This game is something special

Hey all, unfortunately I have not yet finished Undertale (in fact, I have played way less of it than I would have ideally wanted to at this stage), but it is easily another diamond along with LISA in the sea of endless RPG Maker games on Steam, and I really couldn't not mention it here.

Undertale shows a care to the indie-RPG craft not seen all that often. Writing, gameplay and presentation are all fantastic. The writing especially stands out, with humour and drama in equal measure. Some of the overworld tracks tend to get a bit boring, but the more exciting battle tracks more than make up for it.

One of the key gameplay mechanics of the game is that, as the tagline says, "No one has to die", and this is 100% true. In every battle, you can elect to fight, act, or show mercy. Act can be a challenge if and of itself, with the main difficulty being in successfully judging the responses of the enemy to your actions to know if you're along the right track to getting out of combat or not. Unfortunately, once you know what you're doing, especially with monsters that often appear in random (? I have no idea how truly random the encounters are, because at least some seem predetermined) encounters, the whole moral quandary does just boil down to you spamming mercy or fight. The bosses I have encountered so far also amounted to spamming mercy to stall out the fight until I get the non-violent resolution.

Actual combat is quite unique. Attacking the enemy has a timing based component, and enemy attacks take place on a mini bullet hell-like screen, where it is up to you to dodge what is coming.

The game has one other major hook to it, that I will not spoil, and I recommend not reading many other reviews, if only to avoid getting spoiled about what it is. It is not immediately apparent, but it is there from the very start, and it's something that really has not been done all that often, and could only be done in a video game (edit: Guess I should make this a bit clearer. By 'not done all that often' I mean that I have never seen this actually accomplished in a game).

I'm not all that familiar with the history of the game, but I believe that it has been in the cooker for a few years now (along with a single guy working on it) and it shows. Anyway, I really recommend checking this game out, and if you're still on the fence, there is a demo out there (it's not on Steam, here's the link http://undertale.com/demo.htm).

Also you can go on a date with a skeleton called Papyrus, while his brother Sans mocks him. So there's that, if that's your thing.

Edit: A character called Flowey may just be the biggest dick in the game.

Edit 2: Just one more thing I wanted to mention. Though the game does not feature VA, it makes VERY good use of messing around with how dialogue gets presented in text boxes to bring across different tones of voice. Even if you're a fast reader, I would recommend resisting the temptation to make the text scroll faster by mashing X.

Thanks for the recommendation dude. Any mention of LISA makes me trust your judgement implicitly.

I played the demo ages ago, and I think I ended up quitting it a while through because there was something off about the combat system. Can't remember if it was because the option to not harm the enemy wasn't there, or because the good option wasn't affecting it, but I'm pretty sure I died doing the bullet hell-dodging over and over again because it's the part i remember most. I'm interested to get back in now that it's done, but I'm afraid of being frustrated by that stuff again.

@redhotchilimist: Yeah, the difficulty of the bullet-hell stuff can be a bit uneven at times, especially with the bosses. It does follow classic bullet-hell like trappings in that once you figure out a certain pattern of movement, you can greatly increase your chances of getting through waves of projectiles unscathed.

Those are some great fuckin tunes. Hearing about the writing's got me interested, and I always enjoy a game where you can choose to not kill someone you otherwise probably would. I'll check out the demo!

I am at what I think is the final boss and WHAT THE FUCK? This game has Metal Gear Solid 2 level of madness. I don't know how much I can say about it but wow I did NOT see that coming. And that bullet hell stuff sure gets super hard...!
Edit: also I'd like to confirm that Flowey is definitely the biggest dick in the game.

This game is honestly the most fun I had with a game this year and I'm sad that no videogame sites are really covering it. It's honestly my RPG (if not game in general) of the year.

I don't want to spoil it's true hook but if you love RPGs at all you owe it to yourself to play this game. The care and craft that went into it is totally worth it's $10.

If you do decide to play try to go in as blind as possible. I normally don't care about that sort of thing but my experience was way more impactful with me not knowing anything.

The game really reminds me of Persona 4 sometimes. Music, focus on friendship...

It's a great game. Really moving. It betrays traditional RPG tropes and then betrays its own rules in a lot of clever ways.

"Also you can go on a date with a skeleton called Papyrus, while his brother Sans mocks him. So there's that, if that's your thing"

A little bit on the nose, but I like this game's moxy. I also like the music. It all reminds me a little bit of Disgaea.

