undertale game review

UnderTale: One of the slaps of the independent sphere?

The ultimate goal of a video game adventure is to mark the players, whether it is by powerful gameplay, by a high-flying achievement, a memorable scenario or by disturbing ideas ... UnderTale is part of this last caste and, against all odds Wait, Toby Fox's work shakes the player in a good sense of the term, gradually and brilliantly. So much so that we come out of the experience with a real desire to thank the creator of the game for his audacity. Focus on one of the key works of 2015 for independent games.

Let's not beat around the bush, UnderTale will divide the crowds. With its resolutely 8-bit plastic, its absolute need to understand sometimes slang English, or its structure very close to an old-fashioned RPG where very many bubbles of dialogue will come to punctuate your adventure frantically, UnderTale surprises and brakes that time. Based on this premise, we can only advise the most reluctant among you to persevere, because the epic of our little human in striped t-shirt gradually intensifies before reaching its peak around 6 to 7 hours of game, as the storyline reveals its tastiest twists.

A LAMBDA AND MANICHÉEN SCENARIO THAT RESERVES SOME SURPRISES

Overall, UnderTale tells us the story of a past war, pitting humans against monsters. Obviously, we will not spoiler the frame in this place, but know for information that the beast Manichean history (in appearance) will give you food for thought, something surprising with such a technical coating, hardly indicated today when it is to immerse the masses in a resolutely narrative adventure. Skeptical during the first hour, your humble servant therefore asked himself some ethical questions throughout the rest of his adventure, for the simple reason that the game offers you to be pacifist or aggressive towards the creatures you meet . So you embody here a human being, genderless to promote player involvement, and mourn miserably, after a fall, in the “kingdom of monsters”, land of the damned who once waged war against humans, and found themselves cut off from their enemies, kept underground by a magic barrier and subject to the reign of Asgore.

AT THE CROSSROADS ON THE GAMEPLAY SIDE

In these lands, you are the target. As a human, your soul will be much sought after during the epic and many NPCs will want to trap you. However, you will be able to save everyone if you wish, and especially if you get there. Indeed the combat system of this UnderTale is quite atypical since it mixes old-school RPG commands (simplistic turn-based with physical attack, items and flight) but also various and contextual actions (talk, flirt, scare, dance , compliment ...) that will allow our hero to convince the enemy to give up the fight. In this case, your confrontation ends calmly, you will not gain EXP, but the game will remember your kindness…

When the enemy attacks, a new brilliant idea of gameplay comes in since your soul (represented by a small red heart that you control), must avoid projectiles for a few seconds, like a shoot'em up. Many variants of this formula exist (with or without gravity, reversal of orders, dodging or passage areas without moving…). We are really faced with "a set of mini-games in the game" that it will be necessary to master to progress. This component will always surprise you and will never stop reinventing itself, sticking perfectly to the enemy, the situation, and the difficulty curve. What will initially represent for you only a waste of time devoid of challenge will put you very quickly under pressure with each enemy attack.

BANAL UNTIL THERE?

History to give you a quick overview of what makes UnderTale a very good game, know that the title is full of references to RPG and that it mocks conventions, sometimes going to explain several times in a row a puzzle mechanic complex, which in fact is useless, or spamming you with speech bubbles as you try to move forward. The characters are searched, often deeper than you might think, and often have funny and well-written lines. We will think in particular of Papyrus and Sans, two skeleton brothers not very smart who try to capture a human on behalf of Asgore at the start of the adventure.

These characters, all endearing, will intervene during the adventure following your actions, because remember, UnderTale remembers everything, and thus, several endings are available depending on your behavior in the game. Combine this concept with a lot of little innovative ideas and frankly well done (sometimes eyeing the side of ImScared for example), and you get a singular work, frankly well thought out, original, and falsely limited technically.

The notes
+ Positive points
Omnipresent humor, numerous references and wacky scenario at first sight
Excellent value
Importance of choices in the frame and replayability
Gameplay that reveals all its interest as the epic progresses
Several reversals during which the app plays with you as an adventure player ...
Minimalist but excellent music
Wealth and relevance of the combat system mini-games

-Negative points
Old school and poor achievement
Slightly sluggish beginnings
Good level of English required

With its old-school dirty construction typified 3rd generation of consoles, UnderTale sometimes leaves indifferent, thus comforting anglophobic refractories in their non-enthusiasm towards the game. And yet, the latter amply deserves the attention of players, who will gradually discover a rich universe, finely developed, welcoming, embellished by a panoply of frankly funny and interesting characters. The gameplay of the title also manages to surprise thanks to its numerous pirouettes which terribly energize a combat system yet lambda by making it clever and sometimes frantic. With its turnarounds and its end that we let you discover, UnderTale ranks high in the caste of independent titles that must absolutely be discovered, if only to know how far an RPG can go in a compost at the appearance so sterile.