Unicorn Overlord: ogre battle lives for ever more

[Bongo]

It ramps up pretty gradually, and a good thing too, since there's a lot to wrap your head around. The structure of the early missions is very pedagogically satisfying, I thought: the critical path sends you to a battle against armored enemies, whom you can't beat without a new ally from one of the nearby side missions.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Ogre Battles don't have much in the way of direct tactical control - it's all about unit composition and grand strategy. Personally, I've always wished for a touch more of direct player involvement in combat, but it's hard to do that without sabotaging the "feel" of commanding multiple armies or adding unwanted micromanagement.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I didn’t let the evil bandit guy go. Did I goof?

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Answer to above: Basically anyone you spare either joins your team or isn't a problem later. The few exceptions sometimes join your team later on too. I think there are a couple you fight. But no penalties that I recall.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Spoiler: Spoilers

Letting mass murderers get away with things for the best outcome is a very noticeable thing in Japanese media, isn’t it?

 

[Destil]

I'm giving this a try now that I've finished Dragon Quest III.* Played about 4 hours into the demo.

My main concern from what I had read/heard about the game was that giving the Opinion Leader a magic maguffin that removes mind control from enemies would kill one of the best thing about Ogre games: that everyone is generally a person. And I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong, but I can enjoy a Vanillaware fairy tail well enough.

Gameplay has its claws in me, though. Failed the third mission (well the one I went to third) very barely due to a combination of a nasty crit and not having the ability to burst down a boss that regains 40% HP as a reaction and not realizing there's a severe limit on how many items you can use on a unit per stage, and it was a pretty harrowing battle overall. I **really** need like the extra 5 reputation I'm short on being able to form new units but I've poked at the overworld about as far as I can, so we'll have to make due with moving some people around.

... speaking of, this game has a ton of UI overload, is there a way to swap people between units mid-battle when they're close together?

Also there's a gambit system here **and** every recruit has like 4 equip slots? This is... a lot.

*... the android port of the SNES game, which I started playing when it became clear twitter was hell in liu of doom scrolling. Finished the game three times this month with Thf/Mer/Sge, Mag/Mag/Mag and Sol/Mar/Pri.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Minor spoiler to your concern: you basically always break the mind control, and find out that some were just like that, some will join you, etc. Not a few are doing things for their own reasons. Not every character is very deep, but it's not all mind control all the time either.

You can customize units in between battles or before they're deployed during a battle, IIRC. But not while they're on the field. The gambit system gets pretty deep but they don't let you really use it for a while.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I'm giving this a try now that I've finished Dragon Quest III.* Played about 4 hours into the demo.

My main concern from what I had read/heard about the game was that giving the Opinion Leader a magic maguffin that removes mind control from enemies would kill one of the best thing about Ogre games: that everyone is generally a person. And I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong, but I can enjoy a Vanillaware fairy tail well enough.

Gameplay has its claws in me, though. Failed the third mission (well the one I went to third) very barely due to a combination of a nasty crit and not having the ability to burst down a boss that regains 40% HP as a reaction and not realizing there's a severe limit on how many items you can use on a unit per stage, and it was a pretty harrowing battle overall. I **really** need like the extra 5 reputation I'm short on being able to form new units but I've poked at the overworld about as far as I can, so we'll have to make due with moving some people around.

... speaking of, this game has a ton of UI overload, is there a way to swap people between units mid-battle when they're close together?

Also there's a gambit system here **and** every recruit has like 4 equip slots? This is... a lot.

*... the android port of the SNES game, which I started playing when it became clear twitter was hell in liu of doom scrolling. Finished the game three times this month with Thf/Mer/Sge, Mag/Mag/Mag and Sol/Mar/Pri.

Main concern: Sarc has the right of it. But the story is still definitely the weakest part of the game, without question. Going into it looking at it as a vanillaware fairy tale is probably your best bet.

There's a gambit system, AND every recruit (eventually) has 4 equip slots, and learns more skills, and gets more activation points... Yeah, it really seems like a lot at first. But one of the things I like is that it takes its time easing you into new mechanics throughout the game instead of throwing you into the deep end. It never felt overwhelming to me, and I'm someone who gets overwhelmed at games (and things in general) relatively easily. Keep at it, I think you'll find the experience pretty smooth.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I just unlocked the ability to set Tactics. I’ve been beating everybody so far, so maybe I don’t need to change much just yet.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Most of the skills come with pretty sensible default tactics, iirc, so you only really need to start massaging them as things start getting slightly more complicated. And at the beginning it's usually fairly simple stuff like "Oh, I want this to happen instead of/before that. Quick switch and there we go." Again, part of the nice and gentle on-ramp they afford you

 

[Classic]

You can customize units in between battles or before they're deployed during a battle, IIRC. But not while they're on the field. The gambit system gets pretty deep but they don't let you really use it for a while.

