Anyone else unable to care for the story/characters in this?
I tried to give them a chance when I saw how hyped they were, but the disconnect between the story and the visuals is far too great to get invested in what's happening, it's like asking me to care for Tetris blocks' emotions or stick figure men drawn by a child.
Now I'm no graficsfag, most of my favorite games are on the SNES and PS1, but I think once you move from the medium of written text into something that has visuals like a game, there is a ratio of a certain minimum requirement of visuals that have to back up the scope and depth of the story. Even Mother that inspired the games also has incredibly simple pixel art but I think it still meets the requirement and allows you to get invested, but low res black and white pixelshit sprites make it really hard to care for what's happening, the fact people are discussing them seriously feels farcical to me.
youre comparing the visuals in the game to stick figures? I mean, they’re a common criticism, but theyre ‘good enough’, like the point you make with your comparison, mother. Earthbounds visuals were a common criticism when it released as well. the black and white aesthetic isn’t even cliche or anything, it’s unique even for rpg maker standards. seems like undertale just isn’t for you and you should not care
Aiden Wood
They are way too crude, they're one step above being stick figures which is not enough for a story with this themes and scope, it feels absurd and hard to take seriously. "Just imagine it" works with text because you have a blank canvas, but here you're given concrete designs and visuals and they're simply not cohesive or developed enough to support the narrative. And I'm not just talking about the characters, the whole world is too rudimentary, it feels like a teen amateur dev's half baked RPG Maker game full of placeholder assets.
Ian Roberts
>it feels like a teen amateur dev's half baked RPG Maker game full of placeholder assets. WAIT ARE YOU TELLING ME UNDERTALE IS AN INDIE GAME???
>No, indie games are usually finished and have standards You can't possibly believe this. You cannot be so deluded and out of touch. You're holding the exceptions as the standard, you moron.
You may be emotionally retarded. I found the characters unappealing and impossible to relate to, but it was because of the writing and not because "lolgraphics".
Michael King
Most successful indie games are far, far above Undertale when it comes to visual consistency
Well I didn't even get to the point where I could start judging whether they're appealing or not, I just couldn't take the story seriously at all because of the visual/story discrepancy, four hours in and the main question on my mind was still "is the dev genuinely trying to get me to care about this with how ridiculous it is"
Jonathan Baker
>Most successful indie games are far, far above Undertale when it comes to visual consistency Cool, but what about the unsuccessful ones, you fucking nigger? Don't just move the goalposts until it's convenient for you, dumb fuck. This conversation is over.
Are you implying this is some epic own lmao >it's bad because.. it just is okay????
Colton Roberts
Braid is fucking boring in comparison to Undertale The whole "story" becomes absolute shit at the final level
Carter Walker
Hmm almost like putting in a story about nuclear holocaust in what was a cutesy time rewind puzzle platformer makes it silly and hard to take seriously due to the huge discrepancy of the theme of the story and the rest of the context, it reminds me of another game whose name I just can't seem to remember, thankfully for us Braid has actual gameplay and it's good and it looks wonderful on top so you can ignore the story and still get a ton out of the game. Unlike a certain other game whose appeal is 99% story and not being able to take it seriously is a huge hit to its enjoyability.
Braid is shit because it's pretentious as fuck since the story relies on symbolisms and tries to be deep. The only thing has it going is the gameplay, which wasn't enough to save it from being a forgettable game. It has no interesting characters and the world has no actual depth. The twist at the end is fucking retarded and made playing the game a waste of time. Undertale's story is simple and straightforward. There's actual characters and it has some worldbuilding. There's a reason why old indie games like Cave Story are still remembered and still have a community while games like Braid are forgotten.
I can care about the characters because the intent comes through clearly even when the visuals are a little subpar. Why in the world would I judge a game by its creator's art skill?
Jacob Carter
someone post the picture with the apples
Elijah Barnes
>Braid is shit because it's pretentious as fuck since the story relies on symbolisms and tries to be deep. So like Undertale
>The only thing has it going is the gameplay, Unlike Undertale which doesn't even have that
>It has no interesting characters and the world has no actual depth. Because it's not a story game
>The twist at the end is fucking retarded and made playing the game a waste of time. Did you seriously play a puzzle game for the story and then got disappointed when the story turned out to be meh? Did the enjoyment you got from the puzzles and visuals/music somehow get taken away from you?
>Undertale's story is simple and straightforward. No it's not lmao, it's a mish mash of arbitrary thrown together concepts like a reject pile
>There's actual characters They're more like talking gimmicks
>There's a reason why old indie games like Cave Story Cave Story had visuals consistent with its intent
>games like Braid are forgotten. No it's not lmao, not every game needs to have a decade long circlejerk about its furry creatures in order to be considered "not forgotten"
Austin Rogers
and you sound racistic.
Jordan Lee
If you think Undertale is pretentious, you forgot what pretentious means and you're too pretentious to admit it. Undertale doesn't once pretend to have more impact and weight than it actually does. It knows it's just a game, and that ultimately a game isn't going to be some kind of world-shattering experience. So it restricts its "gotcha"s to stuff to do with the game parts, and not some huge "revelation" about gaming as a whole or whatever the fuck. It's not Spec Ops The Line tier "you're a monster for doing the one thing that would let you continue to play the game", it's "for once, the game was made by someone who knows exactly how you'll approach it", then "you're so obsessed with games/this game that you're beginning to miss the point; you violated the spirit of this game just to see what happened".
