Unicorn Overlord - Tactical RPG by Vanillaware

[wolfbane]

Completed this game just a few days ago. I really thoroughly enjoyed it. I tried the demo when it first dropped and I almost uninstalled when I saw it was a real-time auto battler lol. I was expecting Fire Emblem (of which I am a major fan). I decided to give it a bit more of a chance and ended up falling in love with the game. I think I did nearly every quest you can, save for a few treasure hunts. The interaction with the overworld was great, and every continent was fun and exciting. Standout continents are Elheim and Palevia. True Ending was pretty awesome, and I really enjoyed all of it. The battle map design did seem to get a little repetitive towards the end but, to be fair, I went out of my way to do every single battle in the game. The overall plot was fairly generic, but it worked well for me and I was engaged for the entire run of the game. Overall a solid 10/10 game for me, and I would love to play sequels. The Bastorias arc felt almost like a different game haha, but I still enjoyed it. This was my first Vanillaware game, but you can bet it won’t be my last. I’ve gone and bought a few of their other games and I’m excited to play them.

 

[Reinhardt]

melisandre and virginia(well, their class ability to dual-wield) buffed in new patch. also you can refight awakened amalia outside of arena in each region. she's not alone anymore, instead she fields full party consisting of national troops.

 

[Abu Antar]

I've been progressing slowly but steadily. In the northern continent, all +units maxed out, so not enough slots for all recruited characters. Getting some of the star iron weapons + some of the special weapons from the fights at gates. My most useful units are in the lower 30's, while I have some units in the lower twenties. In the coliseum, I'm at seventh place. Yesterday, I did some online gifting, and it went pretty well, except for one fight that I lost to the person who was ranked 13th in the world. Having lost, I still feel like my unit did decently, but I was just outleveled and outgeared. I won't spend much time on online figting, but it's fun to pit your tactics against the ones of other units.

 

[Jacob]

So uhh finally Vanillaware made a game with an actually interesting gameplay?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Unicorn Overlord has turn-based combat in which characters' actions are determined by a set of conditional statements laid down by the player beforehand, along with a real-time battle component during which the individual units engage on contact with each other resulting in that aforesaid turn-based combat, and these battles themselves are initiated as part of a still-broader layer. Meaning that it is drastically different from the action-based gameplay found in Dragon's Crown, Muramasa, or Odin Sphere, as well as the tower defense combat of 13 Sentinels.

Of course, at least three of those earlier games have good gameplay in their own right.

 

[Jacob]

Unicorn Overlord has turn-based combat in which characters' actions are determined by a set of conditional statements laid down by the player beforehand, along with a real-time battle component during which the individual units engage on contact with each other resulting in that aforesaid turn-based combat, and these battles themselves are initiated as part of a still-broader layer. Meaning that it is drastically different from the action-based gameplay found in Dragon's Crown, Muramasa, or Odin Sphere, as well as the tower defense combat of 13 Sentinels.

Of course, at least three of those earlier games have good gameplay in their own right.

Dragon's Crown, sure, in fact it's the only one of those games that I genuinely enjoy its gameplay. But I'm genuinely curious on how the "tower defense" (I don't think it's tower defense, more like rtwp tactics something) part of 13 Sentinels could be considered "good."

 

[deftonesrcool]

Release it on Steam and watch it sell millions

But noooo apparently they hate money

In time, maybe. One of the rare occasions I actually went out and bought a physical copy of a game for my PS5. Unicorn Overlord seems built for PC/Steam Deck more than it does console. Weird scenario.

 

[wolfbane]

Unicorn Overlord seems built for PC/Steam Deck more than it does console.

As far as I can see, Vanillaware has never released a game on PC, ever.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Release it on Steam and watch it sell millions

But noooo apparently they hate money

In time, maybe. One of the rare occasions I actually went out and bought a physical copy of a game for my PS5. Unicorn Overlord seems built for PC/Steam Deck more than it does console. Weird scenario.

They probably don’t see any point. They’re on the Switch. The Steam Deck has sold like a few million maybe, the Switch has sold 139.36 million. They’re a very small team, mostly making stuff specifically aimed at Japan, and they probably don’t want to spend the time and money reworking things to run on something other than a controller.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah who needs money, it's too much effort to make a control scheme for MKB in exchange for millions and millions of revenue

 

[mediocrepoet]

Yeah who needs to buy games, it's too much effort to buy a game in the format its released on or even figure out how to pirate properly in exchange for millions and millions of games without loading your rig up with more viruses than a Chechen whore.


Wait, what?

 

[Cyberarmy]

Yeah who needs money, it's too much effort to make a control scheme for MKB in exchange for millions and millions of revenue

I played it with mouse and keyboard already

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah who needs money, it's too much effort to make a control scheme for MKB in exchange for millions and millions of revenue

I played it with mouse and keyboard already

Me too

 

[Yosharian]

Jokes aside yes of course it's not trivial to create a competent port of a console game to PC. But the developer is throwing away money, not too mention prestige, fame, etc, by not doing it. This game would sell by the fucking bucketload on Steam. Not only is it an extremely hot genre right now, but it's degenerate as fuck which is highly lucrative on Steam.

