Review: UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II SYS:CELES is as strange and beautiful as its name

I love being able to describe things as “buttery and smooth.” It gives a sense of purity in content, simplicity and flow. While UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes might have one of the most embarrassing names ever spoken or written, the overall gameplay and experience is pretty smooth.

Any fighting game needs a few essential things: a variety of game modes, responsive combat, unique characters, and a strong sense of growth. UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes has all of these, but does some much better than others. When it comes to the actual combat, UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes is out of the ordinary. I’m honestly surprised by how fast and cool each character feels, how the combat flows with speed while still being easily readable and understandable. It’s super smooth and honestly pretty easy to pick up and even just mash the buttons.

Let’s get into this topic for a second, accessibility. This is always my complaint with fighting games, that as fun as they may seem, they are often not very fun to pick up or learn, especially for players not used to the genre or games in general. While I don’t want fighting games to heavily reward players for simply breaking controllers, it would be nice if there was a little more fun for players picking up the controller for the first time. UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes is undoubtedly not the easiest to master or play, it allows players to get a lot out of their characters if they are even remotely clever with placement, timing and a couple of well-placed broken buttons .

As far as playable characters go, the roster is quite large and robust. However, I found that many characters seemed to have identical playstyles even though the movesets were relatively different. This made character selection feel more like a cosmetic change with some gameplay tweaks rather than deep changes and learning curves in style and substance. Don’t get me wrong, the characters have a lot of personality, but I found myself using the same moves/inputs across a variety of characters and situations. As a side note, color customizations are plentiful, including room for custom color schemes, which is a fun and simple addition that I want in pretty much all future fighting games.

Finally, let’s address the game modes and overall longevity of the game. Between a standard arcade mode for each character and the normal versus modes, there’s not much I would want or expect. But the tutorial mode is incredibly good. I’ve never liked a tutorial mode, but this one was fun, fast-paced, and I went from barely understanding things to crushing enemies on harder levels in less than an hour.

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes isn’t as diverse in modes and characters as you’d expect or expect. However, its simplicity and accessibility for beginners with plenty of room for growth for every other level of player makes it a strong candidate in the world of fighting games.