I actually didn't want to write about Unicorn Overlord again right away. Is that a funny thing to lead with? I have this thing about how blogs look and I like when topics alternate and shift. I thought I'd write about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's ending or perhaps finally write about the beauty I see in Heavenly Delusion. But Unicorn Overlord is on the mind.
(heads up that we're discussing spoilers.)
When I first wrote about the game, I said that the story was the biggest stumble. For a tale ostensibly chasing after inspirations that were quite political and grounded in material concerns, Unicorn Overlord slides into higher fantasy. There's some political frictions to it but those complications come hand in hand with higher level magicks that often boil down motivations to something simpler than many might prefer. In the game's defense, SRPG pioneer Yasumi Matsuno's been clear about how audiences should approach things: leave old expectations at the door. Enjoy the thing as it is. Which is good advice though sometimes hard since Unicorn Overlord invites comparison. Still! When you let go and allow yourself to enjoy the moment to moment writing, it's quite good.
yet it's hard to ignore the way in which certain magical elements intrude on the story. And while the genre often has stories whose final acts give way to gods and demons, Unicorn Overlord tips the hand early. But as I play more of the game and become aware of potential endings, this bothers me less and less. Particularly in the paths that take darker turns.
I am going to write about endings after all. I'm also going to be writing about player behaviors, open world structures, the rush to reach endgame, and the ways in which Unicorn Overlord plays with current structural trends. I think there's something interesting happening here. Something beyond a twist for the sake of replay-ability. In turning certain habits against the player and enticing them with the option to march on the evil overlord's capital from essentially any point in the game, Unicorn Overlord takes clear joy in turning maximalist impulses against hardcore players. The results are dire but exciting.
So let's break it down...
One of the core mysteries of Unicorn Overlord's story is the nature of the magic that allowed the bonkers evil Cornian general Valmore to almost immediately gather forces overnight to perform his coup against Queen Ilenia and delcare himself Emperor Galarius. The mystique seems to be solved within 30 minutes of gameplay as many years later her exiled son Alain accidentally uses his signet ring (secretly magical!) to undo brainwashing on some of Galarius' troops as they attack a port town. It's one of the key plot points that many people find disappointing with the game. I'm mostly among them. In turning to magical brainwashing, there's less potential for villains who have more complex motivations. Which isn't to say that doesn't happen but there's quite a few times where a battle conclude with Alain shattering the mind control on an enemy commander and recruited.
That's a bit deflating to the plot but as time goes on we have a few revelations about the nature of what's happening including the fact that we're not dealing with mind control. Galerius' army (he's working with a weirdo necromancer) is actually comprised of folks who have had the souls of the dead shoved into their bodies. It's a small tweak but one that opens up a few interesting beats including the rise and fall of Illenia's old court mage, who sides with the bad guys in hopes to resurrecting her own dead king, and an ancient history of conflicts stretching back in through the centuries and the way in which aforementioned necromancer is truly masterminding the conflict for mystical ends. it's interesting stuff even if a lot of the most interesting lore is dotted in the various shrines around the game world. but even with late game lore altering the player's understanding of what's truly happening, the decision to have many of your enemies be fellas with evil ghosts (albeit ancient and kinda interesting ghosts) shoved into their body steals some depth from the affair.
more interesting is an overlooked part of Unicorn Overlord's structure. you can explore most of the map so long as you are willing to brave the battles to get there. which means that you unlock a route to fight Galerius while exploring the first so provided you have spent the time gathering the resources to rebuild a bring to the capital or defeated the guards along other routes. with good tactics (or perhaps a lot of power leveling) you can beat the game without engaging with a great deal of the story. it's nothing new. there's been many games, usually open world games, which offer this pathway towards major confrontations for players willing to exert some guile. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom vaguely encourage this and that's part of what makes their speedruns so interesting. but it's also a general appeal of their worlds. evil is lurking on the horizon and if you want, you can run straight into the shadowy depths. this is something that even lesser games have adopted.
when I was covering Ghost Recon Breakpoint, I tested my luck by discovering the hide out of Cole Walker, the turncoat special ops leader portrayed with hammy abandon by Jon Bernthal. because Ghost Recon, while nominally a stats driven game, still works as twitch shooter, I was able to defeat him long before the plot drove me in that direction. i had to fight a whole ass cyber tank and do a fancy infiltration but I managed.
