How Undertale Escaped Failure

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I think we're all glad it didn't fail tho.

My mom is a therapist and one of her patients told her about Undertale and that she should play it. She then told me about it and I told her that literally everyone knows about this game and then I played it and my brother also played it and then she played it. We all love that game. Even though mom doesn't really play video games, she loved it because it was good.

Most people remember Undertale for the embarrassing moments that it influenced the fanbase to do. But, it's still amazing how much influence it had. Undertale & other great games are plenty of proof that you can create a successful game without relying on poor business practices.

“Some people wish they could wipe it from their memory and play it for the first time again.” I feel called out lol.

Undertale released when I was 20. It was the first steam purchase I ever made, and it was the first pc game I ever beaten. I love Undertale.

Great video. Another reason why Undertale was so successful was because of its unique 4th wall breaks and the game being aware of every action you do (Even if you kill just one monster), you would be called out by the game. Also its interesting inspiration from text adventure games back in the day, and lots of passion Its insane an Earthbound fan cultivated a giant fandom that can rival Nintendo's and Sega's. In fact, some people make many different versions of characters and place them in alternate universes (AUs). Even animations of Sans Boss fight get over 100 million views. Undertale has also inspired many fangames, but one that stands out is Undertale Yellow, which takes place before Frisk falls and you play as the yellow soul and its just as charming and emotional as Undertale. It took 7 years of development for this Undertale Yellow game to be released. Thats how passionate the fandom is Also, Undertale isn't just a one shot success. Toby has made Deltarune, which follows similar style to Undertale but slightly different combat system and new characters. Also, it took 3 years to release Deltarune Chapter 2, and its still worth the wait. Most of the stuff doesnt feel out of place or filler. Most games (especially AAA games) just rush out their game and release it in the most buggy and unfinished quality for the quick bucks. "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad" - Shigeru Miyamoto

A coherent identity goes a long way to make a game enjoyable.

Something i will always appreciate about undertale is that its subversions of JRPG tropes come from a place of love for the genre instead of disdain

Probably because the right people played the random indie game and spread the word. That's what happened to Fall Guys over a year after the game came out: the right streamers found the game and spread the word.

Great video! Thank you for highlighting such a beautiful game. I found it interesting how you mentioned about Toby Fox' passion and vision. I am a gamedev and games are always a collaborative effort (even if you are a solo dev, most likely you've used an engine created by an entire group of people). However, creativity is many times driven by a single or a few minds when it comes to the main vision, and that's also an important aspect, depending on the game. Especially when you are trying to present something new and innovative. I'm also making videos here on YouTube and it's great to see that we don't always have to talk about the latest thing. We can go back and pay homage to some incredible games and teams at any time.

Overall a neat video, but I feel like there are some things that were deperately missing from it, so to provide some important context: - the fact that Undertale has the option to spare the enemy and the game reacts accordingly is NOT new, that alone is not what captivated so many people. It is the combination of this with easy to pick up and get charmed by character writing and overall narrative, the sheer amount of polish in the games writing and how many different small dialogues can be triggered by doing things in a very specific order as well as the indirect but easily recognisable aknowledgement of the player of the game being an important part of the puzzle. So much so that many people whle doing no mercy blame what they decided to do on Frosk or Chara out of their own volition, because they felt that bad for Undertale's characters. The "fight or spare" mechanic would not be as captivating as it is without these other things supporting it and while you ofc mentioned the game's writing I felt like it was implied that the battle mechanics are the main part of the gameplay's success - it is a tad strange to hear someone say every part of Undertale is polished when Toby Fox himself has stated that on multiple occasions when an asset from a contributor lookded "too good" he made a slightly crappier version to lower the players' expectations. Sure, a lot of the art of Undertale IS pretty, but that prettyness is inconsistent, sometimes even on purpose - small nitpick: I would've chosen something different than two sans fights as the sole representation of fangames in the video, but what works works i guess - and finally there is a strange absence of any mention of homestuck in this video...? The Kickstarter didn't blow up out of nowhere and Toby certainly didn't ONLY do ROM Hacks of Earthbound before UT. He was one of the most well knwon musicians for Homestuck, a comic with a MASSIVE fanbase at the time of the Kickstarter. Toby already HAD a sizeable audience, he was mostly known for his work on Homestuck at the time. That pool of initial supporters was mainly comprised of Homestuck fans! I mean, even one of the rewards was for "your fantroll to be in the game" (with a fantroll being a fanmade homestuck troll character) which eventually turned into So Sorry. So yeah, I thought it was odd to say that Toby had nothing going for him when he began the Kickstarter.

