Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late Set to Release in the West on March 31th 2015 (Plus Japanese Ver. Review & Gameplay Footage)

[DarknessKey92]

So this game was released in Japan on the Arcade in September 20, 2012, and was later now recently ported to PS3 this July 24, 2014. 

There has been word that it would be Localized in 2015 by Aksys Games for the West, which after seeing the trailer & Review for this game; I'm looking forward to this game.

Here's The game's own Section opened by Aksys Games

http://aksysgames.com/undernight/

 

 

Aksys Games is proud to announce Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, a stylish 2D fighting game set to bring explosive effects and fast-paced fighting to the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system! With its GRD Transfer State gauge, the tides of battle can change rapidly, adding an extra layer of intensity and depth! Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late was created by a combined effort of Arc System Works, whose BlazBlue and Guilty Gear series are world renowned, and French Bread, who has rightfully earned their place amongst fighting game fans! Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late brings beautifully hand-drawn sprites straight from the arcades of Japan to your home console! Pre-order today!

Product Info
Title: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late 
Genre: Fighting
Platform: PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system
Release Date: 2015
Publisher: Aksys Games
Developer: French Bread / ARC SYSTEM WORKS CO.,LTD.

Pre-order today!

 

 

So far Both Amazon & Gamestop currently old the Release Date Set to March(3)/31/2015 Selling for $39.99

Here's a Japanese Trailer for the Game

Game based of the Trailer seams decent, and I actually like how a lot of characters remind me of Melty Blood Characters....especially "Sion". This is expected since the development team is "French Bread" who worked on many Melty Blood Series titles.

Here's the game's Playable Characters:

 

1. "Akatsuki"

2. "Byakuya"

3. "Carmine"

4. "Chaos"

5.  "Eltnum"

6. "Gordeau"

7.  "Hilda"

8. "Hyde"

9. "Linne"

10. "Merkava"

11. "Nanase"

12. "Orie"

13. "Seth"

14. "Vatista"

15. "Waldstein"

16. "Yuzuriha"

 

Review Made by David Cabrera

Who Graded in Summary as:

Overall : A

Graphics : B+

Sound/Music : B+

Gameplay : A

Presentation : C+

+ Elegant fighting system that balances offense and defense, great depth without being overbearingly difficult

− Few extra modes and options compared to other fighting games

 

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/game/playstation-3/under-night-in-birth-exe-late/.77775

 

 

Between the convoluted modern-fantasy setting, a magic-powered cast, and its quite amazing interpretation of the English language, one could not be blamed for mistaking Under Night In-Birth for some kind of Type-Moon knockoff. The truth is actually more interesting.

The developer of this game is the storied ex-doujinshi studio French Bread. For the past decade, in association with Type-Moon, they've been working on the Melty Blood fighting game series using the characters from Tsukihime. Nobody can say they haven't put in their time with other people's characters, so French Bread are finally stepping into an original fighting game franchise with Under Night.

When Arc System Works made Blazblue, they specifically set out to make a new property, one they fully owned. Something which just so happened to be extremely thematically similar to their flagship Guilty Gear (whose rights are held up with Sega/Sammy). So it is with Under Night. An ordinary boy with amazing powers awakened from within him, a mysterious, taciturn heroine who's hundreds of years old despite her diminutive appearance... it all just happens to look a lot like a Type-Moon story! The main character of Melty Blood, Sion, even makes a guest appearance. The vampire alchemist doesn't look a hair out of place in this world of magical blade-wielding teens.

 

 

French Bread bills the game as “Pure Light Novelize 2D Versus Action”, but this is more in reference to the aesthetic than the story content. Rest assured, if you want to see two talking heads discuss the EXS (which you pronounce Igzis) and Recurring Void Effect and so forth, there is a ton of this stuff if you play through the Arcade mode with all of the characters. However, the game lacks the extended story mode that you typically see in Arc's games.

