Review RPG Codex Review: Undertale

[Excidium II]

So if we are to judge something by likability to tumblrinas and progressives, well, we're in for a lot of surprises, and also desecrations. I don't mind when SJWs are baited into buying something if some game or book or whatever has a value in itself, I can tolerate all this lithromantic pansexual bullshit to a point. In most cases tho', other than propaganda the game or book is hollow (and shit). Happened to Bioware games, happened to Kameron Hurley (author of book series which I liked, recently gone full tumblrina in her new series), and to countless others. Nevertheless there are some rare exceptions, when the game has some value despite librul propaganda, Undertale being one of them.

Still prefer Underrail though.

There's a world of difference difference between OC vs the actual thing catering to certain crowds.

Heh. But what makes it catering? The fact that it's a quirky Earthbound clone -inspired game? Or the fact that the protag is gender-neutral and the game has gays (and skeleton dating)? In this case, Obsi catered to them too, just, heh, rather ineptly. Both in F:NV and PoE.

FNV and PoE have no quirky lelsorandomness and more importantly, severely lack

M E M E S
E
M
E
S

 

[Stainless Veteran]

FNV and PoE have no quirky lelsorandomness and more importantly, severely lack

M E M E S
E
M
E
S

Earthbound (which is the game's clear inspiration) with its randomness predates tumblr by fair bit. Memes - well, dank spores, mate.
InExile in W2 was much worse with its stale memes though, with not only honey badger, but also a screaming goat and other shit.

 

[Excidium II]

Earthbound sadly is just a jrpg not an ironic post-gaming work of art.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Earthbound sadly is just a jrpg not an ironic post-gaming work of art.

Eh, I don't really care about something being post-modern or not, if it can function as a game, or a book, or whatever, and function well. It takes either a massive dickbag of an author to make me dislike something of quality, or majority of its fanbase being despicable creepy shits.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I feel pity for people who let their lives be dictated by the preferences of people they despise. I'm honestly not sure why I'm even aware of what tumblr likes and dislikes since I never visit there and pretty much all the information about it I get from places that loathe it. Like, what is wrong with you that you feel compelled to stare into the abyss and tell everyone how different you are rather than just do shit you enjoy?

 

[Shin]

This game got recommended to me a few months back, decided to give it a spin, borrowed it from swedish friend, played for maybe an hour, never returned to it. It's a jRPG with smhmup-combat which separately are genres I can somewhat dig but the combat didn't really click with me. I don't hate it but fail to see how it's the best game since Arcanum.

 

[Shammy]

It's an enjoyable game, but definitely not the second coming of jesus.

Worth it for the OST alone if anything, it's really, really well done.

 

[Rivmusique]

"I am being child-like, naive and, therefore, easily lovable. NOW I AM TRYING TO BE SILLY-FUNNY BUT IT'S JUST EMBARRASSING."

*quite dull bullet hell*

It's that for 4 hours.

Spoiler

I liked the end part with all the quitting the game and reloading being something characters notice and even use. Also died a few times and liked how the dialogue changed when retrying (and understand that a whole lot of the dialogue shifts to take in to account it's your second time in that moment). I read spoilers to find out what you can do on replays, and a lot of that sounds pretty neat: the flower telling you how to get the true good ending, only for it to be another long-game evil plan, the SECRET TRUE EVIL's plan involving the player feeling bad about activating him/her (which, if you enjoy the game, you'll probably eventually do just out of curiosity), trying to fix it by going through again and then crushing the player.

But actually playing through it again ... no way. Just wouldn't enjoy it, was already grating mid-way through the first run.

 

[Licaon_Kter]

Oh joy https://www.reddit.com/r/Undertale/...ial_droidtale_unofficial_and_hacky_undertale/

 

[TigerKnee]

Which prestigious RPG will win RPGCodex's GOTY 2015?

The RPG Game where you don't have to destroy anyone*

*(As long as you're spec'd into Stealth and Diplomacy)

Undermeme​

Coming soon to PCs near you.

 

[duanth123]

This was a hard review to write, as it's a game better suited to a spoiler-heavy analysis or something like that... but seems like it doesn't really matter much, as the game itself is controversial enough - people either loved it or despite its very existence. Would like to hear if there's anyone who genuinely played the game and disliked it for any other reason that "MUH TUMBLR!!!1"

Thought I wouldn't' say a game where you can brutally murder an insecure & loving character that wants to help you is Tumblr-ish. Not many safe spaces in Undertale.

I've played it. I liked it. Great OST, fun schmupping. Wasn't as good as LISA iimo, but it had moment.

The negative reception Undertale's received reminds me of how many people treated Deadly Premonition when it first came out. Which is to say many never played it themselves and from hearsay and small doses donned the impression that it was nothing more than an exercise in lolrandomness.

Even though those who did play it for more than a few could tell you that the game had a consistency of theme and delivery that elevated it above such a base characterization.

That being said, never have I seen so utterly degenerate a fanbase as Undertale's. So many of them have no business playing games. So many of them have no idea what kind of effort went into the product. I see them now in innumerable coffee shops attempting to install rpg maker.

I'd be curious to know what Undertale's creator, Toby Fox, thinks of his own fanbase.

Anyone who's capable of creating a competent Earthbound clone (of sorts) should be able to see the harm.


