Review RPG Codex Review: Undertale

[Ellef]

Minimal C&C in a 4 hour game, huge achievement.

Undertale packs more C&C in 4 hours than Pillars of Eternity in 80.

True, pillars of eternity being shit is one of my favourite topics though.

 

[hivemind]

They're not reinvigorating the genre, they're beating a dead old horse when most people stopped caring about horses long ago and are now riding cars.

AoD is pretty far away from beating a dead horse given that the kind of heavy CYOA style and teleporting is not something that has been done before much(if at all).

AoD is the most innovative 'serious' RPG released in years(haven't played underrail yet so idk how that stands up to it) from a design perspective.

 

[Ellef]

I'll take solid execution of excellent systems if memes are reinventing the wheel.

 

[CyberWhale]

They're not reinvigorating the genre, they're beating a dead old horse when most people stopped caring about horses long ago and are now riding cars.

Riding an undead and severally wounded horse certainly sounds more thrilling than driving a car.

 

[felipepepe]

You can tell that 22 years ago this debate would be "Why these faggots keep fapping to Earthbound while a masterpiece like World of Xeen goes unappreciated?!"

 

[Jasede]

Game is successful because it has a lot of ♥

 

[Jasede]

They're not reinvigorating the genre, they're beating a dead old horse when most people stopped caring about horses long ago and are now riding cars.

AoD is pretty far away from beating a dead horse given that the kind of heavy CYOA style and teleporting is not something that has been done before much(if at all).

AoD is the most innovative 'serious' RPG released in years(haven't played underrail yet so idk how that stands up to it) from a design perspective.

Hasn't been done because it's terrible.

 

[Niektory]

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"

Fine, I'll bite. I tried the demo out to see what the hype is about. The gameplay consisted of picking the obvious option from the menu, dodging a few bullets, and... that's it. It's a cool gimmick I guess but hardly a groundbreaking achievement in game design. I didn't hate it but it didn't impress me or make me want to buy the game either.
There were also some puzzles but the less is said about them the better.

 

[TigerKnee]

This feels like the RPG version of Flappy Bird. At the end of the day it's not that big of a deal but I just wish the energy and resources were being put to better use.

You want to take the resources of 1 dude in his basement who was just doing it as a pet project and never expected its popularity and maybe like an artist and put them to work somewhere else?

On what? A Wizardry 1 clone?

 

[Infinitron]

Excerpts from the Undertale Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertale

Undertale was funded through Kickstarter with a goal of $5,000. The campaign resulted in $51,124 being raised by 2,398 people.[11] Fox has stated in an October 2015 interview with Game Informer that he did basically everything except for some of the art, as he did not want to rely on anybody else. Fox also stated that it took roughly 2.7 years to create the game. Originally, he predicted that the game would be about two hours long, and that it eventually grew to three times that size.[12]

Fox had gone on the record that he does not think about where his inspirations are coming from, and that the writing was a combination of everything he had ever read. He cites the silliness of internet culture as one of his influences, as well as comedy acts like Mr. Bean. He also stated that EarthBound has had a large influence on him, because of its unsettling atmosphere.[12] In an interview with The Escapist, Fox listed off inspirations for the game: "The talking system came from Shin Megami Tensei. I feel that it's important to make every monster feel like an individual. If you think about it basically all monsters in RPGs like Final Fantasy are the same, save for the graphics. They attack you, you heal, you attack them, they die. There's no meaning to that."[13]

Fox has stated that he did not want grinding to be necessary at any point, wanting people to be able to do it if they wanted to while still making it as optional as possible. He also did not want to introduce fetch quests, as they involve backtracking that he does not really like. He said that he likes Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the latter having one of his favorite RPG battle systems ever, and that he wanted Undertale to have an equally engaging system.[12]

Fox has said that he has an interest in porting Undertale to platforms besides PC. He said that it would be great if he could put it onto a Nintendo platform, but he could not do that because GameMaker: Studio does not support these, so that he would need to reprogram the entire game.[12]

Fox has repeatedly said that adding to Undertale would likely not happen unless for bug fixes, despite leaving "avenues for expansion" such as the game's parodious Hard Mode.[16] When questioned on the possibility of making another game, he said he would like to, with the knowledge that it will not be as successful as Undertale. He has said that it is unlikely for him to create a direct sequel.[17]

Undertale received critical acclaim and is considered a cult video game by numerous publications.[23][24][25] The game holds an aggregate score of 93/100 on Metacritic.[18] By the end of 2015, in a preliminary report bySteam Spy, Undertale was one of the best-selling games on Steam, with 530,343 copies sold.[26]

Reviewers praised the game's unique combat system. Daniel Tack from Game Informer wrote "The combat is incredibly nuanced. ...every fight has its own special signature".[20] Austin Walker from Giant Bomb said the combat is "unconventional, clever, and occasionally really difficult. It's a surprisingly complex system...".[19] Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw from The Escapist claimed the game "manages to hybridise turn based and live combat elements in a way that actually fucking works".[27]

The game's writing was especially praised. Ben Croshaw considered Undertale the best-written game of 2015, stating "what really makes Undertale is the story and writing, which is on the one hand hilarious enough to suck you in from the start, and is also, by the end, rather heartfelt as well."[27] Richard Cobbett from PC Gamer wrote "Even its weaker moments where it veers too close to reference and inside joke oversaturation—the stuff of many a comedy RPG Maker game—just about work."[28] Ben Davis from Destructoid remarked that "One of Undertale 's greatest strengths is its wonderful cast of characters and its extremely witty sense of humor."[4] Breitbart's Ned Price stated that the game "conveys a lot of soul and charm through its excellent writing", though he noted that the dialogue at times "borders on cringey random humor that larger demographics wouldn’t get, or not allow enough time between meta jokes."[29]

