Undertale

I finished my first part of Undertale in heavy silence. My journey started with silly puns and somewhat simplistic puzzles, but the end affected me in a way I never imagined. This is also a bit of a specialty of Undertale: playing with our expectations of what an RPG should be, perverting them, and using them to lead a unique story in video games. Its convincing writing, the integration of the gameplay with the story, and a fine understanding of its audience make it something surprising from start to finish.

Embodying a lonely human fallen in an underground world which serves as a prison for monsters, my journey was all mapped out, like for most of the protagonists of RPG. For my first part, I took a pacifist approach, being as kind and lenient as possible, while trying to find a way to the surface.

But I made a mistake: I accidentally killed a monster at first. So I started again without saving, as I would have done in another game. Except that ... things happened differently this time. The dialogues have changed to reflect the fact that I saw him die. So Flowey, the chaotic evil of Undertale, the flower that breaks the fourth wall by addressing the player directly, berated me for having dared to abuse the power of backup.

Playing with the system

Undertale assumed that I had already played an RPG before, and used these conventions unexpectedly. This first reprimand from Flowey shaped the rest of my experience. I learned that I couldn't rely on going backwards, so I had to move carefully. Everything I did counted. This intelligent manipulation of the gameplay added weight to a story that could not have been told in another way or in another context. Undertale had to be a game, and that's the key to his genius.

His dodge mini-games are based on this concept. The battles against the bosses also turned my expectations upside down, even after having understood how the game works. Even the basic encounters are closely mixed with the narration and the construction of the universe. Each enemy has a unique personality, transcribed as much in combat as out of combat. During my pacifist journey, I ended up talking to a lot of monsters, offering hugs, and even (and above all) flirting with some to avoid killing them. For example, in order to spare a monster who wanted to be seduced without wanting to admit it, I had to be close, without being too much. This option completely changed the combat rules: I narrowly avoided the projectiles until the monster was so embarrassed that it stopped fighting by itself.

There are tons of jokes that speak to Internet enthusiasts, and I have often had the impression that Undertale was speaking directly to me, as if he knew what I was thinking. The "selfie" of a character in love with anime, for example, is actually the photo of a trash can with pink stars all around (and from experience, it's very realistic). I particularly liked the humor of Undertale when he had a message to convey, however subtle it was. I took part in a snail race (called Thundersnail), and I had to press Z repeatedly to encourage it. I spammed Z until my snail caught fire, and the race organizer told me that "all this pressure really set him on fire." This joke, like some of Undertale's exceptional jokes, allows us to identify with it. And knowing and predicting your audience is one of Undertale's greatest strengths.

Monsters are people too

Undertale's writing is endlessly funny, but it can also be touching. Small, half-hidden notes and dialogues enrich the universe and reinforce an undeniably human and moral history. One of my favorite passages was the meeting with a series of "Fleur Echos", in a superb ethereal celestial hall where they repeated snatches of an old conversation (hence their name). A monster did not want to share his greatest wish: that of one day being able to climb the mountain which traps all the monsters underground and to admire the world. She didn't want to reveal it for fear of being laughed at, and although her friend promised she would not make fun of her, she ended up laughing. It was a little silly, until the last flower repeated: "Sorry, it's so funny ... it's also my wish".

Knowing the monsters' hopes and dreams in detail is crucial in exploring morality, individuality, and conflict in Undertale. The different monsters talk about each other even in your presence, so that once I had met them, I could get an idea of who they really were in relation to their reputation. Most of the main characters are also very well developed with rich personalities, throughout the dialogues and choices of the story. It made it difficult for me when I had to find the strength to attack them, and that is precisely the goal. When I was trying to play a more violent game, fighting the monsters I had previously been friendly with made the message from Undertale on humanity even more scathing.

Determination

Some fights can be frustrating or even painful, at least at first. During an aggressive run, I had to repeat many fights to obtain certain prerequisites of the history, and that tires me after a while. Fighting enemy after enemy, however, replaced the puzzles of my peaceful part, and the exchange gave me the impression of being very balanced and ultimately significant in the scenario. I also found myself having to painfully cross again some areas that I had already cleaned, just to be able to beat a boss or get an object, and although it was totally worth it, it was not fun either. At one point, I found myself without gold when I needed to buy care items, and the only store that would have agreed to buy my inventory was ten minutes walk (the other merchants do not buy objects because they don't want your dirt).

That said, I don't regret any of these moments because they allowed me to discover things like the Thundersnail race and the Echo Flowers. It's these little details that make Undertale so special, and I wanted to see them all. Each of them gives the impression of being thought through. There are long dialogs at the start and some fights may seem slow, but they are necessary in order to present the characters in a unique way to the video game. In a different game, very disadvantaged boss fights have become distressing because of what knockouts in one go involve in this universe. It was this permanent and immersive approach to determination in Undertale that made me play and replay again.

