Final analysis of Undertale

In the days of countless fan cults and the Internet, which provides the access of each individual to the information field of each other individual, with similar words it is already very difficult to surprise. Yes, the volume and “clickbeat” of statements, as if a hundred years ago, all just as stably attract the attention of the public. However, any at least some critical modern user has such cheap interest invariably arises in tandem with skepticism. Skepticism, the scale of which is directly proportional to the pretentiousness and provocativeness of the theses set.

What to do, the yellow press as a phenomenon, once bursting into the simple -minded life of people, forever changed their perception and worldview.

Therefore, when you first hear that the community once again succumbed to the trends of the era of the momentary boundless hype and erected “some kind of Undertale” to its podium, you do not even feel so amazement. All the hollow, the tormented phrases of reverence are perceived as a completely ordinary whim scattered by him. Classical love for a popular work, mainstream simply because it goes a little beyond the everyday gamer chewing gum.

But then you decide to find out about the project a little more.
And you will find out that he has nothing to do with anything at all that can be associated with the term “classic”.

Now that the entire fan community has a quieter in anticipation of the exit DELTARUNE – a new game closely related to the same Undertale, I propose to turn my gaze somewhat to the past.
Such a retrospective attempt “not from the fan” soberly and thoroughly consider several issues at once.
Where does the world love for Undertale?
Is her indisputable place in the history of the gaming industry really unconditionally and unshakable?
And the strangest
What can be wrong with her in theory?

Any acquaintance begins at first sight.

Screenshots and videos that are captured Undertale, ruthless. Large aggressive pixelism, referring to the very times of the emergence of game consoles, and a creepy, practically primitive design – that’s all that awaits an unprepared observer.
The whole graphic component of the game frankly shouts about author’s independence. Spacious ascetic corridors and rooms, a peculiar appearance of the characters, as well as basic colors and cutting eyes, black and white gamut, which regularly displaces them, is an ideal set of an indie project, as if created exclusively for users of hardcore hardening.

The appearance of the game is truly original in every sense of the word. And he clearly played his role in the popularization of the product. When you hear a review filled with indescribable delight, and you see in the place where he sends, something amazingly unattractive, interest simply cannot but be ignited. But before, the same review should appear. And where can it arise in this case in general?

The main secret Undertale lies in everything that is hidden behind the external wall walls. The fact that it is impossible to evaluate without penetrating the process and not diving into the very depths of the work.
The first and most obvious that can mean by this, of course, is the plot.

Narrative dissonance

People and monsters live in the world.
For the simplest formation of an understanding of the situation reigning in this universe, only one voluntary-tracted quote will be enough.
People, monsters. Once upon a time, two peoples lived in the world. But everything has changed when the people of people unleashed the war.

For no reason and out of fear alone, humanity treacherously attacked its former allies and mercilessly drove them deep into the dungeon. Brapping a path to the surface with a special magic barrier, people forever closed the monsters in the endless prison, and there was nothing left of them but to come to terms with their new sad fate.
The current story begins with the child. Uncertain gender and indefinite age, once, walking along the grief of the Ebbot, accidentally falls into the hole in the ground and falls down, finding himself in the very center of the newly formed world of monsters. And our task as a player to help him get out of this unknown place, full of creatures, who hate the human race with all their hearts.

If you think, at this moment you can realize some amazing fact.
For something that has the status of a universally recognized masterpiece in all its aspects, the tie sounds extremely corny and not impressive. After the exclusion of a certain number of details, only conditionally outlining the ENT of the game world, only one naked scenario foundation remains. He sends the player on a trip, but does not motivate him to continue to go forward. So then what is the “main secret” here?
Everything is simple: here – nothing.
The game really in the future seriously deepens the story. Quite dramatic details are revealed, and the feeling of widespread non -talking, hinting at the global secret, is exchanged. But with all this, the narrative does not try to become a critical element of involvement. It only turns out to be a moderate part of something much greater.

