Mega-Review and Thoughts - UNDERTALE (English)

DETERMINATION.

Phew, now it's time, I can not any longer wait, because I have, for weeks,

Undertale, oh undertale ... you do not make it easy for me, frankly, you're one of the hardest games to review that I ever played. That's why I've postponed this text for weeks - and to let it sink in. But these few weeks have been worth it, because would I have written this right after completing the sensational indie game it would have been completely different. I would like to devote myself to the challenge of discussing Undertale, saying a lot and coming to a conclusion. For most of people it was easy - Masterpiece. Art. A new milestone in storytelling in the medium of video games. For me it's more complicated, and I'm sure I do not agree with such predicates, or only to a limited degree.

But I have eagerly readied set me a list, and should I work through it chronologically.

As a short teaser for people who do not like long textwalls and also belong to the 10% that did not play Undertale in the first two years - do it. If you have undertale on sale or can get it somewhere cheaply, have a lot of patience and frustration tolerance in terms of difficulty, and want a clever, clever experience, Undertale is a must. That must be enough as a preface, it's enough. Perhaps it should be noted that this text will contain explicit spoilers in a given place. Do you want to experience the game unbiased, it is probably in your interest to come back later.

My Prehistory - Hype and Skepticism

Undertale has experienced an almost unprecedented megahype in the recent Internet past when it hit the start line in 2015, and invaded tens of thousands of Steam libraries from the gaming community like a zombie disease. It was everywhere, and thus literally omnipresent, one could NOT avoid it. Just as the positive echo and the award-demands for the kinda retro pixel-made game with 8 / 16Bit times-soundtrack. Well, I escaped it anyway, at least in terms of playing, because I was extremely skeptical about Undertale from the start. That was first and foremost crucial to the graphics. The rudimentary 2D pixel graphics are reminiscent of old Nintendo and Gameboy games, and are mostly black and white, which, along with the questionable design of the bosses, so brutally deterred me that until 2019 I had not the slightest interest in trying Undertale myself. Even the few things I caught up about the story and the combat system did not interest me, so I just dismissed it as overhyped internet crap. The only thing that I positively perceived was the iconic and catchy soundtrack that circulated through Youtube, and I liked it too.

Then, three or four months ago, I got to get Undertale for free through a friend on my Playstation Vita. That was the breaking point - I would never have thought of spending or just catching up on the game myself, but if I got it served for free on a silver plate - why not? Maybe it was time to see what was really behind the gigantic mega hype. Good decision, if I may say so. I was surprised to say the least.

My experience with Undertale, and my current position

It has been several weeks since I completed all three 'True' paths of Undertale on my Vita. Then I fought through the internet to learn all the secrets and facts about the game that I did not know before. I listened to the soundtrack again and reflected on its scenes, listening to remixes, looking at fanarts, thinking more and more about the story and the characters of Undertale.

I was always very anti-Undertale. My friend, who is an absolute big fan, even though he did not even beat the game like me yet, has always felt that painfully when I made fun of it. And I too suffered during my playthrough of Undertale, groaned annoyed, throwed the console aside frustrated, collected criticism in my head and my fundamental 'That's still stupid'! - attitude hardly changed. But. Undertale is like a disease. The longer it works on you, the bigger the damage. So I let Undertale linger on for a few weeks, and quite frankly - I can no longer wholly disprove my friend's suspicion that I would not jump at the positive rapture of Undertale just because I want to be against it. Because that's how it feels more and more - that I should love Undertale, but I do not want it, because I want to be against it, because I do not want to admit that I was wrong and biased. Because one thing is for sure:

My goodness, Undertale is a complex and on many levels fascinating story. Undertale is more than the sum of its parts; it has a playful, moral, gaming-metaphysical, metaphorical, emotional, and entertaining depth, and excels in almost every one of these categories. Undertale is more than a game, it is a milestone that actually adds a new comment to the entire medium in my eyes, and explores the possibilities.

