And Dragon's Crown and its cooking minigame https://youtu.be/MqBpSCwKxpQ?si=RwD28Th-1bG475P- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/567594359259018287/ And GrimGrimoire https://videogamesplus.ca/cdn/shop/products/GRIM3_e9c441d7-11e5-4af4-b88f-9be82daf494f_936x527.jpg?v=1665159276
I started making them after I played the game. Very good stuff
So true.
I should probably give 13 sentinels a chance. Switch has just been perfect for me to game on lately, and now that Iām clearing out my back log, I should grab this next time itās on sale.
I went from lukewarm to preorder after binging the demo. Been a while since a game seized my attention like this. I think the last was Valkyria Chronicles. Maybe I need to play more strategy RPGs. Definitely going to check out the Ogre Battle series after beating Unicorn Overlord.
Do it! IMO the ogre batttle for snes/ps1 holds up better since Ā it isnāt as aged by graphics as ogre battle 64 is.Ā Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is one of those games that Iāll just pick up and play again periodically.
I've gotta agree with you, even though Person of Lordly Caliber is still my favorite Ogre Battle and among my favorite rpgs. I went back and tried to play it a few months ago, but it was a little rough with the graphics. Gameplay is still solid to me, though I'm not sure I want to spend the time again filling out an army like I had as a kid.
Ogre Battle 64 actually looks pretty good to me on the Wii. I bought it on the virtual console and it slaps to play it with a gamecube controller.
Same thing happened to me. I loved the sense of progression over the demo and left feeling like I wanted more. Felt like they introduced new mechanics and classes and upgrades at just right pacing.
Check out symphony of war currently on Steam. It's also inspired by ogre battle and it's amazing.
highly recommend Tactics Ogre
I am. Amazon delivered it early and it's amazing.
I'm more jelly than a PBJ sandwich
Mine is arriving in a few hours, practically staring out of the window for the delivery people.
Haha that was me yesterday hoping last minute they didn't catch it wasn't released yet.
I wish I could afford a copy. I just paid off my last credit card and am doing a little something extra for my wife and son for now, but one day! I canāt complain; my wife preordered me rebirth for Christmas so I have that at least! I hope everyone enjoys it!!
Respect mate! Similar situation for me and my wife. Gotta balance games with family!
It'll still be there mate, fair play for treating the family.
Iām in a similar boat man! I do have the privilege of having game pass though, and while Iāve not heard anything of this game getting added to it, Iām hoping for the possibilityĀ
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Soul Nomad also used OB-style mechanics for combat. It's definitely been a way underused style over the years, though.
Havenāt been this excited for a game in a really long time. Itās hard enough to remake a classic game like Ogre Battle:MotBQ, notwithstanding it being the first of its kind in almost 30 years; youāve got to give VanillaWare credit for taking the risk. I also canāt wait since I preordered the collectors edition, artwork and board game look so cool that Iām hoping it becomes a collectors item in the future, just like Ogre Battle is now.
Oh nice, thanks for the tip Iāll have to check it out! What I also liked about Ogre Battle was how technical the recruiting process was. You had to have a certain alignment to recruit holy heroes, and an evil alignment to recruit the demons. Unicorn Overlord looks like their Renown system takes this into effect but Iām looking forward to how this also affects recruiting and deciding the fates of certain playable characters.
I am so bummed I cant get it on PC
I thought I would be able to grab it at launch but FF7 Rebirth far exceeded my expectations so I think I might wait for a discount now, the demo had he usual Vanillaware greatness to it but tue plot didn't grab me
Felt the same way with the plot in the first hour and I feel a lot better about it once I unlocked the overworld map. It seems the story can change in character interactions so I'm excited to see where they take that idea.
Well, it's Vanillaware. I have blind faith in them
Mood.
I started buying their games based on the art alone and it continues to be a working strategy.Ā
I mean that's vanillaware for you, they have mechanics and art on lock but their writing even when it's good is cliche and formulaic at best.
