Ive bought Undertale on the steam sale and I'm going to be doing a genocide run. Might LP it too.
I was actually just thinking how weird it would be for someone's very first experience of the game to be a full-bore No Mercy run. I'll be curious to see if you LP it, and either way would like to hear your thoughts. And you'd definitely want to Pacifist run it afterward for the full experience, for sure.
I bought undertale last night on the steam sale. First, I had to go through my normal dance of having to reinstall steam to get it to work, and a dozen emails to get logged in, but I expect that now every time I don't use steam for a few months.
The the game... I had no idea what to expect. It's fun enough so far, but... game of the year/ever good?!??!
Its my own personal game of the year. I'm not saying it should top everyone's list, but on my own persoanl completely biased list it comes in at #1. Though admitedly, full disclosure, Earthbound is probably my favorite game of all time so you could see how Undertale hits all the right notes with me.
Agree that the game is mostly just fun and cute for a good chunk of the run, but not really what you'd call masterpiece level. What really sends it over that bar IMO is how it sticks the landing(s). Definitely recommend getting at least the Neutral and True Pacifist endings to get a fuller picture of what the game has to offer in terms of themes, character, metatextual & metafictional elements, etc. Either playing through or watching a highlights video of the No Mercy route is highly recommended as well, but not required if you're pressed for time.
I have so far gotten most of the fun out of one playthrough, and I'm going to play a little more past that to get one more big set of story.
In the neutral route, there is a wide array of little things that can end differently, but they're not enough to bother trying every possible combination of decisions.
Ah. I didn't realize there were different endings and different routes. I hope I get most of the fun of it with one play through.
If you play the first route a certain way, you can pick right up from the final save and get the "true" route without having to do anything twice.
This is a thing that is true. If you go through the entire first playthrough without killing a single thing + befriending all the major boss characters available to you, you can reload your save after the Neutral Ending and it basically just continues your game as if it's all one long single playthrough. If you've already killed things in your first playthrough, then yeah, you would have to reset and play again without killing. If that's the case and you don't have time to do that, I recommend finding a Let's Play of the Pacifist Route (there are LPs with no commentary out there if you prefer that) and picking it up from where things diverge from the Neutral Route.
I might have mentioned something along these lines before, but as it is relevant, let's repeat.
I think it does a bit of disservice to the game where people talk about it, like it only had two ways to play, pacifist and genocide. And I'm not only blaming fans, the game's webpage, trailer and steam store page all underline the "you don't have to kill anyone" -part, which kinda makes people easily explore that option while playing. Sure, if you are limited on time, pacifist route has the best content to time ratio, but I believe that there is value in playing following your instincts and seeing what comes out of it.
I'm 141 minutes into the game, and I think I'll stop now. It's not really entertaining me that much, and I don't find it very challenging. It's occasionally funny, but I can get occasionally funny so many other places. Unless I'm missing something really, really great later on, I don't see much point in continuing.
I'm 141 minutes into the game, and I think I'll stop now. It's not really entertaining me that much, and I don't find it very challenging. It's occasionally funny, but I can get occasionally funny so many other places. Unless I'm missing something really, really great later on, I don't see much point in continuing.
If the lore isn't getting you I suppose there isn't much there for you, because at best it is a playable JRPG style game. The man draw for a lot of people is the lore and the story, so if that doesn't engage you then no, it probably isn't worth more of your time.
Luke, could you say how far you got in the game, as the minutes don't tell much. I've heard from multiple sources that for some people it took a while to warm up for the writing and characters.
But if you really don't feel the charm of the characters, don't care for the battles and dungeon puzzles don't interest you, feel free to skip the game.
I do find the problem is that the lore is offered up as the carrot for the behavior of doing everything they'd expect you to do in a normal RPG (I.E. explore, examine, experiment).
I got very bored in a house, and ended up killing a character just to get out. Maybe there was a way to get out without doing that, but whatever.
I then met the brothers, and had a lot of fun following Papyrus through his "puzzles". Then I was stuck in a town, and ended up killing Papyrus just to see if that would move the game along. Then it got boring walking around waterfalls and such.
The battles are fun, but not challenging at all. I've never been beaten by a character. I've tried lots of non-violent actions, and let characters flee, or have just walked away from them, but as this is my first play of the game, I don't know what any of these choices mean. There doesn't seem to be anything in the game that is rewarding me for anything I've done so far, nor penalized for anything I've done or not done.
