Cover artwork I generate from the game data. I do not use publisher artwork.
Game profile
Undertale
In an underworld full of monsters, your own morality decides whether you fight or negotiate, fundamentally changing how the game unfolds. The soundtrack and quirky characters have reached cult status.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is RPG / Adventure, set in a fantasy world. Visually it is built on pixel art, and the overall tone stays somewhere between light and heavy. The structure is guided rather than open, so you are moved along instead of dropped into a map. Sessions of an hour or two sit at the sweet spot here.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available broadly, on 5 platforms. It sits in the budget bracket.
What stands out
- Moral choices actually matter
- Iconic soundtrack
- Multiple, wildly different endings
This fits you if
- you want to live through a story, not just play a system
- you enjoy being made to think
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you are watching your budget
- you like a deliberate retro look over photorealism
Look elsewhere if
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- you want something that lasts, this is over after 9 hours
- pixel art puts you off
- you specifically want an open world to roam
What it costs you in time
About 9 hours in total. At two hours per evening that is around 5 evenings, so about a week of casual play.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 96 out of 100, which puts it above 99 percent of the 1206 games here and at rank 12 overall. That is top tier. Only a handful of games here score higher.
For comparison, RPG averages 82 points across the database, so this one sits 14 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 1886 collected ratings.
Released in 2015, which makes it 11 years old. A genuine classic, and worth checking how the version you buy holds up today.
The facts
- Release year
- 2015
- Genres
- RPG, Adventure
- Playtime
- approx. 9 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Fantasy
- Visual style
- Pixel art
- Price bracket
- Budget
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, Mobile
- Critic rating
- 96 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Undertale | 2015 | approx. 9 hrs. | 96 | Budget |
| In Stars and Time | 2023 | approx. 17 hrs. | 89 | Budget |
| OneShot | 2014 | approx. 6 hrs. | 85 | Budget |
| Unavowed | 2018 | approx. 10 hrs. | 79 | Budget |
If you liked this, try these
- In Stars and Time Shared: RPG, Adventure, Fantasy, longer
- OneShot Shared: RPG, Adventure, Fantasy, shorter
- Unavowed Shared: RPG, Adventure, Fantasy
- Esoteric Ebb Shared: RPG, Adventure, Fantasy, longer
- Deltarune Shared: RPG, Adventure, Fantasy, longer
- Strange Antiquities Shared: RPG, Adventure, Fantasy, longer