Maybe it's been too long since I played Undertale, but I'm not sure I really understand the sentiment that undertale shows some crazy growth over this; the most memorable parts of that game to me always were the music (which uh, is here) and the writing, which is very funny here too (and it's not like it's hidden away either, half of the NPC dialogue in Twoson is already that level. The item descriptions and other easter eggs at that point are just a bonus). The story writing is edgy yes, but like... it's for Halloween (you may notice it's in the name) and also has tons of jokes besides; is The Evil Dead "too edgy" to those who say this? I admit that's a bit of an exaggeration as the shifts here are sometimes jarring, and the hack's no masterpiece of narrative for damn sure, but it comes up with a good justification for a hellish version of the EB world to exist and then an original-ish way of pushing the player through it which is more than I ask of almost any mod.
Part of that 'originality' (at least compared to the original game) unfortunately includes a near-mandatory grind that I would say is a pretty inexcusable timewaster for a fan project with such little content besides. The original enemies honestly include some quite nice Halloween enemy ideas, more outwardly horrific ones, and corrupted/funny riffs on existing enemies, so either having more of those or enough of an EXP boost to not have to fight each type 100 times would probably help to keep the luster of the moment-to-moment experience of playing the game. Fortunately, the bosses are all pretty great and generally are beatable enough that you won't wear out their impression via constant retries -- the fact that the grind is still necessary though makes this a double-edged sword as it is in fact moving through the areas between bosses without getting your party wiped by near-unavoidable mob ambushes that makes up the real challenge.
Overall, worth a play for anyone interested I would say; plenty of romhacks and mods try to have stories but few can elicit a reaction from the player, be it fear or laughter, aside from the anger that a difficult one can prompt. The Halloween hack at varying times achieved all three reactions, which I think is no small feat for a small project.
Part of that 'originality' (at least compared to the original game) unfortunately includes a near-mandatory grind that I would say is a pretty inexcusable timewaster for a fan project with such little content besides. The original enemies honestly include some quite nice Halloween enemy ideas, more outwardly horrific ones, and corrupted/funny riffs on existing enemies, so either having more of those or enough of an EXP boost to not have to fight each type 100 times would probably help to keep the luster of the moment-to-moment experience of playing the game. Fortunately, the bosses are all pretty great and generally are beatable enough that you won't wear out their impression via constant retries -- the fact that the grind is still necessary though makes this a double-edged sword as it is in fact moving through the areas between bosses without getting your party wiped by near-unavoidable mob ambushes that makes up the real challenge.
Overall, worth a play for anyone interested I would say; plenty of romhacks and mods try to have stories but few can elicit a reaction from the player, be it fear or laughter, aside from the anger that a difficult one can prompt. The Halloween hack at varying times achieved all three reactions, which I think is no small feat for a small project.