Undertale

I first played Undertale eight years ago, and somehow it has never left me. Since then I’ve played a lot of games, but very few have stayed with me the way Undertale has. What started as just another RPG slowly became something I genuinely care about on a personal level. The characters felt real in a way I did not expect, the music still stays in my head years later, and the choices I made actually mattered in a way that very few games have ever managed to capture. Beneath the humor, the weirdness, and the simple retro visuals is something deeply human. It is a story about empathy, seeing the humanity in evreyone, and realizing that every person you meet carries something worth understanding. It made me laugh in ways I did not expect, it made me think long after I stopped playing, and at times it genuinely caught me off guard emotionally. Even now, all these years later, I still find myself going back to the soundtrack and remembering moments that somehow never lost their weight. Very few pieces of media have ever stayed with me like this. Undertale was not just a game I played. It became something I carry with me. A part of my life I did not realize would matter this much when I first started it. And even now, I do not think that impact will ever really fade. 10/10. A once in a lifetime experience that somehow still feels alive in my memory.

Honestly thought I wouldn't like this game for the longest time because i didn't grow up on console games and just played league and all that toxic ♥♥♥♥ but no, i think this game is for everyone, this game cannot be compared to any other game, this game is something special and is on a league of its own. Thank you so much for this experience

To attempt to review Undertale in 8000 characters or less is to articulate the entirety of Crime and Punishment in a single sound. It’s a fruitless exercise in which I only take part to stroke my own belief that I, like Raskolnikov himself, have some “new word” to say. As I write this I would like nothing more than to shatter my computer and pens and paper and never think about any of this ever again because I’ve been thinking about this game and about everything larger than it for several days now before I publish this review. I’ll admit from the beginning; there is a part of my brain, perhaps even an entire half, that wants to give this game a negative review. I could say that the characters need more development and exposition, that the writing is simple for my liking, lacking the wordiness and depth of respected tomes of the past, with words finespun, laser-targeted to hit the desired meaning. The humor is occasionally a miss. Some jokes go on for too long, some seem too lodged in Internet culture. I could say that a few plot elements seemed incomplete, a couple valid questions or alternatives going unstated, unanswered. The gameplay is almost childishly simple. Not necessarily easy, of course. I could analyze this game as a piece of art, whose meaning and form are under scrutiny, or as a product, an option to be chosen off the infinitely spanning shelf of “content” to be consumed. I could treat it specially because of its age, or because of its youth. An interesting graph to look at on Wikipedia is the number of games published on Steam every year: 2015, the year of Undertale’s creation, represents the second major yearly step of growth on this graph, leading into a subsequent explosion of games that continues to this day: the so-called indiepocalypse. Perhaps the reason this game received such love at the time was because there were simply less games to go around. Perhaps not as many indie developers at the time tried as hard as Mr. Fox to produce their games. I don’t know. I don’t play a tremendous number of especially modern games. The prevailing winds of the indie game industry as I write this review are a number of low effort gambling related games and the genre affectionately referred to as “friendslop”. I’ve always preferred singleplayer games, and solitude, and reading classic books performatively (so I can make subpar literary allusions in my Steam reviews). So it goes. And yet when I look inward, I see two halves revealed. There is the aforementioned half of my soul that declares that this game is almost childish, naive, under the false impression that even the worst among us have the ability to learn love and mercy and hope within their lives, chuckling at the mere belief that nobody in such an indifferent, absurdist world has to be deemed lost for even the most horrible actions. It is a soul of experience. And yet, standing in the reflection of the mirror is a younger version of myself. One who hopes, and believes that all can be forgiven, that every other cheek can be turned, who is certain that a benevolent God is out there. I still carry a piece of that version of myself, like a fragment of a snowman, all throughout my life. A naivety, a desire to make sense of all the noise, to forgive and forgive. In a world that can seem so bitter, so driven by spite and greed and lust for power and wealth, a world designed, seemingly openly and without any remorse, by computer algorithms tailored towards the principles of increasing user time on platform and ragebaiting to farm engagement, where compromise is viewed as impossible, where it feels that the world is steadily being sucked up by the digital era, by the internet and by laptops and phones and dual monitor setups that burn our eyes out and turn us against one another, in a world where so many people claim to lack a real voice, a game like Undertale is a piece of butterscotch-cinnamon pie. Butterscotch is not my favorite flavor, I much prefer cinnamon on its own. I would love if Undertale was written with the magical realism of Márquez’s [i]Hundred Years of Solitude[/i], or the quiet solitude of Pamuk’s [i]Snow[/i], or the determination (!) of Camus’s [i]Stranger[/i], who persists like Sisyphus himself, who one of course must imagine happy. I wish that Undertale was written with the hope of Dostoevsky, whose novels, despite the often tear-jerking tragedies within them, often end with the ultimate sense that good shall prevail, even in a world so many consider to be so cruel. I wish that Undertale’s unsettling moments were written with the terror and uncomfortable structure of Krasznahorkai, or the same fear of the incomprehensible unknown as [i]Roadside Picnic[/i]. I wish its humor was more Three Stooge-ery, or more Seinfeld-y, or more akin to Gaidai’s comedy films of the 60s and their subtle political jabs and overt anti-alcoholism, because, while I hopefully have a lot more life to live, I do have a knowledge of what I’ve liked. From that knowledge, I must point out that Undertale's writing and story are not exactly Nobel Prize winning, no matter what anyone says. But it serves its purpose decently enough. And there is one thing, one particularly strong bit of cinnamon, in Undertale that I know without a shadow of doubt I liked... Undertale has the best soundtrack of any game, no… likely any [i]piece of media[/i] I have ever consumed. Undertale is like a 5 or 6/10 if the music was even half as good as it is. If I listened to this game on mute, my jaded side might have won and given it a negative review, and called it overhyped: "Just buy the soundtrack on Bandcamp and ignore the game." But you could pull shrapnel and broken glass out of my body and limbs without anesthesia in a dirty, fetid trench in Verdun during a World War I mustard gas attack and blast Sword of Justice, or Spider Dance, or Death by Glamour and I would still have a decent experience… how do you say that even an otherwise awful game (which Undertale is not) that one makes such a remark about is “not recommended?” In my opinion, there may never be another soundtrack like Undertale’s within my life. It’s frankly ASTONISHING how many pieces of music I heard before playing this game and recognized, even less memorable tunes that I thought were just free stock music that every YouTuber used because they were free or some other excuse… no, they come from here! Undertale may not be the best game I’ve ever played, but Toby Fox can take credit for seemingly creating half the soundtrack of the contemporary internet. And for that, I cannot express the level of credit that he ultimately must receive. I recommend this game to just about anyone. Don’t read guides, or go looking for help in places where a spoiler might be revealed. Putting this game off and existing on the internet for 11 years, I must admit I already knew a great deal of the plot, of the things that made it powerful for those fortunate to be able to play it when it released. So much so that I honestly felt like I was replaying it in a way. And similarly, the more time you put off, the more things that made this game original become commonplace, mainstream. Jokes, mechanics, twists, all buried under a sea of titles that drew from its wake. Perhaps you will scoff, say “this game just isn’t for me!” and decide you don’t like it. Perhaps you will become obsessed with it, ignore its flaws and consider it sacred, along with everything else Toby makes. I do not recommend either of these paths. Ultimately this game is a piece of art, not a multiplayer shooter or $80 sports game you buy every year so you don’t have to be alone with your thoughts when you get home from work every day, nor is it a MMORPG to sink thousands of hours into for similar purposes. It is to be enjoyed and critiqued for what it is, and what it is not. But the fact that I have this much to say about it should remove any doubt that it is worth your full consideration in the end.

