REVIEW: Unicorn Overlord


Title	Unicorn Overlord
Developer	Vanillaware
Publisher	SEGA of America, Inc.
Release Date	March 8th, 2024
Genre	Strategy
Platform	PlayStation 4\|5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X\|S
Age Rating	Teen
Official Website

I’ve always been a huge fan of Vanillaware titles, so I was really excited when Atlus revealed Unicorn Overlord. It’s been a good while since I played a strategy game I really loved, but knowing the quality of this studio I had high hopes this would be one that would shine above all the others. I’ve spent around 60 hours with the game and it’s time to share my thoughts. Did it live up to my high expectations? Let’s find out!

The story begins as a general of the Cornian army named Valmore, has betrayed his kingdom and launched a surprise attack on the capital. Queen Ilenia, realizing the battle will soon be lost, entrusts her only son, Alain, to Josef, one of the kingdom’s most loyal knights. As the two flee the capital, the queen battles Valmore in an unwinnable battle. Soon after his victory, Valmore dawns a new name, Galerius, and vows to resurrect the fallen Zernoiran Empire. It only takes him 10 short years to conquer the whole world under this tyrannical banner, but Alain grows to be a fine young man and with a ring entrusted to him by his mother, he sets out to form a liberation army and free the land from Zernoira’s iron grip.

While the story here isn’t anything too deep, I enjoyed it overall. The cast of characters you meet along this journey and the struggles they endure flesh this tale out enough I don’t mind the overall narrative being pretty simple and straightforward. This will very likely be the hottest take of this review, but I honestly thought the localization was handled well for the most part. Some will not like that they choose to go with a medieval style of writing here rather than sticking closer to the Japanese source, but I thought it fit the setting and characters pretty well. I do hope that in the future, if Atlus decides to handle a title like this again, they include a set of subtitles that match the Japanese audio more closely for folks who would prefer to go that route, cause I can see where it would be a bit jarring using them with subtitles the way they are here.

Graphically, Unicorn Overlord looks amazing. That Vanillaware flair is here in full form with some of the best artwork and style I’ve seen in a long time. Every character has a ton of detail and the backgrounds look so lively you feel like you could just step right through the screen into them. I thought the food in the taverns was nicely done as well, and little touches like that is why their games are always such high quality when they release. I may have to look up how to make some of the food in this game, it looks so good! Anyways, the game runs at a steady framerate on both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. The Switch copy I purchased does have slightly longer loading times, but if I wasn’t looking for them I’d probably not even notice.

Unicorn Overlord has one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time. I loved all of the overworld themes and I thought they fit each area to a tee. All of the battle themes are top tier and are now among some of my favorite battle themes of all time. I caught myself humming along several times as my solders were sending our enemies to meet their ends. The game is fully dubbed in English, and the cast does a wonderful job bringing all the characters to life. Their performance really made you care about these characters and helped a sorta predictable and bland story become great. There is a Japanese dub for those who want to go that route, but you will be getting dub subs instead of a more proper sub track.

While the gameplay in Unicorn Overlord will seem very simple at first, there is plenty of depth here as well. During battles you will form squads with your units in order to take on enemy units. The objective of almost every map is to seize the enemy’s command posts. Player and enemy units consist of many different classes and the game uses a Rock, Paper, Scissors type of system to determine which one has advantages over the others. As you deploy units on the battlefield, this will deplete your Valor. It will cost one Valor point for each unit you place on the field, and you can deploy units from any of the bases you control. This is very helpful when trying to move units to other areas of the map quickly, but keep in mind unit leaders will effect how each unit moves as well. Valor points will replenish as you defeat enemy units, but this is still a balancing act as you will want to save some points to use the Valor Skills each unit has at their disposal. These powerful skills can damage enemy units or provide you with healing and buffs. Using these effectively will very likely determine if the battle goes your way or not.

When units encounter each other, combat plays out automatically. This doesn’t mean you don’t have some control over the action, though. You can set up tactics in the equipment menu as you outfit your army with new gear. Better equipment will not only give them better stats but sometimes new skills to use as well. You can set up how these skill are used in the tactics menu. This works a lot like Gambits did in Final Fantasy XII. Just set up the skill and the conditions when you want units to use it. Fighters will use these skills in the order you set them up in. If you don’t want to micromanage your army this much you can just click down a button and let the computer decide what is best for you. I found this worked well some of the time, but sometimes it will actually give you equipment that is less than ideal, so keep an eye on it.

When you’re not in battle you can explore Fevrith and make many great discoveries. You can get resources to rebuild towns, do some shopping to get useful items and equipment, or take on some of the side quests the game has to offer. I had a great time just wandering around to see what all the developers had hidden on this map, and I’ve not really wanted to explore like that in quite a while. One key thing to remember here is that item shops will NEVER restock. Once you buy out the stock of a store it is gone forever. Now there are tons of towns in each area of the game, so it’s not like items are scarce, but if you go into each battle burning through items like crazy you may find yourself in a pickel when it comes time to take on some of the more challenging maps in the late game stages.

Overall I have to say I had a lot of fun with Unicorn Overlord. The combat is fun and has enough depth to keep it fresh all the way to end of the story. I loved discovering the over 70 characters and learning about the world as the game progressed and the game is just gorgeous to look at. I really only have one complaint and that is that the late game requires you to grind for EXP longer than you probably should have to, but this is something very minor and doesn’t really detract from the amazing experience this game is. This is without a doubt another Vanillaware hit and shouldn’t be passed up by fans of strategy games or fans of the studio. It’s well worth the $59.99 asking price no matter which platform you decide to pick it up on.