much like defeating Ganon prior to unlocking all of Link's potential, there was satisfaction in flexing my gamer muscles. these affordances lead to plot hiccups—Tears of the Kingdom will simply give you the master sword in the final battle and key reveals about the true nature of Light Dragon can be entirely missed—but they also offer enticing challenges. say what we will for open world games and their bloat, I think giving players this freedom is exciting.
which is why I love what Unicorn does.
yes, you are faced with a rewarding challenge to overcome if you rush to defeat Galerius but it mostly spells doom for Alain. you may show you're superior in terms of tactics and game skill... but are you really worthy of being the glorious king if you didn't liberate the land?
a key plot point early on is that Galerius kidnapped Alain's childhood friend Scarlett. the reasons are unclear for a while but much like any good child companion in a tactics game, she has a secret birthright ala Catua from Tactics Ogre. In this case, she's the only living heir of the pontifex at the center of UO's main religion. Galerius need her to break a divine seal on his power. this is mostly early game stuff. the start of the game encourages you to rescue Scarlett and this mostly culminates in Galerius getting what he wants. his power grows and Alain must now quest to further empower his magick'd unicorn signet ring.
but you don't have to do this. you can leave Scarlett to her fate and rush to the final battle. if you do this, you are eventually confronted with a possessed version of her. she's been taken over by the spirit of an ancient priestess named Norbelle and is pretty dang evil now. there's no way to save her. "the girl is gone" she informed Alain. Scarlett was not saved, she gave into despair. all the time she spent believing Alain would come was in vain. she is gone, save for the most final moments after you slay Norbelle in battle. way to go hero.
there's plenty to be said for the tactics genre's trend to place women to the side. this was true of Matsuno's work and to an extent it is true here. but some of that is placed into the player's hands. scarlett can be present for the majority of the game. it's not much work to rescue her. the game's plot expect this, placing her at the center of things as much as alain as time passes and her birthright is revealed. it is perhaps crass to turn her into a damsel and then into such a victim but SRPGs often contain such bad endings. the catch here is that they don't arise from a pivotal dialogue choice. the tragedy comes from the player being too eager to prove their strength, too excited to exploit the game's structure.
it goes further than this. without doing all the plot beats to power up his ring, he's denied one of the game's final choices. (at least as far as I am aware.) because remember those shrines I mentioned? well you you really should visit them to power up your ancient ring-a-ding to its full might. do this and the player can choose to either slay Galerius or use the ring on him. i've given enough spoilers already but killing him leads to more tragedy since Galerius' nature allows him to leap from body to body and manifest again. whereas having your magickal ring up to snuff allows for Galerius' true defeat. rushing to battle, even if you have the stats to back it up, is at odds with alain's character. it is at odds with the mythic role he is fulfilling as exiled prince with shining sword. and while Unicorn Overlord's high magicks often comes at the expense of complex villains I think this is one of the cases where it all works out.
this isn't a twist for twists sake. which is an accusation I might toss at a few story beats in spite of my enjoying so much of the journey. this is baked into the structure of the game. Overworld navigation is one of the more intoxicating elements of the game; moving from town to town and liberating them from Galerius' forces provides some very exciting blasts of tactical puzzle solving. the world is packed with discoveries. hidden weapons and legendary battles. side diversions like the Coliseum offer amazing rewards and recruitable characters. the game does expect players to wander but they expect them to do so as part of a larger quest. one where the hero travels the land righting wrongs.
offering the ability to bypass that dangles a different kind of heroism before the player. it is the heroism of the Gamer. the chance to show superiority. the chance to brag about how you gamed the system. but the cost is high. the path of the Gamer is not the path of the King.
the battle is won but the girl is gone. the villain is cut down and in the shadow of his bloody death, something else is revealed. something from which there is no coming back from. the prince kneels in sorrow and a shadow creeps into his soul. darkness gathers.
It might've been different if only the player hadn't wanted prove how mighty they were. because it's not about how much strength is in your word arm. it's about how much valor is in your heart. who the hell cares if you beat the game fast?
expedience is not the way of the King.
