Points Review - Undertale (2015)

13 points must be achieved to get a recommended.

This review will go through Graphics, Gameplay, Story, Music and other less important details.

Gameplay - 3/5

Undertale uses a combination of a roaming environment and a battle system which involves random encounters with enemies which must either by defeated by force or through other means in a dodge-bullet and deal damage system. An addition to the play-it-your-way kind of games, it involves 3 main storylines with 2 of them having to meet different but obvious criteria. All these routes involve a different kind of gameplay; however, in order to see the rest of the game the player must play through at least 3 times which can take 9 hours (at least for me). A lot of the random encounters can become quite a bore in a mainly story-based game and if you are unfortunate enough to make a mistake and have to backtrack it can take a long time (this can be cut down if the transport between "worlds" is found).
Side note: There is no way or go back to the main menu in the game, so if you want to change the controller settings for example, you will have to restart. I also found that if you remove the controller you were using and re-insert it, it crashes the game.

Graphics - 4/5

Undertale's graphics are a joint between retro cartoony graphics when in the overworld and Sin City-esque black and white when in battle. This is also prominent when you deal the final blow to a certain skeleton, which I personally found to be a nice touch. The overworld graphics are usually quite minimal whilst the battle system has much more detailed characters albeit black and white.
The game's base resolution when in windowed mode is 640x480, and there is no way to change this in windowed. However a keystroke will take you to fullscreen mode with no compromise in the graphics quality.

Story - 5/5

This is where everybody knows what Undertale is about. Often heralded for its highly engrossing story, Undertale's story involves a human child falling down a hole into the underground and must make its way back to the surface and possibly making some new friends (or enemies) along the way. The backstory when you start the game every time gives a fine idea of what happened and how it happened before the game starts.

The neutral route (which is the only one that can be done first time) rather emotionally sets up characters that will be used later in other run-throughs (mainly the Pacifist route). This can definitely been seen when all the characters round up before the "final fight" in the neutral runthrough and then a certain someone comes out of nowhere. Every single main character has a great personality and shows a sense of humanity (no pun intended) which can bring out real feelings and add to the emotion of the story.
Personally, I found the genocide route to be amazing because of the radical difference. It seemed like a completely different game and almost every single character reacted differently to you which was a great touch.

Side note: The game is short. This can please or annoy you depending on who you are but it being short will help if you wish to do mutliple runthroughs.

Music - 3/5

There are a lot of pieces of music in Undertale's soundtrack and there seems to be some effort put into it and made with love. However, although a lot of them are related in some way, the same melodies and songs get extremely tiresome by the end of the game. The soundtrack involves a lot of music genres, including retro-inspired battle music, rock, chiptune and even Touhou-inspired melodies and instruments. This can add a lot of variety in the game if you are like me and enjoy many different genres. Some of the music is amazing and I love, but some just simply don't hit for me and I detest hearing.

Other details:

- The game is far too easy. A basic runthrough is shockingly easy to beat without dying once. However, on the subsequent runthroughs there will be changes that will challenge you more. Controllers generally give the game a challenge because they really aren't good for this game.

- The game's size when downloading is around 115 MB, which is easy to shove on to a PC if you're bored.

- Changing the music files for your pleasing is incredibly bizarre. The speeds of some of the songs have to be adjusted so specifcally it seems trivial (for example, for the track "Undertale" the speed has to be increased by 17.5% and the Barrier SFX is 25% faster). Not really a changing factor, just very strange. They can all be found here if you wish to do it yourself http://pastebin.com/7eFz2Wjj

- Fanbase generally doesn't keep it to themselves. Many young players who have been watching too much YouTube have been stapling it everywhere they go (mainly YouTube and Steam), which is another annoying factor but not determining.


Final Score : 15/20

It's not a perfect game by any means, but it's a great way to find a new or interesting story and to kill some time (9-10 hours to speedrun the whole game with all routes). Recommending with caution because of the less-than-reserved fanbase. On an individual basis, try it for yourself and see what you think, it's a game with a divided viewpoint so your mileage may vary.

