Undertale

ZTGameDomain (10 out of 10)

It’s been years since I’ve started writing reviews for ZTGD but even after all this time, I’ve actually never given out a perfect score to any game. There have been some that have come close, but in the end, I could always think of some notable flaw or a way the game could’ve been more enjoyable. In the case of Undertale, I can’t think of one particular flaw or a way it could’ve been made more enjoyable. As is, it is as perfect as anything could be in this imperfect world of ours.

USgamer (5 out of 5)

But it's more than just this novelty that makes Undertale special: It's loaded with smart puzzles, and its many boss battles and special enemy encounters are invariably complex, multi-stage, and harrowing. Undertale could have easily skated by on its EarthBoundy charms alone, but, by overloading this RPG with almost Too Many Ideas, developer Toby Fox transcended his inspirations and created something equally great—and a lot more daring. It's already one of my favorite games of the year, and, unless you hate fun, it's hard to imagine a scenario where it wouldn't be one of yours.

TechRaptor (10 out of 10)

Overall, Undertale moved me as both a reviewer of games and as a player. It toys with your interaction with a virtual world, preserving the illusion of the monster’s underground home as a real place above all else. It laughs along with you at absurd gameplay tropes that we have all memorized, and then rips its hand away as it thrusts you into a heartfelt moment of character development. The fact that one developer was the primary creative force behind this endeavor is inspiring, and his work is fully realized as a masterpiece of storytelling that will live on for generations. Undertale is an instant classic that deserves to be appreciated in its time. Play this game.

IGN (10 out of 10)

It's hard to express just how much I adore Undertale without spoiling anything significant, but that's what I love about it. It tells its story in such a dynamic way, and with such a great understanding of the RPG player’s mindset, that it couldn’t have been told in any other way. It's a masterfully crafted experience that I won't forget any time soon.

The Jimquisition (10 out of 10)

Undertale is one of the best roleplaying games I’ve ever played, and I do not say that lightly. Hyperbolic though the statement may seem, this eccentric adventure is truly remarkable, both for its standardized elements and the unique ways in which it toys with player expectations.

GamingTrend (100 out of 100)

Undertale manages to grow from simple fairy-tale to a sprawling odyssey, yet it manages to retain a personal manner the whole time. The cast is small yet memorable, the combat is inventive and clever, and there’s so much to delve into. Beyond your first playthrough, there are fans delving into all kinds of secrets, finding different endings and changes and entire pieces of lore that are only found in “true” routes. This is really an incredible RPG, not for reinventing the genre or massive production values, but by simply telling a story and telling it impeccably well. Undertale is a labor of love project, quietly released on Steam, asking only a handful of hours compared to the exhaustive breadth of content recent games have produced, yet it stands as one of the most fascinating experiences of the year.

RPGamer (5 out of 5)

Definitely check this one out. Undertale is a delightful, heartfelt game. Over the course of a nine-hour initial run it blossoms from a minimalist bag of gags into a living world that demands attention. Revisiting the world with different intentions strengthens and twists those bonds to create a unique experience filled with memorable characters and invigorating choice. Replaying Undertale is practically required to understand just what's going on, so mark your calenders accordingly and lock in. Whatever strange alchemy tobyfox captured in Undertale does the trick.

Destructoid (10 out of 10)

Undertale provided me with many hours of laughter, happiness, and warm, fuzzy feelings, all the while surprising me with some truly sad and shocking moments out of the blue. It's the kind of game that I'll want to replay many times in order to see how all of the various choices play out, and I'm sure I will remember it fondly for years to come. I hope everyone else can find as much joy from playing Undertale as I have!

PC Invasion (INC Gamers) (10 out of 10)

I want to call Undertale art, but that word carries some pretty negative connotations in the gaming world, usually bringing up thoughts of either overly pretentious titles or “walking simulators” like the (nonetheless excellent) Gone Home. This is neither, so let’s avoid that word, and just say what it is: Undertale is a brilliant, shining example of how games can make us feel things, can surprise us, can make us laugh, can make us sad, and can make us care, while still being fun to play.

Giant Bomb ( )

Undertale feels less like passively watching a sitcom and more like bullshitting with old friends, and this gives the game the disarming effect that smart comedies often have. Because Undertale made me laugh, I was able to trust it when it wanted to shift in tone to address trends in contemporary game design and culture. The result is a game that has both an anime loving dinosaur doctor and the resonant message that we can love games (and lots of other things) without feeling the need to wring every last ounce of content from them.

Hooked Gamers (9.8 out of 10)

Undertale is simply brilliant. The writing, art, sound, and gameplay all work so cohesively that it creates something that is greater than the sum of its parts. The game's themes and tones are masterfully portrayed and set a high bar for video games as a medium. It is an outstanding creation I highly encourage anyone to go out and buy this game.

