For those of you wondering what I think the greatest game of 2015 was, since everyone on the planet seems to be talking about it, I would have to say that the best game of that year had to be the groundbreaking masterpiece….. Alone in the Dark: Illumination. Oh, and Undertale was a great game to. So, since I obviously can’t review Illumination, we will just have to go with Undertale, as requested by Alinah_09. So, let us not waste anymore time (Then again, you’re reading a review by me)
Undertale is a game created by Toby Fox, who also worked on….. Uh….. All I know is that he worked on them music for Homestuck, and that’s about it. This is basically his first and only game. And what a game to start with, because this game managed to to get so much critical acclaim. Undertale takes place in a world that was once ruled by both humans and monsters. One day, a war broke out between the two races. The humans won, and all of the monsters were forced to live underground. A few years later, a young boy named Frisk (Or anything you want, since it’s one of those games where you name the character) falls into a hole and enters the Underground, where all the monsters lie. And it is here where the game begins. Throughout the game, you will meet some interesting characters. For starters, the first you meet is Flowey, and right off the bat, you have to deal with some bad characters, because Flowey literally tries to kill you when you first meet him. And he isn’t some simple enemy you meet for the first time. He is actually a LOT more important to the story than you can imagine.
In this game, there is something that makes it unique than most RPGs. In this game, for every enemy you meet, you can attack and kill them, but you can also compliment them, be friendly to them, and eventually spare them. Now, the question remains. Why in the name of fuck would you ever want to spare these enemies when you can kill them and gain Experience to level up? Well, because it’s one of THOSE games. You know the ones, the ones that change the story, characters, and the world around you whenever you do the smallest things. It’s kind of like Dishonored, only surprisingly more unique. There is a lot more to the battle system than you might think, but I’ll get to those later.
In this game, you will meet many other characters. I already discussed Flowey, but then there are other characters like Toriel, a kind and motherly goat creature, Sans, a wisecracking and lazy skeleton, Papyrus, the loud and flamboyant younger brother of Sans, Undyne, a strong-willed royal guard, Alphys, a shy reptile-like monster with a love for anime and manga, Mettaton, a robot who wants to be a star, and Asgore, the king of the Underworld who is kind to everyone. I have to say, for an RPG, I have the same opinion for the characters in this game as I do for the characters in Chrono Trigger, meaning that there is not one single character that I hate. I actually like all of the characters. Sure, I may like some more than others (Sans comes to mind), but there is not one character I can’t stand, and I think that is a great thing for a game such as this.
Now, remember when I said that fighting the enemies were a lot more special than you’d think. Well, I am now going to talk about the three different routes in this game.The Pacifist Route, the Neutral Route, and the Genocide Route. Now, I should let you know that right now, I am going to spoil all of them like crazy. So, I am going to display a message to let you know when the spoilers start and end, so just skip everything until you see it. I am being serious, these next few paragraphs contain MAJOR spoilers, so you have been warned.
{SPOILERS}
Like I said, this game has three routes to take. Pacifist, Neutral, and Genocide. The Neutral is just if you only kill a few monsters and don’t get every major character’s story. However, Pacifist and Genocide is different. Pacifist is when you manage to spare all monsters and gain all characters, where as Genocide is when you kill all monsters and even characters in the game. So, let us start with the Neutral Route. In the Neutral Route, when you make it to the end of the game, where is is shown that the only way for the monsters to leave the Underground is to collect seven human souls, which Asgore already has six of (I think you know where this is going). So, you then must battle Asgore. Once you do defeat him, you have the choice to kill him or spare him. Though, if you do spare him, he will only die by Flowey’s hands, who will take the souls and become Photoshop Flowey, which is a large abomination of plant vines, human organs, and machinery. Quite disturbing if you ask me. And if you do die to this boss, that is actually how the game ends. So, yeah, you might want to be careful there. And that is about as unique as the Neutral Route gets. Now let’s see the two more interesting ones.
