Unicorn Overlord is the Best Game I’ve Played in 2024

Unicorn Overlord is the best game I’ve played this year. It plays like a more fleshed-out version of Ogre Battle. It takes everything that that game did well and improves on it. I have very little to complain about with this game.

I love almost everything about it. The story is very good, the graphics are great, and the gameplay is fantastic! The only thing I don’t like about it is the time limit during battles. I have no idea why it is there.

Strategy RPGs like this one are some of my favorite games. I usually like the more tactical games, like Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem, and Final Fantasy Tactics. However, Ogre Battle is my favorite RPG, and as far as I know, there weren’t many games made in that style until Unicorn Overlord came out.

TLDR: Unicorn Overlord is the Best Game I’ve Played This Year.

Narrative

Unicorn Overlord has a ton of characters—too many at times—but they make the story better, and you can get side stories for the important characters. You can also recruit rank-in-file characters that don’t impact the story.

I’ll be mentioning Ogre Battle a lot because of the similarities between the two games. The story is no exception. Unicorn Overlord feels like a more fleshed-out version of the Ogre Battle story.

Before the game started, there was a war, and the main character is the exiled prince of one kingdom. The big bad guy in the game took over the world, and your goal is to free the world from him and some unseen evil power. Some holy power is also on your side in the form of the Unicorn Ring.

There is some sorcery going on. The Unicorn Ring can break the spell. This is how the game explains that the big bad guy was able to take over the world. He used dark power to control some characters in the game.

You travel around the world, freeing regions of each kingdom. This is where you meet other characters and members of each kingdom’s royal family. There are also side stories and small cut scenes for characters who have bonded from fighting or dining together. It is nice to see these little character-building scenes.

If you want to, you can get to know the characters in your party. This isn’t necessary to enjoy the story, but it can be fun. Characters gain rapport with each other by fighting side by side or by eating together at Taverns.

The game does fall into familiar tropes of many RPGs. There is a Big Bad Guy, an Evil Wizard, and eventually, your character has to fight against overwhelming odds and god-like powers. This isn’t a bad thing, and Unicorn Overlord works these tropes quite well. It is a fun story with a good mixture of humor and seriousness.

Unicorn Overlord culminates with a big battle where you fight through the big bad guys. It is fun, but it can take a while. It is one of those multi-stage fights that stress your resources. The game also throws some curve balls at you, so stay on your toes!

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to Ogre Battle. You move units around a map, and the battles play out automatically. However, the units appear to be more customizable than in previous games. The characters have more personality, similar to the Tactics Ogre games in the series.

It feels like a combination of Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem, and Shining Force. Unicorn Overlord feels familiar, like I’ve played it before because of all the parts of other games it has incorporated from games like Ogre Battle. It is a lot of fun!

Unicorn Overlord offers more options. The combat rules are essentially the same as those of the Ogre Battle Games. You win a battle if you do more damage or kill all the enemies in a unit. The Missions have larger goals, such as killing the leader or capturing a target.

There is one annoyance to the game. The battles have a time limit. Once the time is up, you need to restart the stage. I don’t like this at all. I wouldn’t think anything of it if it was only on a few stages, like surviving X number of turns. However, I don’t like having a time limit on every stage.

You need valor points to deploy units. Liberating towns or other locations is one way to replenish your valor points.

Unit Types

• Lord – Upgrades to High lord (50 Honors)
• Priestess – Upgrades to High Priestess (50 Honors)
• Knight – Upgrades to Great Knight (35 Honors)
• Hoplite – Upgrades to Legionnaire (30 Honors)
• Thief – Upgrades to Rogue (30 Honors)
• Soldier – Upgrades to Sergent (25 Honors)
• Housecarl – Upgrades to Viking (25 Honors)
• Hunter – Upgrades to Sniper (30 Honors)
• Gladiator – Upgrades to Berserker (30 Honors)
• Gryphon Knight – Upgrades to Gryphon Master (35 Honors)
• Cleric – Upgrades to Bishop (30 Honors)
• Witch – Upgrades to Sorceress (30 Honors)
• Fighter – Upgrades to Vanguard (25 Honors)
• Warrior – Upgrades to Breaker (30 Honors)
• Wizard – Upgrades to Warlock (30 Honors)
• Shaman – Upgrades to Druid (30 Honors)
• Radiant Knight – Upgrades to Sainted Knight (35 Honors)
• Sellsword – Upgrades to Landsknecht (30 Honors)
• Arbalist – Upgrades to Shieldshooter (30 Honors)
• Wyvern Knight – Upgrades to Wyvern Master (35 Honors)
• Swordfighter – Upgrades to Swordmaster (30 Honors)
• Dark Knight – Upgrades to Doom Knight (35 Honors)
• Crusader – Upgrades to Valkyria (50 Honors)

A Ranking system in the game governs what you can do with your units. It controls how many characters can be in a unit and whether you can promote them. In addition to the Ranking system, you also have to have enough Honors to promote a character and expand the unit to have more characters. You can have a maximum of five characters in a unit and ten units, not including temporary units.

When you start the game, your army has a low level of Renown. As you play through the game, you’ll gain more with each victory, unlocking more features at each town and fort. This is a nice replacement for the reputation meter in the Ogre Battle games.

