GAME REVIEW: Unison League

Developer: Ateam Entertainment Inc.
Release Date: May 14, 2015
Platforms: Android and IOS
Reviewed On: IOS
Price: Free

Unison League is a RPG (Role-Playing Game). It recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary which is what drew me back to the game. When I first played this game back in 2016, what had attracted me to it was its creative freedom with avatar customization and its unique class system. That still stands out to me now nine years later.

Story

Despite being an RPG, the story isn’t that relevant. This tends to be the case for most mobile RPGs. In Unison League, strange occurrences and monster attacks are happening due to Ether running rampant which the player with Filo and the princess are trying to investigate. That’s the gist of it. The story is really not the main seller of the game and is skippable. From what I’ve experienced, it does little to actually enhance the game itself. 

Battle Gameplay

The gameplay is the crown jewel of the game. There are five main classes: Soldier, Lancer, Archer, Mage, and Cleric. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages based on the stats of Attack (ATK), Defense (DEF), Magic Attack (MATK), and Magic Defense (MDEF). 

Soldiers typically have high amounts of Health Points (HP) and DEF. Lancers have a high ATK value and have what is called better Break value. Archers tend to be balanced and focused on multi-attacks and status ailments. Mages are high in MATK and focus on multi-enemy attacks. Clerics are healers and help remove status ailments. They also tend to have a few heavy-hitting Magic Attacks. 

Alongside these five classes are an additional five classes that are unlocked once a certain mastery over the others have been attained. That’s right – players are not obligated to stick to one class. They’re free to switch it up however they like. The next five classes are Rook, Berserker, Treasure Hunter, Ninja, and Morpher. 

Rooks are an advanced Soldier, essentially, with better tanking abilities. Berserkers are like the advanced Lancer with all-attack abilities. Treasure Hunters are the one class that increase drop rates and tend to be flexible with Physical and Magic Attacks. Ninjas switch stances to be strategic in fights whereas Morphers specialize in transforming to gain a power boost that lasts for a duration of time. 

Each class has their own advancement stages, although the advanced classes have fewer advancements than the first five classes. I personally focused on the Mage Class, becoming an Archmage and then began to focus on being a Treasure Hunter, advancing to become a Thief. Each advancement comes with better skills and passive abilities that make it easier for players. Though, players can only have one designated class in combat at a time and gain those attributes. 

From these classes, players can then equip up to four skills with a Basic Physical Attack automatically added in their skill slot. It is fully customizable with whatever skill they want from that class. When players are high enough leveled and have unlocked enough branches from the classes, they can mix and match lower-tiered skills from other classes even when they haven’t selected that class. This means that as an Archmage, I have the ability to add the skills of any Soldier, Lancer, Archer, or Cleric I want as long as it is a lower-tiered skill. Furthermore, when players have unlocked a certain amount of classes, they gain an additional skill slot. 

These skills all require MP (mana points) to cast which naturally regenerates over time in battle or can be regenerated through spells. Both Physical and Magic Attacks require MP to cast, so it’s a restriction for all classes and not simply magic ones like seen in other games. 

Alongside the actual skills in combat are the elements. There are seven elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Light, Dark, Star, and Time. Each has their own strength and weakness over another element. Rather than abilities themselves being elemental, the gear and weapon equipped by the player have elemental resonance that contributes to the battle.

For example, the staff I have in my main weapon slot is called [Dulcet] Chocolate S Mic Stand Staff which grants me three Star ATK. Star has an advantage over Light and Dark, and thus, I have a better advantage over monsters who fall under those elements. 

Gear pieces are tiered as well. The higher the tier, the better the gear. The tiers are N (Normal), R (Rare), SR (Super Rare), SSR (Super Super Rare), and UR (Ultra Rare). Most gear you can Reforge into a higher class, so it makes it easier to gain better tiered gear. 

