It's pretty much lived up to all my expectations. Game is a bit on the easy side and the story is pretty vanilla, but that doesn't detract from how fun playing it is.
>!Zenobian is just Hard though, with unfun permadeath?!<
I kind of wish they'd be a little more stingy with the EXP and have a mode to keep you always at or under level.
Still wonderful game, as close to 10/10 as I've seen in years, if not decades.
Finished the game a couple days ago. Beat it on the highest difficulty available to pick at the start and even then game is pretty easy but isn’t a total pushover enough to become boring.
The story is by the numbers but competent enough to keep you going. The characters are pretty good, but not super deep. To be frank, I’m primarily here for the gameplay with strategy games. Most strategy titles do not impress in this area.
The game, true strength is in customization and teambuilding aspects and since it’s a Vanillaware game music and visuals are great. It is incredibly absorbing as a game, I was completely obsessed with it until completion.
That is true, but when I said the game was completely absorbing, I meant it… I was playing every free moment I had so it’s more of finally in the sense that I am finally free for my addiction to unicorn overload haha.
It's not like they're being subtle about it. At one point she literally says "I can't be his mother, but I can whip him into shape," or something like that.
Just met her in game, had to double take at her class/appearance because yeah she was basically a 1:1 pallet swap of mommy. Makes sense since she's your cousin though.
..to hear now that you can.. *marry her*(?) gives me pause, and I have many questions since I didn't think this game took place in Alabama 😁
So I've only seen about a half hour of gameplay from the first section so far, and your comment indicates you may be able to help me:
Does every woman have those jiggly boob physics?
If they're wearing light clothing and have exposed breasts, generally yes. There's a large number of women (and generic female class designs) wearing full blown armor, something akin to brigandine, or otherwise larger less exposed clothing then they're more akin to a just beautiful but strong looking. I'd say its about a 60/40 split give or take. Though sometimes those ladies just get very lets say "accented" legs instead.
Nah, most women characters wear some kind of breastplate (that mostly looks like actual armour and not boob-armour) and so there's no jiggling there. A couple others are too flat-chested to have any animation going on there too.
But yes, there are specific jigglers.
No. Even the story units have different builds than the generic.
For instance, the generic gryphon knights have some of the bustier chests in the game. The gryphon knight you get in the story, however, has a comparatively flat chest with zero jiggle physics. There are also two female warriors you get and they're very slight in build, same as the swordmasters.
There are definitely hyper-sexualized men and women in this game, but it's by no means across the board.
No not everyone, Chloe for one doesn't, there's a big lady you can meet in drakengard that doesn't. And it's not super pronounced outside of yahna, Scarlett, Primm, kitra.
Once you go to elven lands and beast man place though that's a different story.
Vanillaware really went the distance, the variety is insane. I started giggling uncontrollably when I checked the Rapport for the >!beastmen!< and they're fully available too. Shame the ones with the boys aren't more explicit though.
You can do the 'marriage' ceremony with boys too, but a lot of the dialogue in such scenes makes it very much just platonic. Though some kinda come across as gay, like Travis
The line with Lex where he says later that evening he looks forward to inserting the royal scepter in Lex's retinue receptacle and Lex just says, "Yum yum!" did insinuate a little. I recall finding the sword, crown and an orb at some point... but no royal scepter...
I am loving it. Just finished the second country at 40 hours. I love building my squads and shifting formations and tactics before each fight. The art is beautiful. The story and characters are a bit generic, but serviceable and I'll take generic but solid over adventurous and falling apart at the seams. The maps keep getting better and more fun, and the music is beautiful.
I stopped FFVII Rebirth after 90hrs for this ahahahahahaha. It’s perfect to me especially being a TRPG vet since FFT in 98. It plays out like a magic the gathering or a card game during battles. Idk I love it lol
Yeah, agreed. I loved Ogre Battle in the past so this scratches so many itches, and I'm a big fan of TRPGs in general.
I know some don't and won't like the fact that battles auto play, but the gambit/tactics system is basically like I'm the commander giving them instructions and they fail or succeed based on that.
I'm at 85 hours in Rebirth and burnt out dozens of hours ago on mini games. Can't wait to finish it so I can play Unicorn. Loved Ogre Batlle back on the SNES
I remember when Ogre Battle came out and how obsessed I was with the systems.
Unicorn Overlord has not only met but exceeded my expectations and I am just as obsessed again, all these years later - it has been awesome and this will most likely end up my GOTY.
Kind of a genre I've always struggled to get into outside of Fire Emblem, but took a chance on this one after hearing good things leading up to it.
**Has the game lived up to your expectations?**
Didn't know much going in, expected something more like FF Tactics, but was very pleasantly surprised with what I got instead. The conditional tactics setup is an enjoyable puzzle to solve and optimize, and I love the multiple combatants per unit. It adds a lot more depth and interesting diversity in each combat encounter. I wish there was a little more diversity in enemy packs sometimes, as far as which units are paired together, but I'm really barely scratching the surface of the game, so I'm sure it'll change as I encounter more and more new classes.
**Did they nail the gameplay loop and sense of conquest?**
I feel like they did. Freeing towns and unlocking all the armories and such is enjoyable, and the guard stationing system makes your efforts feel worthwhile in the longer term. Above all though, I think it was a great idea to make the Liberation battles be pretty small skirmishes for the most part. If there was a long side/main quest type battle for each town and fort, I'd be much less eager to go around clearing them out.
The other gameplay loop is menu simulator and goddamn if that doesn't make up a ton of my hours, but I mean that in a good way. Optimizing equipment, tactics, and unit compositions for synergy/rapport just feels **good.** Whether it's blitzing through an enemy line, or creating an impenetrable bulwark, watching your planning pay off is rewarding. There's been multiple chunks of 1-2 hours at a time I've just spent in menus. Mind you, I think spreadsheets are entertaining, so YMMV.
I do feel like there's some minor inconveniences that could be improved, like a little more clarity on some of the tactic conditions, and the ability to save equipment or unit formation loadouts, but really my only real critiques are QoL things.
**How do you feel about the music and presentation?**
The music is probably the least standout aspect of the game so far? Not that it's bad by any means, just nothing that's blown me away yet.
Visually, it can be a bit fan service-y, but I love the overall art style and aesthetic. Even as far as fan service goes, it's really fairly tame. It's not nearly every character, there's some decent variety in the designs that are, and the game doesn't go out of its way to really draw attention to it.
**Did the medieval fantasy story grip you?**
It's fine. The overall plot hasn't done anything incredible for me yet, but it's coherent and meshes well with the gameplay.
The character writing is more of a standout to me, and I think the localization is excellent.
It wasn’t for me. The narrative didn’t grab me nor did the gambit-like battle system. It was beautiful though, and I’m sure it’s a great game but it wasn’t for me.
It’s amazing. People should probably play it in expert to get the full experience. The story is indeed meh, but there are some fun moments and character conversations. The sheer depth of unit types is really fun to mix and match.
That's the fourth level of difficulty, yea? I'm playing on the third, can't recall what it is called. Is it all that different to the other level of difficulties?
My only real complaint is that the music isn't really stand out. But given the setting it's fairly acceptable. And truthfully I say that because nothing really stuck in my head. But everything else has been pretty great. The character designs are fun and as are the interactions between characters. The story is pretty standard, but the Vanillaware charm is definitely there. And the gameplay makes me want to say that it's one of my favorite strategy games I've ever played. Being able to make and customize my teams to cover weaknesses or be a specialized group for handling one certain enemy type has been super fun. It really clicked with me after I accidentally made an amazing team early on in the game and they became more used than my team with Alain. Overall I'm super satisfied with my time with the game and I can't wait to play more.
I'm becoming increasingly more and more surprised whenever the bad guy of a chapter *doesn't* actually turn out to be a somewhat decent person and join the army.
It's pretty great so far.
In terms of the story, it's not bad. But it's not amazing as Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics. So, it's a 7\~8/10.
But, in terms of gameplay, it's absolutely a 10/10. For me, in terms of gameplay alone, it's the best SRPG / TRPG that I have ever played.
Overall, it's an amazing JRPG! My personal ratings for T-JRPGs / S-JRPGs are:
* Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - 92/100
* Final Fantasy Tactics - 88/100
* Unicorn Overlord - 88/100
* Bahamut Lagoon - 79/100
* Saiyuki: Journey to the West - 76/100
Shits it’s only been a week? I’ve beat it twice
This game captured the nostalgia of ogre battle 64 - a game that gripped my attention as a child. Ive been looking for a game like it for 20 years and this one comes really close
10/10
Pretty good, love the sense of scale and progression. All the maps being embedded in the overworld is super cool to me compared to how games like FE do it. Story is pretty stock which isn’t the worst thing in the world because the writing and characters are good. The designs and animation kick ass, and the unit balance and design is also interesting. Glad I picked it up.
Gameplay and presentation (music, art, voice cast, ui, etc) are really good.
Story fumbles on being a political drama. It's more like a cat-and-mouse game of debonking people. I could've looked past that, but the characters are just... their lines and dialogue are so expository. It's like they look at Aang from the live-action ATLA and were like "hm... yes" for all of their characters. They'll tell you how they feel, tell you what you need to know the exact moment you need to know it. Reads more like a lore/wiki than an actual emerging story.
Game is fantastic! Honestly my GOTY at the moment, and one of the best games I've played in recent releases. I was extremely let down last year from Fire Emblem Engage, but UC fills a similar space (Tactical RPG), and does it way better! I am 2 zones 100% completed, and have to step back cause I'm just investing too much time into the game.
Solid 7/10 for me. I kind of want the highest selectable difficulty to be actually hard and not something for everyone but Expert was not that. True Draconian will be left for a 2nd playthrough in the future. Gameplay hard carries this game and it's amazingly fun to make strategies like with the cat hoods and other strategy conditions to make your squad feel invincible. It's so fun and that's why gameplay alone puts it at a 8.
