A very neat fangame, even while very obviously one, still had be enjoying it throughout each of my playthroughs.
The story of this game is an interesting case, as it's a fanmade prequel meant to fit into the story of the original game. It adds plot points of past events never mentioned in the game made by Toby Fox, and it gives us a glimpse of the past of the Underground. It focuses on the yellow (who would've guessed?) soul's original owner, a child who willingly fell into the underground in order to search for the missing children (that being the other souls). That being how it starts, the way you go through the game determines how the child, Clover, ends up reacting to the monster world around them. There's the neutral route, pacifist route (neutral not being mandatory to pacifist, and pacifist having 2 different endings depending on a decision at the end), and the genocide route. Although, the only one of the routes that can be considered "canon" to the original game being the pacifist route. I found the pacifist route to be fairly interesting with it's story, delving into ideas about monster and human souls not explored in the original game. The neutral route is a little similar, though getting very empty near the end (the game basically expects you to go pacifist first), but the final act I might've enjoyed even more than pacifist. Finally, there's the genocide route, which I viewed as about as interesting as a genocide route can be, which means being similar to the original game, with the final fight having neat ideas.
The gameplay is basically the same as the original Undertale, with fighting against monsters by either attacking them directly, or confronting them on more peaceful terms and resolving the fight like that. I love Undertale's gameplay. so I enjoyed it quite a bit, and each enemies unique moves I feel were on par to the original (most of the time) and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The bosses were also fun, except for maybe the latter half, where the fights got a little unfair and was a bit trial-and-error-y to be able to beat them. I didn't mind too much though, as the game is pretty generous with checkpoints. The boss fights were of course pretty brutal during the genocide route, but the final boss in the neutral route I found super fun and awesome. My only big complaint with the actual gameplay would be the shooting mechanics near the end, not really enjoying them and not thinking it was really up to par with actual shmups.
Want to know another reason I didn't mind fighting bosses again too much? The music is great! The overworld music is good, the boss music is great, I think it lived up to the original Undertale's "score", if not a smidge less forgettable.
You may have noticed that I didn't really criticize much of the game throughout the review, and that's because I'm doing something a little bit different with this one, as the main problem I have with it having to do with the game as a whole. The problem is simply just that you could very well tell it's a fangame. I'm not sure how to explain it, but the characters being off from now Toby Fox would right them, to the music, while great, feeling a bit off, to the sprite art and animations being TOO good, it's obviously a fangame. I know this isn't really an issue, it was bound to feel a bit off only unless they got Toby Fox to work on it with them, but it's still something I felt throughout playing.
Besides that, the game is great! I enjoyed it with each route playthrough, and could definitely see myself playing it again something. This game truly shows how quality fangames can be, with as much love and soul and what it's inspired from.

Undertale Yellow is so impressive not as just a fan game but as a game itself. I think an important way I go about understanding it is that it is not just undertale 2 or something like that, its trying to tell its own story and narrative that does tie into undertale lore but really is not that crucial to it. And the story it does tell I loved. The characters were amazing and I loved the questions concerning what justice is inside pacifist and genocide. I know some people complain about the bosses, but I loved every fight. Where they tough as nails? For sure, but the satisfaction that follows a win will always be remembered. Also every route has a awesome final boss, its crazy all 3 were bangers. I dont want to say much spoiler wise, so please just play. All routes is longer than base undertale but its all fun. Just try to think of it as its own product

So my original UnderTale Yellow review was a huge yap session where I went over the entire story of UTY, but if you’re on this Backloggd page right now that most likely means you have experienced the incredible piece of art that Undertale Yellow is. And if you haven't, go play Undertale Yellow it’s amazing!!! This review is mostly just going over my favorite mechanics and fights in UTY (nothing gets too spoilery, for those who are reading and still haven’t played the game yet)

I love both Axis fights because of the duality it shows. On one you’re defending yourself from a killer robot that won’t stop hunting you down, and on the other side Axis is defending himself from you, a crazed monster killing lunatic, with the very same object he made you use to fight him. You block Axis’ attacks with the top the same way he blocks your gunshots in genocide. I also love both music tracks and how much more tense the genocide version is, it really strives in the fact that Axis is fighting for all of monster kind.

