Notes on undertale- Taken gradually as I went through the game and all compiled/ tidied up slightly at the end.



From the moment I started playing this I could feel magic glowing off its every surface (note: I first played it when it was a demo several years ago, and felt the same way) and the opening ruins is a great area, it's still, and you can feel the ancient-ness of the place.

Stand-out stage for me was waterfall. Haunting music, natural and somehow surreal architecture- fuck that stage was pretty. It was also home to the best boss fight and the funniest scene in the game (Undyne's house) which left me howling. Speaking of which, the very first time you meet Sans, and the camera zooms in on his face, was the first real funny bit for me, because it was so unexpected- and I nearly woke everyone up by laughing (starting the game at night was a cool way to get started, and did wonders for the atmosphere)

But yeah, I love this game's style. It feels like a Miyazaki movie in places- the environments are beautiful, even when some of them are just one or two simple shapes against a black background. I remember when i saw a wolf in Snowdin throwing ice cubes intothe water and wondering where they were going, only to follow that river for the rest of the game and find it was to cool down the Core, the final stage.

Moving onto things I didn't like as much- This game is... Well, it's linear. Everything happens one thing after the other.

There's nothing wrong with linearity of course, but this is, well... It's linearity *without shame*- it is a straight line, pretty much, from start to finish. No, not even that. Some rooms are a LITERAL straight line from start to finish. (On the plus side you never get lost)

It mixes it up sometimes, such as with the village areas, and Hotland's occaisional side routes- but for me playing, by the time I reached the Nth corridor it began to dawn on me that this was all I was gonna see. Some sections felt like I was being pulled along by the hand by the developers as they made sure I didn't miss any setpieces (the part in waterfall with the umbrella and the floating castle, for instance. The prettiness and brilliant direction of this scene, however, compensated hugely) Each corridor feels distinctive. I could always think back the way I came and remember each room and what I did there. Another plus was that it made side rooms all the more exciting when they did show up. (Battles make up for the linearity as well- and there's a lot to do in them. Playing pacifist, opening the "act" menu was always like opening a box of treats and being like "oooh okay, which one is it?" the choices often boil down to "spare" or "kill", ultimately, however)

quick note about the fights- genius mechanic to have it so you don't level up if you don't fight- making the tradeoff for pacifism seem unbalanced, and the enemies get harder to kill. I also liked how each successful action felt the same as a "hit", and the "HP" a Spare needed was about the same either way.

The writing is excellent. There was a lot of talk about how it was too meta and referential, but I found it the opposite. Its jokes are its own, its personality is its own, I couldn't think of anything I'd played that was quite like it- it felt like it was completely new. At times it felt like it had too much of its own personality- for example, I couldn't pinpoint anywhere I'd seen a set of characters like Sans and Papyrus, who were not only named after fonts, but had the relationship they did, with Papyrus serving the role of an end-of-stage boss. It felt lively and set in its own stride to the point it felt like it didn't need to follow the rulebook of RPGs.



MASSIVE END SPOILERS AHEAD:






















As for the ending- I think this was the biggest letdown for me. It had built up to something far greater, clearer and more emotional- And, admittedly, I saw it coming from miles off. Flowey comes out of nowhere, kills Asgore, and then you fight him.

OK so, this... In  a way it ruined the game. I could feel it was going for the Final Boss OF Earthbound but it felt more like the final boss of Barkley Shut Up And Jam Gaiden. It was so... SILLY. It breeaks the fourth wall completely, and I couldn't take it seriously. Flowey was threatening but not as much as he was just... Irritating. Saying "You IDIOT!" over and over again he just seemed more like an annoying child than a massive... horrifying ultimate villain.

It was out of place. The graffiti-esque art style was out of place, and, while the rest of the game felt like a slightly silly Miyazaki Movie, this felt about as out of place as it would be... In a miyazaki movie. It felt totally wrong. In the first few seconds of the fight the sense of awe from before had just dried up and I felt like this was the most obvious, silly ending they could've possibly gone for, to the point I couldn't believe they actually went for it.

For a game so bent on breaking the rules, this felt so within those rules. I said to myself "what is this shit", and the writing suddenly became unbelievable and like the devs were talking straight to me, instead of the characters. That feeling never went away. It was hard to believe it was the same game where I was walking through a beautiful abandonned city moments before.

So... Yeah. That's about where I am. My opinion on this game is kind of a big *shrug*. I'll ruminate on it a bit longer but for now I have no strong feelings. In a way, I'm glad, but I felt the ending could've delivered the intended response (including with flowey!) but in a much less over the top way. (It was TOO over the top, I'm telling you.)

It's possible some of the other endings bypass this, but this is what I ended up with on a regular playthrough, so... Yeah. Just gonna leave it there, I think.











OVERALL (+ a few miscellaneous accolades):

BAD
-Corridors!!! all the way through!!!
-Squanders all emotion and subtlety in the finalé

GOOD
-Characterisation is lively, original, strongest point of the game
-Fast paced writing and plot
-Beautiful, immersive, spectacular environments
-Opening the "act" menu is extremely good
-Lots of secrets and depth and ways to play

BEST BOSS FIGHT
-Handsome Mettaton. Funniest, bafflingest, best mechanic for sparing

BEST AREA
-Waterfall






!!!!

