Unicorn Overlord is a tactical strategy RPG from ATLUS and Vanillaware. It follows Alain, the would-be prince of Cornia had the kingdom not been overthrown by General Valmore. Before her last stand against Valmore, Alain’s mother, Queen Ilenia, tasks a guard, Josef, with protecting her young son and the Ring of the Unicorn. Valmore takes control of Cornia, places all the kingdoms of Fevrith under Zenoiran rule, and changes his name to Galerius, as would we all, right?

Ten years later, the island of Palevia is invaded by Zenoiran forces. Josef, Alain, and a few buddies are able to repel the attack, and we learn the Ring of the Unicorn has the ability to dispel the magic that is forcing one-time allies to serve under Galerius. Armed with this knowledge and a can-do attitude, Alain decides the time is nigh to gather an army to liberate Fevrith.

The plot is typically melodramatic for the genre, but not nearly as heavy as what we’ve seen in the past. Everything moves along at a breezy pace, or at least as breezy as it can be with all of the side-battle action at your disposal. Let’s not get into that, yet, though. Let’s start with the world map.

In most JRPGs, the map is either something that pushes icons around under grave narration or a means to get from here to there with as few random battles as possible. In Unicorn Overlord, it’s a living thing, and a key component to gameplay. Alain has to explore the world to build his army, and there’s a lot to do.

Completing liberation battles will free towns for Alain to utilize, provided he’s gathered enough resources to build them up. Towns can provide armor and provisions. Larger cities can also provide taverns where Alain’s troops can share meals to increase rapport. You can station guards to help collect materials and to present with gifts, also to increase rapport. Some towns have ports that allow you to sail to secluded areas for rare items or to solve quests.

The map also contains forts where you can recruit mercenaries, expand your unit size, engage in mock battles, and more. Numerous relics are scattered about, many of which you won’t even know how to use until you’re about halfway through the game, or deeper. One of my favorite moments was when I stumbled upon a hidden catapult with the suggestion to disable it. In a later battle, the enemy officer was miffed to learn a catapult was down, making my victory easier to achieve. There are numerous moments like that scattered about, making map exploration not just a rewarding endeavor, but also an important key to progression.

Of course, the meat of the game is in the battles, and there’s far too much nuance to go into full detail here. Basically, you’re able to assign units of up to six soldiers from those you’ve recruited or hired. Unicorn Overlord offers over 60 characters by game’s end, all of whom come with their own unique skill set across a multitude of class types. How you place them in their unit, how you arm and accessorize them, what skills you give them, and how you trigger those skills determines how effective they’ll be in combat. It’s a lot to think about, and it can easily become overwhelming if you’re not constantly managing who gets what new accessory/weapon and who gets paired with whom.

The game does allow you to engage in mock battles to test a unit’s effectiveness, but I found it easier to just mimic enemy units. If a fight is particularly troublesome, I’d set up a unit using the enemy’s formation, then tweak it to suit my needs.

But that’s just the preparation. The battles take place in real time on wonderfully designed maps that remain diverse throughout the game’s entirety. They generally consist of deploying a few units at a time to attack the enemy’s stronghold while protecting your own. Valor points determine how many units can be deployed. More valor is achieved throughout the battle, allowing you to deploy more units or utilize special skills that can enhance attacks, buff or heal your units, transport units around the battlefield, and myriad other capabilities.

It sounds like a lot, but there’s more. Assigning a unit’s leader determines the basic skill of that unit. Making a flier the leader allows that entire unit to fly over otherwise impassable mountains and rivers. But flying units are susceptible to arrow attacks, so switching the leader to one with the ability to repel ranged attacks is then a good idea…provided you have the valor points to do so. Running low on valor? Pick a unit leader who has the ability to replenish it more quickly or just use an item that negates ranged attacks.

