I don't really think the game's that unique either but I'd at least be willing to entertain that notion if someone could present some idea of why they thought that.
What other games have done what Undertale has done?
I don't really think the game's that unique either but I'd at least be willing to entertain that notion if someone could present some idea of why they thought that.
What other games have done what Undertale has done?
I honestly can't think of any.
Plenty, but they're mostly small titles that aren't well-known outside of RPGMaker circles. If I had to call Undertale anything, I'd call it a refinement of its influences, it's better than them and I feel like it pulls off a trick that a lot of them try to but fail at, but I've talked about this before.
Middens is a much grimmer (and less well-done) example of the same general set up.
OneShot does something in the same ballpark too. I actually can't stand OneShot but Toby Fox has actually cited it as an influence if memory serves.
EarthBound almost seems too obvious to mention, but it as well.
I feel like the RPGMaker scene that has been chugging along in some form since the mid 2000s (earlier than that by some metrics) doesn't get enough credit in general.
I don't really think the game's that unique either but I'd at least be willing to entertain that notion if someone could present some idea of why they thought that.
idk if i can, but i will say this: the game struck me as "unique" in the sense that it was the first time i'd played a video game and felt like i'd experienced some *really good* writing
not just "ok", not just "functional", which as far as most games go is the best you can hope for in my experience, but actually, genuinely good.
for a wealth of reasons, Toby understands how to do emotional scenes, he understands comic relief and how to deploy it effectively, he understands the mindset of someone playing the game and responds to their actions accordingly, he can be downright scary when he wants, he's a great caricaturist, he has a remarkable understanding of the medium he's working in and it shows, and at the heart of it all is a really moving, touching story about characters you can really grow to care about, and the entire thing is suffused with wit and good humour
i can think of literally no other video game i'd say that about, and while this might just mean i haven't been playing the right games, at the very least i'd say it exceeded my expectations.
I don't really think the game's that unique either but I'd at least be willing to entertain that notion if someone could present some idea of why they thought that.
idk if i can, but i will say this: the game struck me as "unique" in the sense that it was the first time i'd played a video game and felt like i'd experienced some *really good* writing
not just "ok", not just "functional", which as far as most games go is the best you can hope for in my experience, but actually, genuinely good.
for a wealth of reasons, Toby understands how to do emotional scenes, he understands comic relief and how to deploy it effectively, he understands the mindset of someone playing the game and responds to their actions accordingly, he can be downright scary when he wants, he's a great caricaturist, he has a remarkable understanding of the medium he's working in and it shows, and at the heart of it all is a really moving, touching story about characters you can really grow to care about, and the entire thing is suffused with wit and good humour
i can think of literally no other video game i'd say that about, and while this might just mean i haven't been playing the right games, at the very least i'd say it exceeded my expectations.
That's fair.
Where I will give Undertale credit is that it made me care about the writing in a way that is very rare (not unprecedented, but rare) in gaming.
I feel like this has now turned into a narrative of me trying to discredit Undertale or something so I'll just shut up and hope naney comes back later.
I feel like this has now turned into a narrative of me trying to discredit Undertale or something so I'll just shut up and hope naney comes back later.
After I wrote like two pages of bullshit? I feel ripped off.
are we allowed to talk about that post because I have things to say about it but I don't actually care what Nostalgabraist thinks of me so I have no desire to talk to them directly.
You know what I just accidentally read another thinkpiece on why To Pimp A Butterfly is the greatest album of all time so I think I'm done seriously discussing art for the day.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Jane, I totally agree with you, talking about the effects of art on people and how it reflects you as a person is a stupid, pointless, utterly worthless topic and I also absolutely hate it.
Because at its core, it's not actually talking about the effects of art, nor how it reflects you as a person. It's accumulating social capital. Getting credit, getting brownie points. Power.
I see its use, because artistic movements and art as an institution exists, but it's a game I refuse to play.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
The reason Sans judges you on Pacifist as "not totally innocent" is because even though you didn't kill anyone, you may have threatened them, or been an asshole to them, like you have to do with Jerry.
The reason Sans judges you on Pacifist as "not totally innocent" is because even though you didn't kill anyone, you may have threatened them, or been an asshole to them, like you have to do with Jerry.
even if you have (and you don't have to, you can spare Jerry by getting him to laugh at your joke, if you encounter him alongside Snowdrake), "you'd be dead where you stand" seems a bit disproportionate!