History is always inextricably linked with the world in which it unfolds. With the characters that he is inhabiting, and with the situation, in it reigning. And it is the universe Undertale really amazes the player who finds himself in it. Not its colossal scale or the deepest elaboration of decades and centuries of the background, but with its living dissimilarity to nothing else.

Does every creature who attacked the hero should be plunged?

All those “monsters” that will meet during the trip, in fact, are far from monsters by nature. They – possessing a bizarre appearance and a device that differs from people, ordinary living conscious characters. Each of them is an evil entity not prescribed by the gamedemer in a solid empty shell, but a person who is quite moving in an internal logic. Someone does his work of the guard, refusing to let the hero into a closed territory, for some reason, someone sees a threat in him and therefore seeks to stop, and someone becomes an opponent in the conflict simply because he dreams of becoming a comedian and telling everyone he meets his own writings, often causing them a completely physical pain.

Like any person in real life, the protagonist https://megaways-casino.uk/ has no reason to aggressively pounce on every passerby. Any clash can be allowed exclusively in a peaceful way, and resolution options are almost countless. Morally support someone who is aggressive because of some of their personal problems or complexes. It is permanently to play along with someone who is not trying to harm, but only wants to meet and does not know how to approach correctly. Or to accept the test proposed by someone and win, surpassing the opponent who will simply run away from shame far away.

After a deceptive diligently planted first impression, the dungeon is revealed from a completely different side. This is not a terrible casemate for embittered monsters. This is an eccentric and often even a sweet place, full of strange, just living their lives of creatures. Cozy stronghold of kindness among the darkness of the surrounding reality.

Think outside the framework

But even so, why should the player generally abandon the instinct nurtured by many years of gaming experience to kill everything that moves? Indeed, unlike real people, these are just a handful of pixels with a couple of lines of the text attached to them, and there is no one directly who could “be forbidden” to do this. To work such a concept, you need motivation. And just like in life, in addition to abstract and non -focused pacifism and humanism, there are reasons for.

The first seems obvious and straightforward, but in fact it is very smart in its own way. Pass the game, dealing with absolutely everyone for the sake of gaining experience and “Luta”, is much more difficult. Monsters fighting for their lives and to save the lives of their loved ones, the threat of which the protagonist acts, will be fought frantically. The population of the underworld, seeing a killer maniac in front of him, ruthlessly exterminating the crowd of innocent, will begin to be afraid and hate him. Even initially neutral characters will turn against the protagonist and try to stop the meaningless massacre. No one will close his eyes to the crime committed against their society. Conflicts will be inevitable, and the whole game will change.

The second reason is much more elegant and interacts with the player at a thinner abstract level. Undertale, Turning to the potential desire of a person to plunge into the world presented in it, forms an environment in which he will not even want to kill the characters they meet. After all, they have and entertain. And this is not only about funny replicas and funny situations. Even the original and unexpected images are interested in and amusive.
What is worth at least a depressive ghost, which in his free time is engaged in the recording of mystime?
Humor and wit. The game is ironic, soberly approaches itself, and is also saturated with satire and references to the world beyond. As a player, you just don’t want to turn this positive joyful world to ruins. After all, this is corny deprives you of the lion’s share of pleasure from the game process. But why play at all, if not to get pleasure?

The extraordinary approaches and a certain general unpredictability is strikingly distinguished Undertale From almost any other representative of the sphere of interactive entertainment. The whole essence of this game is in freshness and originality, hidden under the shocking veil of the apparent secondary and even second -rate. The game itself is flirting with expectations, leading an informalized, but direct dialogue with the player. An equal dialogue with an equal, in which each of the interlocutors understands a little more than is inclined to voice. This is a worked out and multifaceted project, which goes beyond the traditional gaming framework and gives the game conventions new, somewhat absurdly-skoking facets of realism.

