Author Topic: Undertale  (Read 15499 times)

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Offline Wah

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Undertale
« on: March 26, 2016, 11:18:24 PM »
Have you ever noticed how, in a typical RPG (and, now that I think about it, most games in general) battles don’t really mean anything? How many times have you defeated a miniboss, only to have it stand back up and laugh at you, saying “I have underestimated you! You are a worthy opponent! This is not the end! We shall meet again!” and make a getaway? Think about it. How many times do you beat up Balrog in Cave Story only to have him fly away without a scratch? How is Black Knight able to keep running away after Shovel Knight stabs the hell out of him? How come you black out if you lose a Pokémon battle, but none of the other trainers do? And how does the big bad villain always seem to get away, even if their HP hits zero, so they can reappear in the sequel?
 
Undertale asks the question, “What if defeating an enemy in battle always means that they die?”
 
This might seem quite inconsequential in random encounters, but Undertale will also pit you against several main characters. If you defeat a main character in battle, they’re dead for good, and the whole story changes to reflect it. Heavy stuff.
 
But thankfully, as the game advertises, you don’t actually have to kill anyone! The game offers a second option to get out of battles: talking the enemy out of fighting. This involves solving a simple puzzle, almost always involving the “Act” menu in battle. The puzzle changes depending on what kind of enemy you’re fighting; sometimes you’ll just need to give them a compliment, other times you’ll need to survive several of their attacks, and so on. Once they’re not emotionally invested in the battle anymore, you can “spare” them, and the battle ends. You won’t get any EXP for it, but you’ll still get gold. It’s a very unique fighting mechanic!
 
I admit, after my first playthrough of the game, I was disappointed in the story’s presentation. I thought that both the very beginning and the final area of the game were fantastic, dripping with shocking emotional dilemmas, but the middle 80% of the game’s content seemed like it relied too much on oddball humor and not much else. The game hilariously plays with expectations and has no shortage of genuinely witty satire of its genre, and I found myself amused by nearly all of it, but after the first two hours as I was walking across long linear worlds and listening to dozens of characters try to tell me jokes, I started to wonder where the emotional gravity had gone. “Why is this game making me laugh, when I thought it was supposed to make me cry?” I asked myself. “Where are the feelings? After such an excellent and powerful prologue, why is the game taking so long to show me more?”
 
Later that night, as I was lying awake in bed, the answer hit me: the game was quirky and lighthearted because I was sparing everyone’s life. I wasn’t playing as a murderer. If you want this game to have drama, you have to cause it. And I think that’s where all the hype is coming from, all the talk about player choice. This is a game about being a tree-hugging pacifist, or a murderous psychopath who kills anyone who gets in the way, or anything in between. You only need to live with whomever you decide to be, because the game won’t let you ignore what you have done.
 
Though it isn’t the most visually impressive game, and the stage design isn’t always the best, Undertale has left me feeling that I have just witnessed a work of art. It tried some new and ambitious things and isn’t ashamed of what it wanted to be. It's about 6 hours long; I’d recommend anyone to play it at least twice, just to be able to say that they've made their own choices and seen what the game has to offer. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would regret the experience.
check it out here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/


9.5/10

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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2016, 11:19:31 PM »
Thanks to
CtrlAltDestroy
[/size]For letting me post this great review.[/color]
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2016, 11:45:53 PM »
Player morality systems often dabble in extremes, because the nature of game development requires time investment in specific areas in order to have them fully realized. However, games largely like to emphasize the story effect of these choices and not gameplay mechanics.

However, there are games that came before Undertale that emphasize the same sort of "mechanical" player choice, sometimes in better ways. Since Undertale is such a concentrated, abbreviated effort, it has the freedom to make every battle "feel like it counts," but that doesn't mean what it does is particularly ground breaking. The critique that Undertale seems forced and quippy when you choose a certain moral alignment is brushed aside and even labelled as a strength, when I really don't see it that way at all.

Many games focus on the idea of good and evil and often have the protagonist doing lots of awful things like ecosystem genocide, but there are many RPGs that use aesthetic, tone of writing, and their core plot to justify or downplay this sort of behavior. Just because Undertale pinpoints this aspect of RPGs and makes light of it in its own way does not make it a work of art, it makes it a successful parody. One of many successful parodies, at that. But because of its independent nature and compact size, it gets a lot more praise than it deserves. In short, Undertale is a competent RPG, with solid combat mechanics and a "relevant" script, but it doesn't tackle the morality system any more gracefully than its contemporaries- rather, it inserts it in a genre that has already done it better, and has little need for the parody it presents.
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2016, 12:11:33 AM »
I disagree Undertale is a Masterpiece in every sense, it's music it's game play it's fuckin graphics are all perfect! and the game has so many branching paths its not funny.
It's a lot better then anything Nintendo was come out with recently.
check this guy out a lot better review then me and Crlaltdelete's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gKDRjfKeo
And evan have you even 100% completed the game, if you haven't, shut up. You do not know the implications of this game and why everyone loves it.
and to top it all off it's only $10.
I'd gladly pay as much as a AAA game any-day for this Amazing game.
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2016, 12:12:39 AM »
And evan just because it din't come out 20 years ago doesn't mean it sucks. Stop being blinded by Nostalgia.
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2016, 01:52:48 AM »
I didn't say it sucked. I also didn't say it had to be 20 years old to be good. I think it is a game that does a few things quite well, and came out at a very opportune time.
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2016, 06:40:12 AM »
It came 3rd in game of the year think about that! a game that was made 100% in Gamemaker!
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2016, 11:32:47 AM »
Likely because of the immense following it has accrued. You don't need to try to convince me of it's quality. I know that it is well-made, regardless of the tools used to develop it.
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2016, 01:15:29 PM »
Well, I'm glad we found common ground! ;D
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2016, 01:16:39 PM »
I've had so many happy experiences with this game, it really is an a experience to play.
I do highly recommend this to everyone.
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2016, 12:19:23 AM »
As do I.
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2016, 01:19:26 AM »
It's just the fanbase is cancer and some how worse then the FNAF Fanbase XD
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2016, 08:42:13 AM »
I really like this Avatar, i think i'll keep it for a while.
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Offline Phil

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2016, 01:02:04 PM »
You did it, Lucariofan. By George, you finally wrote a review!  ;D
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2016, 05:09:23 AM »
with help from a friend
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Offline Wah

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Re: Undertale
« Reply #15 on: February 28, 2017, 05:42:49 AM »
I'm doing a re-do two year later review of this game.
Time to throw out the fan-boy and actually look at this game in it's full.
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