by Amr (@siegarettes)
- Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late(cl-r)
- Developer: French Bread
- Publisher: Arc System Works, PQube
- Switch, PS4
In the modern games-as-service ecosystem UNICLR is an anomaly. While its contemporaries have all moved to a constantly updating seasonal format, Under Night has instead followed the traditional format of putting out a new retail product, with the compromise of having the balance changes rolled into the previous version. In that context, UNICLR is underwhelming.
With only a single new character and some story content, UNICLR is light on immediate differences from the previous version UNIST. Compared to version changes in other games such as Street Fighter V, or even developer French Bread’s own Dengenki Bunko Fighting Climax, it doesn’t give you a lot of new things to dig into, especially for the casual player. There aren’t many large system wide changes either, so a lot of the fundamental game plans laid out in UNIST seem to carry over. It’s hard not to look at what Under Night’s peers have been doing and see how much potential there was for UNICLR to shake things up.
So if UNICLR isn’t a game changer, what is it? In a few words, it’s a refinement of the competitive game that French Bread built with UNIST. Several balance changes have been made based on feedback from the competitive community, and we’ve already seen some new optimizations and combo routes result as a part of it. Most characters have also gained a new move, which doesn’t fundamentally change how they play, but gives them a new option to set up alternative situations.
It’s still early days in the UNICLR meta, so how it shakes up the meta won’t be clear (aha) for a while, thanks in no small part to French Bread not sharing proper patch notes for exactly what’s changed in this version. Details on the changes are spread between various Twitter threads and wiki info compiled by the community, who have been as proactive as ever, but it’s frustrating to see how hands off this has been handled, especially after Under Night’s community fought for so long to have it recognized alongside other big games. It’s clear among long time players I’ve talked to that this has kind of dampened the momentum for the game, even if the passion is still there.
One big positive this time around is Under Night’s release on the Switch. UNIST was previously released on the Vita as well as the PS3,PS4 and PC, though only the PS4 and PC releases got a stateside release. With the Switch port there’s a new way to practice on the go, provided you can deal with the nightmare that is playing fighting games on a Joycons. It’s also great for bringing impromptu set ups, meaning UNICLR can now join Melty Blood in finding strange new locations for micro tourneys.
The Switch port itself is solid, with no noticable differences to be found from the other versions I’ve played. Online is still the same delay-based netcode however, and combined with the Switch’s inability to play wired without external peripherals, means unless you’re organizing with friends and other players you’re probably going to have a bad time in matchmaking. This is still a game with a niche community, so be prepared to do some work to get matches.
UNICLR is an easy starting point for those who haven’t given Under Night’s flavor of free-flowing combos and varied suite of tools. For long time players there’s plenty of new tools and changes to dig into, and we’ll surely see the reverberations of the changes soon. For those like me in the middle, who’ve casually enjoyed the game but never dug deep enough to learn every detail of UNIST, UNICLR is a little more underwhelming. It’s hard not to look at the big changes dropping in games like Dragon Ball Fighterz and Street Fighter V and not wish UNICLR would have brought the same kind of dramatic shake up.
UNICLR is, more or less, the same excellent fighter we’ve been playing for years, with another layer of refinement. It’s like catching up with an old friend you haven’t seen in a while, only to find that they’re pretty much the same person as last time.