Joseph Arita

I’m not what you’d call a gamer. I play games, but not professionally. I’m a guy who looks for some good stories to experience. Undertale is one of the best I’ve experienced. (MILD SPOILERS: Just to be clear, I’m going to be reviewing the True Pacifist run. It’s the one I consider canon and the final reset timeline that Frisk and the gang will experience. They’ll live their lives on from their happy ending, without fear of it all being reset). How? How is it that one of the greatest and most depth-filled, emotionally moving stories was gifted to us through the lens of an 8-bit game and still work UNANIMOUSLY? You’d think that the use of pixel art would bring the story and the experience down, but I can’t imagine seeing this story without that utterly charming and irresistibly cute pixel art style that drips with atmospheric depth and creatively rich worldbuilding. The character design can make any artist jealous (including me). I don’t have anything else to add there really, the art is just simple, clean and beautiful. I went into Undertale expecting a fun, good story and characters that stick to your heart for a couple weeks, but genius storyteller Toby Fox aimed higher. The lore and story is fantastic. And as if that wasn’t enough, the characters rock you to your core. Frisk, Sans, Toriel, Alphys, Papyrus, Mettaton (who I did NOT know EXISTED before playing this game), Asgore, ASRIEL (not gonna spoil anything else for you if you’ve somehow not played this), EVERY character wins you over like it’s effortless. I went into this game blind, I didn’t know anything about a Toriel, or an Alphys or who Asgore or Asriel were. I knew Sans and Papyrus (and sorta Undyne) and that’s all. I didn’t know anything about what was hiding beneath this golden flower meadow of a story. So many story beats SHOCKED me and left my jaw on the ground because I’d gone in spoiler-free (almost.. while on my true pacifist run I accidentally found some confirmation of a small plot twist that I’d already been theorizing about by then). Oh, and Undertale is as fun as it is touching, but some REALLY dark stuff happens in this game. There are consequences that some characters face that you can’t undo or resolve. This game doesn’t hold back its punches. Cop-outs and cheap moves are foreign to the story. Some of the characters’ lives are in a bad place when you start, and some stay that way by the end. Oh, and the soundtrack. Beautiful. Easily one of my favorite musical scores from ANYTHING. Each orchestrated track fits their respective scene PERFECTLY, and you’ll find yourself just strolling the scenery just to here the gorgeous music that accompanies your travels across Undertale’s world. Undertale is my favorite game of all time. I’ve never seen something on this level of storytelling since Spirited Away. When you reach that elevator to Asgore’s castle, you’re both excited and sad for the end. There’ll never be a game quite like Undertale ever again. They say lightning can’t strike twice, but every bolt of lightning is different after all. Undertale is an inspiration to anyone who’s making a project on a large scale on their own. Undertale was made predominantly by one guy. Now that, can inspire people to tap into their creative side. ok so 10/10 good game