Truly, the best Figthing Game this year so far(long read)

Standing above the biggest releases and avoiding some of the dumbest tendencies developers love to include nowadays in figthers (in game DLC, lousy netcode, pay to win characters...lots of boobs) comes one of the best fighters i have played since KOF XIII and no doubt the best pure figthing game this year.

Developed by the studio responsable for the cult hit Melty Blood and published by arguably the best figthing game studio Arc Systems Works, Under Night In Birth (UNIEL) might just seem like yet another Anime game with weird characters, impossible combos and over the top moves, but UNIEL does a great job at offering a fun game to the casual crowd as well as the figthing enthusiasts.

I know what most of you guys are already thinking...something like "i'm not good at this games, the moves are all flashy and they look awesome but i can't never perform them", well fear not, UNIEL has a very unique system that is incredible friendly to all users so is really easy to link any of your buttons into special moves to make flashy combos with any character, since all the super moves have really, really easy inputs.

Oh, but hardcore fans should not be discourage by the fact that the basic combos are easy in this game, on the contrary, if you really want to push the engine to its limits you can go way beyond the basic combos and use your character to its limits by using every movement available.

Yes, i know, way too good to be true right? but sadly is no perfect by any means and it has a few cons, first of all, the cast is short compared to what we usually have in todays games with only 14 characters, they are all very unique with their own style, but still, it might seem short, also is very Anime...so you will find your usual Anime cast like the spunky main character, the loli one, the mysterious one, the over the top weird one...etc, so if Anime is an issue for you, well...last and IMO the biggest flaw, the game does such a poor job at teaching you the system and it can get complex...like really complex, but nothing than some google can't fix.

Anyway, all i'm trying to say is that the game is really, really good, and while is very niche, i think it does the figthing extremelly well, since the fights are fast peaced, flashy and very rewarding, sure the production values are definitely not high and it has only the basic game modes that we encounter in any fighter, however as barebones as it is, the netcode works extremely well and the game is so, so fun to play, i really think is one of the few fighters that could be really fun to play for both casuals and hardcore.

So in the end, if you still have some room for another fighter after all the boobs and all the gore from this year, you'll probably want to check this one, it costs $40 and it's available only on PS3 because i think is without a doubt the best fighter this year.

First you say "....impossible combos....." and then you "......a fun game to the casual crowd......"

How can it be fun for casuals if they can't do all the combos ?

It just might seem like another game with impossible combos, but the system is very friendly, sorry if i didn't explained it better :P

I remain Skeptical......

And stop hating on boobs... DoA is awesome.

@Lulu_Lulu: I got this game because i saw some tourneys and it looked hype...so i was prepared to spend several hours on just training mode learning the game and choosing my characters, and i was really surprised when after just a few minutes i was already making some good basic combos with Orie (love at first sight :P ) also when i went online i was surprised as well to see many people around my ranking level landing so many combos almost flawlessly, that's when i learned that you can, in certain situations, make a full combo with just one button and finish it with either a move or an ex-move if you have the meter. Sure being the masochist that i'am in this games, i have spend several hours in training mode learning more complex combos, that's why i think a lot of people who just want the fast peaced gameplay can have fun with this game since you can "mash" a single button in order to get a full combo , just the same way the hardcore guys will love the depthness of the system.

Also, i don't hate DOA...i love DOA, DOA4 is one of my favorite figthing games from last gen (i freaking love Helena's gameplay)...but i was really disappointed with DOA5, still, i was ready to jump on the DOA bandwagon again with Last Round...but well, UNIEL got in my way and i'm loving it way too much to even think in DOA or MKX for the time being.

@madsnakehhh:

Don't combos like that get Punished ?

All right so I've familarized myself with the basics and as far as I can tell:

Yes the combos are easy to perform anybody can jump in and make magic happen quickly........ unfortunately that seems to be the only nice thing about it..... the Defensive options suck and its far too dependent on Resources.... the most annoying of which is the GRD which creates a snowball effect more than it does balance out the system.

why are you playing this game ?

@madsnakehhh: Pretty impressive , i didnt know that title !!! Too bad i dont own a Ps3 though.

@AzatiS:

Well... theres always the Boob Simulator, available on everything except the Wii U.

Bleh. An anime fighting game with weird characters and visual effects all over the screen. I'd much rather play Mortal Kombat 10 or Killer Instinct.

Seriously. My gay cousin even loves boobs in his games.

This game's not even better than Persona Arena 2 or BlazBlue. The game only gained momentum because it was an import only game but as soon as it was announced for the West the community died down. I mean, it's just another anime fighter. There's absolutely nothing special about it.

@cainetao11:

LOL

Thats one hell of an endorsement if I've ever heard one. :D

@Litchie:

Its not so bad.... the Interface is much much better than the giant mess from BlazBlue, unforthunately yes.... the moves and special effects are very distracting, I don't see why a simple attack needs so much flashing and flickering...... it makes it harder to glance at the GRD and Super Meter.