As usual in these import reviews, keep in mind this is the Japanese release, and all text is in Japanese. However, for those who would like to read the story, an English version is in fact being released by Aksys. The English text and terminology sprinkled throughout the game is mind-blowing (“Thousand night, Recurrence night, Reverie end Invite. And... [7days Immortal] Unreal BLACK THINGS.”) and I sincerely hope the localizers at Aksys have the wisdom not to touch any of it.

 

 

Beautiful 2D is still in short supply on current-generation consoles, because of how difficult it is to draw in such a high resolution. In keeping with the anime aesthetic, however, French Bread has stuck it out with 2D dot art. There is nothing quite like a good 2D sprite (unless you painstakingly imitate it in 3D, as seen in Guilty Gear Xrd), and truly these characters were meant for this style.

While the sprites aren't at the polished extreme of something like Blazblue, their attention to detail is impressive in its own right. There is a great feeling of size, weight, and movement in this unique set of character designs, which ranges from little girls to giant monsters.

This release doesn't contain much but the core game (an excellent, detailed training mode, the genre-standard filler of Time Attack, Score Attack, and Survival), but that game is quite an elegant piece of work. Under Night neither represents the slow-paced, defensive extreme ofStreet Fighter IV, nor the air-dashing all-offense chaos of Blazblue or Guilty Gear. Rather, it balances these elements into its own whole.

 

 

The key to the system-- and you won't even notice it until you've played for a while-- is the GRD (Grind Grid). This is a tug-of-war meter on the bottom of the screen that roughly measures who has the advantage in the fight, in 17-second increments. Advancing increases it and retreating decreases it, discouraging excessive runaway play and encouraging aggression in much the way Guilty Gear XX first did. However, blocking successfully increases the gauge, punishing predictable, boring patterns of attack.

Along with limited movement compared to other games of this type (most characters can't double jump or air dash) and high damage for just about every hit, the GRD system encourages players not just to attack, but to attack carefully and intelligently. Knowing a fancy combo is not the be-all and end-all of this game: fundamentally strong play-- spacing and smart reads of one's opponent-- are much more important.

 

 

As such, the learning curve is much less steep than in, again, Arc's games: Blazblue is well known even among genre veterans for requiring hours of combo practice before a player can even begin to understand how to play a character. Absolute beginners can mash on the A button to get an automatic combo (just as seen in Persona 4 Arena), and the “real” combos do not require obnoxious precision, nor do they stop the action for 20 seconds as the other player just sits around getting hit for a while. (They stop the action for 5 seconds).

The wide cast represents quite a range of play styles: in addition to a simple Ryu-like hero, there are characters like the tricky teleporting swordswoman Yuzuriha, or Carmine, whose weapon is his blood: he attacks by burning off his own life. Some characters are stronger than others (Gordeau, the walking Shoryuken), but the power gap is hardly unmanageable.

Online play is functional as it should be for these games, which is to say that sometimes developers in this genre still get it wrong, and this game didn't. Though it's a Japanese import, this game is still easily playable within the continental United States. The pool of competition is not deep-- wait for the US release for that-- but it's not hard for me (in New York) to get a match. Due to the nature of the game, however, you will want to avoid cross-country connections and anything below 2 bars.

 

 

Under Night is an elegantly designed game by people who have been at fighting games for a long time, and who deeply understand what's truly important about them. It achieves a simplicity of play (for this subgenre!) without for a moment sacrificing the genuine, less mechanical depth that makes these games exciting and addictive. People who are into story mode will want to hold out for the English release, but those who love fighting games for the sake of fighting should import immediately.

Review copy provided by Play-Asia.com

Thanks to @botoggle for the images.

 

 

Here's A Video of an Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late Tournament:

Edited August 26, 2014 by DarknessKey92

[DarknessKey92]

http://www.gamestop.com/ps3/games/under-night-in-birth-exelate/116799

Just Saw this @ gamestop's Website, and Its registered to supposedly release in NA on 3/31/2015

 

Aside from the not so certain Release Date, for sure the price is set for $39.99(Plus Whatever Tax % your state has added).

Edited August 25, 2014 by DarknessKey92

[DarknessKey92]

So here's The English Trailer for the Localized Version:

Look forward to playing this 1, hopefully I don't have A game to platinum on March(to hinder me playing this game).

