Full video review: https://youtu.be/d_VtMJoQQ8s

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH is back yet again. This time though, we went from changing the game’s subtitle to slapping a 2 on the name. And yeah, it’s still just as fun, and.. well, difficult.

Gameplay
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH is basically an anime fighter along the same vein as Guilty Gear or BlazBlue. I would say it’s more difficult than Strive, but maybe on par with BlazBlue. I don’t know - that’s all subjective anyways. That said, I liked the past two entries in this series and yeah, I like this one too, but it’s not without its issues.

Starting with the good though: The movement. This is probably my favorite thing about the game. It just, flows so well, if that makes sense. You have so many options to dash, jump, and move around the screen that once you get the hang of things, it is a very fast-paced and satisfying experience. That and the characters themselves are pretty solid, for the most part. Plenty of variety there - grapplers, zoners, rushdowns, all of that - and I always like a good fighting game where more than a handful of characters click with me. That said, Merkava is still my favorite. He’s just so noodly and fun to play.

Tutorials
The game also does a really good job with its tutorial system. There are over 100 different tutorials, each with demo videos and a walkthrough to help you through them. And then on top of that there are character combo guides and general strategy guides for each and every character. It goes to great lengths to get you into the experience, which is definitely warranted given just how hard a fighting game this is.

Multiplayer
If you’re looking to hop into the game and don’t already have friends to play it with - you’ll be subjected to the game’s online mode. On one hand, there’s actually rollback netcode which is super nice for a niche 2D fighter like this, but on the other, there are not that many active players just hanging out in the game’s online lobbies and when you do find a match, it’s likely going to be someone way higher rank than you. People call this series a Discord fighter - meaning you have to hop on servers dedicated to the game to find matches - and that still holds true with this sequel - even if the online playerbase is double that of the last game, averaging around 200 online at any one time.

I spent some time in singleplayer, but honestly, those modes just aren’t that great. The arcade mode is pretty standard, but comes with a boring storyline and the time attack and score attacks are just vaguely different ways to play the arcade mode basically. Multiplayer is pretty much a necessity for this one and the most fun I had was duking it out with friends locally - and this is definitely one I’ll be keeping installed for that very reason.

Various
I’m still not a fan of how tight diagonal inputs are, it just doesn’t feel right to me, but pretty much everything else is solid. The art is just as great as its always been, the music is excellent, the stages are cool and really just remind me of the Fate series, and the level of polish on top of it all is really impressive given the size of its developer.

Overall
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes is worth a recommendation, but maybe not for the general audience. If you’re not already into fighting games, definitely pass on it, and if you’re not specifically into 2D anime fighters, then probably pass on it too. It’s got quite the learning curve, but is fun to play with friends and the addition of rollback netcode actually makes the game playable online too - even if the playerbase is small. The PC port apparently had issues on launch, but playing a couple months later, I can’t say I had any issues, so there’s that too.

Full video review: https://youtu.be/VAWWetRNL5o

I don’t know about ASa Project anymore. They did the excellent Sankaku Renai, the okay Koikari, and now this one, which might just be my least favorite of the bunch.

Story & Writing
So basically, the whole thing with this one is that a sudden childhood friend shows up, confesses to the main character, and ignites a battle royale amongst the other heroines, all vying for the protag’s love. It’s pretty much your standard love rivalry setup, nothing too fancy.

ASa Project, the studio behind the game, is generally pretty good on the comedy front though and that’s usually what sets their games apart. For this one though… I can’t say they pulled through with it. You’ve got the perverted heroine that just becomes annoying, the constant onslaught of crude jokes that make the game feel like it was written by a middle schooler, and the whole battle royale thing has each heroine practically obsessed with the main character to the point of stalking and that being played off as a comedic thing just feels weird.

They went overboard on the comedy this time, to the point that the main story suffers. In fact, it’s hard to even see the main story here. Most of the common route is just various conversations between side characters, a lot of the time with the protagonist nowhere in sight. This can work if the characters are actually decent, but most have their one quirk that they practically embody and that is all you know them by. This doesn’t make for likable heroines, unfortunately.

