Just finished Undertale. Good game with a lot of charm but I don't understand the incessant hype around it. I'd put it like a 7.5/10 or so. Of games with heavy Earthbound influences I thought Lisa was much better.
I felt about the same, played it for an hour or two, had some laughs and appreciated the unique combat and option to be friendly, but quickly got tired of the mechanics and just sorta moved on. I realized I was probably never going to get back to the game, so I wound up watching a playthrough on Steam Train (two, actually, pacifist and genocide), and I have to say I was fairly impressed.
I probably have as many gripes with it as I have things I'd say they did really well, but all in all I do understand the hype to an extent. It's still a messy little game with repetitive gameplay (thankfully it's short), an extremely topsy turvy plotline, and relatively inconsistent art, but it really did something neat that needs to be seen more in modern games.
For one, I don't think the peaceful approach was anything groundbreaking. It was not the first game to do that (I have no idea what was, but the original Shin Megami Tensei did almost the EXACT same thing, and it's very apparent that Undertale drew heavily from that series). Somewhat active turn based battle mechanics were also nothing new, albeit they were done in a neat, fairly unique way. What the game DID an amazing job on was drawing the player into an emotional state where your actions really are your own to choose, and the effects of your actions have a clear effect on the outcome of the game.
You can do the same in many games. Say, Fallout for example, you're free to murder almost whoever you want. Hell, in 3 you can murder the entire wasteland, and then waltz through the storyline and "save" the wasteland... as if you're the hero. There's very little consequences for even the darkest of actions, and it all just feels sterile and pointless anyhow. Undertale somehow made you feel a hell of a lot more responsible and connected to the silly little bordering obnoxious characters it created. This is minor spoilers, but Papyrus may be horrifically annoying at times, but if you play the genocide route and choose to kill him when he spares you? That's one of the most wrenching little pixel scenes I've ever watched. It's so tiny and silly, but it's like, damn.
I'd definitely say the genocide route is the one that really captures the emotion in the game (even though you feel awful about it, and it's best played on your second or third playthrough). In the end it's still a very messy story. They get waaay too meta in the deep parts of the game, and it's almost as if the writer had 100 ideas and decided to throw them ALL in. All the business with souls turns into a convoluted mess where it makes very little sense who is who, and even when you understand it, it's sort of like... that still doesn't really make a lot of sense. That said, the story is the point of the game, and it is definitely engaging and will tug at your heart a bit and throw you through some loops.
For a simple, whimsical little game, it's got the darkest narrative I've come across in a game in just about ever. That's definitely something to be said. I'd still probably only give it 8/10 or so, so I agree with you there. I just watched the playthrough a couple days ago though, oddly, so I've had all that rolling around in my head, lmao.
Out of curiosity, which route did you take? Pacifist, neutral, or genocide? You'll pretty much always get neutral unless you're specifically trying for one of the others, and it's definitely the most lackluster of endings.
ing cultists.
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