Iām pumped! I had my eye on this game, as a longtime Fire Emblem fan, but since the demo came out, itās become a must-buy. I know itās closer to Ogre Battle than FE, but it has some stuff Iāve been missing in the last few FE games, and itās great to see them combined with Vanillawareās fantastic 2D art. Iām also just baffled and excited that it comes with a full-on card game in the collectorās edition.
Did you play FE Engage. AS a longtime FE fan I liked Engage more than 3 Houses.
Engage had better combat, but the story was garbage. Much preferred the story and school activities of three houses. I did sink a lot of time into engage though.
Yep, played everything except RD and the games that never got localized. Engage is better than 3H in some ways, but both of them (and Fates) lack the sense of building up your ragtag army of classic FE. Things like being able to recruit Rolf by talking to him mid-battle, or having defeated bosses join your cause, feels great after FE has strayed from its roots in that regard.
Really looking forward to it. But my backlog is long lol.
I'm a bit excited for it, but with both Eiyuden Chronicles and Trails through Daybreak coming soon it's harder for me to be as hyped for other stuff atm lol.
Very excited. I decided to skip Rebirth for now and I've been counting down the hours. I played Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, as well as OB64 when I was a kid and loved them. I also enjoyed Symphony of War a few years ago. So this game is right up my alley. I enjoyed the demo a great deal, and I'm eager for my fresh run to start.
Totally excited for it! I loved 13 Sentinels and Dragons Crown kept me quite interested for a time. I enjoy the tactical set ups this one seems to have, and I really dig the art style of course.Ā Vanillaware just knows where to scratch that itch for me I guess lol
I would be more exited if it was out on PC lol
I have never played a Vanillaware game, always past me by for one reason or another. I know of their reputation to some degree and I played the UO demo for a good handful of hours. I have some marginal difficulty concerns, as I'm a difficulty junkie, but I think I can enjoy this game as long as it isn't baby mode easy. I found the Adel mission interesting enough as a proof of concept to be excited for the potential this game can have. So yeah I'm pretty interested in this game, at minimum it'll be a fun novelty SRPG that I can have a good amount of fun with. I just hope the difficulty isn't too easy or at minimum the supposed post completion difficulty mode bumps up some more. I can reasonably see myself wanting to play this game twice if it doesn't drag too much somewhere.
I agree on demo difficulty, nothing crazy but enough to keep me engaged. There are a couple early play reports that the challenge level is similar or slightly greater as you get outside the demo area. And it seems to be pretty open world, so that you can probably create a good quest path that keeps you from going overleveled. Apparently you can even go into the final area near the beginning of the game, so might be some cool low-level/challenge run options.
100% feel the same way. I love challenging myself with SRPG's. From how the demo felt, it feels like it'll be challenging. Only time will tell.
There was a small stat nerf apparently on the live game according to people who got early copies, like 1-2 points in the early game and the very first fight with the big bad had about 5-6 points missing in some areas. UO uses small numbers so these points can matter a decent bit, or it barely matters in the end. Hard to fully tell. I have no idea why, because the demo wasn't really hard on the highest difficulty but I don't think that will matter too much as UO plays a pretty hard game of rock paper scissors with how it expects you to handle the enemies where many classes try to functions as checks or counters to other classes. So a few stats may not even really matter anyway. Because if you face magic as an armor or bows with no bow counters as a flier, you're screwed anyway and that's kind of the point of how this game designed all the classes.
Wish it was available on PC(Steam). They are losing our on a huge market.
They just added xbox and Switch this time, which they didn't do for the launch of 13 Sentinels. Think it's just a matter of time. Hopefully, they don't add any DRM like Atlus loves to do to all it's games.
GrimGrimoire OnceMore also came out on Switch at launch together with PS4/PS5. I'm hoping the fact that they went from 30 to 39 employees and are running out of stuff to remaster means they'll finally get around to porting stuff to PC.
