Video Game / Under Night In-Birth

IMMORTALIZE

Thousand night, Recurrence night, Reverie end Invite.
and... [7days Immortal] Unreal BLACK THINGS.

Under Night In-Birth is a HD 2D Fighting Game made by French Bread. It combines fast paced, flashy combat with a unique Tug of War mechanic which rewards good defence. As of now, the roster includes twenty-four characters, with a couple of guest characters thrown in for good measure.

In the quiet town of Kanzakai, a rumour stirs among the residents: "Those who get their souls devoured by the Dark Shadows, will end up wandering eternally in a mysterious world."

They say that every full moon, a strange, alternate world merges with ours and mysterious monsters roam throughout the streets, killing and devouring all that they see. No one knows for sure as to whether it is real or not, but for the most part, it all seems like hokey. Right?

Hyde Kido is an Ordinary High-School Student, he has an ordinary life, ordinary friends and goes to an ordinary school, and he likes it that way. One day, he has a rather eventful encounter with a strange girl named Linne and they separate on that night after he shows her around the city. The next day, as Hyde is walking home after school, Hyde is beset upon by the rumored man-eating shadows and chased into an alleyway. Unable to move and do anything against his formless attackers, Hyde is narrowly saved by Linne who leaps in to fight the shadows off. However, Hyde is bitten by the creatures and slays the last shadow on his own when he is able to manifest a strange power. Linne helps Hyde up and the true stage of the city he once thought knew is revealed to him.

Those who survive their encounter with Voids become known as In-births, and the city of Kanzakai has been recently recognized as the most concentrated location of in-birth activity. In-births are able to utilize a power known as EXS, the energy source present in all living things. The particular nights where in-births and voids roam the streets are known as Hollow Nights and entire organizations have risen and fallen in their attempts to rule with their powers or keep wanton uses of powers in check. The longest lasting organization that currently holds the most authority over the night is Licht Kreis, an international policing force under the day-time guise of a benevolent charity enterprise. Linne formerly was associated with the now disbanded Night Blade clan who previously fought against Licht Kreis but in-fighting has led to their disbandment. Kanzakai itself however houses another prolific organization of in-births that has recently gained the attention of Licht Kreis' eye, the group known as Amnesia, led by a woman who seeks to ascend to a higher state of being, surpassing that of an in-birth: a Re-Birth. Caught in the middle of conflicting organizations and other numerous outliers in the city streets, Hyde finds himself caught in the middle of the mess, allied only with Linne and her companion Waldstein and meeting familiar faces he thought he knew and new ones to fight.

Despite its roots as an anime fighter, the core gameplay of Under Night In-Birth focuses on fast-paced, grounded combat, with most of its air combat coming from the "Assault" action; a universal move that lets all characters do a quick leap for mobility or perform an overhead attack, similar to short hopping from The King of Fighters. However, this can be done in the air as well. The game also features another unique mechanic in the form of the Grind Grid (or GRD for short), which is a shared meter between both players. A key objective in a match is to try and fill the GRD on your side as much as possible before the next "cycle" rolls over or before your opponent does the same. Doing this successfully puts you into the "Vorpal" state, which not only buffs the amount of damage you do in a combo, but it also applies a unique character buff and can also be traded for a cancel to continue a combo. All of this leads to a high-stakes tug-of-war fighting game where well-timed defence plays a key role in turning the tide of battle.

Originally released on September 20, 2012 in arcades. It later received two major updates titled Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, released on September 9th 2013, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], released on July 23, 2015. Both revisions served to rebalance the roster, updated graphics, and added several new characters, which can be read about on the game's character sheet. Late[st] also added Chronicle Mode, a collection of visual novel-esque stories that finally show the game's universe and backstory. A PlayStation 3 port of Exe:Late was released on July 24, 2014, and would eventually be localized in 2015 in North Amercia, with Europe getting the game a few days later. It was later released, in its Exe:Late form, on Steam on June 12, 2016. Exe:Late[st] also received a console port on Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and PlayStation Vita consoles, releasing in Japan on July 20, 2017. Exe:Late[st] was released on February 9th, 2018 in both NA and EU regions and localized by both Aksys/P-Qube respectively. "Exe:Late[st]" was released on PC on August 20th, 2018.