Next, we will take a look at the Genocide route. And OH BOY, it’s a downer. Like I said, to get this one, you need to kill EVERYBODY! But trust me, it’s worse than you think. You suddenly turn this little kid into a sadistic sociopath who will kill people for fun. What kind of sick bastard would make a sociopath as the protagonist of anything and think it was a good idea……. Wait a minute- Anyway, this is a lot different from the usual game. For starters, Sans will change his personality towards you, being a bit more serious, which isn’t like him. Even Flowey, FREAKING SADISTIC FLOWEY, insults you for doing the Genocide Route. Well, if you did slaughter hundreds of innocent creatures, I guess he has the right to shame you. However, there is one major difference. The final boss of the Genocide Route… And it’s Sans. And let me tell you, Sans is no pushover. He is easily the hardest boss fight in the game. I’m talking Ornstein and Smough levels of hard. Once you do kill Sans, you will then move on to Asgore, and then Flowey. And apparently, your character is so evil, that Flowey will cry and beg you not to kill him (Which you obviously do anyway). And after that is all done, you will meet Chara, who you named at the beginning. Yep, the character you named at the beginning wasn’t the protagonist, but instead, this guy, who is basically the definition of pure evil. He also wants you to delete your game completely in order to re-create the world, or he will just kill you and crash your game. And if you do make a new world, he will make very little appearances in later games, showing that your actions in the Genocide Route move to the next game.
Lastly, there is the Pacifist Route, which is probably the best of the three. This is the ending you get by sparing everything and helping all of the characters. So naturally, this makes it a bit harder, since you are not leveling up at all in this one. Anyway, when you make it to Asgore, he still must kill you to take your soul, since it is needed to break the barrier. However, before you can fight, your interrupted by Toriel, who says that she was once married to Asgore, But left him after his actions against humans. After which, he is forgiven for this, and everyone you have met comes into the throne room, all brought together by a “flower”. Oh, boy. Suddenly, of course, Flowey comes, and it is revealed that Flowey is actually Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel, who was killed long ago and revived as a flower. His reasons for constantly tormenting you throughout the game is because he wants you to play this game forever, so he can always “play with you”. He then uses the strength of all of the characters in the game to transform into his true form. However, the strength of your friends allows you to be stronger, even to where you can not die, as if your health is depleted, the game will say “Your soul refuses to die”. Sure, it kinda makes the fight easy, since there are no consequences, but it’s still awesome.
{END OF SPOILERS}
As much as I love this game (And I mean LOVE this game), there is one problem with it. One giant problem. A fatal flaw that could easily ruin this game forever… The fans. I know that fans are different, no matter what, but I fear that the Undertale could end up becoming THOSE fans. A fanbase that is only alive in order to destroy any enjoyment from the source material. Sure, it may not be much, but give it time. I fear it will get so much worse. To explain how bad it could be, I have created the Three Bad Tropes for a Fandom. It could end up as the Cultist Fandom, where they spread their love for it wherever they go, like Pokemon or Five Night’s At Freddy's. They could be the Anarchist Fandom, spreading as much hatred and chaos for any reason in their fandom, which could be the Anime or Steven Universe over there. And then there is the Vigorus Masterbater Fandom…… Obviously dominated by My Little Pony and Sonic fandoms. Where will Undertale end up if the fandom gets out of hand. If anything, just one. Maybe even all three. And if by a slight chance (And I mean a slight chance) that it will be able to avoid such things.
