Undertale

Story I’ve only played this for less than an hour, so don’t expect a deep dive into the lore here. You play as a human kid who trips over a vine or something and falls into a giant hole filled with monsters. The first thing you meet is a smiling flower named Flowey who immediately tries to murder you. Welcome to the Underground. After the flower tries to harvest your soul, you get saved by Toriel, a goat lady who acts like your overprotective mom. She holds your hand through some puzzles and tells you not to fight anyone. That’s about as far as I got. It’s weird, it’s funny, and I have no idea why everyone says this game makes you cry yet. Right now, it’s just me and Goat Mom in a dungeon.

Graphics The game looks like it was made on a toaster from 1990. It’s super basic pixel art—black and white combat screens and very simple character sprites. It’s got that “Earthbound” vibe, but even simpler. It’s not "bad," but if you’re looking for 4K textures or ray tracing, you are in the wrong place. It’s charming in a "I drew this in MS Paint" kind of way.

Audio Okay, the music is actually a banger. Even in the first area (the Ruins), the track is catchy and chill. The sound effects are retro beeps and boops. The "voice acting" is just text scrolling with a little blip-blip-blip noise, which is somehow less annoying than it sounds. It fits the weird vibe perfectly.

Gameplay This is the part that’s actually different. It looks like a turn-based RPG, but when enemies attack you, it turns into a mini "bullet hell" game where you have to dodge stuff with your little heart icon inside a box. Also, you don’t have to kill anything. I spent most of my 37 minutes trying to figure out how to talk my way out of fights with frogs and whimpering insects. You can "Act" to compliment them or pet them until they let you go. It’s unique, I’ll give it that. The puzzles so far are basically "push button, walk on spikes," so hopefully, they get harder.