I like the Desert as an area very much, I liked Dark Ruins and Snowdin (I took a break for around a month and a half from the game partially because I was bored in Snowdin but still,) but the Desert is just different. The best enemy designs with some of the best music tracks and three of my favorite bosses (Ceroba, Starlo, El Balidor). Steamworks is a good area too with fun puzzles and both Axis fights were fun. The new areas in UTY (Desert and Steamworks [and Rooftop if we’re getting really technical here]) are really where the game shines.

Enemy retreating is such a good song, it’s a shame you only hear it once per area at its fastest volume. After one or two speed downs the song still sounds good (not as good as the fastest version but still good) and after like four slow downs you can’t even recognize the song anymore. I wish the song stayed at its hype first speed instead of slowing down after every encounter, but oh well, this is a very minor complaint when the music in this game is so good.

The genocide final boss is really really REALLY HARD (No spoilers, trust), but I was getting pretty close to beating the genocide final boss on 1.0 (I had already beat the Geno. final boss on 1.1 at the time of this retry), I had three items with me and I got pretty close to the end of the final boss’ health bar. BUT THE GAME CRASHED ON ME. Screw 1.0, maybe I’ll do the final boss without autofire sometime, but today is not that day.

I could keep going on and on and on about all the things I love in this game like Starlo’s fight gimmick, Ceroba’s annoying wall hurt health bar attack, the steamworks vending machine personality, all of Flowey’s save point dialogue, and I think you get the point by now. Unfortunately I cannot keep going on about all the amazing things in Undertale Yellow, “All good things must come to an end.” - I don’t know who said that and I don’t care enough to want to search that up right now. Anyways, just because something good has to end, doesn’t mean something good can’t pop up again. UTY is my favorite fangame of all time, and I personally like UTY more than the original Undertale. So I hope that Undertale Yellow shows creators of undertale fangames, new and old, how to put care and love into their own project. Great job TeamUTY! This game gets a 10/10 from me!

i really really do enjoy this so much but theres Something. that could make this go from "really good for me specifically" to "blast your tits off" but its nearly 5 am at the time of writing so i cant word it. just trust me ok
there are Several gripes i have with visuals i suppose but thats just kind of how it is with a fangame. its ok (Specifically there are certain things done in fights which While cool as fuck to me are Very Much not how they should look in undertale's style and so takes me a bit out of it. sad!)

[IMPORTANT NOTE: This review contains spoilers for the pacifist run, which is the experience I'll focus the most on this write up. I'll mention the other two, both neutral and no mercy, but yeah, if you haven't played the game or done the pacifist route beforehand and are interested... I'd really recommend you to do it before checking this review out]

Ah, what a beautiful day, such a perfect opportunity to finally try out Undertale Yellow! I can’t wait to have a fun, relaxing time playing this little fan project, and I’m sure nothing out of the ordinary will happen while I d- Dra-DRACULA????!!!!

Realizing that Undertale released almost 9 years ago is the equivalent to being shot a cannonball straight to the face, more so than realizing that other games I and so many others played are as old or released even earlier, because unlike practically every single one of those games I can think of, Undertale’s memory feels.. recent. I mean, it’s easy to say for me, I replayed it just a little over two years ago and that probably helps — it’s also the first game I ever logged and ‘’reviewed’’ on here, tho the latter is debatable since the one sentence I dedicated to it is more than a cope-out than a write-up, but I digress—, but even if that wasn’t the case and my only playthrough was the on I did back in 2016, I think that wouldn’t have changed a thing, and I don’t think I’m the only one that shares that notion.

