While its understated, dry humor gave me countless smiles, the many times Undertale absolutely committed to some completely unexpected gameplay style or new mechanic for the sake of a single, inspired joke had me breathless from laughing fits.

Instead, creator Toby Fox throws RPG fans into a world of intensely familiar commands and tropes, if only to find new ways to play with and subvert them at every possible opportunity.

You'll never know what unexpected scenario you'll stumble into next. While it uses the grammar of a Japanese RPG as its basic framework, Undertale doesn't aspire to be an especially straightforward take on the genre. But, soon after the tutorial dungeon, Undertale reveals itself to be something much greater than a clever homage. On the surface, Undertale appears to be a loving sendup of the Japanese RPG genre, with many cues taken from Nintendo's EarthBound series of RPGs-specifically, Mother 3, a 2006 Game Boy Advance release that never reached our shores and developed a cult following as a result. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.Īs a reviewer, the most difficult part about communicating Undertale's greatness is the fact that it works best when you're not aware of the many surprises packed within. This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247.

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