Under Night In-Birth

Under Night In-Birth[10] is a 2D fighting game co-developed by Ecole Software and French-Bread. Since its initial arcade release in Japan, it received numerous version updates for adjustments and playable characters.

Under Night In-Birth
Developer(s)Arc System Works
French Bread
Ecole Software
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Nobuya Narita
Producer(s)Nobuya Narita
Toshimichi Mori
Artist(s)Seiichi Yoshihara
Composer(s)Raito
Platform(s)Arcade (RingEdge 2)
PlayStation 3
Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 4
PlayStation Vita
Nintendo Switch
Release
Genre(s)2D fighting game, Visual novel
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

The game features similar mechanics to other 2D fighting games, particularly to Melty Blood, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. The game use three attack buttons corresponding to light, mediuma and heavy attacks, as well as a fourth button tied to the game's "GRD" meter. Attacks can be cancelled into each other in any order, as well as into special and super moves. GRD is a tug-of-war mechanic that rewards players for offense and defense, giving them access to Shield, an enhanced defensive technique; Assault, an angled hop/air-dash move; and Force Functions, a character-specific action that serves as either an attack or a temporary buff. Whichever character has more GRD at the end of a cycle gains a temporary "Vorpal" buff, improving their moves and damage and allowing them to use a Chain Shift, which instantly cancels any move and resets the character to a neutral state while giving them extra meter based on the amount of GRD accrued. However, incorrectly guarding moves with Shield causes a state known as GRD Break, which locks a character out of any techniques which require GRD. A more traditional super meter known as the EXS Gauge fills up whenever players land attacks or get hit. Characters can spend half a bar of meter to use powered-up versions of their special moves, or spend a full bar to use their Infinite Worth move, a high-damage super attack similar to super moves in other fighting games. When their health is below 30%, characters have access to Infinite Worth EXS, an extremely strong super activated by pressing all four buttons. A technique called Veil Off can be utilized if a character has more than half a bar of meter, giving a "burst" shockwave that pushes away the opponent as well as a powered up state which grants a damage boost and temporary use of infinite super meter. [st] adds a new feature known as Cross-Cast Veil Off, where characters with at least half a bar of super meter and Vorpal state can cancel combos into a Veil Off burst. In addition to fighting game modes, [st] adds Chronicle Mode, a series of short visual novel-like stories expanding for characters and settings.

Plot

Every month in modern-day Japan, a phenomenon called the Hollow Night brings forth invisible, immortal creatures called Voids. They feed upon a power known as EXS, which they can gain by attacking humans caught within the Hollow Night. Though the attack usually results in death or Void transformation of the victim, anyone who survives becomes an In-Birth, gaining the ability to control EXS. After surviving a Void attack, high school student Hyde Kido receives the power of darkness. Wishing to be free of her immortal existence, a young girl named Linne offers to train Hyde in his powers on the condition that when he is ready, he will end her life. Finding himself caught in a battle between a group of In-Births vying for control over the powers of EXS, Hyde finds a way to survive until the next Hollow Night.[11]

Characters

The game has 21 playable characters as of [cl-r]. The guest ones include Sion Eltnam Atlasia (Eltnum) from Melty Blood and Akatsuki from Akatsuki Blitzkampf. The game features Japanese-language voice acting.[12] Some characters later appeared in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle with English-dubbed voice actors.[13]

