Undertale

Undertale

Logo of Undertale
Developer(s) tobyfox
Publisher(s) tobyfox
Artist(s)
  • Toby Fox
  • Temmie Chang
Writer(s) Toby Fox
Composer(s) Toby Fox
Engine GameMaker: Studio
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, OS X
Release date(s)
  • WW 15 September 2015
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Undertale (also stylized as UnderTale or UNDERTALE) is a role-playing video game developed and published by indie developer tobyfox. The game was written, designed, and composed for by creator Toby Fox, with additional artwork by Temmie Chang, and was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X on 15 September 2015.

In Undertale, the player controls a human child navigating the fictional Underground: a large, secluded region underneath the surface of the Earth. The inhabitants of the Underground are called "monsters", a diverse and intelligent group who have been banished from the surface following a war with humanity. The child interacts with many monsters on the child's quest to return to the surface, with the player making decisions on whether to kill or befriend them. These choices affect the outcome of the game to a large degree, with the dialogue and story outcome changing based on their decisions.

The game received acclaim from video game critics, with particular praise for its writing and characters. Reviewers enjoyed the game's intuitive combat system, the contrast of its witty humor with a dark story, breaking the fourth wall, as well as its references to older role-playing games.

Gameplay

Fighting Toriel in Undertale. Toriel attacks a red heart, representing the player, with fire magic.
An example of the bullet hell-like combat in Undertale. The player, controlling the heart, must avoid attacks from enemies.

Undertale features traditional role-playing mechanics, such as experience points,[1] an overworld, equipment, and health, though with several differences. The game casts players in the role of a child as they explore an underground world full of monsters who they can either kill or befriend. The overworld lets the player navigate in a top-down perspective, visiting locations such as towns, shops, and large buildings. Progression through the game requires interacting with puzzles and non-player characters, moving forward through locales. Save points appear frequently in the overworld, refilling the player's health while saving the player's progress.[2]

During battles, the player controls a small heart which represents the protagonist's soul and must avoid attacks unleashed by the opposing monster—in a similar fashion to a bullet hell.[1][3][4] As the game progresses, new elements are introduced, such as colored obstacles which require the player to stand still or move through them, and boss battles which change the way the heart is controlled.[3] The player may choose to attack the enemy, which involves timed button presses, earning EXP and gold for defeating them.[5] Alternatively, they can use the ACT option to perform non-violent actions, which vary depending on the enemy.[4] If the player uses the right actions to respond to the enemy, they can choose to spare them and end the fight without killing them—earning no EXP.[6] The game features various story branches and endings depending on whether the player chooses to kill or spare their enemies, and it is possible to clear the game without killing a single enemy.[7]

Monsters will converse with the player during battle, and the game will tell the player about how they're feeling or what they're doing.[8] The monsters' attacks will change in ferocity based on how the player interacts with them, being easier if the player chooses non-violent options, or harder if the player chooses to fight.[1][8] If the player fights a boss character on a second playthrough, their dialogue will change based on the player's actions in previous playthroughs, including whether they appear at all. The final boss of Undertale is different based on whether the player killed no monsters, some monsters, or all monsters.

Plot

Undertale takes place in the Underground, a realm where monsters, once equals to humans, were banished to after war broke out between humans and monsters. The Underground is sealed from the surface world by an imperfect magic barrier, the only point of entry being at Mount Ebott.[9]

The game begins with a human child (initially unnamed but eventually revealed to be named Frisk) who has just fallen into the Underground. They encounter Flowey, a sentient flower who teaches Frisk how to fight and encourages them to raise their "LV" by gaining "EXP" through killing monsters. Flowey then attempts to murder Frisk for his own amusement. Frisk is rescued by a motherly goat-like monster named Toriel, who teaches the child how to solve puzzles and survive conflict in the Underground without killing others. However, she also reveals her intentions to adopt Frisk and force them to live with her in the Ruins forever, wanting to protect Frisk from Asgore Dreemur, the king of the Underground.

Frisk eventually is able to venture through the Underground in order to reach the barrier located in the Asgore's castle. They learn that, to destroy the barrier and free the monsters, the king needs seven human souls, of which he has six. Throughout the game, they meet many monsters, and Frisk may either fight or resolve their encounters non-lethally. Among the monsters that the player encounters are the skeletons Sans and Papyrus, two brothers who act as sentries for the Underground; Undyne, the head of the royal guard; Alphys, the kingdom's royal scientist; and Mettaton, a robot built by Alphys.

