Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes Fighting Game’s Uzuki Reveal Trailer Streamed

ANN’s coverage of Anime Expo 2024 sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!

Arc System Works streamed an Uzuki reveal trailer at the “ARC Live Special Edition” panel at Anime Expo on Saturday for Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes, the newest installment in French Bread’s original Under Night In-Birth 2D fighting game series. The character will have a trial at the EVO 2024 event.

The game released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on January 25. The game will have a season pass with three new characters coming after launch.

ucio performs the theme song “Rinne no Owari e” (Toward the End of Reincarnation).

The game features the final chapter in the “Hollow Night” storyline that began with the original series. There were 21 returning characters as well as three new characters at launch. The new characters are Kaguya, Tsurugi, and Kuon.

French Bread (Melty Blood) developed the original Under Night In-Birth game, which launched in Japan as an arcade game in 2012. It was followed by an updated arcade game titled Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late in 2013. Arc System Works released a PS3 port of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late in Japan in 2014. Aksys Games released the game for PS3 in North America in February 2015. The original Under Night In-Birth was never released outside of arcades.

The follow-up version is titled Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]. The arcade version of the game launched in July 2015 in Japan, and Arc System Works released the game on the PS3 and PS4 in Japan in July 2017. Aksys Games released the game for the PS4 and PS Vita in North America in February 2018, and PQube Games released the game on the same platforms in Europe on the same date. Arc System Works released the game on PC via Steam in August 2018. The follow-up to that version was Under Night In-Birth EXE:Late[cl-r]. The game debuted on PS4 and Switch in Feburary 2020, and debuted on PC via Steam in March 2020.

The Under Night In-Birth game series is notable for its unique GRD mechanic. Aside from life and super move gauge, players fight over a secondary resource known as GRD, which can be gained or lost from the results of certain offensive and defensive exchanges. Every 16 seconds, the player with the most GRD is awarded a buff that increases their damage, and access to a cancel that also converts their existing GRD to an amount in the super gauge. In this way, players are just as often fighting for a lead on the GRD in addition to the life lead.

French Bread developed the Melty Blood: Type Lumina 2D fighting game, based on characters from Type-Moon‘s Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- remake visual novel. The game launched for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam in September 2021.

Source: ARC Live Special Edition at AX panel at Anime Expo (Earl Gertwagen)