The one thing that can always be said about the world of fighting games is that they will always have the most interesting playable characters.  Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] presents you with the standard characters with whips and flying swords, but then mixes it up a bit with one’s that one that fights with his own blood.  Cell shade all of it, voice act a huge portion of the game, and have the people who work on Guilty Gear help guide the project and it is going to be several kinds of interesting.  The question only remains how so.

Watch our live stream of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] below:

The first thing that can be noticed by watching any Let’s Play is simply how beautiful it is.  Over the past couple of years the fighting game genre has raised the bar on all pixel art and animation to an insane level—Under Night seems to be more than happy, and willing, to take up that mantel and earn its right to be on any of the those new and shiny consoles. All of this lends to the characters, with each of them drastically different from the other –not just a Ryu/Ken reskin.

The personality of the characters are one of the better things about the game, honestly.  Most fighting games have the off shoot random unique character that isn’t like the others on the roster – which basically means no one ends up using it.  This fighter has characters that all feel different enough from the way the last one moved, from the way they handle on the ground to the speed of attacks, that make them feel like unique.  Of course, this is also a double-edged sword as it can take a little longer to pick up the game.

The only real problem with Under Night is the depth of the combat isn’t something that is directly friendly to new comers.  Even those that are familiar with the fighting genre are probably going to experience a handful of growing pains because of the uniqueness of each fighter.  The true depth is difficult to speak about, as that conversation takes hundreds of hours with a game, but it seems to have the potential to be something great at the end of the road.

At the end of the day, Under Night brings a unique taste to the crowded fighting game genre.  It is a flavor that needs time to mellow and culture, something that is best enjoyed with a group of friends of similar skill levels to trash talk directly at while learning the ropes.  Under Night isn’t so much flawed in what it does, but so much in that it is flawed in what it expects out of the people that are going to be playing the game.  Sadly that isn’t really anyone’s fault but ours.

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] is available on the PS4 as well as digitally on the PS3 and the PS Vita.