Unicorn Overlord

[Armchair General]

4 hours ago, Armagon said:

Tbf Fire Emblem does that too. How many times do you make advances and the evil empire just goes "ha, they think they can win" and then proceed to lose. 

Hey, at least Rudolph had an excuse.

[ciphertul]

8 hours ago, Armagon said:

For the same reason BotW/TotK has Main Quests. Yes just like in those games you technically could waltz up to the final boss at any point. You'll actually lose here tho.

Could be, I just find it weird that the only other Main Quest (outside of the increases squad limit, equip an item and buy gear) is The Priestess mission. Not even Adel’s mission.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, ciphertul said:

Could be, I just find it weird that the only other Main Quest (outside of the increases squad limit, equip an item and buy gear) is The Priestess mission. Not even Adel’s mission.

Priestess mission is required because you aren't allowed to go to any other region until you do that one.

[vanguard333]

12 hours ago, Armagon said:

Tbf Fire Emblem does that too. How many times do you make advances and the evil empire just goes "ha, they think they can win" and then proceed to lose.

In Path of Radiance's case, it is justified by the reveal that Ashnard is intentionally abandoning Daein since he's not seeking land or territory but a continent-wide war, and also somewhat-subverted by the first half of the game being the main heroes being entirely on-the-run and not making any advances whatsoever.

[ciphertul]

4 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Priestess mission is required because you aren't allowed to go to any other region until you do that one.

Then why is Yahna’s main?

… because it has to be done to go to Elfhiem. 

Edited February 24 by ciphertul

[Armagon]

1 minute ago, ciphertul said:

Then why is Yahna’s main?

… because it has to be done to go to Elfhiem. 

I mean you can progress through the area without liberating it. You'll just run into enemies.

I'm pretty sure at least.

[ciphertul]

6 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I mean you can progress through the area without liberating it. You'll just run into enemies.

I'm pretty sure at least.

So then why would you think it’s considered main?

[Armchair General]

1 hour ago, ciphertul said:

So then why would you think it’s considered main?

Probably because it's one of the regions that you'll have to eventually liberate?

 

As an aside, I was kind of expecting the battles to be of an significantly larger scale. 

[Use the Falchion]

Just beat the demo last night/late this morning! I really had a lot of fun with it! Unicorn Overlord has been on my list since its Direct announcement, and I had lost pretty much all hope for a demo in the Partner due to the gameplay trailers Atlus had been releasing...right up until it happened! Needless to say, I started playing as soon as I could on Wednesday. It was tough waiting until Friday to play again, but I did, and it was WORTH IT. Overall, this demo has convinced me to preorder the Deluxe edition instead of just buying the base game. (Something I regret not doing with Fates and Three Houses.) 

Unicorn Overlord, from the trailers, felt very much like "Atlus takes on classic Fire Emblem story with similar battle and character recruitment philosophies" until I watched some in-depth analyses on YouTube and played the demo myself. In fact, it's a squad-based RTS rather than a TBS. (Although the ability to control who goes into the squad is VERY useful and greats a nice layer of depth.) Still, the Fire Emblem vibes are strong with this one, especially since the latest FE game we got had a big focus on rings as well. (My Headcanon right now is actually that Unicorn Overlord takes place on Elyos, but eons after Engage takes place. Most of the rings have been lost to time, and Alear's time has long-since passed. This will most assuredly change as the game goes forward, but it's a fun connection for now.) 

My school district's Spring Break begins the Friday this game comes out, so I know what I'll be doing for most of it! I do have two books I've been waiting for coming out during that time as well, so I'll have stuff to do when my Switch's battery gets low, but I'm excited! Hopefully this isn't like Triangle Strategy, where I adored the demo and found the base-game to not live up to the hype due to choices that you could make. If it does live up to the hype, this will most assuredly be one of my top games of the year. 

My main squads by the end of the demo:

Spoiler

Alain's Unit: Alain, Nina, Chloe, Yahna - Great mix of physical damage, magical damage, and healing. My main infantry vanguard team, and they ROCK! I did plan on pairing Alain with Yanha, but I may change my mind about that. We'll see. Selvie seems interesting to get to know for Alain, as does the future Dark Elf ally. (I actually tried Selvie out for this group, but she was a little too fragile and her debuffs weren't reaching their max potential.) I just can't wait for the game! 

Travis's Unit: Travis, Berenice, Bruno, Clive - A great physical unit that doesn't take too much damage but deals out a MASSIVE amount to Infantry units. Berenice is too new for this group and I'm not sure she meshes well. I'll probably but her and Selvie on a group together at a later time. 

Rolf's Unit: Hodrick, Rolf, Sharon - Rolf is solid as a leader, but his group is slow and doesn't do as much damage as I'd like. I think later on, I may try reconfigure his group alongside Travis's Unit. I really want to use Sharon better. She's not her best here...

Josef's Unit: Josef, Mordon, Aubin - Alain's group is probably my favorite group, but this group is my best group. This is a pure physical offense group. They hit hard, fast, and repeatedly. It's great. I worried about Josef being an EXP sponge, but he's a great shield. 