Another update of the game titled Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [cl-r] (Pronounced "Claire") released for PS4 and Nintendo Switch on Feburary 20th, 2020 in the US/JP and on the 21st in EU/PAL regions. UNIclr was also released on PC on March 27th, 2020. Those with a PS4 or PC copy of UNIst are able to update the game to have the balance changes of UNIclr on the same day of its release, however, DLC specific to UNIclr for UNIst owners is sold seperately. Standalone versions of UNIclr (physically and digitally) includes DLC's for colors 31-40 for all characters and Round Call voices up to the UNIst cast. ^note Londrekia's Round Call voice is sold seperately, however.

A new installment was confirmed to be in development on Twitter on September 20th, 2021, and was fully revealed almost two years later on August 4th at EVO 2023 by the name of Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]. This sequel partially concludes the story set up in the first game, and includes new characters, as well as rollback netcode. [Sys:Celes] released worldwide for PS4, Switch, PC, and PlayStation 5 on January 25th, 2024.

Under Night also appears in the Massive Multiplayer Crossover BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, opposite BlazBlue, Persona 4: Arena, RWBY, Arcana Heart, Senran Kagura, and its own guest series, Akatsuki Blitzkampf.

Playable characters

Italics indicates character was added in a later update

• Introduced in Under Night In-Birth: Hyde Kido, Linne, Waldstein, Carmine Prime, Orie Ballardiae, Gordeau, Merkava, Vatista, Seth, Yuzuriha, Hilda, Eltnum
  • Introduced in Exe:Late: Chaos, Akatsuki, Nanase, Byakuya
  • Introduced in Exe:Late[st]/Exe:Late[cl-r]: Phonon, Mika Returna, Erika Wagner, Enkidu, Londrekia Light^note Downloadable Content for owners of Exe:Late[st]
• Introduced in [Sys:Celes]: Tsurugi, Kaguya Jingu, Kuon^note Unlockable Content, but can also be purchased as DLC, Uzuki, Ogre, Izumi

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1st Clause. DIVIDE.

