Vanillaware makes wonderful video games, from GrimGrimoire to Odin Sphere to Dragon’s Crown. However, it wasn’t till its 2019 launch, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, that the developer’s title grew to become synonymous with “you should play this team’s games.” It’s onerous to inform what, precisely, made 13 Sentinels the breakout title for Vanillaware, transport greater than 1 million copies worldwide as of August final 12 months, making it the studio’s best-selling title. The straightforward reply might be its beloved story, each in the way it performs out and the way it’s infused into the sport’s real-time technique mech fight.
Publisher Atlus and Vanillaware launched it in 2019, so when the workforce introduced its newest title, Unicorn Overlord, final September, it was straightforward to conclude that this was the studio’s subsequent massive focus. And it’s, however curiously, I realized in an unique preview of the sport Vanillaware conceived it through the improvement of 13 Sentinels, with its creation dealt with in parallel with that sport, albeit with a unique workforce and director.
“[It] was not a change of genre, but rather a team effort to create a worldview that was originally based on the premise of a fantasy,” lead sport designer Wataru Nakanishi tells me over electronic mail after I watch roughly an hour of stay Unicorn Overlord gameplay. Notably, the sport isn’t a response to the sci-fi fashionable motion of 13 Sentinels as I anticipated; the workforce wished to make one other fantasy sport, which checks out contemplating that’s the place its roots lie, relationship again to its debut sport, 2007’s GrimGrimoire. Looking at Vanillaware’s historical past, it’s 13 Sentinels that stands out because the oddball match, with many of the studio’s video games falling into the fantasy camp.
Nakanishi says Unicorn Overlord is Vanillaware’s spin on the tactical fantasy RPG, and that’s instantly clear within the opening hour. Protagonist Alain is round 10 years previous within the prologue, when he and the Queen of Cornia, Ilenia, witness a insurrection by the hands of certainly one of her trusted generals. Worried concerning the kingdom’s destiny and bloodline, her most trusted knight, Josef, is tasked with spiriting the prince away to security. The fundamental sport’s story picks up 10 years later; Crown Prince Alain is round 20 years previous, dwelling on the island of Palevia, the place he’s grown up for the reason that insurrection. While sparring together with his pal Lex, a ship flying Zenoiran colours sails into the harbor and it’s clear they imply no good.
Immediately, I’m in love with the rating, which oscillates between medieval choruses and an orchestral mixture of horns, winds, and different devices typical of the style. Nakanishi tells me the impartial music group Basiscape, who scored 13 Sentinels beneath the route of composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, is returning to create the musical soundscape of Unicorn Overlord, this time beneath Mitsuhiro Kaneda, who additionally labored on 13 Sentinels’ rating. Nakanishi says Kaneda’s rating has a “newness that befits the name, ‘Rebirth of tactical fantasy RPGs,’” which is one thing the workforce mentions varied occasions when discussing the sport. The assertion is a daring one and, taken at face worth, virtually conceited. But Nakanishi clears it up humbly.
“[That statement] reflects the fact that this is a challenging title created in the tactical RPG genre, which we have always loved, with new challenges, and that we want to convey this to our players in a straightforward and correct manner,” he says. “We are making various efforts to make the game accessible to people who have never played this genre before.”
After my hour of gameplay, that’s a considerably tall order. The style is traditionally one of many extra complicated to get into, and my preliminary impression of Unicorn Overlord is that newcomers may discover it overwhelming, maybe even odd at first. You don’t essentially management the person fights that occur in fight encounters – as an alternative, you identify the place you need to transfer on the “tactical battle map.” Bumping into an enemy makes battle inevitable, however earlier than mentioned battle takes place, you possibly can basically look into the long run to see the way it performs out by checking unit formation, which abilities they’ve arrange, and extra.
After all checks are in place, and after checking with a statistic measure that tells you the way they could honest in battle in a Fire Emblem-esque means, the battle begins; you don’t take part however as an alternative, watch what occurs. Success comes from energetic abilities, which use factors regenerated between skirmishes, and passive abilities, which set off in fight when sure circumstances are met. For instance, one passive talent I see heals a unit’s character on the finish of a battle, a essential device as well being doesn’t regenerate between bouts.
Back on the fantastically illustrated tactical battle map, I watch a whole battle stage, which options its personal win-loss circumstances, play out. The participant first interacts with the Command Post, the place they deploy items primarily based on Valor factors they’ve obtainable to spend. Vanillaware tells me liberating cities and fortresses and defeating enemies earns extra of those. You may also spend these factors on particular Valor Skills, which apply distinctive buffs inside and out of doors fight. From right here, Unicorn Overlord performs virtually like a board sport, the place you will need to tactically place your varied items on the map – every comprised of various characters and companions with their very own use case – and transfer them accordingly.
Admittedly, it’s all fairly complicated as I’m thrown straight hands-off into the combination, however I do witness many tutorial messages and screens we skip over for the sake of time. Nakanishi assures me Unicorn Overlord options a variety of in-game assist, together with “tutorials, recommended composition examples, automatic equipment, strategy settings, and switching difficulty levels so that as many people as possible can enjoy the most exciting parts of the game […] without becoming overwhelmed.”