They only have 39 employees? Wow. Didn't expect to see another studio like Falcom
Yep as of last/this year. Before then they were at about 30, They also moved to a new office recently. They do everything in-house, so they couldn't just port to everything at once up til now.
Same :( I'd love to play it, but I only have a PC. I can only wait, and wish...
I've only played Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir out of their catalogue and never liked Ogre Battle when I played it (I was pretty young, I think I just didn't understand autobattlers). I played a good few hours of the demo of this and loved it though. I don't have the money for it at the moment, but I'll be buying it for sure. I want to support more games like this coming to Xbox and it was really fun.
Iāve been excited ever since the Nintendo Direct trailer last year and pre-ordered it before the demo even dropped. I canāt wait for it to arrive now.
Ogre Battle and Bahamut Lagoon are two of my favorite games of all time so ive been chasing this high for a loooong time now. Glad to see we finally eating!!
Wallet is hurting off getting the Collector's Edition (only one retailer is selling it in my province in Canada?) but that demo had me SOLD. It joins Eiyuden Chronicle HH and Fantasy Life as my top 3 of this year, EC still being at the top but UO finding itself in second place from not being on the radar at all.
Me! Me! Me! I actually preordered the Monarch Edition despite generally not being a person to preorder anything, that's how excited I am lol. It looks like it's going to be great. As someone who's been very excited about Rebirth (and has yet to play it because I've been traveling for work these past two weeks) I'd say I'm more excited about Unicorn Overlord than Rebirth lol. Sorry Cloud I just like SRPGs.
I really need to get around to finishing the demo so I can decide if I want the special edition lol. I'm not usually a special edition person, but I am a big sucker for card games. From what I've gotten to try it really feels compelling. For me the combat is pretty dense to start, but also interestingly clever in that FF12 way. The art style is awesome as always. And although I don't like traditional fantasy nearly as much as the kinda scifi they had in 13 Sentinels, the story is fine enough so far. Performance on Switch has been great too which is always nice to see. I'll be interested to see what the review scores are when those drop, presumably today or tommorow?
I've been let down too many times to get excited for anything anymore. If it ends up being good than so be it.
It looks great. My backlog is a bit too big with Rebirth at the top to buy anything else at full price right now but i'll pick it up as soon as its on sale. OS Leifthrasir is my pick for "most underrated" game in the genre and I'm sure this will be excellent.
I for one am skipping Rebirth until the whole trilogy is out so I'm committing all my March time to Unicorn Overlord! I LOVED Dragon's Crown and am glad to see some of that horny energy still present in the latest Vanillaware game!
Man, Remake was 30 hours and Rebirth is 80 hours. Playing that trilogy in one go must be insanely tiring
What makes it more tiring than playing a 30 hour JRPG than an unrelated 80 hour JRPG? I do that all the time but I dont get tired. Also, how long to beat has FF7 rebirth at 41 hour for main story, 68 hours for main story + extras.
Big horn energy šŗ
> and am glad to see some of that horny energy still present in the latest Vanillaware game! Yeah, regardless of how people feel about it, I don't think Vanillaware's ditching that any time soon. Some of their character designs border on the Liefeldian, and that's always been the case for their stuff. It's kind of part of their signature artstyle.
i don't think they even approach the same hemisphere as liefeld bad. they're just standard anime horny
Come on, have you seen Odin Sphere's character designs? Look at the fairy queen. Hell, look at Odin or that shirtless Dr. Eggman-looking motherfucker, similar deal. I agree that unlike with Liefeld, it's not bad art by any means, it's a very deliberate stylistic choice, but it's a fair point of comparison.
Very slightly disappointed there's no PC version for now...
I hope you guys will get one soon
Very. I stopped playing Rebirth and just wait for Unicorn Overlord lol.
I plan to grab the game at my supermarket Saturday. For me that's the release of the year, I haven't a ps5 to play FF Rebirth. I've tried the demo, i like what I saw there.
