Unicorn Overlord Reviews

Unicorn Overlord is ranked in the 98th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Mar 11, 2024

Unicorn Overlord is a standout tactics RPG landing just when the genre is coming back to life. It's deep, creative, gorgeous, and incredibly addicting, with plenty to offer for those who want to dig into all its systems. The game may stumble a bit with its simple plot, tedious UI, and quantity over quality side character stories, but those feel like small issues in an overall impressive and well-rounded game. Great for newcomers and genre veterans alike, Unicorn Overlord is a can’t-miss title.

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Eurogamer
Top Critic
4 / 5
Mar 12, 2024

Vanillaware's beautiful art brings to life a staggeringly deep strategy RPG where building units is just as fun as orchestrating battles.

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IGN
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Mar 7, 2024

Unicorn Overlord is a visual delight that's brimming with creativity, and an absolute must-play for any fan of strategy RPGs.

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Mar 7, 2024

As a long-time TRPG fan, Unicorn Overlord is everything I wanted it to be and more. I suspect that some people will read this review and think that it sounds tedious, but that’s the thing about games that deliver such a focused experience: they aren’t going to appeal to everyone. However, by being so specific in everything it does, Unicorn Overlord ensures that those who do “get it” will be thinking of it fondly for decades to come.

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8.5 / 10.0
Mar 12, 2024

Even acknowledging those frustrations, I love the variety of encounters Unicorn Overlord presents and the seamless way so many interlocking game systems contribute to an overarching saga of magic and warfare. From beginning to end, the game feels crafted, balanced, and deep, without sacrificing approachability. Set aside preconceptions from the unusual name, and you’ll find an epic well worth exploring.

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GameSpot
Top Critic
8 / 10
Mar 14, 2024

Despite an uninspired narrative, Unicorn Overlord impresses with gorgeous visuals and engrossing strategy action.

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Kotaku
Top Critic
Unscored
Mar 7, 2024

But Unicorn Overlord is not interested in that, and frankly it doesn’t need to be. This is not a game that is trying to be a narrative masterpiece; it is trying to be a mechanical marvel, and it accomplishes the latter in spades. The endlessly inventive and incredibly well-designed tactical systems at play in Unicorn Overlord make it a thrilling challenge to tackle. It isn’t just a game that longtime fans of Vanillaware should pay attention to, it’s for anybody wanting to play the next great tactics RPG. Unicorn Overlord is the game you’ve been waiting for.

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Mar 7, 2024

Standing on its own, Unicorn Overlord is an excellent expansion of Vanillaware’s now-trademark visual style and its newer RTS mechanics, offering both gripping strategy and an atmospheric pulp fantasy world that you're going to want to sink hours and hours into.

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9 / 10
Mar 7, 2024

Even amidst a huge strategy RPG boom, Unicorn Overlord stands out. It's a smorgasbord of visual delights, intricate systems, and addictive gameplay loops that all come together to create a delightfully thrilling and deep tactical RPG. It's so easy to get absorbed into everything the game offers, and we lapped it all up. Vanillaware has long been known for creating beautiful-looking games with unique twists on genres, but with 13 Sentinels and now Unicorn Overlord, this developer should be on absolutely everyone's radar.

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9.5 / 10.0
Mar 27, 2024

Unicorn Overlord combines real time strategy with auto battling to create an incredibly unique game, and it also looks absolutely incredible.

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9 / 10.0
Mar 12, 2024

Vanillaware lives up to its reputation by giving us one of the best strategy games of recent years. It may not be perfect, but it borders on perfection slightly, offering us in the process an experience that I could qualify as sublime.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

Ollie Barder
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Mar 8, 2024

Overall, Unicorn Overlord is one of the best tactical role-playing games I’ve played in a good while. The tactical complexity is also carefully introduced in a fairly gentle and intuitive way. With its wonderful visuals cementing this as a definitive game in the genre and one everyone should check out.

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10 / 10
Apr 9, 2024

Unicorn Overlord's bounty of tactical systems, beautiful visuals and compelling medieval fantasy make it an early choice for strategy RPG of the year.

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9 / 10.0
Apr 3, 2024

Probably one of the best Vanillaware games, featuring an exceptional artistic style, a well-written story and captivating gameplay.

Review in Italian | Read full review

TJ Denzer
Top Critic
9 / 10
Mar 8, 2024

Unicorn Overlord might be my favorite game so far this year. I loved Ogre Battle back in the day. March of the Black Queen is one of my favorite old-school games. I never would have expected Vanillaware to capture that feeling so thoroughly and even add its own twists to make it all the better, but here we are. You get from this game what you give, and it constantly rewards you handsomely for overcoming its challenges. Between great tactical gameplay, a massive and robust cast of voiced characters, a beautiful soundtrack and art style, and a great story, this is a game no fan of tactics RPGs should skip.

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Mar 8, 2024

Unicorn Overlord is the strategy RPG fans of the genre have been waiting for.

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85 / 100
Mar 7, 2024

Vanillaware once again delivers a very special product that does not show signs of fatigue within a genre that has experienced a "boom" in recent years. Unicorn Overlord is gigantic and manages to stand out based on quality and ambition, although it could have spun something finer in some points in order to become a more original proposal.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Mar 7, 2024

A wonderfully weird console strategy game that's inspired by the past but forges its own very distinct legend, with beautiful visuals and deep but accessible gameplay.

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9 / 10.0
Mar 12, 2024

Unicorn Overlord is yet another standout game from a revered developer that sets out to innovate on classic strategy conventions. It achieves these goals with style and substance, resulting in a game that strategy afficionados should absolutely consider jumping into. While I don't think this title is a particularly good entry point for newcomers to the genre, this game is clearly aware of its audience and it plays to those strengths. Spectacular.

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9.4 / 10.0
Mar 7, 2024

Unicorn Overlord is incredible, a deep and affordable strategy game that resurrects and updates the formula of a divisive classic like Ogre Battle, dormant since the days of Person of Lordly Caliber. Beautiful to look at and listen to, magnetic and impossible to leave behind: it's all right, apart from a few minor flaws listed in the body of the review. They really don't make games like this any more, so don't miss it.

Review in Italian | Read full review