This game sort of came out of nowhere for me, but everyone on my social networks seemed to be talking about it so I checked out it. So glad I did. This is a gem.

Basically it is an RPG that has the sort of odd zaniness that you find in a game like Earthbound, with a battle system that is essentially like playing WarioWare mini-games. It also has a mechanic where you can decide whether to kill or have mercy on the enemies and it actually seems like it is going to have a point. So far the pacing has been great too, and it has a bunch of really well-timed comedic moments that made me laugh out loud (the early game living block who moves itself to the switch for you... with some misunderstandings... was hilarious.)

The only platforms at the moment are PC and Mac (look Mac people you get a great game for once), but it seems like it is going to be a success so hopefully it will come to others as well.

Check out this trailer!


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@Guillaume The whole thing where once you do the genocide run you can never undo it and get to the true ending even if you start the game over? I dunno, that doesn't seem particularly necessary to the experience. I feel like it'd be an annoyance even, if I didn't know about it and decided to do that run to begin with.

@GameDadGrant I dunno all the adults I know love it. It's definitely catching on with kids too though. A bunch of my students are talking about it now.

@Zero Like Gui said, it's a lot of little touches involving the save files: there's apparently a lot more little secrets and oddities to that than just the True Genocide run forever tainting any future True Pacifist endings that you mentioned. It wouldn't change the overall experience much if those things were removed, but clever winks like that are definitely a contributor to the internet's Undertale fervor, so I wonder if the developer would be willing to axe them for the sake of a port.

Also, as you experienced in the endgame part, I just can't see Nintendo allowing the game to suddenly kick you out of the game to the Wii U menu, let alone lock you into the final boss fight any time you start it after that until you win. Like the save file stuff, I suppose that could be altered without too much trouble into something less rigid without losing the effect entirely, but again it depends on how much the dev and/or Nintendo are willing to budge.


But that tweet makes it sound like, to me, he approached "the wii u guy" and they were receptive...? It's nice and cryptic, though...

@Zero

Penny-Arcade. 'Nuff said.

I haven't read the spoilers, but even if this save file thing is used in an ingenious way, I don't like the idea of a game having choices you could never undo. I mean, what is this, real life?!

@TriforceBun Sure, I'm aware that stuff was happening. But this game took on stuff like Zelda OoT, so I don't think that would have happened if people didn't like the game.

@Mop it up I think you CAN undo them by like uninstalling the game and reinstalling it? One of my students found a way apparently.

That specific thing though like... you're probably not going to run into it unless you decide to play the game in a way that the game is clearly pushing you away from. And it's a very precise thing that takes some real effort to accomplish. You kind of have to go out of your way there.

@Zero If a game has multiple ways to play/multiple endings and I like the game, I'll try to do everything. I think they could still achieve that effect without forcing it on you; you should be able to start with a clean slate if you delete all save data. Perhaps they felt they could make a stronger point this way, but I find it unnecessary and they shouldn't let that stop it from appearing on game systems (if it is a reason).

@Mop it up Well, without spoiling, there are 3 endings but more accurate is to say there is a "true" ending and a sort of neutral ending that you must get before the "true" ending but depending on if you did *insert something here* you might be able to go almost immediately from the neutral ending into the stuff you do to get the true ending without having to play the whole game over again. If you didn't do *insert something here* you will have to start over from the beginning but at this point it is made very explicit what *insert something here* is so you will now know what you have to do on the 2nd playthrough.

And then there is a 3rd ending which is pretty clearly NOT what the game wants you to do and that is the one that can F everything up if you do it before the other ones so you should save that one for last. To be honest I never even did this one. You really have to act the opposite of the way the game is pushing you to get this one and it takes a lot of real effort (I've heard it has some pretty challenging enemies) so you probably wouldn't accidentally get it.

If you don't want to read spoilers... basically don't worry about endings and just play the game as you would any other while going in the direction it clearly wants you to go and it is incredibly unlikely that you will accidentally get the ending that would make it impossible to get the others, and then after you get what is clearly the "true" ending you can decide if you want to do more.

I'm seeing Undertale pop up on many lists of favorite 2015 games, and the way it has been described makes me really want to play it. I've been meaning to, but I just want to finish some other games first so I can give it my undivided attention.

Man, this game has such fantastic music, too. Been listening to it all day to help recover from last night's revelry. Those boss themes really fill you with determination.

NOA dev support dude reaching out to Undertale creator. It's going to come to Nintendo platforms eventually I imagine.

Hey, @FwugRadiation! Are you available for me to reach out to you when you get a chance? Let me know if that's cool :)

— Akinwale Lakeru (@Sempuukyaku) February 2, 2016

Still not keeping my fingers crossed, but it would be cool.