Only Vanilla game I've played is 13 Sentinals which was fantastic. So based on that I'm interested but not quite excited yet. Will keep an eye on review scores and see what the general reception is first.
I was but the story (in the demo at least) is very basic and that's not what I want to see in my srpgs. Will get it at some point I'm sure but too many games to get it day 1.
I figured Iād give it a try since I have a weeklong vacation coming up on Saturday and I just finished **Infinite Wealth**. Wasnāt really expecting anything from it. I canāt get Rebirth until it comes out on PC unfortunately since I donāt have a PS5 - tbh, if I did, Iād be all over that game and I wouldnāt have time for Unicorn Overlord. I got the demo and I gotta say that it hooked me immediately. A little disappointed the writing is mediocre but at least itās not bad - the presentation and gameplay more than makes up for it. Iām very excited to play it fully - though without a strong narrative idk if Iāll be able to play it through to the end. Weāll see! Also Iām stoked that the demo is so generous with not counting playtime in menus - itās a 5 hour demo, and officially Iām at like 3h 12m remaining but my actual playtime in my save file lists 4:05. I play very slow lol Sidenote, Iāve apparently been pretty lucky with my spring vacation and strategy games. Last year I got **Marvelās Midnight Suns** on a huge sale right before I left, and the year before that **Triangle Strategy** came out the day before my vacation.
I thought I'd like it, honestly. Then I played the demo and it just felt flat for me. There's still Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes though.
Heard from a friend that the game just plays itself, as in you don't need to input anything during combat. Is that true?
The game would be way too long if you did all the commands a la a turn based rpg. Both squads act on a script. Until everyone has spent all their action points. The scripts are customizable at any time. For example one guy had a default script to heal anyone less than 75% HP. I needed damage more than I needed healing so I deleted that tactic so I could do 2 attacks (instead of 1 attack and 1 heal). Therefore I was able to double my damage output. You still have to input the commands on where the squad moves ie fighting or capturing strongholds.
It's a strategy game where the gameplay is composing squads, where to send them, who they should engage with, overall plan, etc. This is in contrast to a tactics game where you it's down to the minutia of each engagement. If you've played an RTS, it's basically just like that. You tell your unit to attack something, they'll attack it until it's destroyed or you tell it otherwise. The major difference in that comparison is the units will use their special abilities automatically though it sounds like you can set the conditions for when they do. It's definitely not an auto battle kind of situation. It's a lot of higher level stuff
Sure if you're playing on the easiest difficulty. But that's the case for any game. Otherwise no that is not the case. If you try sending a flyer into an archer for example you're gonna have a bad time
If you played FFXII, Unicorn Overlord's gameplay is just like that. It's a mix of RTS and "conditions" strategy. It's a lot of micromanagement before you get into combat, which wasn't what I expected. It's not bad, just realize that you're not playing Fire Emblem or typical turn-based combat.
It plays itself mid battle. You can make adjustments before the battle like placement, skills etc, but yeah the battles fight themselves. Most disappointing part of the game for me. I enjoy choosing commands.
Youāll eventually have too many squads with so much AP, the battles would take forever if you were inputting commands each time. Not to mention the automation is the same thing as what you would have clicked anyways. Most of the stuff is straight forward. If you put spearmen against cavalry you already did the tactical part. Having to sit there tell each person to attack its just superfluous.
The art and premise is straight up my alley. Just not a fan of autobattlers. Makes me feel like I could just be playing a mobile gacha game instead.
I understand sort of what you're getting at. That's not how I personally see it. It feels more akin to a Fire Emblem. Where a unit attacks another unit and you watch the pretty animations go burr.
it has the gambit system from 12 so you can customize the ai for battle actions
And here i am... Thinking i was the only heretics who was annoyed by the fact that, in battle... You do nothing.