But is that enough? Will Undertale live up to its hype? I first wanted to write no. But honestly? I do not know anymore. Undertale has an awful lot of weaknesses, and the hype that characterizes the game as the holy grail of gaming seem a bit too euphoric and misguided too me. Because, and I'll come back to that later, many elements of the Undertale cosmos do not even come from the game itself. But in order to break down what makes Undertale in my eyes deficient and error-prone, let's look at its weaknesses.

Undertale - The weaknesses, my criticisms

I have addressed the graphics. Many people may not mind them, there may even be enough lovers of this nostalgic-minimalist style, but I simply saw it as shit-ugly and extremely deterrent. And when I started my playthrough, it took me a long time to get used to the black and white in-game artwork of the monsters. Okay, that may be all style decision so far, but what really bothered me in the long term and would have been avoidable, are the sometimes grotesque and aesthetically unattractive designs of the characters. By that I mean, above all, Undyne, who in the fight is a bald, one-eyed pirate with two crooked teeth. Her running sprite is a bit more colorful in color, but if you look at all of Undyne's fanarts, you'll soon realize that she has mostly full red hair in them and looks different than in the game - with good reason. Similar cases are characters like Alphys and Toriel, if the latter was just another habituation thing. Of course it may all be a matter of taste, but these are factors that made it harder for me to like this and that character.

Since we talk about likeable characters - I hate all Undertale characters. While this may have changed a bit by now, more about that down below, but my goodness, were they unbearable. This goes hand in hand with my second criticism, the humor. I think I remember that I did not have to smile once in the whole game, at least not because of the humor. This one was so unpleasantly, profane and infantile, with an impressive consequence, that I wanted to blow up EVERY of the main actors into nirvana. Hate character number 1 for me was Papyrus, whose only role in the game is to offer Comic Relief. Mettaton and Sans were similarly bad. But Papyrus, Papyrus was that one acquaintance we all have, who is always desperately trying to be funny, and we are torn between a polite laugh and an exasperated groan. I I think of Undertale as infinitely unfunny. My thoughts on papyrus are a bit different now, but more on that below. What definitely has not changed is my aversion to Alphys. Even after I know what's behind her awkward, clumsy way, I find her no less annoying and exhausting.

The last big stumbling block Undertale has in my opinion is the difficulty. Undertale is and has often been compared to Dark Souls. With this analogy I could and can only facepalm. Dark Souls is fair. Dark Souls gives you opponents with fixed attack patterns that you can study, learn and anticipate, you can equip yourself individually for each opponent and of course you can level or get better, try other weapons and all that. Dark Souls annihilates you, but it builds you up again, and motivates you to keep going. Undertale does not. Unfortunately, Undertale is in many places incredibly frustrating and sometimes even outrageously unfair, and the lack of options that you have as a quiet protagonist Frisk makes you run all too fast into a dead end. In addition, the game relies heavily on backtracking as well as heal-spamming - You actually only have a chance in the really tough fights if you heal yourself constantly, but since you can only carry eight items, shops in the game are very irregularly distributed and you never know where the next mega boss is waiting for you, you have to run back for 20 minutes at a snail's pace to stock up on a few items. I'm thinking specifically about Undyne The Undying. Without 8 healers, I would probably have been obliged to this fight 200 times more often than I finally have, and that was over 60 attempts. Undyne the Undying and of course the notorious Sans, who is probably one of the heaviest bosses in video game history, are the two highs of a combat system that often feels unfair. Of course you can also learn this system, you can master the patterns of Sans and Undyne and all the others with hundreds of fights, as many did with 0 hit runs and the like. For me, however, that often felt more random, With Undyne, I was exposed to the mercy of chance by changing patterns of attack, and, as I said, survived by many healings. Nevertheless, Undynes fight can be beaten, without being really unfair. Sans' fight is the opposite. This fight is downright unfair, as unfair as it can be. Words like 'ridiculous', 'nonsense', 'stupid shit', 'filth' and 'unbeatable filth' slipped away from me at the time. I do not know how many attempts it has cost me. 200? And the bad thing is that you can not do anything to improve, except to go through it over and over again. That's why I would never think of comparing Undertals with Dark Souls. Because Undertales fights are often unfair. But maybe ... does that have to be? More below. As a last comment, that even Grinding is essential if you want to survive on non-pacifist routes.