Vandal Online (9.8 out of 10)

Humor, épica, drama, diversión a raudales, una historia con muchísimo encanto y donde cada acción tiene su consecuencia, un sistema de combate fresco, único y original, una selección de personajes inolvidables, una gran narrativa y una sana intención por romper con todos los convencionalismos de la industria, son solo algunas de sus múltiples virtudes, por no mencionar otras muchas que podrían arruinaros algunas de sus sorpresas. Simplemente imprescindible.

Niche Gamer (9.75 out of 10)

All in all, Undertale is a gem that I hold dear to my heart. I had very little idea of what to expect going in, and was pleasantly surprised at every turn. The music is marvelous, the gameplay fun and engaging. The story is fraught with twists and turns, and the characters are just so damned likable.

God is a Geek (9.5 out of 10)

[Undertale]'s one of the most important games I have played in the last decade. It managed to make me continue to think about what I did in-game and what happened long after completing the multiple endings. The tunes still play in my head while I’m writing or doing something else. Undertale is a compelling game that everyone should experience.

Game Informer Magazine (9.5 out of 10)

At first glance, Undertale is a retro RPG that feels similar to the seminal classic Earthbound – but it’s so much more than that. It is the culmination of many meticulously crafted moving parts that come together to create something magical. The music, dialogue, characters, and combat system make every encounter unique; after finishing the game, I wished I could experience it again for the first time.

RPGFan (95 out of 100)

A solid debut from a developer with innovative ideas and a whole lotta heart, Undertale is a rare game that not only manages to be daring and subversive but also fun for all ages. The game's wide variety of battle options, emphasis on meaningful choice and short duration make repeat playthroughs an attractive option, and a second playthrough will show some revealing changes in unexpected places. This is a game that will surely be talked about for years to come, and it's likely that we'll see future indie devs crib a page or two from Tobyfox's book, but that's no bad thing.

Geeks Under Grace (9.5 out of 10)

Altogether, Undertale embodies the best of indie gaming. Its unique and inventive gameplay mechanics, along with its quirky characters and heartfelt storytelling, showcase the creativity that you can only find in smaller games. Toby Fox has crafted a true gem, one that stands out in comparison to both the AAA gaming scene as well as fellow indie titles. It’s one of the best games of the generation, so don’t let it slip under your radar.

PC Gamer (91 out of 100)

The fact that this is basically a one-person project only makes it more impressive, from the excellent use of simple graphics to convey emotion, to the fantastic lo-fi soundtrack. It may or may not be the best RPG you play this year, but it’s certainly going to be one of the most worthwhile—as memorable as anything in, say, The Witcher 3, and every bit as worthy.

Rocky Bytes ( )

A magical, fantastical RPG, most likely like nothing you have ever played before.

CGMagazine / Comics and Gaming Magazine (9 out of 10)

Undertale is like Earthbound if it were a Hayao Miyazaki movie: strange, interesting, and profoundly unique. The ways in which each little choice can affect the game will constantly keep you guessing, and its multiple paths are each truly moving experiences capped off by a “true ending” that actually had me weeping by its sheer force of power.

ppe.pl (9 out of 10)

Grając w Undertale ponownie poczułem się jak dziecko, które po raz pierwszy sięga po tytuł, który na zawsze zmieni go jako gracza. Jeśli uważasz, że współczesne gry nie mają już tego uroku co kiedyś to jest to dla Ciebie pozycja obowiązkowa.

Games TM (9 out of 10)

Undertale is easily one of the indie standouts of last year. Leave your expectations at the door and try talking your way out of trouble for a change - you might find you prefer it to fighting in the end.

Gamereactor (Denmark) (9 out of 10)

Undertale er helt sin egen. Gåderne når aldrig at blive særligt udfordrende, men her handler det mere om joken i gåden end at regne den ud. På samme måde er joken i kampene ofte sjovere end at kæmpe dem. Undertaler er en rejse dybt under jordens overflade, dernede hvor de klassiske regler ikke gælder længere. Dernede hvor stenene ikke gider flytte sig, dernede hvor sælgeren ikke gider købe dit bras og dernede hvor skeletterne hellere vil dræbe dig med deres latterligt dårlige vittigheder end at kæmpe mod dig. Undertale har udseendet af et gammelt spil, men er på mange måder langt forud for sin tid. Så for alle os der er velbevandret i spil-verdenen, er dette en tur man er nødt til at tage.

