«Previous post | Next post»

“Under Night In-Birth” has finally arrived on PS4 in the shape of “Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[St]”, and it’s bringing fast frantic and fun 2D combat with a wonderful art style. However, 2018 has already seen the release of some solid fighters. So one might ask him or herself the following question, is the release of “Under Night” in danger of being lost in the crowd?

under night in birth exe late st visual novel

The game’s story is told through sideshows of characters talking, and it’s done in a visual novel-like fashion.

The first thing that impressed me with this game was the visual art style. You see, when I entered the character select menu, I noticed that each character looked unique and interesting. The roster is complete with 20 fighters all wielding their arsenal of deadly weapons such as swords, daggers, whips, scythes and even killer hair braids, each unique in their own right.

So in a way it’s like having an arcade cabinet in your living room, the presentation is outstanding. The menus are simply to navigate, with arcade, training, versus and online available at a synch. Furthermore, there are also tons of goodies to unlock with your fight money such as a variety of art work and character colours. Other than that, there is a decent soundtrack to be found in the game as well.

under night in birth exe late st stylish combat scenes

The combat is pretty darn stylish, and it looks even better in motion.

Of course, the most important thing when it comes to a fighting game above all else is the gameplay, So like most other fighting games these days, there are of course two options for you to use, and those would be the following: You can A press all the buttons and have cool stuff happen, or B actually input button combinations and then have cool stuff happen.

So basically, there are options for new players and veteran players, and trust me nine times out of ten a veteran will wipe the floor with a button basher. Especially if they know the character inside out. However, it does give newcomers a chance to get comfortable with a character then slowly start mastering them, there are plenty of tutorials for this too. Like most 2D fighters Under Night is flashy and fancy on the surface but there’s also plenty of depth for those wanting to master particular characters and take the fight online.

under night in birth exe late st the roster

The roster is complete with a variety of flamboyant characters.

There’s also a plethora of game modes, Arcade, Verses, Score Attack, Time Attack, Survival, Tutorial and Mission. The online modes include player and ranked. However, I wasn’t able to play another human as no rooms were joinable and ranked match search was unsuccessful. This obviously should change after launch (so I hope…).

As much as I was disappointed by that, there was something else that got the better of me, and that would be the fact that the game’s story left me a little lost and confused. I mean, I wasn’t quite sure what the hell was going on half of the time. Sure, the jist of it was that there’s a variety of warriors entering combat to help or prevent some world ending event.

So for those who might be more familiar with the “Under Night In-Birth” series, then there is a variety of prologue stories that can be watched and some comical banter between characters. Nevertheless, for the most part, I didn’t take a lot away with me, unlike fighting games like “Mortal Kombat 9” or “Tekken 7”. The game has no English dub either. So it’s fully voiced in Japanese with English sub titles.

under night in birth exe late st intense and beautiful combat moments

“Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]” includes new characters, enhanced online battles, a story mode, a tutorial mode and much more. However, as good as that might sound. The story mode is a mess, and there are better fighting games out there to pick from (such as “Tekken 7”, “Street Fighter 5″, DOA5 Last Round” or “KOF XIV”, for example).

Even so, the biggest issue with “Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[St]” is that it’s up to some hefty competition. Furthermore, the game has also been around for a while as it was released in Japan way back in 2012…And since then it’s had updated versions that were released on PS3 and Steam. My point would be that “Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[St]” is going to have a very hard time on the fighting market since it’s up against the likes of “BlazBlue”, “Dragon Ball: Fighter Z” and “Final Fantasy: Dissidia”.

Simply put, “Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[St]” is most likely going to end up being lost in the crowd (that even though it’s still a pretty good game). This of course will also affect online play, because without a large community supporting it, you won’t have all that many players to play against. Thus, you might end up having problems with finding games to play online.

under night in birth exe late st end of dawn edition

There’s even a very nice “Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[St]”special edition of for those interested.

So it remains to be seen whether “Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[St]” will sell well or not. Nevertheless, it’s still a rather solid 2D fighting title thanks to its easy and pick up and play nature, bringing the arcade cabinet to your living room. However, since its previous releases, there don’t appear to be any huge differences or additions to warrant another full priced release, for me, it’s not much of an issue being new to the franchise, but for a veteran player looking for something more, they might be a little disappointed.

Pros:
+ Nice Art style
+ Plenty of content
+ Easy to pick up and play

Cons:
– There are better fighting games out there
– The story is a mess
– The online mode lives or dies deppending on how well the game sells

Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound/music: 4/5
Controls: 4/5
Replay value: 3/5

tgg grade 3.5 out of 5

Verdict: 3.5/5
“Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]” has a silly title, but it makes up for it in it’s simplistic combat. However, with so many other top-tier fighters available on the market it’s hard to recommend at launch, especially depending on how active the servers are in the long run. In other words, “Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]” might be worthy of your time and money if you’re a fan of the series, or if you have already played everything else to death.

Title: Under Night In-birth Exe:Late
Developer: Ecole Software and French-Bread
Format: PS4
Genre: 2D fighting
Resolution: 1080p
Release date: 2018-02-09
Difficulty: Medium
Spent time: +4 hours
Average grade internationally: 78.38% via Gamerankings.com
PEGI age rating: +16
Price: £40