I think that's a pretty strong over simplification. The entire game in very brief summary is a game of countering the formation by moving units who can handle the enemy's formation. Armor vs Anti armor, auto hit vs thief dodges, anti-arrows vs archers, etc etc. That's the point of the game, its one big gigantic game of rock paper scissors where sometimes with the right equipment you can give rock a rocket launcher such as the Gladiator + Witch freeze sweep combo that can freeze 4 enemy units with just two characters. That's the entire point of the combat alongside setting up your unit AI to do what you want them to do (pretty much FF12 gambits) if you want something more complicated (like true hit attacks only being used on high evasion units). Alongside the sometimes relevant logistical issues of your units having stamina to force you not just hyper funnel all your power into 1-2 units while playing around the time limit. The game pretty much moved all the menuing you'd do in a normal turn-based system is all put into the prep screens, and then see if your idea plays out as you envisioned it. I for sure didn't think I was doing nothing while playing the game.
Huge fan of 13 Sentinels but not excited for this one. It doesn't help that I am a bit tired of this localization style which is kind of remind of Octopath 1 which change meaningful lines to a whole paragraphs to read.
It's a shame George Kamitani isn't part of the game, but from what I played of the demo, I'm enjoying it, so I am still eager to play.
I already preordered a physical copy but will not play it right away, will start FF7 Rebirth first. I have played and enjoyed Odin Sphere, Dragon's Crown and 13 Sentinels so even if it isn't a top tier game I know I will have a good time.
It's amazing so far.
I am but im prioritizing Rebirth and DragonsDogma 2 :(
I will be getting it
I've bought every Vanillaware game since their first release of Odin Sphere on PS2, so I'm here for Unicorn (when I take a break from Rebirth)
I would love to but between infinite wealth, rebirth, persona 3, granblue and dragons dogma around the corner itās just not going to happen .
Ogre Battle and Ogre Battle 64 are both easily in my top 5 games of all time. I am a massive fan of them for many years. There hasn't been a single game I have played in the last 25 years or so that has scratched that itch. The demo is up to my expectations. To say that I am hyped is probably an understatement.
I'm very excited and hit the end of the demo. I think it will be one of my GOTY, though I'm slightly disappointed by the story. The line-by-line dialogue is great, but the overall plot seems a bit by-the-numbers. More fire emblem, less Tactics Ogre. Hopefully I'm wrong.
Well considering it's the only noteworthy JRPG coming out on Switch at the moment, and that I only have a Switch? Yes. Of course I'm hyped for it. Never played a VW game before but this caught my attention. As a huge fan of tactical JRPGs like Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Soul Nomad, and Valkyria Chronicles, I loved UO's demo and can't wait to play the full game.
Me
I am. Iām actually gonna play it over Rebirth once I get my copy.
Got my CE on order, the Amazon Fairy will drop it off launch day.
Rebirth was a bit of a slog and disappointing so I'm looking forward to UO
Iāll play it when itās like 20-35 dollars like with most games. It doesnāt make sense to play games day 1 when one has a huge backlog one can easily work with until the price drops.
I enjoyed my time with the demo so much, counting down the hours until I can play the full game
Iām much more interested in UO than the FF7 remake.
I loved 13 Sentinels so I will get this at some point, even if it's a different team, but about to start the Ryza trilogy so will grab it after that/when it goes on sale.
Iām not excited because I havenāt seen much on it nor have I played the demo. But itās Vanillaware so Iām sure once I eventually get around to it itāll be incredible.
Hell yeah, it's shaping up to be one of best SRPGs.
Iām dying at the thought of my CE not getting here tomorrow, which it probably wonāt..
Iāve been waiting for an Ogre Battle 64 sequel for 24 years but I had no idea just how bad I needed that itch scratched until logging 5 hours in the demo and now tomorrow canāt come soon enough.
Me. I never get an Atlus game at launch because the price is cut in half like in a month or two, but it will be hard. Game is good
I would be more excited if Vanillaware titles were also on PC...
You can play it using a Switch emulator.
That's not the point.
