Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late Review: Tawdry Titles, Batman!

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late is a 2D fighting game, co-developed by Ecole Software and French-Bread. The two are most well-known for their work on Melty Blood, and Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax. The title of this game may make you roll your eyes, but behind the silly-word-salad-name is a competent fighter, albeit with a few drawbacks.

The story in Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (Which, for sanity’s sake, I will be abbreviating from here on out) is barebones, just serving well enough to explain why all the characters in the game are beating each other up. Essentially, an event called “The Hollow Night” is occurring, and spooky demons are everywhere. Character dialogue is rarely meaningful, other than a few amusing conversations, and the story in itself is utterly forgettable. Fighting games aren’t usually known for their deep storytelling, but compared to a game like Blazblue, it hardly matches up.

What is impressive, however, is UNIBE:L’s visuals. The sprites and artwork are superb, even if the menus and such are a bit on the basic side. Animations play out satisfyingly, attacks and projectiles looking gorgeous even on outdated hardware. Graphically, there’s very little to complain about here, other than the decidedly unimaginative character designs. Characters can be summed up very quickly, such as “rapier nun chick,” or “Tager (Editor’s Note: a character from BlazBlue) clone.” It’s a bit disappointing, but ultimately forgivable if the gameplay is good enough.

Thankfully, the gameplay is quite good indeed. The controls are fluid and responsive, which means you’re enjoying the game more than struggling with the piece of plastic in your hand. With almost every character having a powerful long-range attack, it becomes clear right off the bat how poke-heavy the rest of UNIBE:L is going to be. Zoning your opponent until an opening appears, then punishing them becomes the bread and butter of the gameplay, but it’s hardly unsatisfying.

The GRD system employed in this game is a bit confusing at first, but quite welcome once one susses out its nuances. Basically, there’s a ring that makes a full revolution every 17 seconds. If one player has raised more GRD than the other, they’re granted a damage bonus, and the ability to use the Chain Shift mechanic, which allows the use of additional abilities, along with the capacity to stop time temporarily.

The player builds up their GRD by hitting their opponent, blocking attacks, and moving toward their enemy. It depletes when you move away from the enemy, or when your own attacks are blocked. Inherently, this makes the gameplay reward aggressive play, rather than hanging back and turtling. However, it also rewards smart play, such as planning out your attacks and thinking, rather than button-mashing.

The network play in UNIBE:L seems to be in order, as well. I played many games with very little to no lag, which is crucial in a fast-paced fighter such as this. It seems that playing with people from different countries has little bearing on your latency, which is definitely a plus in a game that’s been out in Japan for awhile now.

Something that does bug me quite a bit about the gameplay of Under Night is the balance, though. Gordeau, Waldstein, and Merkava are honestly quite a bit more powerful than the rest of the roster, leading to a bit of imbalance. If you play online, it’s unlikely you’ll see many folks playing anyone other than these three. This can lead to a fairly stale metagame, and rightfully so. It entirely falls upon the developers of a fighting game to ensure all of the characters are at least somewhat close to equal in strength. There will always be tier lists, but it is a sign of poor game design when the disparity between S and F tier is nigh-insurmountable.

Another troubling aspect of the game is the sheer lack of playerbase. It’s quite empty in Under Night In-Birth‘s lobbies, likely a consequence of the game’s delayed overseas release. The game itself has been out in Japanese arcades since 2012, coming to consoles nearly two years later. It was almost another year until we got UNIBE:L in the states, meaning that gamers in Japan have been playing it for almost three years now. You’ll still find the occasional Japanese player in the network mode, but it’s clear that the fighter has all but run its course for them.

In the end, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late is an incredibly satisfying 2D fighter, with solid controls, fun mechanics, and brilliant visuals. There are a few hiccups that keep it from perfection—namely the slightly imbalanced roster, and the barren network lobbies—but there are hardly enough negatives for me to withhold a recommendation of this title. The game’s wicked fun, and if you’ve got a dedicated group of friends who are down for some local multiplayer, it’s hard to find much to complain about.

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late was reviewed using a review code provided by Aksys Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.