So I played the
Unicorn Overlord demo over the past couple of days, quickly reaching the 8 hours of maximum play time allowed, to my great sorrow. I've preordered the game, but it comes out on March 8, which feels like a very long wait to me at this point.
@Walter asked me to write a report about it so here goes.
I'll start by saying that I'm not a particularly big fan of Vanillaware. I had no interest in Odin Sphere or GrimGrimoire when they came out. I got Muramasa for the Wii back in the day but didn't finish it, which is a pretty rare occurrence for me. I also skipped Dragon's Crown. I'm just not a big fan of their gameplay in general, and while their artwork looks good, it's not a big draw for me, not to mention that their animations are very "Flash-y". Case in point, Unicorn Overlord's introduction sequence has a scene where horses are running, and it's so unnatural it takes you out of the experience.
With that said, I very much enjoyed 13 Sentinels on the Switch. It's mostly a Sci-Fi visual novel with a (visually very basic) tactical robot fighting game mode grafted on the side. But surprisingly, the writing was enjoyable, and that little tactical game was a lot of fun, so much so that played it beyond the story, till it became boring (it just spawns random levels without much interest eventually). Anyway, all of this to say that the developer isn't the reason I got interested in this game.
Inspired by Ogre Battle
Rather it's the fact it's a spiritual successor to
Ogre Battle (1993 on SNES, re-released in 1996 on PS & Saturn), a strategy game with a unique gameplay, completely unlike Yasumi Matsuno's later games. I've been wishing for another game like that for many years, so I couldn't just ignore an attempt to do it. Vanillaware describes the game as "inspired by the strategy games of the 1990s, not one in particular" (paraphrasing), which feels disingenuous to me. I'd say its inspiration is at least 90% Ogre Battle. You can sometimes feel other influences, like the fact you start with a level 20 knight among your allies (a Fire Emblem staple), but they're small by comparison.
So what's Unicorn Overlord's gameplay? Well in short it's a game of conquest. You play as the leader of a puny rebellion against an evil empire and have to conquer the continent by reclaiming territories one after another, growing stronger along the way (and recruiting more and more people to your army). To do so you need to take forts and cities from the enemy. In order to achieve that, you use battle units composed of several characters arranged on a grid of 2 x 3 squares. Can go from a single character per unit (not a good idea) up to six as far as I can tell.
Each mission to conquer a territory is limited to a specific area of the overworld map, where you start from a certain point and can spawn a limited number of those battle units. You don't switch to a different environment or anything, it simply "cordons off" the fighting area. Typically you win when you kill the enemy general or conquer all towns, and you lose if the enemy takes your fort(s) with his own units. The gameplay is in real time, but you can pause it to give instructions. There's also a timer for each mission and you lose if it reaches the end.
A unique style of combat
When two units collide, they automatically get into a fight, and said fight plays out automatically as well. It follows predefined actions and reactions depending on each character's class, equipment, level, etc. This means that you need to carefully assemble battle units before each mission depending on the types of enemies populating the area, and you might also need to tweak them mid-mission too (switching their positions on the grid, changing the leader...).
For example Thieves have very good evasion so they're great against Housecarls (axemen), but Archers have a "true shot" ability that means Thieves can't dodge it. Yet those same Archers are ineffective against Fighters, who can block their shots without taking damage. Sounds simple enough like this, but there are actually 80 classes, and the different ways in which they interact with each other means there are a lot of possible combinations even with just 3 characters per unit (what you mostly get during the demo). Especially when you factor in special equipment.
As a further example, if my Archer has a Flame Bow, a Fighter can block his shot, sure, but will catch on fire and take serious damage. Same thing if a Hoplite (heavy armor knight with giant shield) blocks my sword attack. It'll deal 1 damage, but with my Viperfang sword, he'll get poisoned. In addition there's magic damage, which is on a separate stat than physical damage. So this big Hoplite will get mowed down by a Witch or Wizard (two different classes), and will take serious damage from character using a Runic Sword.
