I have never seen another Undertale fanwork that so intimately understands what made the original work so well. This could easily have been a low-effort nostalgia-trip, but the sheer dedication to making this project a worthy successor to Undertale's cannot be overstated. Everything from the sprite quality to the music to the boss mechanics go so above and beyond what was required of them, to the point where I would almost believe this was a Toby Fox creation if I knew nothing about it beforehand.

Undertale Yellow spends a lot more time with its characters than the original, tending to have them stick around even after finishing their area rather than just disappearing into the background. You really are given so much more time to understand their personalities, and characters like Martlett and North Star are just as full of life and charm as any of the characters in the original game. This game is so overflowing with charm and personality that it barely even knows where to put it all.

The game also looks gorgeous, with more detailed backgrounds and far more sprite animation than the original had. Importantly, though, it doesn't look too good. A problem I have with a lot of undertale fanworks is that they don't understand that Undertale kind of needs to have a low-budget, homemade charm to it to maintain its atmosphere. All the dumb sprite inconsistencies in the original game are so near and dear to my heart, and Undertale Yellow captures that same aesthetic while still being noticeably easier on the eyes.

One thing I have to give this game immense credit for is using almost zero established characters or map layouts from Undertale. It would have been so easy for Clover to bump into the same cast of characters that Frisk ran into back in 2015, but the developer shows a shocking level of restraint in how they approach this established world. Focusing on new parts of the Underground makes it feel so much more like a real place, and the worldbuilding is such a natural extension of everything we already know about the place. While it does bear the Undertale name and world, it focuses so much of itself on new, original content, that it feels almost entirely new.

I don't want to get into heavy spoilers here, but I also appreciate that this game isn't going for the same sense of spectacle that the later encounters in Undertale do. It's a much more personal story, which makes sense considering breaking the Barrier is never in question at this point in time. While I do find the endings slightly less impactful because of this, they're aiming for such a different kind of emotional response that they mostly succeed in.

This review might be long and rambly, but I just finished the game and had so many thoughts I had to put down. I adore Undertale Yellow. It means so much to me that a group of fans were able to so distinctly understand what made Undertale great and use that to make something almost completely new within its world. I cannot recommend it more as both a companion piece to the original, and a fantastic indie RPG in its own right.

This game does a lot of things really well, but there's one specific mechanic that I just cannot stop thinking about: The singular rechargeable healing item.

Essentially, you can have any number of estus-like healing items and they'll deplete over the course of a fight. However, once you're completely out, you can get exactly one charge of the flask back by consistently dealing damage and landing parries. Once you use that one, the clock resets and you can begin charging up another flask, and so on.

This might be my favorite mechanic in any soulslike game I've played. Everybody agrees that the most memorable and gratifying moments of these games are when you just barely make it through a boss with no healing left, and everything you do feels like a desperate struggle. But with Lies of P's single rechargeable healing item, that feeling can last for close to half of some boss fights. You'll get absolutely obliterated early on, run out of healing items, and then spend a ton of time in emergency mode as you decide whether it's worth it to go in for damage to restore what little health you have left. This also encourages you to play hyper-aggressive when you'd typically be trying to play it safe, so just hanging back when at low health always feels like a risky play. It also gets rid of the feeling of helplessness if a boss hits you hard early on. If you get wrecked by the first phase of a boss in a fromsoft game, you're probably screwed if you're heading into the second phase with no healing. But Lies of P makes you feel like you've always got a fighting chance, even if, realistically, you're still going to get your ass whooped.

Somehow this even makes regular level exploration more rewarding and less frustrating. You never feel like you need to double-back to a bonfire equivalent in order to refill your flasks because, if you simply don't get hit, you're going to get that healing back anyways. It's such an elegant mechanic that leverages everything that makes these types of games good and rewards on-the-fly decision making and keeps you in the fight long after you'd think it was over. And, while it may seem overly generous, this game kicks your ass so hard in most situations that I cannot imagine beating this game without it. The game does have a few issues overall, but whenever I spent half a boss fight carefully managing my one remaining flask and how I was going to recharge it, it was one of the best soulslikes I had ever played.

At first, I hated this game
Then, I thought it was alright
Then I hated it again
Then I really loved it
Then I got kinda annoyed
Then I thought it was one of the greatest games ever made
Now I think it's pretty good

There's like a 10-hour stretch in here that works really well. The story is moving forward at an exciting pace, characters are having compelling arcs, combat really hits its stride, and it just feels so engaging to play.
But the game is longer than 10 hours, and the first 5 or so are pretty boring. Combat doesn't get a chance to shine until you have four party members, and until then you just repeat the same tiny amount of moves on the same character archetypes. The lock system also doesn't really function until you've got a full party, since breaking locks can be genuinely impossible for a lot of the early game. But, and not to sound like the stereotypical rpg fan, it really does get good about 10 hours in. Swapping out characters and utilizing the massive amount of combo attacks feels great, and SP regen is less of a slog when you can just swap to somebody with a full bar. Some of the lategame optional bosses are so fun when they're allowed to take full advantage of your full moveset.
But, to be honest, I don't really play RPGs for the gameplay. It can be great, but I come in for solid stories supported by memorable characters. And, unfortunately, Sea of Stars just doesn't always have that. The story itself is interesting enough, with some fun twists within that 10-hour chunk, but most of the characters are just so boring. Valere and Zale are the biggest point of support for the return to silent protagonists in RPGs that I've ever seen. Like, sure, they talk, but they never say anything of consequence, and talk almost identically to each other. At least with silent protagonists your mind can fill in the gaps and make them look cool. These two just give you nothing to work with. There are two standouts, though, in Garl and Resh'an, who have actually decipherable personalities and are given by far the best material to work with. I'm a sucker for "normal guy trying his best," so Garl worked for me right away, but the lore behind Resh'an is so cool and exciting that I wish the game was almost entirely about him. The game fluctuates between the interesting conversations with fun characters that games like Chrono Trigger are known for, to flat pieces of cardboard contributing nothing of value.
I can't help but sound more negative than I am about this game, because so much of it is so close to being incredible. I had a really good time with this game sometimes, and the animations and pixel art are absolutely breathtaking the whole way through. I just think the writing and pacing could have been tightened up significantly, because it really is good when it wants to be.

also the game glitched out in the final dungeon and permanently softlocked me which kinda sucks lol

I think the core game here is really fun, as is a lot of its wackier ideas. Throwing you against an army of newt men for exactly one level and then never mentioning it again is just fantastic, as are the splashes of fantastical whimsy contrasted against the harsh industrial setting. But, unfortunately, I think those moments are too few and far between. Most of the game is just going through areas that all look and feel the same. I think I could genuinely remember only a handful of individual levels since they all look alike and ask you to do roughly the same thing. The weapons all felt pretty uninspired as well, with the only real interesting ones (the crossbow and especially the Lightning Gun) feeling strangely underutilized. Again, the core game here is a lot of fun, but its levels, weapons, and encounters lack a level of variety that would have pushed it from good to great.