Man, this game was like made for me. The fully customizable army (even down to cosmetic choices and growth styles), the gambit system and the tactical gameplay come together to make a complete package that's greater than the sum of its parts. While you can finish everything in one playthrough (and I tried to!), I think this is one of those games I'll want to come back to years from now, just for the novel gameplay. Ever since I played 13 Sentinels, I've been looking forward to this game, and Vanillaware has won me over with this.

"The localization is fine. Please just reconnect with soap and water for god's sake."

As someone who hopped on the VanillaWare train incredibly late, I am very happy to say that Unicorn Overlord is another really great RPG from them! It's, from what I've gathered, a lot closer to their older work than 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim. And just for starters, if you're expecting this game narratively to blow your dick off the way 13 Sentinels did, you will probably be disappointed. While the game's story isn't bad, it is fairly rote and predictable. Which isn't a bad thing and it remains entertaining due to its memorable cast of characters.

But like I said, this is maybe the one time where I can safely say that the story not being incredible isn't a deal breaker for an RPG, as the rest of the game is pretty damn great. To get the obvious out of the way, the art style and visual landscapes all look incredible. I sincerely wish to see more hand-drawn 2D RPGs in the future because this looks amazing. Additionally, the game sounds amazing too, not just with its great music but its strong sound design as well.

And of course, the strategy gameplay in this game is incredibly entertaining and borderline addicting. It seems simple and basic at first, but it opens itself up to a nice flow, while not being mindless like a bunch of the more recent FE games (insert Fates joke here). Some of the later missions especially actually required quite a bit of strategy and left me thinking for quite a bit on what path to take.

While some of its smaller gameplay systems like the Romance system could use some work (insert Fates joke he-), and I wish the UI was a lot more snappy and user-friendly with its layout, the overall flow of the gameplay is incredibly strong despite its narrative not being the most unique thing out there. Unicorn Overlord is an incredibly strong SRPG that I'd recommend to fans of the genre, even if in multiple ways, I do prefer 13 Sentinels to this game.

I expected to enjoy this game but ended up being absolutely blown away by it. The core gameplay loop of traversing the world in an order mostly left up to your own choosing while slowing amassing an army full of colorful characters was incredibly satisfying and I never got tired of it. The battle system itself though is really what holds the whole experience together, it is incredibly unique and accessible while still concealing a labyrinthian amount of depth if you choose to embrace it. The variable amount of stage lengths really added a nice variety as well, as you usually don't feel stuck doing one thing for too long unless it's one of the more important moments in the story in which case I'll happily spend 45 minutes to an hour in a slugfest against an enemy army as this tends to be when your units are really put to the test and is also when your micromanagement done before the battle can really make a difference over the course of the stage.

Speaking of which, I generally would not consider myself a fan of micromanagement within video games but Unicorn Overlord really managed to enthrall me with it's sheer amount of class variety and items, both of which make a significant impact as to how a unit performs. Every few hours, I would pause what I was doing and restructure my unit layout from scratch just out of sheer curiosity as to how different units would synergize with one another. While this was often a bit time consuming it just made it that much more satisfying when those units managed to shine in the next battle. I think anyone who just uses the Optimize function to customize their units for the whole game would really be missing out on how good it feels to individually program a unit in a way where it suddenly performs significantly better with only a few tweaks.

As far as the game's presentation, it's Vanillaware, so it looks and sounds amazing. I'll always be a huge fan of their commitment to beautiful 2D backgrounds and character models both for the artistry and because it results in games that are pretty lightweight and snappy (I played the entire game on a 7 year old Nintendo Switch and it ran smooth as butter the entire time). I especially loved some of the animated battle backgrounds as they really immersed me within the experience and managed to give a grandiose scale to the encounters that isn't always evident when moving units around the battle map. The user experience also felt consistently fantastic and I really have no complaints other than that I wish you could 'Optimize' your equipment without resetting all of your Skills as well but you can work around this pretty easily using the tactics templates so it's not a big deal.

If there was a place to nitpick with Unicorn Overlord, it would definitely be with it's story, and I can agree that it feels pretty by the numbers a majority of the time but I honestly appreciate how much it respects your time by not constantly beating you over the head with the same plot details over and over again like a lot of JRPGs have the bad habit of doing. I also found it to do a great job of worldbuilding by establishing the world through the characters you meet along your journey. While these characters may seem to lack depth on first meeting, spending time with them and utilizing the journal to learn more about their background can really bring them to life in a stellar way. If there was something within the story that I felt was missing, it would've been a few more encounters with the central villains though I did enjoy the air of mystery that surrounds them throughout most of the game as is.

