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What is Undertale?
Because of its simple graphics designed in the style of pixel art, often with very little detail, Undertale may not look like much. Players can’t customize the protagonist beyond a name, and stats are limited mostly to attack, defense, and health, with only one piece of armor and one weapon that can be equipped at any time. It probably looks like any other indie RPG on the surface, but it goes much, much farther.
Undertale’s combat is largely inspired by bullet hell styles seen in the famous Space Invaders from the 70s and later finding a home in many niche and arcade games. The premise is simple but ramps up the difficulty quickly: the player, represented by a little red heart, must dodge objects coming towards them. But as simple as the mechanic might be, some boss fights are known to taken dozens of tries to pass, and players choose to press forward (with determination) because each battle is more creative than the last.
And the game’s difficulty level hinges on which route they choose to take, but no matter which path is chosen, an excellent story is lying in wake of the player.
By now, most who’ve heard of Undertale know that the point is to spare all monsters; in fact, it says it straight away on the game’s website. Early on, Undertale, via the goat mother Toriel, will drop subtle hints that fighting monsters can easily be forgone by speaking and interacting with them, eventually leading to a “spare” option. But for those curious enough, there are other ways to play the game, like killing as many monsters as possible in a genocide route. Whichever path the player chooses, a world of lore opens up to the player, because the game itself is sentient and knows that the player is just that: a real person playing a video game.
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The Mysteries Behind Undertale
Again, a single playthrough of Undertale will only take about 6 hours to complete, on average. However, because of the way Toby Fox designed Undertale and all of its lore, players often find themselves replaying the little indie RPG again and again to uncover all of its secrets carefully crafted within each pixel. And Undertale’s secrets are limitless.
On a first or neutral playthrough of Undertale, the lore that unfolds will probably be simple characteristics like the fan-favorite duo Sans and Papyrus are named after the fonts they speak in, and that the main antagonist, Flowey, is aware of each time the player saves and reloads files. But deeper down the rabbit hole, players will find that Sans, too, is aware of each time the player does this. They’ll discover who Chara, the first human, is, the quirky relationship between Undyne and Alphys, and somewhere near the bottom of the abyss, players might even be lucky enough to stumble across W.D. Gaster, whose existence has yet to be solved by fans.
However, to enjoy Undertale, it doesn’t require that players participate in this deep dive hidden behind the humor. Rather, it’s designed so that players can choose to experience this indie RPG however they please, and the game will react accordingly. In total, there are 93 endings, which means, in two sittings, players can experience the bulk of Undertale’s meaningful content. However, it also has the potential of dozens upon dozens of hours of material and lore, which is now free with Xbox Game Pass.
Undertale is out now for PC, PS4, PS Vita, and Switch, and is releasing for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on March 16, 2021.
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