#UO Critical

[antivanwine14]

Thoughts on Unicorn Overlord now that I finished, both positive and negative (long post):

Positives

The graphics are beautiful. The models are great and it was a very pleasant game to play in that sense. I also appreciated the fact you can skip the battles when grinding or just doing minor battles.

Game play: the tactics and team building was a lot of fun and challenging. I really enjoyed building the squads and experimenting with different builts.

Characters: I enjoyed a lot of the interactions and thought the characters really carried it. The rapports were good and there were several times where I wish there was more. Some of them were very funny and others really did a lot of world building.

Drakenhold: By far the best developed of the lands. It is a very strong second area to go to and really builds on a lot of things. The story rapport with Gilbert and Alain is actually some of the best and shows a different side of the relationship between Cornia and Drakenhold which I liked a lot. Even though Drakenhold is supposed to be worse than Cornia, things actually have complexity and I enjoyed it.

Negatives:

The story is middling at best. At the start I enjoyed it and I thought the time spent in Cornia was actually decent if not very close to a middle tier Fire Emblem Story. Drakenhold was good and I wanted more of that. Ellheim was alright but very predictable with nothing interesting going on. But then we got to Bastorias and it was literally a filler arc. There was no real reason to go there besides being curious on how they were handling things. The plot in Bastorias was not related to anything else and none of the main central characters really had anything to do with the area. By the time we got to Albion I was pretty over the repetitive story beats (bad person who really isn't SOOO bad and no we are really best friends) and I thought Albion's bad guy reasoning of ‘I did it to protect the church’ was the weakest. I have no issue with him being against you but I almost wish they had just gone mind control on him rather than his weak reasoning.

Also the amount of times a scene ended with everyone laughing was ridiculous and I don’t understand it. This isn’t an after school special, not everything has to end with a laugh. Let there be emotions besides happy. It would have been nice for there to be more conflict in the areas we have been too besides just clearing out Zenoira. Like, if Zenoira went back and tried to take places or something. It was all just one and done and the war was both pretty easy and happy. A big set back would have been appreciated.

Plot hole: Fun fact, if you accidentally missed the Tatiana quest in Cornia, like I did when I went into Drakenhold, you are going to be absolutely baffled by Hilda’s stuff because characters are going to talk like you’ve been there and dealt with that plague and people.

Character design- oh boy is that something. The female design is so unfortunate and what makes it worse is there are elements of good. Some of the outfits are just fine and not all the body shapes are thin and tiny, which is always nice to see. I don’t mind some level of fan service (Hades did it very well) but SOOOOOO many of the women in UO are just designed to be sexual. To make it worse they try to excuse it with Yahna being like I want to dress like this (completely fine, if this didnt mean ALL the witches had to be dress like her) and then the elves can’t wear metal because of the fae which is interesting in concept but why are most of the lady elves in their underwear but the male elves are fully clothed? PS, Scarlet's boobs bobbing ALL the time got really annoying quickly.

Alain- he isn’t allowed to have almost any emotion except mild and happy and that is unfortunate. This is a character who has been through a lot and he should have been super interesting. I know he is supposed to be stoic but there is more to stoicism than being mild all the time. Let the man have character. I almost wish they made him a little more like Alear (good personality, shows their youth) or even something along what Intsys wanted to do with Byleth (very stoic and closed off in the beginning, starts to open up as the story goes along)

Male Romance- they were cowards and very few of the men can even hint at something more than friendship. You can marry your cousin but can barely get anything from a man. Some of the rapport's show some promise and funny enough some of the most random characters have decent romantic rapports. Rolf has almost no connection to the plot or other characters but is one of the best ones. I am fine with not all the men being romantic (Josef's extremely sweet father son stuff being some of the best and not romantic at ALL), but it would have been to see more done with them.

Romance in General- honestly, I know they would have taken out all the guys but they should have not made every character available for Alain. It takes away from their individual stories. I honestly wished they picked a handful of characters (men and women) and allow them to build the story and romance with Alain and allow the other characters to form their own relationships without worrying about Alain. Sharon and Ochlys have something going on and it really annoys me that they can up with Alain.

Overall:

I had fun and it definitely kept my attention, but I don't know if I can recommend it. Maybe get it on sale.