I've never had anything to do with Undertale tbh, I did hear that the game was very loved by other people so I decided to give it a try and ohhh boy, that was an experience. There is only one thing that I regret: It's that I never played it sooner. This game is amazing, I understand why this game is so loved and why it has such a huge fanbase. I have only played the nutural ending so far but I want to experience the other endings as well! Absolute Cinema

this game kickstarted my love for games in general. and also is the most likely candidate for my one-way-ticket straight to an autism diagnosis. I am OBSESSED with this game. I love the characters, I love the storyline, I LOVE the soundtrack, and it's only made all the more impressive knowing that it was made by such a tiny yet talented team. <3 I am forever grateful for this game's existence

I don't think it would be an overstatement to say that this game defined a generation. It's flawed, it fails to explain certain systems well, but under that- lies a gem of a game that embodies charm in every regard.

This is THE definition of a story game cuz your choices actually matter and everything you do actually matters for the ending and gameplay, its different than sm other indie games like the coffin of andy and leyley or deltarune why? cuz lemme give an example out of deltarune: in deltarune there are different routes in chapter 2 and 4 right? but not all of your choices matter as much compared to undertale cuz there is a story you have to follow in both dt and tcoanl but in undertale you can skip some parts, you can go on a genocide and there is not a story you have to follow in different gameplays cuz your choices MAKE the game. anyways i dont think ill ever see a game like this cuz if u wanted to make another game like this its hard to think of a game where your choices ARE the game. you can put 1M+ endings/routes in your game but never be able to get out of the story. anyways, enough yapping. greatest musics ever, made by 2 person temmie chang and my man toby. completely worth the money. AND if ur gonna play i'd like you to check out what community has to offer too cuz there are sum actual great fan made games with actually unique gameplay such as "undertale yellow" or there r sum like "sp!dusttale a birth of a star" (its not out yet tho) you can also read the comics about alternate universes like underswap or aftertale or watch the animations the community is very, very creative im sure its a lot more than this game. hell there is a fking 5 hours movie underverse by jakei. this was the best game ive ever had, i hope the community actually gets bigger so the game wont be forgotten and there wil always be more and more content.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don't look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☑ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☑ 9 ☐ 10

Amazing game with great story great secrets and it requires basically nothing to run and it has one of the best stories in all of the games ive ever played first video game to even make my eyes water

Fantastic story, style, and soundtrack that make the game worth replaying.