[DarknessKey92]

Are you guys excited for "Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late" releasing this Tuesday(Feb 24, 2015)?

Even thought I can't play the game till I finish my damn Challenge(%100: Project diva F 2nd, KH 2.5 HD ReMIX, and The Swapper).

I'm pretty excited to pick it up(although I really wish I had a Special/Collector's Edition of the game, but seeing as how the game is pretty underrated; just makes me glad It was localized in the first place).

 

Anyway here's a review by Kyle MacGregor 

http://www.destructoid.com/review-under-night-in-birth-exe-late-287677.phtml

 

It's a total knockout!

The competition is fierce, and I'm not just talking about the folks delivering beat downs online. With so many fighting games on the market nowadays, fans of the genre are spoiled for choice. Studios are vying for mindshare, just as we're battling in the arena. Want people to take notice? Well then, you had better bring your 'A' game. And make sure to come out swinging.

That's exactly what Melty Blood studio French Bread has done with Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, the latest 2D fighter to throw its hat into the ring. It might look like just another high-flying "anime" fighter at first glance, but looks can be deceiving. Under Night In-Birth is its own beast, one absolutely deserving of your time and attention.

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (PS3)
Developer: French Bread, Arc System Works
Publisher: Aksys Games
Released: February 24, 2015 (NA) February 27, 2015 (EU)
MSRP: $39.99 

Under Night In-Birth has a story, but it certainly isn't much of a draw. Arc System Works may have helped French Bread bring Under Night In-Birth to consoles, but don't go in expecting a tale on the same level as other titles in Arc's prolific catalog. A paranormal phenomenon called the Hollow Night is happening and demons are spilling from the rift. So, naturally, it's fighting time.

And that's really why we're all here, isn't it? Thankfully, the combat at play is just fantastic, as French Bread has carved out a niche for itself between the breakneck air-dashers and slower, more grounded fighters like Street Fighter. It's fast, but with precious little in the way of aerial defense, you'll probably want to keep planted on terra firma most of the time.

Space control is a critical element of Under Night In-Birth, as nearly every character on the roster has some sort of long-range attack to jab at opponents and keep them at bay. This creates a fascinating dichotomy at the heart of the experience, giving players the tools to zone adversaries and bait them into vulnerable positions while also heavily encouraging aggressive play.

Notice that bar at the bottom of the screen between the special gauges? That's the "GRD." It's a baffling thing, really. In the center of the meter there's a ring that makes a rotation every 17 seconds. At the end of each cycle one player is awarded "Vorpal" status, granting the winner a damage bonus and the ability to "Chain Shift," which can be used to perform special combos and momentarily pause the fight. It certainly adds a layer of strategy to the game.

One gains GRD by landing attacks, blocking them successfully, and rushing forward. It can also be charged manually, though it's risky. This doubles as way to deplete the opponent's reserves. GRD is lost by moving away from the enemy, backdashing, or having one's attacks blocked.

GRD essentially punishes those clinging to predictable strategies and attack patterns, thereby incentivizing intelligent play and giving rise to all sorts of mindgames. Matches often feel like a tug-of-war, where the timing of an assault or execution of a block or pushback could be the tipping point in battle. That said, Vorpal status is a fleeting advantage, not a surefire path to victory.

Melty Blood fans will be glad to see Sion make an appearance as a guest character in Under Night In-Birth, though she's now named Eltnum. Her dialogue is brilliant too, as she frequently references the fact she shouldn't be in this universe, breaking the fourth wall and even giving the Type-Moon franchise a plug here and there. French Bread also pays homage to its doujin roots with another guest, the title character from Subtle Style's 2D fighter Akatsuki Blitzkampf.

All the game modes you'd expect (arcade, training, versus, time attack, survival, and score attack) make an appearance here, though the overall presentation is somewhat spartan. That's not a knock on Under Night In-Birth's visuals, mind you, The art and animation are just stellar, even if some of the character designs and background environments look pretty run-of-the-mill.

