Unicorn Overlord Review: SRPG Masterclass

Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch
Also Available On: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S
Price: $59.99 USD
Developer: Vanillaware
Publisher: Atlus
Release Date: March 8th, 2024

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Atlus can make phenomenal experiences while also publishing one of my favorite studios of recent years, which is Vanillaware. They have made many games, including 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim which is one of my favorite games of all time, and Unicorn Overlord is their latest release that came out about a month ago. I am a huge fan of all kinds of RPGs from fast paced action combat, to slower turn based combat, to full blown strategy and tactical ones. Unicorn Overlord debuted a while ago and I knew instantly I needed to play the game. Did I enjoy it enough, or was I let down from this game? Read on to find out.

The plot is one that is a joy to experience on your own, so I won’t be saying much. Alain is a prince who needs to flee their home due to an insurrection that occurs against the crown. Josef, who is a knight that works with the crown, takes Alain and flees to another location. Eventually, Alain becomes of age and rallies together an army called the liberation that help him with repairing the broken country and taking back his birthright of becoming King. You have to go to the many different parts of the world of Fevrith in order to fix what is broken and to rally additional team members. There are a few moments of predictability and then there are many moments of surprises. I think this story is one of the better ones in recent RPGs that I have played. So, the story is good… but what about the meat of an RPG?

The gameplay is awesome and is very addictive! It is mostly a strategy based game where all of the planning is done before going into a battle since you cannot actually choose what moves to use in battle. Choosing who is in which squad, where they are strategically placed in the squad, the abilities that they have on the battlefield both inside and outside of actual battle situations, and more all will play a massive role into being successful or defeated. Typically, your goal is to go after the main location in a battle that will be pointed out which you need to liberate. There are other places or things that you can help liberate the main areas such as watchtowers, smaller towns, ballista, and more that provide different effects or items to help.

You start out with squad sizes of 2 units, and can increase the capacity up to a total of 5 units in a single squad with enough renown points and honors. There are a max of 10 squads so you will have a max of 50 different people in your battle squadron with each of them needing equipment, correct balance of moves, their types, and many other factors. You can also promote most people once to their higher leveled form (some are joined at the higher form in later game) with enough honors. Honors and Renown points are given to you after each battle so you want to do as much as you can, from the side missions that reward you new characters in the liberation, liberation missions that unlock towns, and even the side activities.

Once you liberate walled cities, you can have meals with any teammate you want to. This will build rapport with them and if applicable will provide a rapport conversation and stat bonuses if they are paired together in battle. Besides the side missions and rapport conversations, there are other things to do in the game. You can liberate other towns and they will be destroyed and not super usable at first once you liberate them. If you bring the town deliveries that they request from marked spots on the map, you can unlock the ability to use ships, station a guard, and a few other things. There are provisioners and armorers at most locations so I suggest you make sure to have enough items for battle. There is also a colosseum once you get to Drakenhold, digging for treasure maps, and a few other surprises mixed in the game. The game has a lot to offer for content, and it will lead you into all of it over time.

The visuals are beautiful in every single moment of the game. Playing the game on Switch was terrific for the portability aspect and I feel like if I played it on a more powerful console, the visuals would be taken to a whole other level. The art of the different characters are all terrific and diverse where no two characters feel like they are the same, even if they are the same class. The locations that you go to throughout the world are all unique from the desert and sandy areas of Drakenhold to the lush elf forest of Elheim all the way to the frozen world of Bastorias. The game is just stunning in an art style that is similar to that of a HD-2D game mixed with the classic beauty that is always present in Vanillaware titles!

God, do I love the audio design of this game. Everything about the way in which combat sounds from the clashing of swords, shields, bows, and everything else is well crafted. The music in and outside of combat was so engaging that sometimes I just had to pause moving around the world to take it in. The different areas of the world had distinctive feelings; which is a great thing since it made the emersion of the world that much better. The voice acting in the game is sublime. I just couldn’t get enough of the cast; however, they aren’t always talking when it comes to things like rapport conversations, and other moments in the world which was a tad disappointing. I will say, very rarely will big RPGs have voice work for every piece of text, so I was ready for that to be the case here too.

I really didn’t have any major issues when it came to this game running on the Nintendo Switch OLED both in handheld mode and in docked mode. The frame rate was as solid as a rock through the 55 hours of gameplay. Thankfully there were no game crashes for the game which is a huge plus in my book since it can break emersion of a title when that happens. There was some issues with visual pop-in from changing different parts of the map on a very rare occasion, but it was nothing massive and it never really broke my emersion. Once Alain got promoted, there was a bug that occasionally didn’t let me on or off of his horse after the first try but worked on the second attempt. Otherwise, I didn’t really have any bugs in the game at all.

Honestly, this game was a rollercoaster and is in my top 3 games of this year. I think it will definitely stay in my top 5 of the year, unless there are games that can push things harder than this one did, but I don’t see that happening. I may have gotten the standard edition of game on Switch, have the Switch Collectors Edition sealed, but I am going to be getting this game again for PlayStation 5 and going for the platinum trophy as I enjoyed it that much! I didn’t want to say goodbye to Fevrith just yet when I beat the game. If you are a fan of Strategy games and JRPGs in general or a fan of Vanillaware, you need to play this game! Plus, if you are unsure if you would like it, there is a demo where progress will transfer over if you purchase the game. Honestly, I think they have hit it out of the park with this game and hopefully it leads to more strategy games like this one in the future.

Review Score: 9.5/10