r/UnicornOverlord

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I've been trying to mess around with a funny swordfighter squad to see a ton of parries go off, but I notice only Meli's Artenie Strike ever triggers, then they go right into their AP skills. Is it a problem with my tactics layout?

Hey folks I know a lot of players out there love sword masters, but like me you might struggle to use them effectively in the late game. I came up with a very effective team composition where the sword master really gets to shine. I'm about to finish up Bastoras, just two story missions left. The team is strong against most team compositions so I'll just cover the weaknesses. Ranged assists often kill the Sword Master outright destroying the team so you will need to use either Wind Faerie's Charm or Smoke Bolt to keep the team functional when there are ranged assists. Healers with the right combinations of dps can also shut it down because it relies on the blind to use the first round to set up defense. Warlocks can also shut it down, but if there is no one to cover them you can swap priorities of the Elven Archer to freeze them with icicle arrow instead of buffing the sword master with Mystic Conferral. I'm sure there are other combinations that will shut it down, but I haven't found any other cpu comps that can reliably take it down, especially if there is a ranged assist team behind them. And we aren't in the post game yet either so the team can be tweaked to perform even better I'm sure.

The teams consists of the following

Sword Master(Front Row Right Side): Equipment: Carnerlian Blade, Wyvern Razor, Sapphire Pendant, Lucky Coin

Tactics: Impale >Target HP less than 50%, Keen Edge > Scout Only, Keen Edge > Flyer Only, Meteor Slash(no conditions), Keen Edge(no conditions), Charged Impetus(nc), Parry(nc), Hastened Strike > Lowest HP(turned off)

Legionnaire(Front Row Left Side): Equipment: Carnelian Spear, Bulwark Towershield, Cloth Gauntlets(98%guard rate), Holy Unicorn Signet

Tactics: Bulwark >First Action / Prioritize Front Row, Great Shield > Second Action, Sting & Row Protection are interchangeable(everything is dead before the 3rd round is over), Row Cover > Row is Attacked, Guardian > Own HP is 50% or Less, Heavy Cover > Target has 2 PP or Less(this is to ensure hes not guarding the first turn or two when the enemies are blinded and Bulwark is still up. Its the best way I could think of to manipulate when he uses Heavy Cover.

Druid(Back Row Left Side): Equipment: Dustbound Staff, Ruby Pendant, Sapphire Pendant, Angel Plume

Tactics: Sandstorm(nc), Defensive Curse > Prioritize Front Row, Passive Curse & Offensive Curse are interchangeable and aren't really needed but might be useful in some situations. Tailwind > Back Row / Own PP is 3 or more(so its only used once), Quick Curse > Not Blinded, Cursed Swamp > Cavalry Enemies Present(turned off)

Elven Archer(Back Row Center): Equipment: Carnelian Bow, Sapphire Pendant, Carnelian Pendant, Dancer's Bracelet OR Monk's Mitre(Ive had success with both).

Tactics: Mystic Conferral > Lowest HP(to specifically target the SM) / First Action, Icicle Arrow > Prioritize Caster / 2 or More Enemies, Wind Arrow > Prioritize Flying, Powerful Call > Own PP is 2 or More / Front Row, Quick Cure > Own PP is 2 or More, Selfless Heal(nc)

Viking(Back Row Right Side): Equipment: Boreas's Axe, Scarlet Crest Shield, Sapphire Pendant, First Aid Kit

Tactics: Wide Breaker > Row with 2+ Combatants / Debuffed, Rolling Axe > Row with 2+ Combatants, Smash > Highest Defense, War Horn(nc), Frenzied Strike > Own PP is 2 or More, First Aid > Elven

Note: Several pieces of equipment are being used to manipulate initiative values. The ideal turn order should be Druid > Viking > Elven Archer > Sword Master > Legionnaire

Battles usually play out as follows...

Turn 1

Viking opens with War Horn, Druid uses Sandstorm and then gives the back row a +10 initiative buff. Viking uses Wide Breaker with increased potency because of Blind on the Front Row and debuffs their defense by 30%. Elven Archer buffs the Sword Master with Mystic Conferral which lasts for the rest of the battle unlike the Witches Magick Conferral. Then the Sword Master Kills something with Impale or Meteor Slash and uses Charged Impetus on themselves. Note that my Meteor Slashes with this comp are doing between 250-400 damage on average. At this point most of the enemies will take their turn and miss. Ive noticed Were-Owls don't seem to mess this team up like they do with many others. Even if they dispel the War Horn buff on the Sword Master it still seems to always work. Im not sure if its because the damage is just that high or if enemies cant block when they are blind? The Viking will sometimes use Frenzied Strike at this time which is fine. Then the Legionnaire uses Bulwark on himself and the Sword Master.