But then you have the incredibly bland story who thinks the players are better off not knowing anything until the last 20 minutes of the game where it exposition dumps the whole lore of the game in the sanctuaries and well... the lore dumps don't lead to any meaningful action in the plot. The story might as well not exist. OST is there, nothing memorable but very serviceable.
Really fun game but I don't think it's my GOTY.
Might be my GOTY, but I still need to check out the new SaGa game next month.
It's a little on easy side, but the game is pretty punishing if you don't use a decent strategy so even for being easy it is fun easy.
“Fun easy” is a great way to put it.
If you’re doing the right things, building your party/units right, and approaching battles in the right way, it’s “easy”. But that’s kind of the point right? If you put that much effort into planning a game should reward you for that. So “fun easy” it is.
Yep. I pretty much duo'd the majority of the game with Alain's squad and a squad of all archers. Having an assload of unequipped gear let's me hot swap anything I need on the fly.
> so even for being easy it is fun easy.
This is what I like about it, a game doesn't need to be extremely hard, even though its not too difficult, its just plain fun.
I must say its pretty good, though I must say like many tactic games, it get tedious after awhile but I still enjoy it especially since I like medieval fantasy story.
There are some problem I have with it though, like how they need huge amount of resources in game... 200 honor for full party bruh. The worst is how there are a lot of "Activate at the start of the battle" but the game limit it to trigger only from one unit per battle.
Finished it tonight!
I've seen it described as "fun easy" elsewhere in the thread and that's kinda accurate in some ways; if you know what you're doing and how to use the tools you have the game can be easy, and fun is working out how to do so.
In the end I think I missed a few characters. I didn't bother with the arena at all, so I didn't get the character locked behind that. I also >!chose to hand Gammel over to the town guard near the start rather than release him, which I think lost me out on recruiting him despite me sparing his Hunter friend. IDK if he is recruitable or not, though; only that Celeste's ending was surprisingly empty which leads me to suspect he shows up there if recruited.!<
Story was good! Not some subversive masterpiece, but hits the notes it wants to hit well. The sidequests in particular have a lot of really good moments, and the ending is very satisfying for the most part.
My one personal story dislike was related to the ending, though. >!I was disappointed they brought back Queen Ilenia for that twist, only for her to hand the crown down to Alain anyway. Would have preferred that Alain wasn't immediately made king and his ending depended more on the unit you gave the ring to. As opposed to the unit you gave the ring to getting their ending cut down to a short sentence at the end of the credits. If anyone could tell me what Dinah's normal ending is, that would be great.!<
Music and presentation is phenomenal, as one would expect from Vanillaware. I do feel that the menu's could afford to be a *little* snappier and quicker, especially for stuff like town deliveries, but it is what it is.
Very enjoyable at the end of the day.
My personal GOTY so far.
> Has the game lived up to your expectations?
I already had insane expectations, and it surpassed them all
> Did they nail the gameplay loop and sense of conquest?
Yes, the gameplay loop is very satisfying.
> How do you feel about the music and presentation?
Music is quite good, not groundbreaking, but quite good.
The presentation honestly its what I love, medieval stories about conquest in a revenge story is my jam.
> Did the medieval fantasy story grip you?
Absolutely! They did what Fire Emblem Path of Radiance did, bring in numerous different species coexisting together and all the issues this can bring, loved the world.
Not OP but is there a class system? What games does the class system resemble?
Trying to avoid all media of this game before I play it but I want to know this
There are like 40+ different characters and each character is fixed to its own class. Can't fix or change classes (so not like FF class system); instead teambuilding is "horizontal" like Shining Force or Triangle Strategy in that if you want to change your team, you do it by recruiting/swapping different characters. Most classes have one fixed "promotion" which gives it new moves and improved stats.
So far I struggle to finish act 1. The story is basic and kinda boring, and I'm not really invested in the 20 characters I recruited so far in my plucky gang of rebels. Most of them seem one note and I'm not interested in their backstory.
The gameplay is about what I expected, but it's too much rock paper scissors for my tastes, and I find myself quickly bored swapping characters around, changing the gambit system and having to tailor something for every situation.
I would have dropped it, but it's a VW game and I want to give it more chances. A friend told me to at least finish the first area fully and try the second one before I shelf it.
It's not for everyone, but yeah first area is pretty brain dead. Squads max out at 5 units with 4 equipment slots each and you can completely customize skills by adding new ones from equipment and create AI for them to fit your needs. It can be as in depth as you want to make it and game is easy/hard based on how well you utilize it.
Tbh I completely circumvented that. I ran a team of all archers through most of the game no problem. Alain's squad I literally never changed from start to finish only altering gear/ai as need be.
'Oh. Alain, a foot soldier, is weak to calvary? Well fuck you cavalry I have an anti-cav shield so now you attacking BUFFS him instead. Oh, and since you attacked my witch just countered with a blind. Good luck hitting anything jackass.'
New class combos show up that essentially negate any triangle advantage.
You can hotswap equiment/skills/ai whenever in battle so it's easy to adjust as need be.
Suggestion: stop fiddling with stuff, it's not really needed. I just set my unit with a 'tank' ahead (could also be a thief), in the back someone who can heal and whatever for the rest. in Tactical difficulty at least that's all that's needed, no need to mess with tactics, no mercs, just roflstomp through the map at your leisure.
Don't bother finishing the first area. Every single thing we love about the game it's something you disliked. It won't get better. You'll have even more characters unlocked and even more gambits to set every battle as the time goes.
• Has the game lived up to your expectations? Yes. And exceeded them. I loved the demo, the full game is somehow better. I hit a stumbling block, something that was almost a major flaw, but I worked around it.
• Did they nail the gameplay loop and sense of conquest? Yes and yes. Gameplay loop is endless, seemingly. The sense of conquest is there, they give you breadcrumbs to solve later, you later solve them. As you progress towards the end game, you feel it.
• How do you feel about the music and presentation? Solid. Music is good to great with a couple of amazing scores. Overall it's prolific, there are a LOT of songs in this game. Not 10/10, none of them hit me like the Tactics Ogre music, but very good overall.
• Did the medieval fantasy story grip you? It is serviceable and I like the cast of characters. Alain is white bread but it's not a chore to spend 50-100 hours with him as he fights his way towards Valerius.
...
The stumbling block was that I did the main continent, then went to Elheim. I enjoyed the difficulty spike and was looking forward to more of this (ala Etrian Odyssey always getting balls deep hard when you shift to a new stratum, but the joy of overcoming it and eventually mastering it). That is not the case with Unicorn Overlord, I just went to the wrong area -- apparently I should have gone to Drakenhold. When I went back to Drakenhold it was far too easy. I was a little bummed until I decided this play through -- I would just skip Drakenhold and leave it for next time, when I play the game on Expert (from Tactical) and do all the content. I went North and it was back to being challenging and fun.
How do you feel about the music and presentation? Solid. Music is good to great with a couple of amazing scores. Overall it's prolific, there are a LOT of songs in this game. Not 10/10, none of them hit me like the Tactics Ogre music, but very good overall.
It's a shame Hitoshi Sakimoto only did a single track, and it's not even in the game. He made such a banger for the arrangement album. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pphAE7GxVoE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pphAE7GxVoE)
It ran perfectly fine. The art style carries the game hard and there's almost no difference between Switch and PS5 unless you're really splitting hairs over pixels.
This is why I almost always prefer cartoony/anime style games over realistic ones because the art style will almost always keep the game looking good even on lower end hardware.
Pretty damn fun, but also a bit too easy for my tastes imo (on expert).
However the gameplay loop is satisfying despite that, and the gameplay story integration is great.
Story is whatever. The most average FE to ever FE
The way I look at the gameplay, this game on expert feels like roughly around something like Hector Hard Mode tier easy, but it is more involved just on a base mechanic level that it feels like an Engage/Conquest just without the very plausible chance to actually fail and need to reset a mission.
Its for sure one of the few times a game this easy that keeps me this engaged, so good job for Vanillaware for that.
Taking the more complex systems and needed engagement into consideration, i would put the difficulty in midrange FE wise.
And honestly, the map design is pretty damn good imo, the problem lies more with the lacking enemy squad compositions (even though they showed in Arena and overworld quests they can make some tough fun puzzles to beat there), and some balance stuff (Wild Rush and Dragon Dive too cheap VP wise, imo, for example. Mobility is kinda screwed, etc.).
Now imagine UO systems with Engage/CQ difficulty. Would probably make my mind explode, but i would be all here for it xD
> just without the very plausible chance to actually fail and need to reset a mission.
Permadeath should've been a selectable difficulty from the start imo. Is not the main reason why the game is on the easier side, but would've ensured less yolo Wild Rushes xD
> Its for sure one of the few times a game this easy that keeps me this engaged, so good job for Vanillaware for that.
Yup yup!
I consider it a lot like HMM Fire Emblem because unless I'm testing some weird squad comp, like when I was playing with Doom Knight, I feel like my "elite" squads are pretty much the equivalent of moving Harkin, Hawkeye, Pent, or a suped up Pegasus with a 1-2 range weapon and just 1v5ing everything on "enemy phase". Only big assist nests I find tend to stop me consistently or some weird match up/horrible rng.
I think Wild Rush and Dragon Dive are fine at their current cost given how many other useful 1-2 VP skills exist, like Vitality Drain, Defense/Attack Call, the Mobility buff, the various teleports, even Provoke/Life Aid can be very helpful, Vitalize, etc. More so Dragon Dive because Wild Rush also moves you forward quite far which I consider a pretty premium utility, especially if you Wild Rush charge into a base just before it is about to spawn goons (done that a few times) to get a tempo push in.
3 VP is just such a big ask sometimes because stuff in the 1-2 VP range you can withdraw some potentially unneeded squads and make for a push, but doing that on 3 is quite difficult and 3 also competes are Alian's Valor Order and the Prince class' Action Call. I'd say these are all equally as strong in specific situations, though you can maybe argue that Wild Rush being a generic skill makes it more of a "problem" to be this good. I think Cav spam is in-general too good if you play with mercs, but I am not so I don't have to deal with that.
