Melty Blood is a cult classic fighting game series, and the developers of the series, French Bread, have created a spiritual sequel to create some new ideas. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, an updated version of Under Night In-Birth continues Melty Blood‘s tradition of blending the visual novel genre with 2D fighting game perfection. It has its own unique elements though and it was an interesting experience.
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late on PC is a tight fighting game, with precise controls. I played on a Hori Fighting Commander fight pad and had no complaints about how anything worked. There is a great training mode that helped get me into the fighting mechanics, but even better was the great pickup and play nature. I would just pick a random character and start to learn them in arcade mode. Some were easy to learn and some were difficult, but all were fun to play as. I don’t have any particular favourites but Linne was particularly fun to use.
Playing against others was great and I didn’t suffer lag or screen tearing. The visuals were sharps and crisp with just the right amount of flashiness. The music is great anime-esque music that fits great with the setting. The story mode was interesting but I had some difficulty getting into it. Mixing visual novels and 2D fighting games works for some games and some people enjoy it. I don’t have any real problems with it, but for some reason I just didn’t get into it here. Perhaps it just wasn’t for me, but at least I was able to enjoy the fighting game part of it. This is a game I can see myself coming back to, time and again, just to have some fun when I have a few minutes. Its a fun experience and enjoyable.
As a spiritual sequel to the Melty Blood series Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late does a lot right. It might not hit all the right notes with the story mode, but the fighting is on point. This is easily one of the best fighting games I have ever played on Steam and I am not exaggerating when I say that. This is a game that I give my highest recommendation to. If you like fighting games, then you need to check this out.