Undertale
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
I first read about Undertale when it was still in development a few years ago, and what I saw immediately piqued my interest. The game was a 16-bit style RPG, inspired by the Super Nintendo classic Earthbound. I never had the chance to play Earthbound growing up, so I made it a point in my life to someday play Undertale.
Even though the game has been out for several years now, I finally got around to playing it here in October, 2018.
Story:
The game’s intro scene gives us a few pieces of critical information. Humans and monsters once populated the surface of the game’s planet. Whether or not this planet is Earth, I don’t think the game ever really says. Eventually humans and monsters would end up going to war against each other, with humans coming out on top. The surviving monsters were banished to the world located below the planet’s surface, hence the name of the game: UNDERtale.
In present day, your ambiguously gendered character falls from the surface of the planet into the monster inhabited underworld below. Taking control of this character, your goal is pretty straightforward: escape the underworld and return to the world of humanity above.
How you go about accomplishing this goal is one of the main draws of Undertale. You can take the peaceful route, talking to characters in battle and showing them mercy, or you can approach this like a typical RPG and just go around killing everyone who challenges you.
Gameplay:
At first glance, Undertale plays out like a typical old school RPG. The game’s camera angle is the usual ¾ view that you would see often in 16-bit RPGs from the 90s. You walk up, down, left, and right. Move off the corner of the screen and it brings you to a new area. Controlling your character, you walk around and talk to people. There is no spoken dialogue in the game, everything takes place through text boxes. Again, just like all the classic 16-bit RPGs of long ago.
Battles are triggered through random encounters as you walk around. There are several set boss fights as well. Nothing out of the ordinary there. What makes Undertale different is the battle system. The game gives you two different ways to make it through each battle – by fighting back against your opponents and killing them, or by utilizing the conversation menu to talk yourself out of the fight. I actually didn’t know that there were multiple ways to play this game when I first started it. I played it like I would a traditional RPG and I killed everything that would attack me. I didn’t learn until after I had beaten the game that the “preferred” method of playing was the pacifist route. By sparing your enemies, it would make people in the game like you and admire you. As a result, your experience as you play is vastly different depending on which way you go.
The other unique thing about the game’s battle system is in how you play defense. Most old school RPGs were strictly turn based. You attack them, they attack you. And when they’d attack you, they’d almost always hit you. This game gives you a chance to defend yourself. A little box shows up in the middle of the screen. There is a red heart in the middle of the box (sometimes it changes color depending on the situation) that represents you. A flurry of bullets and other objects that represent the enemies attack will flood the box. You have to evade these items to avoid taking damage. Some attacks are very easy to evade, and you can make it through several entire battles at a time without taking a single hit. Other times, the attacks are extremely difficult to avoid. In fact, the game can get downright difficult at times because of all the crap getting thrown your way.
Graphics:
This game truly looks like it could have been made in the 16-bit era. The characters are extremely simple and basic looking. Most of the game’s environments are about the same, although there are some areas that look better than anything that could have been done on an old console. That said, the game often looks a bit TOO basic. Outside of some areas that have fun atmospheric effects, there is little that is visually exciting about this game.
It gets even worse when you go into battle. Expect to see a lot of black backgrounds with ugly characters drawn out in white. If you know me, you know that I am more about the fun factor of a game rather than the graphics. So even though the game is often not very pretty to look at, I don’t hold it against the game too much. Clearly the makers of the game were looking to emulate the look and feel of old classic Super Nintendo era RPGs. Sometimes the visuals are spot on. Other times, things are a bit drab and ugly looking.
Sound:
I never had any problems with the game’s music or sound effects. The music always seemed to fit what was going on onscreen. I would comment more, but I really can’t. The music wasn’t bad or anything, it just was not memorable to me. I couldn’t name one track that I was gaga over or that would get stuck in my head. It was serviceable, but that’s about all I can say.
Overall:
After reading so many overwhelmingly positive reviews of this game, I started playing it with very high hopes. I have to say that I came out feeling a little bit disappointed. I wanted to like this game. I truly did. I love RPGs. I love retro games. This game combined two things I love, but it still managed to come across as a bit dull for me.
First off, the game’s humor. I get that it tries to be lighthearted and funny. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem is that it tries a bit too hard. A lot of the characters had potential to be funny and memorable, but just ended up being annoying instead. You are trying to walk across the screen to get to a new area. Someone calls you on your cell phone to tell you something stupid. Haha, okay. Cute. You take three more steps after the call ends, and they call again. Take three more steps and they call again. And again. And again. And again. It’s like – just let me play the game already! I don’t care about this stupid shit. But you better get used to it, because stuff like this happens throughout this game CONSTANTLY. It seems like more than half the game is sitting through “humorous” conversations while your mute character just sits there and watches these eccentric monster characters run around and make fools of themselves. Apparently this is someone’s idea of a great time, as this game gets showered with praise every time I read a review of it.
The graphics and the music are a mixed bag, as I said. I won’t harp on that. The story is extremely simple. It’s fine. Nothing special. The battles? Fine. Nothing special. That’s pretty much how I felt about the whole game. It is fine. Nothing special. It feels like it is geared towards 8 years old kids. I’m sure I would have loved this when I was younger. Now, not so much.
What did I like about the game? I like the feel of the game. It is quirky and it is original. I like the idea of the game, if not necessarily its execution. One thing people seem to harp on is the “bullet hell” system as you play defense during battles. I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Some of these sequences were a bit challenging, and I am always up for a good challenge. I also like the fact that you can play through this game multiple ways. I expected to just play it, beat it, and be done with it. Turns out I ended up playing through the whole game twice just to see what happened differently playing as a pacifist and not killing a single enemy vs killing everyone I fought with in battle.
That said, after I finished playing the game a second time, I was wiped out. I’d had enough with the bad jokes, the childish characters, and the inane conversations that would go on for far longer than they should have. I just wanted to be over and done with the game and have it in my rear view mirror. Honestly, I can’t ever see myself ever playing this game again. Games are all about fun to me, and I just didn’t have fun with Undertale. It started out entertaining, but quickly turned into a dull grind for me.
I can’t think of a more overrated game that I have played in recent years. Have this game’s rabid fanatics ever played a video game before? If you want a game where you connect emotionally with its characters, try the Telltale Walking Dead game, Uncharted 4, or The Last of Us. This game is not great, in any way.
In fact, I struggle to say it is even good.
Overall:
D
If you liked my review of Undertale, please check out some of my other game reviews:
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