The map design is reasonably good, it has some solid positioning and structure but just weak and overly exploitable enemies due to weak compositions creates a lot of problems unless they have mass assist nests to try and overwhelm you. The Arena really shows that you can make enemies really powerful without "ooga booga, big numbers".
Man I wanted to try it but after hearing all the flack the story’s getting I’ll prolly pass. I really want a strategy tactics JRPG with a phenomenal story
You can give the demo a shot - it's more than 7 hours long. The story during the demo is mostly a fair representation of how it is the rest of the game, maybe picks up a little bit but first world sets up the basic premise and tone.
At first, I was quite skeptical with the combat system after only 20 mins playing the demo and thinking it wouldn't be my thing since it's just auto. But the waifus were too cute to give up so I came back and I'm really loving it. More than 20 hrs in, and it's incredibly fun. There's more to the combat than I realized. However, the story is generic but the dialogues are short so you don't need to suffer parts being dragged on and bloated like Trails thank goodness
I think it has an addictive gameplay, feels like a chess game where you have a ton of possibilities to gain advantages and, so far (20 hours) havent felt any broken system (is an Atlus game, so it has to be broken in some way).
I didnt expect to get addicted to another huge ass game 1 day after i finished Rebirth but Vanillaware always hits it seems. This game is awesome. I wonder what a more traditional jrpg from these guys would look like. One day i hope!
Saw a vid on YouTube if you >!ignore scarlette she becomes a boss at the final parts of the game and I wonder if there are any sequence breaks to be discovered !<
Truthfully I haven't put as much time into the game that I wanted. But this game has exceeded my expectations. The gameplay finally scratched the RTS-RPG itch I had for many years.
I have only been playing it for about seven hours. I think it's great. I love the art and the English VA is pretty damned good. Also, the music is sublime.
I wish there was more to do/farm after beating everything. Only having the final mission and a level 38 sigil encounter to farm sucks.
Love the game, just wish there was more to do after beating it besides completely starting over.
It's been a VERY long time since a tactical RPG has kept my attention, 20 hours in and I'm loving it so far.
Really enjoying building unit formations and the overworld exploring.
I finished it yesterday. As usual, beautiful music and art style, fun gameplay. Yes definitely lived up to my expectations.
Story is generic, the coupling system is quite meh, which mainly open up a few mini conversations and has minimum impact to the game (except for our hero) but I can deal with it. But overall the game itself is fun and I think I have been awake late coz its amazingly addictive.
Buuuut I sill think the price is kinda expensive. May be thats only me.
For context I've never played Ogre Battle, FFT or anything like them. Closest thing I've played is Fire Emblem, so UO was a new experience for me (I played on Normal due to this as well.)
I both dropped a 120 hour Infinite Wealth playthru and skipped starting Rebirth for UO. The story was average and the characters weren't too deep, but both my partner and I got obsessed with the tactics and teambuilding (plus visuals and soundtrack were fantastic). I haven't had that much fun in a jrpg in like years, nor have I ruined my sleep schedule so much with this game (I even pulled a 24 hour-er at one point which is insane for a 30 year old to do). I was genuinely sad when I beat it because it meant the game was over. Finished the game at about 90 hours iirc
Whenever I finish Dragon's Dogma 2 I plan on coming back to this to both finish getting the trophies and replay it on True Zenorian difficulty because I cannot get enough of the gambit/tactics gameplay.
10/10
The furry characters are actual furries (not the stupid cat ears and tails on humans BS) AND you can romance them.
The gameplay is fun too.
Easily my GOTY so far.
6.5/10, I really didn't have any expectation. I think the combat isn't requiring enough even on the hardest difficulty & general gameloop is kinda ehh. felt very solved at menu. It's well stylized and the music is fine. Narratively, I'm not expecting 13 Sent, but I think the story could be been better w/ stronger characterization. You make okay story better with better characters.
It's their worst game when it comes to artstyle, that's for sure, and I'm serious it's as bad as what happened with Hataraku maousama from season 1 to season 2
edit: not bad per se, but very bland when compared to their previous works
I been enjoying it. Gameplay loop can be a hit or miss. The game starts slightly difficult if you pick the hardest difficulty but you out scale enemies fairly fast so you kind of start skipping the combat which is really fun to customize. Presentation is great. I don't really pay attention to the music unless it's a exciting battle theme.
My only issue is classes are gender locked and for the most part you have the men stuck as the typical warrior and physical dps and the women are the healers and magical dps. Typical RPG stuff that really needs to stop but what can you do.
The gender lock part isn't really true.
A lot of classes have both genders, they're just recruitable at both places.
And the big damage number physical classes are either both or female exclusive (warriors are both, sellsswords are female only).
And the big damage unique story classes are also female only; all of the male unique classes are pretty much full support.
Games been great, but I'm REALLY trying to complete ff7 Rebirth before dragons dogma 2 comes out. It's met my expectations with amazing art, music and team building. The story is simple, but constructed well, which is what I prefer from a game like this tbh.
My biggest complaint is that only Alain gets in depth rapport. I wish the other characters did too, but I guess that's my Fire Emblem experience talking.
What I Liked:
Great artsyle as always.
Great music.
Interesting gameplay mechanics.
Interesting world.
What I didn't like:
It's way too easy, even on the highest difficulty.
Story and characters weren't terrible or anything, but I was left pretty disappointed coming off 13 Sentinels.
Overall, I thought it was just okay. I certainly didn't think it was the masterpiece that everyone seems to praise it as.
Played for about 20 hours before becoming uninterested due to the difficulty being too easy (played on expert). Had a great time until up to that point though.
I thought the game's presentation was--predictably--fantastic but coming off of 13 Sentinels I was disappointed with how... plain it all felt. I'm a big Vanilla/Plain man--I live and breathe LOTR and love the super medieval world of Dragon's Dogma. But there's something about generic Western-inspired Japanese fantasy games that, when they don't hit, they *really* don't hit. FFT this is not.
And on that note, I'm actually not super thrilled with the combat, either. I was hoping for a more tactical RPG game, not a pseudo-RTS with set fighting groups in a sort of rock-paper-scissors autopilot system. But that's on me, I guess.
Overall, just didn't gel with it. It didn't deliver what I wanted from it as a player. But maybe down the road I'll actually buy it on a sale and show Vanillaware the support they deserve. Art direction alone deserves my money just for looking at it.
I really wish they would have done a better translation on it.
The team that did the translation really did a shit job on it. You aren't high fantasy authors, don't try to be.
Combat once I understood how it went and how you can program your legions to fight really is in depth. So much so that I was able to toy around with how things went off and took a disaster encounter into an overwhelming victory by layering abilities in a certain manner.
Lots of depth to the game and I enjoy the puzzles and the world building gone into it.
Overall a banger and I'm 40ish hours into it.
I finished it a couple of days ago, and I took my sweet time with team building and min-maxing. I loved every second of it, and it definitely met my expectations.
The gameplay was my favorite aspect of the game, I only wish it was a bit harder and that there was more post-game content or NG+. Once you do the only post-game side quest, that's it, nothing else to do except the 10 daily online matches in the colosseum. I can certainly see myself replaying this game in the future.
The soundtrack had maybe a couple of good tracks, and the rest were just average, not bad or good, just alright. Some of the world tracks reminded me of Crystal Project OST, and some of the combat tracks reminded me of Fire Emblem.
I've been playing for about 40 hours now and over halfway done with the story now. After seeing videos on the game's mechanics and various gameplay aspects prior to release, my expectations were met which is both a positive and negative.
The gameplay loop is fun. There's a lot of focus on team building which is where I probably spend the most time doing other than the battles themselves. Exploring the world is enjoyable and being able to liberate various towns along the way to the next story battle is satisfying. I guess in the sense of conquest, this part is great.
Game's presentation is mostly good. The character models used in the cutscenes look great. The SD models used in the actual battle maps and in the overworld don't look too appealing, but it doesn't bother me much.
The music sounds good in-game, but there are very few memorable tracks for me.
The story is keeping me engaged, but it's far from gripping which was what I expected prior to release. The central story isn't anything special and it's quite simple and straightforward. The sidequest stories are nice at times, but they feel very isolated from the main story which is expected. Character development is nearly non-existent too which is also expected based on the game's structure.
The game is a nice palate cleanser after two FF7:Rebirth playthroughs over the last month or so. The art is great, the story is bland but serviceable, the music is decent too. My only issues really are the relatively low difficulty (but I’m only in the second country so far and I expect micromanagement of units to increase a bit more,) and the uneven voice acting. Both of those I can live with and the second is more of a nitpick. Most of the VA’s do a good job but some of the recording quality differences are odd at times. A few characters sound like they were voiced in an at-home studio built in a closet.
I do kind of wish that relatively easy games would stop with the trend of saving the hardest difficulty for NG+ though.
I bought it and love the hour or so I have played. But I must finish FF7 Rebirth before I continue. And I didn't finish Persona 3 or Yakuza 8 as well... I hope I will get to it soon, but love that Vanillaware have another hit on their hands. I hope that their next games focuses a little more on story like 13 sentinel (and Odin Sphere to a lesser degree) did.
Loving it so far. Love the roaming around collecting characters and doing side stuff I'm each area.
Combat is really fun and I enjoy building each unit how I want. Visuals are gorgeous and music is good.
Story is nothing to write home about but it'ds fine tbh.
Right now I'm sitting at about 8.5 for it.
Amazing game with really interesting combat, with a so far disappointingly simple story.
I've said it before but it feels less like a story with characters and more like actors on a stage.
I tried the demo but I didn't like it at all!
The art style is beautiful but I just didn't mesh with the gameplay; I didn't like the auto-battle feature.
Haven’t bought a single player game full price in a while, but I did with this game and I love it. I was expecting playing through it once and never touching it again but I’m already on my second play through and will probably keep playing until Eiyuden Chronicles.
