Unicorn Overlord - Finished!

Always wanted to play this, but after having bitter experience with Atlus releasing complete editions and asking you to play from the start despite the game being utterly time consuming, I held back on buying this until recently, when it was half-off on the Eshop

It was... very fun. Of course, I never doubted this.

I actually remember buying Tactics Ogre on the 3DS or DS and playing a little bit but never really was able to get into the gameplay. But this time I played through the entire thing, all characters and quests (except the hidden character which I learned about after going past that point of no-return). A good 70 hours.

And unlike Fire Emblem, which I hear these days have too much wandering around and less actual SRPG, 95% of this game was battle after battle after battle

The story was generic, but I'm not looking for some weird twists. A good old good vs evil is plenty fine. It's only a topping to the delicious gameplay.

And in a way, there were twists here and there on a smaller scale, such as the two that turned to the enemy side and, you know, the enemy's backstory is kinda stupid. They decide to invade, they do experiments on people, they get punished, they die, and then they decide to be ghosts that for some reason despite everything being caused by their own actions, decides to hold a grudge against the world.

Also, yes, the balance isn't perfect, in the sense that there are some broken strategies. That is fine. Even then, you still need to have some strategy. Most OP is Belengaria. Nothing of her goes to waste, great offense and defense, has a shield, Chases, and can stun in a line. Just really easy to use and splashable anywhere

I played on the 2nd-hardest difficulty because I've never fully played Tactics Ogre before, and it was fairly easy. The hardest parts are the early game, and then OP characters start joinging your team and it gets easier from there. The hardest parts were actually damage dealt directly from the map, which really hurt, and the archer/mages butting in on nearby battles, as these will always leave some damage done to your party and chip away at the health.

I have to say I really like some of the class designs. My favorite is the Shield Shooter. I love the crossbow cranking motion, which is rarely if ever depicted in these types of medieval fantasy games. Heck, crossbows in general are rare. And once they class change, they even have a shield. Looks great, but I had to turn off their guard passive, because they are not that tanky. Tanky enough to be in the front, but not tanky to sacrifice themselves for their party members

Of course you have stuff like the thick archer girl, the furry, angels in tight leather pants, elves in leotards, and so on.

But actually pretty down-to-earth and pretty cool armor designs too

Here are the parties I used. Only really ended up using these 6. Didn't really have much need for more, since you can always teleport back if an enemy pops up near your base.

And a lot of the new classes that join later on don't really bring much new stuff on the table or are more selective in use, so I just did not feel like switching out

But I think in the long run, I could have removed the Legionnaire. He just gets way too shredded the moment a mage shows up.

Waifu I chose to marry is Roselinde. Obviously, right? Delicious dark elf in leotard that likes flirting with you? Also really strong in combat? What else could you ask for?

2nd waifu is Melisandre, for being a funny and cute character. Her class isn't the strongest, but at least they look cool. Too bad the game does not let you marry a 2nd girl, even though considering the protagonist saved the world and he needs to rebuild the royal family, he probably is allowed to have as many mistresses as he wants

As for complaints... Hmm, two that I could not help notice were that

1. Class changing goes out the window in the latter half. Every class that joins do not class change. Sure, by then, you have so much resource you would just class change them immediately, but its for the feels

2. There was literally just one map with Fog-of-War. Probably could have utilized that a bit more, if you were going to implement it. The fact some units could hide in the forests only sometimes mattered when they were an archer/mage assisting their allies in battle.

Now, will I try again at the highest difficulty? Maybe. The game is time-consuming after all.