The puzzles, as in any puzzle game, were unbearable, superfluous, and an only time-eater. By a long distance on the shit podium comes the arrow jumping games in Hotland. These were the moments when I myself would have liked to send Undertale under the earth.

But where is a lot of shadows, there is also a lot of light due to nature. In this case, probably more than I would like to admit, and so it will take even longer.

Undertale - The good stuff

Where should I start? Undertales great strength is his story and his world. The fact that we are thrown into an initially hostile underground as a frisk may not be a special premise, but what IS, is how well thought-out the story is and how it unfolds - Undertale really creates a world that responds to us as a player. I know of a few, really very few games that change their world to such an extent like Undertale because of the player's actions, and so well, convincingly and consistently. So Undertale has its three big routes, depending on the behavior of the player, all of which are completely different and, in the case of the Genocide route, even create a totally different mood and perception of the game. Undertale was perhaps the first time that I felt that I was being taken seriously as an acting protagonist - I decide, the world reacts. Simple, familiar concept, yet rarely used as it should. Undertale really shines here. Although the story about Chara, Asriel, the war of humans and monsters, captivity in the underground and all that already is really solid, the meta-twist of the world-Resetting, the routes and the knowing Sans adds a whole other level.

Before I talk about the main topic that concerns me in this regard, True Pacifist & Genocide-Run, some words to the great variance of Undertale: The first time, of course, I played blind, and achieved a neutral ending, in which I killed each Boss and a few monsters. I knew that the fighting could be solved peacefully, but I was not interested in it and enjoyed slaughtering those annoying sucker heads. What I learned in retrospect is how varied the neutral end is - depending on which boss you kill in which constellation or do not kill, it changes the ending, creating quite different situations. It comes out dialogues that are sometimes even more tragic than the Genocide Run. (Let only papyrus live...) And of course, the game also remembers what endings you've already seen, among others. All this is worthy of all honor. The True Pacifist Run, the run without killing anything, was something I only learned about after the neutral route. I then did it to finally beat the Genocide Run as the last one, which I was most looking forward to because I, annoyed by the game and its characters, was eager to kill anything and everything. Besides, I saw Frisk as a defenseless child thrown into a hostile environment and attacked by everything - I wanted revenge for her. But the True Pacifist Run, which is the true path of the game, of course first goes to great lengths to make you reasonably acquainted with all the characters, bring them closer to you by dating, and ultimately makes them fan favorites. It did not quite work for me, but I could learn to like characters like Papyrus and Undyne a bit more. The end is dramatically classic heroic stuff for such stories, everyone comes to help, the boss fight takes two, three turns, and at the end everything is fine and there is a happy ending. That did not leave me cold, I thought it was beautiful and liked Toriel very much at that point.

But I was not really yet connected to the characters, because I had what I had long been looking for - The Genocide Run. Kill everything and everyone. Now, having experienced the perfect happiness with these characters, I was curious to see what happens when I take it back, along with everything else. The Genocide Run is by far the best path in Undertale for me. Not because it was so nice to kill everyone - but because it brings with it a different, totally different atmosphere and story than any other path, it is always grim serious, and you feel the effects of what you are doing in a tangible and inevitable way - The extinction of a whole world.

You become the antagonist. And while some games, especially from Japan, advertise that you sometimes play an antagonist, nowhere has it been better implemented than in Undertale, if you ask me. This run fascinated me. He hooked me up to the characters and pushed me across the line to look at Undertale as more than just a funny crazy game - despite or because of Undyne the Undying and Sans. The fact that the music changes to a dark, sinister background melody in each section after we've killed EVERYTHING adds a lot to it, and it's just cooly thought out.