Adel's Unit: Adel, Lex, Selvie - This is basically a spare unit that I put together with some spare Renown I had. I knew more or less what I wanted to do with Adel, but I wanted to use Selvie and Lex, so I put the group together. They worked well on the final stage for holding down the main base, but that's about it. Full disclosure on Lex - I did NOT like using him early on. I couldn't figure out what to do with him, and he wasn't contributing how I wanted him to. So I benched him for a majority of the Demo. After meeting Fran earlier though, I realized that he would probably be GREAT for blocking archers for her, so I want him on the team. Ideally, I want a Fran-led team that has Fran, Miriam, Adel, and Lex. They'll cover infantry and cavalry, have amazing movement, and be able to cover all terrain. I'll probably switch Fran to my Unit space with four slots to do this. 

Fran's Unit (gained as the demo ends): Fran, Miriam, Kitra - Mostly mentioned above. Kitra isn't as engaging as a unit to me since I already have Nina and plan on using her. 

 

Future Potential Units & Where They're Placed: 

Scarlett - I'll feel guilty if she's not with Alain, since she's more or less fulfills the whole "Childhood Love Interest" trope. The Celica to Alain's Alm. But I'm not the biggest fan of that trope in terms of my Fire Emblem romances - or any videogame romance that I can think of off the top of my head for that matter - nor do I know/remember what her skills and priorities are outside of healing. I really like Chloe on Alain's team, and I don't need two healers there. We'll see. 

Dark Elf Unit - Alain's team. 

Berengaria - Alain's team probably. But I do like her, Travis, and Bruno mending their relationships also. 

 

Potential Unit Combos:

Berenice, Hodrick, Sylvie - This would probably be my aggro team. So debuff, delay, destroy. If I dismantle Josef's team and add Aubin here, then they'll REALLY do some damage! Aubin's ability to attack after Sylvie is probably what the team will need. I'd like to keep Sharon or maybe add Scarlett since this would be a mainline team, but we'll see. 

Fran, Miriam, Adel, Lex - Lex covers Fran's weakness to bows while Miriam and Adel take out the archers and infantry. 

Rolf, Josef, Mordon - This way Rolf can have at least a tad more speed and hit more unit types. I really need him to get to the towers before I don't even need them anymore, and this arrangement may allow it. 

 

This game tickles me in a way that has been evident in my Fire Emblem experience since Awakening that I didn't really address until these past few years - unit crafting and build-crafting. I LOVE buildcrafting units in Fire Emblem.* I've got a build I'm working on in Three Hopes for Dimitri (BOB SAGET HE WILL LEARN BOLTING EVENTUALLY) and am actively resisting starting Engage again to test out a few builds since I just finished a unit-crafting playthrough a few weeks ago. I'm doing some unit-crafting for Fates, since I haven't done that in a while.** Unicorn Overlord is looking to be RIPE with unit-crafting, and I AM HERE FOR IT. I just really hope we can get Renown easier, as we're going to need a LOT of it to experiment with different Unit builds. 

 

*Ironically the one FE game that has a ton of buildcrafting that I don't care for is Heroes. I just like using the units I like and the teams that feel good. (And for the dailies, the ones that get me victory with little investment.) And that's the long-and-short of it. 

**I'm more or less waiting until a mod comes out where the Awakening kids are fully playable and romanceable in Fates in a mod called Awakened Truth. I have the Silent Waves mod, which is fine, but the only playable charactersI wanted from that were Layla and Lilith. If the Awakened Truth mod can add them as well, or work with another mod that adds them, then I'll be in heaven. Fates is also one of those games where buildcrafting is far more fun in theory than actuality. I HATE the early-game of Fates with a burning passion, so much so that it's stopped multiple playthroughs. 

[Etrurian emperor]

I unlocked Adel chapter. I think its my favorite so far. Due to the large map and lots of seize locations it feels a bit like Genealogy. After the demo region is over I probable end up going to Drakengard. The preview characters shown to come from that location look the most promising to me. Among those you can recruit there are a fellow prince, a Lucius swordmaster and a woman who's huge. Not big but huuuge and I find that hilarious. There's also a particular character who seems to be (Redacted) which is a situation I look forward to.

Spoiler

Redacted probably being Travis sister. The flashback shared the name, hairstyle and position of former mercenary captain that a a very cool looking woman from the site also has. Given her character design and her relation to Travis she's a character I want to run into soon.

As far as the characters go they all seem pretty simple as well as their interactions together. For example it was clear as day that Lex the excitable puppy prone to getting hurt would get a report with the gentle cleric, or that there'd be a gruff older man who likes his drink. I don't mind though. Those sorts of archetypes and interactions come with the territory. 

Of the gang I'd say Travis is currently among my favorites. I think the laidback competence, mercenary past and bad relation with his sister is interesting enough. On par with him is our foul mouthed angel girl. Another favorite is the witch girl from the swamps. 

