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I'm gonna be honest, the first hour when I play this game I thought to myself that this game is great but it can't go anywhere to the level and hype I heard about it all these years. And boy was I wrong. The beauty of this game is: I don't know how to describe it in non-esoteric or artsy terms... but is simply full of vibes, it's moody, tear-breaking and lovingly crafted and it's definitely polished with a lot of care to it, and if you're willing to let yourself go of a few layers of "realness" to delve into this ̶t̶a̶l̶e̶ Undertale and get attached to the characters you're in for a treat!


If there would be a museum for video-games as art pieces, an archive of the most unique of all and the ones that push both the medium and the overall artform of human expression: Undertale would deserve to have its place there, since it's definitely one of those games that brings up something new. Its graphical fidelity of retro game aesthetics tricks you into believing deeply into some facade nostalgia that withers itself the more its story, metareferential perspectives unfolds. This kind of experience is one that "lasts" - it is iconic, to simply put it in a word. You play it once, and then it sticks with you. You can understand and feel its whole pop-culture references, memes and the whole influence it had on indie-gaming as a whole while completing the game and that's not a bad thing at all, it is almost daring and inspiring. Good art inspires & great art prevails its legacy; I adored the whole metereferential dialogues and techniques and that it is in a way a game about games and an incredible creation for an indie of its size.
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Loved each battle and the uniqueness brought into each of them, I liked the characters and as I said they're nicely written. It is a wonderful trip that feels surreal to take for the first time and even second time around and although at first glance it seems that it cannot further than what you expect its gameplay remains both fresh and familiar, in a weird sense I'm getting the Signalis feeling all over again : "I played this game before even though I didn't" and streaming this game to a few friends some evenings - most who are already familiar with the game already made the whole experience far more intimate and special to me.
Genocide route was where I almost lost my mind, especially at Sans battle, not familiar to this genre of gameplay at all, but despite all of this I appreciated what Sans/the Game was trying to create. It remained me of a lot of games I played over the years and in a weird way of tiny young me trying to make sense of pixels seen in an old, squared size monitor. And upon finally beating him, around 5 hours in I finally felt relief. It really speaks more about you as a player and individual that more about the characters and their stories. Indeed I think Undertale is one of those games I'd advise going into as blind as you can, which I almost completely did -- and the game left me shattered at times, thoughtful at the end. There's a lot to unpack about its meaning, or its motifs or themes but I think, like most pieces of art its conversations are to be taken mostly inwards with ourselves but its nice to think that such a simple, mostly overlooked (just like I did) game can hold so much within them: such huge emotions for such a tiny game, and it's mostly an argument for the fact that yes the indie scene is thriving and most of the time it does more greatly by willing to take necessary risks.

Stay DETERMINED!

Undertale definitely grew on me over the years. I think this is the quintessential example of videogames as an artform, simply because Undertale could not work the way it does if it was any other medium. The way the game utilices its mechanics to communicate ideas of morality, agency, player psychology and so much more, is truly fascninating, all while creating a lovely world filled with fun characters and exciting encounters.

I used to say "I understand why the genocide route is boring, but that's still a bad thing". Not anymore. Games are an art form, not just mindless entertainment, and the genocide route doesn't want you to have fun, so that's not what it'll offer to you, and that's great. I don't enjoy playing it, and that's great. Undertale teaches me a lot about my own preconceptions of videogames, and I think that is its greatest achievement.

What I do not find all too great about Undertale, even within the confines of its own narrative, is the overworld. The puzzles are... cute, I guess, but way too simple to be done more than once. Having to do all of Papyrus' traps and all of Mettaton's shows twice really grinds the pace to a hault, and make the game a bit of a chore to revisit, despite the fact that you're encouraged to do it. Deltarune greatly upgraded its overworld minigames and puzzles, meaning this was probably just toby fox struggling with his first game, but regardless, what an amazing start.

É perfeito.
PERFEITO.
Cada simples detalhe, perfeito.

O melhor indie que ja vi na vida.

The fact that it took me until 2024 to actually try to play Undertale has felt like one of my biggest gaming shames for years now. I have always seen countless hours long YouTube video essays about how good the game is and what it means and what it does with the medium differently than anything else and how the writing is amazing and the characters are some of the best out there and honestly its all true. Playing it now, 9 years later, it still holds up in many ways however while all of the pieces are there for me to absolutely love this game it just wasn't 100% a 10/10 for me. I enjoyed it a lot.

I think undertale is still a must play for anyone who has ever touched the genre of RPGs and while it is fun in its own right it definitely feels like a self referential dessert after playing some classics like FFVI or the likes. The characters are fun and exciting, I found myself actually laughing out loud a few times at some of the jokes which I feel like does not happen too much with games. All of the characters are fleshed out in their own way and from what little the game gives you it feels like it is fleshed out quite amazingly. The music is fantastic, the artstyle is intentional and beautiful and I really enjoyed the creativity in making something new feel old but still feel new.

My favorite part of undertale is the pacifist combat. I really cannot imagine playing this game and trying to kill everyone when all of the “combat” dialog is some of the most interesting parts of the game. It is so fun to figure out a little puzzle each time you find a new cool monster and try to figure out what they want you to say to make them want to stop fighting you. It is so different from anything else I can think of that I have ever played. It reminds me of Tim Rogers talking about “talking to the demons in Doom” rather than shooting them in the face.

I could take or leave the minigames to be honest though. I thought while it is fun to give the combat more of an active role, I got pretty tired of it in the short runtime of the game. I also feel like while the game is very engaging from start to finish, there were definitely some moments of “god damn this is a long hallway” but that might just be me being a lazy bitch.

This game is so unique and I feel like i'm the last one on the planet to play it. It’s great, you should play it, it's short enough that if you aren’t in love with some small parts you will see it through and be happy you did.