Unicorn Overlord

Unicorn Overlord is a tactical role-playing game in which players take on the role of exiled prince Alain as he leads the Liberation Army in a campaign across the fantasy realm of Fevrith. During exploration, the player guides Alain across an overworld to enter towns, use services such as blacksmiths and merchants to outfit his army, and engage in story or optional battles. In areas not controlled by Alain or his allies, enemies represented by sprites also wander the overworld. All the characters, locations and sprites are displayed using 2D art.

The number of units that can be deployed during combat sections depends on a resource called Valor, which can be earned by completing battles. The overworld is freely explorable, allowing players to tackle some events in a different order. Towns also include side quests which require the player to gather materials and events where Alain can improve his relationship with a character. During the campaign, new characters either join as part of the storyline, or can be recruited. Some possible recruits are former enemies, with the player's choice to either spare or kill them impacting future story events.

General Valmore of the kingdom of Cornia leads a rebellion against the ruling monarch Queen Ilenia. With most of the army siding with Valmore, Ilenia has her personal guard Josef smuggle her son Alain as well as the symbol of Cornian royalty, the Ring of the Unicorn, to safety. Josef reluctantly follows Ilenia's orders and flees as Ilenia makes her last stand against Valmore to buy them time to escape. Ten years later, Valmore—renaming himself Galerius—has reformed the ancient Zenoirian Empire and subjugated surrounding nations: Drakenhold, an old enemy of Cornia; the elvish land of Elheim; Bastorias land of the hybrid Beastmen; and Albion, a religious nation controlled by angels.

Alain has been raised by Josef on the remote island of Palevia alongside the local priestess Scarlett to eventually take leadership of the Liberation Army. When Zenoiran forces attack the island, Alain takes up arms and successfully protects the local populace. He finds out that the Ring of the Unicorn has the power to dispel Galerius's mind control magic, which Galerius had been using to turn many to his side. Accepting his role as the leader of the Liberation Army, Alain travels back to Cornia to take charge, but Scarlett is kidnapped by Galerius for an unknown purpose.

The design concept for Unicorn Overlord was created by Takafumi Noma of Vanillaware in 2014, almost exactly ten years prior to release. Noma had been approached by company founder George Kamitani after production ended on Dragon's Crown (2013) to create a new fantasy-themed video game. With Kamitani's encouragement, Noma led the project and acted as director, character designer, and lead programmer. The designer was Wataru Nakanishi, while Akiyasu Yamamoto of Atlus produced.

Production moved slowly due to Vanillaware working in parallel on other projects, including ports of earlier titles and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Noma needed to personally join the 13 Sentinels team to help with programming. Near the game's release, Kamitani noted that the game's production drained Vanillaware's funds and he had to continue funding the project out of his own pocket, a common occurrence with the studio's projects. Noma commented that the team were able to incorporate almost everything they wanted into the final product, though it went through multiple large-scale redesigns to the point that each felt like its own game.

Reviewers for Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu positively noted the expansive scope of the story and interactions between Alain and other characters. Game Informer's Matt Miller enjoyed the narrative despite noting the use of genre tropes in the story and characters. Kaan Serin of Eurogamer noted the derivative nature of the narrative, but felt character vignettes expanded and fleshed out the setting. Joshua Lindquist of RPGFan enjoyed the side stories more than the main plot, though he positively noted that later plot twists relieved some concerns about the generic premise.

IGN's Eric Zalewski noted the generic premise and some uneven writing across the five main story arcs, but enjoyed the narrative's grey morality and character side stories. Heidi Kemps, writing for GameSpot, described the unoriginality of the narrative as the game's main flaw. Alana Hagues of Nintendo Life had similar feelings, though noted the later narrative elements were stronger.