This review contains spoilers
Marked as spoiler already but to specify, this will be major spoilers for the final boss of the pacifist route. I’m also only writing about pacifist, so keep that in mind.
Undertale Yellow is a fantastic fangame, truly understanding what made the original Undertale work and building on top of its foundation rather than reusing pre-established gameplay and characters. Yellow didn’t feel like a rehash of Undertale or too reliant on what Undertale already did while simultaneously still tying into several aspects of the original’s story (notably True Lab). And Yellow also exudes love and passion both for the game itself and for the original Undertale which inspired it.
I love a lot of what Yellow does. It innovates a TON on Undertale’s gameplay, making fights and especially bosses a lot more interesting. Especially once you hit the second half of the game, the bosses you fight introduce new mechanics that make each boss fight stand out and feel unique. The shield with AXIS? Starlo tying your soul to a lasso? Needing to free your actions against Guardener? Fucking DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION??? While difficulty balancing was definitely an issue bosses had (sometimes to an egregious degree), each boss felt interesting to learn and to fight.
I also enjoyed the story and the cast. The player knows that Clover is going to die at the end of the story, after all we know Asgore already has a yellow soul in the main story of Undertale. So there’s a bittersweet aspect to the journey, because the entire journey we’re making bonds with these characters while knowing that we’ll die at the end, and the entire journey we’re asking ourselves “how is Clover going to die?”. The world of Yellow, similarly to the main Undertale, is full of life and charm, but Yellow spends more time with individual characters since Clover isn’t in the same rush as Frisk is in. Wild East shows this off fantastically, where the entire section is just getting to know both about Starlo and The Feisty Five as a whole, but the entirety of the Wild East itself. Exploring the Underground again also felt unique, with each area being either completely new to Yellow or a completely new section of a previous area. The sole exceptions are the very beginning of the game where you’re in the ruins (which is basically a fake out anyway), and stopping by Hotlands VERY briefly as a bridge point (which makes sense considering the story up to that point). Yellow is able to land its emotional beats, managing to be touching, funny, horrifying and heartbreaking similarly to Undertale. Yet those emotional moments are utilized differently than Undertale, further helping Yellow stand out.
I was in love with the game and then… Ceroba happened. I genuinely despise her fight’s balance. Don’t get me wrong, the boss fight is interesting, has solid gameplay design, and has that same gameplay style change that I enjoyed with the other bosses. But holy shit it is infuriating. There is a MAJOR difficulty spike from AXIS, the fight directly before Ceroba, to the point that it’s jarring (and it’s worse than any other difficulty jump up to her). As well, her attacks are genuinely overwhelming with how much is happening on screen and how much you need to manage.
And phase 4? God, phase 4 was not necessary. Seeing that the fight was going to continue for one more phase felt like a slap in the face, especially because ending at phase 3 felt natural. You broke her mask, good game. For me, phase 4 just felt like an artificial way to extend the fight. Not to mention, it made all the prior problems I had with Ceroba’s fight worse. Her attacks and everything I had to manage was extremely overwhelming, and while within the Ceroba fight the difficulty jump makes sense, it is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than everything before Ceroba, and if you didn’t preserve your healing items well enough because you didn’t expect a phase 4? RESTART EVERYTHING. Ceroba just left me feeling drained and pissed off. The ACT menu helps, and it’s relieving that you restart the fight at the last phase you were on if you don’t need to quit the fight, but it doesn’t make up for how bullshit everything else feels.
Granted, I really hate bullet hells, and Ceroba is the most bullet hell boss in both Undertale Yellow and the original Undertale. Maybe I’m biased in how much I hated the fight. But I ended up giving up and just looking up the pacifist ending because I was too exhausted and pissed off.
Even if I hate the final boss and the difficulty spikes in the game, everything else about Yellow is fantastic. It genuinely stands on par with the original Undertale while bringing so much new to the table. A must play for fans of the original and a high recommendation for fans of RPGs as a whole. Yellow is absolutely worth giving a shot, pun not intended, and I’m glad to see that Yellow has performed so fantastically. It deserves all the praise it receives.
