Undertale

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Undertale
Undertale for the Nintendo Switch
Developer(s)	Toby Fox
Publisher(s)	Toby Fox 8-4
Designer(s)	Toby Fox
Artist(s)	Temmie Chang and Toby fox
Composer(s)	Toby Fox
Engine	GameMaker 8 (demo) GameMaker Studio
Platform(s)	OS X Windows Linux PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Nintendo Switch Xbox One
Release	September 15, 2015 OS X, Windows September 15, 2015 Linux July 17, 2016 PS4, PS Vita August 15, 2017 Nintendo Switch September 18, 2018 Xbox One March 16, 2021
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Undertale is a 2015 role-playing video game made by Toby Fox, an indie game developer. Toby fox has said that the idea for his second game Deltarune was inspired by a fever dream that he had. He promptly created Undertale as a predecessor to Deltarune. In Undertale, the player controls a human child who has fallen into the Underground, a large and out-of-the-way place under a mountain, separated from the rest of the world by a magic wall called the Barrier. The player meets many kinds of monsters as they try to return to the surface, mainly through the fighting system; the player takes turns selecting actions and avoiding attacks, and can choose to spare or kill monsters. The player's choices change many things in the game, most notably how characters act.

Fox developed almost the whole game by himself. He wrote the words and made the music by himself, and only used a few pieces of extra art given to him by other artists. The game was inspired by the Mother and Mario & Luigi role-playing series, the "bullet hell" shooter series Touhou Project, and the British comedy show Mr. Bean. Undertale was originally meant to be shorter and the original release date was planned to be in mid-2014, but creating the game took over three years, making the story longer and not making the game available until much later.

The game was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows and OS X on September 15, 2015. When it was released, the game was praised for its writing, themes, easy-to-learn fighting system, music, and original ideas; with praise directed towards its story, dialogue, and characters. The game sold over a million copies, and was nominated for many honors and awards, including Game of the Year from many gaming news sources, winning others from conventions including South by Southwest.

Gameplay

Undertale is a role-playing game that shows everything with a top down view. In the game, players play as a child and finish tasks in order to go forward in the story. Players explore an underground world of towns and areas, and must solve many puzzles on the way. The underground world is the place where monsters live now (in the intro of the game, it says monsters lost a war with the humans and were sealed by a magical spell), many of whom fight the player; players decide to fight, flee, or spare.

When players meet enemies in either scripted events or random encounters, they enter a battle mode. During battles, players control a small red heart which represents their soul, and must avoid attacks by the monster(s) in a way much like a bullet hell shooter. Later the game, new types of gameplay are shown. These include blue-colored bullets that only hurt when the player is moving, or orange bullets that only hurt when staying still. The doggo fight introduced blue attacks (later referenced by Sans about "blue stop signs") and other enemies in Hotland introduce orange ones. Players can use the FIGHT option to attack, which involves timed button presses. Players can also use the ACT option to do many different actions, which are different for each enemy, usually for a peaceful resolution. Players can also use the ITEM option to eat food to heal, or to put on weapons or armor. Players can also use the MERCY option to spare enemies or run away. Monsters can be spared only if they have been beaten up enough to make them weak and unable to fight, or if they have been pleased by the right actions. In order for some boss battles to be completed without involving murder, the player must survive until the character they are facing has finished their dialogue. The game has many story branches and endings depending on whether players choose to murder or spare their enemies; and as such, it is possible to clear the game without murdering a single enemy. Players earn EXP and gold for killing monsters. 

Most monsters will talk with players during the battles (some can't talk, so normally for those the act menu shows physical actions instead of talking), and the game will often tell the players what the monster's feelings and actions are. Enemy attacks can change based on how players interact with them: if the player chooses non-violent options, enemy attacks are easy, but they become harder if players choose violent options. The game uses many metafictional elements in both its gameplay and story. When players play a boss battle more than once, the dialogue will change depending on actions from the times they played the battle before.

Characters

Deltarune

In late October 2018, Toby fox hinted at the release of a new game named Deltarune, which was released on October 31, on his Twitter page. The new game is set in a similar world to Undertale and may be familiar to previous players of Undertale. It follows the story of a human, a monster and a Darkner to bring balance to the world.

Only the first five chapters have been released; Fox is in the process of creating a development team and releasing the full game, with only one ending when it'll be complete.

Notes

References