Undertale is an indie RPG released in September of 2015 made by Toby Fox, heavily inspired by Mother 3. It follows a young person of ambiguous gender and age through a massive underground cavern where a civilization of monsters exists. The player makes choices that effect the outcome of the game, choices such as going through the game without killing a single thing or killing anything that moves. What makes this a great game is the story, knowing when to be funny and light or when to be dark and heavy, the great cast of characters and the combat system that takes a spin on turn based combat (generally, I don't like turn based combat but this game made it fun).
Overview:
Story:Without spoiling too much, the story of Undertale begins with a human child awakening to find themselves underground. Along the way, they can either kill the monsters they encounter or talk them out of fighting. They meet some colorful characters along the way that they can either befriend or kill. There are three routes to take when playing: pacifist, neutral and genocide. The decisions you make have a profound impact on how the story progresses and can even affect future playthroughs. The game also has a great sense of humor. Depending on how you play, it's a truly heartfelt or heartbreaking adventure.
Gameplay:
The game, like most other RPGs, can be divided into two segments: overworld and battle. There are objects in the world the player can inspect and interact with, NPCs to chat with and puzzles to be solved. Also included are random encounters that send you to the battle screen.
Within the battle screen, you have the options of fighting, acting, using items and mercy. In order to access mercy, you have to act and make the monster(s) not want to fight anymore. Acting is a great source of the game's humor. The turn based combat is much more active than other RPGs, with the player moving a heart that represents them around to dodge enemy attacks. You will be notified when the enemy doesn't want to fight anymore and you can spare them.
Undertale uses an 8-bit sprited style like an NES. This makes it feel retro, but not dated. There are some great character designs by creator Toby Fox and artist Temmie Chang (one of which is my forum avatar as of writing this review )
Graphics:
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These two put in spoilers cause they're rather large
Undertale boasts a great soundtrack. Some really catchy tunes, some that can invoke the feels and others that provide ambiance. Here's a few tracks to let it speak for itself.
(one of my faves)
Sound:
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Overall, I give this game an 8/10, though it's one of my favorite games of the year, gameplay wise, it's a fairly average RPG. The story and characters and some clever design aspects are what make this game great.