Nah, I\u2019m just kidding. The game is absolutely wonderful. Undertale (PS4, [reviewed] PC, PS Vita)<\/strong> Undertale<\/em> is one of the best games I\u2019ve ever played. It manages to take a genre that has existed since the earliest days of video games and actually do something new and unique with it while drawing the player in with a beautiful, heart-twisting storyline, quirky hilarious dialogue, bizarre and wonderful characters, and one of the best soundtracks ever produced. There isn\u2019t a single moment of Undertale<\/em> that isn\u2019t imperative to the world building and storyline. Not a string of dialogue, battle, or puzzle goes wasted.<\/p> All in all, Undertale<\/em> transformed my expectation of what a good role-playing game should aspire to be, and it\u2019s almost upsetting to think that I may never have an experience like it again. It just seems an all too rare lightning-in-a-bottle occurrence, and I doubt I\u2019ll ever look at other RPGs in the same way or resist the impulse to compare them — and such a comparison would be woefully unfair.<\/p> I\u2019m not going to go into any details about the storyline. You, the non-gender specific human character, have fallen into a cave and found a subterranean monster world below the surface of your own. With the aid of a friendly monster named Toriel, you are able to get your bearings by navigating through a tongue-in-cheek tutorial dungeon which introduces you to the basic mechanics of the game. Before long, you express your desire to go home, and decide to leave the comforts of Toriel\u2019s comforting abode and butterscotch cinnamon pies. And I will leave it right there, because revealing just about anything else about this six- to eight-hour experience would be a major spoiler.<\/p> Like other RPGs of this kind, you will have to deal with random encounters as you explore the underworld. But taking cues from games such as Shin Megami Tensei<\/em>, you have a number of alternate options to combat which vary on each unique encounter, allowing you to interact with your foes in a more passive manner. You will be taught very early on that fighting and killing your enemy is just one option; there is always an alternative to fighting available to you, so part of dealing with battles is uncovering the right order of actions to perform in order to do so. If you do kill an enemy, you will be granted experience points and gold, and will get stronger and more resilient in combat. If you spare a monster, you will only be granted gold, and the combat will be harder to deal with as the game goes on. It\u2019s up to you to decide how you want to proceed through the story, and every single choice you make will greatly affect the final outcome.<\/p> Combat is not a simple matter of rock paper scissors. Your character is represented as a heart in a tiny dialogue box which can be moved about for a very brief amount of time each time a combat action takes place. Each enemy attacks in a unique way, the battles playing out more like a bullet hell game where you are weaving between projectiles, whether they be falling tears raining down from above you, or a monsters flexing muscles rising up to hit you from below. There are variations on how attacks work, with some projectiles being green in color (which heal you) and some blue, which will hurt you only if you\u2019re moving when they make contact. But every single battle is a surprise, boss battles being particularly insane. The story doesn\u2019t pause and take a break, leaving you waiting for the next critical dialogue; interaction with boss characters is intertwined within the combat itself making each encounter special.<\/p> As far as the PS4 version goes, it runs perfectly fine. Undertale<\/em> is simple; there is no online multiplayer, no challenges, no big extras. Avoiding spoilers, after you have finished the game you will immediately be given the opportunity to jump back in, and to see everything you will need to do this a few times — not a new game plus, mind you, but…well, you\u2019ll see if you get there. You get a few colorful borders to play with since the game is natively 4:3, some other basic settings, and that\u2019s about it. I did not run into any performance issues while playing.<\/p>
Asking me to review Undertale<\/em>\u00a0on PlayStation 4 is sort of like asking me to review sex. Even when it\u2019s \u201cbad\u201d it\u2019s still incredible, and the extremely brisk pace and short length (there\u2019s a joke here I\u2019m sure) of the game means that if you hit a puzzle or gap you don\u2019t really enjoy, it will be over quickly enough that it shouldn\u2019t bother you.<\/p>
Developer: Toby Fox<\/strong>
Publisher: Toby Fox<\/strong>
Released: August 15, 2017<\/strong>
MSRP: $19.99<\/strong><\/p> ![\"Undertale](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/v1cdn.jbsgame.com\/454842_undertale2-noscale.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\")
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