Undertale

[Yatagarasu]

The Intro? Isn't that just a bunch of chases?
Are you talking about the Friendship Quest?

I mean her proper intro

Spoiler

Ya know

 

[Durandal]

I dunno though. I mean I liked this game, but it really felt like it was made primarily for children and young teens to enjoy. I'm outside of the intended age range for this title, but it's a good title.

Hilarious considering Mr. Croshaw's feelings about the game

Played it, I love everything about Undertale...except, much like Portal, the fanbase

 

[TheGreyWarden]

YOU'RE SCREWED RIP

UNLESS YOU HAVE HELLA CASH TO BUY ONE FOR LIKE 9999G YOU'RE FUCKED

I AM NOT ANY MORE! I SPARED HER! SHE LET ME GO!

HOWEVER, I AM FUCKED BECAUSE THE KING WANTS ME DEAD EVEN KNOW I NEVER GAINED ANY LOVE AT ALL. LOVE. IT LIED TO ME. AND EXP IS BULLSHIT AS WELL. MY GOD, I AM NOT READY FOR THIS. I AM AT

Spoiler

THE END OF THE GAME!! HELP ME!

AND I HAVE ONLY 11G AND NO FOOD LEFT.

 

[Yatagarasu]

I AM NOT ANY MORE! I SPARED HER! SHE LET ME GO!

HOWEVER, I AM FUCKED BECAUSE THE KING WANTS ME DEAD EVEN KNOW I NEVER GAINED ANY LOVE AT ALL. LOVE. IT LIED TO ME. AND EXP IS BULLSHIT AS WELL. MY GOD, I AM NOT READY FOR THIS. I AM AT

Spoiler

THE END OF THE GAME!! HELP ME!

Wait what route are you doing? Neutral?

 

[TheGreyWarden]

Wait what route are you doing? Neutral?

I think I am at the neutral route, even know I have never killed any monsters and I just ran away from some.

 

[Yatagarasu]

I think I am at the neutral route, even know I have never killed any monsters and I just ran away from some.

lol if it's the first time you played the game the game itself forces you onto the neutral route.

Soooooooooooooooo...lel gl killing the king

 

[Hellis]

Adore the game. Its in my top 5 indie games of all time at this point. The writing is very fresh. The themes, the execution of it, everything is just stellar. The art and designs is simple but iconic. The "combat" is innovative and fresh in some ways, familiar and easy to get in others. It is just a example of excellent gamedesign.


As for the Fandom...

I honestly think it is one of the less terrible ones. At least they produce some amazing shit.

 

[Sanuye]

Undertale is so amazing :) It is one of the most intriguing games I have encountered to date! :)

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

I mean her proper intro

Spoiler

Ya know

Oh! XD

Yea that was pretty great. :P

I think I am at the neutral route, even know I have never killed any monsters and I just ran away from some.

The Pacifist ending has requirements that don't show up to you at all until you beat it on Neutral first.
However, once you beat it on Neutral you can just reload said Neutral save (assuming you never killed anyone) and it will still count. Allowing you to backtrack and unlock the pacifist specific content.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

Dooood... I. Fucking. Love. This game. Top notch, literally best game I've ever played. And that's saying a lot, since I typically don't like RPG's; especially turn-based ones. But this one just has so much damn charm to it! My friend kinda forced me into getting it, and I honestly couldn't be more grateful, to think I almost missed out on such an amazing gem of a game simply because of my bias against RPG's. Seriously, this game is Awesome; it has a fantastic story, great characters, unique gameplay, and so, sooo much more. What's not to love?

 

[Kagayours]

I dunno though. I mean I liked this game, but it really felt like it was made primarily for children and young teens to enjoy. I'm outside of the intended age range for this title, but it's a good title.

Really? I never got that vibe from it. I dunno, maybe it's just the fact that it takes everything you would normally expect from a video game and flips it on its head that makes me feel like it's intended for older audiences who would be more likely to be shocked by things like getting called out on using a soft reset to get the outcome you want. I just feel like adults would be more likely to think "ok, I know how video games work, I know what to do here", therefore making it even more surprising when that video game logic is turned against you. As an adult, I find it fascinating to see things like the save feature being worked into the lore so well, and the fact that the game actually makes me feel so remorseful about killing the enemies that it throws at you. As a kid, though, I think I would've been immersed in it enough from the start that such a thing wouldn't have been so surprising to me, or at least I wouldn't have consciously thought about it quite as much.