Cities and places are evacuated because I'm coming. NPCs like dealers are changing their dialogues, and punish me with due contempt for mass murder. Bosses that have previously annoyed me to death are killed by me in one fell swoop because they believe in me or are careless. Then, other bosses throw everything at me, to finally fucking stop me from destroying their home and everyone they know and love.

And as unbelievably sudden and unsatisfying as the Genocide end is - the route stays in your memory and, of course, also has a sickening effect if you make another True Pacifist run afterwards. That wrestles and respects me, and the route has made me experience emotions of all sorts - until I suddenly felt compassion for the characters I had hated for so long. Compassion for the desperate struggle they are waging against me, the player -

a God.

I'm sorry, I have to go into it again separately. What else I have to address is Frisk -_- face. Silent protagonists are by no means new. However, where they seem annoying, strange or simply lifeless in most games, Undertale has method and an incredibly refined reason that you only come across bit by bit. Sure, for long stretches of the game, the little girl's(?) lifeless face that we're controlling may seem inappropriate for the many lively dialogues, emotional situations, and all that, but what I see in that face is the ability to interpret - Because we can actually imagine Frisk's facial expression ourselves. That would not be exciting if it was a game like Zelda's with just one storyline where the hero's face is simply missing. But what if we think about the Genocide Run? Then Frisk, who is now a psychopathic rebirth of a true monster, may look quite different, with red devilish eyes and a merciless, diabolic grin as she sends one defenseless opponent after another to hell. And that grin is there - we know it. The game does not have to show it to us. Maybe I interpreted that too much, but looking back, Frisk’ -_- seems to me like a canvas for the thoughts of the player.

Otherwise, the soundtrack. Another unquestionably great strength of this work of art, and also those with the simplest beam effect to the outside, are the incredibly good pieces of music. I do not have to tell you Megalovania is simply a small masterpiece, just like Spider dance. The rest is at least very good, especially Undynes Battlethemes. But even in the quieter nuances such as the Genocide Run, the OST shows its sophistication, as I mentioned above. These tracks can be heard hundreds of times, and you still have not had enough of them, and I go so far as to say that Spiderdance and Megalovania are among the top 20 best video game pieces of the last five years, at least. They're memes, they're remixes, they're just awesome. And yes - although I mentally denied this possibility while listening to the tunes before playing Undertale - they do get better when you know the context. Sans. Undyne.

Oh yes, and the Bullet Hell combat system is of course full of creative ideas, surprising turns and many special moments. At first it takes a bit of getting used to it and on the Playstation Vita it was also slightly inaccurate in the input, but a more than welcome change to what you get otherwise served. Now I want to say something to the community.

The Undertale-Community

Much of the fascination Undertale makes up comes from the community. While in the first few months of the game, the game has spread through the Internet and earned its fame, the fans have continued to fill the universe and the world with content and extras - endless fanarts, which make the rudimentary characters more complex and epic than they ever could be ingame, and thus shape our image of these individuals. Endless many Remixes that engrave us the already unimaginative earworm-exciting pieces of music even longer, further, better into the brain. Fangames, and videos that expand the stories and character arcs of the original and continue to flesh them out. Fanfiction. Animations of the fighting. Fansongs and Fanlyrics for existing songs. Creative and imaginative cosplay. Deep discussions, memes, jokes. All this makes up for me a large part of the fascination of Undertales. And now the crucial question - Is that the merit of the game or not?

Intuitively, I would say no. Especially since, as I think, it is perceived that way - Undyne is perceived by her fanarts to be a much prettier and more passionate character than she actually is. Some fights and scenarios (Muffet, Asriel ...) get more complex when they get fanlyrics or animations. But that is not Canon. That was not intended. So how much of that is allowed to count for Undertale positively? Of course, the game has inspired all of this, the core is the same - Nevertheless, I think that one must be very careful to call Undertale the deeply complex multi-work - Much is simply done by the fans. And I know, I'm doing this myself and I'm going to go on with it, but it makes you realize how difficult it is to separate these things.