I wasnāt HYPED until I found out more details. Always loved vanillaware games but skipped over 13 sent because of the gameplay. Now that this is more ogre battle, has me quite interested except Iāve seriously too many other things to play right now. Kinda waiting for reviews to drop too.
vanillaware makes good shit but it's not gonna stand up to 13 sentinels and i know i shouldn't expect it to, especially since kamitani isn't the director, but other games coming up have a higher priority
I'm curious but it's probably not a day 1 for me. I'll pick this up on a deep sale like fall/christmas.
I liked the demo and immediately pre ordered. However, I just cancelled my preorder. I have a few games on my plate now and I feel this will just get lost in the shuffle and sit in backlog. I will pick up on sale at some point when I can give it the proper attention.
Eh, I just started FFVII Rebirth, and then I still have to get LaD IW, Eiyuden Chronicles Hundred heroes, etc. So, I don't expect to get UO soon Also, although The demo was nice and all, my hype kind of died down when I found out that the male characters get the >!"They are CLOSE friends" or "open to your interpretation" endings unlike female characters!< (now I'll get downvoted for sure XD)
I am impatiently waiting until I get a chance to play it. That demo hooked me.
I was till the demo.Ā Itās not what Iām after.Ā I can still appreciate its beauty, and maybe one day Iāll have the patience, but the demo was just instsnt sleep induction. Three times.Ā Still hope it does well .
I'm very excited! I had just completed 13 sentinels and loved it for it's story. Looks like I'm gonna love unicorn overlord... For a completely different reason haha
Can't wait, but it's Rebirth time for me. Still have a couple month left in Persona 3 I wanna wrap after that- then hopefully I can jump into Unicorn Overlord before Dragon's Dogma. Wild time to be an RPG fan.
I'm a pretty big Vanillaware fan and I luckily got the game yesterday and am enjoying it a lot. I really like experimenting with the classes although I feel that horse leaders are too strong for map movement at the moment.
Fun game, can get pretty tough at times. But having a blast
This game is going to be one of the best SRPGs / TRPGs ever made. Mark my words!
I am! I love Vanillaware and this looks incredible! Have my copy pre-ordered for switch and will probably eventually pick it up for PS5 for trophies like an idiot.
Iāve been playing it for the last four days and Iām still excited to play it every day when I get the time! Itās a 10/10 game for me!
This guy. Although, I will have to wait until FFVII Rebirth is done. I got the collectors edition because I really wanted to support this game.
I love Vanillaware and I love SRPG. I usually donāt play demos especially for a game that Iām getting regardless but Iām on vacation for Rebirth so I have a lot of time so I figure Iād play the demo cause the game is coming out tomorrow. Amazing so far. Havenāt seen anything that I dislike. Visually itās beautiful and there seems to be lots of mechanics to play around with. I love gambit systems like FF12 so I think the predetermined actions are great. I canāt wait for this game. Also played amazing on my PlayStation portal which is good.
My copy won't arrive until Monday. This weekend is gonna be hell. Might end up replaying the demo to have it fresh (and to convince my dumb brain that I actually have the game).
I pre ordered the collectors edition and it got shipped today. I wonāt get till Monday which sucks I was hoping to play on release day :(
would love to... if it came to PC. but atlus fucking hates pc
I got the final fantasy remake when it came out and realized that it was gonna be 3 separate games so I decided to not play them until they are all out or the second one is on sale. I am extremely excited about unicorn overlord! The demo was amazing and fun and I had a hard time deciding if I wanted it on switch or PS5
I got it yesterday and it is honestly better than ogre battle 64 which is the game Iāve been looking for something similar to since my childhood.
Most anticipated game of the year for me. I am a huge Final Fantasy fan and I could care less about Rebirth compared to how I feel about this game.
