I reckon waxing on about what a game like Undertale meant for someone like me as a somewhat emotionally stunted and depressed teenager on a review for something like this is preaching to the choir. Undertale was a game that came at the perfect time in my life, at the time it felt like the perfect game to me, and while I suppose it isn’t that, it might as well still be for me. I survived the “cringe trenches” of 2016-17 of a bunch of mostly harmless teenagers (like myself at the time) making AUs, remixes, fan-art, the works that made a lot of very strange people upset, before Deltarune and cultural reflection inevitably made Undertale cool again. Truth be told, as someone who was heavily invested in Undertale when I was younger, I never really paid any of the fanworks outside of strictly the main game much of a fair shake. Not sure why, I’m not exactly above that sort of material, but I just never found the interest. That said, of course I heard of Undertale Yellow at the time, and hearing of it releasing last year was something I knew I had to check out.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way, at least for me. Writing and music wise, this is definitely a peg below Toby Fox’s work. This is not a negative mind you. I think the game does a fantastic job of carving out its own niche while still keeping the spirit of the world that I fell in love with. And comparing a fanwork to its original is always going to be a tough uphill battle to overcome. Undertale Yellow is a game that fundamentally understands the general appeal of the original’s tone, and makes its own very unique spin to feel refreshing and familiar. The main cast of this game took some time to fully win me over, but towards the latter half, I really enjoyed what they brought to the table. Especially Starlow, who I reckon is a character about on the same caliber as some of the main cast of the original, which is a tough feat to overcome. The game also very smartly ditches almost all of the main cast of the game to mentions or a brief appearance, with the exception of Flowey, who is a smidge more toned down (at least in Pacifist) but still has some real shit eater energy.
With that out of the way, the real star of Yellow is undeniably its presentation and gameplay. They not only nailed the look, tone, and feel of what made its source material so good, but they really made it into a much more polished and refined work, that you only can really get from a team who love that world. Undertale is a shitty looking game a lot of the time, so even just seeing an actual run animation on the main protagonist is a big shock. While there is undeniably something that can be argued as being lost from the intentionally trashy look of the original, it is done with such passion, and more importantly confidence in itself that you come to respect its own vision. Boss fights in particular are a real treat in this game, both on a visual and mechanical level. They really do an amazing job differentiating the roster with some incredible sprite work that definitely outmatches the original in terms of visual fidelity, but some amazing backgrounds to boot. And fighting them is definitely on par with the original, although, I would say it never quite reaches those same high notes, it does come fairly close, and I think that is mighty commendable.
I think there is a natural apprehension towards fan made material of a well-known IP. Again, I remember high school, that sort of stigma is what made Undertale a “cringe game” to so many people. And in a lot of ways, I do understand where many folks are coming from. When people are passionate about a work, sometimes it can come off as strange, corny, very juvenile in a lot of aspects; and when something is extremely popular, that automatically means that the large size of that audience is going to attract more of some unsavory behaviors. Some of it can be more justified than others, but seeing how so many people 180’d on this game in particular always struck me as an example of how fucking stupid it all was. And seeing a game like Yellow, which can only have been made because of that community, come out almost a decade after the original’s release and capture hearts all over again warms my heart. There were times towards the beginning when I was waiting for the game to truly click with me the same way the original did, and attempting to enter my critical analysis mode, but overtime, this game made me remember why I loved Undertale so much to begin with. There is a charm to this game, that no other game has quite ever been able to replicate for me, maybe never will (outside of Deltarune) and that is okay. People are passionate, people will continue to love, and people will continue to create out of love, and I think that is a beautiful thing.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way, at least for me. Writing and music wise, this is definitely a peg below Toby Fox’s work. This is not a negative mind you. I think the game does a fantastic job of carving out its own niche while still keeping the spirit of the world that I fell in love with. And comparing a fanwork to its original is always going to be a tough uphill battle to overcome. Undertale Yellow is a game that fundamentally understands the general appeal of the original’s tone, and makes its own very unique spin to feel refreshing and familiar. The main cast of this game took some time to fully win me over, but towards the latter half, I really enjoyed what they brought to the table. Especially Starlow, who I reckon is a character about on the same caliber as some of the main cast of the original, which is a tough feat to overcome. The game also very smartly ditches almost all of the main cast of the game to mentions or a brief appearance, with the exception of Flowey, who is a smidge more toned down (at least in Pacifist) but still has some real shit eater energy.
With that out of the way, the real star of Yellow is undeniably its presentation and gameplay. They not only nailed the look, tone, and feel of what made its source material so good, but they really made it into a much more polished and refined work, that you only can really get from a team who love that world. Undertale is a shitty looking game a lot of the time, so even just seeing an actual run animation on the main protagonist is a big shock. While there is undeniably something that can be argued as being lost from the intentionally trashy look of the original, it is done with such passion, and more importantly confidence in itself that you come to respect its own vision. Boss fights in particular are a real treat in this game, both on a visual and mechanical level. They really do an amazing job differentiating the roster with some incredible sprite work that definitely outmatches the original in terms of visual fidelity, but some amazing backgrounds to boot. And fighting them is definitely on par with the original, although, I would say it never quite reaches those same high notes, it does come fairly close, and I think that is mighty commendable.
I think there is a natural apprehension towards fan made material of a well-known IP. Again, I remember high school, that sort of stigma is what made Undertale a “cringe game” to so many people. And in a lot of ways, I do understand where many folks are coming from. When people are passionate about a work, sometimes it can come off as strange, corny, very juvenile in a lot of aspects; and when something is extremely popular, that automatically means that the large size of that audience is going to attract more of some unsavory behaviors. Some of it can be more justified than others, but seeing how so many people 180’d on this game in particular always struck me as an example of how fucking stupid it all was. And seeing a game like Yellow, which can only have been made because of that community, come out almost a decade after the original’s release and capture hearts all over again warms my heart. There were times towards the beginning when I was waiting for the game to truly click with me the same way the original did, and attempting to enter my critical analysis mode, but overtime, this game made me remember why I loved Undertale so much to begin with. There is a charm to this game, that no other game has quite ever been able to replicate for me, maybe never will (outside of Deltarune) and that is okay. People are passionate, people will continue to love, and people will continue to create out of love, and I think that is a beautiful thing.