Honors are what lets you upgrade your units. You can get more units to deploy and increase the number of characters in a unit. For example, spending upgrading from 2 characters to 3 will cost you 10 Honors. It is an interesting system that provides a reason to explore the map and take on quests.

There is also a Rapport system in the game. Because each character has a bit more personality, they can grow closer as the game progresses. Having two characters fight alongside each other will increase their rapport level, giving the unit a bonus to their stats.

Some characters don’t have promotions at the time of this writing. I’m unsure if this will change in future updates. If it does, I’ll update this post.

• Dark Marquess
• Dreadnought
• Elven Archer
• Elven Fencer
• Elven Augur
• Necromancer
• Snow Ranger
• Werelion
• Wereowl
• Werebear
• Werefox
• Feathersword
• Featherbow
• Feathershield
• Featherstaff
• Snow Ranger
• Prince

There are some Bestral units in the game. You encounter them in the fourth kingdom, Bastorias. I’m unsure how to categorize them, but I’m sure there will be an explanation as I play through the level. I’ll update this later, much like I did for the Ranking system.

Terrain doesn’t seem to play a role in combat. However, the formation of your units does. Some characters offer different buffs to the unit. You also have to deal with a unit’s stamina.

Each unit has a set amount of stamina. Getting into a battle consumes one unit of stamina. Once a unit’s stamina is gone, they’ll need to rest. The unit won’t be able to move until it has regained stamina.

There isn’t a weapons and magic triangle like in Fire Emblem. Character strengths and weaknesses are based on class and level. For example, a Thief can dodge most melee attacks but is weak against ranged attacks from Hunters. Also, a Hoplite is strong against weaker melee attacks but can’t stand up to attacks from a Warrior or magical attacks from Wizards, Witches, and the classes you can promote them to.

You also have more control over the characters’ equipment, which brings the game closer to Fire Emblem, Shining Force, and Tactics Ogre. Much like Ogre Battle, you can control your units’ tactics. This determines what attacks your characters will use and when.

You can upgrade the towns that you liberate. In the towns, you can buy weapons and items, and in bigger towns, you can visit a tavern to strengthen the bond between characters. Forts act similarly but are focused on expanding your units, hiring characters, and dealing with promotions.

Upgrading towns is easy. While traveling around the map, you can gather resources. These are used to upgrade towns by delivering specific things to a town. The game will tell you what and how much of an item you need. This does lead me to one annoying part of the game.

Every resource is easy to gather except Goat Milk. To get Goat Milk, you need to buy Goat Biscuits and feed one to a goat. This will give you one unit of milk per goat, although you can get lucky and receive more. Every other resource will provide you with a bunch, especially if you leave the area for a while. Getting Goat Milk is needlessly tedious compared to the other resources.

Delivering resources to the towns rewards you with Honor, items, and money. It isn’t a big reward, but it is worth it. The resources you gather don’t cost you, except for the Goat Milk, so you get something for nothing by rebuilding the towns. Even after a town is rebuilt, you can continue to deliver resources for a reward.

If you rebuild all of the towns in a region, you’ll get a little cut scene. It isn’t much and is done with the overworld graphics. This is one of the optional things, and it would be fun to see if you get a different ending by doing this.

Sometimes, you end up with a handful of underpowered units in these games. Unicorn Overlord fixes this by having a few spots where you can grind for experience, valor, and reputation. This isn’t normally something you can do in these games; having it is a welcome addition.

Visuals

This is a gorgeous game! The battles look great, the character sprites and models are wonderful, and the overworld map looks great! I love the look of this game! It is everything I would want from this type of game.

The world map looks very good. Places of interest are easy to see, and there are pillars of light and shiny spots to indicate where resources and items are located. The sprites on the world map also look very good.

The character sprites look great on the battle screen, and the game does a great job of keeping the screen from getting too cluttered. The attacks look awesome, especially near the end of the game when your characters are badasses. However, I noticed something odd while playing. It has to do with the elves.

The female elves in the game aren’t wearing much. Their version of the Elven Fencer makes them look like a combat dominatrix. The game explains this if you build up the relationship between some of the characters. I didn’t need an explanation for it, but it made for some a funny moment.

Unicorn Overlord reminds me of an Ogre Battle game. It looks and plays like it could’ve been a part of the series. The visuals look so much like Ogre Battle, and I love it!

9.5/10.

Pros

• Fun Story
• Easy to Play
• Great Graphics
• Plenty of Side Quests

Cons

• Auto Battle Combat
• Time Limit on Battles

Conclusion

You likely won’t like this game if you didn’t like Ogre Battle or Ogre Battle 64. You have less control over the battles, and there are a ton of characters to keep track of, which can be a little overwhelming at times. However, this is one of the best Strategy RPGs I’ve played.

I love this genre! While I like tactical games more than this, I love the unique gameplay and enjoy building relationships between the characters. The story isn’t too bad either, and it takes some predictable twists. I like some of the side stories more than the main plot.

Unicorn Overlord is a game I didn’t think I would ever see again. There were a lot of experimental games in the 90s that didn’t get sequels or spiritual successors. I’m glad this game picked up where Ogre Battle left off. It is a wonderful game.