Undertale has something that a lot of publishers lost over the years: HEART. I started this review not trying to make a joke with the heart mechanic on battles but now I have to start with it. =)

The battles are unique. It's not a classic RPG but the game has some elements of it... It's really hard to describe how the battles work but I can garantiee that's different and really fun. You have your regular attacks, items or you can talk with the enemy on your turns. On enemies' turn, you can dodge their attacks controlling a small heart in a box. It doesn't sound fun but it really is. Every battle is different and you have a lot of options to end it.

The story is simple but AMAZING and UNFORGETTABLE. It's incredible how a small developer could add alternative endings. Every battle will be important to your end. I can't say much to avoid spoilers but you are a kid that fell on a underground world full of monsters and trying to escape.

One thing that I have to say it's that you can see how much this project was important to its developer. I was playing Gears 5 at the same time I was playing Undertale and I could see the difference between something made only to make money and a game that tried to give a journey.

Please, give Undertale a chance. I hope that this review makes you full of DETERMINATION!

You ever experience something that, after enough time, feels like it contains a part of you? That you would not be who you are now, at this very moment, without this thing? Whether it be a game, book, movie, anime, comic, whatever, I know I'm not alone in this feeling. Of all the hundreds of games I’ve played, I can’t even count how many I’ve once had in my top 10, or 5, or even 3, only to swap them out, shift em around, or in some cases, fall entirely out of love with them. My opinions and tastes change, I grow up, I get more and more in touch with what really speaks to me in media little by little, so it’s only natural that shit like this would change for me. And seeing as I’ve been going through the most formative years of my life throughout the latter part of this past decade, it’d only follow that I’d have had plenty of games hold that number one spot throughout the years, right? Well, that surprisingly isn’t the case because for the better part of six years now, UNDERTALE has been my favorite piece of media. But why is that? Why has this game had such a firm grip on me since late 2015? How could such a simple, small, fucking EARTHBOUND CLONE reshape the way I perceive games as a consumer? Why did I reevaluate the way I treated the people around me? How did UNDERTALE kinda change my life? Well, that’s what I’d like to try and find out here.

I was just 12 when this game dropped. I happened to come upon JackSepticEye posting the first video of his playthrough back in October of 2015, watched around 5 minutes of it, thought it looked ugly and boring, and decided it wouldn’t be a game I’d enjoy. And it’s honestly kinda horrifying to think just how different of a person I could’ve turned out if I just went on like that, never giving it a second thought. It wasn’t till two months later in December when he (I used to watch a lot of JackSepticEye back in the day lol) uploaded a video titled “BECOMING A MONSTER | Undertale Genocide #1” that I got kind of interested. You see, I was pretty obsessed with choice-based games back then, shit like Telltale’s The Walking Dead and Infamous were my bread and butter. I couldn’t tell how shallow the actual choice-making in those games was, of course, I just thought it was the coolest shit ever that you could choose to be a good or bad guy in games (no slander to Infamous doe, those games rock). Now, seeing that I’d probably get more out of doing the “good guy” route first, I decided to pirate the game (a decision I would soon regret) and play through it.

Aside from my weird distaste for the game’s graphics at the time (which I have heavily, heavily switched up on by now), it’s pretty crazy just how quickly this game stole my heart. I beat it in one weekend and could do nothing but think about it for every minute of every day, for MONTHS on end. I became fandom trash (do people still use that term) for this game so embarrassingly fast, but that’s a story for another time. To keep it simple, I was completely entranced by this game’s world, the music that filled it with life, and the characters that inhabited it. But just what about those aspects of the game clicked with me so well? Let’s see if we can find out.

I’m gonna start by saying possibly the most nuclear, unheard of take you can imagine regarding this game:
The music is good. Like, really, really good. The game still has my favorite soundtrack of all time. With so many phenomenal boss tracks that represent the energy and personality of the characters so well. Whether it’s the heart-pounding emotional turmoil caused by Toriel’s Heartache, or Bergentrückung being the soft, somber intro to ASGORE that perfectly embodies the moral dilemma both he and the player are faced with, and how heart-wrenching that is, OR HOW MEGALOVANIA IS THE MOST BOMBASTIC, CHAOTIC SOUNDING BANGER IN EXISTENCE. Every boss theme is perfect in what it sets out to do. However, one thing that I don’t see talked about enough in regards to UNDERTALE’S soundtrack is just how good the music is at fitting the tone and atmosphere of ANY scene or location. Like the aforementioned boss themes, every overworld track sounds different, and feels like a breath of fresh air from the last. My favorite of these (not counting the main theme of Undertale itself because I could write a full-length review about that song in itself) is Waterfall’s theme, of course. It starts out so soft and understated, with a magical aura to it that almost makes it sound like the glowing rocks on the ceiling of the underground are playing along to the music, but then it erupts into this grand symphony that shoulders all the pain and tragedy the monsters have had to endure in their time underground. UNDERTALE’S soundtrack is powerful in this, with each track telling a story that relates to either that area exclusively or adds to the emotional depth and engagement with the overarching plot on the whole.