In related news, Dillo64's new icon at IGN boards (SPOILER-ish)

And I just got over the nightmares...

Sounds like he is planning on doing it... but not promising anything. The main barrier is Game Maker doesn't port to Nintendo platforms so the whole thing would have to be reprogrammed?

So I'm concerned about accuracy/bugs. I've reached the point of "might as well try it" though. This isn't an announcement or promise.

— toby's Fox (@FwugRadiation) February 4, 2016

This next part surprises me, he doesn't know any programming? Everything in Undertale is possible in Game Maker without programming? HOW?!

BTW, I wouldn't do the porting/reprogramming myself. It'd be up to someone else. I don't know any actual programming languages LOL

— toby's Fox (@FwugRadiation) February 4, 2016

@Zero

Well, it's still programming obviously, just not with any traditional programming language. GameMaker Language is just a super-basic object-oriented language that's super slack on syntax rules. It's possible Toby used all drag and drop functions--which correspond to code functions--but that would get super messy. Even if he did though, it's still programming!

God this will never end will it

People making an issue out of something's popularity?

Never.

@Guillaume The funny thing is, before I played the game, the only Undertale coverage I'd seen was an article on Kotaku and Zero's posts here. Other than that, all I knew about was the GameFAQs poll. Because of that I was vaguely aware that a fandom existed (or a movement to troll the poll, at least). For all the complaints of Undertale fans being unavoidable and obnoxious, the anti-Undertale backlash was all I ever really saw firsthand until I finished the game myself and started looking for more info and the soundtrack on Youtube.

@Secret_Tunnel People are talking about how hard this would be since it would have to be "written from scratch" but you're right, there has to be programming behind the tools, and I'd imagine you have access to it somehow? I don't think this would be a particularly tough port.

@DapperDave Well, ports were inevitable, no?

Finally started playing this. Just beat the first area. Was worried that I knew exactly what I was getting into, but the game has already gone as far with its concept as I expected it to go throughout the entire story... so if it keeps shaking things up, I'm planning on enjoying it quite a bit!

Just beat the game! That end sequence was absolutely insane. Was not expecting that, holy crap. So, from what I'm reading, it looks like, by killing Flowey at the end, I missed out on the big hint to getting a better ending, which is don't kill any monsters.

Well, I killed a frog in the first area of the caves during my first run through, so I'd basically be replaying the entire thing exactly the same way. Maybe I'll play the game again in a year or so, haha. I can respect that iron-clad "YOU HAVE TO KILL NO ONE" requirement though, it lends weight to the idea that you're actually killing these living beings. You can't just murder one person and be like, "it was only one person, no big deal."

At the same time, the only three possible situations I can see for people playing through this game are:

1. Intentionally kill everyone.
2. Intentionally kill no one.
3. Accidentally kill a couple things at the very beginning and then switch to killing no one.

...which makes it seem like you might as well just forgive the couple monsters they killed at the very beginning, since they are going to be replaying through the entire game the exact same way anyway. Give them a chance to redeem themselves! Because, I have to wonder how many people actually played through the whole game just killing a few enemies here and there. Seems pretty clear that you aren't supposed to do that. Maybe I'm just more used to the whole "indie subversion" thing than most people.

Now that I think about it, I'd have probably left out the phone call from Sans in the "Kill Flowey" ending. That's a very weird note to end on, and just leaving the player with "I knew you had it in you." as Flowey's dying words, and the final words of the game, would have been a really cool moment. But giving me that call from Sans at the end without elaborating on what I'm actually supposed to do is a pretty surefire way of making me check a guide online to see what I need to do, which is pretty lame.

But it was still a really great game!

@Secret_Tunnel Based on what I've read, your two misgivings kinda dovetail with each other. Sans' call at the end apparently changes quite a bit depending on who you have/haven't killed. He sort of gives you a summary of the lasting effect of your actions, further driving home that while you may not have killed everyone or even were mostly good, some characters will be worse off for what you did, others may hate you, some will simply go on as usual. I guess that's the game driving home that your final decisions were obviously important, but all the little things you did along the way mattered just as much.

I think it's good to have a kind of closure summing up your "legacy," but I can see why you would have preferred a more stark ending at that point. In the moments leading up to the ending, the game certainly has no misgivings about being abrupt with the player. It would have been fitting to keep building off that.

But yeah, it's a shame you'll have to replay the whole game to get the "true" ending. It's not a super long game, especially on a replay, but it's also not quite engaging enough to fully stave off that feeling of repetition when replaying it. The "true" ending adds a couple hours of content onto the end, though, so it's totally worth it.