Interviews/2024 Wiki Twitter Q&A

Not to be confused with the Q&A Corner.

In 2024, the official Twitter Account for the UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Wiki held a Q&A in which users could ask series battle planner Kamone Serizawa, series composer Raito and series character designer Seiichi Yoshihara questions about their work on the series. The questions were collected from January 20th to January 24th, a day before the release of UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes. The questions were then answered from July 2nd, 2024 to July 4th, 2024.

Act:One (Kamone Serizawa)

Question by @azure_visions

Q: What were your goals for developing the new system mechanics for UNI2 and how do you feel the franchise has developed since its beginning?

A: Regarding UNI2's new system The goal of the development of UNI2's new system is both "creating something for players new to the UNI series and for players that have dropped UNI at one point and are returning to UNI2 to play more easily/comfortably" and "creating a system that fans of the UNI series want". This concept is applied not only to creating the new system, but also general battle balancing. Creeping Edge is a dodge mechanic that is easily understood and can be used by everyone. Everyone gets it when they hear "you can escape with this when you're in danger". For UNI fans, they understand that this is an important mechanic that utilises GRD, since a successful dodge gives you GRD, but you risk a GRD break if you get grabbed. We adjusted this mechanic this way so that it could satisfy many players.

The UNI series is very offense-oriented. It however required techniques in the weaker “get off me” mechanics such as Guard Thrust and Veil Off, as well as the overly complicated Shield mechanic. It does make the game interesting in a way, but the learning cost and difficulty were both very high. We wanted to add something to make the UNI2 experience different, while giving players a simple defensive option to deal with the opponent's offense. We adjusted Creeping Edge, Veil Off, Guard Thrust and Shield with this objective in mind.

• Regarding the series' development

Initially, we explored ways to make UNI different from the Melty Blood series. Not only that, we also aimed to make UNI a unique experience while utilizing the game feel developed for Melty Blood. Moreover, we considered the direction we wanted to go with French Bread's fighting games to establish a brand image.

Question by @Backslashed_

Q: What factors play into naming the colors for every character?

A: The naming of character palettes is quite a unique feature of the UNI series. In many cases, we named them with the thought that "it sounds really cool but it doesn't make sense”. It may sound weird, but it feels like this naming sense is something unique to Japanese people. We also named the palettes with the characters' settings and the origin language of their names in mind (however, we did not establish a nationality for the characters themselves). For example, a Japanese-style character would have palette names in Romaji.

Question by @BreadandM

Q: How did Mika's gameplay come to be in the way that it is? Was it fun to design her, were there any moves you struggled to make for her, did her archetype change during development, etc.

A: We first designed Mika, and then designed her moveset around it. In past fighting games, small characters with big weapons had a tendency to become too powerful, so we paid extra attention to that when designing her. We also designed Mika's crouching pose to not be too low compared to her standing pose with this in mind. Initially, we planned to make Mika more of a joke character. For example, she would have a gimmick where she would randomly trip while walking. However, as interesting a random character like this would be, we decided it would be difficult to update her in the long term this way, and ultimately changed it.

Question by @Crazyhowitworkz

Q: What goes into the process of creating a character's moveset? Like, do you think about the story and personality of the character, or how they will end up playing in contrast to the rest of the cast?

A: The designer's inspiration is the most important factor for the UNI series. With that as the baseline, we added new battle designs and mechanics, and created characters that are both cool and fun to play. The reason is because the most important part of playing a character is being able to do cool things with them. The character's personality and story are important in creating their moves. For example, we believe attacks like setplay/trap moves and command grabs are considered evil. This derives from the impression of these moves from the long history of fighting games.

I think it's very fun to design moves around the character's personality. Whether the character has a straightforward personality, talks in a roundabout way, very offensive, or very careful - they are all put into consideration when designing their attacks. It is also important to make sure that there are no major discrepancies between the character's personality and their personality in the story that fighting game fans would accept.

Question by @Fowztasia

Q: Going from UNIB's debut iteration to UNI2, we noticed and played with many changes in battle design, mainly how the offense/defense dynamic shifted. Do you have a vision for how it should be, and which other developers or concepts you follow up close?