More than a ‘’funny skeleton game’’, hell, more than an inspiring work of art, Undertale was a fucking phenomenon. Its impact on the web being that of a fucking nuke, and its expansive wave hit millions on top of millions of people (and it also left a bit of a toxic waste on some places but that’s not a story for today, nor any other day, we are here to be positive, dammit!), and truly left a mark in countless artists. I swear to god, if you were mildly into the game it was impossible to not see at least of couple dozen things related to it; artworks, comics, remixes and covers, and even reinterpretations or expansions of this world and characters that sometimes even led to fan-games, some of them were certainly silly when looking back upon, but it seems fitting for such a beautifully silly game. So it says a lot when, at the time the tides were at their highest and ideas and projects featuring sans undertale™ were made by the hundreds, the original demo of Undertale Yellow caught so many eyes, including mine. It wasn’t much, if memory serves me right it ended up just after the Ruin’s final boss, but it was clear that so much effort and talent went into it, and that alone made it a charm time to watch or play.

For many fan games, especially one with such ambition, that’s where the story would end, and understandably so; the amount of time, work and sweat that has to be put into even the most (seemingly) simple of ideas is monumental, and for whichever the reason, be it a lack of organization or time itself, many projects never get past that ‘’first demo’’ point. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if that same fate would catch up to Undertale Yellow at some of point or another…

…but it refused

When a project that originates as a tribute or is heavily inspired by another is in development for seven years, you better believe the people behind it felt a burning passion for what they were doing, and it shows so much it’s blinding. It’s like returning to a home you never wanted to leave in the first place; the quality of sprite work, animations the OST reminisces of that not-so-far long past, but while they hit the ‘’vibe’’ right on the spot, there’s a uniqueness to it I don’t really know how to exactly pinpoint, but it’s there. This is not just a mere mirror of Toby’s work on the original game, nor is it a direct subversion, it’s in this middle ground in which the charisma and quality feels entirely of its own, but I also wouldn’t have bat an eye if you told me if this was all completely official if I didn’t know better. The sprites of characters feel like critters that existed in the original game we never got the chance to see, but some sport some jaw-dropping animations and details that I don’t associate with the likes of Guard Dog or Monster Kid, and yet it doesn’t feel like they’d clash if they sat side by side.

The returning areas, while with considerably less interesting lay-outs and with less to hide than the such of the original Hotland or Snowdin, are places that visually wise stand completely unflinchingly with its official brethren. The returning areas and extensions of them, such as the Old Ruins or the UG Apartments, feel like natural side tracks that breath a new perspective into zones I know like the palm of my hand in case of the former, and that offer a interesting look at how these locations operated in the past —getting to what will become Mettaton’s almost impossible color tile puzzle and seeing it used to be a dancing zone was probably one of the most obvious yet funny jokes they could have ever done and I’m so glad they went for it—,and that’s not even getting to the new areas which believe you me… we’ll get into…

But even more than its visuals, the question that plagued my mind was just how they would attempt to create an Undertale inspired OST without feeling derivative of Toby’s work; let’s just say I’m a big fucking nerd for everything the funny dog man does music related wise, and Undertale’s soundtrack in particular is easily one of my favorites of that time. Does Undertale Yellow’s top it? I don’t know about that… what I do now, is that it certainly looks it to the eye. It’s like being filled with sounds of peace, goofiness, sorrow and determination all over again. It’s so bizarre to hear the work of people whose previous songs I’ve listened so many times (mainly MasterSwordRemix, which also just so happens to be the director of the project) accompanied with real gameplay in a real-ass game, but I’m even more surprised at the fact I can’t genuinely think of a single thing about the soundtrack I think lesser of, both as a direct comparison to Undertale’s and as its own. What they lose in ‘’easy to hum’’ charisma, they make it up with far more complex tunes, motifs to call their own and amazing callbacks past ones. I’m honestly scared which ones I’m sharing on this write up and being extremely picky about because they manage to say so much that sharing some of them at moments they don’t fit would make them a huge disservice.

