By Patrick Hawes-DeFrias
Each week I meet up with a group of friends to
play through a game that at least one of us never had the opportunity to play.
On this particular instance, I was the only one who hadn't touched the game. My friends had talked about Undertale plenty
of times, but I'd always held off on it. Well, on a whim we booted it up one
day, and I can safely say it's one of the best RPG's ever. The very best? Well,
that's hard to say, but I know it's going to be one of my most memorable gaming
experiences... which is why I'm not going to talk too much about it. This is a
game that I feel everyone should play, so I don't want to give anything away. I
will talk about my experience with the game, but I'm going to be a bit vague.
If you want to play the game yourself, it's available on Steam and Undertale's
official website, where there’s a demo available. So give that a shot if
anything below interests you.
The first thing that really stood out to me was
the art style. It closely resembles SNES-era RPG's, especially
Earthbound/Mother 2. Everything is, for the most part, in that simple
Earthbound art style. Colors are crisp, sprites are well-detailed, and it's
very clear what everything is supposed to be while at the same time allowing
for the player to fill in details with their own imagination. This style aids
in navigation as well- there's a very definitive fire area, water area, and so
forth just as older RPG's tended to do. So, if you decide to backtrack in the
game for any reason, you have the benefit of knowing exactly where you are at
any time. However, the art style will alter in a couple key points in order to
fit a different mood, though I can't talk about them here without giving
anything away.
The gameplay is very simple. Throughout the
world are puzzles that must be solved in order to progress, and there are
battles. The battles are actually puzzles in and of themselves. The main
gimmick of this game is that nobody has to get hurt. You can kill your opponents,
but you can also try to reason with them. In either situation, when it’s the
enemy’s turn to fight you move to a board reminiscent of a top-down
shoot-em-up, where you have to dodge projectiles to survive. Sometimes, the
rules will change for certain boss fights, but that’s the basic idea behind the
system. It’s simple and engaging, and while it does require fair reflexes and
concentration for later fights, it doesn’t require expert gaming skills, per
se. My guess is that this was intended to be a game anyone can play. You
probably shouldn’t have Dark Souls be the first game you ever play. You NEED to
know how videogames work, general combat strategies from similar games,
resource management, and so forth to really be able to approach that game.
Undertale, however, would be a pretty good choice. If you can recognize
patterns and have at least decent reflexes, you can reach the end of the game.
The music, you can't talk about this game
without discussing the music. Why? Well, the creator of this game, Toby Fox, is
a composer most known for his work on the Homestuck series. In addition to
making the game, he also produced the soundtrack. As such, the music is one of
the most important parts of this game's tone. Every track in this game conjures
up a certain mood for each scene it's tied to, whether it be somber, goofy,
awkward, heroic, and so on. Much like the art style, the music tends to be
reminiscent of SNES-era games. In fact, audiophiles might notice sounds in the
music very similar to pieces from their favorite games. I'm not sure if Toby
Fox actually used the sound fonts of other classic games to do this or not, but
the effect remains the same- it makes the game sound as "classic" as
it looks. Much like the art style, there are scenarios where this style is
dropped to fit a cerrtain mood. In terms of the actual style of the music, it's
very eclectic. I noticed jazz, rock, orchestral-emulated, a few songs that'd be
right at home in an anime, even a song that reminded me of the background music
for Rugrats. Once you hear this OST, I guarantee you won't be forgetting it
anytime soon.
The story of this game... It’s really simple,
though there are some interesting twists here and there. However, the truly
remarkable thing about this game’s story is how
it’s told. This is a game that takes into consideration pretty much everything
you do. Responses to what characters say, how you defeat monsters, even what
items you’re using will impact what characters say to you. The game actually
notes certain things you do when you save, so if you do something, then reload
the game to try it again a different way, characters might react as if they’re
experiencing deja vu. It’s all very meta. By the end of this game you’ll be
seeing video games in a different light. Now, the reason the game can get away
with something like this is because it’s fairly short as RPG’s go. It took my
group a few days to beat it, but that’s mostly because we had complicated
schedules. If you buckled down and went at it as much as possible, you could
possibly see everything this game has to see in a day or two. But, that just
means that it’s a very focused experience, which is pretty refreshing in
today’s gaming market.
Also, the writing’s full of puns, which I
appreciate.
The last thing I want to talk about is the
characters. As I said before, Undertale is pretty short. As such, there aren’t
very many characters to speak of. But, the ones that are there are very well
developed and memorable as a result. I can safely say that I know and can describe
every main character in the story off the top of my head. The fact that the
game’s characters are that memorable is a big accomplishment. There’s also
plenty of side-characters in towns and such, many of whom don’t even get names.
But everyone’s got something interesting or funny to say, so even if you don’t
remember them you’ll probably
remember some of their lines. Keep in mind that you can reason with the
monsters you fight, and while they all have something to say as well, some are
just more memorable than others.
And there you have it, Undertale in a nutshell
without any spoilers. I can’t recommend this game enough. At least give the
demo a shot.
c’mon,
don’t be a bonehead.
SANS! WHAT’RE YOU DOING?! YOU’VE NOT ONLY INSULTED
THE READERS, BUT ASSAULTED THEM WITH ONE OF YOUR TERRIBLE PUNS! ERM... YOU!
HUMANS! PLEASE IGNORE MY LOUT OF A BROTHER AND DECIDE ON YOUR OWN WHETHER OR
NOT YOU WISH TO TRY UNDERTALE... THOUGH NOTE THAT IF YOU DO I, THE GREAT
PAPYRUS, WILL GIVE YOU A PLATE OF SPAGHETTI!
Sources:
http://undertale.wikia.com/
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