WARNING: This review contains some spoilers. If you want to play Undertale spoiler-free, DO NOT read this article.
Undertale is a popular indie game made by Toby Fox and published in 2015. The game is advertised with the phrase “nobody has to die.” It’s an RPG (Role-Playing Game) where players can either spare or kill monsters and can face consequences for it. The game contains multiple endings, but the three main ones are True Pacifist, Neutral, and Genocide. As the name suggests, True Pacifist means that the player spared every character that they came across, while Genocide means that every monster was killed.
The story begins as a human named Frisk falls into the hole atop Mount Ebott. This takes him to the underground, where monsters were forced to live by humans. From here, the story is the player’s choice. They can kill in self defense, spare monsters as much as possible, or kill them all, with no remorse whatsoever. The interesting part is the game acknowledges the actions of the player with the character Flowey. Flowey doesn’t address the character, Frisk, rather the player. The game relies on breaking the player’s expectations, making characters who seem lazy, like Sans the Skeleton, a final boss when following genocide route. Another example is Flowey the Flower, a seemingly innocent character that is supposed to introduce you to the game mechanics, but instead attacks the main character right away.
Toby Fox often mentioned how he took inspiration from different older generation video games, including EarthBound. The combat is fluid, with a simple yet engaging premise. However, one of the greatest parts of Undertale is the music. Pieces like Megalovania, Hopes and Dreams, Battle Against a True Hero, Finale, and Save the World are some of the most popular music pieces. Undertale’s characters have even had an influence on other forms of media. For example, Sans made his way into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a popular Nintendo game where characters from different series crossover to create one of the most popular fighting games of all time. Undertale even has its own fangames, with dedicated fans working to create their own interpretation of the loved game series. Among these include Undertale Yellow, TS! Underswap, and PS! Outertale.
In my opinion, the game deserves an 8/10. While the in-game fights are quite fun to play, parts of the game can be slow at times, taking a long time to traverse through. Hotland, for example, can take an hour to traverse through, as the player is entertained with the different antics of the robotic star, Mettaton. Genocide run especially takes a long time, as Sans and Undyne the Undying can take many days to beat, and their patterns have to be understood in order to even have a chance at beating these bosses.
In conclusion, Undertale is a revolutionary game that changed the gaming industry forever. The game has had a massive influence on games, even after almost 10 years of its initial release. Undertale has even spawned sequels, fangames, and alternate universes and still has a growing fanbase to this day.
(And I haven’t even touched on Deltarune :)