There are a max of ten slots available to equip a weapon, helm, armor, and monster. Each has their individual subskills, although the only subskill that will activate are those in the main slots of each gear type. Each gear has their own elemental resonances that contribute to a player’s Elemental ATK and Elemental DEF. Although, players have to unlock more slots to be able to utilize all ten and provide enough Gear Cost. 

Gear Cost is how much cost it takes to equip a gear in the form of points. For example, my main staff takes 42 points to equip. If I didn’t have this amount of points available in my build for my weapon, I wouldn’t be able to use it at all. To give a better idea of how valuable gear cost is, my current build utilizes 415 weapon cost, 338 helm cost, 334 armor cost, and 254 monster cost. This is without fully utilizing all ten slots for all of the gear equipment. 

I mention monster cost because there is a key element in battling that I haven’t brought up. Unison Attacks. It’s part of the title of the game. Unison Attacks are when players in battling utilize their own Monsters to cast special skills and then use Elemental Level in order to deal a final elemental blow. 

Five players or CPUs (Central Processing Units otherwise known as computer-controlled players) are typically available for a battle. Each has their own Monsters equipped as part of their gear. When the Unison Gauge has been filled to 100%, players can enact a Unison Attack. Just to note, not all players have to have their gauge filled to start a Unison Attack. It can even only be one player. 

Based on the tier of Elemental Level (or how many of the same elemental types there are), the final Elemental Attack’s effect is increased. There can even be a Genesis Attack which means there are the same amount of two elements present in the Unison Attack. There is also the case where there are three of one element and two of the other in which the other two act as a subsidy Elemental Attack. It sounds complicated, but it’s easier to see in action. 

Co-op Gameplay

A huge part of the gameplay is the co-op feature. There are only specific quests in which players are not allowed to co-op. Otherwise, it’s pretty much completely playable with other players. 

Unison League further encourages this with their events. Certain events cycle out on a weekly basis and other events cycle through a limited time basis. The weekly basis schedule is always available for players to check in order to grind for materials to increase their abilities and gear. The limited time is announced through news and announcements. As its name states, it is available for a limited time and tends to have some of the best gear available. All of these events are able to be done solo or co-op, though a lot of them you want to co-op to easily clear through them. 

A specific event that needs co-op is the raids. It can host up to eight players in order to defeat the raid boss which drops better materials and gear necessary for refinement. It can be done solo with CPUs but it’s a bit harder as more tiers are unlocked to get better drops and drop rates. 

Outside of the events are special events that appear less frequently but still routinely. This would be the Mobius Path, the Battle Colosseum, and the Crystal of the Sacred Altar. They are all able to be done solo or co-op and are a different form of battle. The Mobius Path is a raid in that players want to clear out the most waves of enemies. The more waves cleared, the better the score. The Battle Colosseum is a PvP (player versus player) event where players fight against each other in five versus five battles. The Crystal of the Sacred Altar is similar to the event raid in that there is one enemy, and it counts how much damage is done during a certain time frame. With each of these events is prestige rewards from how much damage is done or how many battles won. 

Outside of the events are the Guild Battles. Players are free to gather in guilds or create their own. Every day at set times, there are Guild Battles in which guilds fight against each other in five versus five battles. These also grant prestige and rewards depending on how many battles are won. It also encourages participation because those who are CPU during them tend to not do anything in battle, often resulting in a loss. Unison League is a game that hones into allowing solo players to succeed but giving co-op spaces to thrive. 

Gacha System

The game is run by a gacha system otherwise known as a loot pulling system. Gear can be obtained through quests and through events. However, the easiest way to get gear is through the gacha system. 

There are three different kinds of gacha systems: the Gems, the Tickets, and the Items. 

Gems typically are the limited items. They run through periods of time offering equipment and Monsters to pull with certain guarantees. Gems are purchasable but often enough are rewarded freely through the game that it’s not necessary. It’s usually the best way to get gear but requires a bit of grinding for Gems or spending without the grind. 