AMENDMENT TO THIS REVIEW:

After putting this review up I was told there is in fact more of the game, (How was I supposed to know? The credits rolled!) I have now done that section of the game. It took me a whole day. Here's my thoughts on the game, now:

The lab is great. THAT was a level that had a genuinely creepy atmosphere in the way the Flowey boss battle didn't. I especially loved lying in the bed and being tucked in by that white ghost thing. I think it could dethrone waterfall as my favourite level, it was also nice to see everything come together and I was like "ooohhhh, I get it now!" it explained the whole Flowey thing and when he finally showed up again it was a cool moment, once I knew he was actually Asriel, thus I could see how he worked as the mastermind behind everything. It was a satisfying ending and the true final boss was badass (the music especially, fuck! That was a good track.) I also loved the way you spare amalgams by remembering how to spare the enemies they're amalgams of, and also saving everyone in the final battle.

It felt like it was a really "earned" ending. I'd gone across time and space and pretty much broken the game to get there. The timelines thing was cool, but at the same time I felt a little bit confused, almost like I'd skipped something important. This feeling was in the back of my head all the way through to the end.

I went back and watched Omega Flowey on youtube, knowing what I know now, and... I still think it was bad. That one bad scene felt like it really brought the whole experience down. it's also a shame that other people will think that's how the game actually ends, haha. Although I believe there's a way to skip it? I don't know how rare triggering that fight is.

In general, omega flowey feels like it was a "darling" that was a good idea at the time, but didn't work in practice, but had to be kept in because the developers didn't want to axe it. It feels like a brave risk that didn't work- It has all the hallmarks of a good final boss, but I think it piles it on too high. It just felt like... Knowing only what I knew at the time, it was like the "joke" character from the first level came back. It was like if Jar Jar Binks turned out to be the mastermind behind the empire. It was too silly to take seriously. Like when the save file breaks and flowey's head appears smiling behind it, I didn't feel like the game had broken so much as vanished up its own arse. It didn't feel like it had anything to do with anything, and I didn't even get to escape the underground, it was like that plot thread had just been totally abandonned for some shit about my save file (I don't care about my save file! seriously!). And then I was shunted back out to where I was without realising the timeline had changed, until I was told.

Ok I'm going to complain about this fight even more, to get it off my chest. Cause this was the only scene that fell flat to me.

Flowey wasn't scary I think partly because fear is usually found in the mundane, rather than the cuddly. Flowey (before being revealed as Asriel) only had two forms, extreme cuddly or extreme evil, and no mundanity, so it didn't feel particularly horrifying, like the old trope of "the monster isnt scary once it's revealed" only it was revealed pretty much from the very start.

As a result I found him more irritating than frightening- he gave me the impression of being a child who makes up for their childish, weak appearance by being noisy and in-your-face and overly aggressive (the boss fight was definitely all of these things) and at the time I couldn't tell if that was the intent (It was, given that he is revealed to in fact be a child)

On the whole, all the noisiness and pratfalls of that boss fight (such as him killing you over and over again when you defeat him, and failing to load your save, and his constant catchphrases "HA HA HA" "You IDIOT!") made it feel like an extended meta joke that went on way, way, way too long to the point I was just completely bored and annoyed and fell out of the experience. It felt like that boss fight happened only to serve itself, not the plot. I eventually forced myself to continue, but I never really got back into it in the same way. I felt like the game had gone up itself once, and might do it again.

Conversely, though- I can't imagine the game without this scene. I think it could've been a much better scene if not for a few things, such as the comedic pratfalls, the catchphrases, and one scene where you're trapped in a room and there's words like "trapped" "terror" "pain" or whatever moving around trying to hurt you (if you have to spell out what you want the player to feel instead of make them feel, thats usually a failure, see: DmC) It was also a little TOO hostile, which I think it a big part of why it felt annoying- it was a guy laughing at you and making a lot of noise, rather than actually being hard or "feeling" dangerous. It was edgy. In the end, I spared Flowey, because I could tell he was just full of shit and not actually that dangerous.

Chara, on the other hand (I looked on the Wiki, I didn't do a genocide run) IS genuinely creepy, so, well done! This game can be creepy when it wants. The whole thing with Chara is one of the most genius things I've seen in a game, and creepiest.

But regardless- this scene is the most interesting scene in the game partly because it was the only one that didn't work for me. The fact I've written more about this scene than any other probably says a lot. I think this is a great game overall, despite its flaws. It took risks, and some failed, and that makes it better and more "real" in a lot of ways. It's a game made to an author's exact specification, which is why I'm analysing it so closely.

I think there's a lot of magic in this game, still. I love the timelines, and once I can see the whole thing from the top, it all fits together. The Asreil boss also felt very "earned", even if it was comparitively easy.

(Papyrus driving along the road in the end credits is one of my favourite images in the whole game, and made me smile. And for the record, I chose not to stay with Toriel. I felt it was time to move on)

I'm not going to do a genocide run. I don't want to!!! I also think the idea is that you play how YOU want to play, not as a completionist. You're not necessarily SUPPOSED to see all the content. That's the point, and that's something I always love in a game.

On the whole, it was great. I felt let down when I thought it ended in a lazy, pretentious manner, but the game turned out better than that.