Unicorn Overlord Spiel
Unicorn Overlord truly shines as a strategy-JRPG, its tactical outlook on traditional turn-based JRPG combats. A player can have up to 10 custom units, summoned simultaneously in the overworld, and each unit consists of up to 5 characters of player’s choice. In other words, in common JRPG speak, you are controlling up to 10 parties of ‘heroes’ at the same time. The difference is in the context. The customization of each unit is entirely up to the player, so long as the player can design the unit properly. It can be purely general purpose, or specialized to specific targets (e.g. anti-cavalry). Then each characters must be programmed, in literal sense, to follow through the sets of commands. If programmed proper, in an ideal world, you can set and forget about micromanaging entirely.
Of course, the downside of it all is that you are actively managing up to 50 characters, and up to 10 parties, in a single playthrough. That includes setting up commands, setting up their stats and gears, setting up their parties, setting up how the combination of their skills would work, and how their combined weaknesses would be. It is theoretically possible to play with one or two units, — less units, less hassles — like how I played my first Pokémon game with only Charizard, but it is not ideal. Though the game provides some tools to help players, it’s never enough to counter the stat inflation, thus the physical fatigue balloons from repetitive combat to repetitive preparation.
The world building of Unicorn Overlord is left much untouched from the classical tropes of JRPG, though there are hints where it tried. The player is following the footsteps of prince Alain, his journey to reclaim the kingdom. During the process, the player is confronted against the hidden secrets of the past, while trying to unite the other kingdoms to march against the evil empire. Neither of which truly blossoms; the ancient past is too old for the young prince to change, and the contemporary ones are too big for a single monarch to-be to decide.
What’s jarring is the game spared enough time to build multiple cross genre mini games, such as a quasi-romance sim focused on relationships, or a quasi-interactive drama focused on effects of players’ decisions, only for it to not affect any of the core elements. In fact, one of the keystones of Unicorn Overlord is recruiting other characters, including once enemies, but the game holds back on creating moral grey area after the first few characters. In other kingdoms then of prince Alain’s, most scenarios are played out simple black and white, where the prince would recruit the goodies while the baddies simply don’t survive the battle to meet the judgment.
As I have played it on PS5, there were some notable technical issues. When the console is connected to the surround sound system, some parts of the dialogue become incredibly echoey, as if the characters are speaking in a cave. The other issue has to do with multi-language support; despite the claim, the settings menu does not even have a proper language setting. It follows the console system’s setting.
Conclusions: Good Strategy Game with Off Mini Games
The sheer size of complexity in the game might be intimidating at first glance, but as a strategy game, I believe the game has utilized enough of its JRPG elements to introduce new systems step by step, so player would have chance to familiarize with it. That being said, if you were looking for pure JRPG fun, this game might miss the sweet spot. However, if you were either in need of another good strategy game, or a strategy game but in different flavor, Unicorn Overlord is certainly a great contender.