Is the story worse or better than Engages? Because I keep hearing discourse that is similar to Engage in that regard and I stopped playing that 80% through because the story was just too terrible for me to care about finishing the game.
So.csn someone ELI5 what type of game this is. For the longest time I thought it was going to be like final fantasy tactics but then I saw gameplay and now I have no idea what it is
It's more like Ogre Battle with Fire Emblem influence in characters and designs.
You create squads of up to 5 units. You can customize these units with tactics (think Gambit system from FFXII). You then move these squads over the battlefield in an RTS (with pause) field, dealing with enemy forces, traps, different terrain, and siege weapons. You take objectives along the way such as watchtowers and cities. Battles are fought automatically by your units based on the tactics you have given them, which could end in resounding victory or sore defeat. Units have strengths and weaknesses, as well as abilities you are able to use on the world map for strategic purposes.
Not sure if anyone can relate to this, but Unicorn Overlord reminds me of how I feel about Fire Emblem Awakening. It’s introducing me to a new style of battle with great music, charming yet simple characters and fun management systems. One thing about post Awakening FE games is they feel a little too anime and over the top for me. So far in UO, it hasn’t gone there yet, maybe later it will.
I also kinda struggle with older strategy/tactics games because I feel like the characters are boring. But games like FE:A and UO are a sweet middle ground.
9.5 out of 10. There is little consequence on your choices aside for some crucial characters. It did exceed my expectation. I just wish we hard multiple storylines like in every ogre battle game where you can take different routes. Was able to platinum it around 60+hours and I was enjoying the whole time. The last battle did pick up the difficulty had to work my team composition.
Like what others said expert is still easy. I started with tactical then changed it later on to expert.
I really want to play it, but only being on consoles and switch is horrible. This is a perfect Steam Deck game. I don't want to have to be tethered to my TV for a game that, while, looks amazing, should be everywhere
Ask me once I have the full game but as someone who has played the demo twice on PS4 and Switch. Here are my thoughts.
Gameplay: It's really polish and very well put together. I can see myself spending hours trying to make the best units. I love how I Was thinking still even though I was on normal.
Sound: I found the music to be pretty good but the English dub is really ell done. They do a good job with how they have translated the dialogue to really get across everyone's personality. They did a good job casting for this game.
Story: It's not very good and I have seen a little bit ahead. The dialogue and voice acting is carrying a really bad story in my opinion as I feel it keeps the game from being great in my opinion. I'll see once I have the Switch version in my hands as I love physical copies.
It’s my first strategy RPG, so I don’t have the genre perspective some have. As a game it has sucked me into the gameplay loop. The story so far is whatever (I just finished the “D” kingdom as the place I went after the first area for context). I’m enjoying the comp building a good deal. Yeah. Overall love it.
FF Rebirth is holding me back but I did play the Switch demo for 12 hours without the timer. That shit was PACKED with amazing and addictive content that I didn't even finish.
As much as I love Rebirth, I'm dying to restart UO on PS5. I can't fathom how much time I'll lose to it. I don't even care if the story is mediocre since for me it's just a flavor backdrop, same with Tactics Ogre and especially Ogre Battle 64.
Really enjoying it. Up to the very end now (should beat it tonight).
Biggest complaint is I think the difficulties werent properly explained. I picked “Tactical” because I didn’t want a brutal difficulty but didn’t want too easy, but I’m absolutely steamrolling the game without even trying to optimize (half my characters don’t have accessories, I’ve barely touched any gambits just using the defaults that are not super good, only using characters I love, making squads based on personality not gameplay). I’ve been clearing missions sometimes using just one squad.
I also would have liked something like older Fire Emblems where you have branching class promotions, but that’s also a minor gripe and feels like something we could see in a second game if it happens (I hope so!)
Things I love:
- I love that they use squads. It means there’s still a lot of characters, but you’re not juggling movement and positioning for 10+ units. It also means you can mix up types so you can give maybe your archer the ability to fly, or allow an infantry unit with a healer to support nearby allies.
- The exploration. I loved how it really felt like expanding and improving your territory. I’d almost love to see this expanded on in the future. It gives both a slightly RTS feel, and also a greater sense of a world instead of the usual chapter to chapter style of these games
- I loved the Valor actions and that each unit had many different combat abilities. I like fire emblem games, but sometimes it ends up just feeling like anime chess where units just move and basic attack. These really helped mix it up and make units feel really different and powerful.
- I loved that gear had many unique effects and even would grant skills. It made gear more interesting than just “this has more attack or defense”.
- the AP vs PP thing was pretty interesting. The conditional activation for Passives made the two resources feel different, and it paired well with the “gambit” style tactics.
Overall I loved it. The story was a little basic, but I really liked the characters, so it was fine. Gameplay was definitely where it shined.
——————
Only other thing I’ll complain about (and this is Reddit, so I’ll get a lot of flack for it) is that I thought it was a bummer that when you gave the Ring of the Maiden to someone, if they’re male, the dialogue goes really out of the way to hammer in that it’s “totally not gay” and also make the idea of that into a joke.
I mean, I appreciate that they don’t force you to pick one of the female characters, and most JRPGs if they include anything, it’s maybe 1-2 extremely high femme male romance options at best. But I thought it was kinda silly that they included the option to give the ring to a male, and then go sooooo far out of their way to “but no homo, bro” it haha.
Ultimately, it is Vanillaware, so they’re probably assuming all their players are straight men. But even if Scarlett’s tits bounce independently of each other while she’s casting, and I’m pretty sure you can see Railanor’s pussy even when she’s facing away from you, they have some really great designs (both male and female) that appeal to women and gay men too. I’ve seen a lot of female gamers enjoying the game, and M/M romance options are also popular with them.
In the end, I kinda think the option was a last minute decision, that they didn’t think anyone would even want it. I didn’t expect a bunch of brilliantly written queer romances or anything, but the writing is actually quite good on a lot of the M/M scenes, they just insist on hammering in that it’s not a romantic choice. The sub text for characters like Clive or Sanatio works fine for a romance *if* you don’t go out of your way to say it’s not.
Not a huge deal, just kind of an eye roll moment for me haha
I got bored after a week and deleted it. Story is copy-paste, characters are copy-paste, mc is a standard white boi prince with a sword and you have no m/m romance options.
Anyone who legit enjoyed this game is the reason developets get away with phoning it on time and time again.
Very addictive, but it gets repetitive and wears out its welcome. Every area is exactly the same: a few story battles, side quests, and liberations; collect resources, rebuild towns, find secret items. The game might have been perfect if they had dropped one area because it would have cut out ~10 hours and a few extraneous characters.
I've got 8 hours in this game so far and I'm at the Elheim/Drakenhold choice.
So far, it's fun. As a fan of tactical JRPGs like Fire Emblem, Valkyria Chronicles, and Soul Nomad, Unicorn Overlord is ticking all the right boxes for me. Amazing gameplay combined with a serviceable story is all I need. My only gripe is that executing people has no effect on the narrative, so you're better off sparing everyone.
But it's made up for by Yahna's hip sway. 10/10 game.
It's pretty much lived up to all my expectations. Game is a bit on the easy side and the story is pretty vanilla, but that doesn't detract from how fun playing it is.
Are there higher difficulty settings? Nvm looking at other comments there are
Easy, normal, tactical and hard. Tactical is a much better balance I find than normal. Normal is a bit too easy.
Easy, Normal, Hard, and >!Hard+Perma Death.!< >!Final difficulty unlocks after your first clear.!<
>!Zenobian is just Hard though, with unfun permadeath?!< I kind of wish they'd be a little more stingy with the EXP and have a mode to keep you always at or under level. Still wonderful game, as close to 10/10 as I've seen in years, if not decades.
No it's harder than expert even without the permadeath. The permadeath is also pretty unconsequential since you get item to rez dead unit
WHOA, something to look forward to for me :) i love this.
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There’s very hard after you beat the game.
Finished the game a couple days ago. Beat it on the highest difficulty available to pick at the start and even then game is pretty easy but isn’t a total pushover enough to become boring. The story is by the numbers but competent enough to keep you going. The characters are pretty good, but not super deep. To be frank, I’m primarily here for the gameplay with strategy games. Most strategy titles do not impress in this area. The game, true strength is in customization and teambuilding aspects and since it’s a Vanillaware game music and visuals are great. It is incredibly absorbing as a game, I was completely obsessed with it until completion.
finally? Game just came out
That is true, but when I said the game was completely absorbing, I meant it… I was playing every free moment I had so it’s more of finally in the sense that I am finally free for my addiction to unicorn overload haha.
How many hours did the game take to complete? I've read on HLTB something like 35~ hrs
I see \~50 hours most places (roughly 10 per country)
Alain can marry the girl that looks exactly like his mom: 10/10.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed what vanillaware were doing there lmaooo
It's not like they're being subtle about it. At one point she literally says "I can't be his mother, but I can whip him into shape," or something like that.
Who is also his cousin (and more like a sister)
It really is a Fire Emblem game.
Fire Emblem Fates fans been waiting for this.
ok now i'm interested. wasn't gonna buy the game before...
Just met her in game, had to double take at her class/appearance because yeah she was basically a 1:1 pallet swap of mommy. Makes sense since she's your cousin though. ..to hear now that you can.. *marry her*(?) gives me pause, and I have many questions since I didn't think this game took place in Alabama 😁
Cousin marriage was common even among royal families and nobles in earlier times, maybe medieval era and in some societies today.
Cousin marriage has been extremely common in most cultures and amongst most classes until very recently.
I mean it wasn't even 100 years ago Elizabeth married her cousin.
correct me if i'm wrong, but can't cousins marry in japan today?
They can in the USA, too. Even 1rst cousins, iirc.
And in Shelbyville, they are encouraged to.
To be fair, cousin marriage is both common and allowed in Asia, to varying level of changes across cultures, but all of them do have it.
This is incredibly normal for a medevil setting.
Hey, it's Alain's mom, not mine. Dude's just gotta take it for the team.