The game's ending depends on how the player resolved all combat encounters with monsters.[7] If the player killed some (but not all) monsters, Frisk arrives at Asgore's castle and learns that they need a monster's soul to cross the barrier, forcing them to fight Asgore. Sans stops Frisk just before their confrontation, revealing that Frisk's "LV" or "LOVE" actually stands for "Level Of ViolencE" and "EXP" are "EXecution Points." Sans judges Frisk based on the combined resolution of the encounters. Frisk then battles Asgore, but Flowey interrupts them, kills Asgore, and steals the human souls for himself, causing him to transform into a monstrous abomination. In this form, Flowey steals the player's ability to save and reload the game, using these features himself against the player. With the aid of the rebelling human souls, Frisk defeats Flowey, falls unconscious, and wakes up on the human side of the barrier; they receive a phone call from Sans that explains the state of the Underground after Frisk's departure.

If the player has spared all monsters, as well as completed a previous playthrough of the game, it is revealed Flowey is Asriel, the deceased son of Asgore and Toriel, inadvertently revived by Alphys during experimentation. Toriel intervenes before Frisk fights Asgore, and is joined by the other monsters Frisk has befriended. Flowey ambushes the group, using the souls of all the monsters to take an older Asriel's form to fight Frisk. However, Frisk is able to connect with their new friends during the fight, and eventually use them to overpower Flowey. Flowey reverts to the form of Asriel as a child, and destroys the barrier, and expresses his remorse to the others before leaving. The monsters are shown reintegrating with the humans on the surface, while Frisk has the option of accepting Toriel as their adoptive mother or leaving the Underground.

If the player has killed all the monsters in what is called the "Genocide run",[10] Frisk becomes influenced by the malevolent spirit of another human child (who is named by the player but canonically known as "Chara") who also fell into the Underground and was adopted by Toriel and Asgore. Chara eventually committed suicide by eating buttercup flowers, and Asriel was killed by humans that same night while attempting to return Chara's body to the surface world; these events provoked Asgore into starting the war between monsters and humans. When Frisk reaches Asgore's castle, Sans attempts to stop them, but is slain in battle. Frisk then easily kills Asgore and Flowey. Chara assumes control and, with or without the consent of the player, destroys the universe. If the player wishes to play the game again, they must sell their soul to Chara in order for them to restore the universe.

While the player can restart the game, their choices remain in place in the subsequent runthrough, unless the player deletes the local content for the game.[11] For example, should the player restart from the second ending, Flowey criticizes the player for trying to overwrite the characters' happy ending, while if the player completes the Genocide run, Chara reappears in various places in the subsequent runthroughs.[10]

Development

Undertale was funded through Kickstarter with a goal of $5,000. The campaign resulted in $51,124 being raised by 2,398 people.[12] Fox has stated in an October 2015 interview with Game Informer that he did basically everything except for some of the art, as he did not want to rely on anybody else. Fox stated that it took roughly 2 years and 8 months to create the game. Originally, he predicted that the game would be about two hours long, and that it eventually grew to three times that size.[13]

Fox said that he does not think about where his inspirations are coming from, and that the writing was a combination of everything he has read. He cites the silliness of internet culture as one of his influences, as well as comedy acts like Mr. Bean. He stated that EarthBound has had a large influence on him, because of its unsettling atmosphere.[13] In an interview with The Escapist, Fox listed off inspirations for the game: "The talking system came from Shin Megami Tensei. I feel that it's important to make every monster feel like an individual. If you think about it basically all monsters in [role-playing games] like Final Fantasy are the same, save for the graphics. They attack you, you heal, you attack them, they die. There's no meaning to that."[14]

Fox has stated that he did not want grinding to be necessary at any point, wanting people to be able to do it if they wanted to while still making it as optional as possible. He also did not want to introduce fetch quests, as they involve backtracking that he does not really like. He said that he likes Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the latter having one of his favorite role-playing game battle systems, and that he wanted Undertale to have an equally engaging system.[13] Fox wanted more than a simple button-pressing system and turned to inspiration from the mini-games of the WarioWare series and the Touhou Project to create "bite-sized bullet patterns" that would be fun for the player.[15] This also enabled him to create encounters with multiple creatures, their individual bullet patterns combining for the attack. He also found this alleviated the tedium of watching battle animations play out in typical role-playing games.[15] He further wanted to avoid repetitive encounters with monsters, and used a low random encounter rate, and if necessary, created more monster types to avoid repeat encounters.[15]