So it’s got a pretty cool soundtrack, but what’s the point in pretty music without a world to give life to with it? Thankfully, UNDERTALE delivers in that regard as well.

The world of UNDERTALE is one shrouded in a thick coat of darkness without ever really feeling that way. This is a place with people who have had their lives on the surface, with fresh air and wide open spaces, stolen from them by a population of people that didn’t have the capacity or patience to understand, appreciate, or empathize with them. And yet, the monsters that now reign underground still manage to scrape by and find some modicum of happiness, some semblance of hope to latch onto. It isn’t much to speak of, and most might even consider it miserable, but, before even getting to the main meat of the story or characters, just thinking about this small community down in the underground, these people that have been beaten down and broken by forces stronger and crueler than them, and seeing that they still haven’t given up hope? That they still remain an interconnected, tightly-knit family of people in spite of all they’ve collectively been through? Not only does it perfectly line up with the game’s themes regarding hope, perseverance, and determination, but god damn, it’s exactly what kept me coming back again and again to this place, to this world. On paper, it sure as hell is not a world I’d ever want to live in, but that light in the darkness feel that I just described makes me almost wish that I did.

And then you pair that world up with a story that tackles those very ideas head on, wrapped in a consistent spark of empathy, tenderness, and love? Then you’ve got a recipe for your old pal Ofy (that’s me) to cry his eyes out. And it’s those very characters, both major and minor, that would give the game its meaning, and become the defining feature of it for me.

UNDERTALE has a varied, diverse, and extremely colorful cast of lovable characters who’re equally charming as they are compelling. Whether it was Toriel and her overprotective, but well-meaning motherly nature caused by the heartache she endured long ago, Alphys’s heartwarming, but misguided attempts to get closer to you, fueled by a deep-seated desire to feel worthwhile after living with perpetual self-hatred as a result of the terrible mistakes she made in the past, or even Mettaton’s comically homicidal tendencies spurred on by a genuine love for entertainment and need to be seen, the list goes on but you get my point. These characters were gripping, they were funny, scary, witty, awkward, sympathetic and all things in-between. They all had clear goals, aspirations, wants, and the game communicated all of that so effortlessly in the short time you spend with them. And really thinking on it now, it’s kinda mind-blowing just how long you actually interact with these characters. With an average pacifist route netting you, on average, around five to six hours, it’s incredibly impressive just how much you get out of these characters. You learn what food they like, what shows they watch, what they aspire to be, what they fear, their hobbies, all of these and more in such a measly but meaningful amount of time. As short-lived or trope-y as some of them may feel, they’ve always felt more real to me than most video game casts. And by the end of the game’s main route, I felt like I genuinely did meet and connect with a group of peers, cherished friends, and a new, beloved family. Walking through the underground during this sort of “last hurrah” moment, it feels like *I did all this, that I* genuinely accomplished something with these people. I managed to, through warm, tender pacifism, deliver unto them a real kindness. I was able to become the light that the monsters needed to escape what seemed like their final resting place, and gave them the right to fresh air and sunlight that they had been yearning for ages for.

All of this combined for one of the most satisfying and emotionally fulfilling final bosses I’ve ever experienced in a game. I don’t want to get too heavy into spoilers, but there’s a certain moment towards the end of it and just before that previously mentioned last hurrah walk that so brilliantly embodies the themes of this game and I still absolutely fucking bawl my eyes out going through that segment. It ended up being a tragic, but triumphant story about hatred, compassion, and redemption that still has not been topped for me. And all of this makes for an ending that feels earned, that made me close the game with the biggest, fattest smile on my face, awkwardly pumping my fist in the air and going, “That’s how it’s done.”

And since then, I’ve looked at video games in such a different light. They became so much more than mere passing entertainment, or a fun but most likely fleeting hobby that I would eventually grow out of. UNDERTALE awakened a passion for the medium that I did not have before, where I could finally see it for the art form that it was. I could finally begin to appreciate the sheer technical and artistic prowess on display with the games I had already loved in the past, and now I could look forward to playing new games with that same degree of awe and passion when everything clicks for me.