Some critics were less enthusiastic about the game's visuals. Austin Walker from Giant Bomb wrote, "it's something like a jaundiced Mother. Simple, but communicative".[19] Ben Croshaw remarked "It wobbles between basic and functional to just plain bad".[27] Ned Price noted that "the retro 16-bit era art style ... occasionally causes parts of the Underground to feel bland and not on the same level of detail as the excellent character design.."[29] Other reviewers liked the graphics, with Daniel Tack summarizing them as "retro and threadbare, the visuals successfully deliver the charm of each character and setting".[20] Richard Cobbett enjoyed the "excellent use of simple graphics to convey emotion."[21]

Fox himself did not expect the game to be as well-received, saying he "didn't know that people would like it as universally as it's been acclaimed", and expecting that "people that were like me would like it".[12]

Undertale appeared 9th on the video games list in Time 's "Top 10 Everything of 2015".[30] It also appeared on best-of lists for GameSpot and The Escapist.[31][32] As a result of the game's large fanbase in 2015, Undertale reached the first place in GameFAQs' "Best. Game. Ever." userpoll, winning against The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, among many others.[33]

As far as overrated indie hipsters go (if that's what you think he is), Toby Fox seems better than most.

 

[Cassidy]

Bring back Tacticular Cancer to life and also create a split hipster mainstream shill JRPGCodex to publish "latte-drinking in Starbucks"-grade "reviews" like this one so the philistines who enjoy this kind of le dank memes 2deep4u 4th wall breaker such innovative much GOTY can have their pockies and eat them without disgusting what is left of the good old RPGCodex.

 

[CyberWhale]

Hipster mainstream - that certainly makes sense.

 

[Daedalos]

So girls, fags, furries, hipsters, edgetards, emos and all the other degenerate piece of filth likes this game.

That's reassuring.

 

[Zanzoken]

You want to take the resources of 1 dude in his basement who was just doing it as a pet project and never expected its popularity and maybe like an artist and put them to work somewhere else?

On what? A Wizardry 1 clone?

Referring to the publicity and store placement, of course. I wish people were talking about and promoting good games. In fact I had never heard of this shit until I saw it on the front page of Steam a couple days ago... what if Underrail had been in that slot instead?

And lol @ whoever called me a commie -- you can love the free market and still hold the belief that popularity doesn't automatically mean quality.

 

[Vikter]

I played it for a while and I don't think it resembles the Mother series in anything besides the visuals. The first Mother game, for example, had an unique atmosphere of mystery surrounding familiarity, with the whole small town in a modern setting being haunted by quirky monsters. The sequel, Earthbound, started doing more crazy quirky shit and stopped caring about the "quiet horror" of the first game. Then Mother 3 came along and pretty much erased what made the atmosphere of the first one so good. The two sequels to Mother are still good, but it's funny how the best thing about the first game was discarded in such a way.

Undertale, however, doesn't have a very unique setting, in my perspective. It feels like a familiar world full of strange shit, and it does feel alive at times, but it felt claustrophobic and exploring was a chore. If anything, I kept going just to meet more characters (which are better than those of the Mother series). As far as I've played, there's not a lot of character development, but I think the standards are lower for games like this, so it's OK. The fact is that Undertale has some environments that feel like they were taken straight out of Yume Nikki, which I didn't enjoy when I had to feel like the world was alive.

But the dialogues are great. I usually laugh with the quirky hipster humor in it (Portlandia is one of my favorite shows ever anyway) and the game doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a fun game, and I already know the different outcomes of playstyles (Pacifist, Genocide, save file manipulation, etc), but it feels more like a meta experiment (like Stanley Parable) than an RPG per se. But I didn't play enough to judge everything. I liked the review though. Makes me want to go back and play it more.

 

[ArchAngel]

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

One man does not the Codex make.

 

[Zanzoken]

The evolution of ahh pee gees


PUPPIES: A POST DECLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME

These puppies sure are cute! What will you do?

Y: Give treat

X: Pet

B: Buy them clothes

A: Post pic on Facebook


<presses button>

Great job, you win!

10/10 MUH FEELZ

 

[Black_Willow]

The evolution of ahh pee gees


PUPPIES: A POST DECLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME

These puppies sure are cute! What will you do?

Y: Give treat

X: Pet

B: Buy them clothes

A: Post pic on Facebook


<presses button>

Great job, you win!

10/10 MUH FEELZ

This is Undertale in a nutshell.

 

[racofer]

Hating Undertale without playing it: the latest meme. business as usual.

 

[markec]

Hating Undertale without playing it: the latest meme.

Yes because hating games without playing them is something that started on Codex with Undertale.

 

[Black_Willow]

Hating Undertale without playing it: the latest meme.

You can't judge a game untill you finish it seven times: the old meme.

 

[Viata]

Hating Undertale without playing it: the latest meme.

Yes because hating games without playing them is something that started on Codex with Undertale.

Not really, hating Undertale started on 4chan, and some Codexers just started riding the meme train.

He's not talking about only hating Undertale there. You find more people loving the game on 4chan than here, anyway.

 

[felipepepe]

Yo dawg, I heard you liked hating on memes so that's now a meme so you can hate memes while being a meme just like this meme.

 

[Ellef]

The evolution of ahh pee gees


PUPPIES: A POST DECLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME

These puppies sure are cute! What will you do?

Y: Give treat

X: Pet

B: Buy them clothes

A: Post pic on Facebook


<presses button>

Great job, you win!

10/10 MUH FEELZ

This is Undertale in a nutshell.

Thatsthejoke.png

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Can we seriously jettson the fucking JRPG crowd around here?