Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]’s Phonon Is Controlling and Humorous

There are quite a few characters making their debut in Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]. One of them is Yoshi… Phonon. She’s a young woman who feels like she’s destined for something greater. Which is fine. There are plenty of people out there with a lot of ambition. But not all of them want to purposely put themselves in a life-threatening situation so they can develop superpowers. Yeah, Phonon is that kind of woman.

What’s nice about Phonon’s Chronicle is that it is a true origin story. Which is quite fitting, considering her mindset and goal. We keep hearing about how Voids turn people into In-Births after encountering them in the Hollow Night and biting thing. Here, we have someone purposely seeking one out. But it isn’t depressing or sad. It’s downright humorous, as we have a snarky young woman who is determined to prove she is deserving of this power. Her introductory storyline, as she goes from an actual ordinary student to someone much greater, is equal parts humorous and grave. It fits for such a game.

This self-serving personality and thought that she is somehow above others comes through in her Arcade mode and moveset, just like it does for Wagner. Currently, she is affiliated with the Exist Force Guardians. Tsurugi and Koma scouted her and provided her with Muniel,the sometimes-snake and sometimes-whip weapon she uses. She’s also investigating the Hollow Night for them in return for that. But she doesn’t consider herself allied with anyone. She wants to use her abilities for her own good. While that sort of selfish nature can be sometimes funny to watch, especially when she interacts with certain people, it also means she is the sort you’d imagine pushing folks around to get her way.

Which is exactly what she does with Muniel when you fight. Most of Phonon’s attacks are ranged. (She does have some kicks that allow you to hit people at a closer range.) But what’s really important is how Muniel forces people away and draws them closer. Dashing while attacking hits the opponent with such force that they fly as far as possible to the other side of the screen, while pressing back while attacking will pull an enemy closer even if they attempt to block. Her Impulsive Frustration attack, which can be held to charge, causes a good amount of damage and can make an enemy hit a wall and bounce off of it, if they are close enough to one. This is in addition to other special attacks that will send enemies up into the air or down to the ground.

Phonon is one of those characters where if she was an actual person, you might not want to have anything to do with her. But as a fictional character, she’s pretty interesting. Not only that, but she’s a character who can control the field of battle and use her whip-snake’s range to deal with enemies without getting too close. She might make for a pretty great main. At the very least, people might find her storyline to be one of the more humorous ones.

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] will come to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on February 9, 2018.