Arc System Works did a great job with the network mode, which works seamlessly across all regions. I was able to take on a number of players from Japan (as well as westerners who decided to go ahead and import the game) without experiencing any lag or disconnects.

I do have concerns about the title's longevity, though. It's a niche game, one currently lacking a vibrant community. While finding a match wasn't a tremendous challenge, I never noticed more than a dozen or so players in the unranked lobbies at any given time. Hopefully the impending localization can inject some new blood and give the online mode a good kick in the pants.

That's really my one concern, how much appeal an obscure fighter on a sunsetting system will have. It's an apprehension not levied at Under Night In-Birth itself but the circumstances surrounding it. French Bread has crafted an intelligent, tactical fighting game that I'll surely be playing for a long time to come. I certainly hope you'll join me.

 _{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

 

THE VERDICT:

9/10

Superb: A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage to what is a supreme title.

 

 

[DarknessKey92]

If anyone's interested here's a Q&A interview Siliconera had with French Bread, in regards to Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late’s character designs & Fighting System:

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/04/06/french-bread-designing-characters-night-birth-exelates-fighting-systems

French Bread, the makers of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, spoke with SIliconera about creating their latest fighting game, how they balanced it, and why their fighting games stories have occult themes. The PlayStation 3 fighting game has systems designed to make it accessible to players who want to see the supernatural story and also depth for fans of the genre.
 

Melty Blood and Under Night In-Birth both have supernatural elements in the story. How does this change the design of a fighting game?

The "occult motif" makes it easier to give characters reasons to fight, so we feel that it works well with a fighting game. It was difficult with Melty Blood, keeping in consideration the line where players that are fans of the original works would be satisfied, making it necessary to insert components that conformed to the source material while also put in fighting game components that weren’t present in the original source material (making Hisui and Kohaku fight in a comical way). Conversely, Under Night In-Birth’s setting and characters were intended to be for a fighting game from the very beginning, and did not have much effect on the creation of the game. Other than Waldstein’s large body, it was a very straightforward game to design.

 

Can you tell us about the future of the Melty Blood series? Is there a chance any of the titles will come to the West?

Future plans for Melty Blood are currently undecided. We will speak on this matter if the opportunity arises.

 

How do you design characters? Do you have ideas for different attacks in mind first or do you start with a sketch of a character and imagine attacks from there? Byakuya’s claws are unique and Waldstein is humongous on the screen compared to other fighters.

First of all, we think of the general type the character will be in terms of an average fighting game character (balanced, power-based, ranged-attack focused, etc.) and from there the designers create a basic full-bodied sketch. The next stage involves deciding on what motifs should be present. Waldstein for example, has "a huge body and claws", Yuzuriha has a "long Japanese sword". We consider what sort of image to push with the character, and after that we think of what kinds of attacks and animations to use.

 

With so many fighting games available these days, how did French Bread want to differentiate the Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late?

About the setting and characters, we saw how there weren’t many original fighting games that had the feeling of the Japanese light novels popular with youth audiences. BlazBlue is all-out fantasy. Arcana Heart is a game with only female characters and is targeted toward male gamers. We thought about highlighting this title’s uniqueness and originality by aiming for the middle of these ideas.

 

The distinctions of this game from BlazBlue, is the game’s emphasis on simplicity by focusing on the two options of strikes and throws, as well as the intensity of players reading each other by keeping tabs on each other’s gauges and the other player’s situation. In addition to this, by fusing the stylishness from connecting speedy combos with the fundamental Grind Grid system, we like to think a sense of uniqueness was achieved.

 

 

The Grind Grid is an interesting addition. It feels like it’s a tug of war, designed to favor attackers and get players to engage with each other faster to get to Vorpal State faster. Can you tell us about how you designed the Grind Grid and how it changed during development?

The Grind Grid gauge is a visualization of who has the upper hand in a fight. As to how it came about, we wanted to create a novel system in which whoever is winning the guessing game is rewarded with an additional advantage.