Yeah, this is great so far. Well-written with some fun mechanics. It's been genuinely funny and genuinely moving, and moves between the different tones with ease. Awesome stuff. Hope the game can keep it up.

New best girl.

Bought it and played up until the second boss in the snow area. I figured out what made me quit last time: I thought all the "wait here" stuff would pay off if I waited, so like an ass I spent ages just killing time. Between getting past that and figuring out all the enemy patterns and puzzles so far, I've had a good time. It's cute. Definitely the kind of indie developer that spends a lot of time on the internet, but it's resulted in jokes I think are funny and not meme posters in the backgrounds.

Flowey is acting very meta.

Just finished my first run through. Amazing game, great, emotional story. I'm going to feel real guilty exploring the other path. (But I'm making the effort to explore that path in the first place, so I probably deserve that guilt.)

Really great game, I am surprised more people aren't talking about it!

I was excited for this from the demo that came out a while back but I didn't expect it to be end up my favorite game of the year thus far, in what has been one of the best years for games in recent memory.

And the music is so good god dammit.

Will try and avoid spoilers since people say this is real 'go in blind, but I have one major question I sorta want answered so anyone who's played this help me out?

I've gotten about an hour in, got to the first town and..I don't get it.

So, is there some mechanic to gain xp, or if that is secretly awful, then HP, or if that is secretly awful...am I suppose to play the whole game with 20 hp if I want to be good? Like if I'm no good at bullet hell it just seems like I have no choice what so ever to be evil and kill things? Even though the game clearly encourages you not too?

I did my best to get past that first boss fight but after getting wrecked because of the above problem..and the long cut-scene before it, I've been saying 'screw this' and just gaining xp/levels like normal. Only, that next area (I am at the first town) makes it very very clear that the game is trying to 'humanize' the monsters.. and ths make me the monster if I murder these guys for their souls or whatever. Or that's what I've gotten from the skeleton brothers, caring about each other, just want friends, etc.

So..am I missing some mechanic that lets me raise my HP, or is it "nope, being good means 20 the whole way, suck it up or just kill them?

@bladededge: Staying a pacifist means staying stuck at 20HP. You do get better defensive items though.

Though staying at a hotel or inn lets you temporarily bring it to 30. It's basically 10 points of armor.

Also, to get past cutscenes much, much, faster, mash X+Z alternatively. X skips the dialogue scroll, Z advances to next text.

@adequatelyprepared: Ouch, I wish I had known that before paying for it. I might give it another go another time but that's a real bummer.

Still glad to support development of stuff like this, even if I should have listened to advice and played the demo heh.

The game is more or less designed around that really good 20 hp only run so that's where everything is correctly balanced anyway.

Going the other way more or less reinforces that the only thing to ever matter is how good you are at avoiding damage, not withstanding it.

If you play the game pure evil and are bad at shoot em ups I don't think you'd ever be able to finish the last boss.

Just finished my second playthrough, this game is something special all right. It's hard to convince people to play it without spoiling at least a couple of great things as many see the art and think it looks bad or like one of many low effort gamemaker projects. I hope it gets some more press attention. RPS posted an article today that is very positive about the game: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09/21/undertale/

Wanted to hop on here just to say this is, uh, one hell of a game for many reasons that I will let other people who can describe it much better than I can. Do hope this game gets some coverage here before the end of the year.

Been playing this and it really is fucking great. Austin Vinny quick look when???

Just thought I'd add my favourite track from this game. This position has everything to do with what happens at 1:30.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkuKBGoWtKA
Spider Dance is a close second.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXhTMQ-NSSc
But Dummy! is also pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wamDnlnF9zo
But then there's also Spear of Justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79V-ZFdVsd0
I guess I'm trying to say that this game has an awesome OST.

I knew there was a reason I visited the giantbomb forums today, thanks for recommendation, I will get this one soon.

Saw Austin talking about reviewing it a few days ago on Twitter, I would imagine he'd run a quick look of it too.

that sounds great!

Oh, and I should have mentioned, for anyone planning on being violent on their first playthrough.
Get ready for a B A D T I M E.

I finished that last night and it is my greatest and most terrible triumph.

Oh my God. I adore this game and would be happy to send any of the Giant Bomb duders a copy. This game must be experienced.