Gamereactor (Norway) (9 out of 10)

Undertale gjør så mye at det ikke er godt å si. Det er et klassisk fantasy-rollespill som harselerer med sosiale medier og helikopterforeldre. Det er tegnet i enkel 16-bits grafikk, men har en dybde megaprosjekter med kjendisskuespillere og motion capture sjelden når. Mest av alt er det en unik fortelling, som er ladet med humor, omtanke og nydelig musikk. Litt som spillet jeg skulle lage, bare mye, mye bedre.

GameSpew (9 out of 10)

There's quite simply, nothing like it. Fox has thrown his own sense of humour into the mix, creating a cast of unforgettable characters that you develop a real bond with, and a battle system that calls into question the very nature of a fight. It's not afraid to challenge convention, chucking all sorts of random surprises at you without a care in the world. It takes jibes at other games that try so hard to stay true to what players expect. What players expect? Undertale gives people what they want without the need of a multi-million pound budget spent on marketing and false hype. Beneath it's genuinely amusing outward appearance is a game that treads dark ground and a story that turns things on its head. Undertale is a work of genius that'll leave a lasting impression on you for a very long time and in turn makes for one of 2015's biggest surprises.

GameStar (Germany) (89 out of 100)

Der Autor Toby Fox lässt uns nicht nur teilhaben an einer berührenden und humorvollen Geschichte mit skurrilen, liebevollen Charakteren, sondern durchbricht dauerhaft die vierte Wand und macht uns zum festen Mitglied des Ensembles. Selten lassen uns Spiele so intensiv über die Frage reflektieren, warum wir und vor allem wie wir Spiele spielen. Die brillanten Enden und die damit verbundene Meta-Ebene von Undertale beschäftigt, wenn man möchte, noch Tage und Wochen danach und lässt uns bei jedem Durchgang neue Geheimnisse entdecken. Dabei wird das Abenteuer nie zu verkopft, Undertale begeistert zusätzlich auf der rein mechanischen, spielerischen Ebene. Toby Fox zerlegt im Minutentakt gelernte Videospielmechaniken, sodass die eigene Erwartungshaltung, wie Spiele funktionieren, ständig überrascht und herausgefordert wird. Undertale ist ein Meisterwerk. Ein bisweilen sehr hässliches, aber ansonsten überaus einzigartiges und empfehlenswertes Kleinod, dass niemand verpassen sollte.

4Players.de (87 out of 100)

In Undertale steckt so viel Witz, Liebe und Phantasie, dass man sich seinem Charme nur schwer entziehen kann. Der pixelige 8-Bit-Look mag nicht jedermanns Sache, Zufallskämpfe von vielen verpönt, der Ausflug in die unterirdische Monsterwelt zu schnell vorbei sein, aber was Toby Fox hier für knapp zehn Euro anbietet, sollte sich kein englischkundiger Rollenspielliebhaber entgehen lassen. Von den sympathisch schrägen Charakteren über die herzerweichend albernen Dialoge bis hin zu all den skurrilen Situationen und Konflikten, könnten sich so viele große Titel eine dicke Scheibe abschneiden. Man wird immer wieder überrascht, zum Lachen und zum Nachdenken gebracht. Man experimentiert, sinniert oder lehnt sich einfach zurück, um dem ungemein stimmungsvollen Soundtrack zu lauschen. Nicht nur für Pazifisten und Fans klassischer Japan-Rollenspiele der 80er und 90er ein empfehlenswerter Kreativ-Cocktail, der mehr als nur einmal mundet.

New Game Network (87 out of 100)

Undertale is not a game I should have liked. It's heavily scripted, dominated by text boxes, stuffed with generic sappy 'power of love' themes that let you believe you can solve everything with hugs, and only ever gives the player agency when it begrudgingly slides an 'X or Y' question under their nose. Its approach to pacifism is to give you a platter of menu options to fumble your way through, its RPG elements are paper-thin, and it’s about as systemically complex as a game of Fifty-Two Pickup. It hinges almost entirely on its ability to force-feed you something imaginative and novel on every other screen, and that’s why its success is so singularly remarkable. People tend to wear out words like ‘charming’ and ‘quirky’ and ‘funny’ in the indie sphere, mostly because almost anything tends to look that way after months of consuming designed-by-committee blockbusters, but Undertale, bless its enormous heart, encapsulates those words so perfectly. It is, in other words, the real deal.