Points Review - Undertale (2015) 13 points must be achieved to get a recommended. This review will go through Graphics, Gameplay, Story, Music and other less important details. Gameplay - 3/5 Undertale uses a combination of a roaming environment and a battle system which involves random encounters with enemies which must either by defeated by force or through other means in a dodge-bullet and deal damage system. An addition to the play-it-your-way kind of games, it involves 3 main storylines with 2 of them having to meet different but obvious criteria. All these routes involve a different kind of gameplay; however, in order to see the rest of the game the player must play through at least 3 times which can take 9 hours (at least for me). A lot of the random encounters can become quite a bore in a mainly story-based game and if you are unfortunate enough to make a mistake and have to backtrack it can take a long time (this can be cut down if the transport between "worlds" is found). Side note: There is no way or go back to the main menu in the game, so if you want to change the controller settings for example, you will have to restart. I also found that if you remove the controller you were using and re-insert it, it crashes the game. Graphics - 4/5 Undertale's graphics are a joint between retro cartoony graphics when in the overworld and Sin City-esque black and white when in battle. This is also prominent when [spoiler]you deal the final blow to a certain skeleton[/spoiler], which I personally found to be a nice touch. The overworld graphics are usually quite minimal whilst the battle system has much more detailed characters albeit black and white. The game's base resolution when in windowed mode is 640x480, and there is no way to change this in windowed. However a keystroke will take you to fullscreen mode with no compromise in the graphics quality. Story - 5/5 This is where everybody knows what Undertale is about. Often heralded for its highly engrossing story, Undertale's story involves a human child falling down a hole into the underground and must make its way back to the surface and possibly making some new friends (or enemies) along the way. The backstory when you start the game every time gives a fine idea of what happened and how it happened before the game starts. The neutral route (which is the only one that can be done first time) rather emotionally sets up characters that will be used later in other run-throughs ([spoiler]mainly the Pacifist route[/spoiler]). This can definitely been seen when [spoiler]all the characters round up before the "final fight" in the neutral runthrough and then a certain someone comes out of nowhere[/spoiler]. Every single main character has a great personality and shows a sense of humanity (no pun intended) which can bring out real feelings and add to the emotion of the story. Personally, I found the genocide route to be [b]amazing[/b] because of the radical difference. It seemed like a completely different game and almost every single character reacted differently to you which was a great touch. Side note: The game is short. This can please or annoy you depending on who you are but it being short will help if you wish to do mutliple runthroughs. Music - 3/5 There are [b]a lot[/b] of pieces of music in Undertale's soundtrack and there seems to be some effort put into it and made with love. However, although a lot of them are related in some way, the same melodies and songs get extremely tiresome by the end of the game. The soundtrack involves a lot of music genres, including retro-inspired battle music, rock, chiptune and even Touhou-inspired melodies and instruments. This can add a lot of variety in the game if you are like me and enjoy many different genres. Some of the music is amazing and I love, but some just simply don't hit for me and I detest hearing. Other details: - The game is far too easy. A basic runthrough is shockingly easy to beat without dying once. However, on the subsequent runthroughs there will be changes that will challenge you more. Controllers generally give the game a challenge because they really aren't good for this game. - The game's size when downloading is around 115 MB, which is easy to shove on to a PC if you're bored. - Changing the music files for your pleasing is incredibly bizarre. The speeds of some of the songs have to be adjusted so specifcally it seems trivial (for example, for the track "Undertale" the speed has to be increased by 17.5% and the Barrier SFX is 25% faster). Not really a changing factor, just very strange. They can all be found here if you wish to do it yourself http://pastebin.com/7eFz2Wjj - Fanbase generally doesn't keep it to themselves. Many young players who have been watching too much YouTube have been stapling it everywhere they go (mainly YouTube and Steam), which is another annoying factor but not determining. [b]Final Score : 15/20[/b] It's not a perfect game by any means, but it's a great way to find a new or interesting story and to kill some time (9-10 hours to speedrun the whole game with all routes). Recommending with caution because of the less-than-reserved fanbase. On an individual basis, try it for yourself and see what you think, it's a game with a divided viewpoint so your mileage may vary.