Noirit Mustapha

Undertale is a video game at its core, yet in so many ways it transcends that status. There is much difficulty to really talk about how unique an experience this is, but to at least start, it plays like a classic RPG. Anyone who has played the game Earthbound will immediately feel the similarities in tone and style. However, Undertale sells itself using two very interesting features. The first of which is its battle system. While on your turn you can choose which action to do like in any turn-based RPG, during the enemy’s turn the game turns into a “dodge everything coming at you” game, where you must avoid everything aimed at your heart. Successfully doing so will let you come out of the turn completely unharmed. It adds a new kind of strategy and skill when it comes to playing this.
The other and most important unique feature is the fact that you can finish Undertale without ever needing to kill anyone. Not one single monster you meet through the course of the game needs to die and can actually be spared by using the right actions in battle. Of course, on the flipside, this also means that literally every monster in the game can also be killed. What starts as just a human child falling down into the underground kingdom of monsters then becomes a radically different game depending on what your course of action becomes. This is where Undertale shines the most: just how open-ended the game can become. The hilarious and colourful cast of characters you meet in play through of the game will treat you immensely differently if you play the game in another way. In fact, as one plays the game, it starts to become very eerie just how much one can feel for the characters, or feel uneasy because of what’s going on.
Yes, Undertale is a video game. However, it is not just a video game. It is something that reaches out of your screen and drags you to experience its wild and mind-blowing world.