Above the characters, the story (it does whatever it wants towards the end, corny) the jokes, the charm and even the music.
It has something that sadly most other games lack. It's an interactive experience.
Toriel refusing to kill you even if you try to get hurt, Undyne bullets getting slower and slower while she's dying, the souls helping you when you call for them and in the middle of the fight, the fights with the amalgamates, all the reactions of the characters after using specific items, all the little sad, charming or funny moments with the other monsters depending on what you do.
Any other game that has one or two moments like these (story told trough gameplay) is considered a classic, in Undertale this is the fucking game, from start to finish.
I have been playing games for nearly 30 years, among all my favourites Undertale shines in a different and special way.
thank you for attending to my ted talk, fuck you nigger-kun
I've enjoyed RPGs for years, but honestly, Undertale utterly disappointed me. The premise was amazing but it could've been executed much better, I think. It has pacifism as a theme but then takes a very naive approach to it. And it's a rather confusing direction because some characters make fun of you being a mega pacifist and even the best ending tells you such a method wouldn't be realistically viable.
This also goes to how battles are handled, where sparing an enemy no matter if they actually wish you harm, is the correct answer. And frankly, it doesn't make much sense. Why are you sparing the monsters that suddenly pop up in your face and are now shooting bullets at your soul? I mean it makes more sense when Muffet and Papyrus spare you, but other than that...
And the characters aren't really all that loveable or endearing to me either.
