Undertale: The Game That Made Me Like Comic Sans

"it's a beautiful day. birds are chirping, flowers are blooming..." -Sans

A while back, I started a post about a little game called To The Moon. It is a beautiful piece of art, and I totally recommend you go buy it right now and play it if you haven't already. I never got around to finishing that post (but I will soon!) but this is why I bring it up: I thought To The Moon was had the best soundtrack in indie game history. I legitimately thought To The Moon was the pinnacle of indie game score. "It wouldn't get any better than this, I told myself." 

Well, To The Moon has met it's match.

It is still one of my favorite indie games of all time, don't get me wrong, and that soundtrack is still the amazing beautiful masterpiece it was back in May 2015 when I played To The Moon, but it is now number 2. 

Undertale. What can I say about it that no one else has said? Well, it is the second game I have bought the soundtrack for on Steam (the first being, you guessed it: To The Moon). Soundtrack is a big thing for me in games. Especially games that are story-heavy and have NO spoken dialogue. It helps carry the emotion of a situation or event when there is no spoken dialogue to do it. To The Moon focuses a lot less on gameplay than Undertale does, but still, Undertale totally benefits from having an incredible score. 

I should stop comparing Undertale and To The Moon, because while they are indie RPGs made for the PC, sold on Steam, and have impeccable soundtracks (both of which I own), that is where their similarities begin and end. 

In the world of Undertale, there are two races living on Earth, monsters and humans. One day, we humans do what humans do (I'm looking right at us, America); we kicked the monsters out after having a huge war with them. The monsters were forced under the fictitious Mt. Ebott and into the Underground, and sealed off from the surface with the powerful Barrier, a wall that only those with a powerful soul can pass through. You play as a human child who falls into the Underground one day, and forced to fight (or more importantly as you'll see below, don't fight) through the Underground in order to one day feel the sunlight on your face once again.

The story and lore can be a bit thin at times, admittedly, but what you don't have in backstory, you have in characters. While making your way through the Underground you will meet some the most memorable characters in any game I have ever played. From a nihilistic skeleton who's entire existence is a pun to a homicidal robot who hosts various television shows including a cooking show and the news, these characters are the greatest I have ever had the chance to play a game through with. There were moments when I busted out laughing because of something they said, then within a couple minutes that same character could make me close to tears (the sad ones) and it all flowed extremely well. They were very relatable characters too. I could see something of myself in every single one of the major characters in the story. I would provide examples but if you've never played the game, you'll have no context.

The game has little jokes peppered throughout too, some made by the characters and sometimes they show up out of nowhere when you examine something. A quote from the game basically sums up what kind of humor you'll find in this game:

Or say, for instance, Sans the nihilistic skeleton, one of the major players (and by that I mean character but I am so sick of that word) of the game. He makes terrible jokes and skeletal puns (as he is of the spooky, scary variety of monster) all the time. And every word of his dialogue is written in COMIC SANS! (u git it m8?) I have a new found respect for that typeface. Won't ever be using it, but I still like it now, just because of Sans. Also his brother is named Papyrus and all his dialogue is written in, you guessed it, Papyrus typeface.

All of these little things are some of the small reasons why I love Undertale. There is one reason in particular that sold me on Undertale, something that you'll either love or hate depending on how you like your games:

Undertale broke the rules. 

And no, I'm not talking about the graphics, by the way (which is another thing I adore about this game).  Undertale takes the one, fundamental, core values of every RPG you have ever played and snaps it in two. Undertale asks a question, like all great works of art do. The question it asks is quite simple, really: 

"What if, instead of killing our opponents, we spared them?"

You have a 3 choices to end a battle when you get into one: fight and kill the opposition, flee from the battle, or spare your enemy. Every fight has importance in this game. I am not kidding in the least when I say killing a single enemy, no matter how insignificant to the overall plot, can screw you out of 1 of the 3 endings to this game. And it's not just random little goobs you fight in this game either. There is only 1 major character in the game that you don't ever have the option to kill. This game has three potential endings, and to get to whatever ending you want, you have to follow a certain path. Some main characters can only be fought on some routes, but there is only 1 major character that you can never, ever fight. That's huge. Every little single fight in the game has ripples that effect the fate of the entire world. 

Most RPGs say: "Well here's a field. This field has a bunch of enemies in it. Kill them lol bai."

Undertale asks: "Well, you're in the Underground now, the Hell where your kind exiled the monsters for no reason other than selfish hate. Are you really, after taking away their homes and freedom, going to take their lives too? I mean, human souls are more powerful than monster souls. It would be pretty easy to steamroll this place. It is what you humans do right?" 

You can answer yes to that very question. You can kill every single enemy you come across. In fact, one of the three routes, not-so-but-maybe-kinda accurately named the Genocide Route, requires you to do just that: kill indiscriminately. Everything. Everyone. Whip them off the map.

You can also shout "NO!" from the top of your lungs to answer that question. You can go through the entire game without even using the FIGHT button on your UI. Instead using the ACT button to deescalate fights in often-times hilarious ways, like making a certain buff seahorse-merman-thing named Aaron 'flex his way off screen' (not joking that's how you 'beat' the guy seen on the left). One of the routes of the game, the true pacifist route, requires you to do this. Not a single hair on the head of a single monster can be harmed to get that ending. Not a single, solitary one.

That to me is the true beauty of Undertale. If you play as a megalomaniac, the game treats you like it, dark and brooding. If you are a die hard pacifist, the game is light-hearted and funny. The very personality of the game on a fundamental level adapts to how you play it. 

Oh and there are puzzles. Lots, and lots, and lots of puzzles. 

My rating score for games goes something like this:

1. Don't play this game!
2. Borrow from a friend, maybe.
3. Rent it.
4. Pick it up on sale.
5. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING BUY THE GAME ALREADY!!!!!

Undertale gets a solid 5 for sure. You will more than likely love this game. It has a lot of replayablity and will not get stale if you play through it 4 or 5 times trying to find all the little hidden things. I mean, minor spoiler warning here, saving and loading your game becomes a game mechanic in the last parts of the game. No joke. That loathsome forth wall does not exist here (I hate the forth wall).  But it is 10 bucks on Steam, will work on your grandmother's PC, and worth every penny even at full price. Also pick up the soundtrack on Steam. I swear it is so good that you'll feel bad pirating it off YouTube especially when I tell you the entire soundtrack was composed by the same guy who programmed and drew 99.9% of the art for the ENTIRE GAME (luv u tony < 3 )

And until next time,

Cini 

Undertale on Steam

Also, To The Moon on Steam

Because you can't die without play them. Seriously there is no point in living without experiencing it.