Soundtrack

Fox discussed aspects of the official soundtrack in an October 2015 interview with Game Informer. He stated that he was responsible for the entire soundtrack, and that he is a self-taught musician. He expressed that there were no iterations for the soundtrack, and that what came into his head was what he composed. Some of the inspirations for the soundtrack include Super Nintendo role-playing games and the webcomic Homestuck; Fox previously served as a musician for the latter. All of the composed music is original, with the exception of "MEGALOVANIA", which Fox originally created for an EarthBound ROM hack in 2009,[16] and later featured in the Homestuck album Heir Transparent, where it was covered as "MeGaLoVania"[13][17] and "Fallen Down", which was originally created for the album I Miss You - EarthBound 2012.

Fox has stated that he likes all the songs equally, but his favorite songs include the title track, "Undertale", and "Hopes and Dreams", the former being one of the only songs in the game that went through multiple iterations. He also said it was thrilling to hear remixes of his music.[13] An official jazz remix album Live at Grillby's, composed by Carlos Eiene with Fox's approval, was released in February 2016.[18]

Future prospects

Fox has said that he has an interest in porting Undertale to platforms besides PC. He said that it would be great if he could put it onto a Nintendo platform, but he could not do that because GameMaker: Studio does not support these, so that he would need to reprogram the entire game.[13] Broken Rules Games, a development studio that has aided in bringing other indie games to the Wii U, has extended an offer to help Fox port the game to the Wii U.[19]

Fox had repeatedly said that adding to Undertale would likely not happen unless for bug fixes, despite leaving "avenues for expansion" such as the game's parodious Hard Mode.[20] However, this contrasts his latest patch for the game, which added very sparse plot changes related to a previously hidden character, W.D. Gaster. When questioned on the possibility of making another game, he said he would like to, with the knowledge that it will not be as successful as Undertale. He has said that it is unlikely for him to create a direct sequel.[21]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
Metacritic92/100[22]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Destructoid10/10[4]
Game Informer9.5/10[23]
GameSpot9/10[24]
Giant Bomb[25]
IGN10/10[26]
PC Gamer (US)91/100[27]
US Gamer[28]

Undertale received universal critical acclaim and is considered a cult video game by numerous publications.[29][30][31] The game holds an aggregate score of 92/100 on Metacritic.[22] By the end of 2015, in a preliminary report by Steam Spy, Undertale was one of the best-selling games on Steam, with more than 500,000 copies sold.[32]

Reviewers praised the game's unique combat system. Daniel Tack from Game Informer wrote "The combat is incredibly nuanced. ...every fight has its own special signature".[23] Austin Walker from Giant Bomb said the combat is "unconventional, clever, and occasionally really difficult. It's a surprisingly complex system...".[25] Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw from The Escapist claimed the game "manages to hybridise turn based and live combat elements in a way that actually fucking works",[33] and later named it his best game of 2015.[34]

The game's writing was especially praised. Ben Croshaw considered Undertale the best-written game of 2015, stating "what really makes Undertale is the story and writing, which is on the one hand hilarious enough to suck you in from the start, and is also, by the end, rather heartfelt as well." [33] Richard Cobbett from PC Gamer wrote "Even its weaker moments where it veers too close to reference and inside joke oversaturation—the stuff of many a comedy RPG Maker game—just about work."[35] Ben Davis from Destructoid remarked that "One of Undertale's greatest strengths is its wonderful cast of characters and its extremely witty sense of humor."[4] Breitbart's Ned Price stated that the game "conveys a lot of soul and charm through its excellent writing", though he noted that the dialogue at times "borders on cringey random humor that larger demographics wouldn't get, or not allow[s] enough time between meta jokes."[36]