[gorgynei]

reunited

[blorbologist]

i love her so much

babe this is why i gave you this stinky thing in my fic [and the ~trauma~]

[wrecking]

ppl w lengthy dnis that straight up do not even look at ur bio before following wyd

[creaturegoose]

Living up to my username with this one

[heelycular-manslaughter]

I fucking hate that you can just write dumb little rpg ideas at basically any time including late at night while talking to a friend on a different continent unrelated do you guys wanna hear about the beyblading ttrpg I started writing months ago and buried like a murder victim immediately after

[autisticlancemcclain]

i’m going to start making a ‘now why would you say that’ comment collection bc some of y’all need to learn to keep things to yourself lmao

[welcometogrouchland]

Absolutely fascinating to be in the middle intersection of knowing that Thing is really popular, and that because Thing is popular there's a fair bit of vocal backlash to thing (because people are very mad Thing is popular when they don't like it) and you find yourself running through the unpleasant takes (not bad, just not what you're here for) from people who don't like Thing like snow white running through the scary fucked up forest until you finally find the fucking cottage where people who like Thing talk about Thing. Then you pass out in the cottage and when you wake up a bunch of small and opinionated creatures still carrying their burdens from the content mine arguing about Thing and also now your presence in relation to Thing bc you were clearly fleeing from the bad takes forest. This metaphor isn't what I wanted it to be but you get the idea

[jewishsuperfam]

today in perc’ahlia/imodna parallels

vax and percy’s “i triggered the trap that nearly killed your sister.” / “that KILLED my sister.” / “i can’t say that.” conversation vs imogen being completely unable to actually say the words “laudna died”

[antivanwine14]

I have been enjoying Unicorn Overlord. However, I have a massive issue with their handling of Beaumont. Spoilers under the tag for his mission.

So in Unicorn Overlord, you can execute a lot of people, but it is a choice you make. While you might get some negative dialogue about your choice, you are actually rewarded for always choosing to spare. The characters are more valuable than the few bits you get for killing them and the game leans into that concept. However, Beaumont really should have been one of the people who either dies in game or you have the choice to execute. He was shipping orphans into slavery. There really is no redemption for that and there should not have been here. If the guy who hoarded all the food just dies, Beaumont should have just died too. I would rather have seen food guy redeemed than the slaver.

[viti-ocs]

I just got back from my first irl dnd campaign and my character ended up being soo pathetic. Literally failing or just barely doing any damage when it came to his attacks. Meanwhile he got his ass beat so bad he nearly died. My soggy wet pathetic little meow meow. I'm in love with him

[ambiguousgrass]

So today I reread the wilbur van. Here's some my favorite bits :thumbsup: (more under the cut)

i want to dissect these literature class style

[thesoundofmadness]

I hate my mom so fucking much

[thedevilspearl]

The brothers unintentionally finding out Mc has a secret porn account where they upload videos of themselves with different people(OR DIFFERENT DEMONS >UO)/relieving themselves

finding out mc has onlydevils — all brothers

a/n: if you didn’t realise, onlydevils is the devildom version of onlyfans lol i tried to be creative but that’s the best i could do. thank you for this idea anon, i absolutely love it!!!

tags: no gender specified, no explicit smut but consistent discussion of mature content so minors do not interact!

𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐑 would be the most surprised and probably the most avoidant after finding out. he’s not the happiest about it, but it’s also not the end of his world. he knows you have your reason to do it so he doesn’t pry. but he is interested and would make an undercover burner account to see what all the fuss is about. and oh man, you take his breath away. late nights in his office always end up with him making a mess of himself at his desk after watching your videos for hours. he would confront you about it after he’s had his fun (which would last months) and would only ever ask you to stop if your relationship became serious, as in, endgame.

the first words out of 𝐌𝐀𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍’s mouth would be “what the hell are ya doing it for? stop it! ain’t nobody gotta see ya doing all that!” this doesn’t come from a place of trying to control you, but rather, it’s entirely out of jealousy and his instinctual need to protect you, even if it doesn’t come out the right way. of course, if you’re persistent in wanting to continue, he won’t stop you. however, it deeply upsets him knowing others see you in your most intimate act, and some even take part in it. he doesn’t know how to act, or react, and it would require a lot of time and conversation to understand it all and bring his feelings to a conclusion. but he wouldn’t be opposed to taking part in the content with you. he knows exactly how to make hotter content.

𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 is sort of stuck in the middle. he is definitely surprised but he’s also not surprised because you truly are something else. he knew that from the beginning. but this is different. you would never expect him to find out about it, let alone confront you. but he would be the first to let you know that he knows. and he hopes that none of his brothers know so that it can be your dirty little secret. he would never take part in your content, but he would surely give suggestions and feedback to help you improve. he’d maybe slip in some suggestions secretly catered to his own tastes, but you’d realise straight away and film an entire video just for him. his criticisms are worth a lot and so is his attention to detail in your content.

power to the people, is what 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐍 likes to say. upon finding out, he was taken aback by many feelings but in the end, he was impressed. he is definitely irked seeing you film content with other people, other demons, some of those are people he knows. and he cannot stand it because he wishes to be the only one to see you like that, to do those things with you. he’d let you do your thing but if things ever became serious between you, he’d want some boundaries in place. and if you want to continue, he would certainly become your new partner. he’d never show his face but he’d have no qualms showing your viewers how to please you better than anyone you ever had.

believe it or not, 𝐀𝐒𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐔𝐒 would be one of the last to find out because it’s something he would never expect to stumble across. in fact, you kept on the lowdown so well that he never would have known had you not accidentally slipped up. he asked if you were free one night and you casually said “sorry, asmo, but i’m busy filming content tonight” and so began his hunt in finding out what exactly it is that you film, and he hits the gold mine. as soon as he does, he’s all up in your business wanting to know everything, and he most certainly wants to take part. screw all those other demons. you could make millions together, if that’s what you want. he’d become a most loyal and devoted partner.

𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐙𝐄𝐁𝐔𝐁 was just looking for something to get him going. it was a rough day at practise and his usual hunger was taken over by a hunger for pleasure. and upon looking for some content, he came across a certain trending human. he didn’t think it would be you. it had to be someone else. but when he clicked on a video after purchasing it….well, his cock grew and hardened faster than it ever did before, simply from seeing you touch yourself in in front of a camera, making eye contact with him through a screen and moaning so sweetly. he instantly becomes a loyal follower. but beel unintentionally found your account, so he would never intentionally confront you about it. he’d wait for you to open up, and he’d support your every decision.

𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐆𝐎𝐑 isn’t proud of how he stumbled upon your account. to be honest, he didn’t have an onlydevils account until one day, he was super horny and used beel’s account to watch some stuff. little did he know, beel had been watching his precious human doing all sorts of dirty things and that’s how he discovered it. so he quickly makes his own account and blows all of his money on your content, watching you go from pleasuring yourself with toys to getting lain into by some other demon. he’d wish for you to stop if you got serious with him, but other than that, your videos become the only thing he can use to get off, and soon he craves the real thing more and more.

[t4t4t]

Periodic reminder that cannibal is referencing Indigenous legends told to Europeans in middle of the 1500s from the Caribbean (which seems to have been partially misunderstood and was very quickly used as a political excuse to subjugate multiple peoples) and that the practice then of anthropophagy was practically nonexistent within the Caribbean.

Are there other places in the world that practiced various forms of anthropophagy (especially prior to European contact) that get simplified under a dubious umbrella of "cannibalism"? Sure. Does that excuse invasion, colonization, assimilation or annexation of these peoples? No.

In fact Europeans in the 1500s justified the medical uses of eating various body parts of prisoners, mummies, and slaves, among others.

And but so maybe using a general descriptive word instead of one that seems to discredit a particular place in the world would be wise.

[thefugitivesaint]

James Gurney, 'Quozl', 1989 "Quozl…was painted for the Alan Dean Foster novel of the same name. The novel tells the humorous story of the Quozl, rabbit-eared aliens who land on planet Earth to establish a settlement or "Fist Burrow." The Quozle, like rabbits, reproduce at an alarming rate and have been forced to travel from their overcrowded home plant of Quozlene to colonize other planets…Quozl shows the moment in which a group of these aliens explore the dwelling of a typical Earthling family."

James Gurney writes of his planning of the cover painting:

As a fantasy illustrator, my goal is usually to create a completely new kind of architecture. With Quozl, my goal was to introduce the fantastic rabbit_like creatures into a familiar American living room and show them reacting to common, everyday things, like televisions, posters, and VCRs. I followed Alan Forster's description of this moment in the book, but elaborated the idea with images that i gathered on a research tour though a local shopping mall. When the painting was finished, it showed a number of trademarked images, like Wonder Bread and Bugs Bunny. The lawyers at the publishing company were nervous about showing these in the final image as it appeared on the book jacket, so, with my approval, they has an art director touch uo the painting (with water-based paints that could later be removed) so that all the recognizable images became just a little different."

The image reproduced on the paperback book jacket stretches across the spine, so that the right-hand portion of the painting receives prominence as the front cover." Source

Addendum: I don't think it needs to be stated that what's being presented here as your "familiar American living room" reads as white and middle class. Not necessarily a criticism, just an observation. I guess I did need to state it.