Would add the following maybe-not-obvious-things:

1. You can un-deploy a unit. This lets you move characters around and also teleport units between bases.
2. You can completely disband a unit and return it to a from-scratch slot.
   1. The one of the checks the game does for end-stage conditions is... if there are deployable units.
   2. From-scratch slots are not deployable units.
   3. I might have gotten a game-over while trying to prep my squads once.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Main concern: Sarc has the right of it. But the story is still definitely the weakest part of the game, without question.

Yeah, agreed. It's pretty rote. Only one sort-of surprise I can think of. Competently told but if you've been playing fantasy RPGs for 30 years it's the gameplay that's the draw.

 

[Bongo]

It's a very direct homage to Fire Emblem 1 specifically in many ways. It's got some cool moments and fun characters if you're willing to meet it where it's at, but don't expect it to ever be the draw.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

I honestly found the writing insufferably pretentious, and the story extremely trite. It's especially disappointing considering the pedigree of the games it's supposed to be following. I don't get why these OB-like clones keep on leaving out the bit about managing your army's reputation, to me that was the most integral part of the formula, and what made the OB games special.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Spoiler: Boss Help

Okay, how do I beat General Valerius? The battle was going smoothly until I ran into this guy who has crap going on I haven’t seen before. Can I break his shield or counter his party wide drain spell?

 

[Bongo]

I honestly found the writing insufferably pretentious, and the story extremely trite. It's especially disappointing considering the pedigree of the games it's supposed to be following. I don't get why these OB-like clones keep on leaving out the bit about managing your army's reputation, to me that was the most integral part of the formula, and what made the OB games special.

If someone caused you to expect this to be like Ogre Battle for reasons other than the gameplay (the most unique part of Ogre Battle), they misled you.

 

[Bongo]

Spoiler: Boss Help

Okay, how do I beat General Valerius? The battle was going smoothly until I ran into this guy who has crap going on I haven’t seen before. Can I break his shield or counter his party wide drain spell?

I can't go back to confirm what this boss actually does, so I'm sorry I can't give you more detailed advice. I seem to recall that status effects were useful for finishing them off. What does it say on the tactics screen?

 

[R.R. Bigman]

He

Spoiler

negates the first two attacks every battle.

I think you need to attack a bunch of times each battle. You can’t alter the composition of your units once the mission begins, so I was up a creek.

 

[Bongo]

You can alter the composition of units mid-mission, but only if the unit has withdrawn. You can then edit them before redeploying.

Anyway, try two attackers with higher initiative than a teammate who can inflict Burn or Poison. The fast attackers' attack doesn't matter at all, so you can prioritize survivability. Travis and someone else with Auch, for instance.

 

[Destil]

It's a very direct homage to Fire Emblem 1 specifically in many ways.

Well that explains the horses, at lesst.

Ogre games don't use horses much, if you want to ride something put a dragon in your squad.

Ah, well.

 

[Destil]

Equipment UI feels absurdly bad in this game, though I have figured a few things out: indication of being equiped is a portrait behind a peice of gear, although that still feels bad.

Is there a fitting room in shops I'm missing?

 

[Bongo]

If you mean whether you can see a preview of a character's stats before you purchase, no. But note using the right stick to switch between the two pages of information about any ability added by the gear.

 

[Destil]

Maybe the gambit tutorial should have showed up when they first give you a knife that stops your thief's attack that shuts down counters before a boss that has a nasty counter and not like 8 missions later?

I figured it out on my own (and crushed that mission on my second attempt) but...

 

[R.R. Bigman]

You can alter the composition of units mid-mission, but only if the unit has withdrawn. You can then edit them before redeploying.

Anyway, try two attackers with higher initiative than a teammate who can inflict Burn or Poison. The fast attackers' attack doesn't matter at all, so you can prioritize survivability. Travis and someone else with Auch, for instance.

This was a great help, thanks.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I am amassing new recruits faster than I can make units for them. Too many characters in this here game.

I would appreciate a second archer, though. I have enough waifish girls with big hammers, thanks.

 

[Bongo]

Good news: you've gotten your last Warrior

Better news: you'll be getting six more bow users. Maybe seven depending on a decision you already made

 

[R.R. Bigman]

That is good news, indeed.

I am having fun with this. Glad I finally played it.

 

[Paul le Fou]

That said, you can always hire a new archer from a fort. I only ever hired two generic units before getting inundated with unique characters, but it's an option as a stopgap, especially if you feel the lack of a particular class (some of which you do only get one unique character of. Archer has one more unique character you can recruit, iirc, and then there are some other bow-using classes and characters you'll run in into, although they're well spread out: some of them are near the mid-end game.)

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Yeah I think I only hired one unit (also an archer, I think!) near the beginning when you're told about them. In general I felt flooded with units.

 

[JBear]

My single generic recruit was a gryphon rider, IIRC. Good to have early on, IMO.