Post by Guilion on Jan 17, 2016 3:31:40 GMT
So, chances are if you have been around online lately you have heard about this game called "Undertale" and you have probably heard everyone gushing about how great it is, and (If you are a bit unlucky) chances are you've also had a few encounters with its awful fan base. But worry not, having pretty much completed the game three times I feel confident enough to give my most sincere review of the game with as little bias as possible.
The story of Undertale is deceptively simple, a long time ago a war between humans and monsters broke out for unspecified reasons, which resulted in the humans winning and sealing all the monsters underneath the Earth with a magic spell. However just because the monsters can't come out it doesn't mean humans can't come in, which resulted in humans falling down a hole in a mountain and the monsters plotting a way to break the magic barrier sealing them; To collect seven human souls and feed them to their king Asgore. The story takes place some time after the sixth soul has been collected with the player once again falling down the same hole the other six humans fell through.
The story however has a lot of twists and turns and based on the actions of the player (Including actions taken on previous playthroughs) and small secrets hidden all over the place, each telling a small part of the big picture floating in the background, mostly about the characters themselves instead of the world that the action takes place in.
The battle system is perhaps a bit different than what you might expect. You can play the game as a conventional turn based RPG, however the main draw of the game is that you can spare every enemy along your merry way, only unlike other games where all it takes tapping the "Flee" button repeatedly and somehow surviving the entire game with health potions, here you must first calm down the enemies by playing a series of shoot-em-ups minigames and dialog options which are actually surprisingly variated and can range from dodging bullets to catching bullets to playing rhythm games. Each monster has its own unique mini-game built into it and there aren't a lot of battles overall which means the battle system doesn't get old very fast.
Now, as for my complaints they're sort of long, so bear with me for a second. First of all there's a huge difficulty gap between making a "Pacifist" playthrough and a "No-mercy" playthrough, which in my opinion should be somewhat balanced. It doesn't help that I found both routes to be rather easy as I'm sure a lot of the people here that are experienced with JRPGs and Shoot-em-ups will do.
Then there is the "meta" part of the game. I'm sure you have already heard how great it is and how many different reactions the game has in response to your actions. Well, I found them to be underwhelming. A lot of the "meta" revolves around the game crashing/closing up and opening with something new the next time you boot it up, which may sound as something new and exciting but really I have seen it a dozen or more times in free RPGmaker games, it really isn't something new and I wasn't overly impressed with it. Something else that should be noted on this department are the jokes; the game has been referred by some people as a "meme game" and I can honestly see where that criticism comes from, the game is full of pop culture references and I have no idea how you're supposed to get some of them unless you're a 13 year old American teenager that likes listening to mediocre pop bands (Seriously I actually had to Google some of the "jokes" in order to get them). The game also failed to react to some of my actions such as back-tracking and cheating which is something I was whole-heartedly expecting based on the commentaries made by other reviewers.
And since we're on the topic of Free RPGMaker "meta" games; What differentiates Undertale from the rest? I guess it's the writing, the characters are pretty well-rounded and the effects of the player can really create a difference in how they behave in the playthrough. Don't get me wrong, I still find the "meta" segments to be nothing but a gimmick but at least there's a bigger effort to do something with that gimmick here than I've seen in other games.
There's also the issue of replayability, one would expect after completing the game once a few things would change when replaying the same playthrough (such as characters acknowledging that you have completed the game once and whatnot) and I found it to be quite lacking in this department. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this however the game forcefully requires you to complete the game twice in a row in order to get the "good" ending, therefore I did find it quite bothersome as playing the game twice in the same way is rather boring and the game refuses to show any particular difference other than the final boss and the ending. And thrust me the "good" ending isn't worth the effort of clearing the game twice in a row, it feels very anti-climactic with a final boss that can't really die and a predictable-by-the-numbers-cookie-cutter ending that is likely to get a couple of groans out of you.
Now, after all this mixed messages there's one question that I'm sure all of you are asking right now.
Can I recommend Undertale?
Yeah, sure. What? Just because I'm highly critical of the game it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. At the end of the day I can't deny Undertale is good for what it is: An entry-level turn based RPG/Shoot 'em up hybrid. If you aren't into either of those things, give it a try;it might surprise you. And if you are into either of those try and play a demo or play it for a couple of hours before refunding it to check if the story is your cup of tea. It might not be the magnum opus that everyone else is making it out to be but I can say that it's at the very least an enjoyable experience.