During the first hours I've played, the game drives you to be cautious and systematically put strong classes versus weak ones, but it's really not as simple as a rock/paper/scissors situation. For one thing, you seldom encounter enemy units that have only Archers or only Thieves, the opponent mixes and matches them just like you do (at least in the hardest difficulty mode). For another, you can be creative to win using unexpected loadouts.
Case in point, the last battle I fought before getting locked out was Wizard-heavy. I didn't have magic resistant troops, but a Thief will dodge magic attacks just like real ones, a Witch can freeze them before they act, an Archer will nail them from afar, a Gladiator will self-heal after a hit... I beat that mission no problem.
Speaking of health, that's another dimension to the battles. Damage carries over, so if you win a battle by the skin of your teeth, you're in bad shape for what's to come next. After each encounter between two units, the winner gets rewarded with some gold and XP. Each character levels up individually, which raises their stats and unlocks new skills.
By the way, not all skirmishes end with a unit dead. You'll often just weaken them instead. The winner and loser of a unit fight are determined based on the damage inflicted, which you get a preview of before the battle even takes place. Do more damage and you win. The losing unit gets pushed back and enters a wait period where they can't move. That's usually an opportunity to jump them and finish the job.
There are units that can passively heal themselves and/or others and they quickly become very valuable in order to go the distance. That's key because you're always outnumbered and enemy forts usually spawn troops continuously, so you can't afford to fuck around. Worse, units have a Stamina counter, starting at 6, and each fight lowers that number. Once at zero, you can't move anymore. To recuperate 4 points, you can initiate a rest period, but it leaves you vulnerable. When at zero you can still fight (just not move on the map), but while "sleeping", you just get hit passively. What this also means is that if you need two fights to kill an enemy unit, you've used 2 Stamina points. It can't always be avoided, but it's not desirable.
Garrisoning into a fortified city, bridge, watchtower or such allows you to fight off enemies without depleting Stamina. Then you only have your health (and the timer) to care about. In addition, if left in a city, a unit will progressively heal, even reviving downed characters. It's pretty slow though, so that unit can miss out on the rest of the battle if you leave it there to heal fully. To heal faster or recuperate Stamina points, you can also use items, but those need to be bought in liberated cities, and the amount you can buy per city is capped. Once they're out of stock, you're out of luck. They're also relatively costly, so you can't rely on health potions to get through (besides it won't turn a bad skirmish around).
What this all means is that you need to carefully utilize all the units you have at your disposal, and you need to arrange them in a way that makes them efficient over time. Taking no damage is useless if you don't deal enough yourself, but destroying an enemy while getting one of your guys KO is also a failure. Grid positioning plays a key role in that as well. You've been using a Thief on the front row to dodge Housecarl attacks, but now you've up against a group of Archers? Move him at the back and put your Knight at the front. He'll get hit, but the arrows will deal little damage since he's armored.
Another aspect to the game is Valor points. You typically start with three. These allow you to put units into the field (expanding one point each). If you bring them back in, you recover one point. Winning battles and liberating enemy positions will get you more points as well. Besides deployment, Valor points can be used for special skills that are character-based. They cost various amounts and can do everything from resurrect fallen comrades to damage enemies in an area, recover Stamina points, make a unit charge an enemy, give out more XP for a battle, etc. They're not unlike items, except it'd be a shame not to use them, versus items where it's preferable not to.
Lastly, unit abilities will vary based on who is designated unit leader. You can switch leaders at will before deployment, but in the field, it costs a Valor point. That can determine a battle when well utilized, so it shouldn't be neglected. For example with an Archer as leader, a unit can lend aerial fire assistance when in range. That costs the assisting unit a Stamina point, but it predamages the enemy at the beginning of the fight, so it can make a big difference. Having a Cleric as leader means you can provide a healing assist instead, whereas a Witch will do a magic assist. Garrisoning in a Watchtower extend the reach of ranged attacks, and the game loves putting you in situations where you can get pummelled by several ranged assists. Other classes have useful leader abilities too: a knight lessens the recovery time when resting (very useful), a fighter lessens the damage from ranged assists, a flying unit ignores terrain when moving (very very useful), etc.