 

In games where combos can be freely strung together, even if you survive an opponent’s attack after you make a correct read or successfully break an opponent’s guard, just by falling behind in proficiency of executing combos, you lose in the race for damage and can still end up being defeated. Because of this, it becomes very important for players to practice fundamentals as well as learning how to read opponents correctly in order to execute combos.

 

While practicing combos can be entertaining, we wanted to stress the importance of players being able to accurately read the intentions of their opponents. That’s why we created the Grind Grid system, which increases when a player makes a correct read and decreases when they make an incorrect read. Through effective play, the character with the fuller Grind Grid will be strengthened.

 

As for how the system evolved throughout development, there were ideas like triggering a Grind Grid Break with every block of the gauge, or be able to perform a special action by consuming a block that were considered, but they were all too detailed and complicated and would include too many factors other than being able to make correct reads, causing them to be rejected.

 

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late has a couple of different defense options like Shield and Guard Thrust instead of a basic block. Can you tell us about these and why you wanted to give players more tools to defend?

Guard Thrust is a guard cancel attack that can be executed by inputting 214+D while blocking. In order for it to be successful, players need to interrupt their opponent’s attacks while charging their Grind Grid. However, because it is initially triggered by good defense, the mechanic can be seen as a present to those who made a number of good reads, where they can perform an invincible reset from a guarded state.

 

Shields are executed by pressing D while guarding. This also is not a system intended just to compensate for a guard’s weaknesses. To explain, if damage is taken because of an incorrect read during a shield, your Grind Grid will go into the Break state and you will be unable to use various actions for a fixed amount of time. Of course, if you succeed in using your shield, there are benefits, such as your guard recovery becoming shorter than regular guards, and big increases in your Grind Grid. Essentially, it is a system to be used when you can successfully read your opponent’s actions, knowing "my opponent will definitely attack here, so I can guard".

 

When on defense, we’ve included several different tools outside of straight blocking, but we did not create these systems with the intention for them to be used when the player can’t guard. The Shield mechanic is really meant to be used when a player is confident enough in their blocking skills to successfully rebuff their opponent’s combo, and the Guard Thrust is to be used only after you’ve increased your Grind Grid by making successful reads. These tools were included in order to emphasize the importance of making good reads.

 

 

At the same time, Under Night In Birth has systems that make it easier for new players to get into a game like Smart Steer. How else did French Bread make the game welcoming to newcomers and how did you decide which combos to make Smart Steer combos?

In order to make the game easier to play for beginners, we increased the freedom to use moves that have a chance of inflicting damage. For example, instead of just limiting players to the Passing Link string of A>B>C, you can connect moves through strings of your choice, and even keep enemies up in the air with air combos strung to your liking, causing damage with attacks you like.

 

As for the core of the game, we have made adjustments so that players can inflict high levels of damage even without using the difficult, highly technical combos performed by high level players. Also, throw damage is higher than most games nowadays, and because you generally can’t pursue an opponent after a throw, there are no combos initiated from throws. Because of these elements, novice players can do the same amount of damage that expert players can. In order to reduce the number of techniques and mechanics new players need to learn, we boiled things down to the fighting game basics of "rock, paper, scissors" using strikes, guards, and throws.

 

As for the Smart Steer combo system, we put a lot of thought not only into making them practical and easy to pull off, but also to make players new to the game think "That was cool!" when they do them for the first time.

 

What was the toughest part when balancing the game for beginning fighting game players and making the systems deep enough for hardcore players to master?

We felt it was important for those new to the fighting game genre as well as veteran players begin from the same starting point, especially for a brand new fighting game. For this game, with the unique Grind Grid system, and the creation of the core systems, we made it difficult to win only by using knowledge and experience gained in past games. It was a lot of work delving deep into the system and balancing characters to ensure veterans would enjoy the title for a long time, but it was even more difficult to balance the components that keep new players thinking, "even if I lose, I’ll still do my best". If beginners could quickly defeat veterans, it would feel like luck is too much of a factor, so we thought to balance the game’s system so that players could focus on "what points to improve on for the next time" when they lose.

[Guest]

This game is going to plus for march 2017!!! get rdy to rumble!!!