At one point, Undertale self-jokingly points out that a certain object in the game is a cube because it’s “easy-to-draw.” The joke elicited an unexpected chuckle, not because it was particularly funny, but because it’s so clearly irrelevant to Undertale. This is a game that never cuts corners. This is a game that, despite being crafted primarily by one person, feels like the result of a well-oiled team. This is a game that represents a fully realized (if small) world and a fully developed (if somewhat short) vision, a game that innovates in its storytelling, its gameplay, and in how it disrupts an RPG convention we take for granted. In Undertale, nothing is “easy-to-draw.”
Creator Toby Fox’s brainchild has the potential to be quaint or horrifying, sweet or deeply disturbing, offering more tonal variety based on player choice than any game in recent memory. It all branches from a combat system that allows the player to talk their way out of conflict, to target a monster’s personality instead of its limbs, to call “truce” before anybody gets unnecessarily hurt. Utilize this mechanic to its fullest, and you can complete the game sans a guilty conscience. Kill indiscriminately, playing either to old RPG habits or to morbid curiosity as to the game’s “Genocide” ending, and the world reacts with appropriate horror. A river of darkness runs below Undertale’s bright, pixelated surface, ready to suck the player in if they get fed up and start swinging.
It’s a shame, then, that Undertale feels so eager to push you in the direction of a killer. A character early on tells you that its world is “kill or be killed,” and it doesn’t lie. Play pacifist, and you’ll lack the essential EXP to level up and gain strength. Though Undertale’s fast-paced dexterity-based combat (where you control a small heart dancing between enemy attacks) is challenging at the best of times, near the game’s end pacifists will face overwhelming odds with little health and little ability to strike back. Certainly something is to be said for conveying that “doing the right thing is always more difficult,” but frequently Undertale can feel unfair to its more merciful players, punishing instead of challenging.
Perhaps some will find the characters endearing enough to make the struggle worth it, but although often clever and humorous, Undertale’s appealing characters never make it beyond the level of “mildly loveable.” They’re goofballs through-and-through, and though each subtly displays some sort of contrite or diffident Serious Personality Flaw, as a whole they provide little meat for Undertale’s story to push up against. In a world where writing in games is no longer judged by a handicapped standard, Undertale feels slightly behind the curve.
But that’s a small blemish on what results in an emotionally affecting (and definitively “Indie”) experience. While RPG elements have been leaking into the mainstream to the point of monotony, Undertale reminds us that the genre can be more than the salt-and-pepper to sprinkle over a major action/open world/shooter/etc title. There’s still room for the genre to explore, paths left untested, and while Undertale cannot compete in quality with games like The Witcher 3, nobody expects it to. It’s a darling and daring project of passion, one that deserves to be experienced by any lover of the art of games, or anyone interested in where games have the potential to go.