Exploring the Past, Present, and Future of UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes with Director Kamone Serizawa

Since its release earlier this year, fighting game fans have been loving French-Bread's UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes—which, just as Arc System Works CEO Minoru Kidooka expressed hoping for at EVO last year, was fought on by players on EVO's mainstage this year. Also at EVO this year, ANN got to chat with the game's director, Kamone Serizawa, about its release, what's in store for the future, and his other favorite fighting games. This conversation was carried out thanks to the indispensable help of translator Kevin M. Louis.

So if we're good to go, tell me about yourself.

Kamone SERIZAWA: Hello, my name is Kamone Serizawa from French-Bread. I am the director of the UNDER NIGHT series. Good to meet you.

So how did you get involved with UNDER NIGHT?

Serizawa: At French-Bread, there was really only one person who could act as director, which was me. So when it came time for the plan to put forward, y'know let's make UNDER NIGHT, it really wasn't much of a choice. It had to be me.

How has the first six months of UNI2 been?

Serizawa: The UNDER NIGHT series has become pretty popular over time, and it seems that everybody, both new to the game and old to the game, is enjoying it very thoroughly. With us adding rollback to it, it's great to see people able to play online so easily. And we came out when a lot of other really big games came out, but still, a lot of people seem to be able to enjoy our game well enough.

What's been your favorite part about seeing the reception to UNI2?

Serizawa: It might be a strange thing to say, but as a fighting game player, hearing other fighting game players say, "This character is way too strong!" or "This character is way too weak!" is actually something I really enjoy watching.

Speaking of people talking about characters being too strong or too weak, we haven't seen a patch yet for UNI2. When that happens, can you say anything about what people can expect?

Serizawa: I can't really say anything right now. It's obviously a secret until we get to the time we can release it. But one thing I can say is that I tend to have a similar opinion to the players themselves regarding who's too weak, who's too strong, who's boring, who's fun. That very frequently aligns. So I think at the very least, people will have something good to look forward to when the patch does come out.

Speaking of people looking forward to things, tell me what you can tell me about the future of UNI2 and its support.

Serizawa: Of course, we were going to have balance patches coming in the future with Uzuki, the new character. There will be some character balances as well as some system balances. But outside of that, of course, we want to improve the network mode. We want to make it so the community can play more easily, get the training mode easily, and add a lot of those quality-of-life features. So I really care about the player's experience when they play our game. So we have a lot of plans in the works, or at least a lot of things that we're talking about that we want to add to make that player experience a lot more smooth and enjoyable, but we can't say more at this point, unfortunately.

Can I ask if cross-play is on the horizon?

Serizawa: It's a very important feature, I know this. If possible, it is something that I do want to add. I truly understand the importance of it. When we were developing UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[cl-r], I really understood the importance of rollback at that time. Then moving forward, we wanted to make sure that was a feature in future titles. So I can understand how important that rollback is now. Can we do it soon? I can't promise anything. Some costs and resources need to be thought of and planned around. So I can't promise anything soon, but I do understand how important a feature it is, and that is something that we are looking into.

Shifting gears a little bit. Who's your favorite character in UNI2?

Serizawa: I don't like saying who my favorite is because people will think that I'm working hard to make sure that they're a strong character. So what I would like to say instead is that I've been working on the UNDER NIGHT series for 10 years, and they've been growing with me as if they're my own children. So asking me who my favorite is is asking, "Which is your favorite child?" And that's just something I can't answer.

That's adorable. I like that a lot. So tell me about, in your mind, what separates UNI2 the most from UNI1, direction-wise?

Serizawa: So probably the biggest change is making it so that the meter gauge fills up easier. The game is fun. The previous title, UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[cl-r], is a very fun game, but we felt that sometimes the fights were just a little dull, and we thought about how to make them a bit more exciting. And we wanted the game to look a lot more flashy. A very easy way to do that was to give them more gauges to play with. So that was one of the things that we did. We adjusted the growth of the gauge so that people could get access to more of their special moves and make the game a little more flashy to watch.

So, you clearly have a good sense of what players like. And I know you mentioned earlier that you also play UNI. Do you play any other fighting games, either now or previously?

Serizawa: Yeah, I would say I play pretty much all of them.

Do you have a favorite?

Serizawa: Basically, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. I really like that one. Also, Street Fighter 6. Kind of an indie title, but Idol Showdown. Y'know, with my friends, I play a lot. So if somebody says, "Hey, let's play this," we end up just playing that. I see fighting games as sort of a communication tool, so we use that as just a means to get together and communicate.

What fighting games would you say have inspired UNI as a whole the most?

Serizawa: So, there's nothing really that I can say is, "This is the inspiration or influence on UNDER NIGHT 2!" As I said before, I play basically all the games, so I understand which features are popular or hated. I really know this stuff. So when it comes to UNDER NIGHT 2, I think about what elements might work for, and what might not. So it's less accurate to say that y'know, which game influences UNDER NIGHT, and more accurate to say that the community ends up influencing UNDER NIGHT 2.

Is there anything you would like to tell the UNDER NIGHT community through this interview?

Serizawa: So first, I just want to say thanks to everyone playing UNDER NIGHT. I'm incredibly grateful for that. And we have big events like EVO and the Arc World Tour where you can play this game. So please continue to play there and look forward to what these events have to show. And for those who actually do come to the events and play, you understand how great it is. And we want everybody to keep playing, and we'll keep pushing forward with this game. So, yeah, let's enjoy playing this game together.