Unicorn Overlord

Promotional art for Unicorn Overlord.

Liberate your kingdom, Reclaim your destiny

Unicorn Overlord is a story heavy tactical role playing game. The game features many elements of turn based strategy games, while incorporating real time elements for an interesting fusion of gameplay.

When Prince Alain of Cornia is seven years old, his mom Queen Illenia makes Last Stand after most of her subordinates betrayed her, aligning themselves by the betrayer Valmore, who after killing her renames himself Emperor Valerius, while calling himself the restorer of the ancient Zenorian Empire. Alain manages to escape the royal palace of Cornia with the help of Josef, the knights' captain, and they take refuge in the island of Palevia, where he is raised and trained to eventually try to retake the throne.

The plot follows Alain and his companions, ten years later. Emperor Valerius has overtaken the continent and, surprisingly, sends troops to Pavlevia, shocking Josef, who never expected him to guess that Alain was there. Regardless of that, Alain and his comrades fight the force sent by Valerius and defeats them, and discover Valmore has mind control powers. However, that mind control can be undone by the ring given to Alain by his mother just before she died, the ring of Unicorn, which seems to have some relation to the Crystal Dragon Jesus that Cornians worship, the Unicorn.

It was developed by Vanillaware and published in 2024. It released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and Series S game consoles.

It has a webpage on the Atlus website here. Compare the story and themes with games from the Fire Emblem series, though the strategic gameplay has little in common.

Directed by Takafumi Noma. Published in Japan by Atlus (a subsidiary of Sega) and in the rest of the world by Sega itself.

Tropes used in Unicorn Overlord include:
  • Action Girl: Many, such as Virginia, Monica, or Berengaria.
  • Action Prologue: The prologue features Queen Illenia making a Last Stand against Valmore.
  • All Deserts Have Cacti: Cacti can be seen in the battle view during some fights in the deserts of Drakenhold.
  • Back From the Brink: Nearly the entire map is under enemy control at the start of the game.
  • Battle Intro: One often accompanies a fight with important characters. If the player fields certain plot relevant characters, the boss may get a quip back.
  • Beneath the Earth: The elves have an underground city in the northwest of their country.
  • Blade of Fearsome Size: Queen Illenia wields a quite wide blade, which is about half her height.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Hodrick has magic used against him to press him into service against the Empire, bending his otherwise firm loyalty to fight against Alain.
  • Broken Bridge: Several literal broken bridges exist in the map, restricting areas until the player gets them repaired.
  • Bubblegloop Swamp: The swamp with the two witch villages matches this trope.
  • Color-Coded Armies: Blue for friendlies, red for enemies, green for friendly allies, and yellow for hostile third parties.
  • Commanding Officer Powers: Characters selected to be the leader of their group can give a bonus to the group as a whole. More generally, a leader that flies will enable the whole group to fly with them.
  • The Conqueror: Valmore explains to Queen Illenia that he is not just after her throne, but all thrones as a means of achieving unity.
  • Crapsack World: The rule of Galerius has not been kind to the world, and bandits and the downtrodden are frequently encountered.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: In a clearly Christian inspired Cathedral, Priestess of the Palevian Church Scarlett gives an Expy of the Lords Prayer to the guardian Unicorn and the Holy Mother. Shortly thereafter, she calls the Cathedral the house of the Heavenly father.
  • Damsel in Distress: Scarlett is taken by Renault after landing in the port.
  • The Emperor: Valmore becomes Emperor Galerius.
  • The Empire: Galerius forms one through conquest.
  • Experience Booster: The item Chloe's Charm booses the amount of experience earned in battle by 30 percent.
  • Experience Points: Earned by characters through fighting or through using certain items.
  • Fiery Redhead: Lex offers a male example, having an energetic personality with vivid red hair.
  • Gainaxing: A lot of female characters unless they're wearing firm armor, even fully-dressed ones. The first character the player will likely notice is the sorcerer on Ilenia's party, though it's more notable with Scarlett, that is wearing a normal dress.
  • Geo Effects: Some terrain may slow units down or only be navigable by fliers.
  • Harder Than Hard: Beyond Normal difficulty is "Tactical" difficulty, and beyond that is "Expert" difficulty.
  • Heroic Dog: Lex and Alain reminisce about the dog Cape when they visit her grave in a rapport. She died to a bandit's knife while she protected a young Lex.
  • The High Queen: Queen Illenia makes a last stand with dignity, facing her enemy head on rather than running.
  • In-Universe Game Clock: Mostly used for aesthetics, though it does affect some things, such as when certain merchants are available to the player.
  • Kissing Cousins: One of the possible love interests for Alain is his cousin Virginia.
  • La Résistance: The intro makes it clear that some resistance continued against the rule of Emperor Galerius.
  • Les Collaborateurs: Galerius makes use of these, frequently by Brainwashing them, but often through more mundane means.
  • Last Stand: Queen Illenia makes one against the treasonous Valmore in the prologue. The end result isn't shown, though Valmore stands before the throne at the end of the prologue.
  • Medieval European Fantasy: Generic, but the intro suggests the units and locations are inspired by European warfare and architecture.
  • Mini Game: After making enough progress in a region, players can find a quarry and play a mining mini game.
  • Missing Mom: Illenia sets herself up to be one to Alain in the intro, sending him off with Josef.
  • Necromancer: Baltro is one, resurrecting the corpses of the fallen to fight for him in his last stand in elvish lands.
  • Never Found the Body: Valmore's killing blow against Ilenia or her body are never seen, but our heroes and many others assume she is dead.
  • Obviously Evil: Valmore's armor only let see you see his bright yellow eyes and has goat-like horns protuding from his helmet, making him look outright demonic, what is even more aggravating given the obvious christian-like nature of the religion of the Cornians.
  • Our Angels Are Different: These exist in the game as Winged Humanoids.
  • Our Elves Are Better: An elvish land is featured in the game.
  • Port Town: Palevia Harbor is a port town encountered in the early game.
  • Rare Candy: The item Miracle Fruit raises a character's level by one when used.
  • Real Time with Pause: A key gameplay mechanic used in battles to make coordination possible.
  • Reckless Sidekick: Lex gets reckless when scouting early on, requiring Josef to rescue him. Following this Josef assigns Chloe to mind him.
  • Scenery Porn: The background art is quite well done, offering plenty of eye candy.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Part of the land of Drakenhold is this.
  • Smoke Out: Can be done by using a smoke bolt with an Arbalist.
  • Tagline:

Liberate your kingdom, Reclaim your destiny

  • Time Skip: One happens after the prologue, allowing Alain to grow up and for the events setting up the story after the prologue to take place.
  • Timed Mission: Battles take place on a timer, shown in the upper middle of the screen.
  • Unicorn: Important to the lore of the in game religion.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Alain has light blue hair.
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