Unicorn Overlord’s Story is Hampered by its Simplicity | Bytesized
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- čas přidán 15. 04. 2024
- Elise Avery enjoyed Unicorn Overlord, but its story was too simple for its own good.
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Cursed problem. The story can't be allowed to develop because of the nonlinear map design.
Because the developers can't predict what stages have been completed and what characters have been recruited, they can't write every possible interaction of characters. And so, the Drakenhold characters can't do anything outside of Drakenhold, the Elheim characters can't do anything outside of Elheim, etc.
You explained that better than I did.
It felt really weird when I was in Albion, with all these leaders of other nations, and yet only a few characters from Cornia are taking part in the narrative.
Yep!
At first, the freedom was refreshing. But it absolutely comes at the cost of tight writing you might see in its contemporaries like Fire Emblem.
I think the issue is people are too focused on the overarching story with complaints, vs the individual characters. While there are still the broad stroke "it's ok because mind control" lines, a lot of the side characters had fairly unique backgrounds and motivations. The base story motivation is simply "liberate the world." That's the motivation. There's not really meant to be a mystery. But the individual towns you come to and liberate usually have a lot to them.
Yeah, I still enjoyed the game but was disappointed that it introduced characters just long enough for me to start to get interested in them right before their story was already finished for the rest of the plot. I'd have gladly had a more linear approach to mission progression (or simply had less recruitable characters) if it meant that the Drakenhold crew could have continued being main characters moving forward.
This is one of the biggest ongoing problems with my design. I need the ultimate gameplay for agency but I also want a tight and cohesive story. All on top of a limited time budget. Sigh.
I really enjoyed Unicorn Overlord. The writing is no more than serviceable, but what does motivate me to come back is the insane amount of customisation and means to plot your own course. There's so much to experiment with and grow.
Yeah, same. I definitely think this is the tradeoff. Here a really simple story "evil empire is bad let's vainquish them with the power of friendship" but you get to minimax, tweak and fully customise an army in a big overworld.
I'm really invested in some of my recruits. While they have no dialog. I just know where they come from.
@@sludgewave4786but the thing is, we know this isn’t a tradeoffwe have to make. There have been so many games with both rewarding gameplay and compelling stories. We live in a day and age where settling for one or the other is giving developers permission to skimp out.
That line is where you lose me. Permission to skimp out? Uh, okay. Look, if you only want to eat at high end restaurants with exotic ambiance, master chefs and only the freshest ingredients ... you aren't going to have a lot of options. Most developers do not have the time, talent, or resources and it's not "permission to skimp" it's deciding whether or not the spaghetti is good enough to eat here, even if it turns out they didn't make the noodles from scratch. Not giving them permission to make what they made is kind of elitist, Unicorn Overlord just didn't focus on that because they put their focus elsewhere. Could they have done better? Well, the video is suggesting it's a weak part of the experience. However, doing so would've meant something else being ignored and as such the fun of the critique is examining what we got and what it cost, not condemning the developers for not slaving in the mines to make a perfect game.
While I agree that a game's overarching story is generally improved when it provides intrigue for what will happen next, I wholly disagree that it's applicable to this particular game due to the way its narrative is structured and where it puts its particular emphases.
The decision to explicitly tell the player that "the generals defected because mind control" within the first 30 minutes of the game and adding that defeating the BBEG will "save the world" was supposed to remove the question of 'What will happen' from the player's mind, and shift the focus to 'HOW' it's going to happen.
Each of the 5 regions you explore complicates that question with additional details about who is actually pulling everyone's strings, whether people are even being mind controlled (spoilers: most aren't), what plans are actually in motion, and what the point of the conquest was in the first place. The question is complicated so much that by the end of the game (assuming you don't just power-level and skip to the end) "what is going to happen" actually becomes a valid question and source of intrigue.
Players are not supposed to be THAT interested in the main plot initially. It's just there to guide them to the heart and soul of the game that is its characters. Despite the game having over 60 playable characters, most of them get meaningful enough screen time to have a small character arc and make players care about them. This was in no small part strengthened by the game's generally strong dialogue + plotting, and the all-star cast of voice actors who brought them to life. The earned emotional investment plays off of the ever increasing gameplay incentive to deploy more squads, motivating players to try and use new characters in the gameplay and persistently seek them out. This gives players the mechanical and emotional interest to continue playing the game that is otherwise absent from the main plot initially.
In so many words, the main plot in Unicorn Overlord is used as a vehicle to drive a lot of smaller stories that can endear us to a large cast of characters, who in turn make us want to engage with the gameplay. The main plot didn't need to be complicated and wouldn't be improved by additional layers. I have my own criticisms of UO in a review elsewhere, but this isn't one of them.
[I also think it's a bit cheap to poke at this game as an example of Vanillaware's well-documented history of scantily clad women when it uncharacteristically has virtually none. (Likely due to UO's target demographic skewing younger.)]
The "how it's going to happen" isn't very interesting either. While some individual characters and interactions are cool, it's not a game where character motivations matter much, except for whether you have to fight them for them to join you or complete the battle for them to join you.
Idk, I don't think the characters make a good heart and soul because they don't change. The main plot being simple would be fine if it was a character piece, but it isn't. It just says "Isn't this character cool?" and then moves on.
It seems we just experienced the story differently.
I just finished Platting Unicorn Overlord last night and honestly, I think I was more exhausted with attempting to optimize parties and getting people's relationships up than anything. The story being simple fare felt necessary with how deep you could get in the unit/formation customization (I had so many accessories with Passive skills that scrolling through for stuff was a chore by the end of the game). That said, I did enjoy watching my main 4 teams clear an entire battlefield by themselves when I was done.
Anyway, solid game. I would romance one of those Polar Bear merchants if I could, but I had to settle for Bertrand.
lmao user name check's out
I get the thrust of video’s point, but there’s one thing I appreciate about the whole ‘mind control oo oo non-mystery’ thing, and that is that there’s a massive twist later regarding it that I found super interesting, and I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if the plot point wasn’t as quickly discarded as it was.