And I don’t think I will ever be able to stress just how difficult that is, to evade the usual traps that many fan-works fall into , of that deep reverence that ends in a misunderstanding of what really works and what it doesn’t, of just feeling remotely in line with what the original story was trying to tell, how challenging is to achieve all that, let alone in relation to Undertale. There’s nothing like Undertale out there, really, so when your objective is pretty much being placed on the same canon as that game, feeling close would have already neted Yellow a massive home run. And I mean, it already had it difficult enough; being a pre-quel is the route many project like this take, but in this case it was pretty much the only option to take, you can’t really follow up where we once left ‘cause it’ll probably be a unique experience for most players, so this time around the main choice in setting was deciding which color of the soul would be cooler. So Yellow achieving to be ‘’Undertale before Undertale’’ would make it… well, Undertale by again, and it doesn’t matter how much I love that game and how many times I repeat its name (sorry about that) being a past retelling we already lived would have made Clover’s tale… redundant. We know how this will end, we know the beats it will follow, how do you make it more than a palette and character swap?

How do you become more than what you once were?..

Clover’s story begins with purpose. We never get to learn why Frisk went to Mount Ebott that day, nor if they were even searching for something. But this time is different: 5 people have gone missing in that place, and Clover’s gonna find them. From them the usual dance seems to start off. You fall, are welcomed to the Underground, and are taught a bit of the ropes by Toriel, but even after that’s interrupted by yet another fall (I’m fighting the urge to use the clip from that song real badly) and you reach the old ruins, it still doesn’t seem nothing too much out of the ordinary from what you’ve already seen when playing as the seventh fallen human, a pattern that keeps on going when travelling Snowdin… and yet, something feels a bit different.

It could be very much the battle system; Yellow’s combat is a direct continuation of the original work, and what an excellent continuation it is. Everything said about the spritework and music applies once more; all the new faces feel much more lively, with unique animations for movement and when you get to find out how to interact with them, which is still as funny and lovely as it was once. Enemie’s patterns at first can seem familiar, but it doesn’t take awfully long before they go fucko mode: Scrolls that shoot Kamehamehas and robot duck that spice up the music, you choose your favorite, this is a free underground after all! I honestly wished there were more combo battles because the creativity in problem solving and evading is so fun that getting to see more variations of it would be bliss, this game reminded me why I loved this style of rpging so much and gave me even more reasons to love it. Or you know, you could also attack with the different minigames for each weapon and see how the dialogue and sprites of the enemies changes to reflect it.. what? You think I did it? Oh no, I actually watched it after beating the game ‘cause I refuse to damage any single monster. That’s right fellas!

No-mercy run. Not playing. I refuse.

Yeah, all that is incredibly fun and amazing but… I don’t think it’s what feels different. Maybe it’s the more complex puzzles which area ctually pretty damn fun and break away from the usual ‘’tile-set’’ structure of the original. Maybe is the script, which even early on is excellent and the amount of jokes that land and interactions that I find adorable exceed what my poor handle. Maybe it’s How the battle music changes depending of which area you are on. Maybe is Dalv’s prodound melancholy and yearn that also hints at something we never got to know in the outside world. Or maybe is Martlet being the coolest bird I’ve ever met (seriously tho I love her so much and she’s awesome across the entire game and I’m so glad they are a recurrent character oh my GOD she’s amazing). Or… or maybe is a combination of them all, these little things that pile up, little unexpected additions and changes on a path that I’ve already walked. Things that hit at something more than a simple ‘’mix-up’’… and then we fall from the raft.

And that song hits you like a steam powered train at full speed.

The two opening areas are already great on their own, but it’s in the Wild West were the true colors of the game show. While still very linear in nature, the would feel more connected, more expansive; the new and improved mail and transport system, while still not perfect and pretty annoying at times, is a much more natural and easily accessible than something like a mobile phone or the boat sailor, but this feeling isn’t limited to gameplay.

Characters move from place to place and feel like far more active players of the story, so while the cast of major characters isn’t that big and the time we spent with each of them individually isn’t long, it doesn’t matter, ‘cause once they arrive, they are here to stay, which is awesome ‘cause the moment I realized that I’ve be seeing Martlet, North Star and Cebora more I audibly celebrated. Hell, even Dalv ,who isn’t much of a big player after the Ruins, is still there and you are able to visit him, such as with every single enemy of a certain area once you progress. You are constantly getting callbacks to old locations or future ones, as well as heads-ups for new faces you’ll get to see, which is something that was already present in the original Undertale, but here it feels far more direct, and plays much, MUCH more into the narrative.

