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Undertale Discussion (Nintendo Switch) [game]
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07/13/18, 18:03 Edited: 07/13/18, 18:04
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Well, I beat the Pacifist Run! Sooo...I'm a little mixed on this one. I've been trying to divorce myself from the hype and the fanbase so as not to let it color my perception of the game and just enjoy it on its own merits. And I did enjoy a good number of things about the game: its soundtrack, the general cleverness and level of surprise, the nonviolent themes, the fourth-wall poking and the general pacing and punchiness of everything. At the same time, I feel that a lot of elements of Undertale bother me more than it did other fans and reviewers. The battle system never felt great to me; if you're going for killing stuff, you really have a single attack option at your disposal. If you're Mercy-ing things, there are some funny actions you can take, but it often feels like a crap-shoot regardless and doesn't really have any more strategy than, say, choosing which dialogue to pick first when chatting to a character in an Ace Attorney game. And re-fighting the same enemy multiple times on a Pacifist Run just feels like busywork; I think the game might've worked best with simply a single enemy of each type existing (and it'd reinforce their lives being valued). Maybe with Chrono Trigger's type of encounters instead of random (that's more of a nitpick). I do like the shmup-style dodging because it continues to provide variety, and it gives me something to focus on since my turns are generally just picking from a menu and seeing what sticks. I also never could shake the claustrophobic feeling. The world feels pretty tiny, and while there are a couple really small sidequests to do, the lack of a world map or more open type areas (combined with the simple combat and minimal inventory) meant I never really got that great "thirsty for adventure" feel when good RPGs really get going. Undertale played more like an odd Adventure-(i.e. King's Quest style)-slash-RPG combination. This isn't inherently a bad thing and the dialogue was generally solid, but it did lack some of the elements that make RPGs great IMO. So it was up to the story and characters to really pull the weight. I liked them well enough, but...I'm not really sure what it was exactly, but I didn't really fall in love with them. Maybe it was one too many oddball "dating sequences," maybe it was the too on-the-nose internet-anxiety-girl personality of Alphys, but I found the cast kinda hit-or-miss. My favorite character (and probably the most emotionally-resonant sequence for me) was Toriel. She kicked the game off in an endearing way and the skeletons brought the laughs immediately afterward, but I think the storytelling sort of dipped after that. The ending was pretty cool in how thorough it was, and I enjoyed the large scale of the final battles. I also appreciate how earnest the final moments of the game are, but I feel the emotional moments didn't quite hit because we barely knew anything of Asriel beforehand, so it came across as somewhat maudlin to me. Maybe I'm the one who needs a SOUL! Sorry if this sounds too negative. I'm focusing more on the elements that didn't work for me both because I posted earlier about what I liked and mainly because everyone and their mother just LOVED this game and its cast. I still found it compelling enough to complete twice in just over a week, the music was strong and I enjoyed it overall. But it's kind of an eight-point-something for me rather than a nine-point-something. Still worth playing for how creative it is! ...Is this how EarthBound latecomers feel after playing EB for the first time...? |
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@TriforceBunThe first time I played through Undertale, I thought, "Hey, that was a fun little RPG! Cool game, I'm not amazed but that was pretty creative." The second time, I understood where everyone was coming from putting this up there with the SNES greats. Still didn't resonate with me as much as others, but I got it. The third time... it blew my mind and I loved it, and it's now one of my favorite games ever. Your mileage may vary on it--I'm a huge sucker for the type of storytelling it dishes out in that playthrough--but if you don't do the Genocide Run, you're really only getting 2/3 of the story. To me, Undertale is so amazing because it exists perfectly well on its own as a solid RPG, but then went above and beyond and added an extra thing to totally subvert and undo that. Like I said in the OP: start up a new game and grind for XP in the starting area as long as you can, not letting a single monster get away alive. After a while, something cool will happen; stick with it no matter what.If you're a completionist, you have to. |
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