Due to all this Undertale can be called in its pure form an exemplary representative of postmodernism in art. This is a mocking or elegantly baking parody of a whole section of the era of video game adventure, surpassing its parody object. Without rudeness or disrespect, she offers the player to look at the things familiar and understandable at the subconscious level with a fundamentally different, interesting point of view. And suddenly everything that the gamer seemed predetermined and natural appears in a completely different light. And there is nothing left but to laugh.

It is difficult to overestimate the significance of a work that can declare oneself with its unusualness and sincerely surprise a modern user. You can say the slightest shadow of doubt that Undertale as only one unique and unique game experience, already deserves attention without exception of each interested.

However
Minus this
What is still in integrity and what she carries in itself, in addition to the fundamental, but does not saturate conceptual conceptuality?
What kind of frame is a support for clothing catchy ideology?

Simplicity and complexity

To describe the gameplay Undertale As epithets, all the same “not …” are applicable, which describes the project in integrity. Unusual, non -standard, extraordinary. And most of all, upon careful examination, it is surprising exactly how it is achieved.

At the most primitive functional level, the game is a two -component journey. Global movement along a long labyrinth of the dungeon with solving simple logical tasks alternates with regular meetings, random and quite plot, with monsters living on different locations, aggressive and not very. Sounds simple and clear. But in such a seemingly typical, “Pokemon” journey, one single element is added to the whole familiar concept inside out.
Namely: the battle regime is a paradoxical in its essence and surprising. As already mentioned, the battle regime in which there is no need to fight.

Without exception, all “non -unit” skirmishes are enclosed in the shell that has become a real business card of the project. The protagonist, entering the “contact mode”, is replaced by the main symbol of the work – a small conditional cursor in the form of a heart, and the essence of what is happening is transformed. Now each action performed by the main character-aggressive, neutral or friendly-will be represented in the form of a separate, corresponding essence of the act of a mini-game. The outcome of the entire meeting in general will depend on the success of the successive series of the series.

The better the user copes with the situation, the more units of health will remain with the avatar or the more the damage caused by his attack will be. Re -repeat. Extremely intuitive.
But the concept, so obvious in theory, in practice is not so simple.

For entertainment of the observer Undertale really twists the tools she has for the maximum. Preserving one constant basis and regularly replacing additional conditions and circumstances, it retains the process understandable and at the same time tries to do absolutely everything so that it does not manage to get bored. The rules of the game are constantly gently transformed and evolved, repeatedly refreshing the user feeling.
And with all this, as it moves forward, the complexity grows steadily. From the demonstration confrontation of a fixed training doll to the final clashes with the last bosses, which requires far from one restart – the player will pass each step.

Such diversity and functional wealth are incredibly pleased when trying to look at the work from the side. However, one simple, but moderately key to further reasoning, the nuance is hidden inside.
Variations of one mechanics in general, because they remain the same mechanics.

What could be wrong in general?

It is during the consideration of gameplay that the most clearly becomes, probably, the main and root cause of the entire project. Its scale is in the broadest sense of the word.

Undertale -The personification of India Hamdev. Game with copyright music, author’s design and author’s history, made entirely by the forces of one single person. A game made in a minimalist format and modestly tied on several basic concepts. Such a project seems to be simply incorrect to rebuke in a lack of scope.
And yes, Undertale It is impossible to blame for modesty. For her format, it surpasses all any expectations. Ambitious, seriously developed deeply and honed in the most insignificant trifles. But this is exactly what, oddly enough, and plays a rather evil joke with her.

Everything comes from predetermined before the development of the inevitable locality of the final product.

An independent work, the responsibility for which lies on the shoulders of only one person, purely physically cannot provide tens and hundreds of hours of work worked out. Therefore, it is forced to dispose of a limited minimum of temporary and spatial resources, trying to evenly distribute them between all its components so as not to lose nowhere.
Undertale tries not only not to lose, but also to achieve the maximum possible quality of study of each of its aspects.

The plot does everything possible to captivate the player. Each of the characters presented here has a prescribed story and background and worthy of empathy, and gradually revealing the details of the history of the confrontation between monsters and their tragedy enhance the dramatic effect. But everything quickly breaks against another, straight -up adjacent component Undertale.

