Title screen

Game website and demo: http://undertale.com

Undertale is a role playing game produced by Toby Fox, and released in 2015. It was one of the finalist for IGF 2016. The game follows a child that falls into a place called the Underground, where monsters are trapped by humans after a war. The player will have to play as the child and navigate through the Underground with the goal of getting to the surface. They will meet with obstacles along the way as they find out the past of the Underground and why monsters are after their soul.

Lens of Essential Experience

Undertale allows players to experience a game where all of their actions seem meaningful. It strives to distort reality and trick the players into really placing themselves in the shoes of the protagonist and forget that they are only playing a game. It does so through several ways.

1. Undertale provides an array of interesting and well developed characters that can be interacted with, and depending on the player’s choices, the scripted interactions may change slightly or drastically. This makes the game more personal to the player as the game customises events to take place according to the player’s choices.

2. Undertale has a story that revolves around issues caused by basic game mechanics such as resets and reloads, this unnerves the player and tricks them into taking the game more seriously.

3. Undertale provides well designed characters with interesting back stories and strikingly different personalities, this lets them leave lasting impressions in the player and allows the player to quickly develop emotions relating to them. This makes the player consider more carefully as they interact with these characters and keeps the player interested.

Undertale also draws out the player’s desire for adventure and exploration. It does so through these ways.

1. Most parts of the over world have a suitable amount of interactable objects and characters to keep the player interested.

2. All different types of monsters the player have to face have sightly different attacks and interactions that are unique to the monster. This makes the player unable to predict their encounters further into the game, which pushes them to find out what lies ahead.

Lens of Endogenous Value

Surprised by Sans’ words in the judgement hall, revealing what LV and EXP really meant.

Undertale strives to give endogenous value to items. Consumables can have different effects when used in battle, and gaining higher LV and EXP allows the player to deal higher damage to monsters which they attack.

Furthermore, some consumable items have sentimental value in them. Also, some items may behave differently when used under different circumstances. This can cause players to become attached to certain items.

Lens of Elemental Tetard

Undertale do strives to balance out the 4 elements in game design.

1. Mechanics of the game is well designed and thought out. During “fights” that the player is forced to have, mechanics to attack or defend is largely the same but differing in detail to complement the enemy attacking. They are easy to understand and difficult enough to make the battle challenging.

2. Throughout the game, the goal of the player is always well defined and the game constantly reminds the player to move towards the goal. This mechanic is deeply integrated into the story of the game.

3. Towards the end of the game, the mechanics change slightly according to the story line, allowing the player to immerse themselves deeper into the story line. Thus, enhancing the story.

4. The story is detailed but simple at the same time. While the player had a clear goal throughout the game, the backstory of the game is gradually told to the player through various channels. Details of how none player characters have participated in the back story of the game fleshes out the characters.

5. The technology used is sufficient in creating the simple graphics and music the game needs.

6. Aesthetics wise, while the graphics are simple and can be considered plain, they are able to portray important characteristics of characters well. Furthermore, simple graphics enhances the story as it allows players to use their imaginations to portray their version of characters.

7. The audio in undertale is very well fitted. Music in the over world is able to control the mood of the different places very well and character themes really amplifies the personalities of the different characters. The well fitting music is able to allow players to further immerse into the story.

Lens of Surprise

Undertale integrates surprise deep in its story and surprisingly, mechanics. A play through of Undertale always manages to put new players on the edge of their seats. Undertale does so in these ways.

1. The true story of the game is not revealed to the player at the start of the game, but it is revealed throughout the game as bits of littered information instead. Thus, the player are surprised when they come across a plot twist which they do not expect.

2. Towards the end of the game, the mechanics changes slightly according to the story. This integrates the element of surprise as players do not expect the mechanics to change.

3. Characters in Undertale is multidimensional, the characters often have multiple sides to their personalities, and this may surprise the players when the players are not expecting the characters to react a certain way.

Lens of Fun

Hanging out with Papyrus

1. Undertale is fun as the story is very intriguing, having many plot twists and sub plots which are interlinked. The interesting story keeps the player interested and wanting to find out what will happen further into the game.

2. Due to the interlinked nature of sub plots and relationships of characters in the game, choices made in one part of the game may have a lasting effect and change the subsequent game play for the player. Having a personalized game story makes the game more fun to the players as they will be able to observe the consequences of their actions.

3. The underground offers an array of different objects and characters to interact with, many with interesting dialog or descriptions or even references to pop culture. This pushes the player to explore and interact with objects and characters, making the experience fun and entertaining.

4. The use of humor throughout the story provides a light-hearted feel to the players and entertains the players, making exploring the underground fun for the players.