 

[Reinhardt]

it's degenerate as fuck

you misspelled "wholesome". like completely opposite to "degenerate".

 

[Saark]

Jokes aside yes of course it's not trivial to create a competent port of a console game to PC. But the developer is throwing away money, not too mention prestige, fame, etc, by not doing it. This game would sell by the fucking bucketload on Steam. Not only is it an extremely hot genre right now, but it's degenerate as fuck which is highly lucrative on Steam.

Only on the codex do you get people whining about devs not doing what would get them the most money, and then whining the next thread over about bad design decisions, delays in releases or bad PC ports just because devs wanted to cash in and appeal to a wider audience instead of continuing to cater to grognards.

They ran out of money before finishing both of their most recent titles, with the CEO having to dive into his own money to keep paying people. You really think they have the time or resources to also simultaneously work on a PC version? The only alternative is them developing it post-release, but then that just means instead of working on patches or a new game entirely, which they probably enjoy, they'd be spending a significant amount of time just getting the game to the PC. And all of that is assuming that they have the technical skill, know-how and tech to actually do it, which is likely not the case either.

I don't own a single console, but I can respect them simply refusing to do PC ports, and more importantly, not letting their publisher outsource the porting to PC. Maybe the success of UO will allow them to do a PC port for their next title, or Atlus will continue pressuring them to do one, but I wouldn't hold my breath and I'd rather have a new Vanillaware title sooner, or not compromise on quality, even if that means I have to play it on an emulator or might not be able to play it myself at all. Whatever their reasoning, "chasing easy money" is a trap many a dev has fallen into and it has lead to shovelware, the decline of gaming in general, and shitty business practices like year-long early access, MTX and a bunch of other dogshit developments.

 

[Jaedar]

They ran out of money before finishing both of their most recent titles, with the CEO having to dive into his own money to keep paying people. You really think they have the time or resources to also simultaneously work on a PC version? The only alternative is them developing it post-release, but then that just means instead of working on patches or a new game entirely, which they probably enjoy, they'd be spending a significant amount of time just getting the game to the PC.

This is flawed reasoning, it's assuming that it's a zero sum game. The original argument is that if they made a PC port, they would recoup the investment massively. More money = more time to develop the next game, possibility to hire more people to do it faster. And less odds of running out of money.

Fromsoft was also quite reticent about pc ports as I recall, but 10 years after dark souls first came to PC, 30% of Elden rings sales were on PC (allegedly). No way it wasn't worth it in the end for them. Would vanillaware have the same success? That is the real question to ask.

(I think: probably yes)

Speaking of Unicorn overlord though, I got a bit bored with it and quit in the snow area. Too much RNG to keep track of stuff and model fights in my head, so I just look at the combat preview. And I also found myself using fewer and fewer squads, and relying more on doomstacking the good unique units/items. Last few fights felt more like shepherding my weak formations so they can leech some xp, rather than any kind of tactical challenge.

 

[Saark]

This is flawed reasoning, it's assuming that it's a zero sum game. The original argument is that if they made a PC port, they would recoup the investment massively. More money = more time to develop the next game, possibility to hire more people to do it faster. And less odds of running out of money.

You may call it flawed reasoning, yet you fail to engage with any of the points I made beyond the financial one. Is it likely that a PC release would bring in more money? Absolutely. Are they capable of doing so? Unlikely. Are they willing to let their publishers outsource it? No.

Clearly Vanillaware values their ability to have complete creative control over their products very highly, to the point where they continue making games that most people would agree are incredibly niche and unlikely to sell in high quantities. Yet they keep doing it. Clearly money isn't the prime motivator for them, consequently the entire "but they'd make so much more money" argument isn't as strong an argument either. They could release games "unfinished" instead of dipping into savings, cut down on QA before release or do any number of things that would be more fiscally sound decisionmaking. But they're not, and I would argue that their stance on not compromising on any of these matters is part of what makes their games stand out.

I could easily see that they do not want to put any of their current staff to do anything but work on their current project, instead of spending weeks if not months training before finally porting games to PC. And maybe they're not interested in bringing somebody in whose main responsibility would be porting the game either, since they're not actually adding value to the creation of the game, they'd just add value to the company. Would it bring in more revenue? Potentially. Would it actually increase profits? Probably, but there's no real evidence to support (or refute) that. Will that math be favorable for them in the end considering they have to either expand staff, spend more time before releasing games or compromise on game quality? I don't know, and I'm guessing a company that is already working from release to release barely being able to finish before going bankrupt, isn't willing to take that risk. Would you?

 

[Yosharian]

There's no real evidence to suggest that bringing the game to PC would increase profits? I think you have brain damage.

