Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes - Played through this with each of the 23 characters + 1 unlockable boss (launch version sans DLC and balance patches) and I still don't know what the title means. It's fighting in anime style (not cel-shaded polygons, big sprites!), so you got more movement options than a 90s fighting game and everybody got some normal attacks that look like specials or even super moves of a 90s fighting game. You gotta catch your opponent somehow when they are dashing around, so these two gameplay aspects logically go together.
The confusing
story is told (or rather alluded to) in the arcade mode's cut-scenes in visual-novel style, fully voiced, with. A lot. Of. Dramatic. Pauses. (I like the voices, especially during fights: The humming of Phonon, Wagner sometimes saying SCHEISSE when hit.) You get thrown into a bigger story that is nearing its end. I read that the prior iteration did have a non-interactive story mode with hours of VN content. Couldn't they have cobbled together a recap for newbies? Hrmpf. Night in Tokyo, opening to another dimension, evil guy tries to bring on the apocalypse. It's all very serious and mature, except for all the anime uwu humor (which I'm mostly OK with) and the guest character from another game who is aware she is a guest character from another game (bit too much for my taste).
All our beloved anime tropes are there: woman with big breasts, pretty boy with wig made of a slain Pikachu etc. The
characters not only look diverse from cute to monstrous, there is also much variety in how they feel to play. Chaos controls a beast, Merkava can fly, Carmine has attacks that drain his own life (very cool).
The
controls are 3 buttons for light/mid/strong attack + special button for various things (throws, shield, extra movement options, super move). Specials are easy to do Hadoken inputs (and quite often the result is a projectile) and Dragon Punch inputs (and quite often the result is a DP). Except for Vatista, the charge character. Down, down + button is another common input for specials. Holding a button for a bit can also have an effect (Mika hard punch deals more damage, Eltnum angles her shots). You got an ex meter to buff your strong specials. You can pause and look at a list of your specials, which also displays if they got ex properties, if you can do them in the air, and if they have specific follow-up moves. Y
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