4/5 ★ – Jumpmanryan's review of Undertale.

8 out of 10! Undertale is an incredibly unique game. It’s got a wonderfully vibrant cast of characters, a surprisingly solid story, a fantastic soundtrack, and a uniquely creative take on RPG tropes and turn-based combat mechanics. But while Undertale truly does excel in a lot of ways, I still came away from my playthrough feeling conflicted. The best parts of Undertale are layered throughout it’s writing. There are a plethora of different scenarios that can play out depending on your actions. And each one of these scenarios feels as thoroughly explored as the last. And being able to choose between a pacifist run, a genocide run, or something in the middle, makes every player’s experience with the game feel personal. The combat was solid, although moving the cursor with a DualShock4 analog stick felt a little counter-intuitive as I was playing on my PS4. The fun part of the combat came as I attempted to spare my enemies. Trying to figure out what could make the fight end without bloodshed was often fun and rewarding. However, a lot of times these pacifist methods don’t make sense and just rely on trial and error through dialogue options. I would’ve enjoyed it more if each enemy I spared played out like a different puzzle I had to solve, rather than just the whimsical randomness that came about in most encounters. The soundtrack to Undertale is one of the greatest gaming soundtracks of all-time. Just incredible. I have absolutely no complaints with this aspect of the game at all. Another strong aspect of the game would have to be it’s characters. Every major character you meet along your journey is really great. They all have their own personalities that really shine throughout the game’s offbeat tone. I was constantly smiling ear-to-ear when introduced to another one of these ridiculous characters that reside in this world. BUT... there are some pretty major issues I have with Undertale. The most prevalent issue is that Undertale is a game that’s more fun to watch somebody play on YouTube than it is to play for yourself. A large part of this is because the game REQUIRES multiple playthroughs to get the best content and to experience the entirety of what it’s story has to offer. This is an issue for me. I played and beat the game once. I was done. I didn’t want to play anymore after that, especially the same content I just finished but with writing tweaks here and there. And I don’t think a game should be reviewed based on 8 different playthroughs. It should be reviewed on the first base playthrough. Another issue with Undertale is traversing the world. I just... didn’t enjoy actually roaming around the game world. Way too often was traversal stopped by these puzzles where you step on arrows that throw you to another platform. These puzzles were VERY frequent and were genuinely never fun or even thought-provoking. I just desperately wanted to get to the next exposition moment or new character introduction. In conclusion, Undertale is an extremely unique experience for a video game. It’s something that every gamer should check out. BUT would probably better serve most people by just watching someone play through the game on YouTube. It’s still a good game. But it has some weird issues with not being able to experience a large portion of it’s content without re-treading what you’ve already played, and traversal just not being enjoyable. Still though, check this game out in some format. As it definitely needs to be experienced in one way or another.