REVIEW: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]

Each character has their own unique mechanics and traits, and while the controls for their special attacks and Infinite Worth (super) are pretty consistent, each has their own unique feel. I found most of them enjoyable to play, and anyone with a taste for grapplers and charge characters will likely find enjoyment in the few characters I didn’t. Because of the game’s Passing Link system that allows any normal attack to cancel into any other normal attack, it’s not difficult to put together basic strings on the fly for any character you’ve never used before, ending it off with a special or EX special, if you have the meter. Granted, it takes a lot more effort to actually perfect a character and learn optimized combos, but the process has gotten easier than before thanks to the new Mission mode.

Not that getting good at the game is particularly important unless you plan to play against people. I didn’t have a hard time with Arcade mode even for characters I was largely unfamiliar with. The AI generally isn’t the best, but that’s fairly par for the course for fighting games. It’s much more fun playing against other people; the lack of double-jumping and air backdashing gives it a different feel than other anime fighters, and the quick but grounded movement lends a wholly unique feel to UNIST’s neutral game.

The other new mode is Chronicles, the most substantial addition to UNIST. It’s a visual novel mode about 10 hours long, with 22 episodes, each divided into 2-4 shorter parts. The story follows the events in the months leading up to the main story told in Arcade mode, providing some background on the characters and world, and a broader perspective on the events as a whole. It also provides some much-needed explanations, defining some terms such as EXS, In-Births, Voids, the Hollow Night, and anything else needed to understand the story. While the episodes are something of a mixed bag in terms of quality – with Enkidu’s episode specifically standing out as a particularly boring one – the explanations and definitions they provide are invaluable if you care about Under Night In-Birth’s story and world. While there is some information to be gleaned from the Arcade mode, if you play the right ones, Chronicles mode presents it in a much more complete and straightforward way. Unfortunately, the translation job isn’t great; I noticed a lot of typos throughout Chronicles mode, although Arcade mode was much better.

The music all has its own consistent tone, heavier on piano and synthesizers than some other anime fighter music. Each character gets their own theme, as well as specific themes for certain matchups, and from what I can tell, the themes seem to match the characters well enough. The voices are well-done and don’t cause issues, and none of them seem particularly mismatched. The graphics are very appealing, with highly detailed sprites and animations for the characters, and bright, flashy effects for attacks and hits. The character designs are varied and distinctive, with great-looking art on display on character select and victory screens.

Ultimately, though, the main part of UNIST is its engine and gameplay, both of which are fantastic. It has its oddities, but in general once you get used to the slightly unusual system it makes the game more enjoyable to play. A significant portion of the game is also the online component, and so it helps that the netcode seems to be top-notch. Although I was only able to get into games with people in my area, the delay never went above 3 frames, at least not during my games. There’s a decent range of options to choose from when creating or searching for online lobbies. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to check how the network performs when playing with people from more distant regions or lower-quality connections, simply due to the fact that there weren’t enough lobbies that I found online when I was playing to check.

While Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] may not be the easiest game to pick up and play for those totally new to fighting games, it contains the resources needed to learn how to play it properly and become proficient thanks to its in-depth Tutorial and Mission modes. Under Night In-Birth veterans may be interested in the new characters, or maybe just being able to play the game on PS4, assuming they don’t already have the Japanese version. Meanwhile, if you’re more interested in the story and lore, this game goes much more in-depth into it than previous iterations with Chronicles mode, although it really needs a patch to fix all the typos and errors. Under Night In-Birth fans who haven’t picked up this version yet would be remiss in not picking it up, and even if you haven’t played the previous version I’d recommend this one if you’re at all interested. It has a unique feel, but is incredibly enjoyable once you get used to it, easily worth $50. If nothing else, you’ll have a nice new set of waifus to check out.

Review copy provided by publisher