It’s a like the twist version of a brick joke. It hits way harder because of how long it took to arrive.
Was the twist super-mind blowing? Not really. Is the story the best thing ever. Not at all, but I am enjoying replaying the game with that twist in mind.
I feel it would have worked better.
Massive spoilers:
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So we know that the mind control is not simply that, but the spirits of immortal Zenorians inhabiting the bodies. And at the very end, Alain (the prince) calls forth those spirits before Baltro summons something worse. What if they characterize those dead spirits a bit more? They were all pretty bland, with just wanting to kill everyone.
I'd like to explore this a bit more too, like what if purifying them is sometimes the bad thing? Like they are a pyromaniac if they are purified, but a noble warrior if possessed? The elf boss had an interesting dynamic where she wanted some love ones to return to life.
I feel it kind of undermine all of it even more, because they weren't even responsible for their crimes in the first place.
I like how Renault's side, among some others, still explore guilt, but I feel it takes away more than it adds, honestly. Learning it confirmed the story was definitely not going to be the highlight.
Mind control can be used to reveal truths about the characters they're trying to hide. Kain in FFIV is the perfect example of this.
But if they were just puppeteered, even that is wasted.
Personally, I hate mind control stories. Just barely more compelling than, "the devil made me do it."
It's not just about Alain, it's about the people in the nations that he saves, and their stories. That said, one issue I did find with the characters, was that because you can liberate each nation in any order you want to, the game assumes each location is your first. So you can free a nation, have the story play out, and then for the rest of the game they are absent from all cutscenes, aside from report conversations. For example, I freed Drakenhold first, Prince Gilbert, a very important character, joins my army, and then plays no further part in the game's narrative.
That is the price of non-linear gameplay. When i realised that I could break sequence, i knew the smaller stories are what mattered in terms of writing, meanwhile the overall plot was just the path to get to those.
If we divorce story from gameplay, I'd agree the story is weak, but games are all of their parts at once. So the mini stories are wonderful since the main plot had to be open as it was.
I mean, the twist is your opponents aren't exactly being mind controlled ( spoilers)
They're slowly being possessed by the souls of a long dead empire that's trying to revive by taking the people living in modern times as hosts. Which is a pretty cool concept, in my opinion.
I feel like misunderstanding why Alain didn't immediately beeline for Scarlet and the several cutscenes he feels as if hes wasting time kinda hampered the reviewer here. He's not dispassionate; if anything hes incredibly passionate but knows with his lineage he must steady himself. He was urged by his confidants at the time that if he wants to save her; he needs a stronger force to actually do so or risk losing everything. Alain is naive but he's not going to sacrifice his on a wild mission. Hes not just freeing people from the mind control, hes restoring people's faith in both him and the fallen Kingdom.
I did understand this, but Alain is simply so reserved and well controlled that you barely see an emotional outburst from him that isn't incredibly reasonable. Like, "I have strong feelings but I must control them, and do it so well that my emotions don't actually effect the plot, I just say I feel bad" isn't super strong.
When Virginia goes off on her own, foolishly risking her life to try and get revenge, you understand that she really wants that. But Alain never does anything except generally fight Zenoira and help people, which makes it seem like his core character trait is just being nice.
Idk, I just feel Alain lacks character traits other than being a generally good guy.
It was pretty evident that gameplay was king. Theory crafting team line-ups and tweaking the combat settings is so much fun. Story was fine to serve as context for the battles, not so much as a "reward" for finishing them. A shame that the best characterizations of the cast is hidden behind the rapport system. Some of the interactions are really well written for fleshing out everyone.
After solving a puzzle in Doom Eternal that I thought I soft-locked myself into at first, I was annoyed: but then when I heard Samuel Hayden give more story, my motivation came back; because, yes, the story in Doom got me to play it. Because even though I knew of Doom and respect it for what it did for video games, I just wasn't interested in another shooty-shooty bang-bang game: but then when I saw that Doom has a story, I was like "What? Doom has a story? I thought it was just shooty-shooty bang-bang and nothing else." But boy was I wrong, 'cause even though I like Doom's gameplay loop now alongside the lore, I'm still fascinated by the fact that Doom has a story and just lore in general
After the story of 13 Sentinels? I'm glad for the simplicity.
Came here to say this
This the one
I really liked 13 sentinels :( but I am a sucker for sci-fi mysteries
I love UO for its gameplay but the as a fan of 13 Sentinels the story left me a bit unsatisfied. Which is on me for coming in with certain expectations.
Unicorn is my favorite game of the year so far.
13 Sentinels was already a very narrative driven game, I’m glad they went for a simpler narrative this time around. It helps makes the experience not too overbearing with how complex the game mechanics are. It was honestly a very comforting experience actually. Like being wrapped in a nice tactical RPG blanket.
If this were your first Vanillaware game I’d say it’s fair to be disappointed in the story.
Unicorn Overlord has all the pieces to be a great series. The art is just *chefs kiss*, the customization and in depth character management is just great.The irony is the game is so bog standard storywise, that the little tidbits of character interaction is amazing, but doesn't amount to anything. But I do think there will be another game, it did surprisingly well...
The story for me was a nice helping of fantasy comfort food. It never needed to be anything but what it gave us.
You can romance the owl woman :3
13 sentinels was the story game, and boy was that story amazing. Unicorn is here to give you an incredible gameplay experience which it did with flying colors.
Given how dense 13 Sentinels' story was, I was thankful for a simple fantasy story with Unicorn Overlord
Man, everything that was said in this video just made me appreciate the protagonist's motivation in XenobladeChronicles1 so much more. That game was so good in drawing me in and wanting to relate to the main characters
Xenoblade hits so hard
Dragon's Crown's character design is better than nearly all other games since. Change my mind.
I just wish the Sorceress's sprinting animation didn't look so weird.