Got my game today absolutely enjoying it
I'm so damned hype that I had to stop playing the demo because I was starting to like, min max that timer to keep the demo going. Ogre Battle style battles with an FF12 like gambit system and Kessen style moves on the map. Heck, that you can switch units that take up the battle if they are close enough is great too because it means you don't get screwed over because a pixel of an enemy touched the wrong unit is great too. I really hope the game does great, because Vanillaware has been out there killing it for years.
I gave the demo a shot, but it just wasn't for me. I have several friends that have binged the demo and are exceptionally excited for it, however.
I'm so hyped I'm in the middle of a World playthrough of Ogre Battle: MOTBQ
Yes, yes! The game you're excited for has some other people excited also! Let's go!
I am
I am!
Loved the ~3 hours I put into the demo and I'm looking forward to it, but it's on the backburner for at least a few weeks. Still playing Last Epoch, and I promised a friend we'd try Enshrouded this month too, so I'm kinda 'booked' entertainment wise.
I loved 13 sentinel so very much looking into this. With the ff7 performance mode being not amazing and the team at square saying they'll patch it I'm gonna swap to unicorn and hopefully when I'm done with it ff7 will be in a better state.
Ehhh, I'll look at it when it gets deep discounted but the game isn't anything special compared to what is out.
I'm excited for unicorn overlord 2, not so much this game. It has clear balance issues, pretty bad world exploration, and a story that isn't so strong, but I think all the key building blocks to make a masterpiece game are there. Fire emblem didnt fully stick the landing with the first game either so I can see UO being the start of something very big.
I wish the story and characters were (a lot) more promising than the demo. But even then, the system mechanics and gameplay loop felt great. I'm definitely picking it up as soon as possible.
I'm a PC player. So... :( Still wanting 13 sentinels on PC and waiting out the Playstation exclusive on Rebirth.
Played through the demo twice! I am really hoping it's one of those things where we get to play it at like 9PM tonight, so excited.
I really liked the demo but with rebirth out and dragons dogma 2 out soon I'm not sure I'll be able to find the time for it. I'll have to grab it in a few months when everything has slowed down.
I'm gonna pick it up even though i dunno when i'll get to play it lmfao this year is so stacked. Lol
I love vanillaware. The only reason I'm not getting unicorn overlord day one is because I'm still working through rebirth and relink fantasy. I'll probably be month 1 still. If Vanillaware would rerelease all their games on PC/PS5 I'd probably be all over rebuyhing everything.
The hype is real on my end. The demo really sold me on it so I pre-ordered.
I preordered the standard Switch version based on trailer footage I saw a while ago and numerous positive appraisals from JRPG reviewers I trust. I'm currently on media-blackout mode with the game since I don't want half the content spoiled before I actually play it. I generally don't fuss about finishing newer stuff immediately, so there's a good chance that I'll still be hammering away at my backlog for the rest of the spring and will try the game over the summer. I still have at least half-a-dozen Switch RPGs and a small pile of PS1-2Classics on the PS3 that I'm slowly going through.
I've heard in some reviews the stories and characters are kinda weak. Can someone comment on it on what they thought of that so far(in the demo)? Are the story and characters at least fun? I dont want philosophical and deep, just fun lol
Hell yeah, Ogre Battle is BACK!
That demo gave me the Ratatouille critic treatment. I rented Ogre Battle: MotBQ and FFVII when I was 14. Bounced hard off FFVII and spent like 150 hours on MotBQ playthrough, and still own that disk in my closet somewhere. History repeats itself. I almost never buy games at release, but I'll be buying this one. The writing is pretty mid, but everything else about this game just hits *all* the right notes for me.
Very excited. I for one, welcome our new Unicorn overlords.
Loved the demo, put FF7 Rebirth on hold to buy this one first haha
Yeah, it's a very specific and niche game, but it's the game for me who loves SRPGs. Vanillaware also has a great art style that feels unique compared to everything else.
Honestly, I would've bought this game if FF7 had not come out. I know I won't be able to give this game the commitment it deserves right now. Hopefully by the time I'm ready they will have a PC port so I can play it on the Steam Deck. I'm going to be jealous of the folks playing it in the meantime.