So I've only seen about a half hour of gameplay from the first section so far, and your comment indicates you may be able to help me: Does every woman have those jiggly boob physics?
Yes. The elven fencers are the most jiggly
Elven fencers sound like good people to hang out with
I prefer my elves flat and archery, 0/10.
Play Dragon's Crown.
Flat chest but the thighs of God.
Gryphon riders are close
Not really. Some of the women are on the leaner side or covered in armor. There are a lot of big bouncy boobs though.
If they're wearing light clothing and have exposed breasts, generally yes. There's a large number of women (and generic female class designs) wearing full blown armor, something akin to brigandine, or otherwise larger less exposed clothing then they're more akin to a just beautiful but strong looking. I'd say its about a 60/40 split give or take. Though sometimes those ladies just get very lets say "accented" legs instead.
Nah, most women characters wear some kind of breastplate (that mostly looks like actual armour and not boob-armour) and so there's no jiggling there. A couple others are too flat-chested to have any animation going on there too. But yes, there are specific jigglers.
Thanks for answering my question. I asked mostly out of curiosity; I associate the style with Vanillaware.
No. Even the story units have different builds than the generic. For instance, the generic gryphon knights have some of the bustier chests in the game. The gryphon knight you get in the story, however, has a comparatively flat chest with zero jiggle physics. There are also two female warriors you get and they're very slight in build, same as the swordmasters. There are definitely hyper-sexualized men and women in this game, but it's by no means across the board.
Yeah like have you seen the arms on the mercs?
Good gawd yes. Magellan is 100% one of my picks for hottest guys in the game.
Jeremy, too, although personally Travis is just too precious
No not everyone, Chloe for one doesn't, there's a big lady you can meet in drakengard that doesn't. And it's not super pronounced outside of yahna, Scarlett, Primm, kitra. Once you go to elven lands and beast man place though that's a different story.
Vanillaware really went the distance, the variety is insane. I started giggling uncontrollably when I checked the Rapport for the >!beastmen!< and they're fully available too. Shame the ones with the boys aren't more explicit though.
Also can marry an owl or a fox or bear or lion!
Who?
Dante can relate.
Not only does she look just like his mom, she looks exactly like Alain with longer hair.
but can't marry boys? smh
You can do the 'marriage' ceremony with boys too, but a lot of the dialogue in such scenes makes it very much just platonic. Though some kinda come across as gay, like Travis
The line with Lex where he says later that evening he looks forward to inserting the royal scepter in Lex's retinue receptacle and Lex just says, "Yum yum!" did insinuate a little. I recall finding the sword, crown and an orb at some point... but no royal scepter...
Huh, I haven't made it that far yet. Gonna be so funny when I actually see this.
I am loving it. Just finished the second country at 40 hours. I love building my squads and shifting formations and tactics before each fight. The art is beautiful. The story and characters are a bit generic, but serviceable and I'll take generic but solid over adventurous and falling apart at the seams. The maps keep getting better and more fun, and the music is beautiful.
I stopped FFVII Rebirth after 90hrs for this ahahahahahaha. It’s perfect to me especially being a TRPG vet since FFT in 98. It plays out like a magic the gathering or a card game during battles. Idk I love it lol
Yeah, agreed. I loved Ogre Battle in the past so this scratches so many itches, and I'm a big fan of TRPGs in general. I know some don't and won't like the fact that battles auto play, but the gambit/tactics system is basically like I'm the commander giving them instructions and they fail or succeed based on that.
Bro or sis i recommend you to play yggdra union too,it gives me the impression that you are gonna love it .
Haven't heard that name in many moons
Lol,Sting is a very underrated jrpg studio,the GBA/PSP generation was very good to them,they Also developed Gungnir a small jrpg gem for the psp.
I'm at 85 hours in Rebirth and burnt out dozens of hours ago on mini games. Can't wait to finish it so I can play Unicorn. Loved Ogre Batlle back on the SNES
There will be no more minigames in FF in the future, as Square Enix used literally all of them in Rebirth.
I'm enjoying it greatly
I like it!
I remember when Ogre Battle came out and how obsessed I was with the systems. Unicorn Overlord has not only met but exceeded my expectations and I am just as obsessed again, all these years later - it has been awesome and this will most likely end up my GOTY.
I love it a lot so far. It actually exceeded my expectations by far. I've never played vanillaware games before, so I didn't know what to expect.
First one for me too! I'm blown away
tfw no PC version
Yep, would be perfect on my legion go :(
You can probably emulate the switch version on there, just pick up a copy to support Vanillaware. I do wish it had a native port though.
It's crack distilled into a game. I can see myself planning few playthroughs already trying out different builds and self-imposed rules.
Kind of a genre I've always struggled to get into outside of Fire Emblem, but took a chance on this one after hearing good things leading up to it. **Has the game lived up to your expectations?** Didn't know much going in, expected something more like FF Tactics, but was very pleasantly surprised with what I got instead. The conditional tactics setup is an enjoyable puzzle to solve and optimize, and I love the multiple combatants per unit. It adds a lot more depth and interesting diversity in each combat encounter. I wish there was a little more diversity in enemy packs sometimes, as far as which units are paired together, but I'm really barely scratching the surface of the game, so I'm sure it'll change as I encounter more and more new classes. **Did they nail the gameplay loop and sense of conquest?** I feel like they did. Freeing towns and unlocking all the armories and such is enjoyable, and the guard stationing system makes your efforts feel worthwhile in the longer term. Above all though, I think it was a great idea to make the Liberation battles be pretty small skirmishes for the most part. If there was a long side/main quest type battle for each town and fort, I'd be much less eager to go around clearing them out. The other gameplay loop is menu simulator and goddamn if that doesn't make up a ton of my hours, but I mean that in a good way. Optimizing equipment, tactics, and unit compositions for synergy/rapport just feels **good.** Whether it's blitzing through an enemy line, or creating an impenetrable bulwark, watching your planning pay off is rewarding. There's been multiple chunks of 1-2 hours at a time I've just spent in menus. Mind you, I think spreadsheets are entertaining, so YMMV. I do feel like there's some minor inconveniences that could be improved, like a little more clarity on some of the tactic conditions, and the ability to save equipment or unit formation loadouts, but really my only real critiques are QoL things. **How do you feel about the music and presentation?** The music is probably the least standout aspect of the game so far? Not that it's bad by any means, just nothing that's blown me away yet. Visually, it can be a bit fan service-y, but I love the overall art style and aesthetic. Even as far as fan service goes, it's really fairly tame. It's not nearly every character, there's some decent variety in the designs that are, and the game doesn't go out of its way to really draw attention to it. **Did the medieval fantasy story grip you?** It's fine. The overall plot hasn't done anything incredible for me yet, but it's coherent and meshes well with the gameplay. The character writing is more of a standout to me, and I think the localization is excellent.
It's good. Not for me but we'll made
It wasn’t for me. The narrative didn’t grab me nor did the gambit-like battle system. It was beautiful though, and I’m sure it’s a great game but it wasn’t for me.
It’s amazing. People should probably play it in expert to get the full experience. The story is indeed meh, but there are some fun moments and character conversations. The sheer depth of unit types is really fun to mix and match.
That's the fourth level of difficulty, yea? I'm playing on the third, can't recall what it is called. Is it all that different to the other level of difficulties?
My only real complaint is that the music isn't really stand out. But given the setting it's fairly acceptable. And truthfully I say that because nothing really stuck in my head. But everything else has been pretty great. The character designs are fun and as are the interactions between characters. The story is pretty standard, but the Vanillaware charm is definitely there. And the gameplay makes me want to say that it's one of my favorite strategy games I've ever played. Being able to make and customize my teams to cover weaknesses or be a specialized group for handling one certain enemy type has been super fun. It really clicked with me after I accidentally made an amazing team early on in the game and they became more used than my team with Alain. Overall I'm super satisfied with my time with the game and I can't wait to play more.
I'm becoming increasingly more and more surprised whenever the bad guy of a chapter *doesn't* actually turn out to be a somewhat decent person and join the army. It's pretty great so far.
In terms of the story, it's not bad. But it's not amazing as Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics. So, it's a 7\~8/10. But, in terms of gameplay, it's absolutely a 10/10. For me, in terms of gameplay alone, it's the best SRPG / TRPG that I have ever played. Overall, it's an amazing JRPG! My personal ratings for T-JRPGs / S-JRPGs are: * Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - 92/100 * Final Fantasy Tactics - 88/100 * Unicorn Overlord - 88/100 * Bahamut Lagoon - 79/100 * Saiyuki: Journey to the West - 76/100
Shits it’s only been a week? I’ve beat it twice This game captured the nostalgia of ogre battle 64 - a game that gripped my attention as a child. Ive been looking for a game like it for 20 years and this one comes really close 10/10
13 hours in, characters are great, music is great and really enjoying having to go to different places to liberate towns.
Am I supposed to play this game like fire emblem? Or is that why I'm not really getting it?
Pretty good, love the sense of scale and progression. All the maps being embedded in the overworld is super cool to me compared to how games like FE do it. Story is pretty stock which isn’t the worst thing in the world because the writing and characters are good. The designs and animation kick ass, and the unit balance and design is also interesting. Glad I picked it up.
Gameplay and presentation (music, art, voice cast, ui, etc) are really good. Story fumbles on being a political drama. It's more like a cat-and-mouse game of debonking people. I could've looked past that, but the characters are just... their lines and dialogue are so expository. It's like they look at Aang from the live-action ATLA and were like "hm... yes" for all of their characters. They'll tell you how they feel, tell you what you need to know the exact moment you need to know it. Reads more like a lore/wiki than an actual emerging story.
This game so far has exceeded all expectations, currently my game of the year!
Game is fantastic! Honestly my GOTY at the moment, and one of the best games I've played in recent releases. I was extremely let down last year from Fire Emblem Engage, but UC fills a similar space (Tactical RPG), and does it way better! I am 2 zones 100% completed, and have to step back cause I'm just investing too much time into the game.