I like Dragon's Crown, but if 13 Sentinels has similarly caricatural designs it would have looked ridiculous. The art direction they went with for 13 Sentinels was perfect.
As for UO, as much as I like the art direction, I do wish the designs leaned a bit more toward DC.
“Even scantily clad women don’t change that”… Noted.
And yet I noticed the character he chose to have on screen during this wasn't even scantily-clad (just the bouncing boobs).
@@TheColdOne Haha, yeah. I was wondering if maybe the person who edited the video was having trouble finding footage of said scantly clad women or something.
(An image of the witch would have fitted better here, I think. ^^;)
@@TheColdOne Yeah, it just had furries
@@joaomarcoscosta4647 witches, shamans, gryphon riders and the princess (elves and the cousin)
@icarue993 Don't forget the female Elven Fencer. And if you're into furries, the Were Owl and Were Fox were drawn with a little too much detail in their portraits.
Also, the number of women my friend claimed had "dommy mommy energy" in their character portraits was disconcerting. He was very much into Amalia and Hilda.
the game series i think they should have learned from most was Suikoden, which kept player motivation super high through war and political intrigue, by making it personally affecting, giving the main characters real stakes and emotional attachments
I get it. Honestly I’ve been taking regular breaks from the game since launch. I’ve only finished two continents in all this time.
The game is beautiful, and more importantly, it’s fun. But the story does not compel me to race to the end as fast as I can, which is unusual for me. I honestly think I would burn out pretty quick if I tried to force myself to binge it.
It’s not the worst thing to have a basic AF fire emblem plot though. Like I said, the game is undeniably fun, and I have no doubt I’ll still see it through to the end (eventually) and love every minute of it
"The answer; they were mind controlled."
Did you finish the Elf area that's almost halfway through the game? Because that's not quite right.
But it does not change much of the story either.
Mind control, possession
Potato, potahto
Yeah, I did. I don't think that substantively changes my point that the mind control saps meaning from a lot of the game, and the other characters who are on the enemy side aren't that interesting.
I like the idea of complicating the mind control, but I learned that fact and was like... wow I don't care at all, this changes nothing.
I also generally try not to include major spoilers in videos if I don't have to - saying a plot detail that matters for my point is fine, but if it doesn't matter I won't say it.
Rescued Scarlett as part of the free demo and I think making the demo timed worked against it. It meant that I spammed the ability that let you charge through an enemy without engaging which gets you through basically all the missions at reasonable difficulty.
UO reminds me a lot of FE7, where the story is there, and. It’s not atrocious - it’s not FEE - but it’s also mostly just kind of a framework for the game to happen. Thankfully, like FE7, the cast is great, and I got a lot of mileage out of them. It would have been interesting had it grappled more with the real cost of rebellion, however, or how rebuilding is a political strategy. 6:57
I love the game, but yeah, it really needed to have Galarius/Zeniora be a more present threat coming after you and fighting to retake areas you have liberated. You should have to fight all of the Dark Marquesses a couple of times as they go on the offensive against you.
I think writing a compelling story that hasn't been written yet without sounding like "all other" such stories is incredible difficult.
I felt the same way playing Fire Emblem: Awakening, I played through the game twice, but the story was just too ridiculous. I came back for the game play, might go back there after writing this comment.
Especially as fantasy authors have been, subconciously or not, taking ideas from eachother, from mythology, folklore, etc, for decades, if not centuries
I was actually on board with the story of Awakening... until you went to the other continent. Then it just kinda started to fall apart. Honestly would have been better to have the game focus on the war between Ylisse and Plegia, with Grima cult fights used way more than the last third of the game.
Originality is overrated anyway.
This story could have easily worked, but they didn't develop the characters or storyline enough for all the time and attention the game gives it.
@@Healermain15 I still wouldn't say they weren't developed enough. I mean, it was simple, but handled well
I think the biggest problem is one the genre struggles with as they are trying to allow you choice and freedom with large amounts of units. They try and give a little bit of flavor to all of them, but having that many characters means you won't have time to allow all of them to have space to breathe in your narrative. The game also constantly bombards you with introductions to more characters which takes away from developing the core characters you already have. This is balanced alright at times in the game, but not often enough for how many characters are introduced.
To your point about awakening, it has this incredibly convoluted plot Rube Goldberg you have to follow on top of a mystery plot to sleuth out and 70 characters to establish. As a result the majority of the characters are simply caricatures.
I think the way to avoid this is to reduce the number of characters, and if you want to scale up, allow players to higher mercenaries. The weird thing is this game does both.
hmmm... what if the story was separated into different campaigns? Best example I have is the Heroes of Might and Magic Series. Each campaign following a different set of characters (which occasionally overlap), and then they meet up again near the end for a big avengers type battle against the badies?
Have Alain as POV for corneria, and then he has to study or meditate at the shrine or whatever. Then he has to send his followers to handle the other problems arising (and act as supporting characters in other stories)
have your with and podrik go help the elves, in turn making Rosalinde as the POV for elfheim
Have the Knights of the rose go to Drakenhold to save Virginia, quickly making them and Virginia the focus for that story (and some of the other drakenhold people like Aubin if you spared them)
and so forth.
This would also help with my other problem, too many bloody characters. I spared everyone on my first playthrough and I just have a glut of characters I could not care less for. by better segmenting who I have and where it makes even the duplicate characters have a bit more meaning and makes them more likely to be used. (Oh look, now getting a knight in Albion is fun an interesting rather than "oh look, a 4th named knight...")
Thats kinda what happens, but I feel they should have leant more into it. My favorite section is Basterias, as its mystery and characters are pretty interesting on its own. But also pretty unimportant to the overall story
Interesting point, but I do think this video accidentally mistakes complexity with depth. A simple story can still be deep and compelling (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance), and a complex story can still be shallow and uninteresting (Batman vs Superman). I haven't played this game yet, so I don't know how deep it is, but it does sound more like you feel the game is shallow than that you feel it's too simple.
Hold up a game with 13 protags? Sounds amazing and epic!
