News Unicorn Overlord (Atlus x Vanillaware) announced, coming to all consoles on March 8th (UPDATE: demo out now!)

[Sheldon]

Anyone know why lending range support will frequently result in a unit taking more damage from their foe than if they didn't receive any ranged support?

So to attempt to answer my own question:

It's dumb RNG. Sometimes the additional dice roll on the ranged support will mess with the numbers for the following rolls in such a way you get a better outcome sticking with fewer rolls.

 

[Sheldon]

I stopped the clock at 15 minutes remaining, got about 10 hours of the demo, and am vaguely in "purchase on discount someday" territory.

As threatened, some thoughts in the order they occured to me while playing:

• Managing units with different movement speeds is a pain, when you want then to arrive at an engagement at about the same time but a specific order, to say, avoid your side's Fire Emblem tribute cavalry unit from running away with all the EXP.
• Quality of life standard is rather high. Which means it stands out more when a small thing is off, like the how the max stamina a unit could regen up to being nowhere in sight on the overworld UI. I'm not sold on the exhaustion system, anyway. There's a few reasons why might be a necessary evil. Just not sure how much value it really adds altogether, when the most felt effect is wasting time and I already hate running up against a deadline in TRPGs.
• Scarlett's white turtleneck sweater is the most eye-rolling choice. Once you give her that dress, the design might as well have her go naked underneath and nips out. Can't play the "not showing everything is actually more sexy" card if you still have the full boob jiggle and clear cleavage line showing through that thick wool. It really looks absurd, like a censored attempt to get an original "whore nun" concept to conform with a desired age rating.
• Holy unicorn crap, are there a lot of classes! The small scale engagements in the opening hours were managable, but I dread how much you might have to constantly tool and re-tool your army once their numbers and enemy troop sizes - along with the all the possible permutations of formations and gear and instructions - radically expand towards their end-game state.
• Heroes and villains are weak, so far. Writing is trying to bestow on them some distinctive qualities which their look doesn't carry. In general the game is less pretty than by all rights it should be. I blame the flat shading and unpleasing animations. Backgrounds are outshining character art.
• Only got good things to say about the generosity of the demo, though. Not only is it generous with the time maximum, it is generous stopping the timer while you're in menus managing your army or reading freshly unlocked lore.

I'm waiting on post-review word of mouth about whether or not the story takes a twist down the line. The walkable map and novel tactical approach alone are almost enough to pull me in.

 

[PixelKnight]

Played the first hour or so and first couple of battles.

On the tactical side, I really enjoyed this! The timer gives an incentive to engage and destroy the enemy as efficiently as you can to get all their units, and not just inch forward with full army strength pointed at the next enemy unit, taking them out piecemeal. There’s good tactical reasons to hold fortresses and bridges, and I like being able to swap out deployed units mid-battle, if you suddenly realise a troop that isn’t in one of your formations might be very useful. I benched the paladin halfway through a battle to make sure all junior troops were on the field. There’s a lot of depth, I’ve only scratched the surface in terms of what you can do with the formations. Seems like there’s killer setups waiting to be found.

Character designs- I love the guys, but the usual vanillaware adolescent thirst is a bit pointless. In the prologue the queen is literally

Spoiler

making a last stand against impossible odds to safeguard the future, but what’s important to Vanillaware in this opening cut scene as a pivotal character, the mother of the protagonist, makes an elegant, defiant and fierce stand in the face of darkness? That her battle dress is slit up to the waist with her bare legs on show, lol.

The game is really interesting and it feels like they have something special here, but the need to objectify much of the female cast is really something they should grow out of. What’s up with all the women with pigeon toe poses with their feet pointing inwards too. Are they all supposed to look cute and nervous or something? Bit silly on a ferocious leader of a nation. Still, it’s not like Fire Emblem doesn’t do this shit either, but it stands out when it’s serious characters in serious situations, while the guys all get to look stoic. I knew it would be full of it because Vanillaware but it’s a shame when the game is otherwise really intriguing.

 

[MissingNo.]

Locking this thread now the ST is all set up – thanks for hosting the pre-release discussion, @mazi!