The story of Undertale is deceptively simple, a long time ago a war between humans and monsters broke out for unspecified reasons, which resulted in the humans winning and sealing all the monsters underneath the Earth with a magic spell. However just because the monsters can't come out it doesn't mean humans can't come in, which resulted in humans falling down a hole in a mountain and the monsters plotting a way to break the magic barrier sealing them; To collect seven human souls and feed them to their king Asgore. The story takes place some time after the sixth soul has been collected with the player once again falling down the same hole the other six humans fell through.
The story however has a lot of twists and turns and based on the actions of the player (Including actions taken on previous playthroughs) and small secrets hidden all over the place, each telling a small part of the big picture floating in the background, mostly about the characters themselves instead of the world that the action takes place in.
The battle system is perhaps a bit different than what you might expect. You can play the game as a conventional turn based RPG, however the main draw of the game is that you can spare every enemy along your merry way, only unlike other games where all it takes tapping the "Flee" button repeatedly and somehow surviving the entire game with health potions, here you must first calm down the enemies by playing a series of shoot-em-ups minigames and dialog options which are actually surprisingly variated and can range from dodging bullets to catching bullets to playing rhythm games. Each monster has its own unique mini-game built into it and there aren't a lot of battles overall which means the battle system doesn't get old very fast.
Now, as for my complaints they're sort of long, so bear with me for a second. First of all there's a huge difficulty gap between making a "Pacifist" playthrough and a "No-mercy" playthrough, which in my opinion should be somewhat balanced. It doesn't help that I found both routes to be rather easy as I'm sure a lot of the people here that are experienced with JRPGs and Shoot-em-ups will do.
Then there is the "meta" part of the game. I'm sure you have already heard how great it is and how many different reactions the game has in response to your actions. Well, I found them to be underwhelming. A lot of the "meta" revolves around the game crashing/closing up and opening with something new the next time you boot it up, which may sound as something new and exciting but really I have seen it a dozen or more times in free RPGmaker games, it really isn't something new and I wasn't overly impressed with it. Something else that should be noted on this department are the jokes; the game has been referred by some people as a "meme game" and I can honestly see where that criticism comes from, the game is full of pop culture references and I have no idea how you're supposed to get some of them unless you're a 13 year old American teenager that likes listening to mediocre pop bands (Seriously I actually had to Google some of the "jokes" in order to get them). The game also failed to react to some of my actions such as back-tracking and cheating which is something I was whole-heartedly expecting based on the commentaries made by other reviewers.
And since we're on the topic of Free RPGMaker "meta" games; What differentiates Undertale from the rest? I guess it's the writing, the characters are pretty well-rounded and the effects of the player can really create a difference in how they behave in the playthrough. Don't get me wrong, I still find the "meta" segments to be nothing but a gimmick but at least there's a bigger effort to do something with that gimmick here than I've seen in other games.
There's also the issue of replayability, one would expect after completing the game once a few things would change when replaying the same playthrough (such as characters acknowledging that you have completed the game once and whatnot) and I found it to be quite lacking in this department. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this however the game forcefully requires you to complete the game twice in a row in order to get the "good" ending, therefore I did find it quite bothersome as playing the game twice in the same way is rather boring and the game refuses to show any particular difference other than the final boss and the ending. And thrust me the "good" ending isn't worth the effort of clearing the game twice in a row, it feels very anti-climactic with a final boss that can't really die and a predictable-by-the-numbers-cookie-cutter ending that is likely to get a couple of groans out of you.
Now, after all this mixed messages there's one question that I'm sure all of you are asking right now.
Can I recommend Undertale?
Yeah, sure. What? Just because I'm highly critical of the game it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. At the end of the day I can't deny Undertale is good for what it is: An entry-level turn based RPG/Shoot 'em up hybrid. If you aren't into either of those things, give it a try;it might surprise you. And if you are into either of those try and play a demo or play it for a couple of hours before refunding it to check if the story is your cup of tea. It might not be the magnum opus that everyone else is making it out to be but I can say that it's at the very least an enjoyable experience.