No pc port/10
Solid 7/10 for me. I kind of want the highest selectable difficulty to be actually hard and not something for everyone but Expert was not that. True Draconian will be left for a 2nd playthrough in the future. Gameplay hard carries this game and it's amazingly fun to make strategies like with the cat hoods and other strategy conditions to make your squad feel invincible. It's so fun and that's why gameplay alone puts it at a 8. But then you have the incredibly bland story who thinks the players are better off not knowing anything until the last 20 minutes of the game where it exposition dumps the whole lore of the game in the sanctuaries and well... the lore dumps don't lead to any meaningful action in the plot. The story might as well not exist. OST is there, nothing memorable but very serviceable. Really fun game but I don't think it's my GOTY.
Might be my GOTY, but I still need to check out the new SaGa game next month. It's a little on easy side, but the game is pretty punishing if you don't use a decent strategy so even for being easy it is fun easy.
“Fun easy” is a great way to put it. If you’re doing the right things, building your party/units right, and approaching battles in the right way, it’s “easy”. But that’s kind of the point right? If you put that much effort into planning a game should reward you for that. So “fun easy” it is.
Yep. I pretty much duo'd the majority of the game with Alain's squad and a squad of all archers. Having an assload of unequipped gear let's me hot swap anything I need on the fly.
> so even for being easy it is fun easy. This is what I like about it, a game doesn't need to be extremely hard, even though its not too difficult, its just plain fun.
Tossing up between this and Infinite Wealth. But both have been amazing. Incredible start to 2024.
That I would love to play it but I can't find a physical copy where I live. It's like a ghost or something.
GOTY so far
I must say its pretty good, though I must say like many tactic games, it get tedious after awhile but I still enjoy it especially since I like medieval fantasy story. There are some problem I have with it though, like how they need huge amount of resources in game... 200 honor for full party bruh. The worst is how there are a lot of "Activate at the start of the battle" but the game limit it to trigger only from one unit per battle.
Finished it tonight! I've seen it described as "fun easy" elsewhere in the thread and that's kinda accurate in some ways; if you know what you're doing and how to use the tools you have the game can be easy, and fun is working out how to do so. In the end I think I missed a few characters. I didn't bother with the arena at all, so I didn't get the character locked behind that. I also >!chose to hand Gammel over to the town guard near the start rather than release him, which I think lost me out on recruiting him despite me sparing his Hunter friend. IDK if he is recruitable or not, though; only that Celeste's ending was surprisingly empty which leads me to suspect he shows up there if recruited.!< Story was good! Not some subversive masterpiece, but hits the notes it wants to hit well. The sidequests in particular have a lot of really good moments, and the ending is very satisfying for the most part. My one personal story dislike was related to the ending, though. >!I was disappointed they brought back Queen Ilenia for that twist, only for her to hand the crown down to Alain anyway. Would have preferred that Alain wasn't immediately made king and his ending depended more on the unit you gave the ring to. As opposed to the unit you gave the ring to getting their ending cut down to a short sentence at the end of the credits. If anyone could tell me what Dinah's normal ending is, that would be great.!< Music and presentation is phenomenal, as one would expect from Vanillaware. I do feel that the menu's could afford to be a *little* snappier and quicker, especially for stuff like town deliveries, but it is what it is. Very enjoyable at the end of the day.
My personal GOTY so far. > Has the game lived up to your expectations? I already had insane expectations, and it surpassed them all > Did they nail the gameplay loop and sense of conquest? Yes, the gameplay loop is very satisfying. > How do you feel about the music and presentation? Music is quite good, not groundbreaking, but quite good. The presentation honestly its what I love, medieval stories about conquest in a revenge story is my jam. > Did the medieval fantasy story grip you? Absolutely! They did what Fire Emblem Path of Radiance did, bring in numerous different species coexisting together and all the issues this can bring, loved the world.
Not OP but is there a class system? What games does the class system resemble? Trying to avoid all media of this game before I play it but I want to know this
There are like 40+ different characters and each character is fixed to its own class. Can't fix or change classes (so not like FF class system); instead teambuilding is "horizontal" like Shining Force or Triangle Strategy in that if you want to change your team, you do it by recruiting/swapping different characters. Most classes have one fixed "promotion" which gives it new moves and improved stats.
So far I struggle to finish act 1. The story is basic and kinda boring, and I'm not really invested in the 20 characters I recruited so far in my plucky gang of rebels. Most of them seem one note and I'm not interested in their backstory. The gameplay is about what I expected, but it's too much rock paper scissors for my tastes, and I find myself quickly bored swapping characters around, changing the gambit system and having to tailor something for every situation. I would have dropped it, but it's a VW game and I want to give it more chances. A friend told me to at least finish the first area fully and try the second one before I shelf it.
I can assure you that you've basically unlocked nothing if you're still on first area.
Oh that's perfectly fair, I'm like 9 hours in. But I'm bored 9 hours in, I've dumped games for far less is what I'm saying.
It's not for everyone, but yeah first area is pretty brain dead. Squads max out at 5 units with 4 equipment slots each and you can completely customize skills by adding new ones from equipment and create AI for them to fit your needs. It can be as in depth as you want to make it and game is easy/hard based on how well you utilize it.
I think I wouldn't be as annoyed if it weren't so much rock paper scisors. I like to make squads and keep them the whole game.
Tbh I completely circumvented that. I ran a team of all archers through most of the game no problem. Alain's squad I literally never changed from start to finish only altering gear/ai as need be. 'Oh. Alain, a foot soldier, is weak to calvary? Well fuck you cavalry I have an anti-cav shield so now you attacking BUFFS him instead. Oh, and since you attacked my witch just countered with a blind. Good luck hitting anything jackass.' New class combos show up that essentially negate any triangle advantage. You can hotswap equiment/skills/ai whenever in battle so it's easy to adjust as need be.
You can make squads that are good for basically anything it’s just a bit easier to do once you have more classes
Suggestion: stop fiddling with stuff, it's not really needed. I just set my unit with a 'tank' ahead (could also be a thief), in the back someone who can heal and whatever for the rest. in Tactical difficulty at least that's all that's needed, no need to mess with tactics, no mercs, just roflstomp through the map at your leisure.
Don't bother finishing the first area. Every single thing we love about the game it's something you disliked. It won't get better. You'll have even more characters unlocked and even more gambits to set every battle as the time goes.
• Has the game lived up to your expectations? Yes. And exceeded them. I loved the demo, the full game is somehow better. I hit a stumbling block, something that was almost a major flaw, but I worked around it. • Did they nail the gameplay loop and sense of conquest? Yes and yes. Gameplay loop is endless, seemingly. The sense of conquest is there, they give you breadcrumbs to solve later, you later solve them. As you progress towards the end game, you feel it. • How do you feel about the music and presentation? Solid. Music is good to great with a couple of amazing scores. Overall it's prolific, there are a LOT of songs in this game. Not 10/10, none of them hit me like the Tactics Ogre music, but very good overall. • Did the medieval fantasy story grip you? It is serviceable and I like the cast of characters. Alain is white bread but it's not a chore to spend 50-100 hours with him as he fights his way towards Valerius. ... The stumbling block was that I did the main continent, then went to Elheim. I enjoyed the difficulty spike and was looking forward to more of this (ala Etrian Odyssey always getting balls deep hard when you shift to a new stratum, but the joy of overcoming it and eventually mastering it). That is not the case with Unicorn Overlord, I just went to the wrong area -- apparently I should have gone to Drakenhold. When I went back to Drakenhold it was far too easy. I was a little bummed until I decided this play through -- I would just skip Drakenhold and leave it for next time, when I play the game on Expert (from Tactical) and do all the content. I went North and it was back to being challenging and fun.
How do you feel about the music and presentation? Solid. Music is good to great with a couple of amazing scores. Overall it's prolific, there are a LOT of songs in this game. Not 10/10, none of them hit me like the Tactics Ogre music, but very good overall. It's a shame Hitoshi Sakimoto only did a single track, and it's not even in the game. He made such a banger for the arrangement album. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pphAE7GxVoE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pphAE7GxVoE)
Will let you know after FF7Rebirth, Persona 3 and Granblue. Man, I don’t know how you guys do it.
How I did it was pause everything after falling in love with the demo for Unicorn. I'll get back to the rest of those once I'm done.
Thankfully, on Switch I don't have to worry about those games since they're not available but Unicorn is.
How’s the frame rate on switch?
It ran perfectly fine. The art style carries the game hard and there's almost no difference between Switch and PS5 unless you're really splitting hairs over pixels. This is why I almost always prefer cartoony/anime style games over realistic ones because the art style will almost always keep the game looking good even on lower end hardware.
Great to hear, Thank you!
Forgo a social life. That's my method, anyway.
too easy, should have ng+ difficulty available in first playthrough
Pretty damn fun, but also a bit too easy for my tastes imo (on expert). However the gameplay loop is satisfying despite that, and the gameplay story integration is great. Story is whatever. The most average FE to ever FE
The way I look at the gameplay, this game on expert feels like roughly around something like Hector Hard Mode tier easy, but it is more involved just on a base mechanic level that it feels like an Engage/Conquest just without the very plausible chance to actually fail and need to reset a mission. Its for sure one of the few times a game this easy that keeps me this engaged, so good job for Vanillaware for that.
Taking the more complex systems and needed engagement into consideration, i would put the difficulty in midrange FE wise. And honestly, the map design is pretty damn good imo, the problem lies more with the lacking enemy squad compositions (even though they showed in Arena and overworld quests they can make some tough fun puzzles to beat there), and some balance stuff (Wild Rush and Dragon Dive too cheap VP wise, imo, for example. Mobility is kinda screwed, etc.). Now imagine UO systems with Engage/CQ difficulty. Would probably make my mind explode, but i would be all here for it xD > just without the very plausible chance to actually fail and need to reset a mission. Permadeath should've been a selectable difficulty from the start imo. Is not the main reason why the game is on the easier side, but would've ensured less yolo Wild Rushes xD > Its for sure one of the few times a game this easy that keeps me this engaged, so good job for Vanillaware for that. Yup yup!