Some critics were less enthusiastic about the game's visuals. Austin Walker from Giant Bomb wrote, "it's something like a jaundiced Mother. Simple, but communicative".[25] Ben Croshaw remarked "It wobbles between basic and functional to just plain bad".[33] Ned Price noted that "the retro 16-bit era art style ... occasionally causes parts of the Underground to feel bland and not on the same level of detail as the excellent character design."[36] Other reviewers liked the graphics, with Daniel Tack summarizing them as "retro and threadbare, the visuals successfully deliver the charm of each character and setting".[23] Richard Cobbett enjoyed the "excellent use of simple graphics to convey emotion."[27]

Fox himself did not expect the game to be as well-received, saying he "didn't know that people would like it as universally as it's been acclaimed", and expecting that "people that were like me would like it".[13]

Undertale appeared 9th on the video games list in Time's "Top 10 Everything of 2015".[37] It also appeared on best-of lists for GameSpot and The Escapist.[38][39] As a result of the game's large fanbase in 2015, Undertale reached the first place in GameFAQs' "Best. Game. Ever." userpoll.[40]

Awards

List of awards and nominations
Year Ceremony Category Result Ref.
2015 GameFAQs Best. Game. Ever. Won [40]
The Game Awards 2015 Best Independent Game Nominated [41]
Best Role-Playing Game Nominated
Games for Change Nominated
Destructoid Best PC Game of 2015 Won [42]
The Jimquisition Game of the Year 2015 Won [43]
Giant Bomb Best Surprise Nominated [44]
Best Debut Nominated [45]
Best Game Nominated [46]
Zero Punctuation Game of the Year 2015 Won [47]
IGN PC Game of the Year Won [48]
Best Story Won [49]
2016 Game Developers Choice Awards Innovation Award Pending [50]
Best Debut (Toby Fox) Pending
Best Narrative Pending
Independent Games Festival Seumas McNally Grand Prize Pending [51]
Excellence in Narrative Pending
Excellence in Audio Pending
SXSW Gaming Awards Game of the Year Pending [52]
Excellence in Gameplay Pending
Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game Pending
Most Promising New Intellectual Property Pending
Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award Pending

