I’ve played all of the big RPGs this year but one with a twist has me hooked

THIS year came straight out the gate with a number of excellent RPGs.

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth are just a few of the all-timers that have already seen success this year.

I was a little fatigued after playing so many lengthy games, but when Unicorn Overlord launched for PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, I knew I had to dive in one more time.

Unicorn Overlord has a gorgeous art style that will be familiar to long-time fansCredit: Vanillaware

Unicorn Overlord is developed by Vanillaware, a studio known for its excellent games like 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Dragon’s Crown, and Odin Sphere.

While this is also an RPG, outside of the familiar art style, it doesn’t share too many similarities with the studio’s earlier works.

Unicorn Overlord is far more strategy focused than these games, where you build an army to take on enemy forces.

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Each unit in the army is made of up to five characters, and there are over 60 characters you can find and recruit along your journey.

Each character belongs to a certain class, and each unit will need to be made up of a variety of classes if you want the best chance of success.

The classes all have a strength and a weakness — like rock, paper, scissors, but infinitely more complicated.

There are dozens of classes and it was hard for me to keep up with the intricacies of each one.

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The leader of each unit is the most important aspect, as some can fly to cut across difficult terrain, some get more powerful at night, and some will be able to assist from afar with weapons or healing.

Despite how complex it is, Vanillaware has provided a number of tools to help ease in new players to the genre.

There is an auto-equip option to give players the best gear, and difficulty settings that make fully understanding all the systems in play less important.

All of the strategy takes place outside of battles, as you set your army up for success so they can fight on their own.

It’s a very different system to the ones you see in the majority of RPGs or strategy games, and these differences made it feel very refreshing.

Despite my fatigue with longer games like this, Unicorn Overlord had me hooked, and after rolling the credits I dived straight into the post game.

Battles and side quests in the overworld were bite-sized, meaning that it was very tempting to finish just one more thing before ending my play session.

I’m sure many people are feeling the strain of so many excellent games already this year, but if you feel you have it in you for one more, Unicorn Overlord will not let you down.

If you want to read more about recent gaming releases, check out our South Park: Snow Day! review.