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Undertale is a retro style RPG in which you can defeat every single "enemy" without killing them. It is the story of a human girl (technically genderless but ehhh) from the surface world who has fallen into the underland of monsters, and her journey back home. A journey that ends at the barrier between the two worlds. A journey that ends at the barrier behind the monster king's throne.

There are three endings to Undertale. Pacifist, Neutral, and No Mercy. Important details below. Not plot-relevant but spoilers just in case:

Spoiler

I've been told that the No Mercy run will affect subsequent playthroughs negatively, so I'd save that one for last. The Neutral ending prompts you to play a Pacifist run, implying that they're almost sequential. So I think the order the game probably wants you to go in is Neutral --> Pacifist --> No Mercy. To get the Neutral ending, defeat at least one boss without killing them and kill at least one monster. To get the Pacifist ending, don't kill anything ever. To get the No Mercy ending, kill everything ever.

The game is fucking great. It's $10 on Steam for PC or Mac and my first run took me a little over three hours. That said, the replayability value is huge and I'm currently struggling not to abandon this post and jump right in to my Pacifist run. If you play through for all three endings, the game should take 10 hours or so. Well worth the value, since those hours are so good.

The humor in Undertale is always on point. The monsters each have their little jokes that will come out if you Act rather than Fight, and I found myself loving all of the bosses. Even if it was a bitch figuring out the non-violent way to beat them. No, especially because of that. They're great characters. The game breaks traditional RPG conventions every step of the way, in combat and out, and at points it even breaks the fourth wall of the game itself. It's tough to get bored playing Undertale, because by the time you've gotten used to one mechanic, there's already another rushing in to take its place.

I'd pretend I was any sort of authority on video games and break this review down into clear and concise sub-ratings, but that's stupid. So.

9.5/10

Because sometimes having to backtrack for items sucked. Yeah. That's it.

It's just so good. Buy it. Play it. Play it again. God.

 

Looks pretty interesting, and I've always been a fan of the retro RPG look. The music takes me straight back to my childhood too, which is always a plus. Time to buy an indie game that isn't in a Humble Bundle I guess.

 

I expected a vid of the gameplay when I opened that link, and for a moment thought you'd just copied the wrong one. Took too long for me to realize the joke.

Tentative information sounds tantalizing so far. I'll keep an eye open for the game down the road when I can spare some cash.