Unicorn overlord is gorgeous and a fun game to play, but I've definitely not enjoyed the narrative nearly as much as their last game
They could have just rehashed the same story beats from Grim Grimoire and I wouldn't have a problem with it. It was a complex little tale. Such a shame its spiritual sequel didn't live up to its standards.
I have to wholeheartedly disagree. The main plotline is simple, and it gives room to the character-driven segments to develop. It's a satisfying gameplay/story loop that just keeps me coming back. Especially since those character-driven stories can sometimes be really, really good, miles above the quality I see in most Western-developed games. Even if the story is simple, the storytelling is excellent, and that's really all we need in a good SRPG.
And to say everyone who isn't mind-controlled is bad and should be killed...honestly gives the impression the reviewer didn't play the entirety of the game. A significant part of the playable roster is made up of characters who were enemies for their own reasons, who were NOT mind-controlled, and who can be convinced to join the Liberation.
In short: The game's story is not nearly as bland as this review makes it sound.
Idk I thought it was alright enough and I wasn't going into the game expecting some incredible story so I it didn't really effect how much I enjoyed the game.
I didn't mind the simple story. Simple isn't bad, but UO shows you all its narrative beats in the first 1/5th of the game, and then next fifth, and the next...
Despite that, I've put 135 hours in at this time, and still want to play more of it. I love finding and building new team comps in UO the same way I love building new decks in various CCGs, and I love solving each battle like it's a puzzle. I can see why someone isn't motivated to continue, but I can easily handle a middling story if I'm vibing with the core gameplay.
There's a story in UO?
Yeh. Cool kingdom gets overtrown by bad guy. Good prince survives. Prince gets kingdom back and all is well. The real unicorn overlord were the army members we got along the way.
I really enjoy UO, I found myself unable to put it down as I played through it. Sometimes the story is just an excuse for the mechanics. Some characters like Melisandre, Monica, Clive etc would have been nice to flesh out more. But as others have pointed out it would be hard to make the story too complex as you can basically go anywhere in any order and that would involve writing a crap ton of different dialogue flag which isn't impossible, but would have taken focus away from the other things the game does that are really polished.
So I admittedly haven't played the full game but, when I played the demo, my main motivation to keep going was to see what new characters I'd unlock and how they'd change up the gameplay and interact with the rest of the cast. I don't think that story needs to be the end all be all motivator for every game. After all the biggest video game franchise is Mario and all of its mainline games have paper thin plots
I agree. After the first handful of characters I didn't care much what happened to individual characters. Once I got to the snowy north I was pretty much fully checked out of the story. What drove me to continue was just how much fun the core gameplay was. It's a shame how milquetoast the story was but ultimately it is still my game of the year so far.
Now I wish they would port Muramasa and Odin's Sphere to the Switch or even Steam.
I'm gonna pay full price if I must.
I agree with what a lot of other people said online, that if this game had a complex story the whole game would simply be to much. This game is very mechanics based and those mechanics are incredibly complex so much so that people like me went the whole game not knowing every little system. Throwing a 13 sentinels style story on top of that would be complete player overload.
I think this is such a silly argument. 13 Sentinels is an outlier in terms of complexity, and no one is saying every game should be that complicated. People are saying that there is such a thing as being "too simple." The argument you're using could be applied to something like FFXVI to defend its incredibly lackluster crafting/gear system. I could use your argument and say "FFXVI already has a complex story with incredible spectacles and set pieces along with amazing graphics and a fantastic combat system, so adding in a bunch of crafting and gear management mechanics would have been just too much extra stuff getting in the way of the good parts." This by itself is actually a great argument for why there shouldn't be *any* crafting/gear system in FFXVI, but what you're doing is the equivalent of saying that it's okay to have a *terrible* crafting/gear system.
To go back to Unicorn Overlord, if you're going to have the forward momentum of the game be dictated by progress through a story, then at least make it a good story. In Palworld, forward momentum is dictated by a straightforward technology unlocking system attached to player level and a vague goal of beating the 5 towers. There are no cutscenes, there are no characters, there is no story. Palworld can get away with having a "terrible story" because the game is not *driven* by the story. Something like Unicorn Overlord, though, most definitely *is* story-driven. So if a major part of your game around which so much effort has gone into is just really poorly made, then how is it not a reasonable criticism to say that's unacceptable?
I don't need my games to have a story, personally. I love games like V Rising and Palworld or MOBAs or shooters, i.e. games that do not use story as a means of driving the player's desire to continue playing. But if effort is going to be spent on including a system in a game, then if that system isn't good, it should be criticized for it. I think it's really that simple.
@@TohlemiachFF16 is not even close to unicorn overlord in terms of mechanical complexity. But I conceded the fact that UO story didn’t have to be complex but it could have had more depth and impact.
@@tiagomain1409 yes, I agree, I'm just saying you can apply the same rhetoric and I don't really think it's a good argument. I think it's okay to just say "yeah, it wasn't that good" rather than turn that into a positive somehow.
@@Tohlemiach Very well put. I especially like the _"forward momentum"._
What complex about it? Its an autobattler. Even on highest difficulty you just oneshot enemy or chose another unit that oneshots said enemy. ZERO tactical depth.
I second the issue was nonlinear map design. The devs can't predict what order a player has been completing the game. That being said it would of been nice to see Zenoira strike back at places that were liberated. Give a sense of urgency and agency to the empire and if this was done in the later stages of the game the writers can make interactions of Drakenhold characters defending Bastorias for example.
Through I can understand why this wasn't done, game length and resources needed to do that has to be factored in.
This game was apparently quite expensive to make. It coming out at all is impressive.
Sold.
Agree completely with the criticism, the story is shockingly one dimensional and shallow.