Edit: you probably should have reviewed LISA and Undertale at once, which could have allowed you a more detailed analysis without spoilers (maybe a retrospective on the Earthbound series) and which probably would have taken some of the heat off of you reviewing it at all

 

[DosBuster]

What the fuck, so many people are judging this game based off apparent connections to some social movement. Do you know who else is known to make these paranoid connections? The SJWs. You're all as bad as them, who gives a fuck if the PC doesn't have a gender it doesn't even matter in this game, hell, in most stories the character gender doesn't mean all that much so if you wanna pretend you have a huge cock in a game that has a limited palette, go ahead, do whatever makes you feel like your life isn't so empty.

 

[Excidium II]

All the memes they are missing out because of their fixation on SJW boogeeyman.

 

[Bubbles]

What the fuck, so many people are judging this game based off apparent connections to some social movement.

Somehow I don't think Toby is too worried about them:

 

[Dark Matter]

From the perspective of someone who tried the demo (and hated it) back before the game became this huge internet phenomenon that people won't shut up about, and has since remained skeptical but mildly curious, the only thing this review accomplished was remind me how obnoxious the fanbase is for this game.

Maybe fans of the game would find it endearing, but what made you think including cutesy quips like this was a good idea when trying to convince a forum full of people who are highly critical/skeptical of this game for being a memefest with lolsoquirky humor:

An iconic monster, fitting for the Codex's audience, is the tsunderplane - an airplane that behaves like a stereotypical anime girl. She likes you, B-BUT DON'T GET ANY IDEAS B-BAKA!!

You say it's the most coherent and consistent game ever, and then in the very next section bring up the fact that the combat consists of just arbitrary minigames without making any attempt to reconcile this seeming contradiction.

You say the game has the most memorable characters ever, are the flower and the plane supposed to be good examples of that? From what you've described, one is a cutesy flower but no wait he's actually evil and trying to kill you!!! (and this character twist apparently intrigued you enough to the point where it made you resist your intitial impulse to stop playing the game?), and the other is a stereotypical anime girl but instead of being a girl it's a plane (lolsorandom).

The part about the game's reactivity sounds interesting, but C&C doesn't mean much to me if I find the game's subject matter obnoxious and not the least bit compelling.

And then there's this little gem:

The meta-play is fantastic, too, as it fully explores the simple fact of playing a video game.

So are you gonna actually tell us what you mean....

Unfortunately, talking in detail about any of that would spoil most of the game's fun, as it is something that has to be witnessed first-hand, not read about. Which is why, for this review, I'll focus on a mechanical analysis and leave the feels and emotions as a surprise to the player.

...Oh go fuck yourself.

I realize that in order to properly appreciate any great piece of media, one has to experience it themselves directly, and any attempt at distilling that experience into an essay unsing descriptive language will end up not doing it justice. But this is still the most bullshit copout ever. You can look at any truly great game (Doom, Fallout, Thief, Dark Souls etc.) and find a shitload of articles and videos explaining why those games are great. Yet fans of this game want to pretend that it's achieved some kind of Daoist transcendence where it's beyond analyzing through descriptive language.

 

[Dreaad]

Massively overrated. Also massively over hated. It's just an ok game with some interesting ideas and some shitty modern culture influences. The sad part is it could have been great if the creators applied the same elements to a grown up theme instead of a kindergarten one.

 

[Bubbles]

You can look at any truly great game (Doom, Fallout, Thief, Dark Souls etc.) and find a shitload of articles and videos explaining why those games are great. Yet fans of this game want to pretend that it's achieved some kind of Daoist transcendence where it's beyond analyzing through descriptive language.

 

[markec]

Im pretty sure that Im in some kind of a parallel universe seeing how Codex praises come pretentious hipster shit while using argument like "ITS SELLING WELL!" and "HERE IS SOME YOUTUBE GUY SAYING ITS GREAT!".

Truly a dark day for Codex, gonna attempt to go back to my universe using few liters of brandy.

 

[Daedalos]

This looks worse than death itself.

I'd rather get anal raped for 40 years by prison black guys with aids than play 1 minute of this weaboo shit.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Codex liking this overhyped piece of RPG Maker is a serious sign of decline.

 

[Excidium II]

Codex liking this overhyped piece of RPG Maker is a serious sign of decline.

But think of the memes.

 

[Infinitron]

trying to convince a forum full of people who are highly critical/skeptical of this game for being a memefest with lolsoquirky humor

Is that actually the case? On a forum that's notoriously replete with memes of its own? The more immediate assumption would be that people are critical of it for being a JRPG with cutesy 8-bit graphics, regardless of memes.

In fact, given a cutesy 8-bit JRPG, the addition of irony and memes might make it better for most Codexers, not worse, what with their occasional brutality and their Avellone-esque genre subversion potential.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

I dislike the JRPG/Pokemon style look/combat
BUT. I didn't expect anything positive to be said about it here (thought it was just another LE RETRO INDIE crowd hipster overhyped shit)
Therefore I will give it the benefit of the doubt and play it beyond just giving up halfway through the demo.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

At first I thought this was an elaborate new year joke. But then a thought entered my head which gave me pause: It may be possible that some people like games that I don't. This was such a novel and remarkable new concept that I had to sit down, and to feel better about myself I quickly dismissed it. But it kept returning and slowly I began to believe it. Over then next few hours a great warmth enveloped me as came to understand that other people may hold contradictory opinions to my own, that may not be totally invalid.

Thank you Codex. When it's over we can look back on this and laugh, but in the meantime where did I put the wine?

 

[Lurker King]

Quick, everyone post about how hardcore and manly you are.

Quick, everyone post about how oldschool are close minded, how every is good because it’s all a matter of subjective taste and how important retarded obscure games are to promote diversity among our cRPGs.