It could have been a whole lot worse though.

Dude he's hilarious. When he sees a good looking woman and people are like "I thought you were gay?" he says "but not blind or stupid! that's a good looking woman"

@cainetao11:

LoL..... I kinda get it... I mean think about it..... nobody is 100 percent straight, sometimes you just turn and the TV and see some shaving cream commercial and you're like: wow.....that dude is hot....

Ofcourse you don't say it out loud but if you're a human being capable of empathy then you stare at his rock hard abs for one second longer than you're suppose to.....

Only sociopaths are 100% straight.

@Gue1:

Oh I wouldn't say that. Its combo system and GRD system special..... its flatout stupid but it is special. :)

Come on man.... give them the credit they deserve.

MKX got my vote

I can't agree there Madsnake. Under Night is one of those games like GG, BB, SkullGirls, (Yatagarasu is in this list as well), etc where the game may have an intricate fighting system but has hardly any lasting personality. Personally I like Persona Arena Ultimax better than Under Night but even that community died out shortly after release. Lets not even get started on the super overhyped GG Xrd that everybody was hyping because of a swiveling camera.

For a game like Under Night to really make it's mark, it needs a seriously strong community and it just does not have it. So far this year's best fighter is MKX. Nothing else comes close yet unless we count DOA: Last Round as a fighter of this year.

Since the first moment i saw it on streams, i thought it looked fun, and i've been wanting a new fighter to play when i'm not on the usual SF4 or KOF mood, i had my eyes on Xrd but knowing Arc Systems, they will launch a revision soon with balanced mechanics and new characters, same with MKX, i'm not a huge fan of the gameplay but i love horror movies so Predator and Jason are a must for me, not to mention i did enjoy quite a lot the previous game story mode...but like i said, next year we will have no doubt a Komplete Edition so i can definitely wait. Next on my list was DOA5 Last Round, again i'm a huge DOA fan but vanilla 5 left a bittersweet taste on me and while several people is saying that this edition is arguably the best DOA has ever been, i'm just not feeling it right now.

So i took a chance with UNIEL now that the game its gaining momentum, i mean there is been a while since i played Melty Blood and this one looked a lot like it, but with improved mechanics, and i was not wrong, sure the GRD system is more of an annoyance for a lack of a better word (i admit i was thinking, did they just tried to make the game with most meters on a screen ever?), and even more because the game does such a poor job explaning it, but once you understand a little bit about it, it becomes more natural for you to at least not letting your opponent have it all the time, and even so...is not really that important at times.

And yes, some characters are meter dependent, some of them not, is more about your own style, Oriel and Hilda (the characters i'm learning) are not that dependent and while characters like Carmine or Chaos need the meter. About the defense system...well maybe, the game is pretty offensive but most characters have at least 1 reversal move in order to get some room...but yes it begs for a Burst system or a Combo breaker.

Anyway, i'm just having a lot of fun with it because it does the figthing extremely well, more so than other fighters IMO, and while i know that is far from perfect i think it is a great option for anyone who just wants to jump and make some magic with the characters.

WOW

that is some bad balancing in that video

dude's throwing combos from literally the other side of the screen

@madsnakehhh:

Oh... well then thats good..... but when you're done with that.... give the Boob Simulator a shot.

I jumped in at the Vanilla version so I'm not entirely sure what was wrong with it..... well other than Hayabusa being fucking over powered, but appearently its been balanced and rebalanced since then.... now Phase 4 is fucking over powered...... Team Ninja thought they could justify this by giving her a Frame Perfect Execution Barrier, which did didly squat.... the pros rarely drop combos with Phase 4, hell even I'm starting get better at Just Frame Combos, I can do them like 5 out 18 times. ;) which is huge... for a noob. The Online is still laggy but appearently theres been a significant improvement on the PS4 version. Just like NRS, Team Ninja is trying to get this bad boy into as many tournaments as possible, they'l make it to Evo one day.... Assuming UNIEL doesn't there first, I know Arc Systems has some serious influence.

Not really, Hilda is one of the hardest characters to learn and while she is pure zooning, she also has some of the worst defensive moves in the game, in other words, if you let your enemy gets near you, you will struggle a lot.

@Lulu_Lulu: Definitely, i just need to give it some time, besides and i'm still a little bit confused about this, is Last Round F2P on PS3? or what's the deal about that? Anyway the reason i was disappointed with Vanilla 5 is that the online, IMO was terrible, i had so many problems getting smooth matches, and even in KOF XIII i had amazing matches, but here i played a lot the first weeks and it seems that it wasn't going to improve, so i start playing the offline modes and while fun for a while, i just lost the interest pretty fast, don't know why, i just didn't feel the magic i felt with DOA4, maybe i was expecting way too much, i still play it with friends from time to time, but not that often.