The Point - Fascination Undertale

I talked a bit around the point the whole time, but I'm getting to it now - what is it that really intrigues me so much about Undertale that makes me think of it as far more as just a good game to look at? This is of course the meta-level or the deeper meaning in Undertale. The character Sans is one of the few in Undertale who is aware of us as a player - he knows that he is just a character in a game that is exposed to our grace, much like a certain literature club president. Nowhere is this as clear as in the Genocide Run. I see the Genocide Run less as a personal revenge process by Chara, but more as an event in the larger context of the game. The Genocide Run is nothing more than the fight of the game and the world against us as a player who rapes it - maybe not for the first time. Maybe after we have freed it before. This means above all Sans' fight against us, but also Undynes.

A true hero. What says the world, what says Undertale and what says Undynes fight finally and makes us feel as she gathers her strength, shows her determination and is unwilling to let us continue to slaughter her people? Exactly - it shows us that we are the evil. We are no longer a kid which has to defend hitself against monsters, we are the antagonist and the pure evil in Undertale, which has to be fought and stopped. The musical piece that plays when you fight Undyne the Undying is called Battle Against a True Hero. Do you know what the name and this epic, driving sound tells us?

Exactly - we, the player, have become so much the antagonist that even the fighting music is against us. It makes it clear that Undyne is the heroine, not us.

Of course, the fight against Undyne is incredibly difficult and frustrating - THIS MUST BE. We are erasing an entire world here, and the only heroine who can prevent it is throwing at us everything she has - it MUST be so hard. It would be an OUTRAGE if it is easy and pleasant to perform a genocide. The game wants to stop us. We get so evil that Flowy, the Flowy, the stereotypical, exaggerated disgusting monster, gets scared of us and tries to warn our opponents of us. So evil that Asgore can not say what kind of monster we are. And of course the fight with Sans. Sans, who knows of the resetting and feels, like we play as a player with his world, just because we can. The fight is simply unfair and unbelievably exhausting, it is seemingly unmanageable the first time and brings you to despair. He is UNFAIR. Of course he is!! This is the ONLY WAY to stop us as a player - SANS 'only way to get us to finally put the console or the game down and stop throwing his world into chaos again and again. Of course, it is unfair and seemingly unmanageable - it should not seem doable or motivate us to move on, it should cause us to finally let it go. This is Sans' only way to fight against us, against - from his perspective - a god. Because we can reset his world at any time. We can learn his attack patterns and improve ourselves. He can not do that. So what other way does he have to take the fun of what we do? And even that does not work in the end, so he just goes to catch us forever in its attack phase. Without success.

This fight may have driven me crazy, may have let me curse the developer Toby Fox, may seem unbalanced and unfair to me - but if you think about it in the context of the game, that's just right. And during the fight, Sans shows us the mirror - we do it because we can. And because we can, we MUST. That's the way it is. DETERMINATION. For me this is much more undertale than the funny characters or the crazy artstyle - the significance.

Conclusion

Undertale achieves the greatest impact with the least amount of resources, and once again shows what a good idea can do if it is simply implemented consistently. Toby Fox was not the game developer of the decade, he simply had some very sophisticated ideas that he undoubtedly realized as the creative mind he undoubtedly is, creating an unprecedented impact. As silly as Undertale may be on the surface sometimes, it's so mature and serious at the core - and a fantastic soundtrack as well as characters that grow on you in time, routes and fan content are also available as a bonus. I'd make a fool of myself by sticking to my original intention of playing and now trying to burn down the game - Undertale is definitely a pop culture breaker. It is definitely a very, very great work. Even though I found the hype exhausting at the time and certainly not justified in every way, I understand it a bit. I am grateful that my experience in video games is now a whole lot more matured, and I'm really looking forward to trying out the successor Delta Rune, which I have not had much time to work on.

For the time being, however, I'm glad to have completed Undertale - and finally let Sans rest.

8/10 flowers for Undertale

- Yoraiko