Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] arrives on PS4 and Switch on February 20 of next year. It will cost $39.99, and a collector's edition is also available for $59.99. Both editions of the game are available for pre-order at the Aksys Games store.

The collector's edition includes a compilation of the game's soundtrack on CD, a 96-page artbook, and a keychain of the game's new character--Londrekia.

So far, we know that UNICLR will feature at least one new character, balance updates, and new moves for existing characters. While I appreciate these things, I must ask: is $40 too steep? Balance updates will certainly hook UNICLR's core audience, but I'm not sure they will pull in new players. New characters might, and while Londrekia looks cool--one character is a bit too lean. Hopefully French-Bread brings more to the game by the time it releases.

I'm also a little rankled that there isn't any discount system in play for those who already own the previous iterations of Under Night In-Birth. I've already spent hundreds of dollars on this game.

Perhaps what I'm most troubled by, though, is the competition that UNICLR will be facing from other anime fighters. Granblue Fantasy: Versus, for instance, looks incredible and is releasing on February 6UNICLR will be a great game, but Granblue Fantasy: Versus will still be a shiny new object when it releases. Couple this with a new Guilty Gear launch sometime in 2020, and it's hard to see how an update to an old game like Under Night will survive for very long.

Enough cynicism. Having too many great games to play is a good problem, really, and I'm very excited about UNICLR. I mean, Londrekia's ice-crucifixion move looks like it's worth the price of admission by itself. Check it out in the trailer below.