Charming RPG Undertale Released
Cheer up a depressed ghost
Many games nowadays are keen to tell you they'll remember your decisions, but the old demo for Undertale [official site] is one of the few games I've seen that remembered everything - across all playthroughs. It's a surreal and charming RPG about a human trapped in a world of monsters where, sure, you could battle 'em, or you could chat and cheer and flirt with them instead. And, in the demo it least, it remembered and offered a few unpleasant twists on later playthroughs.
Two years after its Kickstarter, Undertale launched today. What surprises await?
I'll lazily call it the flipside of Lisa, in that it's an RPG taking strong EarthBound influences in a strange direction, only it's lovely and bittersweet rather than brutal and bittersweet. Well. It's not quite as brutal. It does have a delightful sense of humour and playfulness, that's for certain. Its turn-based battles have some neat tricks too, with bonuses for timing and letting you dodge attacks by playing teensy bullet hell minigames. Oh, and the whole conversation thing - you can get out of every battle by talking your foe out of it in some way. Or I guess you could fight them, if you want.
Undertale is out on Steam for Windows and Mac, priced at £6.99. Developer Toby Fox also sells it DRM-free with a bonus Steam key from the game's site. The old, old demo is still up here. I would be surprised if one of the others here at RPS doesn't have more to say about it soon. Here, have a launch trailer:
