Unicorn Overlord - PlayStation 5

So I had watched some gameplay of this game before and was on the fence. I loved the old school style and whatnot, but I am getting more and more picky with which games I choose to spend my time on because I work a lot; so I have less time availableto play games. Nowadays, I need to be pretty interested right off the bat in order to keep playing something.Luckily, Playstation has a really long demo available (I was playing for like 8 hours before it finally timed me out) and I ended up loving it and got addicted. It was on a Christmas sale at the time for $25, so I bought it the moment my demo expired. Great decision.It actually has a good story, you can recruit over 100 specific characters all with their own backstories and side quests, and it is a great strategy game that isn't ridiculously hard, but is definitely challenging enough at many points to keep you interested in finishing it and to keep going. If you are a fan of the old school strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and even the Disgaea series, then you should definitely pick this up.Speaking of Fire Emblem... As great as that series is, it always sucks when you lose a character in a fight and lose them permanently. This game doesn't do that. If one of your characters dies in battle, then they can be resurrected and healed afterwards using item/potions or at the nearest town, easy peasy.

So I was shopping discount games that were on sale and I came across this one. Frankly the title "Unicorn Overlord" was kind of weird and non descript so it really didn't really catch my attention. I looked at the picture in the description and it looked like a retro 2d esk type game which might be a fun throw back but is a bit dated and boring by todays standard. Basically at a glance I really didn't think much of this game even at a bargain basement price I passed it over several times. The only thing that bugged me was the overwhelmingly positive reviews? I don't think I have ever seen one so consistently highly rated?Well long story short I did end up buying a copy and I am so glad I did! The game play is a kind of a real time strategy game with turn based battles that are executed programmatically (meaning you don't select attacks and targets they are chosen automatically). You build "formations" of various kinds of units each with their own strengths and weaknesses in arrangements to ensure strong units are in the front lines and weaker defenseless units are in the rear. You equip them with various types of gear. The most interesting part though is you then program the attacks of each character by conditions and priorities which takes a bit of logical thought. Each attack can be programmed with up to 2 priorities or conditions (the same attack can also be programmed multiple times for different conditions). For example if you have an archer you may want him to attack other archers as the priority. However if there are no archers you may program him to attack the unit with the lowest HP. You may go further and program instead of attacking heal if your HP is less than 50%. The battels then execute based on your programmed logic which can vastly change the outcome. There are probably like 100 different conditions and priority conditions you can set so you can spend a lot of time here, it is not a simple gimmick token game mechanic you can just ignore. I also encourage you to look on YouTube to watch the battle cut scenes as while the main game is very retro 2d the battle scenes are a little more visually stimulating.What really makes this game though is the story. The game has it's main story line of a prince fighting back against an evil invader who has taken over the world in an attempt to create a new kingdom after destroying their own by mistake. In the process you wander through the map battling opponents each who have their own mini background story within the main story. Theres got to be like dozens maybe even 100 characters you encounter each with their own perspective. You have characters who are profiteers, willful collaborators, unwilling collaborators, collaborators out of desperation, people possessed by souls of dead invaders, resistance fighters, appeasers, on and on. Every battle is led by a person and every person has their own story and reason for working for the enemy. Giving each of them a brief background story adds depth to the game so it does not become just about repetitive battles over and over again. Even when the game ends many of the characters get their own brief epilog as to what they did after the war was over which was a pretty neat touch I think! A nice way to wrap up the game and give closure to characters you have kind of come to know.It's not very difficult at all which I think is kind of nice. You can just casually play the game and enjoy the story without it becoming frustrating. Despite it being fairly easy it's also a reasonably long game. You will get your money's worth out of it time wise.My only disappoint was frankly I was really enjoying the game but this game has a very definitive end point. Most battles can only be completed once and there are a limited number of battles on the map. Things like the stores do not restock even with consumable items. You can wander freely around the map but theres really not much point in going back to places you have already been for the aforementioned reasons. Theres just nothing for you to do. As you progress through the game you just get to a point where there's less and less places to explore and things for you to do. Once you complete the final boss mission thats basically it. It does allow you to continue wandering around the map and replay the final boss mission but that's not very interesting. There no bonuses like other games where they allow you to start over but keep all your characters/equipment. Theres no bonus game modes. Theres no freeplay modes where you can just set up custom battles to play. It's just over. You can start a new game but once you've played it once I'm not sure if I will play it again. You will just fight the same battles and have to rebuild your forces from scratch again which would be annoying. Also again a big part of the game is the story line which now you already know. I'm just not sure there's really much replay value here which makes me sad because it was such an enjoyable game!

Unicorn Overlord while having a vague & kind of nonsense name, is an awesome single player RPG! The animation & visual storytelling of the game was a little surprising in that the animation gets a little repetitive after about 50% thru the game but that 50% was for me about 50+ hours of game play but for those initial 50 hours, they are enjoyable and well done especially for a non anime fan such as me!The crazy amount of interesting tactical team combination that can be tinkered with is truly the meat & potatoes of the game. You can micromanage as much or as little as you want with your squads and their gear but at some point you'll feel like you can't see the forest for the trees so it's at that point I stepped back & just kinda went with what my gut told me & made adjustments accordingly.Put it this way, this is the game that broke my non stop Final Fantasy VII Rebirth streak! Haven't gone back since I started Unicorn Overlord! Not the same kind of game but SUPER ENGAGING nonetheless! For as little as I heard/read about the game it made me curious enough to try it & i was not only happily surprised, I'm already on my 2nd playthrough... I might have a problem...

Great game.Loved the story.Combat gets repetitive but that is really my only criticism.Wish that more games would come out with a good strategy combat like this has. Think FF Tactics, Kartia and Tactics Ogre.