Undertale is the New Game You Have To Like Or You Don’t Get It. These sanctified vessels are selected by an organization that is either lofty or subterranean, I haven’t decided, and one of the cool things about being old is that I don’t care.
These hyper-earnest teens I got on my block are way into this stuff. I’m glad that someone is teaching them new words. But I can sense a kind of invisible maze go up when they start this conversation - they want to know if I can be trusted. If I’m like the others. They want to know if they can tell me the secret, and they will, provided I already know it. So I lied. I lied and lied and lied.
There is a popular mode now I have taken to calling Double Reverse Irony, where things are real but not real but no they’re actually real, that is just one step beyond where I’m interested. My policy when the next generation “does them” is informed by 2pac’s I Ain’t Mad At Cha, and I only get mad when people transform works into litmus tests. In the case of Undertale, I can’t abstract it enough to even look at it: I can’t hold it far enough away. The thing it is dismantling is too close to me.
Parody can be revelatory of weakness in the subject, but it can also reveal strength; it can reveal what’s left after the softest parts are washed away. Even when done in love, it has a caustic quality. An extended look at metals extraction probably isn’t appropriate for this paragraph, but I’m thinking about gold cyanidation and toxicity. The game is gleeful in its cannibalism of the medium, there’s blood all over its face but it’s smiling. It’s intimate with the tropes it has on display, and at this precise moment in time I’m discomfited by what it does with that familiarity.
It is insufficiently reverent, and does not perform the proper obeisances. Others like it for precisely these reasons. I’m delighted by the iconoclasm intellectually and repulsed by it viscerally; if nothing else, it’s providing an intense psychological workout.
Comments
I honestly can't think of any.
idk if i can, but i will say this: the game struck me as "unique" in the sense that it was the first time i'd played a video game and felt like i'd experienced some *really good* writing
not just "ok", not just "functional", which as far as most games go is the best you can hope for in my experience, but actually, genuinely good.
for a wealth of reasons, Toby understands how to do emotional scenes, he understands comic relief and how to deploy it effectively, he understands the mindset of someone playing the game and responds to their actions accordingly, he can be downright scary when he wants, he's a great caricaturist, he has a remarkable understanding of the medium he's working in and it shows, and at the heart of it all is a really moving, touching story about characters you can really grow to care about, and the entire thing is suffused with wit and good humour
i can think of literally no other video game i'd say that about, and while this might just mean i haven't been playing the right games, at the very least i'd say it exceeded my expectations.
stop looking at this thread I think
I was annoyed at first but calmed down once I actually started engaging with you.
If I'm allowed to link that, I will.
I just
don't want to talk about video games
and i now realize that talking about video games is kinda inevitable
so I am seeing myself out is all, and mentioning this explicitly so people don't expect me to respond to things
If we continue, I'll PM you when we've stopped.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Takes way too long. Not worth it
spidery
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Undertale is the New Game You Have To Like Or You Don’t Get It. These sanctified vessels are selected by an organization that is either lofty or subterranean, I haven’t decided, and one of the cool things about being old is that I don’t care.
These hyper-earnest teens I got on my block are way into this stuff. I’m glad that someone is teaching them new words. But I can sense a kind of invisible maze go up when they start this conversation - they want to know if I can be trusted. If I’m like the others. They want to know if they can tell me the secret, and they will, provided I already know it. So I lied. I lied and lied and lied.
There is a popular mode now I have taken to calling Double Reverse Irony, where things are real but not real but no they’re actually real, that is just one step beyond where I’m interested. My policy when the next generation “does them” is informed by 2pac’s I Ain’t Mad At Cha, and I only get mad when people transform works into litmus tests. In the case of Undertale, I can’t abstract it enough to even look at it: I can’t hold it far enough away. The thing it is dismantling is too close to me.
Parody can be revelatory of weakness in the subject, but it can also reveal strength; it can reveal what’s left after the softest parts are washed away. Even when done in love, it has a caustic quality. An extended look at metals extraction probably isn’t appropriate for this paragraph, but I’m thinking about gold cyanidation and toxicity. The game is gleeful in its cannibalism of the medium, there’s blood all over its face but it’s smiling. It’s intimate with the tropes it has on display, and at this precise moment in time I’m discomfited by what it does with that familiarity.
It is insufficiently reverent, and does not perform the proper obeisances. Others like it for precisely these reasons. I’m delighted by the iconoclasm intellectually and repulsed by it viscerally; if nothing else, it’s providing an intense psychological workout.
i started out exasperated and kept reading and now i'm just confused and a little sad