This game is just so much larger than life for me. In a way, you could say that I “woke up” after I played this game, as overdramatic as that sounds. This game helped me discover a part of myself I didn’t know that I had, it inspired me to try every day to be a better person, and to cherish my connections with those I was close with. UNDERTALE helped me understand that even when I fall, that it isn’t the end. I can always pick myself up, I always have people to fall back on that care about and love me for being who I am. That is a message that, almost seven years later, I still think about and value so much. So say what you will about how this game ruined indie RPG discussion or how it has annoying fans or whatever else you’d like, but I will be forever grateful that I got to exist in the same era that such an important, powerful game could, and I eagerly await to see just what Toby Fox does with Deltarune, because that game’s gearing up to be right up there with its older sibling.

Isso não vai ser uma review comum, mas sim, uma carta de amor a obra, seus desenvolvedores e aos preciosos momentos que tive.

Vamos lá, falar de Undertale.

“Não se preocupe comigo. Alguém tem que tomar conta dessas flores“
- Asriel Dreemur.

Primeiramente, o jogo é um RPG baseado em turnos, de aventura e Indie. Com atmosfera altamente imersiva, reconfortante e mágica somadas pela trilha sonora de mais alto nível que eu já tive a oportunidade de ouvir.

“Tecnicamente, é impossível para você derrotá-lo... mas de alguma forma, eu sei que você consegue!”
- Alphys.

O jogo provoca emoções das quais eu não fazia ideia de que eu podia sentir. Do nível de rir para chorar de emoção.
O que contribui para tudo isso, fora os fatores que mencionei acima são os personagens altamente carismáticos com os destinos decididos por você, o jogador.

Um dos maiores acertos ao meu ver é a incrível construção de mundo estabelecida, com os personagens e a história em si. Que vai de uma área de cidade nevada com um barzinho mt brabo para uma área com rios de lava com laboratórios.

“Não fique com medo, minha criança... Não importa o que aconteça... Nós vamos sempre estar aqui para te proteger!”
- Toriel.

As diversas rotas com uma conexão incrível de personagens não dá outra! O jogo possui cerca de 93 rotas diferentes para sua conclusão final, com diversas escolhas e momentos.
Os personagens tem peça chave nisso. Cada um deles, por mais insignificante possível tem um espaço na história.

“Há um sentimento fervendo dentro de mim. Um sentimento que NÃO me deixa morrer.”
- Undyne.

Me desculpa, eu tentei não falar. MAS EU PRECISO!
Preciso falar sobre a musicalidade perfeita de Undertale. Eu tentei, amigos...

Vamos começar pela qualidade musical da obra. A trilha sonora é encaixada perfeitamente em todas as cenas do jogo, e algumas até te fazem chorar de emoção, lembrando daqueles preciosos momentos onde ocorreram.
Uma das mais clássicas é sem dúvidas “Megalovania”. A música que toca durante a batalha do Sans.
Outras épicas que recomendo são: Respite, Hopes and Dreams, Battle Against a True Hero e Shop. 10/10, apenas.

E para finalizar, sem mais memes ou algo do tipo, quero falar sobre as mensagens excelentes que Undertale traz a tona.
Uma das que eu mais gosto é sobre a ideia dos monstros e humanos.
“Como assim?”

Na rota genocida, uma das diversas rotas possíveis, você deve matar todos os monstros presentes no jogo. E há uma fala do personagem Sans que é bem interessante: “Meu irmão queria muito ver um humano, então você poderia pelo menos fingir ser um?”, revelando que a misericórdia e a maldade já tinham dominado o jogador fazia tempo, e que aquilo não se aparentava mais com atos legítimos.

Outra mensagem que é muito bem representada é sobre a bondade e determinação.

----------------------- SPOILER-------------------------------------

Um fator no jogo que é o LV, que você adquire matando monstros. O LV 1 significa que você não machucou nenhum monstro se quer, ou seja, você passou por todas as adversidades fazendo amigos e companheiros pela sua jornada sem matar ninguém. E que no final disso tudo, revela-se que LV significa Level of Violence, e não Love como é mostrado inicialmente no jogo. Gerando um final incrível e épico.

Bom, acho que disse a maioria das coisas que queria sobre uma das minhas obras favoritas. Espero que fiquem bem.
“Nesse mundo é matar ou morrer”
- Flowey

Ler essa Review te enche de DETERMINAÇÃO.

