Popularity's a scary thing.

I'm a big fan of this game. Who isn't? My thoughts here aren't really what you're here for, and I know this is because this is Undertale and its praises have been sung to the high heavens. There's no real reason for me to go on about how I loved that the overall themes of the game are tightly woven into both the game's gameplay and story in ways that most games wouldn't even dream of. There's no reason for me to go about how I loved the characters and how fantastic the music was. There's no reason for me to go over any of this because all of the praise is already out there and I don't have all that much to contribute on that front. Except for one thing.

Let's talk about choice. See, choice, as far as extrinsic rewards are concerned, is fairly straightforward. You're given options and, for the most part, you have some understanding of exactly what it is you're getting. Choice as far as intrinsic rewards, though, is largely affected by how well you know the outcome. If you know what the outcome of your choice will be, generally it will be the same as going through paces. While the outcome may still have an effect on you based on how it's executed, it's pretty rare that it will have the same effect had you not known about the outcome nor the execution at all. And in the case of Undertale, to most of the fanbase, the choice was not so much about "what would I do" so much as "when would I do what".

I think it's obvious enough that there's a certain opinion of the game's fanbase that either turns people off from the game entirely or does just the opposite, but regardless of what effect it has the problem persists that for those other than early adopters (basically those who played it within a few months of release), the game didn't really feature all that much choice at all. I was lucky enough that the only thing that was really presented to me was Megalovania, though without context. So for me, it made sense that I would play the game as I wanted and make choices because the game always seemed to react to the things I did. And it was for that reason that I had so much fun. Nothing in the game existed for me until I experienced it, and it was upon that experience that, that discovery, that I fell in love with the game. After all, it was pretty clear from just the first few minutes of the game that Toby didn't want people knowing exactly what the game would be until they got their hands on it themselves (and he later openly said this).

And then the game blew up. Characters in the game appeared everywhere in the forms of figures, animations, cosplays, and art; lines and scenarios from the games became viral memes that were uttered in every corner of the internet; the praise sung to the game was eerily loud. That this little game with so little advertisement and a pretty small following became so large is mindboggling, and fantastic, since it's one of the few times where I can say that subverted gameplay mechanics or ideas are imployed in a game without feeling particularly biting or half-assed. It deserved what it got, but this also created a divide.

The early adopters, we got to experience this new journey full of surprises. People playing around and after the date that this review is going up probably will, too, as the hype has gone down considerably. But in the time between, what Undertale was to prospective buyers was very clear. They knew how they were going to play, knew who characters were, knew what was going to happen in a lot of cases- and it's hard to blame them considering they didn't really...have a choice.

That's not funny.

The reason that I even mention all of this in a review is because I feel that that divide definitely comes with a difference in enjoyment. Because while I don't think every experience is necessarily better going when you go in knowing nothing, Undertale was built on the idea of surprise and discovery. Experiencing these things for the first time, and having first-hand experienced the difference between a player who bought into the hype and got the game versus one who went in knowing mostly nothing...well, that's the difference between a suggestion to wait until you can go in fresh and a recommendation.

Yes, I do recommend Undertale if you just don't really know what it is or just happen to know about its reputation and not much else, because that's how I feel it will be best experienced. But if you were subjected to the the hype machine known as 2016, I'd give it a little while, as otherwise those who are skeptical will merely be falling into a self-fulfilling prophecy and others might find themselves wondering what the hype was about to begin with.

Popularity's a scary thing. I'm a big fan of this game. Who isn't? My thoughts here aren't really what you're here for, and I know this is because this is Undertale and its praises have been sung to the high heavens. There's no real reason for me to go on about how I loved that the overall themes of the game are tightly woven into both the game's gameplay and story in ways that most games wouldn't even dream of. There's no reason for me to go about how I loved the characters and how fantastic the music was. There's no reason for me to go over any of this because all of the praise is already out there and I don't have all that much to contribute on that front. Except for one thing. Let's talk about choice. See, choice, as far as extrinsic rewards are concerned, is fairly straightforward. You're given options and, for the most part, you have some understanding of exactly what it is you're getting. Choice as far as intrinsic rewards, though, is largely affected by how well you know the outcome. If you know what the outcome of your choice will be, generally it will be the same as going through paces. While the outcome may still have an effect on you based on how it's executed, it's pretty rare that it will have the same effect had you not known about the outcome nor the execution at all. And in the case of Undertale, to most of the fanbase, the choice was not so much about "what would I do" so much as "when would I do what". I think it's obvious enough that there's a certain opinion of the game's fanbase that either turns people off from the game entirely or does just the opposite, but regardless of what effect it has the problem persists that for those other than early adopters (basically those who played it within a few months of release), the game didn't really feature all that much choice at all. I was lucky enough that the only thing that was really presented to me was [i]Megalovania[/i], though without context. So for me, it made sense that I would play the game as I wanted and make choices because the game always seemed to react to the things I did. And it was for that reason that I had so much fun. Nothing in the game existed for me until I experienced it, and it was upon that experience that, that discovery, that I fell in love with the game. After all, it was pretty clear from just the first few minutes of the game that Toby didn't want people knowing exactly what the game would be until they got their hands on it themselves (and he later openly said this). And then the game blew up. Characters in the game appeared everywhere in the forms of figures, animations, cosplays, and art; lines and scenarios from the games became viral memes that were uttered in every corner of the internet; the praise sung to the game was eerily loud. That this little game with so little advertisement and a pretty small following became so large is mindboggling, and fantastic, since it's one of the few times where I can say that subverted gameplay mechanics or ideas are imployed in a game without feeling particularly biting or half-assed. It deserved what it got, but this also created a divide. The early adopters, we got to experience this new journey full of surprises. People playing around and after the date that this review is going up probably will, too, as the hype has gone down considerably. But in the time between, what Undertale was to prospective buyers was very clear. They knew how they were going to play, knew who characters were, knew what was going to happen in a lot of cases- and it's hard to blame them considering they didn't really...have a choice. That's not funny. The reason that I even mention all of this in a review is because I feel that that divide definitely comes with a difference in enjoyment. Because while I don't think every experience is necessarily better going when you go in knowing nothing, Undertale was built on the idea of surprise and discovery. Experiencing these things for the first time, and having first-hand experienced the difference between a player who bought into the hype and got the game versus one who went in knowing mostly nothing...well, that's the difference between a suggestion to wait until you can go in fresh and a recommendation. Yes, I do recommend Undertale if you just don't really know what it is or just happen to know about its reputation and not much else, because that's how I feel it will be best experienced. But if you were subjected to the the hype machine known as 2016, I'd give it a little while, as otherwise those who are skeptical will merely be falling into a self-fulfilling prophecy and others might find themselves wondering what the hype was about to begin with.