Between the available unit tweaks, the valor skills, and countless items you can find/buy to use on the battlefield, I never felt I didn’t stand a chance in a fight. Even if you don’t prepare well, there’s usually a way to push through if you just pause the action and think about it—there’s almost always a soldier on the with a valor skill to save the day.

That’s actually one of my two minor complaints about Unicorn Overlord. If you happen upon a couple unit setups that really maximize efficiency, you can use them to push through the entire game without much difficulty. I had two (maybe three) such units, and it wasn’t long before they seemed capable of clearing entire battle maps on their own. Units can tire on the battlefield, but there are so many ways to replenish their stamina that fatigue is pretty much a non-factor.

I also felt there were too many soldier classes to keep track of. The developers could’ve reduced this by half and still had an intricate party-assembly system. Once I approached the game’s midpoint, I just had no desire to slow things down to tinker with unit symmetry, other than to figure out who to add when expanding units from four to five. As such, a lot of interesting characters were barely utilized. There was just no need.

Maybe that’ll open up the game to multiple playthroughs. The world of Fevrith will definitely be worth additional trips, as the scenery is also fantastic. The fantasy landscapes are richly illustrated and a joy to explore, the character designs are heroic and fun (if not a bit dated in a few instances), the music fits the world and the action well, and the voice acting is solid, for the most part. In short, the game’s design is cohesive; each part fully complements the others.

So, yes, Unicorn Overlord is definitely an early candidate for my 2024 game of the year. It achieves everything it sets out to accomplish, it manages a few surprises along the way, and only by nitpicking can I find anything wrong with it. Remember that joy when you first played a JRPG or strategy game that really clicked for you? It’s about to happen again.

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If you’ve played the demo (which hopefully you’ve done by now), you know much preparation goes into optimizing your various parties for battle. Equipment, placement, support, leaders—there’s a lot to consider, most of which comes together in ways strategy gamers may not have experienced before. So, whether you struggled with the demo or are just making sure your strategies are as tight as they can be, Josef is here to help.

This final training video offers tips and tricks on how to succeed in combat, highlights details about battle mechanics, and more.

I never saw “Game Over” during my run through the Unicorn Overlord demo, but I also know I could’ve handled some situations better. This was largely due to not spending enough time on active and passive skill management. I often yelled at a particular character for healing a soldier who didn’t need it when she was drastically low on health herself. That was on me. Check out the video above, and don’t make the same mistakes I did.

Unicorn Overlord will release digitally and physically on March 8th, and preorders are open now. For more information, visit unicornoverlord.atlus.com.

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My thoughts? I’m hooked. But before I list off the reasons, here’s a little on why I knew I would be. Unicorn Overlord is a tactical RPG on a grand scale. Set in the fantasy world of Fevrith, the game follows Alain, a would-be prince now exiled when the kingdom is overthrown by General Valmore. Alain seeks to reclaim the throne, but will need to unite the individual countries of Fevrith to do so.

A corrupt ruler to face, an army to build, a world to explore, a tense political climate to navigate…it sounds pretty Fire Emblemy, doesn’t it? Well, it is, but it’s so much more. Let’s take a look at what I’ve already learned via the demo.

• The demo is timed, so how far you get will depend upon how quickly you move. You’ll get five hours, which is more than enough to whet your appetite for strategy gaming goodness.
• Of course, your progress will carry over to the full game should when you decide to buy it. However, it doesn’t look like there will be any bonuses for those who tried the demo before buying.
• We get our traditional act of heroic sacrifice straight away, with a more surprising turn of events soon thereafter. If you’re as into JRPG melodrama as I am, Unicorn Overlord looks sure to satisfy.
• The overworld is a living thing here. Unlike other tactical RPGs that just shove icons around a map as a narrator speaks, Unicorn Overlord charges you exploration. There are items to find (designated and hidden), characters to speak with, and enemies to engage or avoid.