I remember one of the reviews mentioned that UO feels a lot like gacha games without the complexity of gacha games. There's no reason not to recruit anyone, but theres not much reason to use the diverse units because the game is too easy (even on expert difficulty).
granted unicorn overlord could have been better with accounting for story developments, it would have to contrive everything to be about Alain then. Baltro was the one who could have brought Alain's role in the story more to the forefront by having him be the persistent rival, but that's not terribly interesting either. Cornia having Alain be at the forefront, Drakenhold be about Gilbert and Virginia and Magellan and Co just makes more sense; could Alain have been more involved? Yes! ...but that's not a flaw, it's a missed opportunity; when I see the Norbelle stuff, the map secrets, the build variety, and especially Vanillaware's history with budgets, I confidently say: this is still excellent. I especially like the first mission once you replay the game; seemingly monster of the day villains get a lot of extra depth and the world feels very lived in with only 2-3 extra lines of dialog each; elfheim was the best region by the way.
I love UO. The story is simple but the gameplay is amazing. That said, i want odin sphere available for other platforms besides playstation so bad...
Well, 13 Sentinels was basically a visual novel first with strategy game based segments second. Unicorn Overlord is a strategy game first and an rpg second.
I'm not excusing the writing or not saying you can't find it boring. You can. But they put their time and ideas into one over the other. It'd be great if they did both, but I find this is the way with Vanillaware games. Dragon's Crown was gameplay first, story second. Muramasa was gameplay first, story second. Odin Sphere, well, that one is good on both ends, in my opinion, but I feel they focused slightly more on gameplay.
"From then on, there are few personal steaks to the story."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Spoilers so don't read if you care.
I realized the story was going to be pretty flat after I was able to recruit the bandit characters I spared in an earlier chapter. I honestly thought the game was going to have them end up moving onto another town and siding with the big bads and show me my mistake in judgement and that not everyone is some redeemable character.
But no, the generic good guy option is always the best choice. Honestly, it even feels weird to say best. As far as I can tell there isn't any impact on the main story. All the choices you make in the game really just boil down to do you get to recruit a character or no. And by the time you near the end of the game you kind of have too many characters to care about and really just have your core squad all leveled and decked out while everyone else collects dust.
Gameplay is decent at least.
Great review. This encapsulates my feelings almost exactly on Unicorn Overlord. You are there mostly for the fun gameplay.
This is simply the case of having wrong expectations for the game. The right mindset for a game like this is "tinkering with the mechanics".
Unlike many other SRPG, this game offers a lot of customization and freedom to do whatever you want, go wherever you want, plus the big stage that is the whole of Fevrith. This also includes some roleplay elements too, where you really want to pair certain characters, but also have to cook a good enough strat to make them work. And for sure, the progression in this game is good enough to keep introducing you with new characters, new kit, new ways to play till the very end of the game. Everytime i get a new cool item or character, i always get excited to get back to the drawing board and cook some brand new teams with much different interaction and gameplay style. If you dont like that and just want to enjoy some great story, then this game is not for you really.
And tbh, i dont think this guy even gets the game's story. Ain't no way after finishing it and you still say *ahem* spoiler alert ahead................. the whole mind control thing is real. The big twist of this game is that there's no mind control at all, just people of the long lost empire trying to escape eternal torment from the Unicorn god. Many other big twist like Angels or Bestral are just byproducts of that empire can hit hard if you actually pay enough attention. While i do agree that the game can do a better job to grasp the player with its story element, but once you publicly make a video like this, please do some research first.
Scantily clad women can make a good game better, but they won't make a bad game good.
*flashbacks to "Oneechanbara"*
Never again, please.
EDIT: correcting the title of the game.
@@GayBearBro2 Oneechanbara Origin is surprisingly good though. 🤔
@@GayBearBro2Onechanbara Z2 Chaos is great tho
Testing
wow, it really is inspired by Fire Emblem! (
Simplicity is not a problem in storytelling. Romeo and Juliet is about children from rival families falling in love, A Christmas Carol is about a jerk who has three visions and stops being a jerk, and the Hobbit is about a short guy helping slightly less short guys rescue their kingdom from a dragon. These are all popular and resilient stories because the characters and conflicts appeal to audiences.
Also stories are not core to games. Tetris is an enduring classic and has no story. RPGs like Dwarf Fortress and Kenshi give players hundreds of hours of gameplay without cutscenes or narrative arcs. Many great games have had stories that were essentially "Save the world by beating a boss." If the mechanics are fun, and Unicorn Overlord's mechanics are fun, then the story is just icing on the cake.
I prefer it over Fire Emblem Engage's story. But the empire does seem pretty passive as you just roll over town after town of evil/mindcontrolled Lords who mostly patiently wait their turn to get their asses kicked.
I wish Engage had anything beyond its gameplay. Yeah, Fire Emblem games’s stories generally are not necessarily complex, but there is always something. Even in the decried Fates. You have literal stock stereotypes from multiple angles in Engage, and nothing further. It is not even that that is bad; it is that is very literally below any other Fire Emblem in terms of worldbuilding and story.
Engage's story was definitely a letdown; I'd gladly take a simple and refined story over a complex and messy story, but Engage couldn't even tell a simple story well. I do miss the simple brilliance of Path of Radiance's story.
I don't think UO needed that much more story complexity - I think the world building as it was was decent enough, maybe a few more scenes here and there about what life in each continent was like.
The bigger problem was the characterization for the main characters, as you've noted. Alain is about as interesting as as the average 2000's anime harem protagonist, which is to say, completely uninteresting. They had so many optional and interesting rapport stories written and none of that flavor was reserved for the main story at all. Chloe, Lex, Scarlet, and Josef are all done dirty by virtue of nonexistence. Josef especially.
The story is very cookie-cutter but I don't have any qualms because the tactics and strategy is just so rich and fulfilling. The overworld is fun to traverse as well and it's my GOTY so far, but I'm a RPG sicko so my views are quite biased.
I love 13 Sentinels for the story so I was really excited for a new Vanillaware game. When I heard that the story for Unicorn Overlord is ... serviceable at best, it really killed all my interest in the game.