Undertale Yellow is a fantastic fangame, truly understanding what made the original Undertale work and building on top of its foundation rather than reusing pre-established gameplay and characters. Yellow didn’t feel like a rehash of Undertale or too reliant on what Undertale already did while simultaneously still tying into several aspects of the original’s story (notably True Lab). And Yellow also exudes love and passion both for the game itself and for the original Undertale which inspired it.
I love a lot of what Yellow does. It innovates a TON on Undertale’s gameplay, making fights and especially bosses a lot more interesting. Especially once you hit the second half of the game, the bosses you fight introduce new mechanics that make each boss fight stand out and feel unique. The shield with AXIS? Starlo tying your soul to a lasso? Needing to free your actions against Guardener? Fucking DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION??? While difficulty balancing was definitely an issue bosses had (sometimes to an egregious degree), each boss felt interesting to learn and to fight.
I also enjoyed the story and the cast. The player knows that Clover is going to die at the end of the story, after all we know Asgore already has a yellow soul in the main story of Undertale. So there’s a bittersweet aspect to the journey, because the entire journey we’re making bonds with these characters while knowing that we’ll die at the end, and the entire journey we’re asking ourselves “how is Clover going to die?”. The world of Yellow, similarly to the main Undertale, is full of life and charm, but Yellow spends more time with individual characters since Clover isn’t in the same rush as Frisk is in. Wild East shows this off fantastically, where the entire section is just getting to know both about Starlo and The Feisty Five as a whole, but the entirety of the Wild East itself. Exploring the Underground again also felt unique, with each area being either completely new to Yellow or a completely new section of a previous area. The sole exceptions are the very beginning of the game where you’re in the ruins (which is basically a fake out anyway), and stopping by Hotlands VERY briefly as a bridge point (which makes sense considering the story up to that point). Yellow is able to land its emotional beats, managing to be touching, funny, horrifying and heartbreaking similarly to Undertale. Yet those emotional moments are utilized differently than Undertale, further helping Yellow stand out.
I was in love with the game and then… Ceroba happened. I genuinely despise her fight’s balance. Don’t get me wrong, the boss fight is interesting, has solid gameplay design, and has that same gameplay style change that I enjoyed with the other bosses. But holy shit it is infuriating. There is a MAJOR difficulty spike from AXIS, the fight directly before Ceroba, to the point that it’s jarring (and it’s worse than any other difficulty jump up to her). As well, her attacks are genuinely overwhelming with how much is happening on screen and how much you need to manage.
And phase 4? God, phase 4 was not necessary. Seeing that the fight was going to continue for one more phase felt like a slap in the face, especially because ending at phase 3 felt natural. You broke her mask, good game. For me, phase 4 just felt like an artificial way to extend the fight. Not to mention, it made all the prior problems I had with Ceroba’s fight worse. Her attacks and everything I had to manage was extremely overwhelming, and while within the Ceroba fight the difficulty jump makes sense, it is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than everything before Ceroba, and if you didn’t preserve your healing items well enough because you didn’t expect a phase 4? RESTART EVERYTHING. Ceroba just left me feeling drained and pissed off. The ACT menu helps, and it’s relieving that you restart the fight at the last phase you were on if you don’t need to quit the fight, but it doesn’t make up for how bullshit everything else feels.
Granted, I really hate bullet hells, and Ceroba is the most bullet hell boss in both Undertale Yellow and the original Undertale. Maybe I’m biased in how much I hated the fight. But I ended up giving up and just looking up the pacifist ending because I was too exhausted and pissed off.
Even if I hate the final boss and the difficulty spikes in the game, everything else about Yellow is fantastic. It genuinely stands on par with the original Undertale while bringing so much new to the table. A must play for fans of the original and a high recommendation for fans of RPGs as a whole. Yellow is absolutely worth giving a shot, pun not intended, and I’m glad to see that Yellow has performed so fantastically. It deserves all the praise it receives.