Protagonist
The bigger issue though is that very main character. This is one of the flattest main characters I have ever seen in a romcom visual novel. The dude has no personality. No defining characteristics. He’s like a blank slate inserted into the story just so these heroines have a reason to exist. When he is with the heroines, he is just going with the flow and letting things happen. I know some romcom VNs like to create blank main characters to use as self-inserts, but this one is really pushing it.

Character Routes
Then there’s the character routes. As typical for this studio, they’re not the greatest. The romance comes across as shallow because the characters themselves are shallow and I would argue that a good chunk of each route, if not most of each route, are written with H-scenes in mind and the rest of the writing around that just kinda serves as filler. If you’re looking for a visual novel with good romance writing, this one is not it. If you’re just looking for an extension of the game’s comedic elements, then maybe you’ll get some enjoyment out of the routes.

Visuals & Music
The game at least has some decent visuals. I mean, it’s nothing too fancy, but the character designs are nicely done, I liked the brighter colors this game goes for, and the music isn’t grating - which is more than I can say for some others in the genre.

Settings
That and the game does a good job with its settings, giving us all the usuals plus some nice bonuses, like animation speeds. On a technical level, it’s pretty good, even if the max resolution caps out at 1600x900.

Overall
That said, I did not enjoy my time with this one and cannot say I recommend it. As someone that generally enjoys comedy visual novels, this one was a bit too over the top in that regard and felt like it was written by a teenager. The actual character routes suffer as a result and of course, none of this is benefitted by how flat the main character is either. It’s good on the technical level and with its presentation, but there are far better visual novels out there worth your time.

Video review: https://youtu.be/hIBgVpIbpXk

So Konosuba is a pretty good series. I have yet to read the light novels, but I love the anime and consider it one of the better comedy series out there. It seems like a good fit for a visual novel, given I also like comedy VNs. But they didn’t exactly give this one the treatment it deserved.

So if you remember a few years back, there was this Re:Zero visual novel released. To sum it up, it was terrible. A story that simply rehashes part of the anime with a slight twist and some tacked-on gameplay on top of that. In that sense, I have to give this Konosuba game some credit. This is not a simple rehash of some random arc in the story or even an alternate take on one.

This is instead a full-fledged side story that could very easily have been an episode in the show or something like that. I respect that. It’s nice to have these anime visual novels try to do something original and something worthwhile. Unfortunately, that’s kinda where my praise ends. The rest of this game is shallow, tedious, and way too low-effort for the price they are asking.

This is literally a $50 visual novel where the majority of the game is simple PNGs placed on top of the simplest of backgrounds with practically no animation. There are a decent amount of CGs, but nowhere near enough to justify the premium asking price. And really, the UI looks like something I would find in a mobile game. I try to avoid discussing price in my videos, but this is just egregious.

If you’re wondering the length? Well, it should take you around 5-10 hours to clear and probably more if you go for all the endings. Each of the main heroines has two endings and the rest of the side ones just have their one ending, but if I am being completely honest, I could not be bothered to even attempt to go for all of those after finishing the main story simply because the game makes it so difficult to do so.

Upon beating the game, you will need to go back and basically grind through the tedious gameplay elements of crafting clothing in order to fulfill the conditions to get on a character’s route. To make clothing, you have to send your party out on quests and part-time jobs to earn material, which can then be combined to make clothing via a magical stone. That’s a very Konosuba setup, I will give it that, but I can’t say it makes for fun gameplay.

The cycle of sending out on jobs, receiving a random assortment of material, trudging through a random slice of life scene in-between jobs, and eventually using the material to craft an item of clothing was really boring for me, a shame considering I like this series so much. It’s some mobile game quality gameplay and again, this is being sold at a premium price tag.

Otherwise, I can’t say that the story itself is bad - I mean, it definitely doesn’t compare to some of the highs from the anime, but I also cannot deny that Konosuba fans might find something to like here. It’s just that it’s all wrapped up in this poorly made video game - the type obviously just using the franchise to sell copies and if the Konosuba title was removed from it, this game likely wouldn’t have an audience at all.

Overall
So no, I cannot really say I recommend this one. Tedious and grindy gameplay, poor production quality, and a story that - while decent as a whole - doesn’t really measure up to the quality you would expect from this series. If anything, I just want to go read the light novels.