I dunno about you guys, but, when I was a kid, I kind of expected video games to be able to do a lot more than they could actually do. There was more of a sense of wonder to it, and you felt like these worlds just stretched on forever and you always wondered what would happen if you were able to do things differently or access areas of the game that were no longer hidden. As an adult, you know that any area in the game not meant to be discovered probably doesn't even exist, and that if you did manage to do something you weren't supposed to do, then the game would probably just glitch out or, at the very least, just not do anything interesting. That's why I think Undertale's more effective on adults, actually, because it brings a lot of that immersion and wonder back -- and it's capable of doing things like actually making you feel bad about resetting the game after you've already gotten a happy ending, taking that ending away from the characters you've grown fond of -- and I think it's a lot more effective to see that sort of thing when you aren't expecting it as much.

 

[Hellis]

Really? I never got that vibe from it. I dunno, maybe it's just the fact that it takes everything you would normally expect from a video game and flips it on its head that makes me feel like it's intended for older audiences who would be more likely to be shocked by things like getting called out on using a soft reset to get the outcome you want. I just feel like adults would be more likely to think "ok, I know how video games work, I know what to do here", therefore making it even more surprising when that video game logic is turned against you. As an adult, I find it fascinating to see things like the save feature being worked into the lore so well, and the fact that the game actually makes me feel so remorseful about killing the enemies that it throws at you. As a kid, though, I think I would've been immersed in it enough from the start that such a thing wouldn't have been so surprising to me, or at least I wouldn't have consciously thought about it quite as much.

I dunno about you guys, but, when I was a kid, I kind of expected video games to be able to do a lot more than they could actually do. There was more of a sense of wonder to it, and you felt like these worlds just stretched on forever and you always wondered what would happen if you were able to do things differently or access areas of the game that were no longer hidden. As an adult, you know that any area in the game not meant to be discovered probably doesn't even exist, and that if you did manage to do something you weren't supposed to do, then the game would probably just glitch out or, at the very least, just not do anything interesting. That's why I think Undertale's more effective on adults, actually, because it brings a lot of that immersion and wonder back -- and it's capable of doing things like actually making you feel bad about resetting the game after you've already gotten a happy ending, taking that ending away from the characters you've grown fond of -- and I think it's a lot more effective to see that sort of thing when you aren't expecting it as much.

Head on the nail. There is nothing about the game that struck me as "for children". The simple but charming designs work well becouse they are as iconic and they are disarming for the most part. The humour clearly wasn't aimed at children, most of the cues in the dialogue would have gone over the average kids head. There is media aimed at children, that happen to be appealing for adults. And then there is stuff like Undertale, that is clearly not aimed at kids, but have elements that are there to give it a more sentimental, soft edge.

 

[Brovo]

I felt it was more directed at children because the level of writing was not particularly academic, or for lack of a better term, "rich." There was nothing about it that really challenged me intellectually at any point, it more simply stated things as facts. Its humour is very slapstick and potty-level. Doge is funny because his head goes up into the sky when you pet it a lot. Sans & Papyrus are funny because they make jokes about puzzles made for children and make very silly puns. The characters are all one note: They have one defining characteristic they do not sway from whatsoever. Undyne is a brave warrior, who braves everywhere, because she's brave. She suplexes a boulder, then ten boulders, and then herself just to prove nothing is impossible. There's that odd scientist lizard guy (whose name I always forget, forgive me, he created Mettaton though) who's really shy and socially awkward, and... That's it. There's nothing else to him.

All of this writing--clever but one-dimensional characters, black and white logic/morality, et cetera--this is all stuff you would direct towards a child. This story has far more in common with, say, Little Red Riding Hood, or Goldilox and the Three Bears, than it does Lord of the Rings, or Ender's Game. Even pointing out that a lot of the jokes are internet references and that the gameplay subverts what is expected is not a point towards it being directed toward adults: Some of the best children's television and film has adult humour in it to entertain parents, and most internet jokes are just funny without having to ever explain them. (Like doge. Doge is just fucking hilarious. You don't need to have ever used the Internet to realize why doge is funny: It's self-evident and slapstick.) As for the gameplay, the stuff that sticks with you the longest is the stuff that isn't generic. It's why X-COM had such a devoted cult following for so long: There was nothing that was ever quite like X-COM, except for X-COM.

That being said, I'm not saying that you shouldn't find yourself entertained by this title, or that you should feel some level of shame for enjoying it. Everybody has their own tastes. I adore Babylon 5 for instance, but I fully admit that the acting can be cheesy, and that season 1 had some issue trying to figure out its identity, and so on. X-COM can be brutally difficult and even stupidly unfair: Why can't I just get 100% hit chance on someone at point blank? "That's X-COM, baby!" Isn't enough for some people and so they loathe the game, fairly.

I mean, fuck it, one of my favourite movies of all time is Toy Story. A movie absolutely entitled for children but which packs enough adult humour to keep me laughing hours after.