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hudson, Laura (24 September 2014). "In Undertale, you can choose to kill monsters — or understand them". Boing Boing. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  2. ↑ Breckinridge, Dora (16 September 2015). "Undertale - Walkthrough, Tips, Review". Jay Is Games. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 Cobbett, Richard (21 September 2015). "The RPG Scrollbars: Undertale". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Positive Internet. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Davis, Ben (24 September 2015). "Review: Undertale". Destructoid. ModernMethod. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Bogos, Steven (2 June 2013). "Undertale is an EarthBound Inspired Indie RPG". The Escapist. Defy Media. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Couture, Joel (22 September 2015). "Guilt, Friendship, and Carrot Monsters—Undertale and the Consequences of Easy Violence". IndieGames.com. UBM TechWeb. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  7. 1 2 Farokhmanesh, Megan (7 July 2013). "UnderTale combines classic RPG gameplay with a pacifist twist". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  8. 1 2 Welhouse, Zach (8 October 2015). "Undertale - Review". RPGamer. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  9. ↑ tobyfox (15 September 2015). Undertale. Scene: Intro.
  10. 1 2 Grayson, Nathan (January 25, 2016). "Players Uncover New Secrets Buried In Undertale's First Big Patch [Updated]". Kotaku. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  11. ↑ Grayson, Nathan (28 September 2015). "Players Still Haven't Figured Out All Of Undertale's Secrets". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  12. ↑ Suszek, Mike (29 July 2013). "Crowdfund Bookie, July 21–27: Terminator 2, UnderTale, Last Dream". Joystiq. AOL. Archived from the original on 31 January 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Turi, Tim (15 October 2015). "GI Show – Yoshi's Woolly World, Star Wars: Battlefront, Undertale's Toby Fox". Game Informer. GameStop. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  14. ↑ Bogos, Steven (25 June 2013). "Undertale Dev: "Every Monster Should Feel Like an Individual"". The Escapist. Defy Media. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  15. 1 2 3 Fox, Toby (30 October 2015). "Game Design Deep Dive: Undertale's action-based RPG battles". Gamasutra. UBM Tech. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  16. ↑ "EarthBound Halloween Hack!". EarthBound Central. 31 October 2009. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent, by Homestuck". Bandcamp. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  18. ↑ Gwaltney, Javy (6 February 2016). "Official Undertale Jazz Album Live At Grillby's Released". Game Informer. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  19. ↑ Carter, Chris (5 February 2016). "Indie dev offers support for bringing Undertale to Wii U". Destructoid. ModernMethod. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  20. ↑ Fox, Toby (8 November 2015). "toby's Fox on Twitter: "Seeming unlikely any UNDERTALE patch I complete will contain anything other than bugfixes. So, please don't expect anything."". Twitter.
  21. ↑ Fox, Toby (16 September 2015). "toby's Fox on twitter: "also i have vague ideas for other games but no plans for a sequel to this. i dont think i would ever do a direct sequel."". Twitter.
  22. 1 2 "Undertale for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  23. 1 2 3 Tack, Daniel (1 October 2015). "Review: Undertale". Game Informer. GameStop. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  24. ↑ Hicks, Tyler (20 November 2015). "Undertale Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  25. 1 2 3 Walker, Austin (25 September 2015). "Undertale Review". Giant Bomb. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  26. ↑ Plagge, Kallie (12 January 2016). "Undertale Review". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  27. 1 2 Cobbett, Robert (29 September 2015). "Undertale review". PC Gamer. Future US. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  28. ↑ Mackey, Bob (30 September 2015). "Undertale PC Review: The Art of Surprise". US Gamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 31 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  29. ↑ Levine, Laguna (29 September 2015). "Undertale: A New Cult Hit in the Making". Cliqist. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  30. ↑ Van Allen, Eric (22 October 2015). "Undertale Fan Makes a Sequel... In a Wrestling Game?". Paste. Paste Media Group. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  31. ↑ LaBella, Anthony (24 September 2015). "You Should Play Undertale". Game Revolution. CraveOnline. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  32. ↑ Wawro, Alex (22 December 2015). "GTA 5 leads Steam Spy's list of best-selling 2015 Steam games". Gamasutra. UBM Tech. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  33. 1 2 3 Croshaw, Ben (28 October 2015). "Undertale May Be This Year's Best Written Game". The Escapist. Defy Media. Archived from the original on 28 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  34. ↑ Croshaw, Ben (6 January 2016). "Top 5 Games of 2015". The Escapist. Defy Media. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
  35. ↑ Cobbett, Richard (29 September 2015). "Undertale Review". PC Gamer. Future US. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  36. 1 2 Price, Ned (22 November 2015). "‘Undertale’ Review: A Charming Independent RPG with a Lot of SOUL". Breitbart News Network. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  37. ↑ Peckham, Matt (23 November 2015). "Top 10 Video Games". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  38. ↑ GameSpot Staff (18 December 2015). "Game of the Year 2015 Countdown: #20 - #16". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  39. ↑ The Escapist Staff (25 December 2015). "The Escapist's Best Games of 2015 - Page 3". The Escapist. Defy Media. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  40. 1 2 Frank, Allegra (16 December 2015). "Undertale wins GameFAQs' Best Game Ever contest". Polygon.
  41. ↑ "Nominees | The Game Awards 2015". The Game Awards. Ola Balola. 12 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  42. ↑ Hansen, Steve (22 December 2015). "Destructoid's award for Best PC Game of 2015 goes to...". Destructoid. ModernMethod. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  43. ↑ Sterling, Jim (21 December 2015). "The Jimquisition Game of the Year Awards 2015". The Jimquisition. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  44. ↑ "Giant Bomb's 2015 Game of the Year Awards: Day One Text Recap". Giant Bomb. 28 December 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  45. ↑ "Giant Bomb's 2015 Game of the Year Awards: Day Three Text Recap". Giant Bomb. 30 December 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  46. ↑ "Giant Bomb's 2015 Game of the Year Awards: Day Five Text Recap". Giant Bomb. 1 January 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  47. ↑ Croshaw, Ben (6 January 2016). "Top 5 Games of 2015". The Escapist. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  48. ↑ "PC Game of the Year". IGN. 8 January 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  49. ↑ "Best Story". IGN. 8 January 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  50. ↑ Nunneley, Stephany (8 January 2016). "The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid 5 lead nominees for GDC 2016 Awards". VG247. Videogaming247. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  51. ↑ Nunneley, Stephany (6 January 2016). "Her Story, Undertale, Darkest Dungeon receive multiple 2016 IGF Award nominations". VG247. Videogaming247. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  52. ↑ "SXSW Gaming Awards". SXSW. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.

External links

Quotations related to Undertale at Wikiquote

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 15, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.