Undertale Review
Every now and then a game comes along which challenges your knowledge of what a video game is capable of and not only that, it changes your outlook on how you will continue to anticipate and play the game. This is that game. Remember every other RPG game you have ever played? Yeah? Well quickly forget all that. This is a game that remembers it’s purpose, it remembers that it’s function is to entertain. It doesn’t need fancy graphics, and jaw dropping cut scenes to keep you gripped to the game. My experience after finishing this was probably the same as only a handful of other players who have completed this game. It is a game which changes itself and it’s interactions around the choices you make. Replay-ability is not only a must but it is a given to truly appreciate this masterpiece.
This unique story begins by telling us of it’s war between Humanity and Monsters, in which the Humans won, sealing the Monsters deep underground. A brave Human child one day decided to climb Mt. Ebott in which it was said all who traverse the great mountain, never return. The child falls down from the mountain and awakes in the murky underground in which the Monsters where sealed away. This is where the tale begins.
Undertale begins by teaching you the basics. It introduces you to a few puzzles, introduces you to combat and lets you decide early on how you want to continue playing through the game. It does so quite quickly as opposed to a lot of RPG’s which can often take up a lot of time. Throughout playing this game, you get the sense that this has been made with every RPG fans thoughts in mind, with all the nonsense and time wasting removed, there was not one instance where an activity, puzzle or fight had me rage quit because it took too long or it was too hard. Not to say that the game was a breeze, a lot of the puzzles were challenging, and a few encounters took me a few times to overcome, but I was always straight back into the action.
Perhaps one of the biggest joys in this 8-bit adventure is the use of the games mechanics in relation to it’s story telling. A unique combat system in which requires you to maneuver your heart within a box and dodge incoming missiles that are thrown your way, or the ability to interact with characters through talking to them and even spare their life. Every action will have an effect on your progression through this game and even on how characters further down the line will react to you. What will particularly keep you glued to this game is it’s ability to throw you off midway and change up the rules, to keep you fully engaged. I think it’s the first time you can experience an RPG without killing the monsters within the game.
This game takes a lot of influence from other RPG’s but it also takes what we all know from classic RPG games and pokes fun at them. I swear there was one moment in which I had just finished a boss fight which ended with the bridge I was on being sliced resulting in me falling and awaking in a bed of flowers…sound familiar to any Final Fantasy 7 fans out there? early on there is a ghost that you encounter early on which is dealing with low self esteem, and lets not forget the comedic pair of skeletons Sans and Papyrus who set about trying to stunt your progression with traps only to have them fail, the interaction between the two is genius.Everything is done with class and knowledge, no joke feels like a cheap shot in the dark.
This game is extremely well written, you are encouraged throughout to engage with every NPC, everyone has something interesting to add to the world of Undertale. It is so well written that there was times I thought i could test the game, only to find that it is what the the developer had either intended me to do or anticipated smartly.The Characters are all unique in design, nothing particularly innovative or groundbreaking in a game of this style but it adds to the charisma of this world. The game uses signs, characters, writing on the wall to flesh out the game and story further and encourages you to explore. Often when going back on myself to purchase some health items, I would take the time to walk the paths I had previously ignored and often encountered new NPC’s on the paths I had previously walked.The use of breaking the fourth wall in this game is something spectacular and it reminded me that it is possible to enjoy an 8-bit throwback which resembles the days of the SNES.
There is so much more I wish to speak about after playing this game, but I honestly urge you to play this game with a blank slate. After finishing this roughly 4 hour adventure, I quickly wanted to return, start the game again, and see what I could do differently. And that is something I find rare with a video game. There are a lot of games that encourage you to replay the game, but not many that do it with charm alone. It’s how you interact with the characters, and how they resonate with you which is the true magic of this game. A real must play not just for hardcore RPG fans, but for anyone who wants to know how a game can take all you know and throw it back in your face in a way that astounds you and reminds you just how smart games these days can be.
This game was developed and published by Indie game developer Toby Fox for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. It was published on Steam on the 15th of September 2015.
Log in to comment