Tickets are usually consistently available since Tickets are often not a time-limited thing. There are times it is time-limited, but the game itself is great at reminding players when items that are time-limited are about to reach the deadline. These rewards differ and are often rewarded through quests and events. 

Items are always available. The first is the Video Spawn in which players have to watch ads in order to spawn gear. The second is the Costume Spawn which is for the Pet System, letting players customize their pets. The third is Furniture Spawn that grants furniture for player’s rooms to customize while also granting stat boosts. The last is FP or Friend Point Spawn which is given to players anytime they complete quests. This is the standard gacha pull that offers items for early players to easily pull and buff their gear without needing Gems. 

The gacha system is pretty good in my opinion. Rather than relying on a set amount of pulls like others, it tells flat out what each pull is likely to get. 

For example, the Step-Up Gem Spawn allows players to essentially step up their pulling game. Unison League clearly tells what’s available with each step. The first step is often grants a bonus item for refinement but has a rather large pool of SSR gear. It gradually grows into a guarantee for a certain cost gear and then the final step tends to be a guarantee for a limited-item. Most of the steps tend to be about five-tiers but it can be pretty costly Gem-wise. 

Although the actual spawn rate is pretty good for the game, it still is pretty costly even with how generous the game is with giving out free Gems. Most Step-Ups tend to take about 75 to 115 Gems to complete. To be fair, it’s not necessary to go all the way, but the rewards are certainly enticing.

Customization

Characters are highly customizable. Players can freely change between the male and female avatar and can freely dress in the male and female-oriented gear no matter the current gender of the avatar. So long as the gear is owned, players can wear it on the avatar. They are allowed to change the hair style and color, the eye style and color, the weapon, the armor, the helm, and a background sparkle effect. This leads to no two players looking the same. 

Furthermore, to help with customization, so long as players hold a Cosmetic Encyclopedia Key, players can equip any item they used to own. This means that even after Reforging a weapon from SSR to UR, players can still use the SSR version on their avatar so long as they use a Key. 

The gear and weapons themselves are so diverse that it makes the customization that much better. I can make my avatar look like a ninja, a student, or even a cherry blossom tree.

Final Score

As an RPG itself, the game scores two stars. I say this because RPGs are inherently story-heavy. Whether it’s about a character or an event, RPGs focus on letting their players role play and take part in the storyline. Unison League doesn’t do that because its story is not a key part to the game. It exists, and that’s it. However, it does allow a lot of customization making it easier to role play in. Furthermore, it does still maintain gameplay elements despite how lacking it is in story.

As a game itself, Unison League scores much higher at four stars. It has great combat that lets the battles feel a little more unique and creative despite how repetitive it can get. It allows a lot of freedom for players that I don’t often see games doing. The fact that it does this without a turn-based or an open-world element makes it that much better of an experience for me. The co-op features and the amount of content there is great for a game. It suffers more because it lacks a cohesive story but it excels in its actual gameplay where the developers clearly spent more time on.

Specifically as a mobile game, it easily scores five stars. It is one of the best produced mobile games I have played. It’s enticing to keep coming back to, there’s so many events that happen which make it exciting, and it doesn’t push for the daily login to a degree that other mobile games do. It’s incentivizing but it’s not necessary. The in-app purchases are very out of the way. There are no ads aside from choosing to watch ads for spawning gear. The class system and skill set alone makes it high above any other original mobile RPG. 

For a final score, Unison League is four stars out of five. It’s easy to access with great gameplay but severely lacks a story. It can be a little repetitive but it’s a lesser degree than other mobile games I’ve played. There is a wide power gap that exists but the lack of actual PvP hurting players and rewards means that this power gap actually tends to help players rather than hurt. The co-op is there to make things easier, not to make things worse. From what I can see, it still has an active community both inside the game and out. I definitely understand why Unison League, especially as a mobile game, has survived ten years. 

What are your thoughts about Unison League? Are you willing to give this mobile game a try? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or in our Boss Rush Discord!

Featured Image Source: ユニゾンリーグ公式チャンネル

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