  • Hyde Kido (城戸 灰都 (キド ハイド), Kido Haido): A high school student. He wields the dark magical sword Insulator.
  • Linne (リンネ, Rinne): A young girl who is the ancient immortal princess of the Night Blade and the leading organization of the Hollow Night.
  • Waldstein (ワレンシュタイン, Warenshutain): A wise man and Linne's guardian.
  • Carmine Prime (カーマイン・プライム, Kāmain Puraimu): A young man with a violent attitude, who uses blood in combat.
  • Orie Ballardiae (オリエ・バラーディア, Orie Barādia): A member of the anti-Void organization Licht Kreis whose parents were killed by an intelligent Void.
  • Gordeau (ゴルドー, Gorudō): A hired henchman of Amnesia, an organization seeking to dominate the Hollow Night.
  • Merkava (メルカヴァ, Merukava): An amnesiac intelligent flying Void.
  • Vatista (バティスタ, Batisuta): An ancient "Autonomic Nerve" designed as an anti-Void weapon.
  • Seth (セト, Seto): An assassin of the Night Blade.
  • Yuzuriha (ユズリハ): A female samurai.
  • Hilda (ヒルダ, Hiruda): The leader and co-founder of Amnesia.
  • Chaos (ケイアス, Keiasu): Amnesia's chief strategist and monster summoner.
  • Nanase (ナナセ): A middle school student who is attacked by a Void and turned into an In-Birth. She blames Hyde for her transformation despite the rescue.
  • Byakuya (ビャクヤ): A psychotic middle school student accompanied by his sister.
  • Phonon (フォノン, Fonon)): Nanase's best friend with a chunibyo personality.
  • Mika Returna (ミカ・リターナ, Mika Ritāna): Orie's friend and fellow operative.
  • Enkidu (エンキドゥ, Enkidō): A former martial artist and member of Amnesia.
  • Miyashiro Erika Wagner (宮代 (ミヤシロ)・エリカ・ワーグナー, Miyashiro Erika Wāgunā): A member of Licht Kreis.
  • Londrekia Light (ロンドレキア・ライト, Rondorekia Raito): A member of Ritter Schild, a branch organization of Licht Kreis.

Development

The game began development in 2010. Nobuya Narita discussed how it arose from the team's experiences working on Melty Blood. French-Bread originally planned to work on the high-definition title for the game, but development later stalled while Type-Moon went on to work on Mahōtsukai no Yoru. Early prototypes provided the foundation for the game. Narita emphasized they wanted to differentiate the game from Melty Blood, so the lore, visuals, systems and combat flow are much different from the previous work. It marked the team's first game using high definition and features hand-drawn high-resolution sprites.[14] In March 2013, Sega added support for its ALL.Net P-ras Multi service, a distribution network that allows multiple arcade owners to receive copies of the game without providing a dedicated arcade cabinet for each copy. Other games that utilize this service include Arc System Works' Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R and Triangle Service's Game Center Love.[15]

Release

Sega released the arcade version in Japan on September 20, 2012. A major revision, entitled Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (アンダーナイトインヴァースエクセレイト, Andā naito invāsu ekusereito), was released on September 9, 2013. Arc System Works released the game for PlayStation 3 on July 24, 2014.[16] A 2015 release for North America and Europe was later announced.[17] It was also released in North American on March 31, 2015, according to the GameStop website. However, Aksys Games revealed the release date for Exe:Late, they said that the game will be released on February 24, 2015. Exe:Late was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows systems on July 12, 2016. A further update to the game entitled Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st][18] was announced on May 15, 2015.[19] Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] was released on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan on July 20, 2017,[20] and in North America and Europe on February 9, 2018.[6] Exe:Late[st] was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows systems on August 20, 2018. Exe:Late[st] is then re-titled to the update below, Exe:Late[cl-r], for those who owned PlayStation 4 and Windows versions. Another revision of the game, entitled Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r][21], was released for PlayStation 4 and Switch. It was announced at EVO 2019 for February 20, 2020 release, while Europe released the game on the next day, after it was released in Japan and North America.[22] The PlayStation 4 version has an update for those who owned the version of Exe:Late[st], while the players who purchased the PlayStation version which is not PlayStation 4 get a limited discount from the release date until April 30, 2020 in both Japan and North America, and April 31, 2020 on Europe. Any players who owned Exe:Late[st] to update, contents which were added to Exe:Late[cl-r] update remains paid DLCs.[23] A Microsoft Windows port was released on March 27, 2020.