Undertale had a dream and it did that. That's what made it so unique. They didn't make it to make money, they made it because they wanted to create something new. That's what everyone also felt. AAA companies just want to make money, indie devs want to make an actual game. Some fail, some succeed. And I'm sure we are all glad untertale succeeded

My steam review is in this video! I’m the person who originally thought it was about sexy skeletons and refused to play it for years (though if you read my full review it’s clear that wasn’t actually my ultimate takeaway, lmao). This was crazy to see!

I bought the Collectors Edition because I wanted to support them and always dreamed about getting that heart locket. When i saw that there was the game inside of the Collectors Edition. I gave it to my brother so he could play it.....well he never touched it because "It's not something he wants to play". I just wish he could experience it by himself but every time i try to convince him to play it, he just refuses it. I remember that he enjoyed "Spear of Justice" as a Theme but now he wont even try to play it for himself which really upsets me ;T

At the end of the day, video games are art, following rules and frameworks is great but sometimes you just have to go with the flow!

Please try Dead Cells It's a good game, I swear It's an amazing game with some of the best 2D combat and lore I have ever seen with constant and substantial updates and an 9.5 IGN rating but still fall behind Hades even though both are amazing games. Please try it you won't regret it.

What I wanna know, is how many other indie gems are there that didn't hit it big.

Undertale is a fantastic first time experience, but the replay value when you've seen every ending you care about is severely lacking, and this boils down primarily to the combat system and the way the routes are handled. Most players will play the Neutral route first. Maybe they start playing the game like it's any other game and kill a few enemies before settling into a determined drive not to kill anymore, or maybe they only resort to killing when they find an enemy too difficult to beat otherwise. Whatever the personal situation, if you're going in blind you're probably going to kill at least one enemy at some point for whatever reason and end up on this route. There's many variations of the Neutral route's endings, which is where the majority of the replay value in the game comes from. "What if I did this part differently?" will drive players to do playthrough after playthrough just to see more. Eventually most players will probably experience the Pacifist ending, which ultimately by then amounts to a similar gameplay experience as Neutral but longer and without any killing. It's flashy but contains probably the most egregious example of a boss fight you can't lose in the game in the form of what is quite literally the final boss. And then there's the Genocide route. This is the route that singlehandedly most resembles a "game" in the entire experience, which is a shame since it's also the only route where you're actually punished for achieving the ending. Every other route's gameplay becomes hollow when you've already experienced the story before. Once you know the enemy patterns you don't really have anything left to challenge you, and with no new story content to experience there's no longer much in the way of value even in just experiencing that. In Genocide however, the challenge is cranked way up and you start having to becoming far more skilled and efficient. It's the only route in the game that retains its replay value in that the challenge provided by it is always engaging, and it's also the only route designed to shame you and make you feel like garbage for taking it. It's for that reason that I feel like Undertale is a fundamentally flawed experience. It's a wonderful first time experience but an increasingly hollow and eventually patronizing experience that loses its initial magic the more you play it. It goes from feeling like like a Studio Ghibli film type experience to being just another cleared entry in the ol' backlog. From what I have played of Deltrarune so far, I feel like Toby probably shares much the same sentiment and dissatisfaction with Undertale and seeks to fix this exact problem. The gameplay manages to be much more skill based and engaging at a much more consistent basis without you having to do anything to make you feel bad for doing it. I truly can't praise Toby and everyone else involved enough for what Deltarune seems to be shaping up to be, and I truly hope it manages to capture the magic that Undertale was going for in a more permanent way.

Taking risk is the best weapon against AAA studios.