 

[flyingjohn]

The only reason they aren't making a PC version is because the CEO hates PC. Making a Xbox version and not a PC version for a Japanese game is just pure stupidity.
But it is his studio, so he can do whatever stupid decisions he wants to.

 

[Jaedar]

I don't know, and I'm guessing a company that is already working from release to release barely being able to finish before going bankrupt, isn't willing to take that risk. Would you?

By that logic, they should just shutter the whole company. It's more of a financial risk to make a new game than to port the existing one to PC (probably). The argument is pc port -> more money -> financial security -> more time in total to polish their next release. You do really seem to operate under the assumption that all this extra money would just line the pockets of some exec, so that making a PC port would be net loss in manpower for the next game. And yeah, under that assumption a pc port would be bad. But it's a dumb assumption, so I would suggest you drop it or try to convince me that it is true.

As for risks: It is highly unlikely that teetering on extinction between every release is fun, and it does also mean that if one of your games fail you have no chance to recover. They might succeed on their next game, and the next. But how many times would you really want to roll the dice? Broadening their market by releasing on pc (as opposed to by making more mainstream titles) seems like a good alternative to just hoping you never roll poorly before hitting your first real jackpot.

Your only point beyond the financial one seems to be "but they don't like working with pc, let them cook!". And well, maybe they do just hate PC with a passion and it would crush their spirits to release on PC, a violation of their entire creative vision. But that seems unlikely compared to their management just being old school japanese who don't see PC as a viable release platform for non-factual reasons.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't know, and I'm guessing a company that is already working from release to release barely being able to finish before going bankrupt, isn't willing to take that risk. Would you?

By that logic, they should just shutter the whole company. It's more of a financial risk to make a new game than to port the existing one to PC (probably). The argument is pc port -> more money -> financial security -> more time in total to polish their next release. You do really seem to operate under the assumption that all this extra money would just line the pockets of some exec, so that making a PC port would be net loss in manpower for the next game. And yeah, under that assumption a pc port would be bad. But it's a dumb assumption, so I would suggest you drop it or try to convince me that it is true.

As for risks: It is highly unlikely that teetering on extinction between every release is fun, and it does also mean that if one of your games fail you have no chance to recover. They might succeed on their next game, and the next. But how many times would you really want to roll the dice? Broadening their market by releasing on pc (as opposed to by making more mainstream titles) seems like a good alternative to just hoping you never roll poorly before hitting your first real jackpot.

Your only point beyond the financial one seems to be "but they don't like working with pc, let them cook!". And well, maybe they do just hate PC with a passion and it would crush their spirits to release on PC, a violation of their entire creative vision. But that seems unlikely compared to their management just being old school japanese who don't see PC as a viable release platform for non-factual reasons.

It's not like games materialize from the ether. They almost certainly have no PC programming expertise and devs almost always complain about developing for multiple system specs instead of one solid one per console. So they have no personnel for it and would have to develop that skill set as an organization over time which would also detract from actually developing whatever they're working on.

Could it make financial sense? Sure. But Saark's right - this doesn't seem to be their motivating factor outside of doing what they need to do to make a living while focusing on what they like to do. Their games are artistically sound and well presented, but a lot of the actual gameplay elements are almost bizarre at times and basically never in tune with what the industry is doing or what the trends show as popular or profitable. For that, you'd have shit mills like Activision, EA, or (back in the day) Acclaim.

 

[Jaedar]

It's not like games materialize from the ether. They almost certainly have no PC programming expertise and devs almost always complain about developing for multiple system specs instead of one solid one per console. So they have no personnel for it and would have to develop that skill set as an organization over time which would also detract from actually developing whatever they're working on.

It is my understanding that the current gen consoles (with the possible exception of the switch) are very close to a normal PC in terms of developing games. And they're already releasing on 5 different platforms, so them not having an organization that could handle a 6th seems unlikely.

They would have to redesign the ui to play nice with a mouse and keyboard though. But well, it took fromsoft 3 tries before they made a pc port that wasn't shite to control with m+kb, and it seems to have turned out well for them.

The only reason they aren't making a PC version is because the CEO hates PC. Making a Xbox version and not a PC version for a Japanese game is just pure stupidity.
But it is his studio, so he can do whatever stupid decisions he wants to.

You have a source for that? Would be interesting to read.

 

[flyingjohn]

They would have to redesign the ui to play nice with a mouse and keyboard though

Actually they wouldn't. A lot of Japanese PC ports don't support keyboard and mouse. And they implement controller exclusively through STEAM, so even less programming.

You have a source for that? Would be interesting to read.

None. But their first game was a PC mmo that had hellish development. Maybe the experience jaded him enough to avoid PC altogether.

 

[Jaedar]

Actually they wouldn't. A lot of Japanese PC ports don't support keyboard and mouse. And they implement controller exclusively through STEAM, so even less programming.

Huh, didn't know that. I would assume there would be a major outcry and lots of negative reviews from that.