A special thanks to the reader who gifted us this game!

Undertale was successfully Kickstarted in 2013 after raising ten times the $5,000 goal.  It was delivered a year later than anticipated, but better late than never right?  What sets Undertale apart from other RPGs is the unique battle system or the lack thereof.  You do not have to fight the monsters and can avoid conflict by distracting or helping them. Fighting is still possible and you will gain experience for doing so.  If you spare them, you’ll be rewarded with gold instead.

The background story goes as follows: monsters and humans used to live in peace until a devastating war took place (you’ll learn the cause later in the game!).  The humans eventually won and sealed away the monsters and cast a magical barrier to keep them underground.  

In the year 201X, an androgynous child climbs Mt. Ebott and finds a mysterious cave with a hole in the wall.  Upon investigating the crevice, he/she falls in, and the journey begins.  The first underground creature to come in contact with is a flower that talks down to them and calls them an idiot many times.  The child is then rescued by a motherly monster named Toriel.  Despite Toriel’s hospitality, the child still wants to go home, but soon learns that humans that fall into the underworld, never return.  

Determined to return to the surface, the child sets off to find a way.  With the instructions given by Toriel he/she learns the basics when it comes to solving puzzles and maneuvering the battle system.  Fighting enemies is possible by timing your attacks and then dodging their counter attacks retro shooting game style!  

As I mentioned earlier, fighting is totally optional.  The Act button lets the player choose to do an enemy-specific action to channel its hostile feelings towards them into friendlier ones.  For example, some enemies will enjoy being flirted with while others prefer to have muscle flexing contests.  After a couple of rounds of back and forth bantering, their name should turn yellow indicating that they can be spared if the player chooses to use the Mercy option.  I like how bosses in this game can actually be your friends afterward!

Besides the unique fighting system, Undertale prides itself on the numerous puzzles within the game.  I was able to solve a majority of them on my own, but one of them sent me to the Steam community to find the needed solution.  While there are no Steam achievements, there are trading cards that fetch roughly $.30 apiece if you plan on selling or buying them to craft badges.

Undertale has quite a following and with the quirky characters and funny dialogue, I can understand why.  It’s worth noting that there are some budding homosexual relationships.  Other issues worth mentioning are minor language (d*mn) and blaspheming.  

The graphics have an old school feel to them and don’t require a high end video card to run this game.  The soundtrack on the other hand is superb and I highly recommend buying it bundled with the game or on sale on its own.  Undertale and the soundtrack sell for $9.99 each, but you can buy them together for $18.  I beat the game in roughly seven hours and to unlock the better ending I would have to start from the beginning and make it to the end peacefully.  While I was usually merciful, I did fight a few monsters.  Needless to say, this game is very entertaining and worth playing again to do things that I wasn’t able to my first time around.  There is plenty of replay value and I highly recommend checking it out if the moral issues don’t bother you.  Because of the language and homosexual references we think that this title is better suited for older audiences.