Once an encounter begins, both by your personal unit operating into an enemy or vice versa, an initiative order determines when combatants assault, and the complete battle continues till the enemy (otherwise you) are defeated or all combatants run out of motion factors. In the latter situation, the facet with probably the most well being remaining claims victory. The extra of it I see, the extra I admire its cinematic strategy – I, the participant, set the items onto the board after which watch the strategic planning (or chaos) repay, hopefully in a win. Nakanishi says the draw of any such gameplay is immersion.
“[In] the case of tactical RPGs, the combination of a strategy element, in which you have a bird’s eye view of the battlefield and make precise, step-by-step moves, and the role-playing element, in which you become attached to the characters living in the world and fight alongside them, is a game genre that offers the greatest sense of immersion,” he says. “This is the main attraction, and the team places great importance on this kind of game experience.”
After a couple of fights on this preliminary stage early within the sport’s opening hours, we liberate a Palevian city beneath Zenoira, switching it from a crimson flag to our blue flag, choosing up two Valor factors within the course of. This newly liberated city is now a base from which we are able to deploy items. We advance by means of the stage, utilizing Josef to cowl further floor as motion takes place in actual time, and he strikes the quickest, whereas swapping allies out and in of varied items as soon as two items are throughout the radius of a particular inexperienced circle on the tactical battle map. Vanillaware says it’s important to benefit from this function, as broken allies may must fall again whereas more proficient ones, like a companion that makes use of magic (or magick because it’s known as within the sport), or one other with excessive stamina indicated by the quantity on an on-screen defend, head to the entrance of a unit’s pack.
Within every unit is a player-created make-up of courses, too, which could decide the way you advance them on the tactical battle map. Horseback cavalry are wonderful towards Infantry, an ordinary soldier, as are Knights. With their nice defend, Hoplite courses provide excessive protection. They are appropriate for shielding an space or unit, so countering with a excessive agility class is further necessary when dealing with one.
Outside of fights, gamers can use objects to heal or buff companions, change a loadout and tools, and extra. And all of this – the fight of Unicorn Overlord – is only one half of the expertise, with the opposite being exploration.
“On the overworld, big goals are always clearly presented, and players decide on their own how to achieve them,” Nakanishi says. “Facilities such as towns and forts around the world are controlled by the main enemy called the New Zenoiran Empire, and while exploring the overworld, you can recruit allies, procure equipment and items, and make preparations while liberating towns. Various quests and events will occur along the way, but it is up to the player to decide in what order and how to complete them, so depending on the situation of the troops […], you may sometimes have to avoid them or postpone them.”
On that be aware, Vanillaware expects gamers to roll credit at 50 hours, however completionists can anticipate upwards of 100.
I’m not fully bought on the fight and exploration, however that’s as a result of I haven’t but performed it for myself. It seems fascinating from a mechanical standpoint, and it’s definitely distinctive. If Vanillaware has made one factor clear in its portfolio, it’s that the studio has little regard for tendencies; it marches to the beat of its personal drum inside acquainted genres, even when they’re area of interest.
“Games that we find interesting from the bottom of our hearts tend to be from genres that are considered niche,” Nakanishi says. “So rather than intentionally choosing those genres, it’s because we just happen to like them. However, no matter the genre, it is meaningless if the customers who purchase it cannot find it interesting, so we always focus on ensuring the game we’re producing is understandable and enjoyable to play.”
Niche or not, Unicorn Overlord is a deal with for the eyes. Classic SNES RPGs of yesteryear encourage Vanillaware this time round, Nakanishi tells me, and the studio desires Unicorn Overlord to appear to be a type of video games however on a contemporary platform, full with a full suite of English or Japanese voice over. The artwork design, born from a single piece of idea artwork, is supposed to evoke that interval’s video games, someplace between retro and painterly. That piece of artwork can also be the sport’s title display screen. “Based on this illustration, the character designs for battle were decided, battle backgrounds were drawn, and the overall art style came together,” he provides.
All of this solely scratches the floor of what I noticed in that first hour of Unicorn Overlord gameplay. There’s loads of story crammed into it – a narrative not price spoiling right here for the reason that narrative is an enormous draw for a lot of Vanillaware followers – and an intense variety of menus RPG followers will certainly love digging into the trivia of. There are greater than 60 companions to recruit freely all through the marketing campaign, relying on the way you sort out the sport’s extra open nature of development, and plenty of nice music and visuals to accompany it if what I’ve already heard and seen is any indication. In brief, there’s nonetheless a variety of sport to uncover in Unicorn Overlord, and even after an hour and a prolonged interview, it feels as if I’ve barely wrapped my head round this tactical fantasy RPG expertise. With little time to go till its launch subsequent month, I’m excited to see what Vanillaware can do with its return to the fantasy style, the place its historical past started virtually 20 years in the past.
This article initially appeared in Issue 363 of Game Informer
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