A: Gaming trends change over time. Games that are trending right now may not be as popular if they were released a few years earlier (We don't know for sure). I think it is also important for fighting games' battle designs to match with the current era. Having an identity is important, but the identity of the battle design should be an extra seasoning at most. For UNI, the change in offense and defense is quite large. I believe it used to be a game with very strong defense, and it developed into a game with both strong offense and defense. I think the players' skill level also went up as time passed. To match with that, we adjusted the battle system as if the characters themselves (the In-Births) also become stronger as time passed (lol).

Nowadays, I think there is a demand for games where the battle strategy is easy to understand to some extent. That being said, UNI2 does utilize the good qualities it has had from the past and tries to keep the game more old-fashioned. There's not many people that have directly spoken with other developers (there are many people that have at least chatted with each other though). However, even if we don't talk to them directly, you can make a guess at what they are thinking by looking at the games they made. You can tell they're thinking "this genre is popular right now, let's take this route and make it more popular in a few years". Besides that, you can also tell their visions are often similar to each other.

Question by @foxof42

Q: We have previously heard from you that Street Fighter III was an inspiration for UNI. I often hear players reference "short hop" from the King of Fighters series when explaining the Assault mechanic. Have you played KOF? What was the biggest influence for Assault?

A: I have definitely played KOF in the past. I've been in love with it since I was a student, and have played the newest version. The game that influenced Assault the most was Vampire Savior (AKA Darkstalkers). I really liked the speedy offensive options in the game, like its instant air dash. However, the input for IAD was hard, so Assault was made with "easily doable IAD❞ as the base. This idea was originally proposed by our designer Yoshihara. I also thought that would be fun, so we worked on it together.

It ended up being more similar to the short hop from KOF, but Assault is also easy to perform, so I believe it turned out to be a very good system.

Question by @Kuronji11

Q: How has interacting with the Western communities helped to influence/change certain aspects of UNI2?

A: I think it is the biggest influence that allowed UNI to never stop development. Without the Western communities, the UNI series probably would have ended early. UNI has been a popular arcade game in Japan. When the series became available overseas, the foreign players also discovered the passion of Japanese players and the charms of the game. Right now, I think we are being influenced by both local Japanese players and overseas players. Seeing the passion shared across borders is wonderful. The appeal of fighting games is truly wonderful.

Question by @SM_MarthSSBM

Q: What was your thought process when deciding how Nanase should play? What made you land on the style she has now?

A: My image of a character that controls wind is that they're fast, elusive and light when it comes to fighting. However, in anime and manga, characters that only fight with the power of wind don't give the impression that they are really strong. So we decided to give her a big sword and emphasized her main character-like image. We also came up with her playstyle to give her more personality with a somewhat standard moveset. We gave her projectiles, invincible moves and lunging attacks. Furthermore, to give her a UNI-like trait, we gave her a lot of freedom in movement with her power to manipulate the wind. In the end, I think she turned out to be a fun character to control that also has a unique playstyle.

Question by @Sn9Bois

Q: Kaguya is a character you've been wanting to add for a long time now, how does it feel to finally see her fully realized as a playable character after so long?

A: Her first appearance was about 10 years ago, when she showed up in Orie's ending. I think seeing a tall woman fighting with two guns is very cool and charming. When we decided to make her playable, we made sure to make her not too hard to play. We made her easy to play at a basic level while also incorporating more technical elements. She's a character that I would definitely want many players to try out.

Question by @TheOmla3

Q: How did you get into game development, and how did you get into Fighting Games specifically?

A: I started learning how to program games and applications on my PC at around 10 years old. Around that time, I came across "Street Fighter 2" on the Super Famicon (SNES), and became obsessed with it. My interest in fighting games began at that point (I have played fighting games before that, but did not get into it until the SNES version). After that, I came across the program "Fighter Maker" and made multiple fighting games, which I enjoyed with my friends. It was during this time that I understood how fighting games work. When I was a student, I played a lot of fighting games at arcades and on computers. I published the strategy guide created on a website, which was rare in that era (around 1997~2002).

