I Wish Unicorn Overlord's Recruitment System Had More Consequences

Let me preface this by saying I had a fantastic time with Unicorn Overlord last year.

Ever since I first played Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, tactical RPGs have become a long-term favourite this past decade, and that held true with Unicorn Overlord. The studio’s excellent work on 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim put this immediately on my radar. The strategy feels exceptional and pulling off big victories is highly satisfying, though the narrative is hardly original. Even still, I’m fully invested.

So, what’s the problem? My major complaint is how the recruitment system undermines the narrative. Unicorn Overlord takes the Fire Emblem approach, where you gradually build up an army over the course of the game, recruiting usually one or two new people after key missions or a major side quest. For some characters, there comes a choice if you've just fought them in battle: spare them and ask them to join the Liberation Army and bolster your ranks further, or Alain can execute them.

Here’s my issue with this. Even when it doesn’t make narrative sense to forgive and recruit, there is practically no good reason in-game to ever execute someone. Typically, the result is just extra resources or maybe a nicer weapon. Is that worth it over having another capable fighter out on the field to join you? Not really. Sure, you can hire custom mercenaries you create yourself to plug the gaps, but that doesn’t fill the void in the same way.

Blindly accepting everyone into the Liberation Army makes Prince Alain appear naive at face value. Yes, he needs more people backing the cause, and I understand being sympathetic to the plight of others. But why in God’s name would you trust some of the people you’re now willing to fight alongside? The Black Talons are a good example of this with Gammel and Mandrin, who we find having both terrorised a village and church respectively.

Their reasons for resorting to crime aren’t unsympathetic, sure, even if the dramatic backstory is a little much. Yet I see no reason in-game why that means Alain would be comfortable having these murderers work with him and everyone else side-by-side. War is a terrible business; every unit in your army has killed someone, and Alain is no exception. It’s the difference though between liberating your continent from a tyrannical ruler, and stopping bandits from cruelly targeting innocent civilians. Is jail not an option?

This could be considerably more interesting if Vanillaware leaned into this like a morality system. Instead of slowly amassing an army over time that's half filled with one-dimensional characters after throwaway moral challenges, what if Alain's character changed with your decisions? What if those hard decisions took that toll over time, or what if recruiting the wrong person creates further problems down the line?

I'm not the first person to raise this complaint; I know Willa Bloomfield-Rowe had similar issues in her review. I’m also not expecting a large narrative shift from your choices. At least, certainly nothing on the scale of Baldur’s Gate 3, or even Triangle Strategy with its multiple branching paths. That’s not the approach Vanillaware has chosen. This doesn't dampen how much I enjoyed the rest of Unicorn Overlord but for recruitment, some weight to your decisions would go a long way.