UNDERTALE

[Koh]

No one implied such though. In my first post that brought it up, I literally said "The art is meh, but the gameplay looks fun." I can get past the art if the game's fun, but that doesn't change the fact I find the art unappealing, and the art certainly doesn't pull me into the world at all, lol. That immersion level is immediately lost x3.

[recme]

uhhhh ok then. i guess thats only your problem then, since practically everyone else is enjoying it. : p

this game looks very interesting. as sketchasaurus said, this is like cave story meets earthbound, as if it had cave story's empty feeling, but with earthbounds wacky dialogue.

[DragonDePlatino]

I just finished one of the endings today and I walked away pretty satisfied. Despite what Metacritic would tell you, this is not a 97/100 game. It is, however, the best indie RPG I've ever played. All of the characters are incredibly charming and the game consistently got a laugh out of me with every scene. The bullet-hell battle mechanics are really well-explored and the story does a great job of constantly subverting your expectations. I feel the game has been a little overhyped but it's more than worth the $10 asking price.

And yes, the game's art is not great, but it more than makes up for that in the music department! If anything, Toby Fox is a very talented composer. Here's one of my favorite boss themes. (Though I won't say which one!)

Spoiler

[StarSock64]

I feel like the plain art style lends to the personal and quaint tone of the game's writing. I think if it was flashier it wouldn't feel nearly as genuine and that would be a huge drawback from the game's appeal.

I don't find it "NES nostalgic" so much as "home-made old RPG maker game" nostalgic, and that home-made feeling is practically necessary for the game to accomplish what it does in the story.

[DragonDePlatino]

Well...for me, it wasn't the style that I didn't like. It was the little immersion-breaking animation mistakes that were strewn about the game.

When you ride on the boat between the villages, the boat's shadow texture is just an overlay onto the wooden part. And sometimes, the hull would dip down and it would clip outside the shadow texture. When you talk to the 2nd shopkeeper, his arm has this jagged edge that clips outside his texture. When you fight Temmie, her face is just this big square texture texture that clips over her hair. None of this serves to improve the atmosphere of the game and could easily be patched out in future updates without taking anything away from the game.

But don't get me wrong, aside from that it was certainly a memorable style. I agree that the simplicity is one of it's strengths (I even found the well-drawn shopkeepers a little out-of-place) and it even works to emphasize parts like...

Spoiler

The horrifying photo-realistic final battle with Flowey.

[TomGuycott]

What was an initial draw to the game for me when I played the demo was the sort of bullet-hell dodging when you avoid enemy attacks in battle. I love the one shown in the trailer where you are dodging biceps.

[Koh]

I feel like the plain art style lends to the personal and quaint tone of the game's writing. I think if it was flashier it wouldn't feel nearly as genuine and that would be a huge drawback from the game's appeal.

I don't find it "NES nostalgic" so much as "home-made old RPG maker game" nostalgic, and that home-made feeling is practically necessary for the game to accomplish what it does in the story.

I guess it's just me then.  There's nothing inherently wrong with simplicity, but when looking at screenshots/videos of a game, and I see something like this, that's mostly flat colored with minimal to no shading at all, when I've seen things like

Heartforth Alicia


That are just bursting with life and color FROM THE VISUALS ALONE, it's really hard to get into them.  But, like I said, as long as the gameplay can make up for what's lacking in the graphics, who cares right?  Graphics don't necessarily have to go hand in hand with the story; in fact, I find it more interesting when they're actually a foil to the story.  You got these cutesy looking characters, but the story's all about preventing mass genocide from a maniac or something, showing there's more to a person behind a cute/pretty face.

[DragonDePlatino]

What was an initial draw to the game for me when I played the demo was the sort of bullet-hell dodging when you avoid enemy attacks in battle. I love the one shown in the trailer where you are dodging biceps.

Absolutely. I think the bullet-hell mechanic really helps elevate this game above other JRPGs. It's pretty easy early on, but near the end you get different bullet types like in Ikaruga to complicate things. The interactions when multiple enemies are attacking you is pretty cool as well. It reminds me a lot of the Mega Man Battle Network series.

If you haven't played the full game yet, you really owe yourself to! The gameplay and story are rock-solid the whole way through.

[Koh]

I'm guessing it gets about as ridiculous as Touhou after a while, lol.

[StarSock64]

 But,Graphics don't necessarily have to go hand in hand with the story; in fact, I find it more interesting when they're actually a foil to the story.  You got these cutesy looking characters, but the story's all about preventing mass genocide from a maniac or something, showing there's more to a person behind a cute/pretty face.

But that dissonance -does- go hand in hand with the story. It changes the tone of the game in a way that works together with the writing in order to give the audience certain feelings.

If the author's goal in this game was to make a genuine, comfy and personal little game, then having bold, highly detailed graphics wouldn't be dissonant in the sense that it might favorably change the interpretation of the tone as in your example, but it would instead diminish and mask the tone that the writing established and would weaken any specific emotions it might invoke.

I think it's any artist's job when they're working on a large project to make their work appropriate to that project. There are times when being vibrant and beautiful is appropriate, but there are times when making the prettiest art isn't a priority.

I mean it's not like there aren't a ton of games that I think look really amazing, but I can appreciate that in this case the plain, slightly drab graphics only helped my level of engagement with the story and feeling of the game

[DragonDePlatino]

I guess it's just me then.  There's nothing inherently wrong with simplicity, but when looking at screenshots/videos of a game, and I see something like this, that's mostly flat colored with minimal to no shading at all,

I think I can see the issue here. If you are judging the game by isolated screenshots or videos, you are not getting an accurate depiction of the game. Undertale is a game like Earthbound. The individual components are not impressive, but the game is greater than the sum of its parts. Once you pick up the game and get into it, the music, story and art comes together to create a very atmospheric game.

As an example, look at OFF, another particularly good indie RPG I have beaten several times:



That game looks awful, right? It's just a scribbly little sprite and big MS Paint rectangles! But once you play the game and everything gains context, it's a very immersive game. And no, OFF did not have good gameplay or story to fall back on. It was the atmosphere alone that kept me interested in the game.

[TomGuycott]

I love this game so much... I THINK I'm pretty far, and I just had a lot of trouble with a boss.

Spoilers about boss and location

I just fought Undyne, and after dying a bunch I was stuck in a loop at the end with 2 health left, dodging her for like half an hour or so, until I realized the game wanted me to Flee that battle (I'm sparing all my opponents). I just got to Hotland, and I just finished the cooking show.

[DragonDePlatino]

That's nice to hear! I actually had a lot of trouble figuring that out myself, and went through pretty much the same thing.

If you have any trouble at a later point, a good strategy is to fill your inventory up on Bicicles. Since your max HP is still 20 and most items heal more than that, Bicicles are one of the few items you can use that won't be wasted. With 8, you can recover 11 HP 16 times.

[TomGuycott]

I actually beat the game yesterday...
Twice.

I finished my Merciful run, and my god, things got heavy. Then I beat the game with NO Mercy... And I regret it, I feel like such an asshole even though it is just a game.

[[robo9]]

I dunno, Bicicles are about 45 gold for me. I'D rather buy a couple of buns for 5 gold more to make sure I have full health. Also I saw this art on reddit and it's not funny enough for the funny thread, but I still need to share it