Recent reviews by DarkSlayer415

Undertale is really hard to review since there's an equal amount of pros and cons going for it that make it a mediocre game compared to other games I've played in recent years. If you've been observant for the past year, you probably would've recognized Undertale as either the game that got a lot of recognition and awards or the game with a fanbase just as cancerous and toxic as FNaF's. Honestly, if Steam had the option to give a neutral rating, Undertale probably falls in that middle ground. I've tried my best to keep the review spoiler free and to not let my thoughts about the fans affect me.

Playtime, Technical Specs, and Pacing
The game plays like a typical retro overhead RPG with an overworld, your character, obstacles, and other characters. The game is locked in at 30 FPS, which, considering that NES and SNES games that inspired Undertale can run at 60 FPS, is pretty disappointing. On top of that, your character moves very slowly on the overworld, making traveling between areas time consuming. You probably spend at least 50% of your playtime walking from place to place, which isn't something anyone really enjoys. Pacing wise, the entire game takes anywhere between 5 to 6 hours. My Neutral Run went for around 8 hours (to explore the overworld and find secrets), my True Pacifist took around another 6 hours, and Genocide took me 7 hours or so. If you go through the areas quickly, you can effectively beat it in 4 hours. There's also a lack of an options menu and deleting your save file is also a bit of a pain. You save file is saved under C:Users/YourName/AppData/Local/Undertale as well as the SteamApps folder for Undertale. A file is saved on the Steam Cloud if you get the Genocide ending which will affect future playthroughs.

Graphics and Aesthetic
Like it's been said many times, Undertale is definitely inspired by classic NES and SNES games, specifically the Mother games and Earthbound for example (Yes I know that Toby Fox made the EB Halloween Hack and EB is Mother 2). The overworld has a nice retro feel yet remains beautiful, and all of the locations seemed to fit the mood of the game. Most of the character sprites are okay to me, except for your character, who looks awful compared to all the other characters. With that being said, the graphics are....boring to me. Yes, I love retro and retro-styled games just like a lot of other people, with Super Mario Bros. 3 and Cave Story being two of my all time favorite games. But this whole theme of indie devs using retro-styled graphics has become really boring and overused in the past few years. Retro isn't bad, but be a little bit more original. Overall, decent artwork, sprite art, and graphics, but it could be much better.

Story, Dialogue, and Characters
One of the most commonly associated tags for Undertale happens to be "Story Rich." In all honesty, after doing all 3 routes, the story felt very lacking and confusing to be honest. Here's the best spoiler-free explanation I can come up with; There was once a war between monsters and humans. Humans won, and monsters got sent underground, but one day, a human falls into the monster world. You'd assume the fallen human might be you, but no, it's someone else and it's explained in-game that your character is completely different from the human in the intro. Then, the game also has a Groundhog Day-esque time loop thing going with your save data too. The characters all seem to be based on stereotypes and a lot of the dialog was cringe inducing, especially with characters such as Sans, Papyrus, and Alphys. The "comedy" that the game is infamously known for is all childish and cringeworthy. For example, when you meet Sans for the first time, he pulls a whoopee cushion joke. This is something you'd expect from a five year old. Alphys acts like a stereotypical weeaboo and she is really annoying if you're doing a Neutral or Pacifist run. Papyrus tries to act all high and mighty, saying he'll capture you to become more popular, etc. Undyne, while edgy, feels a bit more developed than the other characters. My favorite character is probably Mettaton and by extension Mettaton EX because Mettaton is probably a Claptrap/Borderlands reference and Mettaton EX is definitely a JoJo reference.

Gameplay and Combat
As I've said earlier, the game is like your average RPG with an overworld and combat system. Many people believe the combat system in this game is unique and innovative, when in reality, it's nothing really new. The whole "kill or not kill" theme isn't anything new since many other games have done it too. You can run from most fights except boss fights, just like most other RPGs. The main premise again is to either Fight or Spare your enemies. To spare an enemy, you have to use the Act option and figure out what to do or say to spare them. If Fight is selected, a meter shows up and by hitting Z closer to the middle, you deal more damage. When an enemy attacks you, you're brought into this pseudo-"bullet hell" scenario where you avoid enemy attacks. Get hit, lose health, lose all health, you die. Basic RPG stuff with a bullet hell twist. What I find surprising is that people think Undertale's "bullet hell" segments are extremely difficult, but as a person who plays Touhou, which is another game that Undertale took inspiration from, the game was very easy. Difficulty is another thing that fluctuates in the game depending on your playthrough. If you've played any, and I mean *ANY* bullet hell or SHMUP game where avoiding projectiles is a must, you'll have an easy time with the game and you'll probably die only a few times. Even the boss fights still have a pattern that you can easily avoid or have some sort of gimmick that makes it easier. Just like any other RPG or video game, you have your selection of items. In Undertale, you're limited to only 8 items in your inventory and 10 items in a storage box. It would've been nice if you could upgrade your inventory space like in the Borderlands games or any other RPG for that matter.