Killing has the obvious reward of giving you more life and upping your stats so fights are easier, and killing significant characters penalizes you by not allowing you to interact with them in the future, something you would only truly realize on alternative playthrough where you'd let them live.
I think Luke's problem is that he's not getting drawn into the "fun" of figuring out the puzzle element to the boss fights. He's taking the expedient way out because dodging a bullet hell and trying to figure out the right combination of button presses to advance things without murder isn't fun for him.
Honestly I could write a panel about this. I might just.
There doesn't seem to be anything in the game that is rewarding me for anything I've done so far, nor penalized for anything I've done or not done.
The first thing that stood out to me is that on my first playthrough I killed Toriel, then restarted. That resulted in a really big revelation to what the game does for reward/penalty.
Also, later on, the bosses do get harder, and I died to maybe 3 bosses before finishing.
I actually enjoy the bullet hell battle stuff. It's fun! I like that each attack by the opponent results in a new mini-game. Papyrus's turned into a platforming type thing, with was a new kind of fun.
So yeah, it seems like my problem is that the game would reward me for not killing a boss, but I didn't know that was an option until I'd already done it. And I didn't discover that within the game, only on this forum.
It goes like this, when I've faced the bosses so far:
1. Not fight -> stuck in a boring house/village, just wandering around, wondering what I'm missing.
2. Try to walk away after starting a fight -> put into a shed. Then back to square one, with no reward for not killing Papyrus.
3. Try to discover a way to talk my way out of a fight -> see option 2. Boring.
4. Fight and kill the boss -> feel mildly accomplished, and am able to progress through the game, but I'm then "rewarded" with removing Papyrus from the game, the most fun character so far, and the reason I was having fun up until that point.
It feels like I now have to balance current boredom and frustration with possible future non-boredom. Should I start over again, and try to find arbitrary combinations of non-fighting interaction options so the fun characters stick around to make the rest of the game non-boring? Put in another three hours for the chance that I might enjoy hours six to ten hours more fun?
Comments
The the game... I had no idea what to expect. It's fun enough so far, but... game of the year/ever good?!??!
In the neutral route, there is a wide array of little things that can end differently, but they're not enough to bother trying every possible combination of decisions.
I think it does a bit of disservice to the game where people talk about it, like it only had two ways to play, pacifist and genocide. And I'm not only blaming fans, the game's webpage, trailer and steam store page all underline the "you don't have to kill anyone" -part, which kinda makes people easily explore that option while playing.
Sure, if you are limited on time, pacifist route has the best content to time ratio, but I believe that there is value in playing following your instincts and seeing what comes out of it.
I've heard from multiple sources that for some people it took a while to warm up for the writing and characters.
But if you really don't feel the charm of the characters, don't care for the battles and dungeon puzzles don't interest you, feel free to skip the game.
I then met the brothers, and had a lot of fun following Papyrus through his "puzzles". Then I was stuck in a town, and ended up killing Papyrus just to see if that would move the game along. Then it got boring walking around waterfalls and such.
The battles are fun, but not challenging at all. I've never been beaten by a character. I've tried lots of non-violent actions, and let characters flee, or have just walked away from them, but as this is my first play of the game, I don't know what any of these choices mean. There doesn't seem to be anything in the game that is rewarding me for anything I've done so far, nor penalized for anything I've done or not done.
Honestly I could write a panel about this. I might just.
Also, later on, the bosses do get harder, and I died to maybe 3 bosses before finishing.
So yeah, it seems like my problem is that the game would reward me for not killing a boss, but I didn't know that was an option until I'd already done it. And I didn't discover that within the game, only on this forum.
It goes like this, when I've faced the bosses so far:
1. Not fight -> stuck in a boring house/village, just wandering around, wondering what I'm missing.
2. Try to walk away after starting a fight -> put into a shed. Then back to square one, with no reward for not killing Papyrus.
3. Try to discover a way to talk my way out of a fight -> see option 2. Boring.
4. Fight and kill the boss -> feel mildly accomplished, and am able to progress through the game, but I'm then "rewarded" with removing Papyrus from the game, the most fun character so far, and the reason I was having fun up until that point.
It feels like I now have to balance current boredom and frustration with possible future non-boredom. Should I start over again, and try to find arbitrary combinations of non-fighting interaction options so the fun characters stick around to make the rest of the game non-boring? Put in another three hours for the chance that I might enjoy hours six to ten hours more fun?
I dunno. It feels like it isn't a game for me.