Maybe I'm not exactly the ideal audience for Undertale, since I didn't go in blind and did a True Pacifist run on my first playthrough. But I did wind up enjoying the game, even if I didn't explore every nook and cranny or do a True Neutral and/or Genocide run. It's a fun, creative, humorous, and genuinely emotional game, and I would say even deserves to be remembered as a Great game.
You play a human child who climbs a mountain and falls through a hole into a kingdom of monsters, and must find your way out. By now, everyone's a bit familiar with the game, so I don't feel like I'm spoiling too much when I reveal that the true challenge in Undertale is not how to kill your way through the monsters, who are mostly sympathetic villains at worst, but how to make your way to the surface without killing any of them. It's an interesting mechanic, though admittedly it didn't suddenly make me feel bad about killing all those slimes in Dragon Quest IV, especially since the random encounters in Undertale are silly dog memes and goofy puns like "Tsundereplane" instead of actual characters.
The game starts out strong enough, with you being looked after by the motherly monster Toriel, and continues to get better and better with the introduction of Sans and Papyrus, a pair of goofball skeleton brothers. There's some VERY funny satire of video game traps and puzzles with these characters, with Toriel literally handholding you through ridiculously easy traps and Papyrus throwing a number of increasingly complicated traps at you, only to have none of them work at all.
The next area, Waterfall, where you have to dodge around the attacks of the warrior-woman Undyne, is pretty fun as well, with some absolutely gorgeous scenery. But the next two stages of the game, Hotland and The Core, are unfortunately the low points of Undertale. Both revolve around you trudging through trap after trap while the mild-mannered scientist Alphys tries to help you. Maybe Alphys was supposed to be a parody of characters like Navi, but it still doesn't make it any less annoying when she calls you every five seconds to say "Um, I, uh, d-disarmed t-the, um, lasers..." only to have her fail to disarm them almost every time. When you factor in the revelations you learn about Alphys in the True Pacifist Ending, it's no wonder that she's one of the game's most controversial characters.
But after Undertale hits its lowest low, it soon begins hitting its highest high. The final areas of the game — New Home and the Pacifist-only secret areas — are easily some of the most emotional levels I've seen in a video game. We learn a number of dark secrets about Toriel, the supposed villain Asgore, and the true villain Flowey, which are so moving and heartbreaking that they wind up inadvertently upstaging the rest of Undertale. The secrets that the last levels hide are so interesting that you'll wind up wondering why you spent so much time on goofballs like Undyne. It's the game's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness.
All things considered, Undertale has pretty much earned its status as a legendary indie game. The first few levels are funny, and the last few are heartrending. But that doesn't mean it's perfect.
Great, but a bit uneven.
Maybe I'm not exactly the ideal audience for Undertale, since I didn't go in blind and did a True Pacifist run on my first playthrough. But I did wind up enjoying the game, even if I didn't explore every nook and cranny or do a True Neutral and/or Genocide run. It's a fun, creative, humorous, and genuinely emotional game, and I would say even deserves to be remembered as a Great game.
You play a human child who climbs a mountain and falls through a hole into a kingdom of monsters, and must find your way out. By now, everyone's a bit familiar with the game, so I don't feel like I'm spoiling too much when I reveal that the true challenge in Undertale is not how to kill your way through the monsters, who are mostly sympathetic villains at worst, but how to make your way to the surface without killing any of them. It's an interesting mechanic, though admittedly it didn't suddenly make me feel bad about killing all those slimes in Dragon Quest IV, especially since the random encounters in Undertale are silly dog memes and goofy puns like "Tsundereplane" instead of actual characters.
The game starts out strong enough, with you being looked after by the motherly monster Toriel, and continues to get better and better with the introduction of Sans and Papyrus, a pair of goofball skeleton brothers. There's some VERY funny satire of video game traps and puzzles with these characters, with Toriel literally handholding you through ridiculously easy traps and Papyrus throwing a number of increasingly complicated traps at you, only to have none of them work at all.
The next area, Waterfall, where you have to dodge around the attacks of the warrior-woman Undyne, is pretty fun as well, with some absolutely gorgeous scenery. But the next two stages of the game, Hotland and The Core, are unfortunately the low points of Undertale. Both revolve around you trudging through trap after trap while the mild-mannered scientist Alphys tries to help you. Maybe Alphys was supposed to be a parody of characters like Navi, but it still doesn't make it any less annoying when she calls you every five seconds to say "Um, I, uh, d-disarmed t-the, um, lasers..." only to have her fail to disarm them almost every time. When you factor in the revelations you learn about Alphys in the True Pacifist Ending, it's no wonder that she's one of the game's most controversial characters.
But after Undertale hits its lowest low, it soon begins hitting its highest high. The final areas of the game — New Home and the Pacifist-only secret areas — are easily some of the most emotional levels I've seen in a video game. We learn a number of dark secrets about Toriel, the supposed villain Asgore, and the true villain Flowey, which are so moving and heartbreaking that they wind up inadvertently upstaging the rest of Undertale. The secrets that the last levels hide are so interesting that you'll wind up wondering why you spent so much time on goofballs like Undyne. It's the game's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness.
All things considered, Undertale has pretty much earned its status as a legendary indie game. The first few levels are funny, and the last few are heartrending. But that doesn't mean it's perfect.