Audio and Music
Even all the negative reviews on Steam commend the game's soundtrack and I have to agree. The soundtrack is pretty decent with a nice mixture of electronic, orchestral, and chiptune music based off of classic 8 and 16 bit games. However, if there's one criticism I have is that some of the music does sound way too similar to songs by other creators. One example I can think of happens in Undyne's two themes, "Spear of Justice" and "Battle Against A True Hero." Both songs contain parts with a trumpet have a trumpet portion commonly referred by Touhou fans as ZUN-pets. They're called such because they are named after the creator and programmer behind the Touhou series, ZUN. They aren't bad songs at all, but at least either give credit or recognize the original creator of a song if you sample their work. There are probably other songs like that in the game, but those were the two that stood out to me. My favorite songs in the game are probably Spear of Justice, Death By Glamour and Bergentrückung/ASSGORE.


Overall, Undertale is a mediocre game that has its fair share of pros and cons. After doing full playthroughs of all routes, I have to say that the game was definitely overhyped by reviewers and the fanbase. The only reason why I gave a Negative review was because Steam lacks the option to give a Neutral review. It's not a bad game, but I find it hard to recommend. I would recommend buying it on sale. Overall, I'd give it between a 6 or 7 out of 10, so a 6.5/10 is my final rating.

Edit: After my 8th playthrough, I still can't for the love of Gaben really recommend this game.

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni or Higurashi: When They Cry is one of the most famous horror anime series ever for good reason. A lot of mystery solving, blood and gore, and yandere. Although originally a visual novel and this being the Steam remake, the Higurashi series is widely known in the anime fan culture, and even on the internet due to some memes being born from it, as well as many scenes of the anime being uploaded on YouTube. The games in the series have been released on PC, PS2, PS3, PS Vita, iOS, Android, and Nintendo DS, as well as the popular anime adaptation and the manga adaptations. I first discovered Higurashi from the clips on YouTube and it has been one of my favorite franchises ever since. This particular arc, Onikakushi-hen is one of my favorites because I own the manga adaptation of it. I have also played Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen.

The gameplay of a visual novel game is pretty basic. You click and read the text that's on the screen. Pretty simple, huh? Well, Higurashi is a different case. The story follows the myth of Oyashiro-sama's Curse, a myth that is linked to consecutive murders that occur every summer in the town of Hinamizawa. With every murder, another person goes missing. Every story arc is like the movie Groundhog Day as you are stuck in a time-loop. There are 4 main Question arcs, and 4 Answer arcs, and many other extra arcs that go deeper into the story. You play the role of Keiichi Maebara, who recently moves to Hinamizawa. Every story arc is different because in every arc, a different character falls victim to The Hinamizawa Syndrome, which causes the character to act in strange and violent ways. By reading the story and reading tips that you can unlock, you start to figure out what's going on, who's responsible for the strange acts, and the murders of some of the main characters. The only one who can solve the mystery of Hinamizawa and the "Curse," is you, the player.

I suck at writing reviews, but I highly recommend this game to anyone who's looking for a good mystery to solve, anyone who wants to familiarize themselves with the Higurashi franchise, or anyone who loves the series and has been a longtime fan of it.

"One word for this game: AWESOME!"

Those were the exact words I wrote back in 2011 when I first started playing TF2 following the F2P Update, and I still wholeheartedly believe my younger self to this day. I've been playing this game ever since 6th grade and I don't ever see myself ever quitting this game.

Now that Valve has implemented a new anti-cheat to combat the ongoing bot problem, I can wholeheartedly recommend this masterpiece once again, and I pray to Our Lord and Savior Gaben that He maintains the anti-cheat and anti-bot measures that were recently implemented.