• Aerith and Bob: On the Bob side, we have characters with names that do exist between both English and Japanese, like Seth, Hilda, Byakuya and Erika. On the Aerith side are characters like Londrekia, Gordeau and Adelheid. Somewhat invoked, given that some fight under the Hollow Night with a moniker, like Carmine and Phonon do.
• Always Night: Caused by the Hollow Night phenomenon where all the fighting takes place in the dead of night.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Hilda provides an aversion where her dress and eye colors will show the correct one regardless of which way she is facing, as well as Seth only for his daggers depending on which alternate color he's using. This applies to every other character who switch their primary hand when facing the opposite direction.
• An Ice Person: Londrekia is able to use ice in battle.
• Art Evolution: Seiichi Yoshihara's art saw a noticeable switch from a more hued, soft-shaded style to a much brighter, cel-shaded and more detailed style around the time that Exe:Late[cl-r] released. Compare the box art of Exe:Late[st] to the box art of Exe:Late[cl-r]. This new style is featured front and center for UNI2.
• Author Appeal: Idiot Hair and Brainless Beauty. For the former, almost half of the original playable cast possess some form of Idiot Hair. For the latter, most of the playable girls are very pretty and with the exception of Linne, Orie, and Vatista (though all three of them definitely have their moments), the rest of them go on the scale from just being smart but very airheaded to completely Lethally Stupid with the least intelligent being Hilda, Mika, and Nanase. Hyde is also a male example.
• Ax-Crazy: Carmine and Byakuya are not exactly the most stable. Zohar counts too.
• Background Magic Field: The Hollow Night is permeated with EXS which allows the super-powered fighting to take place in the first place. It also passively acts as an advanced healing field that lets the characters to simply be knocked out when the fight is over, they'll be back on their feet in a short while.
• Badass Longcoat: Gordeau's purple duster, and Seth's black trenchcoat.
• Badass Normal: Enkidu's EXS abilities are far weaker than the other cast members, due to the small bite received by a Void.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: He also fights exclusively through the martial arts he has learned in order to get ahead of everyone else.
• BFS: Yuzuriha and Hyde wield very long katanas. Likewise, Gordeau uses an even longer Sinister Scythe, and Nanase's Zephyr is as long as she is tall.
• Battle Intro: While unique battle lines were slim, more characters being added has led to more unique opening lines. UNI2 reflects the in-game passage of time with more unique intro dialogue than ever before.
• Big Bad: Hilda, at first glance, who is really just a pawn beneath Kuon. The latter reveals himself to be the new, or the original, big bad in UNI2.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The localizations for both Exe: Late and Exe: Late[st] were rather rushed to put it nicely, but Exe Late[st] definitely stands out. Both are plastered with spelling and grammatical errors, while Exe: Late[st]'s localization flat out changes the names of terminology that has already been established, labels Wagner as male and even has the character themes renamed. When Exe:Late[cl-r] was released, this was one of the many things that ended up being addressed, now having a completely redone, Truer to the Text translation courtesy of Arc System Works America.
  • While some Arcade Mode dialogue has been re-translated to sound less inaccurate, the myriad typos and inconsistencies in the translated Chronicle Mode still persist to this day.
• Blood Knight: Carmine as a literal example. Waldstein and Enkidu also are known to enjoy having a good fight.
• Bloody Murder: Averted. The blood that Carmine uses to fight isn't actually blood.
• Capcom Sequel Stagnation: As of [cl-r], it's reaching this territory, with 3 Updated Re-releases to its name with no sign of a true sequel since the game first came out in 2012.
  • UNI2 is officially a numbered sequel but still retains most of its predecessor's gameplay and visuals.
• Calling Your Attacks: A fighting game staple. Linne even does it to get her in the fighting mood. Every character shouts the name of at least one of their moves.
• Cast from Hit Points: Carmine utilizes a special ability called Dissolve that forms a pool of blood that can be activated from across the screen with his specials. This prominent space control is balanced through Dissolve pools costing HP to utilize.
• Casting a Shadow: Both Hyde and Seth. Gordeau also has a few darkness-like attacks.
• Charged Attack: The Increase System has certain moves be held down for a few extra frames to gain more damage and have additional effects than their regular variants.
• Child Soldiers: Slightly subverted with the Executors. Licht Kreis runs many orphanages and save many children who are orphaned from Void-related incidents. The children who have experienced this trauma and survive to become In-Births are educated on the matters of Voids and EXS and are trained to become warriors to eliminate Voids. Executors form the core of Licht Kreis' influence over the Night.