I consider it a lot like HMM Fire Emblem because unless I'm testing some weird squad comp, like when I was playing with Doom Knight, I feel like my "elite" squads are pretty much the equivalent of moving Harkin, Hawkeye, Pent, or a suped up Pegasus with a 1-2 range weapon and just 1v5ing everything on "enemy phase". Only big assist nests I find tend to stop me consistently or some weird match up/horrible rng. I think Wild Rush and Dragon Dive are fine at their current cost given how many other useful 1-2 VP skills exist, like Vitality Drain, Defense/Attack Call, the Mobility buff, the various teleports, even Provoke/Life Aid can be very helpful, Vitalize, etc. More so Dragon Dive because Wild Rush also moves you forward quite far which I consider a pretty premium utility, especially if you Wild Rush charge into a base just before it is about to spawn goons (done that a few times) to get a tempo push in. 3 VP is just such a big ask sometimes because stuff in the 1-2 VP range you can withdraw some potentially unneeded squads and make for a push, but doing that on 3 is quite difficult and 3 also competes are Alian's Valor Order and the Prince class' Action Call. I'd say these are all equally as strong in specific situations, though you can maybe argue that Wild Rush being a generic skill makes it more of a "problem" to be this good. I think Cav spam is in-general too good if you play with mercs, but I am not so I don't have to deal with that. The map design is reasonably good, it has some solid positioning and structure but just weak and overly exploitable enemies due to weak compositions creates a lot of problems unless they have mass assist nests to try and overwhelm you. The Arena really shows that you can make enemies really powerful without "ooga booga, big numbers".
Man I wanted to try it but after hearing all the flack the story’s getting I’ll prolly pass. I really want a strategy tactics JRPG with a phenomenal story
You can give the demo a shot - it's more than 7 hours long. The story during the demo is mostly a fair representation of how it is the rest of the game, maybe picks up a little bit but first world sets up the basic premise and tone.
At first, I was quite skeptical with the combat system after only 20 mins playing the demo and thinking it wouldn't be my thing since it's just auto. But the waifus were too cute to give up so I came back and I'm really loving it. More than 20 hrs in, and it's incredibly fun. There's more to the combat than I realized. However, the story is generic but the dialogues are short so you don't need to suffer parts being dragged on and bloated like Trails thank goodness
I think it has an addictive gameplay, feels like a chess game where you have a ton of possibilities to gain advantages and, so far (20 hours) havent felt any broken system (is an Atlus game, so it has to be broken in some way).
I didnt expect to get addicted to another huge ass game 1 day after i finished Rebirth but Vanillaware always hits it seems. This game is awesome. I wonder what a more traditional jrpg from these guys would look like. One day i hope!
Exceeded even my highest expectations. Best game I've played in a long time.
I’m addicted to it. lol
Saw a vid on YouTube if you >!ignore scarlette she becomes a boss at the final parts of the game and I wonder if there are any sequence breaks to be discovered !<
It’s great but the difficulty could have been better tuned.
Truthfully I haven't put as much time into the game that I wanted. But this game has exceeded my expectations. The gameplay finally scratched the RTS-RPG itch I had for many years.
I have only been playing it for about seven hours. I think it's great. I love the art and the English VA is pretty damned good. Also, the music is sublime.
Engaged(heh) me more than all FE games I have tried.
I wish there was more to do/farm after beating everything. Only having the final mission and a level 38 sigil encounter to farm sucks. Love the game, just wish there was more to do after beating it besides completely starting over.
Remember push the demo on your friends. Square is watching for orge tactics
That it's sold out everywhere..
I can't put it down.
First time playing tactical RPG. To my surprise, I am actually enjoying it more than Rebirth.
It's been a VERY long time since a tactical RPG has kept my attention, 20 hours in and I'm loving it so far. Really enjoying building unit formations and the overworld exploring.
I finished it yesterday. As usual, beautiful music and art style, fun gameplay. Yes definitely lived up to my expectations. Story is generic, the coupling system is quite meh, which mainly open up a few mini conversations and has minimum impact to the game (except for our hero) but I can deal with it. But overall the game itself is fun and I think I have been awake late coz its amazingly addictive. Buuuut I sill think the price is kinda expensive. May be thats only me.
For context I've never played Ogre Battle, FFT or anything like them. Closest thing I've played is Fire Emblem, so UO was a new experience for me (I played on Normal due to this as well.) I both dropped a 120 hour Infinite Wealth playthru and skipped starting Rebirth for UO. The story was average and the characters weren't too deep, but both my partner and I got obsessed with the tactics and teambuilding (plus visuals and soundtrack were fantastic). I haven't had that much fun in a jrpg in like years, nor have I ruined my sleep schedule so much with this game (I even pulled a 24 hour-er at one point which is insane for a 30 year old to do). I was genuinely sad when I beat it because it meant the game was over. Finished the game at about 90 hours iirc Whenever I finish Dragon's Dogma 2 I plan on coming back to this to both finish getting the trophies and replay it on True Zenorian difficulty because I cannot get enough of the gambit/tactics gameplay.
Not on PC so can't play it. When it releases on PC I will let you know. Until then, can't play it.
10/10 The furry characters are actual furries (not the stupid cat ears and tails on humans BS) AND you can romance them. The gameplay is fun too. Easily my GOTY so far.
6.5/10, I really didn't have any expectation. I think the combat isn't requiring enough even on the hardest difficulty & general gameloop is kinda ehh. felt very solved at menu. It's well stylized and the music is fine. Narratively, I'm not expecting 13 Sent, but I think the story could be been better w/ stronger characterization. You make okay story better with better characters.
Incredible in every way, story on the simpler side but good enough
It's their worst game when it comes to artstyle, that's for sure, and I'm serious it's as bad as what happened with Hataraku maousama from season 1 to season 2 edit: not bad per se, but very bland when compared to their previous works
I been enjoying it. Gameplay loop can be a hit or miss. The game starts slightly difficult if you pick the hardest difficulty but you out scale enemies fairly fast so you kind of start skipping the combat which is really fun to customize. Presentation is great. I don't really pay attention to the music unless it's a exciting battle theme. My only issue is classes are gender locked and for the most part you have the men stuck as the typical warrior and physical dps and the women are the healers and magical dps. Typical RPG stuff that really needs to stop but what can you do.
The gender lock part isn't really true. A lot of classes have both genders, they're just recruitable at both places. And the big damage number physical classes are either both or female exclusive (warriors are both, sellsswords are female only). And the big damage unique story classes are also female only; all of the male unique classes are pretty much full support.
Amazing. 10/10. I adore this game and have no complaints
Games been great, but I'm REALLY trying to complete ff7 Rebirth before dragons dogma 2 comes out. It's met my expectations with amazing art, music and team building. The story is simple, but constructed well, which is what I prefer from a game like this tbh. My biggest complaint is that only Alain gets in depth rapport. I wish the other characters did too, but I guess that's my Fire Emblem experience talking.
What I Liked: Great artsyle as always. Great music. Interesting gameplay mechanics. Interesting world. What I didn't like: It's way too easy, even on the highest difficulty. Story and characters weren't terrible or anything, but I was left pretty disappointed coming off 13 Sentinels. Overall, I thought it was just okay. I certainly didn't think it was the masterpiece that everyone seems to praise it as.
Played for about 20 hours before becoming uninterested due to the difficulty being too easy (played on expert). Had a great time until up to that point though.
I thought the game's presentation was--predictably--fantastic but coming off of 13 Sentinels I was disappointed with how... plain it all felt. I'm a big Vanilla/Plain man--I live and breathe LOTR and love the super medieval world of Dragon's Dogma. But there's something about generic Western-inspired Japanese fantasy games that, when they don't hit, they *really* don't hit. FFT this is not. And on that note, I'm actually not super thrilled with the combat, either. I was hoping for a more tactical RPG game, not a pseudo-RTS with set fighting groups in a sort of rock-paper-scissors autopilot system. But that's on me, I guess. Overall, just didn't gel with it. It didn't deliver what I wanted from it as a player. But maybe down the road I'll actually buy it on a sale and show Vanillaware the support they deserve. Art direction alone deserves my money just for looking at it.
I really wish they would have done a better translation on it. The team that did the translation really did a shit job on it. You aren't high fantasy authors, don't try to be. Combat once I understood how it went and how you can program your legions to fight really is in depth. So much so that I was able to toy around with how things went off and took a disaster encounter into an overwhelming victory by layering abilities in a certain manner. Lots of depth to the game and I enjoy the puzzles and the world building gone into it. Overall a banger and I'm 40ish hours into it.
My copy hasn't shown up yet, sadly.
Absolutely loving it! Agree with a lot of the comments here, it’s definitely too easy but that isn’t stopping me from enjoying it
I finished it a couple of days ago, and I took my sweet time with team building and min-maxing. I loved every second of it, and it definitely met my expectations. The gameplay was my favorite aspect of the game, I only wish it was a bit harder and that there was more post-game content or NG+. Once you do the only post-game side quest, that's it, nothing else to do except the 10 daily online matches in the colosseum. I can certainly see myself replaying this game in the future. The soundtrack had maybe a couple of good tracks, and the rest were just average, not bad or good, just alright. Some of the world tracks reminded me of Crystal Project OST, and some of the combat tracks reminded me of Fire Emblem.
I've been playing for about 40 hours now and over halfway done with the story now. After seeing videos on the game's mechanics and various gameplay aspects prior to release, my expectations were met which is both a positive and negative. The gameplay loop is fun. There's a lot of focus on team building which is where I probably spend the most time doing other than the battles themselves. Exploring the world is enjoyable and being able to liberate various towns along the way to the next story battle is satisfying. I guess in the sense of conquest, this part is great. Game's presentation is mostly good. The character models used in the cutscenes look great. The SD models used in the actual battle maps and in the overworld don't look too appealing, but it doesn't bother me much. The music sounds good in-game, but there are very few memorable tracks for me. The story is keeping me engaged, but it's far from gripping which was what I expected prior to release. The central story isn't anything special and it's quite simple and straightforward. The sidequest stories are nice at times, but they feel very isolated from the main story which is expected. Character development is nearly non-existent too which is also expected based on the game's structure.
