Happy belated Festivus, everyone. Sorry my airing of grievances couldn't come sooner; I had work to do. I've meant to get this off my chest for a while, but I couldn't quite find the words until now. Hopefully it'll help to just get something out.
I first reviewed Undertale about a year ago, when I was far less experienced and hadn't fully sorted out my feelings on it. I was rather harsh towards it, perhaps unjustly so. Although I should preface this by saying my opinion on the game hasn't improved since I wrote that review. If anything, I like it less now. So for those of you hoping for a fluffy, happy ending where all sins are forgiven and everyone gets to be friends, you won't get it here.
My main issues with the game still stand: the combat is incredibly simplistic, relying heavily on trial and error to spare enemies rather than anything mechanically deep. Furthermore, I find its deconstruction of JRPG tropes and gaming tropes as a whole incredibly shallow. The themes presented range from outright wrong (I know I'm not the first one to say this, but is it really the player's fault for not instantly knowing how to spare Toriel?) to having been repeated before or since in other, better games that don't get half as much attention as the beloved indie darling.
Ultimately, that's the main reason why Undertale bothers me as much as it does: It's derivative at best and frustrating at worst, yet people hail it like the second coming of Christ. I know we should judge games regardless of their reception, but the internet's bias towards Undertale is hard to ignore. Countless games are criticized for shallow morality systems and cheap theory-baiting, but when Undertale does the same things it's the gold standard for storytelling and player choice. The general public rolls its collective eyeballs at every JRPG announcement, but will gladly make an exception for another quirky, Earthbound-inspired indie game. And in the process, countless innovative games suffocate beneath the pile, left to be despised, discarded, or bankrupted.
For the longest time, I worried about what all this could mean for the future of the games industry. If genuine works of art could never have their voices heard over the obnoxious screaming of a pretentious, self-indulgent game critic, would people really keep making them? Would the creativity die out in favor of baiting out reactions from Youtubers and insulting everyone who disagrees? I just couldn't accept that, so I lashed out at Undertale. I blamed it for everything I hated in the industry, and I didn't care how I sounded. I just wanted to take it down a notch, to hopefully give one of the games I loved one of the infinite chances the internet affords it.
But eventually, I realized something: they already have those chances. For as much shit as a lot of my favorite games get, they still have tons of people on the internet who absolutely love them. They have fanbases and communities more caring and dedicated than Undertale's could ever dream of. They have me, and I have people I can talk to about my interests to try to support them. With all that considered, maybe things aren't so bad after all.
So yes, Undertale isn't a great game, and I can and will criticize it, but it's not the future. It's just another indie game, as popular as it may be, in a galaxy's worth of fantastic experiences. And people are living and creating those experiences every day, and they won't stop any time soon. And neither will I, because why should I let a game like that decide how my story ends?
I first reviewed Undertale about a year ago, when I was far less experienced and hadn't fully sorted out my feelings on it. I was rather harsh towards it, perhaps unjustly so. Although I should preface this by saying my opinion on the game hasn't improved since I wrote that review. If anything, I like it less now. So for those of you hoping for a fluffy, happy ending where all sins are forgiven and everyone gets to be friends, you won't get it here.
My main issues with the game still stand: the combat is incredibly simplistic, relying heavily on trial and error to spare enemies rather than anything mechanically deep. Furthermore, I find its deconstruction of JRPG tropes and gaming tropes as a whole incredibly shallow. The themes presented range from outright wrong (I know I'm not the first one to say this, but is it really the player's fault for not instantly knowing how to spare Toriel?) to having been repeated before or since in other, better games that don't get half as much attention as the beloved indie darling.
Ultimately, that's the main reason why Undertale bothers me as much as it does: It's derivative at best and frustrating at worst, yet people hail it like the second coming of Christ. I know we should judge games regardless of their reception, but the internet's bias towards Undertale is hard to ignore. Countless games are criticized for shallow morality systems and cheap theory-baiting, but when Undertale does the same things it's the gold standard for storytelling and player choice. The general public rolls its collective eyeballs at every JRPG announcement, but will gladly make an exception for another quirky, Earthbound-inspired indie game. And in the process, countless innovative games suffocate beneath the pile, left to be despised, discarded, or bankrupted.
For the longest time, I worried about what all this could mean for the future of the games industry. If genuine works of art could never have their voices heard over the obnoxious screaming of a pretentious, self-indulgent game critic, would people really keep making them? Would the creativity die out in favor of baiting out reactions from Youtubers and insulting everyone who disagrees? I just couldn't accept that, so I lashed out at Undertale. I blamed it for everything I hated in the industry, and I didn't care how I sounded. I just wanted to take it down a notch, to hopefully give one of the games I loved one of the infinite chances the internet affords it.
But eventually, I realized something: they already have those chances. For as much shit as a lot of my favorite games get, they still have tons of people on the internet who absolutely love them. They have fanbases and communities more caring and dedicated than Undertale's could ever dream of. They have me, and I have people I can talk to about my interests to try to support them. With all that considered, maybe things aren't so bad after all.
So yes, Undertale isn't a great game, and I can and will criticize it, but it's not the future. It's just another indie game, as popular as it may be, in a galaxy's worth of fantastic experiences. And people are living and creating those experiences every day, and they won't stop any time soon. And neither will I, because why should I let a game like that decide how my story ends?
willn46
4 months ago