• Clothing Combat: Yuzuriha has her kimono involved in her at least three of her attacks.
• Coat Cape: Yuzuriha, with a kimono.
• Combat Stilettos: A majority of the female cast fight with these on.
• Combo Breaker: Veil Off. Somewhat subverted in that it's not usable while getting hit, unlike other fighting games with combo breakers.
• Comeback Mechanic: Inverted. Grind Vorpal gives whoever's got the better offense and defense a 10% damage boost once every 17 seconds and can sacrifice this buff for a BlazBlue-like Lag Cancel, sometimes leading to an Unstable Equilibrium.
• Cool Sword: Hyde and Yuzuriha have incredibly long katanas. Orie also has one of the rapier variety.
• Criss-Cross Attack: Seth does multiple in his specials and Infinite Worths.
• Cryptic Background Reference: Up until Late[st]'s Chronicle Mode, the entire plot of the games in the original release and in Exe: Late was only accessible through the Arcade Mode storylines and its supreme lack of context had many people thinking that they must have missed something.
• Dash Attack: All characters have at least two special running attacks. UNI2 grants a privileged few a third running attack.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite his appearance, attitude, and job as an Assassin, Seth is the game's Anti-Hero. Gordeau's coloration and weapon choice might also suggest this but he's arguably one of the nicest guys in the cast. Hyde himself utilizes darkness in combat but is also an extremely generous person.
• Double Jump: A technique only shared by Linne and Akatsuki. Nanase, and by extension Orie, can also achieve this through their Force Function.
• Eldritch Abomination: Voids are akin to extra-dimensional creatures that are invisible to the naked eye and slip into the real world during nights where EXS is concentrated in. While not normally perceptible, the people who can see them and encounter them are driven to insanity and consumed. Only those who are lucky enough to survive their encounter have the chance to become an in-birth.
  • Voids come in all shapes and sizes and they're manifested forms depending on the amount of EXS around them. At their lowest, they appear like dark blobs while in increasing order they appear more snake-like, feral quadrupedal beasts, and eventually humanoid in their absolute strongest.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Around half the cast is composed of students in both middle-school and high-school. Hyde shares the same high-school with Orie, Seth, Tsurugi, and Carmine while Phonon and Nanase share middle-schools. Byakuya and Tsukuyomi attend a different school and Wagner attends an all-girls academy.
• Expy: The series aped a number of things from Melty Blood, French Bread's prior fighting game based on Tsukihime, likely due to uncertainty over whether or not Melty Blood is getting a HD remake (it eventually does in 2021 in the form of Melty Blood Type Lumina) As such, UNI borrows some of its archetypes and recontextualize them, before going on in its own direction entirely in later entries. Some of the notable similarities are:
  • A 'princess' who could never die and a boy granted a cutting ability that could render immortals permanently dead.
  • Church Militant entity who deals with supernatural occurrence in the story.
  • A 'forgotten junior' character who got involved by coincidence.
  • An orange-haired friend to the protagonist.
  • Stoic barefisted Warrior Poet who fights at close range.
  • In turn, UNI's GRD game mechanic is retooled and put into Type Lumina as Moon Drive system.
• EX Special Attack: Performed by using C to do a special move. They cost half of your EXS bar, but Veil Off reduces the cost to a third.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Seth, Hilda and Wagner.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Linne’s trio have this dynamic:
  • Waldstein is the fighter who goes Mano a Mano with various Inbirths with his overwhelming physical strength and grappling moves.
  • Hyde is the mage who wields the legendary Insulator and has the most zoning options with his EXS ability.
  • Linne is the thief who is the most agile and fights by blitzing the opponent with her speed but is unable to take much punishment.
  • As of Late[st], the resident lolis now fit the mold, with Mika being the fighter, Vatista the mage, and Linne the thief.
  • In Sys:Celes, Linne's entourage has increased to include Yuzuriha, Vatista, and Seth who fit their respective roles gameplay-wise.
• Fighting Your Friend: A small number of the cast are acquainted with each other but the unspoken rules of the Hollow Night will have them duke it out.
• Final Boss: Hilda is normally the final opponent in most of the Arcade stories, but this has slowly phased out as more characters were added. UNI2 has Kuon replace Hilda as the ultimate evil everybody must defeat to prevent the destruction of Kanzakai with the exception of Nanase and Akatsuki who fight Hyde and Eltnum respectively.
• Foil:
  • Hyde and Seth, aside from the obvious red and blue theme, the two of them have many other contrasting traits. Both boys have a promise they want to fulfill to end Linne's suffering, but how they got to that point is very different. Hyde was just a normal high school boy until he just happened to run into Linne by chance after helping her and acquired the very power needed to end her curse. Seth is a descendant of the clan that used to serve Linne and trained 10 years of life to succeed in the mission given to him to kill her and acquires weapons very similar to Hyde's sword to do so. Hyde is very kind and outgoing and tends to put himself in danger to help others while Seth doesn't seem to care much about anything that's not about fulfilling his mission. Hyde wields a large sword while Seth uses two small daggers. The list goes...
  • Gordeau and Chaos, both are Amnesia employees under Hilda. Gordeau is a Boisterous Bruiser that loves a good fight while Chaos is a Badass Bookworm and prefers using his brains and tries to get out of fighting as much possible, which is ironic given his supposed past as a street brawler. Gordeau looks sinister, but is actually one of the more down to earth characters in the entire game and while Chaos isn't a bad person per se, he has far less patience for people he considers less intelligent than him. In terms of fighting style, both of them fight at a long range, but while Gordeau uses the massive reach of his Devourer to ward his opponent off, and is still perfectly capable of getting up close and personal, Chaos prefers to stay out of physical combat whenever he can and let Azhi Dahaka go in for the kill while he stays out of harm's way, and having barely any means of fighting back should his opponent manage to get past Azhi and close the gap.
  • Waldstein and Enkidu, both are dark skinned, white haired, older men who both share Dark Is Not Evil traits, being both physically large and imposing, but are much nicer than they appear, and they're both Blood Knights. However, their reasons for fighting and how they fight are vastly different. Waldstein is a raging berserker who fights to protect someone dear to him (Linne), while Enkidu is a stoic warrior who fights for himself, since he has no one left alive (His master) to protect. Waldstein also simply considers a fight to be a ruthless battle between two individuals to see who comes out on top, while Enkidu views battle with a more philosophical approach, believing he can find true self-acceptance in combat and he also believes that fighting goes beyond simply victory and defeat. Waldstein has no tactical approach to battle whatsoever, with his fighting style simply having him throw his weight around, his EXS Ability is directly tied to his strength, and he fights using his Destroyers, while Enkidu has been honing and perfecting his martial arts for possibly nearly his entire life, but his EXS Ability leaves much to be desired, and he uses no weapon to speak of, relying only on his bare fists.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The roster of 20 is evenly split between male and female fighters. Subverted as of Late[cl-r] with Londrekia's inclusion and even more disorganized with the addition of Tsurugi, Kaguya, and Kuon in 2. The three DLC characters raises the series total playable characters to 27, making a 50/50 split even less probable.
• Genki Girl: Yuzuriha, if the music notes that come out of her sprite during battle are any indication. Mika also counts.
• Genre Motif: With the exception of Orie, all of the playable Licht Kreis/Ritter Schild members have classical music composer motifs to some degree, whether it's in their character themes or through other tidbits of trivia like similar birth dates.
• Grand Finale: [Sys:Celes] is set to be this for the series as a whole, being billed as the "epic conclusion to the enthralling tale of the Hollow Night".
• Grapple Move: Throws are universal while characters like Waldstein, Carmine, Seth, Gordeau, and Mika have their unique command grabs.
• Gratuitous English: Just like its predecessor, if not worse.
  • Gordeau is, aside from the name and menus, the most notable example.
  "GURIMU REEPAH!"
  • "FIRST CLAUSE! DIVIDE!"
  • "DOWN! DEPLETION OF EXS!"
  • "BREAKDOWN! VANISHMENT OF VOID!"
  • Hyde goes for Punctuated! For! Emphasis! when doing his Vacant Shift special move: "FIRST! SECOND! THIRD!"
  • Orie follows Hyde combined with Calling Your Attacks for her super named "REST! IN! PEACE!"
  • Yuzuriha's jumping A has her "el-BOW!". One of her reaction line to being hit is also an inappropriately-funny "OHHH NOOO!"
• Going Commando: A common joke in the game regarding the female cast as a lot of the their animations and frames show no signs of underwear being worn. This is apparently completely intentional as the head of the development team decreed this as to not show visible panties in the game. Alternate Colors are however fair-game for certain characters.
• Guest Fighter:
  • Melty Blood's Sion Eltnam Atlasia? Technically, Eltnum is (more or less) Sion Eltnam Atlasia in an Alternate Universe. She is subject to the same events as in Melty Blood, with most of Sion Eltnam Atlasia's back-story (and a massive design change). It should be noted that Eltnum is said to be intruding on the events of UNiB.
  • Played far straighter with Akatsuki.
• Homage:
  • Because of her existence, there are a few things from Eltnum that pay Homage to her ten years as a combatant in Melty Blood, with her theme being the biggest one, which is a remix of Blood Drain, Melty Blood Actress Again's title theme. There is also the small fact that Eltnum lives on the Forth Wall in story mode, having fought for ten years... she sees herself as viewing how the "next generation" stacks to herself. As such, she views her relationships with other characters as something of an Upperclassman and Underclassman relationship, especially with Hyde. Just about everyone brushes her off as insane. And She is finally free of that Goddamn Shroom (read one: Kinoko Nasu) in her ending.
  • Well, he is here... so you can't just summon the God of Thunder without some references to his struggle. The theme that accompanies Akatsuki isn't his own, similar to Eltnum. War Start -Again- is a remix of title theme to Akatsuki Blitzkampf.
• Humanoid Abomination: Merkava, a unique lifeform even among Voids as Voids of humanoid form are considered the strongest and exceptionally rare.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Yuzuriha. With a nodachi no less.
• I Can Still Fight!: After a round is over, the loser will get up in order to prepare for the next round until the victor of the fight is decided.
• Idle Animation: Essentially the taunt move of the game. Since the Grind Grid System will react to movement in general, standing absolutely still not only yields a character saying some lines but can be interpreted as a taunt since they're not making use of the GRD at all.
• Immortal Breaker: The Insulator destroys EXS directly, meaning it can kill any being. This, naturally, has gained the interest of multiple characters - Linne wants Hyde to use it to stop her from ruining the lives of any more host girls, while Hilda wants to free herself from having to answer to Kuon the Eternal and become limitless in her own right and Kuon himself needs it to finalize his grand plan "Systema Celeste", also the sword used to belong to him in the first place, he just wants his stuff back.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Yuzuriha has one in the form of her Iris Blade, and Hyde's Insulator is classed as one, despite looking more like a giant cleaver thanks to its lack of guard and curved blade.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Before Chronicle Mode, the story could only be pieced together through the separate Arcade Mode stories.
• Lady of War: Orie is pretty much checking every list of requirements of this trope. Yuzuriha's fighting style is also pretty graceful, but she's more energetic than most examples. Erika Wagner also contends.
• Lag Cancel: Particularly from the Reverse-Beat mechanic allowing the characters to utilize normals they haven't used in the combo strings. Starting off with a heavy attack can be made relatively safe by canceling back into a light attack.
• Laughing Mad: From Carmine.
• Light 'em Up: Orie and to a certain extent, Chaos. Kaguya also showcases an impressive lightshow from her two pistols.
• The Man Behind the Man: Kuon is manipulating Hilda for his own unknown reasons.
• Mighty Glacier: Waldstein is an absolute mountain of a man. Enkidu is also 7-feet tall, being slightly taller than Merkava, while still being physically human.
• Mirror Self: A rather foreboding predicament to all who become in-births. See this for more.
• Named Weapons: Every weapon in the game is named, some of the more prominent ones being Hyde's Insulator, Seth's Eliminator, Wagner's Fire Brand and Ancile, and Gordeau's Devourer.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Almost every character has some nickname out in the Hollow Night and is mostly identified with that nickname. Funny to consider that Hyde got his nickname just from a month of being active while Nanase earned hers in two weeks.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Hilda, of course, which Phonon beautifully recreates.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Hyde and Yuzuriha apparently had one and Hyde has been trying to get over it. Yuzuriha on the other hand doesn't seem to mind all that much but [st]'s Chronicle Mode shows that she's trying her best to forget it.
  • Vatista's arcade ending in 2 suggests that Hyde has one with Wagner of all people, which she isn't about to let him live down any time soon.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: How Gordeau wields his Devourer.
• Parrying Bullets: Waldstein's Destroyers and Wagner's Ancile can nullify projectiles if they make contact with them. Hyde can similarly delete projectiles with his Force Function. Other characters like Enkidu, Akatsuki, and Vatista have their parries. Tsurugi can just tank through them with his Bulwark.
• Phlebotinum Overload: What presumably turned Merkava into what he is. Gordeau and Chaos' friend Roger shared this fate, as did Waldstein, almost.
• Playing with Fire: Wagner's EXS ability, Flame Tyrant, allows her to manipulate flames.
• Punched Across the Room: Wallbounces are plentiful.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Carmine's hair starts out white, but his Blood Spike turns it red whenever he gets agitated.
• Power Glows: A character who is under the effects of Vorpal glows blue. Red if they're in Veil Off.