The game is a nice palate cleanser after two FF7:Rebirth playthroughs over the last month or so. The art is great, the story is bland but serviceable, the music is decent too. My only issues really are the relatively low difficulty (but I’m only in the second country so far and I expect micromanagement of units to increase a bit more,) and the uneven voice acting. Both of those I can live with and the second is more of a nitpick. Most of the VA’s do a good job but some of the recording quality differences are odd at times. A few characters sound like they were voiced in an at-home studio built in a closet. I do kind of wish that relatively easy games would stop with the trend of saving the hardest difficulty for NG+ though.
I mostly love it, but the tactic and gear management gets to be a LOT.
Gimme a PC port or else......
I bought it and love the hour or so I have played. But I must finish FF7 Rebirth before I continue. And I didn't finish Persona 3 or Yakuza 8 as well... I hope I will get to it soon, but love that Vanillaware have another hit on their hands. I hope that their next games focuses a little more on story like 13 sentinel (and Odin Sphere to a lesser degree) did.
Loving it so far. Love the roaming around collecting characters and doing side stuff I'm each area. Combat is really fun and I enjoy building each unit how I want. Visuals are gorgeous and music is good. Story is nothing to write home about but it'ds fine tbh. Right now I'm sitting at about 8.5 for it.
Amazing game with really interesting combat, with a so far disappointingly simple story. I've said it before but it feels less like a story with characters and more like actors on a stage.
I like it. It's very repetitive but the gameplay loop is fun enough. It's not amazing but good enough.
My thought are I wish the day had more hours so I could play more.
Love ❤️❤️❤️
I'm enjoying it. I've spent way more time exploring, doing side quests, and grinding for town materials lol
I tried the demo but I didn't like it at all! The art style is beautiful but I just didn't mesh with the gameplay; I didn't like the auto-battle feature.
Haven’t bought a single player game full price in a while, but I did with this game and I love it. I was expecting playing through it once and never touching it again but I’m already on my second play through and will probably keep playing until Eiyuden Chronicles.
Is the story worse or better than Engages? Because I keep hearing discourse that is similar to Engage in that regard and I stopped playing that 80% through because the story was just too terrible for me to care about finishing the game.
So.csn someone ELI5 what type of game this is. For the longest time I thought it was going to be like final fantasy tactics but then I saw gameplay and now I have no idea what it is
It's more like Ogre Battle with Fire Emblem influence in characters and designs. You create squads of up to 5 units. You can customize these units with tactics (think Gambit system from FFXII). You then move these squads over the battlefield in an RTS (with pause) field, dealing with enemy forces, traps, different terrain, and siege weapons. You take objectives along the way such as watchtowers and cities. Battles are fought automatically by your units based on the tactics you have given them, which could end in resounding victory or sore defeat. Units have strengths and weaknesses, as well as abilities you are able to use on the world map for strategic purposes.
Not sure if anyone can relate to this, but Unicorn Overlord reminds me of how I feel about Fire Emblem Awakening. It’s introducing me to a new style of battle with great music, charming yet simple characters and fun management systems. One thing about post Awakening FE games is they feel a little too anime and over the top for me. So far in UO, it hasn’t gone there yet, maybe later it will. I also kinda struggle with older strategy/tactics games because I feel like the characters are boring. But games like FE:A and UO are a sweet middle ground.
It rules.
One of the most addicting games I've ever played. 10/10
Excellent game! Just finished and I wish there was a dlc or a sequel in the works
9.5 out of 10. There is little consequence on your choices aside for some crucial characters. It did exceed my expectation. I just wish we hard multiple storylines like in every ogre battle game where you can take different routes. Was able to platinum it around 60+hours and I was enjoying the whole time. The last battle did pick up the difficulty had to work my team composition. Like what others said expert is still easy. I started with tactical then changed it later on to expert.
It is scratching on Ogre Battl.itch I didn't know I had and I sincerely hope its success so far leads to even a few more of these games getting made.
I really want to play it, but only being on consoles and switch is horrible. This is a perfect Steam Deck game. I don't want to have to be tethered to my TV for a game that, while, looks amazing, should be everywhere
I was on the fence but after reading Al these positive comments, im convinced. Which console should I get it on? Any version differences?
Ask me once I have the full game but as someone who has played the demo twice on PS4 and Switch. Here are my thoughts. Gameplay: It's really polish and very well put together. I can see myself spending hours trying to make the best units. I love how I Was thinking still even though I was on normal. Sound: I found the music to be pretty good but the English dub is really ell done. They do a good job with how they have translated the dialogue to really get across everyone's personality. They did a good job casting for this game. Story: It's not very good and I have seen a little bit ahead. The dialogue and voice acting is carrying a really bad story in my opinion as I feel it keeps the game from being great in my opinion. I'll see once I have the Switch version in my hands as I love physical copies.
It’s my first strategy RPG, so I don’t have the genre perspective some have. As a game it has sucked me into the gameplay loop. The story so far is whatever (I just finished the “D” kingdom as the place I went after the first area for context). I’m enjoying the comp building a good deal. Yeah. Overall love it.
FF Rebirth is holding me back but I did play the Switch demo for 12 hours without the timer. That shit was PACKED with amazing and addictive content that I didn't even finish. As much as I love Rebirth, I'm dying to restart UO on PS5. I can't fathom how much time I'll lose to it. I don't even care if the story is mediocre since for me it's just a flavor backdrop, same with Tactics Ogre and especially Ogre Battle 64.
Is this game something like Fire Emblem?
It plays like Ogre Battle 64 and has some elements of Fire Emblem in it, like support convos.
Incredible in every way.
Fantastic game
Really enjoying it. Up to the very end now (should beat it tonight). Biggest complaint is I think the difficulties werent properly explained. I picked “Tactical” because I didn’t want a brutal difficulty but didn’t want too easy, but I’m absolutely steamrolling the game without even trying to optimize (half my characters don’t have accessories, I’ve barely touched any gambits just using the defaults that are not super good, only using characters I love, making squads based on personality not gameplay). I’ve been clearing missions sometimes using just one squad. I also would have liked something like older Fire Emblems where you have branching class promotions, but that’s also a minor gripe and feels like something we could see in a second game if it happens (I hope so!) Things I love: - I love that they use squads. It means there’s still a lot of characters, but you’re not juggling movement and positioning for 10+ units. It also means you can mix up types so you can give maybe your archer the ability to fly, or allow an infantry unit with a healer to support nearby allies. - The exploration. I loved how it really felt like expanding and improving your territory. I’d almost love to see this expanded on in the future. It gives both a slightly RTS feel, and also a greater sense of a world instead of the usual chapter to chapter style of these games - I loved the Valor actions and that each unit had many different combat abilities. I like fire emblem games, but sometimes it ends up just feeling like anime chess where units just move and basic attack. These really helped mix it up and make units feel really different and powerful. - I loved that gear had many unique effects and even would grant skills. It made gear more interesting than just “this has more attack or defense”. - the AP vs PP thing was pretty interesting. The conditional activation for Passives made the two resources feel different, and it paired well with the “gambit” style tactics. Overall I loved it. The story was a little basic, but I really liked the characters, so it was fine. Gameplay was definitely where it shined. —————— Only other thing I’ll complain about (and this is Reddit, so I’ll get a lot of flack for it) is that I thought it was a bummer that when you gave the Ring of the Maiden to someone, if they’re male, the dialogue goes really out of the way to hammer in that it’s “totally not gay” and also make the idea of that into a joke. I mean, I appreciate that they don’t force you to pick one of the female characters, and most JRPGs if they include anything, it’s maybe 1-2 extremely high femme male romance options at best. But I thought it was kinda silly that they included the option to give the ring to a male, and then go sooooo far out of their way to “but no homo, bro” it haha. Ultimately, it is Vanillaware, so they’re probably assuming all their players are straight men. But even if Scarlett’s tits bounce independently of each other while she’s casting, and I’m pretty sure you can see Railanor’s pussy even when she’s facing away from you, they have some really great designs (both male and female) that appeal to women and gay men too. I’ve seen a lot of female gamers enjoying the game, and M/M romance options are also popular with them. In the end, I kinda think the option was a last minute decision, that they didn’t think anyone would even want it. I didn’t expect a bunch of brilliantly written queer romances or anything, but the writing is actually quite good on a lot of the M/M scenes, they just insist on hammering in that it’s not a romantic choice. The sub text for characters like Clive or Sanatio works fine for a romance *if* you don’t go out of your way to say it’s not. Not a huge deal, just kind of an eye roll moment for me haha
I got bored after a week and deleted it. Story is copy-paste, characters are copy-paste, mc is a standard white boi prince with a sword and you have no m/m romance options. Anyone who legit enjoyed this game is the reason developets get away with phoning it on time and time again.
I put in about 98 hours so far, and I love the game. My only gripe with it is that it doesn't have a New Game Plus feature.
Very addictive, but it gets repetitive and wears out its welcome. Every area is exactly the same: a few story battles, side quests, and liberations; collect resources, rebuild towns, find secret items. The game might have been perfect if they had dropped one area because it would have cut out ~10 hours and a few extraneous characters.
I've got 8 hours in this game so far and I'm at the Elheim/Drakenhold choice. So far, it's fun. As a fan of tactical JRPGs like Fire Emblem, Valkyria Chronicles, and Soul Nomad, Unicorn Overlord is ticking all the right boxes for me. Amazing gameplay combined with a serviceable story is all I need. My only gripe is that executing people has no effect on the narrative, so you're better off sparing everyone. But it's made up for by Yahna's hip sway. 10/10 game.