"A Rebirth Of Tactical RPGs"

I can't confess to having played Ogre Battle, the series which Unicorn Overlord has been compared to the most, however I've played enough Fire Emblem to appreciate the goals it set out for. This phrase, which was all over the marketing, touts it as a "rebirth", which implies that it will lean the most on being a throwback. If anything however, it's the fusion of old and new here that makes Unicorn Overlord work so well.

If we never get a Genealogy of the Holy War remake, I can at least relish in the fact that we got another game where a blue hair prince on a horse is fighting battles on maps that are 1:1 to the world map. Vanillaware considered this game their biggest undertaking yet, and it shows in how impressive the scale of it is. Each battle is elevated both by the sense of immersion that fighting on chunks of the overworld brings, and it's also a satisfying 60 hours or so of seeing more and more territory reclaimed. It also extends even further than Genealogy by letting you actually spend time in the world you are fighting through. The town rebuilding may not be the most mechanically satisfying, but it is also integrated well enough into just normal exploration that its never a nuisance. Alongside the other overworld sidequests, it helps to add enough texture to the world to make reclaiming it feel rewarding.

Of course it takes plenty of elements to make a great strategy game, and the great mechanical base that Unicorn Overlord has makes it worthwhile in it's own right. The unit system is an excellent way of forcing frequent optimization, paying careful attention to which pieces to mix and match. On top of this, the sheer variety of classes that keeps being introduced until the end keeps this process going strong. For even more depth, the Tactics system is a fantastic turn on the automated battles that most SRPGs have. A FF12 gambit system-styled form of programming provides a lot of room to further fine tune every aspect of the combat. In a lot of ways, this works well with the enemy design to elevate the somewhat basic map design, however the maps are still probably the biggest flaw. There are some interesting wrenches thrown in here or there, like a fog of war chapter or ones with strict time limits, but it feels too afraid to commit fully. A common sentiment I have seen is that this game is too easy, which is true, but Vanillaware's goal being accessibility is fine enough. Yet I still wish they were more willing to make players feel uncomfortable, which I think Fire Emblem succeeds at while also being fairly accessible. It's never easy to demand more content, especially in a game like this, but I wish they went further with what they DO have.

Speaking of a common sentiment, the majority of criticism has focused on the games story. It's fair for people to call it "generic" but it's also somewhat misguided to me. While I also rolled my eyes at first seeing the Tolkien-esque setting and the deposed prince premise, I don't think this is entirely an issue. While many of the elements of the world are trope-y, the countless smaller stories within them give them a unique flavor, particularly for the individual characters. In taking influence from Fire Emblem, Vanillaware must have wisely noted how invested people are in the characters in these games. Thus the rapport system serves as a valuable way to add more story where needed while also never being intrusive on the core experience. I would say it even surpasses FE supports in a way with how much it lets you pick and choose with what you want to do, and the sheer scope of interactions you can have is impressive.

Yet simultaneously that scope is what leads into my actual issues with the story. It's impressive to have 5 distinct regions with their own cultures and histories, yet we don't get nearly enough insight as we should. Being generic isn't an issue, there's genuinely interesting ideas being hinted at in each region yet it's hard to really get invested in them. Even though the game is 60 hours, if you split that up into 5 it doesn't leave much room for each area to shine as much as it could. Part of that is because so much of it is core gameplay, yet I would trade maybe a couple filler missions for some more narrative depth. Simultaneously this would make up for the main story with Alain being not that great, but it makes it come off a little worse instead. It feels like he lacks agency a lot of the time and has to take a backseat to these situations which would be fine if they had gotten more depth. There are some choices in the game, but they feel like pretty obvious ones most of the time. I respect the width it guns for, but its easy to see why it ended up unsatisfying.