Man, I think the way I experienced the first "boss" is kind of the way people should be introduced to this game.

The interactions in the battles when you're sparing people are generally hilarious, too. This game is pretty okay.

@efesell: /MindBlown

That song was nothing short of amazing.

This game is amazing.

Quick question.

Been gearing up to get started on the game this coming weekend, but I'm pretty sure I just had a large sounding plot point spoiled for me. Someone talking about a central character dying. Is that part of the game and, if so, how much of a damper is knowing this going to put on playing it?

Took a punt on this yesterday based on Austin's glowing review. Really like the combat mechanics (bullet hell dodging in particular), hoping to put more time on it in the next few weeks.

You'll be fine.

@efesell: Alright! Been looking forward to getting started on it.

Also, managed to get spoiled a second damn time! It's all out of context, but still pretty amazing to think that I've Managed to avoid MGS V spoilers, but a critically acclaimed indie game comes along, and I'm getting blind sided left and right. Whatever. Everything else I've been hearing sounds pretty damn cool.

I actually think you'd have to be very very thorough to spoil this game to a point where it'd really detract from anything.

@efesell: Well, I'm just seeing supposed "big decisions" surrounding the fate of a supposedly central character with no other context.

Haha. Whatever. I'm going to stop thinking about it now. Going to have to stay at my parents house all next week. Just going to be me, their cat and a laptop with the game on it. Should be a good time. :P

Hoo-boy! I just finished my first playthrough and played up to the first town on my second. This game is really, really fun.

One recommendation that I would second is going in as blind as possible. If you've watched the quick look, you already know (steam page spoiler) that you don't have to kill anything to progress. But I wholeheartedly recommend not worrying about that on your first playthrough. The payoff for making decisions organically (in gameplay and story terms) as opposed to min-maxing a particular path is really well designed and fun.

I'm so glad I went back and finished this game. I was so close to ending my run a few encounters from the end with "well that was pleasantly charming with a neat battle system" and moving on thinking it was just pretty good.

Turns out it actually is something special. Goodness.

I've played many of this year's new releases, as I do every year, and nothing was as cleverly written as this(although Her Story comes close on a different level.) and that's not just in regards to humor, but story too. It subverts your expectations in an Adventure time-Esque way. You'll start off laughing at the random modern humor and half way through be confused how it starts to tug at your heart strings among all the madness.

This will be in my top 5 at the end of the year without a doubt. What an amazing game.

What a crazy game. What a crazy ending. I enjoyed most of my time with it. It was just the right length. The enemies are all super unique and fun to battle. The bosses are even better. The "combat" mechanics are all fun. The soundtrack is near perfect. People should really play this game.

So I started this game doing a pacifist run because the game sort of pushes you towards it at the start with Toriel teaching you how to "talk to enemies" and with everything at the start taking forever to actually kill and I didn't really think anything of it. But now I'm making my way through the core and I'm really starting to hate the game. Having to intuit what random nonsense you have to do to spare every single brand new enemy is becoming infuriating while I have to dodge their attacks with 20 health. It's to the point where I can survive 3 hits now and the fourth is death every time. The battle system was novel 3 hours ago but it's not anymore and I'm tired of dealing with it.

If everything outside of combat wasn't so amazing and enjoyable I would have stopped playing it awhile ago.

I just have one question. Does the game have a sad ending? Cause I really don't need to be play a depressing game right now.

@naoiko: Uh, I guess don't play it then. The game tugs at your heart strings. Come back to it when you're doing well

@frostyryan: Can do. Thanks for the heads up =D.

@naoiko: The true pacifist ending is ultra uplifting, though. You have to beat the game first with no kills normally, which can end slightly sadly, but then you reload your save after doing so and complete the new stuff, and it's such a fulfilling end. Plus, there's absolutely tons of humor in the game that'll keep a smile on your face for so many hours.

It'll be fine as long as you don't decide to kill everyone. That's a bad time for any person.

@terin: Plenty of things about the true pacifist ending are sad though, or at least get the tear ducts going. Maybe he doesn't want anything that will make him cry, you know

@frostyryan: Yeah, but they're happy tears! Only really bad thing is Asriel staying behind, but even then, at that point he was freed from being Flowey and his morbid attitude on life, coming to peace with the choice he made and meeting a true friend instead of Hitler.