• Power Stable: The In-Birth Front, organizations and groups who operate within the Hollow Night for different goals. Most characters on the roster and NPCs from the Arcade and Chronicle modes are aligned with the major ones, although a few (Carmine, Merkava, Byakuya, etc.) remain unaffiliated:
  • The Night Blade: A faction initially formed by the villagers who took in the Hollow God, dedicated to protecting innocents from the dangers of the Hollow Night and passing this knowledge onward. They opposed the Licht Kreis' advance into Japan who wished to conquer them, sparking a battle that would be met with a decisive end where the young Kuon won the respect of Licht Kreis' commanding officer Waldstein and had the latter's forces withdraw. A divide in their ranks as half of the Night Blade left to pursue their own interpretation of their duties while the other half remained behind to continue working in secrecy. With this schism, the ceremonial "leaders" of the organization embodied by the siblings of Kuon and Linne, the latter accompanied by Waldstein, left as well leaving the organization to fade into the obscurity of history. This divide in their group reduced the amount of currently active members to less than a hundred in the modern day, operating in secrecy and individually. Seth is among these clanspeople that stayed while Yuzuriha's ancestors where the one who left. Hyde is its newest "member" as of Chronicle Mode by association with Linne.
  • The Licht Kreis: A Void-hunting faction based in Germany, operating under the guise of an international philanthropy enterprise, whose operations are supported by large business conglomerates with ties to the Hollow Night in secret. Waldstein's defection to the Night Blade caused its leader Adelheid - one of the six known Re-Births in existence - to outlaw all men from ever joining, turning it into an all-female organization. Orie, Mika and Wagner all serve the group as field operatives referred to as Executors, assisted by their teammates in undercover assignments. Many of the former male members have formed a sibling group called the Ritter Schild, with whom they have an uneasy alliance with. The Licht Kreis currently has three-hundred active members in its inner workings while thousands of employees work unbeknownst to their employer's true dealings.
  • The Ritter Schild: A brother organization to the Licht Kreis consisting of the outcasted men. Whereas the Licht Kreis devote themselves to policing the Hollow Night around the world, the Ritter Schild label themselves as an "inspection organization" that has devoted themselves to uncovering the mysteries of the Hollow Night's past, as well as dealing in reconnaissance, weapon development, and assisting the Licht Kreis Executors in combat when needed. They also do any dirty work that the Licht Kreis themselves don't feel like dealing with, either willingly, or when its passed down to them.
  • Amnesia: The newest faction of In-Births based in Kanzakai, whose goal is to break the control of the Licht Kreis over the Hollow Night, which is in actuality, a front for their leader's true intentions. The textbook definition of Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, Amnesia is a lot more chaotically structured, with a total of around two-hundred members acting on their own whims and motivations, and a select few higher-up "Executives" leading them on when it comes to large-scale battles. There are only three known executives; Hilda, the leader of the group, Chaos, who was promoted by former executive and co-founder Gordeau, thanks to his resourcefulness in planning and tactics, and Uzuki, who earned a spot simply on the grounds of how immensely powerful she is. Unlike the Licht Kreis and Ritter Schild, who interact on a more formal, work-based level, the members of Amnesia are more tightly-knit and frequently engage in get-togethers and parties hosted by Hilda herself.
  • The EFG: Short for Exist Force Guardians, the EFG is a relatively small organization of around sixty to seventy members that consist primarily of school students ranging from secondary to high school. Working under the guise of a high school student council, the EFG scouts out students who have fallen victim to Void attacks and have become In-Births as a result, and takes them in to train them and get them acclimated to their new lives, in exchange for their assistance in Night-related activities. The members are kept under a tight watch, and are not allowed to use their powers recklessly, and those who leave the organization are branded as an enemy. There are three currently known key members out of five running the organization; The leader/president of the organization, a student by the name of Sasaki, Tsurugi, the vice-president, as well as the one who usually scouts out Void victims, and Komatsu, a secreatary for the organization who usually accompanies Tsurugi.