Every single interesting idea undertale has is either tackled better in other games (LISA, Moon, etc.) or are only vaguely gestured to without saying much about them (i.e. most of the meta elements). Most of the interesting ideas are stuck behind the genocide route, which is dull as shit and gives me zero reason to play it. Characters range from mediocre to annoying to meme shitposts i cant take seriously (deadass if you say "sup kiddo" to me in a shitty critikal impression i'll prolly laugh my ass off). OST is mid. Not very funny either, but those last two are just me. I respect it for trying and exposing these ideas to a wide audience ig, and Toby Fawcks seems like a nice guy.

Yknow, despite having worked on Homestuck.

I've heard a lot of people have faults with this game. Some of the characters are poorly written, the story doesn't make much sense, the gameplay can get repetitive, the fanbase, so on and so forth. But, all these people have forgotten a very, very important fact:

I am a lonely, gay furry.

Front-to-back, this game is literally flawless to me. To the point where it's not worth listing off all the reasons why. Music, characters, gameplay, art style, messages, story, everything. All perfect. My favorite game of all time, and one that I can confidently say changed my life.

people keep wanting to dig deeper and deeper into undertale, its metatextuality becomes an all-consuming force in which all themes of undertale have to be about undertale because undertale is about undertale, but no!!!! the game has things to say about stuff other than itself and i’d argue that its only interested in itself as a metaphor for much more material themes. it juxtaposes treating the game as a lived in world full of characters versus treating the game as pile of content not to say “treating games as piles of content is bad” but as a metaphor about why living out our, like, actual lives as strictly instrumental is bad.

readings of it being exclusively or even primarily about fandom or the way we interact with games are so limiting. It's such a loving and emotionally honest game and reducing it to a snake eating its own tail makes me sad.

This is currently my favorite game of all time, so making this review was an inevitability, but I found it hard to word myself for the longest time. This entire review will most definitely contain elements of spoilers.

I would I guess, like to preface that it isn't perfect. Much of the known Genocide Route and Pacifist Route is a rough draft in terms of narrative design, pacing is kind of thrown to the road in both of them in terms of how events are revealed, specifically the tapes in the True Lab come to mind, or how it unceremoniously saves all of the genuine good storytelling in Genocide to the latter bits.

It's also quite limiting on a gameplay front, to an extent. I think the bullet hell combat is genuinely good, and by nature of how it's designed, better than most other rpgs. Dancing between bullet patterns as they combine on top of other enemies is a core part of any decent bullet hell philosophy, and seamlessly tying that to its rpg core and narrative is something to be praised and serves far more an execution test than most rpg's knowledge test design where ultimately optimal strategy is a once and done affair for most encounters. It is still limiting however, since only about 1/3 of the encounters actually make use of patterns building atop of each other, and the game saves its strongest bullet hell tests to the Genocide run, and the hard mode is literally an intentional joke.

That being said, and god that last paragraph wasn't even too negative, I'd say UNDERTALE is absolutely brilliant. It's the finest execution of the ensuing theme of "determination" I've ever seen in a work of art, surpassing general examples like Gurren Lagann by supplying its theme at an individual character level and wrapping it around an excellent metanarrative to boot (that you don't even have to be aware of to enjoy).

UNDERTALE works off clear character ideas, humanizing its characters around the world it sets up in extremely well written ways. Alphys is my leading example, which is weird that it's people's least favorite. She's built up as a stingy incredibly annoying type, a character who is increasingly irritating to deal with. She stops you at every point, wanting attention, to be something like the shows and remnants of otaku cultures she was able to consume. She ultimately gets betrayed by her own work, and ends up pushing back her own war crimes she's committed. She's not a justified person in what she's done, but she is sympathetic to understand. Her actions are communicated exceptionally for people to understand what kind of person she is, and the arc she gets is fitting and she learns what it really means to be determined and what she actually needs to do to be loved.

This reflects on every character not just her, and on top of this, is how flawed each of these characters are as people really works back to how honest they truly feel, and they’re all fleshed out personality wise to a point where tobyfox can publish them talking about whatever topic and I could hear their fonts come off the page and imagine them emoting in real time. They're very humanized people.

I'd also like to talk about how UNDERTALE ties its metanarrative elements well. The game in short, is a living breathing game world that operates on world mechanics riffed from a general audience understanding of how rpgs work, using a morality system that is defined on a character to character level rather than strict moral good/bad. You're allowed to kill in self defense, you're encouraged to be pacifist but the game doesn't vilify you for kills, it asks you to reflect on them. The monsters' world is as much a world to them as your own world is to you. And the only basis to understand them is to take them as living people where act of murder or self defense is a last resort. Especially when you yourself have the power to save and reload, so death is never truly an end for you, so death until you SPARE them is a legitimate option that only costs you time.