Undertale is a great game. It's a great game I would hand to any child and say "play." The controls are intuitive but never get old, every boss fight has its own unique schtick to keep them on their toes and guessing. The game encourages out of the box thinking, it doesn't baby you: It reminds me of those old "Nintendo Hard" games I used to play as a kid. The characters are one note, but their one note isn't played too long: They come and they go just long enough to entertain the attention span of a child without growing dull, and then switch off to something new and... Also, one-note. It has powerfully emotional moments with very basic moral messages: Violence only causes pain (Sans), even your most fierce enemies can be good people (Undyne), your enemies usually believe they're in the right even if you think they're in the wrong (Mettaton), donate to charity you cheapass (SPIDERS KEKEKEKE), et cetera.

I would recommend it to anyone, and anyone can enjoy it, but it feels most like a child's game to me, because everything is built at such a level that any child can readily understand it, and it makes no attempt at challenging things on an adult level.

 

[Kagayours]

There's that odd scientist lizard guy (whose name I always forget, forgive me, he created Mettaton though) who's really shy and socially awkward, and... That's it.

She also:

Spoiler

• was so insecure that, in order to feel important, she created dangers for the player that didn't originally exist in order to "help" you with them, basically putting you in danger when she didn't need to in order to boost her own ego.
• performed horrifying experiments on monsters' souls for Asgore, eventually resulting in nightmare fuel creations that are just a horrifying mess of their original selves. She then hid the fact that this was happening from said monsters' families because she was too afraid to admit what she'd done.

Actually, being afraid to tell the truth and feeling like she needs to continue lying to protect people (or, more often, herself) is a running theme with Alphys. She doesn't want to tell the player the truth because she doesn't want you to think badly of her, she doesn't want to tell the monsters' families what happened to her experiments because she's afraid of what'll happen then. If you help her on her date with Undyne, you'll see that she's been lying to Undyne and making her think that she's much more important and much more capable than she actually is. And then she debates whether or not she can come clean to Undyne because she thinks that keeping the lie up will be better for everyone.

Alphys is actually one of the more interesting characters if you ask me. I certainly wouldn't say that she's just shy and awkward.

Undyne always struck me as being brave because she can't handle being anything less. Whether you kill Undyne or spare her, you can see her unravel either way, unable to deal with defeat. Her death scene probably shows this the best. [spoili]She won't let you spare her even when she's on the brink of death. And even as she's literally falling apart, she still keeps up her facade, acting like you aren't strong enough to defeat her, still fighting even as it's clear that she can't keep it up -- she knows she's dying but refuses to admit it.[/spoili]

I always assumed that Sans and Papyrus' puns were supposed to be groan-worthy and not legitimately funny (hard to expect much else from characters named after notoriously bad computer fonts), and, well, I admit I don't know much about Sans, having not finished the genocide run myself, but I know there's more to him than just a silly skeleton. And as for Papyrus? He constantly puts himself on a pedestal and boasts about how great he is, but you can see that he really isn't any of that at all. In fact, if you talk to Undyne about him, [spoili]she says that he'll probably never be a member of the Royal Guard like he wants to, and that she's training him to make him feel better -- although she does really want to boost his self-confidence, which is why she taught him cooking. (Or, at least, something like that. My memory isn't perfect so don't quote me on the details, but I'm pretty sure it was something along those lines.)[/spoili]

And then there's Asgore... I honestly love the confrontation with him at the end. [spoili]You can tell just how much he really doesn't want to hurt you, but he feels that he must. He's very polite to you right up until the fight itself, where he attacks you not because he's some evil overlord who wants to, but because it's what he feels he has to do in order to break the barrier. It's just really interesting to watch.[/spoili]

I'm sorry, but I just really have to disagree with you about the characters being one-note. I find all of them really interesting and just so... real, just like the majority of the game itself.

Edit: I get that you aren't trying to call it a bad game, but, I still disagree with that one point.

 

[Windsong]

The fan art that doesn't turn the cast into a tumblr tier abomination of minorities. Probably gonna play it at some point.

Genocide first, of course.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

Genocide first, of course.

I wouldn't recommend it, you're gonna have a bad time.

 

[Windsong]

I wouldn't recommend it, you're gonna have a bad time.

Nah. I'm gonna have a great time purging monsters.

But I get it. A sans meme.

 

[Yatagarasu]

Okay I'm almost done with the True Pacifist Route...

THE SHIT IS ALREADY TOO MUCH FOR ME

I CAN'T DO THE GENOCIDE ROUTE

I CAN'T ;A;

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Hey. You think I'm for kids?
Whatever, I'm a Skeleton.
Nothing get's under my skin.​

 

[Esmeray]

For those of you that have finished genocide and havn't found this on youtube yet.