So that's about it for the combat overview. The point of this long-ass description was to show what the actual strategy of the game entails. While the encounters between units occur automatically (and can even be skipped to get straight to the result, although that isn't recommended), the player has to stay involved at every step, taking on a role akin to an invisible general instead of micro-managing each character's actions. So it's not like a T-RPG at all, but it's also not quite an RTS. It's its own thing and, at least for me, is very addictive. Please note that I skipped over some of the finer details too, like character initiative, active and passive skills, unique class traits and so on.
Once a mission ends, you get rewards. There are sometimes specific items for defeating an enemy leader, and independently you'll get gold, Honor points and Reputation based on how you did. Finishing fast, liberating positions, and killing enemy units all count towards the score, which is then multiplied by your Reputation score (starts at E, then slowly grows to D, C, etc.). I guess I should note that some of these missions are "Main Quest" ones and some are "Side Quests". For the most part this makes little difference as you're kinda supposed to do them all, but it helps prioritizing things.
Gameplay outside of combat
Outside of combat, you can roam the liberated areas and visit various towns (to deliver materials for rewards, buy equipment, or buy items) and forts (to expand your units, unlock new ones, and hire mercenaries). To get materials, you have to forage special glowing spots on the map. They don't respawn very often (not once during the demo) so it's best to grab as many as you can when you see them. There are also special items scattered around, as well as "divine shards", which can be exchanged at a special shop for rare items. I didn't mention it earlier but there are also items scattering on the map during combat scenarios that disappear after it's over (so you gotta get them while doing everything else or miss out).
Buying equipment and items costs gold, while recruiting mercenaries or expanding each unit's capacity costs Honor points. Your current Reputation also serves as a cap. For example you can't recruit anyone until you reach rank D, and you can't expand your units to 4 characters until you reach rank C. In addition that 3>4 expansion costs 50 Honor points per unit. A way to get gold, rewards and raise your reputation is to deliver materials as mentioned above. It's a bit like mini-quests, and in addition to the rewards, if you do enough of them you unlock the ability to use a tavern to eat food or to station a guard in the town.
In Ogre Battle, there's a moral alignment system that takes a bunch of things into account to determine whether you're virtuous or unsavory, depending on the kind of unit you use to liberate cities, the decisions you make as a ruler, whether you station guards or not, and even how you level up the units (hogging power on your favorite versus having a balanced team). I don't know exactly how that'll play out in Unicorn Overlord, but at a cursory glance the systems in place appear to be very similar. It's strongly encouraged to station guards (they're still available for combat regardless), and I imagine the care you put in managing your lands gets to play a role down the line.
You also get to make decisions regarding certain enemies once a combat segment is over. Should you let a thief go free or execute them? It's not always easy to make such a judgment call and the consequences only reveal themselves a while afterwards so reloading isn't really an option (of course). Anyway, based on these elements I'm guessing there will be a similar "moral" aspect to the mid/end game, like in Ogre Battle. No tarot cards, though!
Besides all that, there are NPCs lounging around on the map that you can talk to. Most of them only have some basic dialogue to give the world some color, but there are some that will challenge you to a risk-free fight to show what certain classes can do. Beating them yields some gold so they're worth keeping in mind, plus it allows you to tweak your units for maximum effectiveness. By having characters fight in the same unit, or by offering them gifts when they're stationed in a city, you can also build you "rapport" with them and unlock special discussions between them (nothing too remarkable from what I've seen).
The story so far
Given that this is a fantasy RPG, you may be wondering why I haven't talked about the story yet. Well, that's because the story isn't the main attraction to me at this point. In fact the reason Walter asked for my feedback is because I was lukewarm on the game at first, mostly due to the story and presentation. Let's start with its title: Unicorn Overlord. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, nor feel particularly badass. I guess the director just really loved the movie
Legend as a kid or something. The story does prominently feature a unicorn theme: it's the emblem of the fallen kingdom (Cornia) the main character is the heir of.
