Grace Horizon

I just completed my third playthrough of Unicorn Overlord, on the unlockable ultra-hard difficulty. Since I played it three times, you may safely assume I like this game. :-) General thoughts, as I move on:

• The story and setting are pretty generic, but they’re competently done. I’d say they’re the weakest part of the game, and if the weakest part of your game is competent that says good things about the overall experience.
• On the other hand, the gameplay is quite good. I didn’t find myself getting tired of trying out different unit builds or figuring out how to pick apart enemy positions even after about 230 total hours of play. I really appreciate the sheer variety of viable unit builds. Of note, I relied on one particular lead unit with Prince Alain for most of the really hard battles in my Normal and Expert playthroughs, so I deliberately never made that unit this time; although I had some misgivings, it turned out okay in the end, even in the hardest missions.
• But the surprise standout of the game is the character writing. Even after my first playthrough I was pleasantly surprised that the writers managed to make 50+ named story characters memorable enough that I could keep track of who they were and their notable traits. But my impression of it has only improved since then — the characters stay interesting on repeated contact, and the little vignettes between them in their rapport conversations are very charming. Before I finished off this playthrough I spent an hour or two having people get to know each other at the tavern, and I count it time well spent.

All told, I’ve really enjoyed my time with this game, and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in tactics games, including people who haven’t tried them before.

Broke down and started a playthrough of Unicorn Overlord on True Zenoiran difficulty, the unlockable harder-than-hard setting. It’s starting out easier than my Expert playthrough, probably because I’ve gotten better at the game. Not too far away from the mission that was the only big difficulty spike for me; we’ll see how it goes in a day or two!

Got past the early game difficulty spike! Had a few character deaths but no full unit losses. Should be smooth sailing from here on.

Broke down and started a playthrough of Unicorn Overlord on True Zenoiran difficulty, the unlockable harder-than-hard setting. It’s starting out easier than my Expert playthrough, probably because I’ve gotten better at the game. Not too far away from the mission that was the only big difficulty spike for me; we’ll see how it goes in a day or two!