Summary
With a gorgeous cast of memorable and rip-roarious characters, a sublime soundtrack, and punchy, RPG-meets-bullet hell gameplay,Undertaleis a one-of-a-kind experience that many flipped gamers' expectations about storytelling, violence, and progression in video games on their head. That said, it has since inspired a slew of great titles, and its themes and mechanics hardly came out of nowhere.Undertaleis threaded with loving references to (and wry parodies of) other video games, many from which it is spiritually descended.
Since its release,Undertalehas inspired many others to take a similaroffbeat, heartfelt, and experimentalapproach to game design. While fans eagerly await the full release of its parallel, anagrammatic sequel,Deltarune(although the first couple of chapters are available to play), there are plenty of other games of its kind to try out. Some inspired Toby Fox in his development ofUndertale, while the others that have been released since took some ofUndertale’s lessons to heart.
EarthBound
Undertale’s Spiritual “Mother”
LikeUndertale,EarthBoundsubverts many RPG traditions by eschewing the traditional fantasy setting in favor of a modern one, taking kids' perspectives in an adult world, and smattering heaps of goofy diversion and humor throughout the story. Just as it has inspiredmany other games since its release,EarthBound, and theMotherseries generally, might be the most direct inspiration forUndertale; it was also where Toby Fox got his start in game development, with his Christmas and Halloween-themed (ROM hack) mods.
Undertale fans will recognize plenty of nods to the Mother series, including its dating of the story as “199X,” its Super NES art style, its penchant for playful puns, occasionally self-deprecating humor, and even the stripes on the main character’s shirt. WhileEarthBounddoes not shareUndertale’s “mercy” mechanic in fights, characters have a “check” ability (spying), which gives hints on how to best defeat an enemy, as well as other innovative battle mechanics seldom seen in modern games.
Last Command
A Vibrant, Character-Driven Bullet Heck
While there are plenty of RPG elements inUndertale’s DNA, most of its battles involve light bullet-hell-style gameplay. While bullet hell classics likeProject Touhoumay have inspired its gameplay,Undertaledoesn’t exactly throwthe most reflex-intensive challengesat its players. For anyone curious aboutTouhou, the best point of entry might be the tenth entry,Mountain of Faith. However, those who loved the stylish and highly-characterized bullet hell battles inUndertalemight want to check outLast Command, which aligns more with the former’s “bullet heck” over “bullet hell” design ethos.
Rather than a determined heart in a box, players control PYTHON, a “Crawler,” which old-school phone game players might recognize as similar to a snake.Last Commanddoesn’t just shareUndertale’s toned-down “bullet heaven” (as Toby Fox would put it) gameplay; the game is thick with atmosphere and charm thanks to the excellent gameplay-appropriate, hand-crafted characterization of its enemies, a compelling and emotionally-charged story, a crisp mix of 2D pixels with clean, 3D digital afterlife environments, and an excellent soundtrack to boot.
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne
Chatting Up Monsters Who Can Talk Back
While mostWizardry-inspired old-school dungeon crawlers from Japan had players vanquishing every monster or enemy fighter in their path, theShin Megami Tenseiseries broke the tradition by allowing players to negotiate instead. Not every creature can be overcome via prudent parlance (bosses in particular). However, fans might appreciate the ability toturn foes into friends, allowing them to bring them into battle or even fusing them together to create all-new demons.
Although the olderShin Megami Tenseigames are just as enjoyable (if not more difficult) and would bring a familiar menu style toUndertale,the entry largely considered to be the best modern entry point isShin Megami Tenei 3: Nocturne, which sees the player character thrown into a world of demons following a metaphysical apocalypse above Tokyo. While most RPGs of a Japanese tradition tend to have fairly linear stories,Nocturneoffers multiple endings depending on the player’s actions (and level of violence) throughout the game.
Omori
A Whimsical Trip Through The Crayon-Colored Abyss
AsUndertaleopened the way for more sensitivity allowances in video games,Omorifollowed it up withan examination of mental health, emotional resonance, and the darker elements of the subconscious, with a disarmingly cute throwback pixel and hand-drawn art style. Omari leverages emotions while delivering its narrative and mechanically. Players will no doubt have their heartstrings plucked eventually, and emotions literally come into play during battle as a rock-paper-scissors-like system.
Colorful, abstracted, and bursting with imagination, the look and gameplay should be familiar to fans ofUndertale. However, the story, while exceptional, is tonally distinct from the happy-go-lucky, hopeful, and occasionally touching plot about the child who falls into the world of monsters, as players should not go intoOmoriexpecting to recapture the fuzzy feelings thatUndertaleleaves behind.
Knuckle Sandwich
A Sizzling Buffet Of Microgame Meat
Offbeat humor? Check. Vibrant and occasionally surprisingly beautiful visuals? In spades. Bespoke, thematically appropriate minigames for each enemy battle?Knuckle Sandwichboasts over a hundred. This passion-project RPG is set on a remote Australian island and leans into a realistic environment with magical elements occasionally airdropped in. The characters, too, are (for the most part) slice-of-life types who contrast deliciously with the surreal setting.
The poppy, late 90s internet visuals blend with the zany, funky musical stylings of early 2010s Nintendo of theWarioWarevariety. If Nintendo’s Wario had cooked up the battle minigames, Professor Layton probably designed its puzzles, asthey can become incredibly challenging, especially near the end. Anyone who saw the pre-solved joke puzzles inUndertaleand wished they could actually attempt one might enjoy the corkscrew-esque difficulty curve ofKnuckle Sandwich’s headscratchers.
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
Love-Up, Not Level-Up
Given the ubiquity of standardized violence in adventure or role-playing games,Undertale’s pacifist option is hardly a novelty in the genre but a welcome mechanical addition. However, Undertale isn’t the only game that allows players to right wrongs by abstaining from drawing blood and using understanding, empathy, and offbeat humor to progress. The gameplay inMoon: Remix RPG Adventurehas the player undoing the damage of the Moon World’s “mighty hero” by catching the lost souls of all the slaughtered animals used as XP grind fodder and returning them to their bodies.
In the process, the player explores Moon World and gets to know all its eccentric inhabitants, learning about their routines, day-to-day lives, and even their secrets. LikeUndertale,Moondeconstructs assumptions about what it means to “beat” a game, as the player is constantly presented with the ramifications that the “ideal video game protagonist” has on the world on hisquest to gain quick levelsand rake in gold, massacring hapless animals, and barging into people’s homes, smashing their ceramics for pennies.