Yeah, the story is weak, i wont argue against that. But I feel the main draw outside the amazing gameplay is character collecting and their personal relationships.
Sometimes, you need a character who is just simply good from the start, not to relate to but aspire towards. You know you know you can't reach that impossible standard, but just the attempt makes you a far better person.
That kind of character isn't even remotely realistic. The most heroic people in real life have lots of stuff they've done that they regret as well as plenty of character flaws, no matter if the public knows about them. If you're following a story of someone who's "just good", what on earth are you actually aspiring to be? Someone who is "just good" ? How does one do that? It's such a childish way of thinking. Real personal growth comes from struggling with your own demons. If there are no demons to struggle with, you're not really human. Even the Greek and Norse myths, which are full of larger-than-life characters who do heroic and inspirational deeds, are replete with characters with severe flaws who make terrible decisions.
There are only two types of humans: those who choose to fight their demons every day, whether they win or lose, and those who choose to give up and be ruled by their demons. The people who choose to fight sometimes lose, and that's why heroes rise and fall. But people who choose *not* to fight will never be heroic in the first place. You should aspire to be someone who chooses to fight every day. THAT is something admirable, not this white-washed Jesus-esque anime protagonist.
This is why the most well-respected characters in fiction are characters that are good because they *struggle* to be that way *and* often fail. Perfect people are not real and you shouldn't aspire to be one. Delete instragram.
I think you have a point, but this is an srpg where war is a real problem. It's seems toothless if you fight people who are clearly evil, because war is one of the topics where black and white morality shouldn't be the default
The gameplay keeps me coming back. And the fact most things are voiced is really nice. Nothing wrong with nice looking ladies, either. No shame at all in having curves.
A bit of a low-hanging fruit to pick to say Unicorn Overlord has a flawed and simplistic story, isn't it? That's frankly what the general consensus seems to be. I'd have preferred a critique that analyzed the effects of the story's writing, rather than just expressing what it failed to do.
The game sold me, not the story. Maybe the next story will work out better.
I mean, sometimes simple is better
I played it, I thought it was a good your first tactical rpg but it’s no fire emblem path of radiance
It would be nice to see more people be able to play Path of Radiance. It, like many critically-acclaimed-but-sold-poorly GameCube games, has never seen a re-release.
That said, as Path of Radiance is my favourite game and Fire Emblem has not exactly been consistent since Awakening revived the series, I can't help but shake the feeling that a remaster or remake would likely change things that should be kept the same (the artwork, the NA localization's script, etc.) and leave unchanged things that should be changed (the inability to save before fighting the Black Knight).
Agreed, this was my biggst grip with the game
I actually liked the whole reveal of what the "mind control" actually was. The story wasn't incredible, but I never lost interest in it. I wanted to meet the people in each new area. I was interested in their interpersonal relationships to the point I made non-optimal groups to hear them. I'm also not sure what you expected from the MC after rescuing Scarlett? Was he supposed to be a different person? Give up on what he was doing because he finished half his goal?
I dunno. Personally, as long as game is fun, I can overlook a weird or weak story. A story has never detracted from my enjoyment of a game. Poor gameplay, however…
For me its the opposite aslong the gameplay is not awful I can roll with it, but if the story/ characters is bad, I enjoy the game a lot less
@@griswo3272 totally valid. Everyone has their own personal tastes, and I’m well past the point of being a big enough d bag to shit on something someone else likes just because it doesn’t click with me.
@@SimuLord good point
I used to think this too... Until I played Octopath Traveller. The aggressively mundane & cookie cutter stories actually made me angry.
@@burgermeat9649 I’ve played some of the more batshit Suda 51 games that are absolutely insane and make no sense. I enjoyed the gameplay and just kind of went along with the story. I’ve yet to dislike a game that had fun gameplay but a lackluster story. Though a well told story can certainly elevate a gaming experience.
But scantily clad women!
I feel like they made this to cater to the traditional Fire Emblem crowd who have been very underserved by their home franchise recently with how much Genshin and anime in general are influencing that series currently.
I for one loved the simple story because it took me right back to those older games that I have so much love for
Also there are a lot of genuinely well written support chains so I think it’s strong character writing makes up for the simpler story as well. That being said not all of the characters are bangers…looking at you Jeremy
Weird argument, I don't see any Genshin influence in 3H, and UO is just as influenced by anime (just look at the artstyle).
The difference is that the gameplay in UO is a huge breath of fresh air (and real time travel really solves the issue of incredibly long battles imo), and the art direction and music are a treat.
Remember when Fire Emblem was about political intregue in a relatively comboluted plot? Good times.
I miss Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
@@Knoloaify Not talkin about Three Houses. More Fates and Engage. Idk if this makes sense but the anime influence on UO feels more mature (not that it isn’t silly or goofy) and it doesn’t in the games mentioned above.
@@icarue993 Fire Emblem has had moments of complex plots, but they are only ever moments. I would say that only FE4 and FE Three Houses actually have complex plots and political intrigue. And Three Houses was the second most recent Fire Emblem game. The GBA era is not complex, Path of Radiance is not complex, Radiant Dawn is a little more complex misunderstanding with evil puppet masters, and the DS era games are at basically the same level of complexity as Radiant Dawn.
I just gave up in Albion. The narrative did have a decent hook. I even enjoyed much of Drakenhold, but after that things really fell apart for me. After getting into Elheim the personal narratives fall off somewhat and the formulaic nature has worn thin. I do like some of the missions there but the reuse of so many encounter stories just lost me. Compound that with the issue of too many characters to allow the majority of them to breathe and things just fall apart. The gameplay balance is also a problem as some of the build options do take time and thought to balance. However, if you take time to work through some of these teams you can end up with some straight cracked teams that remove all of the challenge from the game. I would just autopilot through fights and that removed all of the strategy elements. This is a problem with most games in the genre these days. I think the only one that I've played that didn't run into this problem was Triangle Strategy. While that game has a bit of it's own things I struggle with, it has some good characters and interesting choices you could make to change the entire outcome of the narrative. That, and the strategy requires you to think about your setups before proceeding in order to get through the battle. If you fail, there are stakes as well. There are no stakes to Unicorn Overlord. That's its biggest flaw.