So, there you go. Despite the… possibly fuck up on the fandoms part, Undertale is still one of the best RPG’s I have ever played. It is easily better than any game that has come out in 2015, even surpassing such genius ideas like The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, and, yes, even Bloodborne. Never thought a game could surpass that masterpiece. With it’s incredible story, brilliant characters, wonderful imagination, and some of the most unique game design I’ve ever seen, I think we may have found a game that could revolutionize gaming. Yes, right up there with Final Fantasy VII, Super Mario 64, Wii Sports, Metal Gear Solid, Shadow of the Colossus, Halo: Combat Evolved, Half-Life, World of Warcraft, Grand Theft Auto III, Doom, and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It is THAT good. But, hey, that’s only my opinion. What’s Your Take
Undertale is a game created by Toby Fox, who also worked on….. Uh….. All I know is that he worked on them music for Homestuck, and that’s about it. This is basically his first and only game. And what a game to start with, because this game managed to to get so much critical acclaim. Undertale takes place in a world that was once ruled by both humans and monsters. One day, a war broke out between the two races. The humans won, and all of the monsters were forced to live underground. A few years later, a young boy named Frisk (Or anything you want, since it’s one of those games where you name the character) falls into a hole and enters the Underground, where all the monsters lie. And it is here where the game begins. Throughout the game, you will meet some interesting characters. For starters, the first you meet is Flowey, and right off the bat, you have to deal with some bad characters, because Flowey literally tries to kill you when you first meet him. And he isn’t some simple enemy you meet for the first time. He is actually a LOT more important to the story than you can imagine.
In this game, there is something that makes it unique than most RPGs. In this game, for every enemy you meet, you can attack and kill them, but you can also compliment them, be friendly to them, and eventually spare them. Now, the question remains. Why in the name of fuck would you ever want to spare these enemies when you can kill them and gain Experience to level up? Well, because it’s one of THOSE games. You know the ones, the ones that change the story, characters, and the world around you whenever you do the smallest things. It’s kind of like Dishonored, only surprisingly more unique. There is a lot more to the battle system than you might think, but I’ll get to those later.
In this game, you will meet many other characters. I already discussed Flowey, but then there are other characters like Toriel, a kind and motherly goat creature, Sans, a wisecracking and lazy skeleton, Papyrus, the loud and flamboyant younger brother of Sans, Undyne, a strong-willed royal guard, Alphys, a shy reptile-like monster with a love for anime and manga, Mettaton, a robot who wants to be a star, and Asgore, the king of the Underworld who is kind to everyone. I have to say, for an RPG, I have the same opinion for the characters in this game as I do for the characters in Chrono Trigger, meaning that there is not one single character that I hate. I actually like all of the characters. Sure, I may like some more than others (Sans comes to mind), but there is not one character I can’t stand, and I think that is a great thing for a game such as this.
Now, remember when I said that fighting the enemies were a lot more special than you’d think. Well, I am now going to talk about the three different routes in this game.The Pacifist Route, the Neutral Route, and the Genocide Route. Now, I should let you know that right now, I am going to spoil all of them like crazy. So, I am going to display a message to let you know when the spoilers start and end, so just skip everything until you see it. I am being serious, these next few paragraphs contain MAJOR spoilers, so you have been warned.
{SPOILERS}
Like I said, this game has three routes to take. Pacifist, Neutral, and Genocide. The Neutral is just if you only kill a few monsters and don’t get every major character’s story. However, Pacifist and Genocide is different. Pacifist is when you manage to spare all monsters and gain all characters, where as Genocide is when you kill all monsters and even characters in the game. So, let us start with the Neutral Route. In the Neutral Route, when you make it to the end of the game, where is is shown that the only way for the monsters to leave the Underground is to collect seven human souls, which Asgore already has six of (I think you know where this is going). So, you then must battle Asgore. Once you do defeat him, you have the choice to kill him or spare him. Though, if you do spare him, he will only die by Flowey’s hands, who will take the souls and become Photoshop Flowey, which is a large abomination of plant vines, human organs, and machinery. Quite disturbing if you ask me. And if you do die to this boss, that is actually how the game ends. So, yeah, you might want to be careful there. And that is about as unique as the Neutral Route gets. Now let’s see the two more interesting ones.