In summary, the story begins as the queen of said kingdom makes a last stand against her former general, who has turned traitor and is coming to usurp her throne. She sends her young son away with a faithful knight and faces off against the bad guys to create a diversion. The queen is mighty, but she falls. Skip to 10 years later and the evil general has become evil emperor whatshisname, ruler not just of that one kingdom, but the entire continent (5 kingdoms in total). The game begins then. You've been living and training on a remote island and are preparing for the day you can start liberating your country when a ship from the empire arrives. You have to fight back to defend yourself.
Shockingly, the assault team is led by one of the queen's former defenders. After beating him, the hero's unicorn ring, left to him by his mother when she sent him away, emits a light and it dispels the darkness that was possessing him! The guy then wakes up and basically doesn't remember a thing beyond that last battle, when the queen's men were all turned against her instantly. The characters deduce that it's how the bad guy managed to conquer the continent so fast.
Now, my immediate thoughts upon seeing this (it happens within 10 minutes of starting the game) is that the general/emperor will himself be revealed to have been possessed, making way for the real villain (he conveniently has some shady wizard at his side in the intro). I also won't be surprised if the queen is still alive as well, maybe mind-possessed or imprisoned or whatever. The title has a couple of rings entwined, so I imagine the Unicorn ring is the counterpart to the Overlord ring, hence the title.
On its face, this feels like bog standard RPG fare and isn't super interesting to me. There might be more to it or not, hard to say at this point. 13 Sentinels had a relatively fresh and interesting story that was more complex than it first appeared, so I can only hope it'll be the same for this game. That being said, I'm in it for the gameplay at this point. The characters are unremarkable as well. Young "Lord" (it's a special class) Alain with his spunky and careless male friend Lex, chastized by more mature and responsible girl Chloe... Big yawn. It's like every Fire Emblem game ever. But to UO's credit, it doesn't linger on that stuff at all. At least during the demo, you only get bits and pieces but it's mostly about the gameplay.
Voice acting, music, graphics
I should mention that I'm playing with the Japanese voices and English text. I wondered if it would be like in Triangle Strategy, where the English localization is a lot more verbose and... yes it is. The Japanese voice will go "Worried about Scarlett?" while the English text is like "I didn't expect to find you looking forlonn in such a place, my liege. What preoccupies you so?" I'm exaggerating a bit here, but not much.
Now, I'm just a player and I don't know their processes, so I don't want to sound entitled, but I wish they wouldn't try to turn every RPG into a Shakespearean drama. There's a reason it's kept short and to the point in Japanese, both because these guys are childhood friends and warriors, and because these conversations aren't inherently interesting and dragging them out serves no purpose. A translator isn't supposed to rewrite the original dialogue as if he would enhance it. Anyway, a funny side effect of this discrepancy is that the text bubbles will often disappear before the English text has even been fully written because the cadence is based on the voices.
The music is from Hitoshi Sakimoto, who also worked on the soundtracks of Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, FFT and many others, including pretty much all Vanillaware games. He's a great composer, so the music is predictably great as well. It helps make the battles flow one after another. The graphics are in the usual Vanillaware style, and look great. I know I made fun of the horse running animations earlier, but overall there's nothing to really complain about. The game was in development for 10 years and is apparently the studio's biggest title to date. It shows. 13 Sentinels felt like a low budget game and this does not.
Conclusion
Well this was definitely way too long for feedback on a demo. In summary, I think Vanillaware nailed the "Ogre Battle" style gameplay, and that makes this game an instant-buy for me. Honestly I might have even bought the collector's edition if it wasn't sold out. The presentation (graphics, music) is great, and while the jury's still out on the story, it hasn't impeded my enjoyment. If you like strategy games, I recommend you to check it out!