There is "Simple" and ..simple....
A simple story of good vs evil is nice like this one.. but... if it's too simple it's boring as said here.
I think this video misconstrudes some things and tries to stay positive. I think the Scarlet Example makes the best sense.. but here's the thing.
You can keep the simple loop and helping others.. but you know how good vs evil can be used more interrestingly?
"Show how evil the empire is." Like all the brainwashed people? Show them how they remember their attrocities and have to live with the guilt.
Show me why this evil empire is so evil.... heck... have a charater death while at it? Like during the mission to Save Scarlet, one of your trusty units "DIES" to serve your cause and saving Skarlet.
I think this is what you anted to say and write.. but.. I think in this case.. this video article isn't as strong right now. It feels like you want to say something or give suggestions but keep reigning it back. It feels like you have a nitpick but it can be seen as a problem...
They sometimes reemember. Specifically the guy that kidnaps Scarlett. His mind control self is super evil, but him trying to redeem himself (and in gameplay too) was amazing.
@@icarue993 Mmhmm basically all the elements are there no? Wich is why this video feels off.
the game offered all that tho. The guy even miss the whole twist of "the whole mind control thing is false" and the whole overarching plot.
@@MinhTran-zt9nz It seems clear I haven't gotten to the end or they did.
Yes, 100%. So much care was put into the graphics, music, and gameplay, which was enough to keep me playing... But the story basically heads out for a pack of smokes after you save Scarlett. It's baffling to me how "excuse plot" the main story feels.
I’m currently near the end of Elfheim, and I’m inclined to agree.
I'm not a hater, I'm really not, but I don't know how I always disagree with what this guy says. There's not one video I agree with. It's actually concerning at this point.
I'm in the same camp. No hate towards him, I just don't seem to ever see eye to eye with his opinions.
Not really just means you have opposite tastes
When he said he didn't like sexy characters then it was obvious he doesn't like most vanillaware
To be fair, I actually love finding reviewers that have a consistent opinion RELATIVE to mine. Be it the same or opposite - at least I always know what to expect of the game after hearing/reading the review, because I know how my taste differs from or aligns with the reviewer
I say take it as a good sign, it means you have your own opinion. Nothing wrong with it
I thought about getting my mom the game because the title and thinking would be a unicorn farm game. Saw a few screenshots and quickly realized not the game I thought it would be.
The art style looks like Odin Sphere.
it's because its the same artists/company.
Just to add, a lot of the resolutions to various storyline are more morally gray than just "it was mind control, or they were pure evil". That's just patently not true. It's not as simple as you're making it out to seem.
Also, it feels like you wanted a linear story progression but you bought a non-linear game.
I agree that the story is overall very safe and generic fantasy, but I don't always want a Vagrant Story.
I find it interesting that two of the examples you brought up, GrimGrimoire and 13 Sentinels, we both MUCH worse in my opinion. The only thing they had going for them was the story & characters, while everything about the gameplay was just tortuous. The overall arching story was super straightforward in Unicorn Overlord, but the individual characters were done really well (on top of the awesome gameplay).
This is just a bad review. A game like this didn't need the same urgency as the Scarlet part. You are building allies with foreign nations and to say that Alain doesn't care is wrong because he has a noble's disposition about himself.
As for your enemies. Monica, Clives former fiancee is an enemy and not mind controlled, none of the thieves band you meet in Cornia are mind controlled, Melisandre, and Tatiana are not mind controlled. The people who were mind controlled were part of Queen Ilania's royal guard. The only people to BE mind controlled are those in extremely influential positions within their socities. Whether they be royal guards or the royals themselves like Eltolinde.
The game doesnt need to always subvert tropes and archetypes. Having a simple evil villain and a cast of characters to enjoy can go a long way especially with our current trends in writing.
It's not bad review one is allowed to have different opinions and personally I agree, I am big on story and didn't find the story very excited to say the least
It's not a review though? It's a short video about the writing in the game, and how it's underdeveloped for what it needs to be.
@@griswo3272 it is a bad review because many things of what he said about the elements of the game's story is false. I dont know how can someone miss the big twist of "There's no actual mind control, and we are actually fighting the people of a long lost empire, eternally tormented by the unicorn god", but i guess skipping the story entirely and saying it's "not interesting" is ok
@@Healermain15 Except he gets multiple pieces of information wrong and the video is literally a review.
@@griswo3272 His opinion is misinformed and stupid and as such is a bad review.
I have no interest in these types of games, but this review is really well written! kudos for that.
Only criticism I could have is the slight muffling on the mic at times - good job, Avery!
Literally my only problem with VanillaWare's games has been the aforementioned fetish-level art of female characters, mainly in their later games. GrimGrimoire didn't really have this problem, nor did Odin Sphere. Muramasa did a bit, but it was tolerable (and the game quality and fun I had with it outweighed it all). Dragon's Crown is when it jumped up to 11 and the beauty of the art conflicted with the gross sexualization and overstylized proportions. I still 100%'d the game because I loved what it was made of, and the art outside of the female characters was great, but man... playing it in the living room felt like watching softcore in public. I haven't played 13 Sentinels so I'm not sure if that problem exists there, and the nature of Unicorn Lord seems like it will also be a lesser issue, but you can clearly see the traces of it still in the game's art design. It's sad.
I agree, I found the story so tepid I couldn't bother continuing. I liked the gameplay but the story just wasn't enough. Plus, the opening where the villain somehow conquers the world within ten years... that was just silly. Also, thank you for mentioning Grim Grimoire, that was a game I enjoyed for that suddenly serious story, going from Harry Potter to everyone just dying in horrible ways. It made the story really compelling.
Hey guys, I don't think he wants final fantasy levels of complexity, he just wants more compelling characters.
