Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes

Genre: Fighting Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local), 2-8 Competitive (Online Tournament), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

When the updated release of the original Under Night In-Birth came to Nintendo Switch in 2020, I said it was a well-crafted Fighting Game with excellent game mechanics, a ton of depth, but also features that made it a bit more accessible to newcomers, all within a great presentation, although by the time I got to it, the online multiplayer was pretty much dead, no doubt thanks to some reputed issues the Nintendo Switch’s release had with online play.

With its sequel (and supposedly the final game in the series) arriving in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, I can say that this game is… pretty much more of the same, and that’s largely a good thing.

Once again, you have some really exquisitely-detailed anime-style 2D pixel art characters with magnificent animation fighting within 3D levels that look decent enough and don’t distract from the fireworks going on in the foreground, backed by an anime-style soundtrack with a lot of synthesizers and electric guitars, including a lot of remixes from the previous game, with some examples being The End of Reincarnation (Opening Theme), Scraper Sky High II (Hyde’s Theme), Monochrome Memory II (Seth’s Theme), Mutual Situation II (Hyde vs. Seth Theme), Extreme Stream II (Enkidu Theme), Tearing Bullet (Kaguya Theme), Pandemonium Party (Uzuki Theme), Don’t Be Afraid Anymore (Ending Theme 1), and Close Your Eyes (Ending Theme 2). I do think this soundtrack has its ups and downs, but it nevertheless has some good songs in the mix there.

I won’t get into the details describing the gameplay – as I said, this is mostly pretty comparable to the prior game, though that’s not to say there haven’t been some changes. There’s a new a new “Celestial” GRD Vorpal (I swear, Fighting Games just toss random words together like it means something) which basically gives you a potentially devastating power-up if you can manage to save up the “GRD” you build up during battle. For more moment to moment stuff, there’s a new dodge roll move called “Creeping Edge”, and in addition to all of the prior games’ characters returning, there are now 3 new playable characters, for a total of 24 (with an additional 3 paid DLC characters gradually becoming available via season pass for those who are okay with dropping a bit of extra cash).

In addition to these changes, more attention has been paid to online play this time around. This game now uses rollback netcode, and I can say that the online matches I played in were absolutely smooth. In addition, you now have a wealth of custom color options for your character to help you stand out more online.

Given that the lack of online competition was one of my biggest complaints about the first game, there’s not too much to complain about this time around. Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is still pretty intimidating for a newer player (though there are multiple options to help newbies learn as well as training wheels to act as a crutch as they’re learning). And it’s not quite as slick as games that use 3D to mimic the look of 2D, such as Dragon Ball FighterZ, but overall this is an excellent Fighting Game that should be considered among the top tier of what’s available on Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is a Fighting Game that doesn’t change too much from the prior game, but adds a few new minor mechanics, 3 new characters (plus 3 more via paid DLC), and much-improved online. This is still an intimidating game for a newer player, though it does offer tools to help newbies ease into the game. Overall, this is a solid entry in the genre, and one of the better Fighting Games on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Action Game

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