Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] Review

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] from Arc System Works, French Bread and PQube has landed on Nintendo Switch and brings with it a tonne of content that revitalizes the fighting game. This is the third revision of the console game and along with the gameplay tweaks and balances, there’s a brand-new character added into the mix.

Being the third revision of the base Under Night In-Birth Exe game, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] features “nearly one thousand gameplay balance changes and new moves” according to Arc System Works. The new character, Londrekia, enters the fray and has a range of icy attacks quite reminiscent of Jin Kisaragi from the Blazblue series of games but with a different weapon.

Being a visual novel-esque fighting game, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] has a very text heavy story attached to it. The game tells the tale of the “Hollow Night” and should you spend the time reading into the story by playing through the Chronicle mode, there is a lot to enjoy. And we really do mean a lot since the visual novel segments are not short by any means. Every character is well fleshed out and the story is captivating should you invest yourself into it.

Gameplay in Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] is quite complex. The game thankfully has an extremely in-depth tutorial mode accessible from the main menu. Everything a newbie needs to get up to speed with the game’s latest mechanics is available here. There’s a total of 179 different tutorials on offer. Fans of fighting games will find this incredibly useful and we’re glad that so much effort was put into the tutorial mode.

If you plan on button bashing your way to victory, chances are you will be able to get a couple of wins in against the CPU opponents but eventually, more complex game mechanics will need to be used. The game is forgiving on lower difficulties and as such, players will be able to work their way up to higher skill battles by slowly learning how each character plays out. Playing through the arcade and chronicle modes will help a lot too.

The actual fighting in Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] is heavily reliant on something known as the GRD gauge. Under certain battle conditions, players can enter an awakened state known as “Vorpal”. Going vorpal increases all attack damage and can instantly turn the tide of battle due to the extra power it avails you. Playing the game online was quite a laggy affair though this might have been because of our internet connection. User experiences might differ based on which part of the world you’re in and what your internet connection is like.

Graphically, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] looks superb. The game runs flawlessly in both handheld and docked Switch modes and looks great throughout. The character designs and background environments in Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] are visually appealing and the flashy attack animations and effects are spectacular. Pulling off a special attack never gets old thanks to how gorgeous the game looks. The game features a gallery mode where players can spend points to unlock character art and guest artwork etc.

The soundtrack of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] also deserves a special mention. The game features some great adrenalin pumping tracks. Unfortunately for fans of English dubs, there is only Japanese voice acting in the game. The voice acting however is great since it features a lot of seasoned veteran Japanese voice actors that fans of anime will immediately recognize.

Overall, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] is a great fighting game on the Nintendo Switch and one that is incredibly rewarding to play should you decide to invest time into the arcade and chronicle modes. The story is captivating and while there are some over the top highly anime trope filled aspects, it’s something that is extremely enjoyable throughout. If you’re looking for a fighting game on Nintendo Switch and are a fan of anime and visual novels, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] is for you.

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] is available on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4

This review is based on the Nintendo Switch version of the game.

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