  • Bankikai: A now-disbanded organization, the Bankikai^TranslationDemon Society was founded on the concept of strength in numbers and sticking together to survive. The group was founded by a charismatic and powerful man who went by the name of Ogre, as well as his two closest companions; two girls that went by Strix, his second-in-command, and Zohar, and the group grew exponentially shortly after it was founded, quickly catching up to Amnesia. However, the group was short lived, as a freak-accident during a turf war with Amnesia resulted in Zohar becoming exposed to the Abyss, horrifically scarring her and seriously wounding Strix in a fit of insanity and envy-induced rage, and Ogre dying and getting eaten by a Void. Barely a few traces of the faction now remain, with Strix, now going by the name Tsukuyomi, searching for Zohar, all while being accompanied by Byakuya, who deliriously believes her to be the reincarnation of his dead sister.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The members of Amnesia fit this to a T. Where else can you find a bespectacled Beastmaster with an obssession for knowledge, a tattooed Bare-Fisted Monk, and a witch with a talking hat?
• Razor Wings: Vatista uses her wings to attack.
• Real Men Cook: Character Q&As confirms that a majority of the male cast can cook. Hyde provides for not only himself but Linne, Waldstein, and Vatista while Gordeau is said to make a mean beef stroganoff.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Hyde and Seth respectively. There's also the blue-haired Orie and the redhead Yuzuriha. Carmine and Gordeau also exhibit this trope in the former's Arcade Story.
• The Rival: Seth to Hyde, not unlike Arc System Works' other Red Oni, Blue Oni rivalries ^note Sol & Ky and Ragna & Jin. Gordeau and Chaos are a friendly variant on this. Both sets of rivals have themes that play when they fight. As of UNIB[cl-r], Wagner and Londrekia can be added to the list as they have a special battle theme as well.
• Royal Rapier: Orie's Ruler.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Barring a few exceptions from both sides, the majority of the game's Fanservice comes from the more antagonistic characters and their associates.
  • Sensible: Hyde, Linne, Orie, Vatista, Nanase, Seth.
  • Skimpy: Hilda, Gordeau, Enkidu, Strix, Zohar.
• Shock and Awe: Akatsuki's Blitz Motor gives him this special property. It does make him very hungry very quickly though.
• Sinister Scythe: Gordeau has this... notice that he's pulling it out of thin air
• Snake Whip: Phonon's pet snake, Meuniel^note Localized as Mooney, can transform into an incredibly long whip.
• Soul Eating: What Gordeau's scythe can apparently do. Couple that with Gordeau's claws that rips out souls as he stabs them into you.
• Spiritual Successor: Acts as a spiritual successor to French Bread and TYPE-MOON's previous fighting game venture, Melty Blood.
• Super Mode: Veil Off. Gives a 10% damage boost and doubles as a pseudo-Combo Breaker. Celestial is an even stronger Vorpal State that can also confer its benefits to a player under Veil Off, leading to ludricous damage bonuses.
• Super Special Move: EX moves are mechanically more like this trope than what they're named after, having a brief but dramatic pause like any other Super Move Portrait Attack.
• The Gimmick: The character-specific Force Function which can range from another attack into evasive dodges, extra jumps, granting another buff, or even flight.
• Token Mini-Moe: Vatista, who is also an Elegant Gothic Lolita and a Little Miss Badass on top of that. Linne and Mika could also apply.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Gordeau, who has a long jacket instead. Enkidu also wears half of his outfit and leaves his upper body completely bare.
• Word Salad Title: The Japanese trend of naming things weirdly because it sounds cool strikes with a VENGEANCE in this series.
• The Worf Effect: In Orie's Arcade mode, Merkava comes in out of nowhere after Hilda is defeated, and devours/kills her before fighting Orie himself.
• Unblockable Attack: Slightly averted. Seth is the only character that can regularly make use of unblockable set-ups.
• Violence is the Only Option: One of the primary rules of the Hollow Night.
• Vocal Evolution: A lot of it when Late[st] came to home systems, which makes given its the first time new extensive vocal content had been added since the game's initial arcade release in 2012, a five year difference.
• Wham Episode: Chronicle Mode has a few.
  • Amnesia vs. Bankikai: Roger and Ogre die, Zohar is driven insane and destroys Strix's vessel, and Gordeau is so guilt-ridden by the turn of events that he leaves Amnesia.
  • Nighttime Void 3: Waldstein is revealed to be a former member of Licht Kreis, who defected after being saved from almost being turned into a Void by Kuon. It also reveals that Hyde's Insulator is actually the missing seventh wing of Vatista's Aegis Attributor.
  • I Love My Sister: Byakuya's sister, Tsukuyomi, is revealed to be dead months before the actual story, having been killed when hit by a car.
  • A Relucant Hero: Kuon finally makes his appearance...
  • Road to Under Night: EXS is another something that replaces the original soul as it grows to fill the being's original existence. Re-Births are what happens when that other self completely erases and replaces the original. This means the person becomes a human shell with a Void on the inside.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Waldstein, and to some degree Merkava. Mika busts in with some moves as well.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Hilda and her outfit of choice.

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BREAK DOWN
Vanishment of Void

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