Of course it's worth putting all of this in perspective too. This game took just under a decade to develop and Vanillaware ran out of money. 13 Sentinels also had a long and arduous development concurrently, with most of the focus being on the story. This isn't to say that Unicorn Overlord is made better by knowing this, but it would be also unfair to say the ambitions were misplaced ultimately.

you either


I̵̧̧̛͎̳̼̞̹͓̤̼͛ͅT̶̢̧̨̧̹̲̱̦̮̖̮͗̀͆̀̉̀Ș̶̝͌̀̌̉̈͊̒͋͒̉͝ ̵̤͉̎̀͂̔̒̓̊̓̚̚͜Ẩ̷̤̂̋̈͑̑͘͝B̸̖͖̥̪́͆͒̈́̈́̾̚̚Ǫ̴̹̗̺̜̝̖͈̟̙͚́̂̏̀Ȗ̴̢̺̪̜͍̺̎̏̀̔͗̃̿̈́̕T̶̨̟͉̏͆͝ ̶̧̡̢͈̯̪̰͎͔̺̟͓̱̀T̸̨̢̪͒͌̐̊͋̊̒̔̐̉̒̔ͅͅI̴̡͍̫͕̱̼̭͖̗̤̘̤̦̿̕M̶̳͍̦̙̹̙̠̩̳̦̑̌́͂̇̇͘͝Ȅ̴̡̳̯̻̖̹͔̮̦̉̕͝


or you

(=ↀωↀ=) 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳! (=ↀωↀ=)

I'm ashamed of Harry Potter fans. If they waited 2 more months, they could've played a much better game about magic and sorcery. For shame, Harry Potter fans. For shame. That aside, I've been sitting on a PS2 copy of GrimGrimoire for a few years now, and about a week before I planned on playing it, they announced this remaster, so that was fun! Postponed my GrimGrimoire experience by a full year, but that's beside the point.

If there's one thing that Vanillaware never fails to deliver on, it's the art and sound design. Every character has such distinct and colorful designs, and all the creatures you can summon are animated so nicely, to the point where it's entertaining to just watch them go about their business. So it's a shame that you're staring at the same backdrop for pretty much the entire game, an old stone tower. The music really taps into both the grandiose and mischievous sides of using magic. An action as simple as creating a rune has so much more weight behind it when it's accompanied by Lillet Blan chanting stuff like, "Spirits, hearken to me! Wicca!" Honestly, petty as it may be, one complaint I have is that the font they use is absurdly basic. Readability is important in a game with as many rules as this one, but it in the whimsical world of GrimGrimoire, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Imagine your favorite text-heavy game. Now imagine that game using impact font.

The story is...not at all what I was expecting, truthfully. It initially appears to be a story about Lillet Blan, newest student at The Silver Star Tower, getting up to magic school shenanigans. It instead turns into her solving a five-day time loop she finds herself stuck in, and preventing the revival of the Archmage. As a result, the general actions and motivations of characters get pretty jumpy at times. If you're expecting a more typical school life, well actually, OnceMore kinda has you covered on that front. You get a piece of guest art that depicts everyday life at the academy each time you complete a story chapter. It doesn't quite fill that void, but hey, it's something.

The two new features added in OnceMore are Grand Magic and a skill tree. Grand Magic is four different effects, but I only ever used "Mana Burst", where Lillet Blan deploys a tactical nuclear strike in a dedicated radius of your choosing. Grand Magic is pretty much a panic button, hence how it can only be used once per battle. The skill tree is a surprisingly in-depth addition. Each stage you finish gives you a set amount of coins (plus a few more for finishing optional objectives), which you spend on adding buffs and abilities to the various creatures you can summon. The catch is that in battle, these bonuses are tied to the levels of the various runes you can create. Having say, faeries that move twice as fast is useful, but you'll need to level up the rune before that effect activates. Thankfully, the skill tree has another quirk: you can refund any of the abilities and spend the coins elsewhere. If a stage limits your choice of runes, or your usual choices aren't useful, you can re-invest in an entirely different set of skills.

As for the gameplay proper, there's a lot of work put into making each unit type distinct, and you can mix and match certain types of units with others to achieve unique strategies. Even the strongest enemies in the game can be immobilized by a funny cat with a magic cane. I would be lying if I said I thoroughly explored most of these strategies though. Zerg rushes of small-medium size units can wipe out chunks of enemies if you use them effectively. In fact, I used that strategy in one form or another up until the final set of levels, which are a real doozy. The game has extra challenge stages that unlock alongside the regular ones, and they often require very specific strategies to complete. They're good for players who want to master every possible aspect of the game (aka: not me).

GrimGrimoire seems to be one of the weaker titles in Vanillaware's lineup, and I'm not sure how much of OnceMore's additions rectify that matter. Even so, GrimGrimoire is still an admirable little RTS title. It doesn't have much staying power, but it's not too hard for someone inexperienced in the genre (like me) to pick up and enjoy this one, I'd say. Then again, Yuri Lowenthal voices a handsome devil in this game, and that might be worth the price of admission alone.