Turn 2

The druid uses Defensive Curse on the Front Row lowering Defense further and Sealing their Guard in case the Sword Masters War Horn buff was dispelled. Then the Viking will use a Wide Breaker if the Front Row is still intact, if its down to one enemy he'll use smash, and if its gone he'll use Wide Breaker on the back row. Then the Elven Archer will use Icicle Arrow freezing two enemies. Then the Sword Master will kill something else with either Impale or Meteor Slash again. It just occurred to me while writing this it might be worthwhile to put the Not Frozen Condition on Meteor Slash so the SM targets a functional enemy, but it depends on what type of units were occupying the front row. At this point the enemy will attack there is usually only 1 functional enemy at this point and bulwark will usually negate whatever was used. Finally the Legionnaire will use Greatshield so he has 4 PP to Heavy Cover.

Turn 3

The Druid is out of AP. The Viking may or may not attack depending on whether he has AP, if he does attack he usually kills something. Then the Elven Archer uses her final attack with Wind Arrow. Thinking about it now the Elven Archer might be able to swap out her Carnelian Pendant because at this point in the game at least she doesn't seem to need this final attack. Then the SM usually kills the final enemy at this point again with either Impale or Meteor Slash. Finally the Viking will use First Aid on the Elven Archer causing her to use Selfless Heal which heals the entire party for around 35-50 HP.

That's about it. I hope this helps out my fellow Sword Master enthusiasts. And please share your Sword master compositions! The main issue with this team Ive put together is its really demanding as far as high quality gear goes to make sure it functions. 4 Sapphire Pendants and 1 Ruby Pendant seems like a lot for one team to have. I cant remember how many you get by the end of the game, but I do remember never having as many as I wanted lol.

Just finished the game and enjoyed it overall. I have some thoughts. 55 hours, all side quests and liberation quests, true ending, and I chose Scarlett.

The team building and combat were excellent of course. However I frequently found myself glazing over and getting stuck in the option paralysis with every jump in complexity. I was having a great time managing my 5 or so 3-man units, then was really intimidated by 4-man and 5-man units in turn. I got somewhat comfortable with the 5-man units by the end, but at that point there were just too many options for each character with 6 abilities plus any extras from equipment. Of my 8 endgame units I'd say I was only really happy with 4 of them. This is entirely a personal failing as a relative SRPG noob. I thought my JRPG and TCG experience had prepared me for this level of tinkering and I was wrong.

As for aesthetics and presentation, the game is straight up beautiful. The character designs, backgrounds and animation are all top notch. However, the animations could only dazzle for so long, and I was skipping battles by the end once I had decent enough teams. I would only watch bosses for the dialogue and bad outcomes to see what went wrong.

I found the main story to be a bit weak, but the cast of characters and their own stories were strong enough to balance that out. The music was serviceable throughout, with only the overworld themes being particularly memorable to me. I found that a little disappointing, because the game opens with the best piece of music in the whole soundtrack for the prologue battle with Ilenia. That Bulgarian choir style isn't something I've heard in a a game before and I thought I was in for something truly special, musically. Great choice bringing it back for the true final boss.

This all sounds rather negative, but I have to stress that I had a good time with the game. There were a few times where I felt like I was done and was ready to move on to something else, because I was just struggling with the team bulding. But what kept me going was that incredible overworld. I would spend entire sessions just wandering around, gathering resources, making deliveries, combing every nook and cranny for divine shards and hidden passages. I'd often uncover all the available liberation quests before fighting any of them. I love how each battle takes place in a location on the overworld, and how you can walk freely back through that place where you were pushing to gain ground 10 minutes ago. And the mining minigame is straight fire. My favourite sidequests were the treasure maps, and a big part of that was digging them up first.

If Vanillaware ever go into the cozy game space, I'll be there day one. They've demonstrated here that they know exactly how that loop of one little task leading into another should feel. Just as long as I get to do some more mining.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!

During the final scene when Alain lift the curse of the unicorn from Baltro, there is great soundtrack playing in background. I need it please I've been searching for it everywhere.

>!Talking about Galerius and no I don't have the hammer lmao.!<

FFT Weigraf still edges it out cause I did unironically get softlocked as a child because I built Ramza as a magic user and he could not run the 1v1 versus Weigraf. And from the infamy of the fight, plus the fact that subsequent versions just let you go back to the overworld if you have to, I'm not the only one it happened to.

At least here you can do what I'm doing now and just mixing up the team comp until you eventually just win. But I suppose this is the core issue with the genre and this game in particular. The entire game is super easy except the parts where you're just thrown this boss that you either immediately destroy out of pure luck of having a comp that can just handle it. Or you're putzing about in the tactics menu messing around with squads like I am until you find the secret sauce.

Like this is my first time running out of time even in the whole game. First time running into any issues at all in the whole game. I'm just sitting here half malding half laughing my ass off at the absurdity of putting this as the last boss. Completely disconnected from the rest of the game.