I tackled Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[st], a stupendously niche but really entertaining fighting game released by Arc System Works nearly six years ago. Abominable naming aside, I was impressed with its character roster, banging presentation, and its gameplay, which wasn’t particularly innovating, but was fast-paced, responsive, and the perfect mixture between accessible to newcomers and deep for veterans. It took developers French Bread a good chunk of time in order to craft a proper sequel to the In-Birth subseries, with yet another silly named banger, Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes. Awful naming aside, I was satisfied with this sequel overall, but there are some caveats.

The amount of gameplay-related features not seen in previous Under Night In-Birth games but actually included in Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes ain’t impressive. The main selling point, however, is a big one: rollback netcode. The franchise might not be very famous outside of fighting game circles, but what little people know about it is the fact it’s all about pulling off complex combos in a fast-paced environment. It’s no surprise that these games ended up becoming EVO staples. Having rollback netcode is a godsend for a fighting game which demands precision like very few others out in the market. That and a handful of new fighters make up the core new features in what’s otherwise a pretty straightforward sequel everywhere else.

In terms of modes, it’s par for the course, with the arcade mode still being a mixture between a traditional fighting game arcade ladder and a visual novel with a boatload of anime-as-hell (as in, over-acted) voice acting. The graphics are pretty much the same as before (which isn’t exactly a bad thing, but let’s face it, it’s been the same schtick since 2012), and the music, whilst not groundbreaking or anything, does the job with honors. It’s really catchy, be it on the main menu or during a fight.

You may be wondering what’s the so-called caveat I’ve had with Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes, in order to alert right away in the beginning of the review. My gripe with it lies with the handful of issues I’ve encountered in this particular PC port. When I first booted it up, only for the system to actually believe I was playing a console port when creating a save file, I began to worry. After three attempts at adjusting the game’s resolution and aspect ratio, only for it to freeze, I got overly annoyed. There were also a few crashes here and there, always during menu transitions. Thankfully, not a single complain to be had during gameplay per se.

I get that PC gaming might still not be as mainstream to Japanese audiences as it is in the West, and I understand less resources may have been spent when doing this particular port (which, mind you, still plays like a dream), but I was still a bit disappointed with these glitches, especially since how the game has been out for a few weeks already. This is nothing that cannot be fixed, thankfully enough.

The awfully-named Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is a pretty good sequel to what was already a really deep, but surprisingly accessible 2D fighter. In terms of content and mechanics, this game is still excellent, worthy of being put right next to other Arc System Works fighters. In terms of presentation, it didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but it’s not like the other games in the series were ugly to begin with. Sadly, in terms of how well this particular PC port was crafted, well, I was a bit disappointed. With a handful of glitches and an overall sensation this port was treated like an afterthought, you are better off playing it on a console.

Graphics: 7.0 Not a lot has changed when it comes to the presentation. The characters look identical to how they looked like a few years ago. Still good, though.	Gameplay: 9.5 Fast-paced, responsive. It doesn’t feel prohibitively overwhelming for a newcomer to pick up a character and pull off some combos, but there’s a lot of room for experimentation with enough training.
Sound: 8.0 A catchy main menu theme, some hard rocking bangers blasted during fights, and a whole crapload of anime dialogue during cutscenes.	Fun Factor: 7.5 I was impressed with the sheer amount of content available in this Under Night sequel, as well as the great gameplay, but was disappointed with the glitches and the whole sensation this particular PC port felt like an afterthought.
Final Verdict: 8.0

Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is available now on PS4, PS5, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes was provided by the publisher.