Review of Unicorn Overlord – Anime Army

Fans will recognize the unique art style of Japanese studio Vanillaware at first glance – it can be recognized, for example, from games such as 13 Sentinels or Dragon’s Crown. Their latest game is also full of this, but it is also a very large and deep strategy that its creators have been dreaming about for ten years, meanwhile developing it against the backdrop of their other games. This long-term care is definitely recognizable in the game. It’s no coincidence that the seemingly inconspicuous 2D game sells for the full price of major games ($60 on PSN in the US), and that physical copies sold out very quickly both in its home country of Japan and elsewhere in the world.

• Platform: PS5
• Publication date: 08/03/2024
• Manufacturer: Vanilver (Japan)
• Genre: Tactical RPG
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Download data: 7 GB
• Game time: 50+ hours
• Price: CZK 1,499 (Alsa)

Romantic adventure

The story begins like many similar Japanese fantasy stories: a treacherous general kills the royal family, only for their teenage son Alain to escape with his faithful guard, Knight Joseph, to an orphanage in a neighboring country. There, under Josef’s guidance, he trains diligently and prepares for the moment when, as an adult, he will march back to his homeland, along the way recruiting comrades and an army to overthrow a cruel tyrant. While the plot is a traditional cliché, it’s wonderfully brought to life with superbly written and voiced dialogue that makes nearly every one of the game’s hundreds of characters truly stand out on all sides of the conflict.

So, instead of a compelling main story, the game will entertain you with short stories of individual allies and enemies you meet along the way. The power of experience is greatly increased by the ability to decide in many cases who you want to add to your army and who you don’t – you can also grant mercy to a number of defeated opponents. There are several kingdoms on the continent and different peoples live in them, in addition to humans, perhaps also elves or all sorts of variations on the “furry” theme. The essence of the history you write and influence is the choice of your companion, important for the future of the entire empire. There are so many cute characters in the game for these purposes that I actually had trouble deciding (I ended up choosing the Elf Queen and she had a pretty interesting move).

You can also grant mercy to multiple defeated enemies.

While the core of the game is, of course, combat and dueling, I enjoyed simply wandering around the game world, where you can discover all sorts of hidden chests, caves and treasures, much like the original Zelda games. In addition to the main story locations and battles, the game world is filled with additional ones, which, among other things, supply you with other characters and resources. It’s immensely satisfying to liberate a city and then help its inhabitants rebuild it so they can then contribute to your campaign. I surprised myself when I got the platinum trophy at the end of the game – apparently I liked it so much that I explored 100% of the world, played all the battles and recruited all the characters.

Fair Anime War

The battles themselves have two active parts – you decide how your units move around the map, and there is the ability to stop time. Once your squad encounters an enemy squad, the fight will happen automatically, but of course you can watch it and it’s full of impressive animations. You don’t directly control the battle, but you have a huge influence on how it plays out, how you pit two squads against each other, what formation the characters in yours are assembled in, what equipment you give them, and how you give your detailed “AI hints” and priorities in battle. Although at first glance it may resemble auto-chess, you have a huge influence on the course of each battle. The game has almost a hundred types of professions and an abundance of combinations of spells or abilities, including those unique to certain characters.

At first glance, the game may resemble, for example, the Fire Emblem series, and in general, fans of all Japanese tactical role-playing games will find something here to their liking. At first I was a little confused by the relatively strange layout of the buttons for some functions, but after a few hours I got used to the controls. A varied set of difficulties will allow both absolute beginners and seasoned veterans to have fun. The non-linear plot will easily captivate those for whom one approximately fifty-hour passage will not be enough. As we’re used to with Vanillaware games, the game looks and sounds great and has no technical issues, at least in the PS5 version I played. If you’re a fan of tactical games or intertwined personal stories, you should definitely give this game a try.