LevelUp (8.2 out of 10)

El mayor elogio que puedo hacer de Undertale es advertir al jugador que no será el mismo antes y después de terminarlo: demasiadas decisiones, demasiadas memorias y demasiados feels lo esperan. ¿Buscarás perdonar a la orgullosa amazona que te persiguió con su lanza mientras sus ataques pierden fuerza ante tus ojos y comienza su aterradora agonía? ¿Traicionarás a tu maternal protectora para salir al mundo y descubrir la verdad? ¿Estás dispuesto a confrontar al esqueleto más cool que hayas visto en tu vida? ¿Confesarás a ese pobre sujeto que te ayuda a lo largo del camino que has matado al amor de su vida sin saberlo? Decenas de decisiones como éstas (o distintas, porque cada juego de Undertale es diferente) se presentarán ante ti antes de que llegues al momento de la verdad. ¿Aceptarás el reto? Yo sí, y no me arrepiento.

GameOver (Greece) (8 out of 10)

Στις συνολικά περίπου έξι ώρες που διαρκεί ένα playthrough, το Undertale αρχίζει και αποκτά αξία από τα μισά και μετά. Δε θα παραξενευόμασταν καθόλου αν δοκιμάσετε για λίγο το παιχνίδι και καταλήξετε στο συμπέρασμα πως “οι κριτικοί τα χάσανε” με τις βαθμολογίες που έχει αποκομίσει. Το Undertale, όμως, καταφέρνει να ξεπεράσει την περιοριστική φύση της μηχανής γραφικών του και να αποδώσει ένα καλοστημένο και τελικά έξυπνο σενάριο που όμως δείχνει τα δόντια του προς το τέλος τη περιπέτειας.

Gry Interia (8 out of 10)

Czy Undertale to rzeczywiście jedna z najlepszych gier wszech czasów? Nie jesteśmy tego zdania, co niektóre zachodnie media, które wystawiły produkcji Tobyego Foxa maksymalną ocenę. To według nas przesada. Jednak nie zmienia to faktu, że Undertale jest szalenie interesującą propozycją dla wszystkich miłośników RPG-ów, którzy do szczęścia nie potrzebują nowoczesnej, trójwymiarowej grafiki.

Gry Onet (8 out of 10)

Główny twórca, Toby Fox, udowodnił, że potrafi operować zarówno błyskotliwymi pomysłami, puszczaniem oka do gracza jak i mądrą opowieścią - w przyszłości chciałbym zobaczyć, jak poradziłby sobie z tym samym w technologicznie współczesnym środowisku.

Metro.co.uk (8 out of 10)

Better technology would not make Undertale a better game, but instead it survives and excels solely on the quality of its gameplay and storytelling. Which isn't to suggest that all games should be made on such a tiny budget, but so often it seems that the less you have to work with the more important it becomes to surprise and innovate in other more interesting ways.

Christ Centered Gamer / Christ Centered Game Reviews (80 out of 100)

Needless to say, this game is very entertaining and worth playing again to do things that I wasn’t able to my first time around. There is plenty of replay value and I highly recommend checking it out if the moral issues don’t bother you.

Jeuxvideo.com (16 out of 20)

Avec sa réalisation old-school crade typée 3ème génération de consoles, UnderTale laisse parfois indifférent, confortant ainsi les réfractaires anglophobes dans leur non-enthousiasme à l'égard du jeu. Et pourtant, ce dernier mérite amplement l'attention des joueurs, lesquels y découvriront peu à peu un univers riche, finement élaboré, accueillant, embelli par une panoplie de personnages franchement drôles et intéressants. Le gameplay du titre arrive aussi à étonner grâce à ses nombreuses pirouettes qui dynamisent terriblement un système de combat pourtant lambda en le rendant malin et parfois frénétique. Avec ses retournements de situation et sa fin que nous vous laissons découvrir, UnderTale se place haut dans la caste des titres indépendants qu'il faut absolument découvrir, ne serait-ce que pour savoir jusqu’où un RPG peut aller dans un terreau à l'apparence si stérile.

Kill Screen (65 out of 100)

The constraints of Undertale‘s nonviolent combat, then, might suggest something similar, highlighting the way that choosing not to fight is a profound risk, not to be taken lightly. Their presence in a system, though, one which has carefully constructed each choice and then determined how those choices are communicated to the player, however, suggests something different. It suggests a communicative failure, one brought about by the nature of the system itself. The charming, morally earnest rhetoric of Undertale conceals the coercive weaknesses of its systemic approach to those same moral issues. Its limited combat options and often obtuse puzzle solving, alongside the sheer endurance required to survive boss fights long enough to end them, add up to a system that doesn’t point to any elaborate moral insight. It simply points to itself.

Riot Pixels (60 out of 100)

Забавная концепция в куцем исполнении. Мило, но мало.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun N/A

The brilliance of Undertale, its delicate balance that it manages for most of the time you'll spend playing it, is that it understands how to be scary and funny all at once. Inside the Snowdin library there are leather-bound books that contain strange prophecies, books that say profound and disconcerting things about the human soul. Outside, the sign has been mis-spelled.