Board Thread:General Discussion v2.0/@comment-24597765-20151127205619/@comment-27312470-20151129135901

THE BAD PARTS OF UNDERTALE (Warning: Opininon!)

Main Flaws:

1: The game does very little to motivate you to go back to the surface. Your ENTIRE journey is bassically your attmpt to escape the underworld. But... Why? We get absouloutley no insight on our characters life before their fall and we get no reason to go back up there! Did we have a familly there? Nobody knows. Was the world there amazing, and beutiful? Nobody knows. Did we have big, important responsibilities there? Nobody knows. So if we don't have any idea why were going back to the surface, why on earth are we doing it? Because the games system forces us. And it would be fine if it forced us to go to the surface, but gave us a beievable reason for why so. A reason, that just isn't there.

2: In a game all about choice, there are some choices that you never get. And the worst part is, these choices are pretty reasonable, yet you are forced to go against them. Again, forced by the games systems. The first one is the choice to leave the ruins. Like mentioned in the previous point, our character gets a unexplained urge to leave the underworld, and go back home. Toriel says that the world outside is dangerous, and you will probably be killed by Asgores men. She says that its better if you stay there, and live with her. And thats not that unreasonable. Toriel is a really kind monster, and dying doesen't sound much fun. She provides a good argument to why you should stay. So good, that the first time around I actually wanted to stay with her (and myabe because I like Toriel as a character, but whatever). Suprise, I couldnt. It was simply not an option. I tried everything, but the game would do nothing untill I moved on, and fought Toriel. Reasonable beahviour is forbidden by the game. Which brings me to the second choice that you can't make. The choice to sacrafice yourself. Sounds crazy right? But through the entire game, you must have at least once asked yourself: "Wouldn't it be simpler if I just GAVE my soul to the monsters?". I mean, all the monsters want to escape the underworld, and its pretty understandable why. They want to open up new possibilities. They want to see new places. Would your life be worth keeping thousands of monsters captive? If you thought NO, the game instantly slapped you in the face, and turned you towards YES. Because if you choose to loose any of these battles, you simply get dropped off at the last checkpoint. You can't sacrafie yourself for the grater good. Its impossible. This is sort of understandable, because the games lifespan would go from 6 hours to 30 minutes and  making a ending for each choice would be a pain, but it still suprised me that such important decisions were compleatly scripted.

Minor Nitpicks:

1: You get too little time with the characters. I feel like you meet them, get to like them, then you move on. I wish they were more prominent through the rest of the game. Toriel pops up in the first chapter (prologue if you will) of the game, and is fairly symaythetic, besides the fact that ten minutes into meeting her, we have to leave her. I feel like the games choices would be so much more imactfull if you actually spend more time with the characters.

2: Flowey. Hes just so poorly designed. Every other vilain has a backstory, and believable motivations, but Flowey is just evil because... Uhm... Evil! We don't even meet him that much through the story, yet hes imprtant enough to bassically become GOD, and be the final boss of the game. I don't get why is he even in the game.

There. Sorry if some if this opinion isn't completley true, I have only beaten the game with the neutral ending, and wasn't bothered to play through it again.