Even if you don't care for the meta elements, even if the characters aren't someone you jive with, even if the gameplay isn't particularly your own thing, it still has its own comedic writing to back on, and one of the best vidya soundtracks I've had the pleasure to listen to. It's also an excellently paced journey, gameplay and narrative-wise. But I would still be surprised personally, if there wasn't a single character or emotional moment that resonated with you.

I think UNDERTALE stands above all other games I've played in my lifetime so far, and it certainly has had a huge impact on my life going forward that I can't give it any less than my 10/10.

Undertale took game culture by storm in 2015, becoming the source of song parodies and fanfiction for the next three years. This should come as no surprise, because the creator Toby Fox was involved in the similarly gargantuan touchstone of Homestuck prior working primarily on the music.

Undertale itself stands tall to the hype and acclaim garnered towards it, showing nary a crack in its pristine presentation. Undertale is a story to game devs everywhere about budgeting out the assets on your title as far as possible. Its short length is made up for by telling a story through the act of restarting, so you can meet the world in a whole different way. There is something similar in the music design with leitmotifs and borderline remixes of tunes for other spaces in the game. Far from being a detriment though, this reuse is seamless in form and presentation. That's not to say there isn't a wide cast of characters, everything from boisterous skeletons to dog knights lay ahead in your journey through the caves and ruins of Undertale. Every character, even the enemies, is excited to tell you their story.

Undertale is also a tour de force in keeping the player involved. For one, it's a RPG game for people don't like RPGs. The most novel mechanical inclusion is various SHMUP styled dodging minigames to avoid taking extra damage meaning that you always feel involved in the stakes of a fight rather than mechanically hitting the same buttons without worry. Of course it need not be said how such minigames add even further to the lush character portraits of the enemies you fight. Also, Undertale is constantly out to switch things up to keep players that much more engaged, using punchy humor and reasonable puzzles to keep the player immersed that much more. Even if you removed the metacommentary and stellar 3rd act finale boss fight from the picture, you would still be left with one of the best computer games of its year, if not of its decade.

--------

Originally written for the SSI canon

I think this game shows that you don't always need ultra realistic graphics or a huge AAA budget when making a good game. As long as you have an engaging story, great characters, set in a world you can get lost in. You can create something special.

Taken me a while to get to this and I can happily say I was not disappointed.

Also the music slaps!

Oh. my. god.
I was never personally into RPGs but HOLY SHIT I'VE BEEN MISSING OUT ON THIS FOR TOO LONG.
Everything, from the characters to the music to the areas to the writing and the gameplay is just absolutely impeccable, the game's theme of choice and consequences is beautifully and expertly handled, even if its subtly going on in the background while you play (and accidentally leading you to a bad ending for one mistake).
I had so many moments that took me by surprise because of how used to gaming conventions I've become used to over time, RPG or otherwise, I'm glad that I've had a completely refreshing new experience with this and I'd completely recommend for anyone to give a go.

Every so often something comes out that seems to invoke some kind of deep insecurity in all the other creatives I know. A genuine mania of "I will never create anything as special as this".

I can't say it's ever happened to me, but I'd put Undertale up there alongside some of Bo Burnham's absolute best as one of the very few things that has made me...Envious of its creator. Undertale didn't make me question my own worth as a creator, but it did make me frustrated that I haven't made anything on this level yet, because, jesus. The sheer passion, the raw, earnest nature, the mastery of like 4 different artistic practices that is on display on Undertale is insane.

This is a game that constantly defies and warps RPG conventions, has a branching, replayable and often deeply, existentially disturbing main story, has fun and creative combat that makes even random encounters at least enjoyable, has consistently funny and likeable characters and some of the best "bits" I can recall ever seeing in a videogame (Mettaton's cooking show and almost anything to do with Papyrus stand out) all the while having one of the Top 5 Greatest Videogame Soundtracks Of All Time, fight me on that.

I went into Undertale largely spoiled on almost everything. I knew there were 3 routes, who the final boss of each was, who most of the main characters were etc. and yet this game still had me deeply invested and enjoying every minute of it. On top of this, it's short! You get all this good shit in like, 8 hours or less if you want! Yes!! Yes!! Normalise short games!! Down with the 100+ hour JRPGs and open-world slogs!! Stop making them and playing them you freaks!!

Basically Undertale is objectively a masterpiece and deserves all the praise it's gotten. Stop hating shit out of principle of its popularity you're cringe + you're white + ratio