Chloe and Lex are a pretty simple example of Sain and Kent(like Sain Lex even gets to screw up in the tutorial) or perhaps Mae and Boey. I like em though. They seem charming enough.

Edited February 24 by Etrurian emperor

[Etrurian emperor]

(double post)

Edited February 24 by Etrurian emperor

[ciphertul]

I know many seem to have trouble with Ochlys (feathersword lady) mission but I found the Swordfighter mission and the mini Shaman mission to be way worse.

[Sidereal Wraith]

While visually the game looks very good, the story from what I’ve seen so far in the demo is a bit too pedestrian for my liking for me to buy the game. 

Edited February 24 by Sidereal Wraith

[Etrurian emperor]

I had my suspicion because of the artstyle but the liberal use of jiggle physics really sealed the deal. Its the Dragon's Crown devs! I must say the jiggle physics can occasionally get pretty distracting. I noticed the main girl's...uh...girls juggled a lot while walking around, and the default animation of the griffin knight in particular is uh...animated in certain areas. 

 

[ciphertul]

1 minute ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I had my suspicion because of the artstyle but the liberal use of jiggle physics really sealed the deal. Its the Dragon's Crown devs! I must say the jiggle physics can occasionally get pretty distracting. I noticed the main girl's...uh...girls juggled a lot while walking around, and the default animation of the griffin knight in particular is uh...animated in certain areas. 

 

Just wait until you get Yahna the witch then you'll it's truly is VW.

[Fabulously Olivier]

13 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

Just wait until you get Yahna the witch then you'll it's truly is VW.

I think he's saying that it's specifically the Dragon's Crown devs within Vanillaware. Which checks out, as this game was in some stage of development for roughly 10 years. As someone who actually didn't like Dragon's Crown, they've more than redeemed themselves to me.

 

Which brings me to my demo impressions. It's excellent. If the demo is reflective of the overall game quality, it's solidly comparable to the top 25% of all Fire Emblems. The gameplay is strong, the soundtrack is great, the art is top tier, the characters are fun, the game is brimming with depth and replay value, and the story is inoffensively fine. No significant complaints.

[ciphertul]

5 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I think he's saying that it's specifically the Dragon's Crown devs within Vanillaware. Which checks out, as this game was in some stage of development for roughly 10 years. As someone who actually didn't like Dragon's Crown, they've more than redeemed themselves to me.

 

Which brings me to my demo impressions. It's excellent. If the demo is reflective of the overall game quality, it's solidly comparable to the top 25% of all Fire Emblems. The gameplay is strong, the soundtrack is great, the art is top tier, the characters are fun, the game is brimming with depth and replay value, and the story is inoffensively fine. No significant complaints.

Think Alain could teach Alear on how not to lose you ring? Or will Alain take a page out of Alear's book?

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 minute ago, ciphertul said:

Think Alain could teach Alear on how not to lose you ring? Or will Alain take a page out of Alear's book?

How would that even work?

 

"That day, Alain learned that he was the real mind control all along."

[Etrurian emperor]

Of the enemy bosses I think evil Alois from the swamps is my favorite so far. I think they even have the same voice.

[ciphertul]

40 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Of the enemy bosses I think evil Alois from the swamps is my favorite so far. I think they even have the same voice.

Beaumont? I liked Bryce of the rock rats.

[GRANDGOBO]

I just started the demo and so far I love it! I just got to the part where you get a little bit of access to the over world. Unicorn Overlord is already one of my favorite games of all time.

[Etrurian emperor]

So whether its someone who broke street date or who rushed through the demo here's an interesting scenario that kinda bugs me. I sort of brought it up before. Apparently its possible to completely liberate Cornia before setting foot in another region. Because its an open world game I guess it makes sense that this should be possible but in terms of lore its a bit too wacky for my liking. 

The situation at the start of the demo is that after the coup Cornia did a Granvelle and conquered the entire continent. But if Cornia's conquered  by Alain then why does the occupation of the rest of the world still happen? If they lost the war why don't they pack up and go home? Even if we were to believe the Empire just doesn't want to surrender its pretty hard to occupy four nations while your own country is taken over. 

Spoiler

 

Edited February 26 by Etrurian emperor

[ciphertul]

So it seems like the level cap in game is level 50. I feel that it is a little low.

[Etrurian emperor]

How Unicorn handles its world is not unlike how I'd like a FE4 remake to handle its huge maps. Don't scale them down but just put more in them. Towns, cities, sidequests, skirmishes and the lile.

[Sire]

Finally got around to trying the demo, and upon seeing the UI I had immediately flashbacks to me Ogre Battle 64 days. Considering Ogre Battle 64 is one of my most favorite games of all time, I had an absolute blast playing the demo and will definitely be playing it on its full release.

I'll probably be restarting my save though, as I ended up not recruiting two characters (since I thought doing so would have gameplay/story ramifications, but apparently there isn't. The only reason to not recruit them is to get an alternative reward instead of a new character.)

Well, time to speedrun the demo and see what else I can discover...