If you are someone who didn’t live under a rock during 2015 – 2017 then you have heard of Undertale. The game took the world by storm and dominated media for a decent length of time with a still active fan base.
Key Takeaways
- Undertale’s unique execution within the RPG genre, rather than breaking conventions, contributed to its success.
- The perfect timing of its release, combined with a product allowing for self-insertion and a strong social media presence, propelled Undertale into internet history.
- Toby Fox’s single-handed development of Undertale inspired game developers and left a lasting impact on character writing and plot development in contemporary games.
- Undertale’s compelling gameplay mechanics and narrative structure make it a must-play, even for those not typically interested in RPGs, shaping the future of indie game development.
When you think of RPGs you think of turn-based combat, overarching stories, and a large cast of characters. Undertale does not break any genre conventions in theory but rather has an interesting execution of this system.
The Perfect Time & The Perfect Product
The cast of characters in Undertale are unique enough to let their personalities shine through but also allow for self-insert when playing which is one of the many reasons it succeeds. This allowed for the game and its cast to thrive on social media sites that were focused on fan content such as Tumblr and DeviantArt.
This alongside the game’s world being enjoyable to explore allowed many YouTubers to play the game and bring their hordes of fans onto the game since this was the era of the Let’s Play with prominent names such as PewDiePie, Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, H20Delirious, and VanossGaming to name a few.
During this era, the online landscape was more volatile which allowed both of these factors to merge and propel Undertale into internet history.
A Man On A Mission
That’s not all though since the creator and how he made this marvel is quite an important part of its success. The game was developed largely by Toby Fox with the animations, character design, soundtrack, story, and coding done by him.
This was inspiring for many game devs so much so that we can see the effects of Undertale on many games today with how they write characters and their plot lines.
Speaking about the story, it was an excellent way of providing players an incentive to continue the game it gets you hooked on the story, then attached to the characters, and finally brings it all back around to the story where now you do care what happens since you care for almost every character due to how well they are written (Nabstablok is my favorite).
The gameplay is also unique since it uses the gimmick where you “fight” enemies by talking to them and befriending them with the majority of the gameplay being defensive. Except for the Genocide Route but I won’t spoil that for you.
Do You Have The Determination? 
If you asked me then I would recommend you play Undertale, even if you aren’t a fan of RPGs. It is more so about knowing the pedigree that Undertale holds within the landscape of gaming and how it shaped the future we now inhabit and the games we see from Indie Developers. So definitely go ahead and buy it since it won’t even put that much of a dent in your wallet.
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I’m an avid gamer turned content writer, my hobbies include but are not limited to different forms of content creation. Not a complicated person, I play games and write about them. Currently attending university for Data Sciences. My favorite past-time is trying to different challange runs of Soulsborne and Souls-like games in the goofiest way possible for my own amusement. You can check my Gaming Profile on Steam And Xbox!