Then I came across the PC version of "Melty Blood", and became obsessed with that game. It might sound weird to say this myself, but among the Melty Blood players at the time, I was a top player in Japan and was very good at the game. Thanks to that, the Melty Blood production team reached out to me, and I joined the developer side. You could say Melty Blood was the key that got me into game development.

Act:Two (Raito)

Question by @cannonballsaber

Q: Is there any track you feel fits more in line with your original vision of the song, now that you've had a chance to redo them?

A: The visions of the music haven't changed much from before, but the situation has changed since the initial release in 2012. Now that both online and offline tournaments are getting more active, we are now also conscious of trying to make the music enjoyable for both players and spectators.

Question by @JojoAizen

Q: Was remixing the character themes more challenging compared to making new originals for the existing cast of characters?

A: Character themes are like precious memories and treasures for players that have listened to them for many years. Making a new theme for existing characters would be taking that memory away from the players, so we would need a good enough reason to do that. This time (UNI2) marks the end of the story so far, so we chose expanding on existing character themes by remixing them over giving them new themes.

Question by @Joko_fgc

Q: What has been the most fun theme to compose for UNI?

A: Londrekia. I got the image in my mind of how I want it to be from start to finish right away. All I had to do was turn it into sound.

Question by @Magicriderr

Q: Did you ever think your music (UNI in this case) would end up being so popular even outside of the game? How does it feel to hear your music being beloved by such diverse communities in all around the world?

A: I'm very happy that UNI's music became popular even outside the community. This is because I had "making music that reaches even outside the community" in mind when creating the music for UNI, and I achieved that goal. Video game music is normally only heard by people who bought the video game. However, if it could become popular even outside the playerbase, we have the possibility that people that haven't heard of the game would come and try it out. Which means it becomes possible to get more people into UNI. It also makes me happy when they hear the music in-game and realize "oh so it's this character's theme!”

Question by @Mecha_Man1025

Q: Who was the most difficult character to compose a theme for?

A: It was Hyde's theme, since it's the very first theme that would decide the direction of UNI's music. It took quite a lot of retakes before we settled with this one.

Question by @Mr_ASK15

Q: Were there any challenges in remixing the existing characters' themes?

A: If it changes too much, it would ruin the image, but if there's not enough change, then there's no freshness. It was hard to find a balance between the two.

Question by @RoxanneTonight_

Q: What made you decide to use the original trailer theme as a basis for Kuon's theme?

A: That was Narita-san's idea. I thought it was a great idea for marking the end of the story. The trailer theme was made before character themes, so we still haven't decided on the direction for UNI at that time. This time, we arranged it as Kuon's theme while following the UNI music direction.

Question by @RuberRubyy

Q: Do other characters have scrapped themes before getting the ones they have now like Hyde? Were they integrated to their current themes in some way?

A: I had to remake Yuzuriha's theme, like, four times.

Question by @Sanchez_JoseQ and @Scarce61205705

Q: What did you consider in order to make each character's theme? / What inspired the overall direction for the style of UNIB's music? Has that direction changed over time as the series has progressed?

A: UNI was originally released as an arcade game, so we paid extra effort in the intros to make sure players would get into it the first time they hear the theme. Nowadays, consumers and PC are more mainstream, but that policy has not changed.

Act:Three (Seiichi Yoshihara)

Question by @ChestMage

Q: How long does it take to create a character's sprite animations?

A: Rough drafts take a few minutes per sheet personally. Making a clean copy takes quite a bit of time - about an hour per sheet.

Question by @foxof42

Q: Is there a character that was the most difficult to put into motion?

A: I believe it was Wald, since he's the biggest. The sprites are all handmade, so bigger characters take up more time. The "Void flow" animation inside Kuon's coat also took a lot of work.

Question by @intimidaving

Q: What went into the thought process behind creating Lex Bartholomeus and her role in the story?

A: We have the In-Births of the Licht Kreis operate in teams as the premise. I thought we would need an operator that manages the team and gives out orders, so we created Lex.

Question by @Maritiming

Q: Is it possible for you to explain a little bit of the animation process and some of the few techniques you use for the sprite animations?

