In honor of 2024's Game Of The Year dropping in just about an hour as of this writing, I wanna go over my thoughts to the best of my abilities. I bought the game again on Steam shortly after buying the sequel, because it was five dollars, and I had lost my ability to play online after cancelling my PS Plus subscription a good few months ago.

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] UNICLR is, by no competition, my second favorite fighting game of all time. If not for the slight nostalgia boost that Skullgirls gets from me, I wouldn't be opposed to calling it my absolute favorite. Under Night's characters are some of the most ridiculous, out-there conceptions of every possible archetype, making no two characters feel at all alike. Better yet, they're all fun to play. For the longest time, I had trouble even deciding on a main. I would watch tournament sets and just gaze in awe of each character's toolkits, before trying them out later and attempting to put in the time to learn them myself. One of the few rosters I would call practically perfect.

This is the part where whea starts talking about how good music is. 9.9 times out of ten, if anybody is going to know anything about Under Night, it's gonna be the music. For good reason, to be fair. UNI can evoke a tremendous range of emotions with its OST, slow and soothing, loud and overwhelming (teehee), can I tell you about this eurobeat remix of Pachelbel's Canon? Not to mention the vibes it throws you into just on the character select screen, good lord I cannot gush over Raito's music for long enough.

UNIB is everything it needs to be. Fun, fast-paced competition, amplified by fun, fast-paced music. Competition that, no matter your selection, will be enjoyable all throughout. That's what I call a good-ass fighter.

and you bastards better hop on uni2, i dont wanna be matching up against the same guy over and over again to the point where they just start declining my matches

Seth is just so cool.

In all seriousness, the only thing holding this game back is the online netcode, but otherwise this is one of the most fun fighting games I've played on a controller. It's like if Rivals of Aether was an anime fighter (I know that sounds like a rather silly and odd comparison to make, but that's just honestly how I feel.) I can't wait to play the sequel when it comes out!

Also, Seth is just so cool.

Emerald...Splash. Here I am, standing on the precipice of an alternate reality – one where the martial art of Stand-fighting reigns supreme. It all began when we introduced someone who knows karate into the fray, but little did we know, it was the catalyst for an epic transformation.

So, picture this – I've spent years mastering my Stand, Hierophant Green. But one day, something changed. A new contender arrived on the scene, a so-called "Gun Girl." She was packing heat, and not just any heat – it was a barrage of bullets. I watched in awe as she unleashed a relentless combination of Dash Attack -> Shoot -> Dash Attack -> Shoot -> Dash Attack -> Reload.

It was like watching a new form of Stand-fighting, where gunplay and martial arts clashed. And the world was transformed. We all began to realize that our decades of mastering karate were in vain. It wasn't about who could throw the most precise punch anymore; it was about firepower and precision, guns taking the upper hand.

Banks, once thought to be impenetrable fortresses, were now facing an entirely new threat – armed robberies on a massive scale. No more "Ora Ora Ora" – it was all "Brrrrrrrrrrrr." The world's economy plunged into uncertainty, and those who once made a living from karate dojos had to reinvent themselves as gunsmiths.

The most significant loss in this transformation? The United States. A country renowned for its karate abilities, one with the most powerful military, suddenly had to abandon its martial prowess. They tried karate nukes, but even those couldn't stand against the power of firearms. America, once a titan, was reduced to a shadow of its former self, its economy losing trillions of enkidollars.

On the other side of this alternate reality, the Japanese stood resolute, holding onto their gun culture. They remained loyal to their weapons and swiftly adapted to the new era. Even after facing numerous karate nukes from America, they persevered, transforming into the world's most powerful military.

And amid this chaos, there was a curious moment. Neco-Arc, that mischievous character from the Type-Moon universe, couldn't help but celebrate the insanity of it all with her whimsical dance, as if to say, "This is a world where anything goes."

And thus,, I witnessed the transformation of a world where karate once reigned supreme into a place where gunplay took over. An alternate reality I never thought I'd see. It's like a Stand battle where the rules have been completely rewritten. So, prepare yourself, for this is an adventure that will have you training for another 200 years if you want to make sense of it all.

Score: 9/10