In my Psychonauts retrospective, I lamented on the absence of comedy games. Aside from The Stanley Parable, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and Portal 2 - I cannot name a comedy game made in the past 5 years. There's the LEGO games I suppose, but now they've become an entity unto themselves with the whole Dimensions thing. I would've reviewed it, but I don't have a PS4 or all the money in the world to actually buy Dimensions.
Undertale is an indie, 8-bit JRPG available on Steam for £6 ($10) that the internet appears to have exploded over, which is odd because it hasn't really done anything meme-worthy and it's hardly YouTube-fodder. But I suppose it's gratifying that an indie game is getting so much attention when it hasn't had a kickstarter and hasn't pandered to 'Let's Player's - as much as I enjoy watching them.
Before I start, I feel like I should share a screenshot of the Steam Review page:
...well I'm sold.
That in a nutshell summarises the humour of Undertale. It's an 8-bit JRPG that knows it's an 8-bit JRPG. But rather than simply mimic the early Final Fantasy games, it instead works to innovate. Since JPRG's are usually about beating whatever random encounters you face to a bloody pulp, here you have the option to fight, but it's not that effective. The best option is to seek an alternate action. Every unique monster need something, be it compassion, flirtatious banter, a compliment, or just not being attacked for once.
It's somewhat ingenious. Often in gaming I've beaten up monsters so much I've wondered if they'll just let me go past them eventually. I still get attacked by rabid wolves in Skyrim even though I'm level 50, wearing full Dragonbone armour, and riding an undead horse. Surely these guys would give up by now, but they still think they can take on a person who can breathe fire.
You're a human child of indeterminate gender who's journeyed up a mountain only to fall into a seemingly nightmarish underworld. Despite it being crawling with monsters, it's also pink and populated with frogs and flowers...who want to kill you. All of this is being presided over by an overly parental figure who makes fun of the typical JRPG trope of over-tutorialising everything and making the puzzles incredibly simple. As a person who really wanted to like Okami but kept getting annoyed with that cricket thing, I like this a lot.
It helps for a comedy game to be funny, which thankfully Undertale is. It's obsurdity works well in terms of the comedic possibilites offered. The flavour text is where the most chuckles can be found, as it gives the writing a chance to be witty. In some ways I envy all this because it means that whilst the game is flawed, part of me wonders if this was intentional. Perhaps every aspect, including the fustrating parts, are part of
Many have compared this game to Earthbound - an SNES JRPG where you play as a little boy stuck in this fantasy world that seems to be an extension of the unconciousness. There's also this tone that seems to be hiding something very disturbing behind it's childish, twee nature. The difference is that I don't think Earthbound was supposed to be intentionally creepy, whilst this very obviously is. Anything overly twee always evokes the uncanny valley for me. That's probably why I cried when I went on 'It's A Small World.'
Despite most of the monsters you face just needing a hug and a chat, a lot still attempt to eat your soul first of all. The opening sequence is actually petrifying as you meet a cute flower who says everyone needs some love before it evolves into a hideous mutant flower that tries to kill you. The juxtaposition between snuggles and death (that should be the name of a band) really takes you aback at first. I thought I was deviating from my plan to review horror games for Halloween when I picked up an indie comedy, but never mind. This was actually scarier than anything I faced in SOMA.
As with any JRPG, there are random encounters. But perhaps the games biggest problem is that these encounters happen constantly. Whilst there is a large variety of enemy types, there are so many encounters that it's easy to become bored of them. The 'combat' really loses it's charm when it becomes a dull routine as you remember what your opponent needs to set them on their way. It turns from playing as a kid trying to solve everyones problems to playing 'Councillor Simulator 2015.' Oh, and there's no item like in Final Fantasy VIII where you can avoid random encounters.
The game is surprisingly quite hard. Because there are a lot of encounters, and these strange mini-games become a real test on your reflexes that drain at least one health per encounter. Checkpoints restore your health, but these are few and far between (I hate games where you really need to go for an appointment but you can't until you find a glowy thing lying around to save your progress with) and the only other alternative is to hope your next random enounter is a talking vegetable which you can eat to gain a tiny amount of health.
Also, the game says it's optimised for a controller...but it really isn't. Even the D-Pad feels a bit off when trying to select from a menu, and the button mapping is all over the place. I used an XBOX One controller (because there is nothing more comfortable than playing games lying on a bed) and 'A' is used to go back, whilst 'B' selects items. In almost every other game I've played, it's the other way round. Plus, it's strange how 'A' skips dialogue but you need 'B' to exit the dialogue box. Why can't I just rapidly tap one button when I'm skipping through dialogue I've already read.
The soundtrack is pleasant to listen to, however it seems confused in style. Sometimes it replicates the beep boop chiptune sound, and other times it uses actual mp3-quality instruments. Hotline Miami and Braid kept a consistent tone in it's soundtrack despite it's (intentionally) dated visual style, with one being synth-pop and the other being meditative. Incidentally, Shovel Knight is one of the few modern 8-bit games I've played that actually has an 8-bit score.
If you haven't played Undertale yet then I reccomend playing it. It's on Steam, so if it's not for you then you can get a refund so long as you've played less than two hours of it. Also; the game is ridiculously low-tech so if you have an average-spec laptop then it'll probably work on it fine. The filesize is only 110 MB for goodness sake. I honestly don't think it's the earth-shattering revolution that the rest of the internet seems to think it is, but then again it's an indie game so you have to give it some slack. It's also a rare example of a dying genre, so if you don't want comedy to die then you owe it to yourself to at least check this out for a few hours.
