It's the kind of fan game my friends and I had wanted to make when we were 16 years old, fresh off of playing Undertale for the first time, and it shows in all the best and worst ways. This is a very sad 3/5.

Most of the pieces of Undertale are here. The enemy encounters are on point, the moment to moment humor generally keeps up with the original's, the characters are often fun to watch, and the music (while different) is a treat.

In the end, though, it doesn't really come together, and that's the important thing. Sometimes it has strong moments, but when you think about why we got here and how in those moments, it generally doesn't connect. Plot holes abound. Oftentimes it feels like things were written backwards from the end points, leading to--for example--three different final bosses with inconsistent, backwards or downright impossible motivations for fighting us.

It's not like it doesn't try. There's a lot of instances where you can see the creators clearly--and sometimes subtly--draw parallels to the original to service the story somehow. It's just that it's often unclear how that works, what themes are supposed to be reinforced, and if the themes it's supposedly about even existed as part of the story in the first place. (It's supposed to be "justice" rather than "determination", but it never really shows, and the latter gets a lot more play anyhow).

Overall, it feels like the creators sought to surpass the original in a number of individual elements, especially graphically. But the overall experience is a far worse one than Undertale, probably because putting elements of games together is such a fine and difficult balance. Sometimes all it takes is the writing and characterization falling apart under closer inspection to totally drag down any other improvements they made.

I'm excited for whatever they do in the future, but this game was not it for me. But I'm in the vast minority from what I understand, so if you liked Undertale, perhaps you should check it out and come to your own conclusions.