A simple story doesn't mean it's bad, it depends on how it is written.
I dont know if the reviewer didn't play the game, didn't pay attention or is just looking to nitpick but this the most pandering and lackluster opinion I've seen on this game.
Two references to the design of women while ignoring the design of the gladiators and other men in the game? All of vanillawares characters are exaggerated, it's a good artstyle and I'm tired of people with this ridiculous outsourced opinion like they are obligated to include this in the critique. Why did you reference this? It had nothing to do with the overall point of the video, the reviewer was just looking to score "easy" points with some nebulous audience that cant stand seeing women in games I guess.
Next to address the actual point of video, there's nothing wrong with a simplistic story but there ARE personal stakes throughout the game, just not always from Alain.
For example the first area the game expects you to explore to is to potentially save Alain's cousin! This is resolved quickly but as you learn more about what's going in you see Gilbert and Leah's dedication to saving their country.
Each area has a contained simple story with stakes involving rescue or protection or unlocking accent hidden magic or interesting lore of this world.
Genuinely just feels like you saw "mind control" and zoned out, didn't address the mid way twist.
This is sad, this a lazy and incompetent review that could have actually criticized some of the weaker aspects of a good game. Instead this reviewer relied on cheap tasteless "jokes" and surface level analysis.
Honestly maybe try something else.
I tried the demo, but the automatic battle thing really doesn't make sense to me. How am I actually playing a game if it's just playing itself?
It's no more automatic than Fire Emblem is. You're positioning your units and making sure they're equipped and skilled properly.
@@LordlyWeeb I don't like Fire Emblem either, though
George kamitani didn’t write this game that’s the difference between this and vanillawares good stories.
Actually unicorn overlord has a fairly complex story it just back ends a lot of its deeper lore explanation for what is really going on 13 sentinels style.
Eh, a lore dump near the end of the story doesn't make it deep, when everything else is pretty straightforward. Especially when there wasn't any mystery building up to it.
And it's not like said lore reframes the rest of the story like Nier or something... It starts with a paragon of justice fighting an unambiguously evil empire, and ends with a paragon of justice fighting an unambiguously evil empire.
Not saying the story is bad, but it is most defintely not complex.
I really liked this game, but agree with you on the story. They gave me a choice to save or imprison so many characters along the way that I felt sure SOMEONE would betray me at the end... Nope.
This feels like such a nothing-burger complaint. Sometimes people like simple stories of good vs. evil. There's nothing wrong with that. Also, 13 Sentinels' story was WAY too fucking complicated. I would hate Unicorn Overlord having a story that needlessly dense.
Here's hoping there will be an Unicorn Overlord 2 with a better story. The gameplay and art is great, they could easily reuse this combat system with maybe a few new character types.
Unicorn Overlord's sales are hampered by the fact that it's not on PC
The game is selling gangbusters, what are you talking about.
I wish all Vanillaware games got PC ports tbh. Would be very nice for replaying them, rather than having to figure out what console it's on and how to capture footage from it.
I loved unicorn overlords gameplay for basically being Ogre battle meets Fire emblem. I hated the fact thst it's story was about as deep as ogre battle for the snes. I was so bored by the end I had to push myself to finish it
A lot of things I disagree with here.
First off, you failed yourself going with the impression that she's important because she is a potential love interest. MC doesn't care about personal feelings. His duty is his goal, that's what he was raised up to believe. He takes others into consideration as to how he wants to lead his country. His friend being kidnapped isn't any different. Just sounds like 'childhood friend cliche' carried with you.
Secondly, the game already set its premise. There are some additions to what is carrying the story along the way, learning motives as to what caused the war to happen to begin with among other things. If the writing gets too deep it'd just be setting itself for failure down the road. What's important in a game as broadly arching as this is the drive of the characters within'.
Yes, the main story is generally basic. Yes, many fights early on are generally fight person, decide to recruit or execute. But the support conversations between the characters are where more of the gravity starts to shine. Especially after facing such a drought of character depth in srpg's ever since fire emblem awakening released, it's nice to finally have a multitude of characters that have personalities rather than cookie cutter cliche's assigned to them beyond the naive MC aiming to be righteous.
What keeps you going is the gameplay, yes, but the more time you spend reading the support convo's, the more they pull you in to understanding more than what's just thrown to you. It's some spice that's not shoehorned in, but is also encouraged.
It's a very comfy game. Also not sure why you finish with a note on scantily clad women as you display a gryphon knight. Is some leg a bit much or smth? Surely you could've shown the elven fencer, or the witch. Vanillaware always adds a touch of horny to their games, and it's honestly pretty light compared to its other titles.
This is often the biggest reason for me not enjoying tactics games. Of the ones I've played, the story is soso and the focus is on battles, instead of a nice balance of story, gameplay, and exploration like you get in good JRPGs. Don't know how you would fit good exploration into a strategy game, but I at least wish there could be more involved story elements in more of them.
I played the demo and was not a fan. Completely pre-determined battles based on unit formations? Wait, I’m literally just watching battles play out automatically? Uh ok… But anyway, I am grateful they offered a demo & now wish more games would do that as this one was overhyped for me
Atlus games always seem to fall into one of two camps:
-Either it's like Persona and stylish and narrative driven
-Or it's like Shin Megami Tensei and gameplay driven with only a token story.
This game wasn't developed by Atlus.
@@Knoloaify duh, want a cookie or something?
@@Katie-hj5eb Then why compare it to games developed by Atlus and claim it follows the same tropes? Yes 13 Sentinels was very much narrative driven, and Dragon's Crown was mainly gameplay, but Odin Sphere Leifthrasir had both a good story and good gameplay, and in this video there's the example of Grim Grimoire as well.
Vanillaware very much has its own dynamic.
@@Knoloaify if you say so. This is still an Atlus game in my opinion. It's very naive to assume they had no influence over the development.
@@Katie-hj5eb Just stop liking your own comments, If you made a mistake just admit it.