The PlayStation 3 Brawler gets a Second Wind

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] is a 2D fighting game mixed with visual novel set pieces. It features a wide cast of characters and a merging story based on a fictional modern fantasy. This up to date edition comes with some fine tunes needed to make the game more easily immersive and more inviting to newcomers.

There is much to be done when first starting Under Night In-Birth and getting to grip with tutorials alone can see a formidable amount of time invested. As mentioned the game does have visual novel set pieces and these happen before rounds and between rounds. These tell a different story for each character and makes up for a very story driven fighting game and with the updates on PlayStation 4 makes it easier than ever for anyone to get involved in it.

There are 10 rounds to conquer in the story mode and each getting progressively harder; each round will require you to win twice as the standard fighting game formula. Of course there is a timer so highest health at time out is declared the winner and also the double down in the rare case that both players knock each other out resulting in another match being the decider. This is all pretty standard knowledge for a fighting game but where the game does shine is its vast amount of characters and combo moves and each character has such a distinct style; while some have swords and others let their huge oversized caestus do the talking.

The fighting itself is fast although very small when it comes to aerial fighting. While the game wants you to fight at close range it offers up every character an opportunity to take a back seat and pull off projectile attacks. There is one very unique gauge that is noticeable between the special gauges at the bottom of the screen; this is known as “GRD”. There is a circle that rotates and at the end of the cycle a character is given “Vorpal” status granting a damage boost and being able to pause the fight allowing the initiation of special combos which are known as a Chain Shift.

While the game does look visually appealing it does show that it hasn’t received much in a visual update from its Vita counterpart. The games campaigns aren’t amazing and before each round offers mediocre level of taunts from each character some of which can exaggerate for some time; this longevity adds to frustration in the later rounds where fights become tougher and making it more likely that you will have to start over.

Under Night In-Birth has plenty of game modes such as Arcade, Versus, Time attack etc; there is a gallery which you can unlock Visuals and Movies using IP which is gained during gameplay; also you can also unlock and set your characters icon and plate which is a self-representation for online gameplay. The online works great and I have never witnessed any slow downs or lag and never waited an extraordinary length for a match even down to the minor community playing at any given time.

A PlayStation 4 Review code was provided by PQube