• Conversely, there are no towns…at least not yet. You’ll see and can interact with cities and buildings on the map, but just to pull up menus for buying/selling items, recruiting mercenaries, chartering ships, etc. Building up these towns makes them more useful to you,  a unique spin that keeps the game active when you’re not engaged in combat.
• Speaking of mercenaries, you get to customize them! The game gives you plenty of plot-driven characters to control, but you also have the ability to hire reinforcements with some options for altering their appearance. Oddly, when naming them, you have to select from a predetermined list. So much for my idea of naming characters after members of the band Unicorn. Sorry, ABEDON!
• Why the need for mercenaries? This begins our string of combat bullets, starting with engagement. Overworld battle scenarios happen in real time, with you deploying squads of 1 to 3 combatants (in the demo) for engagement. Each squad can be customized with the soldiers of your choice, including where they’re placed on a 2×3 grid. That placement will be determined by who is on that grid. Archers and healers in the back, of course. Fighters and guards in the front. Maybe. If you’re going up against an enemy that can attack an entire front line, you may want to move a lower defense attacker to the back. I found I didn’t have to tinker much with placement in the demo, but it’s obvious that’ll become more important as I get deeper into the game.

• Who’s fighting together in these squads is important, as teammates will build rapport with one another the more they fight together. The game makes it clear who can share rapport and how far they’ve progressed.
• The fighting animations we’ve seen are just that: animations. Like Fire Emblem, the gameplay focuses on determining who should fight whom, and making sure the right squad is within range. You can see the likely result of the fight before you engage. If you have multiple squads within reach, you can cycle through them to determine which will achieve the best results.
• Each squad has a leader that can be assigned for various bonuses. If you have an archer leading a squad that’s within reach of a fight, you can call in a volley of arrows from his/her squad to do damage before you even engage. How cool is that? Other leadership skills include the ability to move faster on the world map, cross over mountains and rivers, etc.
• The battle scenarios are timed. Once you engage the enemy and start moving your squads around, you have a limited amount of time to claim victory. The demo is generous with the time provided, giving you plenty of options to rest your squads (they can get tuckered out) and to compensate for mistakes as you spread them out for engagement.

That’s barely scratching the surface of what the demo highlights, but 11 bullet points is my traditional stopping point. I didn’t even get to the game’s lush graphics, the moral dilemmas (already with the tough choices?), the intricate item/skill management, and the sidequests that help you build up the territories you’ve freed. Unicorn Overlord gives you a lot to take in within the first few hours, but it’s also manageable…for now. I have a feeling it’ll get pretty complicated pretty quickly.

But I’m looking forward to that. The demo is a clear indication that Unicorn Overlord will keep gamers busy for quite some time. Exploration and combat are equally addictive and rewarding, and we’ve already met a handful of engaging characters. I’m more than ready to meet more and dig deeper into Fevrith when the game releases digitally and physically on March 8th.

For more information on Unicorn Overlord, visit unicornoverlord.atlus.com/.

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To help us get a grasp on the game’s scope and mechanics, publisher Atlus is releasing a series of “Josef’s Guide to…” videos. The latest was published this week, in which the former Holy Knight explains Unicorn Overlord’s social interaction system.

If Alain—the game’s protagonist—is going to successfully unite the continent of Fevrith, he’s going to need to make sure the leaders and warriors of the individual kingdoms are getting along. That, of course, means hanging out, sharing meals, exchanging gifts, and standing with one another in combat. Judging from the trailer above, those who played Fire Emblem: Three Houses will be right at home with Unicorn Overlord’s social aspects and their effect on gameplay.

But that’s just one part of Unicorn Overlord’s larger picture. Atlus previously gave us an introduction to navigating the game’s world, and we’ll surely see more as approach the game’s March 8th release.

Unicorn Overlord is available now for preorder at the Nintendo eShop in standard and Monarch editions. Physical preorders are also open for the standard ($59.99) and collector’s edition ($129.99) wherever finer JRPGs are sold.

For more information on Unicorn Overlord, visit unicornoverlord.atlus.com.

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