While the graphics aren't always pretty - they're often ugly - Undertale is an incredibly expressive game from start to finish, making up for its visual limitations with great music and charming animations. The game is also linked to gender and sexuality in a very real and notable way. The smallest of details reveals an intimate understanding of its audience, and it is essential to make Undertale's comments on the status of the person so effective.

He succeeded perfectly in Undertale, a role-playing game with "pixellated" graphics that, once he passed the Greenlight test to debut on Steam, became a real phenomenon on everyone's lips. What makes what an indie like so many others look so special at first glance? Many aspects, without a doubt, but the most intriguing one is the possibility of choice that is given in every fight to the player: to fight or to spare the enemy?

World peace or genocide

Undertale is a tribute to the classic Japanese role-playing games of the NES period and tells the story of a human child who carelessly falls through a crevice on a hike and ends up in a mysterious underworld. There it meets a group of survivors of the monsters banished from our earth. Legend has it that humans and monsters once lived peacefully side by side on the upper world, but mankind became greedy and banished the unpleasant creatures underground. Since then, a magical barrier has ensured that the monsters are trapped there forever.

There is a way to free the monsters, but it is expensive. As an involuntary visitor to the underworld, we can now freely decide whether to go the arduous way and free the monsters or kill everything and everyone to get back to the surface.

The game is played using a keyboard or gamepad, we control the 2D game figure from the JRPG-typical side view of the map, conduct dialogues and interact with objects at the push of a button. If we get into a random fight typical of the genre, the screen changes to a turn-based fight mode . There we choose whether to attack, flee or use an object.

If we attack an opponent, in a short mini-game we have to place a bar that swings from left to right in the hit zone. In the counterattack of the opponents, on the other hand, we dodge projectiles with a small heart like in a bullet hell shooter. Skillful players also have a chance against stronger enemies.

Killing me softly

The game advertises that no enemy has to be killed in the game . And this is where Undertale begins to get really exciting. Every enemy that we encounter in the game not only has individual attack patterns, but also character traits devised by the developer. You can use them to avoid fighting in quasi-pacifist mode. One of the many reachable ends in the game is only visible if all enemies in the game are spared. In order to achieve this goal, we engage the monsters in conversations or simply hug a sad-looking creature.

The context menu »Act« offers us different possibilities depending on the type of opponent. Flirting, fondling, cheering, complimenting, insulting, teasing, teasing, laughing - the range of options and reactions of the opponents are diverse and not always easy to understand, but always interesting.

However, an animal opponent does not always want to be petted and sometimes it is even counterproductive to meet the angry opponent with gentle words. The surprising reactions and numerous creative ways in which the game resolves conflicts without using force have simply delighted us and often made us laugh .

For example, we are dealing with two grim guards who block our way. In the fight we find out by listening carefully that one of the two is unhappily in love with the other , but is afraid to tell him. Our job is to couple them together while we continue to be attacked. Fantastic! Small warning: Since the game does not have a German translation, good English language skills are necessary to fully understand and enjoy the game.

Once we have found out what is going on with our opponents and we have been able to avoid a fight through our actions, their name turns yellow and we can also click on the "Mercy / Mercy" option in future attacks of this opponent type and do not have to go through the whole finding process again , Very often, a decision also has a direct impact on the game mechanics or the further course of the story. Characters react to events and later tell us that they are happy that, for example, the two guards have finally found their way together.

A boss to fall in love with

Particularly bizarre: Defeated bosses can be invited to a romantic rendezvous after a peaceful dispute. Yes, you read it right: the game changes its genre in these optional side tasks and becomes a real dating simulation.

In these entertaining scenes, too, Toby Fox succeeds in not only using this funny idea for a short gag, but actually serving to breathe life and depth into the characters. After all, where could you find out more about a character's emotional world than at a candlelight dinner together?

What makes the game remarkably good in general: It has no sag , no unnecessary stretching. On the contrary, it increases steadily from the very careful introduction to the spectacular finale. Despite the JRPG origins with random battles, Undertale doesn't require a grind. Every fight is interesting due to the creative ideas and types of opponents, already known opponents are quickly skipped. In the long run, pure combat runs become somewhat too monotonous.

The rudimentary arsenal of items and weapons and the always the same attack mini-game are much less varied than the peaceful version. You can tell that the game was primarily designed with the pacifism variant in mind.

Undertale optically leans on the 8-bit era with its low-color and less detailed graphic style, but with its unclean, gruff and extremely inconsistent style it moves in a Dadaistic, rather punk-rocky interpretation of the role models. Most people would probably call Undertale's graphic style "ugly ." Toby Fox is not a graphic artist, but actually a musician. He developed the game and the music on his own and simply set other priorities.

The graphics are a collaborative work of several designers and, to put it diplomatically, are kept very functional. But the game shines with its bizarre and loving characters, the fantastic soundtrack and a touching story, which sometimes makes you laugh and sometimes makes you think.