I've seen some tournaments and man, Phase 4 looks...plain out broken, i hope is not really the case.

@madsnakehhh:

Theres something call Dead or Alive 5 Core Fighters. You get the game plus 4 free characters (The Ninjas) and if you want you can buy the other 30 characters at $4 each, every now and then they make make one of the otheR characters available to experiment with for one or two weeks, I actually don't know that much about it since I think F2P is a waste of time, rather get the whole game.

Now, regarding Phase 4...... you know the whole point of DoA is to play the stun game long enough to launch your opponent at maximum height so you can juggle them for longer..... well multiple characters can just skip over that process and just throw you into the air, Phase 4 is one of those characters..... what makes her Broken is that her Juggles are longer and more powerful than all the other characters that use Launch Throws.... a full juggle can do anywhere from 40 to 60% damage to your health, so essentially you can lose just by being thrown twice. Ryu Hayabusa is only overpowered in one specific stage of the game.... the Home Stage, hey can throw you up into the ceiling which does alil damage then he can do a short combo that knocks you back hard into a breakable wall, when this happens, instead of falling safely to the ground, you just get reset and from there he can combo into his Shoho Izuna. Thats like half your health gone..... he can do it again since the stage has multiple walls that reset......... but Phase 4 doesn't need a Ceiling, all she needs is the reset.

Other characters with Ceiling/Launch throws are: Kasumi, Gen Fu, Ayane, Lisa and Hayate. This game heavily favours the Ninjas.

Kinda like Mortal Kombat does with Scorpion and Sub Zero.

@Litchie: lol Killer Instinct

Too many weebo games...

@nyadc: Don't play them then, let us folk who like them enjoy them.

Another weeaboo fighting game. How exciting.

/sarcasm

@speedfreak48t5p: @nyadc:

Shut Up.

I saw this game and checked out some vids. Not one single character looks interesting to me. Look and play wise. So didint bother with it.

@nini200: So disappointed in you, out of all people...oh well, i forgive you because you love KOF as well :P

Nah, i realize there are lots of Anime games, but i strongly disagree that games like GG, Blazblue and even UNIEL lack any sort of personality, however, with games like Yatagarasu i can definitely give you the reason here, that's as generic as you can get, but with UNIEL is different thanks in part to his very unique gameplay that allows you to play at a seemingly high level with little efford without being shallow.

And yes, MKX definitely has the strongest mass appeal that no doubt will make it last longer that all those games combined but that doesn't make it the better figthing game.

Not for me.

That's not King of Fighters Maximum Impact 3

@Capitan_Kid:

Well if it was then the thread have a totally different title.

Don't like the game I gather? You should follow your own advice...

I did like it, just find it funny how hyped up it is when it's a pretty meh fighter compared to stuff like SF or Guilty Gear.

@davem1992:

Say What !?

Killer Instinct isn't "Meh".... Killer Instinct is "WOOOOOOHOOOOOO" !!!

>"Developed by the studio responsable for the cult hit Melty Blood"

LOL stopped reading there. 0 interest.

@davem1992:

Allright... I know didly squat about Guilty Gear but KI is definitely better than Street Fighter.

Come on man... don't hate.

KI better than arguably the greatest and most revolutionary fighting series ever?

@davem1992:

What.... who decided that ?

Are you saying just because KI is only a year old it can't be better than a long running franchise ? That's not fair.

KI isn't a year old, it's also a long running series and has NEVER been as good as SF, just because the new one is piss easy to pick up and play doesn't make it better.

SF is in a whole different league.

@davem1992:

It is ? Didn't they have only one old game.....

Anyway history aside, regarding their latest iterations I would say Killer Instinct is better than USIV.

Take it you're not big into fighters then because KI doesn't come close to SFIV.

@davem1992:

I guess you could say that..... but I am Hardcore into DoA specifically so thats gotta count for something right ?

Anyway way why not ? Near as I can tell the only thing special about Street Fighter 4 is the ridiculously high execution barrier, and its good online.

SFIV is a FAR better made game than KI can ever dream of being, you're absolutely delusional if you think they can even be compared.

@davem1992:

Well.... it sounds like you haven't actually compared them...... give it a shot..... KI is a compatible comparison...... and who knows.... maybe even MKX... maybe.

I've played KI and once again, it doesn't even come close to SF or hell, even DoA.

@davem1992:

Really ? I consider KI to be what DoA would be like if it was a 2D game since the are both Yomi instensive games.

Whats wrong with KI ? Its got it all, Asymmetrical Roster, Comprehensive Tutorial, Great Netcode, Low Skill Floor and High Skill Ceiling. Etc. All its missing is a Wii U PC and PS4 version.