A: My production process goes a little something like this: 1. Imagine the character motions in my mind. The animation direction is pretty much decided at this stage. The normal attacks are the most important part. I think about them all together rather than separately. This is to put attack methods together according to damage levels, and to structure them in a way so that the actions don't look too similar. For example, we give moves traits like "5A is a punch/5B is a horizontal slash/5C is a spinning slash", and then we make j.A a kick, j.B a vertical slash, and j.C a falling slash 2. Do a rough sketch. Sometimes, this may overlap with step 1. 3. Make adjustments to the sketch, make the poses cooler/ more dynamic, and then draft it. 4. Hand the draft to staff that specialize in fair copies and have them draft one. 5. Make adjustments to the fair copy and it's finished.

The techniques I use for animations: Tag animations as "slow" and "fast" momentums. Use shift* to slowly make them move for "slow" animations; advance multiple frames at once for "fast" animations. Use overshoot* to create momentum at the point of an abrupt stop. We believe not having blur makes the motion stand out more, so we try to express their trajectories with as little blur as possible. (However, there are cases where very speedy actions would be better if blur is used to express them.) Be conscious about movements with depth. 2D actions tend to be flat. The character should be viewed from multiple angles and not just from the side. The same goes for wave motions*, where the waves should move not only in the X-axis, but also the Y-axis and Z-axis. Add overactions that slightly exceed the range of motion of an actual body.

• Shift: Add small movements to each frame
• Overshoot: Motion of returning to the original stopping position after not being able to quickly stop due to momentum and going too far
• Wave motion: motion of soft objects like cloth and hair fluttering in the wind expressed in wave loops

Question by @Mecha_Man1025

Q: Who is the most fun / satisfying character for you to draw?

A: In terms of illustrations, Wald. I laugh whenever I look back and see I gave him way too much muscle and made him super buff. All male characters are basically fun to draw. They are really easy to draw because it's easy to pursue coolness and imagine the finished product. On the contrary, I have a bit more trouble when it comes to female characters. It's hard to find a good balance between coolness and cuteness.

Question by @MISONOxMIKA

Q: What's your favorite weapon in the game?

A: The rapier Ruler (Orie's weapon). I think it's a design that effectively combines both practicality and decorum.

Question by @SM_MarthSSBM

Q: Nanase has concept art of her being a "female hyde". I was wondering when designing or animating her if you ever kept that in mind!

A: I never really had that in mind. The current Nanase is a different person from when we drew her as a female Hyde, so the character settings are completely different, and she's since been reconstructed as a different character. But hey, if Nanase graduates middle school and enrolls at Hyde's highschool, she might end up wearing that uniform after all.

Question by @ShinArthur33

Q: How do you feel about how your art style has changed since the first Under Night game?

A: All the other fighting games have such great art, I honestly felt embarrassed about my more amateurish work from ten years back, and I wanted to renew my style as soon as possible. My current art still has room for improvement, but I (kinda) think it's become something that I'm not as ashamed of. What always happens after a change in art style is you're gonna get feedback along the lines of "the old one was better". But this time around, I'd like to ask everyone this: The new one is at least an improvement, right? By the way, anyone ever wondered why eyes become smaller and body proportions get larger as we get more used to drawing them? It's always been a mystery to me.

Question by @STAROCiDE

Q: Which of the currently non-playable characters (Azel, Zohar, etc.) was the most fun or interesting to design?

A: The NPCs I had fun designing were Zohar and Strix. I was allowed to draw them the way I liked including their costumes, and I think my tastes are strongly expressed in them.

Question by @theodorenusire

Q: What was the inspiration for Uzuki in terms of her design?

A: I think the costume design was influenced by the fact that I was just beginning to get into gothpunk at the time and had a strong interest in that style of outfit. In terms of fighting game character design, I love Capcom's Darkstalkers series, and wanted to bring its essence into UNI. That's essentially what I'm doing with Uzuki.

External links

• Initial announcement and call for questions
• Q&A with Kamone Serizawa
• Q&A with Raito
• Q&A with Seiichi Yoshihara