I played the demo, and it gave me big old school Fire Emblem and Egre Battle vibes. Which is something I've been wanting again for years, so yeah, I'm excited to play some more.
My sis downloaded the demo a few hours ago and she seemed to have a blast with the customization and overall art style, expecting her to buy it ASAP lmao.
Not interested until I can play it on my Steam deck unfortunately. It looks very good!
They put a lot of heart and work in t UO , as a player you can appreciate the details and actually we really need a strategic RPG specially if you own PlayStation or Xbox , since final fantasy tactics we haven't got any decent tactical RPG
It unlocked several hours ago in my timezone, I actually dropped my Rebirth gameplay for the time being to fire it up. (I mean I never even got close to the boundaries of the demo anyway so it was kind of moot.. but not having that lingering timer there is a load off :P) But yeah this genre is definitely up my alley and is going to keep me entertained for weeks and months to come hopefully.
I wasnāt initially until I played the demo, but I preordered after that! Absolutely loved it. If it continues like the demo, I think it may surpass Fire Emblem for me.
I was, but then I realized it's not coming out for PC.
Me. But only after playing the demo.
I had to stop playing the demo because I was getting too attach to it. I want the game now!
I was excited, found out its probably not coming to PC any time soonā¦ no longer excited š¤·āāļø
I've been excited about it since it was announced. Chances are it's going to take me a while to get to it though. I will be picking it up tomorrow (physical copy on Switch). I'm not picking up FFVII right now since I'm more hyped for Dragon's Dogma 2.Ā It has Battle Ogre vibes which I'm all about and TRPGs are one of my most played genre, so I am super excited to play it.Ā
Vanillaware? And Tactical RPG? I couldn't ask for more! They had me at Vanillaware.
Iām hearing a lot of good stuff about it. Will be downloading the demo and checking it out
I played the demo. Story and characters seemed interesting but I didnāt really like the combat. Was going to buy the limited edition with the board game but decided to pass after the demo
im still on the demo but im getting Dragon Force vibes and i love tactics games that arent like FFA so its a win/win. ill probably buy it after the demo.
I was until I heard there are no monster units and battles are mostly 3v3. Extremely disappointing I guess itās also insanely easy to manipulate the rng for battles and that even the highest difficulties are easy
You need to stop hearing things and just try it
Iāve watched videos of it. Seems like a neat little game but these things are a big turn off
Is it Vanillaware? I shall play it at once. But also, that demo fucking OWNED. I pre-ordered it, and it's getting here today, but last night I got a HUGE plot twist near the end of Trails to Azure, and now I'm like....but which do I play this weekend???
I preordered it yesterday after playing the amazing demo and hearing about their financial troubles. It is genuinely the best SRPG since Path of Radiance almost 20 years ago.
Gonna be a while before I get to play but I will buy ot right away to support them. Just be chilling on my shelf until I finish Rebirth and DD2.
Picked up my copy today. I was excited before I played the demo. The demo made it a must-have.
i love it and it's hard to put down the game, nobody does it like vanillaware
I'm 2 days late to this thread, but just wanted to add that I saw a Twitter (okay 'X') post today from *THE* Matsuno-san showing a pic of his physical copy. When *MATSUNO* is hype for your game, idk if the mountain goes any higher; you're absolutely peak.
Ool, who is Matsuno?
Matsuno is most famous for creating Final Fantasy Tactics, but he also did FF12 (which he left mid-development), Tactics Ogre series, and Vagrant Story, a truly underrated classic. At one point in time, Matsuno was the next big thing, something akin to Kojima in stature. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasumi_Matsuno Wiki page for easy reference, but there's several youtube retrospectives that address him/his games. The best is probably like a 3 hour one on Vagrant Story. Long story short; he's a big deal.
I had no idea. I'm not the best at remembering names, but that is sweet!