Undertale

SPOILER WARNING: The game serves as a better experience to a completely unprepared player, I consider the 'twist' to be interesting enough (although very obvious) to point out that I'm gonna spoil it here, although the game does that within ten minutes anyway. Minor story spoilers may be present via stylistic adaptation but are mostly meant as in-jokes for those who have already played the game.

Seeing that many people avoided reviewing Undertale because they couldn't do it without spoilers fills me with determination. I had an okay time with. Then I had a good time with it. Then I had a bad time with it. I spent a lot of time with it and we've become friends telling each other bad jokes and making spaghetti and whatnot. But then came time to break up and we had a very bad time which prompts me to use my special punctuation – :(

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Yes.

Knowing that I'm boiling a cup of piss with this, it fills you with determination. There seems to be only one way to review Undertale: “Play it, it's good, I can't tell you any more.” I'm not one to shy away from a challenge though. I plan to include no meaningful spoilers, only what is readily available on the game's Steam page. What you can readily find on the Steam page is a short description that states “UNDERTALE! The RPG game where you don't have to destroy anyone.” and the tags of Great Soundtrack, Story Rich, RPG, Funny and 2D. What I'm getting at is that you can't exactly go into Undertale spoiler-free even if you live under a rock like... oh, wait, nevermind.

Undertale poses as an RPG, one similar in many ways to Earthbound (Mother 2) but borrows heavily from bullet hell shmups for its combat which is particularly noteworthy since “turn-based battles are a thing of the past” apparently. So as much as you take turns to act, each action results in a little action segment to draw your attention back. For the most part this isn't particularly difficult but when you're told you're gonna have a bad time, best believe that you will unless you're a full-time shmupper. I personally have never been a great fan of bullet hells, mostly for the hell part – I didn't even like the hell level in Spawn Armageddon and I'm a Spawn fanboy. Every combat encounter gives you an opportunity to kill your opponent or 'Act' to pacify them. The pacifying acts vary based on opponent, you can pet dogs or laugh at comedians' jokes subverting the classic “KILL ALL THE MONSTERS!” standard of RPGs. Outside of combat, it plays pretty much like a NES/SNES RPG with the clever omission of selling items, I mean why would any of these traders want to buy back your junk? That is by far not the only bit of clever writing in the game, however.

Oh boy, it's hard to talk about the writing without any spoilers. Toby Fox's writing is charmingly clever in ways that still surprise me, it truly is a labour of love. For each character lacking any self-awareness there is a character close to them all-too-aware for the both of them. For every seemingly evil action there is a deep and emotive reasoning. Nothing and no one is what it first appears, it's a game that subverted pretty much all of my initial expectations but none of these revelations come out of the blue and on subsequent playthroughs I noticed little hints at characters' true natures although there are two or three I'm still not so sure about. The humour of the game is eclectic ranging from Monty Pythonesque (Librarby, for the initiated), through the corny puns, past the fourth wall breaks, into social commentary. But it would be a real shame to say any more, I guess.

All of Toby Fox's writing and world building is underlined by an astonishing soundtrack. It's absolute 8-bit magic, a collection of 101 songs with 23 main themes and their slight alterations breathing an extra life into a fascinating world. The music accents the scenes perfectly and keeps drawing me back to Undertale, the pairing of song and scene being so memorable that when I listen back to the soundtrack even now, I have vivid flashbacks of my playthroughs as though they were past lives... oh wait, nevermind.

This all leads me to my conclusive point about this game. Not only have I greatly enjoyed my time with Undertale's world but I actually feel emotionally attached to it and touched by it in a kindred spirit kind of way. It's a game that carries various divergent stories within it, a game that expresses ideals akin to my own but also let's you follow those in direct opposition. It's a game that made me laugh plenty and even cry a little. When asked by a character whether I wanted to hang out, I could honestly answer 'yes' without considering in-game rewards – because the out-game rewards were sufficient. I can easily say, especially this late into the year, Undertale is my favourite game of 2015, it's a game I enjoyed the most and the game I thought was best made. Now, granted I haven't played the Witcher 3 or Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain and once I have my mind might be swayed but I'd say that's unlikely. Unless Quiet becomes an ostensibly loving mother figure to... oh, nevermind.

Undertale is: GOAT/10

If you agree (as you should) or disagree, let me know, I'm open to criticism. But you will have a bad time...