LogFAQs > #928977567

I personally think that the story and characters in Undertale are kind of weak. Mostly comical and two-dimensional. It has a problem where the player character is so irrelevant to the emotional progression of the story itself that it feels kind of impersonal. A lot of the characters are only interested in you because you look similar to another character.

It has some meta-fictional commentary on how we approach RPGs and games in general but it's kind of asinine for the most part. None of the observations it makes mean much when we understand the separation between fantasy and reality. The game even admits during a monologue that its own philosophy doesn't hold up in real life.

What does work really well is the music. Toby Fox is a talented composer and he extensively re-uses certain motifs to create an emotional connection between different areas and scenes. He shows a good grasp of the techniques of scoring.

It also has a cute little hybridization of bullet hell games and menu-based RPGs. Its really skimpy as an RPG (barely qualifies, really,) but it does get a lot of mileage out of its core gameplay concept through boss fights that use neat variations on the basic mechanics. The puzzles outside of combat are pretty braindead, though.

I think a lot of Tumblr's praise for it does come from the fact that a lot of characters, including the protagonist, are of non-specific sex/gender identity and there are some half-baked gay romances. Its themes of pacifism and the value of life might have struck with them too. Personally, I found that going through the game being referred to as a "they" didn't help with the impersonal feeling.

On the whole, I don't think it's too hot unless you really like meta-fiction. Probably somewhere from a 4 to 6 out of 10 for me.