![]() ![]() That lack of dividing lines is my favorite thing about Undertale, and based on conversations I've had with folks with whom the game did not click, it is also very, very easy to miss. There's virtually no distinction: In Undertale, enemies are just as much capital-C "Characters" as townspeople, shopkeepers and friends. That idea bakes charm into every random encounter in the game, start to finish, and gives each creature you meet throughout the game an immense amount of character, regardless of the circumstances under which you meet them. Undertale wants you to consider the implications of killing monsters in games Every enemy in the game has quirks, insecurities and other personality traits that you can try to diagnose and remedy nonviolently. In those instructions, you're never taught how to attack enemies - only how to pacify them until you can end a battle by showing mercy. The first character you meet in Undertale provides a series of tutorials on how to survive in the subterranean, monster-filled labyrinth in which you've landed. It isn't, of course, the first game to allow that practice, but it is unique in how it nudges you in a nonviolent direction. ![]() Undertale is a game in which you do not have to kill anything or anyone to reach its conclusion. Two hours in, I was mystified and head-over-heels. After watching a single trailer, I filed it under the "Ironic Humor-Driven Turn-Based Indie RPG" folder in my brain, which made it difficult to compete with the folders labeled "Infinite Super Mario Levels Forever" and "Hey, Let's Do a Third Bloodborne Run Sometime This Year." It was only while stocking up for an international flight that I give Undertale a shot, despite the fact that I had already decided out of hand that I knew everything about it.Īn hour in, I was pretty sure I knew some things about it. I was about two months late on the Undertale train for that very reason. If afforded a second reason, it would be this: Undertale is an easy game to assume you already know. If I could chalk it up to a single reason, it would be that I work almost exclusively with no-taste clowns who love bad things. Undertale was my favorite game released in 2015 and, despite my best efforts and effusive recommendations to the rest of the staff, it failed to make our top 10 - heartbreakingly, it clocked in at #12. As with last year, we're running a series of opinion pieces by members of the Polygon staff explaining why certain games earned top marks from them even if they didn't make our staff-wide Game of the Year list. Every year the Polygon staff chooses 10 excellent games to award our Game of the Year honors, but that means some games we love don't quite make the cut. ![]()
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