Reception

The PlayStation 3 version of Under Night In-Birth received a 29/40 from Famitsu.[31] Destructoid said that it was "an intelligent, tactical fighting game that I'll surely be playing for a long time to come." IGN said it was "One good fighting game. Maybe it's not as deep as previous Arc System Works games, but successfully achieves what it is aiming: to let the player enjoy it." Eurogamer concluded "an interesting 2d fighting game with a very unique fighting system. Just try it, and you'll be amazed." It was nominated for the category of Best Fighting at The Game Awards 2020, but lost to Mortal Kombat 11.[34]

See also

References
  1. "GAME". news-ex.tvasahi.jp.
  2. "■■速報＠保管庫(Alt)■■ : F1326: PS3「アンダーナイト インヴァース （＊＊）」AC対戦格闘ゲームがPS3で7/**発売". Blog.hokanko-alt.com. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  3. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late Venturing to PlayStation 3 on July 25 with New Character Nanase". Shoryuke.comn. 2014-04-23. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  4. Baltimore, Steve. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late Release Date Revealed - oprainfall". Operationrainfall.com. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  5. "News: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late Coming to Europe, Screens Released". Gamershell.com. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  6. Subscribe (21 November 2017). "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] Rice Exclusive Collector's Edition & Release Date Announced".
  7. "UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[st] on Steam". store.steampowered.com.
  8. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] opening movie". Gematsu. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  9. "UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[cl-r] on Steam". store.steampowered.com.
  10. アンダーナイトインヴァース Andā naito invāsu
  11. "Under Night In-Birth - Story". inbirth.info. Ecole, French-Bread. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  12. "Behind The Voice Actors - Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late". Behind The Voice Actors. Inyxception Enterprises. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  13. "Behind The Voice Actors - BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle". Behind The Voice Actors. Inyxception Enterprises. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  14. ハメコ。 (November 3, 2012). "同人から商業にフィールドを移したフランスパンが，新作「アンダーナイト インヴァース」で目指したもの。代表・なりた氏に聞く，その思惑". 4gamer.net. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  15. "ALL.Net P-ras MULTI". sega.jp. Sega. Retrieved 2014-09-10.
  16. "Under Night In-Birth coming to PS3 in Japan this July". Gematsu. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  17. "VIDEO: "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late" Busts Out a Debut Trailer". Crunchyroll. 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  18. アンダーナイトインヴァースエクセレイトエスト Andā naito invāsu ekusereito esuto
  19. "Under Night In-Birth Update Will Add New Character Phonon". GamesNosh. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  20. "【先出し週刊ファミ通】『アンダーナイト インヴァース エクセレイト エスト』アーケードの人気作が家庭用に！（2017年4月20日発売号）". ファミ通.com.
  21. アンダーナイトインヴァース エクセレイト クレア Andā naito invāsu ekusereito kurea
  22. https://gematsu.com/2019/05/under-night-in-birth-exelatecl-r-rated-for-ps4-switch-in-taiwan
  23. https://www.gematsu.com/2019/11/under-night-in-birth-exelatest-for-ps4-to-receive-under-night-in-birth-exelatecl-r-balance-update-dlc
  24. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  25. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  26. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  27. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  28. "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  29. MacGregor, Kyle (February 20, 2015). "Review: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late". Destructoid. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  30. Facchetti, Filippo (September 15, 2014). "Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late - review" (in Italian). Eurogamer.it. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  31. Romano, Sal (July 12, 2014). "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1336". gematsu.com. Gematsu. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  32. Storm, Bradly (February 18, 2015). "Review: Under Night In-Birth". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  33. Ayora, Víctor (March 3, 2015). "Under Night: In-Birth Exe:Late - Análisis - Lucha de la buena" (in Spanish). IGN España. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  34. Tassi, Paul (December 11, 2020). "Here's The Game Awards 2020 Winners List With A Near-Total 'Last Of Us' Sweep". Forbes.
Under Night In-Birth
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]
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