BODY: After a year with no new fighters, the Hollow Night has a new face. On September 11, Arc System Works announced Zohar, a new playable character for UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes. Zohar is a fast, up-close fighter who battles together with a copy of herself, and both of them can teleport around the screen.
Zohar comes out on PS5, PS4 and Steam on September 16 at 10:00 JST. Nintendo Switch players get her about a week later, on September 24 at 10:00 JST. She is the first new character since Izumi, who arrived roughly a year ago after the earlier add-on fighters Uzuki and Ogre.
The trailer shows what Zohar's style is built on. She fights close up and teams up with her doppelganger, which strikes with spikes while Zohar keeps up the pressure. She can also teleport to change position, including tricks that put her behind her opponent. In Japan, that move is called ura-mawari (going behind). It forces opponents to guess which way to block, so it's hard to defend against when two bodies are on screen.
One catch: Zohar is sold only on her own. She is not part of the game's existing season pass, so season pass owners will need to buy her separately. The base game has 24 characters, and the final one, Kuon, is unlocked by meeting certain conditions or by owning the season pass.
The insider take
Under Night has always been a very Japanese kind of fighting game. The developer, French-Bread, started out as a dōjin (independent fan-made) game circle and became famous for Melty Blood. Its players meet in "anime fighter" arcades like Game Center Mikado in Takadanobaba, a Tokyo arcade that has hosted this kind of game for years. Players there will likely see a character built on teleports and attacks from behind as a tough one to learn but a strong one to master. The more telling detail may be the business side. Selling Zohar on her own suggests Arc System Works is still supporting the game without a formal second season. A year-long wait followed by one paid character looks like slow, steady support rather than a big new round of updates, and that is common for smaller fighting games in Japan.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).