All that humorous parody, playing genre cliches and is probably the strongest feature of the whole work, being closed together with the narrative into uniform tight scenario frames, is corny neutralizes any immersion effect. Once referring to a comedic metarium, the game sets the mood vector, directly parallel to the compassionate perception of the classical plot. Therefore, all subsequent attempts to cling to the viewer with any tense situation do not bear fruit. The status of an observer, as if with a ricochet, constantly jumps between the events involved on the screen that are unfolding on the screen and a detached and all -minded player at the computer. There is only one disappointing result of a similar mixing of polar approaches: the magic of history itself collapses.

The script simply lacks space to freely place all the saturation into it. Due to the limited conditional screen time, none of the worked out characters has a sufficiently significant role in the player’s eyes. They are cheerful, charismatic and charming, but they physically cannot become something more than a bright and interesting, but one-dimensional flat image. As a result, almost all of the moderately pretentious and dramatic plot component, despite the existing potential of an interesting adventure, remains in fact only a background and theatrical decoration for direct action.

But the influence of locality is not limited to only exposure to the narrative. The gameplay also undergoes significant damage from the radical inconsistency of the ideological scale with the scale of the functional.

The simpler the original form, the inevitably more modestly the window of the capabilities provided to it.

The entire interactive component concentrated on the only mechanics Undertale It turns out to be simply unable to satisfy the general daring ambitions of the project.
At first, the game process “Battle” with various characters sincerely positively dumbfounds an unprepared player. Each time, meeting a new enemy, you have to quickly navigate in the new conditions and look for the very tactics that will lead to victory, and this is incredibly carried away. But just like in the battle with the boss, the tricks of which are obvious to the fourth or fifth attempt to defeat him, each subsequent meeting with an already familiar opponent brings less surprises.

An interesting system of “battles” in its idea does not receive a sufficient development so that the player wants to continue to play from the mere expectation to see her new iteration. Once understanding the general principle and evaluating the grace and ideological wit of gameplay, subsequently, you can clearly feel a change in your attitude to clashes with opponents. Despite all the color and humorous saturation of the latter, they will want to avoid meetings with them from the usual unwillingness to once again fulfill the already routine sequence of the mini-game.
The need to select a strategy and manage to respond in aggressive conditions of the rapid pace of the mini-game is gradually being replaced by a purely mechanical performance of the spent patterns. And in conditions of absolute regularity, the result of this naturally becomes a banal loss of interest, if not boredom.

Then the only salvation from the approaching sincere despondency is only the end of the passage itself. No longer exciting and pleasant in his expectation of a denouement, what would he be in isolation from the context, but only a blow of mercy on the confused pulsating plot drama and gameplay.
And it is incredibly sad.

Undertale – An unprecedented phenomenon. A non -standard and extravagant project, which, from birth, seemed to be destined for the fate of becoming the destiny of only a few fans who accidentally recognized about it. The game is “non -format”, and the game is the personification of eccentricity. A modest and, at first glance, unpretentious work that shook the game community and has become an object of veneration and love against all the laws of cold insensitive rationality.

In the age of user satiety and as a result of this selectivity Undertale It really managed to make a local miracle, breaking through the vestibule of bias straight into the game mainstream. Its advantages and strengths as a representative of modern culture and at the same time the bearer of exclusive fresh experience is simply impossible not to admit.

But if you look at it just like a game – like something that turns to a person and immerses him in himself, a picture of a slightly different color appears before his eyes.
All in their own way interesting and extremely meticulously worked out elements in aggregate do not form the ideal result that would truly allow us to name Undertale Excellent game. She is undoubtedly good, sincerely curious, and even as if possesses the very “soul”, but her fragile ambitions are broken in a clash with each other in limited space. Play It is not too interesting in it. If you do not fully love her for her eccentric charismatic and beautiful atmosphere, nothing can capture and captivate anything.