A narrative so full of wonderful faces that I’m afraid I’ll forget some; I already gushed about Martlet but everyone here is as lovable as ever; I’m obsessed with Starlo and his posse of goofballs, hell, scratch that, I just adore everything and everyone related to Wild East! Probably the funniest section in the entire game and the most creative, never in my life I’ve been so happy to be kidnapped by a band of bandits! The shenanigans with Praxis also crack me up to no end, and you know a game is good when it has a character named ‘’El Bailador’’… probably the first time I ever voiced a character outloud despite being alone, I just couldn’t resist giving him the most exaggerated Spanish accent I could and translating random words, peak character and peak battle I tell you, PEAK!!!!

Which kinda reminds me how great the boss battles are! I’m a bit disappointed that most of them at the beginning are moreso endurance tests than actual fights, tho thankfully changes from the Steamworks onward, but considering how crazy they can get, I think that adding some sort of original solution like in Undyne’s fight more often would have been exciting to see.

Still, they are amazing fights, simply outstanding encounters that made me smile each and everytime, and no matter which ending you are going for, they are something else (I’ve seen the Neutral’s ending final boss and holy hell duse, everything about it is next level, just as the Pacifist’s ending one), but honestly… I’d be hardpressed to think of anything that didn’t make me smile about Yellow’s world and cast. There is an insane of care put into it, the same consideration to the decisions you can make is amazing as always, and seeing other outcomes to me run makes me as happy as it does sad, and hell, they even went and did an ending that couldn’t be canon by any circumstances, and you know what? It was an amazing choice.

But as I finished my adventure and after sitting through the credits… it’s hard to not think of this as what everything should play out, as how things should be. Frisk, despite having a name, it still was very much a vessel for the player, for its decisions and questions… Clover feels different. You still are in control of them in the sense you… well, control them, but they also feel especially distinguished, many times they only have one possible thing to say, what they are thing to say, a even tho no word is spoken outside of dialogue options and responses, the expressions and animations it displays and says much, about who they are, where they come from… what their purpose is.

Undertale Yellow is yet another tale about determination, about monsters and humans, about how the war has driven them to an unjust eternal prison some find impossible to accept, about justice and friendship… but it’s also about purpose. Each character seems muffled with this idea, be it a lack of it or one so massive and seemingly inescapable that it’s suffocating: Starlo’s self imposed title as a false sheriff that is eating him from the inside, Praxi’s and the Gardener’s final orders given before everything went sour, Cebora’s regret and desire to continue something left unfinished by its loved one. Hell, in a way , even Clover is fighting against Flowey’s constant nagging towards a selfish objective… and against his initial objective. This theme was already palpable in many of the characters from the original game, but here it seems to be brought to the forefront; this undertale is about these monsters, how the chains they willingly carry affect them deeply, and how they ultimately defy them not out of cowardness, but because it’s the right thing to do…

… the right thing to do

It’s been a while since a game’s finale has gotten me this badly. In a way, is kinda funny, the only time I wasn’t smiling, I was criying… Undertale Yellow’s bittersweet pacifist ending is the best thing I could have asked for as a send off, it may have hurt, yes, but the fact it did knowing full well in what way this strory had to end… that, that makes it more. It says so much, it celebrates so many, like, this game has Red! RED! If you know, you know, and I knew, and I was sooo happy! And even a moment so cool but transitory such as that one still made me reminisce… of how far passion can go for, years will go by, but Undertale’s memory, those moments, will stick, in the good and the bad, and now Yellow is not only a mere footnote or passing experience… it’s more.

To put into more blunt words. Undertale Yellow is probably the best fan work I’ve ever played, and even tho it seems silly to say when barely two months ago I played another fan game I praised with a similar phrase and when I still don’t consider it without its flaws, I have never meant it more… it’s a tale with purpose, full not of LOVE, but love.

