He'd previously worked on music for the webcomic Homestuck, and Undertale appealed in a similar "weird but funny" way that younger Internet folks tend to love. Undertale is an indie JRPG developed almost entirely by a one man team comprised of a dude named Toby Fox. It's pretty fascinating, I don't know if I've played a game like that before. It's also a game that, in order to experience was it was intended, you have to lose- it's very much not about whether you win, but rather how you lose, a sort of "kobayashi maru" deal. For once, doing the right thing doesn't seem like a means to a special ending, but rather something you feel obligated to do. That mind fuck you had when you were 10 when you got called out while watching that film, "And someone has been there with you, Bastian, sharing your journey as well", but amplified in a way only a video game can deliver. The fourth-wall-breaking is so subtle that you feel like that kid in the Neverending Story, you're a part of the game before you even know it, and by the time you're face-to-face with it, you had been in it for a long time. One could even assume it was this way on purpose. Depending on a few select actions, the game you play will be different thematically, guy A won't have the same experience as guy B, and all this is subverted by the very proto-SNES type graphics that make you think this game is cheap and unpolished. It's not a simple variable-tripping "you did this so this end happens", the entire game banks on reading your emotions to make your experience wildly different in terms of context. I assume from the context I've gathered while researching the game that it has a lot of "feels" moments, too, as well as good humor and some meme potential with certain characters. Animations of enemies in combat are of high-quality for a pixelated sprite game. Its regarded as a well-made game, no major bugs or other issues. The protagonist is never gendered or stereotyped in the writing or dialogue, allowing better immersion for all types of players. It has a lot of similarities with nostalgic favorites like Earthbound. It was independently developed with kickstarter funding, which gets it extra points. Why is it popular? As I understand it, its a very fresh take on how an RPG can play out. Lots of subversions of typical RPG cliche's. The above memory system creates memorable moments for players who try to save-scum out of a bad decision. The game still remembers your initial choice, and this can impact how the story unfolds.īased on what I've heard, absolutely stellar music composition (if you can tolerate SNES era game music). You may decide to reload the game after making a choice and try again with a different choice. The game has an internal memory system that records your actions and choices regardless of whether you have saved or not. This gets increasingly more complicated as the game progresses.
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Instead it is a small bullet-hell style mini-game where you must learn how to avoid an enemies various projectile attacks. Your choices to kill or not have an impact on how the story unfolds (I don't know how).Ĭombat itself is not the typical menu selection screen. As I understand it, by being a pacifist you increase the risk as enemies become more powerful while you remain lower level. The former grants you experience that allows you to level up, the latter does not. You can attack and kill your opponents, or you can try to neutralize their aggression in a non-lethal manner. It has a number of aspects to it that make it stand out from typical RPGs.Įach combat has multiple outcomes based on your choice of actions. You play as a silent child protagonist that has wound up in a world of monsters through unexpected events, and you will encounter a variety of friendly and unfriendly NPCs, as is typical of most RPGs. Undertale is a 2D role-playing game with an artistic style similar to SNES sprite-based RPGs. (Full disclosure, based on what I have learned about it, I do intend to buy it and give it a fair shake) I don't own the game and have not played it, so my opinions are not colored by the experience of playing it.