Recent reviews by Ruin

The game’s story has been going downhill ever since they appointed Daichi Hiroi as Story Lead.

Post Endwalker, the story begins using anime and theatric tropes to let things happen instead of keeping things grounded. Our protagonists will always let the villain finish their plan, even if you beat them during the previous 8-man trial, just because the story needs it.

Dawntrail meanders with its questline that is as long as Endwalker with only a third of its nuance and none of its impact.

I’d rather have bad gameplay than bad story. You can patch bad gameplay but 6.1-7.0 MSQ is a blight I doubt they’ll be able to cleanse.

Undertale is the story about a boy who falls down through a hole and finds himself in a strange world where he tries to use his extensive RPG knowledge only to find out that he has been wrong all along, and the world will try to mock him everytime he's wrong.

First of all, if you want to play Undertale, you need to get rid of all of your preconceptions about it. Ignore the fanbase, ignore the opinion pieces, and just focus on the game you are about to play. That's what I did and I wouldn't have enjoyed it otherwise.

This is an RPG made in GameMaker, reminiscent of the Mother and Dragon Quest series. The movement is topdown 2D with random battles that appear every few steps. You are able to choose several commands other than Fighting during battles, such as "Check", "Pet" and "Devour", you can also show Mercy to the enemies and spare them without killing them. Figuring out how to spare some enemies can be more fun (And rewarding) than beating them in a fight.

Like Mother 3 rhythm battles, Undertale has a unique style for attacking and dodging. The attacks have a "sweet spot" system for timing that varies between weapons, while dodging uses a "Bullet Hell" system where your soul (A heart icon) has to dodge incoming enemy fire.

I'd say the game's writing is not for everyone. Your enjoyment of the game depends on how attached you grow to the characters and while they are generally likeable, some might think the writing is too "fourth wall breaking" for their tastes and I agree. You might end up expecting the game to subvert any number of well known tropes sooner or later, and if you have that mindset, you won't be surprised.

A single playthrough might take you 6 to 10 hours, however multiple playthroughs are recommended as "your choices matter". I won't tell you that the game will make you cry (Drawing another comparison to the Mother series, Mother 3 does a much better job at it), but the story is solid, the gameplay is fun and the writing is okay.

TL;DR: 8/10