…huh, now that I think of it, Chujin’s pursue was to truly leave a mark on the Underground, to change it for the better…

…and yet, even if it was not the earth shattering impact he and ultimately Cebora were expecting… he and her did nonetheless, maybe in the smallest of ways, but in the most impactful.

You hear a call for help

You answer it

I reckon waxing on about what a game like Undertale meant for someone like me as a somewhat emotionally stunted and depressed teenager on a review for something like this is preaching to the choir. Undertale was a game that came at the perfect time in my life, at the time it felt like the perfect game to me, and while I suppose it isn’t that, it might as well still be for me. I survived the “cringe trenches” of 2016-17 of a bunch of mostly harmless teenagers (like myself at the time) making AUs, remixes, fan-art, the works that made a lot of very strange people upset, before Deltarune and cultural reflection inevitably made Undertale cool again. Truth be told, as someone who was heavily invested in Undertale when I was younger, I never really paid any of the fanworks outside of strictly the main game much of a fair shake. Not sure why, I’m not exactly above that sort of material, but I just never found the interest. That said, of course I heard of Undertale Yellow at the time, and hearing of it releasing last year was something I knew I had to check out.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, at least for me. Writing and music wise, this is definitely a peg below Toby Fox’s work. This is not a negative mind you. I think the game does a fantastic job of carving out its own niche while still keeping the spirit of the world that I fell in love with. And comparing a fanwork to its original is always going to be a tough uphill battle to overcome. Undertale Yellow is a game that fundamentally understands the general appeal of the original’s tone, and makes its own very unique spin to feel refreshing and familiar. The main cast of this game took some time to fully win me over, but towards the latter half, I really enjoyed what they brought to the table. Especially Starlow, who I reckon is a character about on the same caliber as some of the main cast of the original, which is a tough feat to overcome. The game also very smartly ditches almost all of the main cast of the game to mentions or a brief appearance, with the exception of Flowey, who is a smidge more toned down (at least in Pacifist) but still has some real shit eater energy.

With that out of the way, the real star of Yellow is undeniably its presentation and gameplay. They not only nailed the look, tone, and feel of what made its source material so good, but they really made it into a much more polished and refined work, that you only can really get from a team who love that world. Undertale is a shitty looking game a lot of the time, so even just seeing an actual run animation on the main protagonist is a big shock. While there is undeniably something that can be argued as being lost from the intentionally trashy look of the original, it is done with such passion, and more importantly confidence in itself that you come to respect its own vision. Boss fights in particular are a real treat in this game, both on a visual and mechanical level. They really do an amazing job differentiating the roster with some incredible sprite work that definitely outmatches the original in terms of visual fidelity, but some amazing backgrounds to boot. And fighting them is definitely on par with the original, although, I would say it never quite reaches those same high notes, it does come fairly close, and I think that is mighty commendable.

I think there is a natural apprehension towards fan made material of a well-known IP. Again, I remember high school, that sort of stigma is what made Undertale a “cringe game” to so many people. And in a lot of ways, I do understand where many folks are coming from. When people are passionate about a work, sometimes it can come off as strange, corny, very juvenile in a lot of aspects; and when something is extremely popular, that automatically means that the large size of that audience is going to attract more of some unsavory behaviors. Some of it can be more justified than others, but seeing how so many people 180’d on this game in particular always struck me as an example of how fucking stupid it all was. And seeing a game like Yellow, which can only have been made because of that community, come out almost a decade after the original’s release and capture hearts all over again warms my heart. There were times towards the beginning when I was waiting for the game to truly click with me the same way the original did, and attempting to enter my critical analysis mode, but overtime, this game made me remember why I loved Undertale so much to begin with. There is a charm to this game, that no other game has quite ever been able to replicate for me, maybe never will (outside of Deltarune) and that is okay. People are passionate, people will continue to love, and people will continue to create out of love, and I think that is a beautiful thing.