Many gamers consider the Super Nintendo era to be the golden age of RPGs. Games like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger and Earthbound captured many gamers’ hearts and told us stories we will never forget. These games are hard to come by in today’s world, with their retro look and feel. A few indie games have tried to reach the level that many RPGs on the SNES were at and most have failed, but now there is a game that is worthy of being recognized in the same conversation as the classic SNES RPGs, that game is Undertale.
Story and Characters
Undertale takes place in a world where monsters are driven to the underground by humans and forced to live down in the underground. One day your character, who is a child, falls down a hole into the underground and must find a way to make it out of the underground and back to the surface. I won’t be touching much on the story to avoid spoilers, but it is an engaging story that keeps your interest throughout the six to seven hour campaign.
Within minutes of playing Undertale, you can already tell that unlike many other RPGs, this game has a personality that distinguishes itself. The first creature your character comes across is a sunflower named Flowey, who at first seems like a typical character you would find in a SNES era RPG, but by the end of your encounter with him turns out to not be anything like you thought. Flowey is the first of many characters that you encounter that are very colorful and memorable.
The characters you meet throughout the game are really what makes the game as good as it is. Each area of the game has a few characters that it focuses on. These characters range from a pun slinging skeleton to a celebrity robot and everything in between. Even the basic enemies that you randomly encounter in the world are unique and have their own personality. I won’t go into much detail about the characters you meet because they are some the best parts of the game and worth seeing on your own. Undertale nails making great characters that enhance the experience and after each area of the game it leaves you wondering who or what you will encounter next.
Undertale is one of the most genuinely funny games I have played in a long time. The games’ personality exudes comedy with a slight scent of darkness that makes the game very unique, and reminds me a lot of Earthbound. Throughout the game I laughed out loud at some of the jokes the characters said or just the scene going on in the game. Enemy encounters help add to the comedy with some of the actions and names the enemies have. Undertale delivers some comedy gold and is one of the funnier games I have played, and the combat at times helps add to that comedy.
Combat
Undertale’s combat system might seem simple at first, but as you get deeper into the game you begin to see how complex it can be at times and is one the biggest parts of the game that helps set it apart from other RPGs. The combat system is your typical turn based style combat, but with a twist. Instead of just taking damage during the opponents turn in combat and going back to your turn, you are given basically a mini game during the opponents attack. This mini game usually has you trying to dodge attacks in a small square, the attacks differ depending on the enemy and most enemies have multiple attacks. Some of the later game bosses and enemies have moves that can be difficult to avoid, but it rarely gets frustrating as new wrinkles are added to the combat system throughout the game. It is a nice way of keeping the player involved with basic encounters and is just another part of the game that helps give it more personality.
I call it a combat system, but in reality you could just call encounters in the game puzzles. Undertale allows players to go through the game without killing any monsters at all. In fact it seems like it is designed for you to not kill enemies. Each enemy in the game has a unique way you can get rid of it without killing it. The game has an action called “act” that lets you chose multiple ways to interact with an enemy. In most cases you can talk with an enemy or compliment it and everything in between. A small blob in the game called a Moldsmal can be dealt with in the game non-violently by flirting with it. When selecting the flirt option your character wiggles around and in return Moldsmal wiggles back, once that happens you can select the option to show it mercy and thus ends the encounter. Each enemy and boss in the game has its own puzzle of interactions you can do to avoid killing it and it may or may not be in your best interest to not kill these monsters.
Music
Another great aspect of Undertale is its wonderful soundtrack. The music played throughout the game harkens back to classic RPGs like Earthbound. The tracks work perfectly with what is going on the game and many of them got stuck in my head long after I was done playing the game. The music nails both heartfelt moments and intense boss encounters, and is one of the better soundtracks I have heard in a game in a few years. It is yet another aspect that adds to Undertale’s charm and personality.
Undertale is a rare game that manages to be an ode to classic SNES RPGs, but also brings new elements that modernize and helps separate itself from those games. The combination of great characters, story, combat, and music make Undertale a indie gem that all should play. The game has multiple endings that each are a sight to behold and more than worth seeing for yourself; the ending that I got will not be one I forget anytime soon. Undertale is one of the best indie games I have played and is more than worth mentioning with games like Earthbound and Chrono Trigger. It is also one of the best games of the year, and if you have a PC you have to play Undertale!