Next, we will take a look at the Genocide route. And OH BOY, it’s a downer. Like I said, to get this one, you need to kill EVERYBODY! But trust me, it’s worse than you think. You suddenly turn this little kid into a sadistic sociopath who will kill people for fun. What kind of sick bastard would make a sociopath as the protagonist of anything and think it was a good idea……. Wait a minute- Anyway, this is a lot different from the usual game. For starters, Sans will change his personality towards you, being a bit more serious, which isn’t like him. Even Flowey, FREAKING SADISTIC FLOWEY, insults you for doing the Genocide Route. Well, if you did slaughter hundreds of innocent creatures, I guess he has the right to shame you. However, there is one major difference. The final boss of the Genocide Route… And it’s Sans. And let me tell you, Sans is no pushover. He is easily the hardest boss fight in the game. I’m talking Ornstein and Smough levels of hard. Once you do kill Sans, you will then move on to Asgore, and then Flowey. And apparently, your character is so evil, that Flowey will cry and beg you not to kill him (Which you obviously do anyway). And after that is all done, you will meet Chara, who you named at the beginning. Yep, the character you named at the beginning wasn’t the protagonist, but instead, this guy, who is basically the definition of pure evil. He also wants you to delete your game completely in order to re-create the world, or he will just kill you and crash your game. And if you do make a new world, he will make very little appearances in later games, showing that your actions in the Genocide Route move to the next game.
Lastly, there is the Pacifist Route, which is probably the best of the three. This is the ending you get by sparing everything and helping all of the characters. So naturally, this makes it a bit harder, since you are not leveling up at all in this one. Anyway, when you make it to Asgore, he still must kill you to take your soul, since it is needed to break the barrier. However, before you can fight, your interrupted by Toriel, who says that she was once married to Asgore, But left him after his actions against humans. After which, he is forgiven for this, and everyone you have met comes into the throne room, all brought together by a “flower”. Oh, boy. Suddenly, of course, Flowey comes, and it is revealed that Flowey is actually Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel, who was killed long ago and revived as a flower. His reasons for constantly tormenting you throughout the game is because he wants you to play this game forever, so he can always “play with you”. He then uses the strength of all of the characters in the game to transform into his true form. However, the strength of your friends allows you to be stronger, even to where you can not die, as if your health is depleted, the game will say “Your soul refuses to die”. Sure, it kinda makes the fight easy, since there are no consequences, but it’s still awesome.
{END OF SPOILERS}
As much as I love this game (And I mean LOVE this game), there is one problem with it. One giant problem. A fatal flaw that could easily ruin this game forever… The fans. I know that fans are different, no matter what, but I fear that the Undertale could end up becoming THOSE fans. A fanbase that is only alive in order to destroy any enjoyment from the source material. Sure, it may not be much, but give it time. I fear it will get so much worse. To explain how bad it could be, I have created the Three Bad Tropes for a Fandom. It could end up as the Cultist Fandom, where they spread their love for it wherever they go, like Pokemon or Five Night’s At Freddy's. They could be the Anarchist Fandom, spreading as much hatred and chaos for any reason in their fandom, which could be the Anime or Steven Universe over there. And then there is the Vigorus Masterbater Fandom…… Obviously dominated by My Little Pony and Sonic fandoms. Where will Undertale end up if the fandom gets out of hand. If anything, just one. Maybe even all three. And if by a slight chance (And I mean a slight chance) that it will be able to avoid such things.
So, there you go. Despite the… possibly fuck up on the fandoms part, Undertale is still one of the best RPG’s I have ever played. It is easily better than any game that has come out in 2015, even surpassing such genius ideas like The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, and, yes, even Bloodborne. Never thought a game could surpass that masterpiece. With it’s incredible story, brilliant characters, wonderful imagination, and some of the most unique game design I’ve ever seen, I think we may have found a game that could revolutionize gaming. Yes, right up there with Final Fantasy VII, Super Mario 64, Wii Sports, Metal Gear Solid, Shadow of the Colossus, Halo: Combat Evolved, Half-Life, World of Warcraft, Grand Theft Auto III, Doom, and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It is THAT good. But, hey, that’s only my opinion. What’s Your Take