>Undertale doesn't once pretend to have more impact and weight than it actually does. It knows it's just a game Genuinely delusional
John Clark
Show me one part of Undertale that implies it doesn't realize its genuine impact and tries to play at being bigger. One specific thing, don't just say "well... all of it!!" as if that answers a damn thing.
Carter Russell
>talking about "violating the spirit of the game" >not pretentious
>it's pretentious to take a work even moderately seriously and not constantly approach it from a meta point of view Literally the opposite.
Thomas Powell
Nah, games that are games and know they're just games don't give a shit what you do with them, they're there for your amusement, not to lecture you for having genre expectations
>noo don't kill muh heckin pixelshit monsterinos!! they're people too, they have souls!!
Hudson Flores
>games that are games and just games don't have stories Absolutely untrue >b-but that's not what I said It's equivalent. Undertale's criticism isn't at you for having "muh genre expectations" you fucking dipshit. It's asking you to act with the kind of empathy you almost certainly once had when you were new at games, to take the game at face value and not do shit with the sole goal of "seeing what happens".
Jaxon Wilson
>It's asking you to act with the kind of empathy So it's not a game that's just a game and the holier than thou attitude ingrained in the game's design and writing makes it pretentious, understood
Joseph Jenkins
user, why do you bother trying to convince him? He's already made up his mind, he'll do whatever mental gymnastics to claim a simple story is pretentious.
Matthew Barnes
Not as advanced as the mental gymnastics you went through to claim it's a simple story
Andrew Hill
user are you telling me that at no point in your LIFE did you just do what felt right for a game rather than trying every fucking option to see what happened? >b-but asking me to act that way is pretentious! games shouldn't ask you to- The game isn't asking you to act that way. It allows you to act how you want. All it does is observe that doing this so obsessively might have more significance than you think.
Carson Garcia
>It allows you to act how you want. Every game allows me to act how I want, pretentious game pretend there's a moral quandary in killing pixels
Gabriel Turner
>So like Undertale Undertale's story doesn't try rely on symbolism and it doesn't even try to be deep. What's happening is happening there. >Unlike Undertale which doesn't even have that Oh boy, I wonder what mental gymnastics you're going to present to tell me all the bullet hell segments is not the gameplay >Did you seriously play a puzzle game for the story and then got disappointed when the story turned out to be meh? No, but it ruins the journey you went through by giving you an unsatisfying ending. A game having a shit story is worse than having no story. Is like playing Mario game only for you to find out Peach is another castle because she keep running away from you. >it's a mish mash of arbitrary thrown together concepts like a reject pile What the fuck does that mean? >They're more like talking gimmicks You can say that to literally any video game character out there >Cave Story had visuals consistent with its intent Out of all the reasons why Cave Story is popular, the visuals is absolutely not one of them. >No it's not lmao, not every game needs to have a decade long circlejerk If that were the case, we wouldn't have so many threads on Yea Forums about old games. Again, Braid is forgettable because it's wasn't interesting in comparison to other games like Cave Story
Austin Allen
>pretentious game pretend there's a moral quandary in killing pixels You are claiming that because characters in a game are mad about you killing characters in the game, the GAME ITSELF is telling YOU, the player, that you are immoral for killing them. This is fucking retarded.
Isaac Scott
oh god, this reddit bullshit
Joshua Robinson
That's literally the only way they can justify their whining, user. Of course they'll always cling to that false equivalence and you'll never get them to let go of it.
Andrew Foster
Creating a Dragon Quest game in which the story is that all the slimes are angry at you for genociding them because you were playing the game is indeed pretentious and silly if it wants to be taken seriously with supposed emotional moments and gravitas
Zachary Cook
>i cannot apply actual emotional weight to characters if they look even a little silly >i cannot imagine anyone writing something they don't actually feel, much less writing a character that feels something different from them ??????????
Samuel Price
It's like traveling back in time one week after Undertale's release. Can't you guys bitch about Deltarune instead? Or did you not play that either?
Hudson Carter
The game expecting you to do that is indeed pretentious, yes
Jack King
>a character saying something to another character is tantamount to the developer saying something directly to your face >"asking me to not believe this is... le pretentious!" never speak again
The graphics of undertale are amateurish in the best possible way. It has a very unique look born from the limitations of its development. The game has stellar writing and music to make up for the limited artstyle. It will depend on your taste if you are okay with that. Personally I wish more games were like this. Undertale is like a weird direction I wish the gaming medium would have taken.
A character saying something pretentious to another character is pretentious, yes, I feel like we established this well and are now going in circles
Cooper Howard
>"You fucking murdered my brother and I hate you" >WOOOOOOW HOW FUCKING PRETENTIOUS user do you think that when people murder each other in real life prison is just a formality and nobody really cares
>The graphics of undertale are amateurish in the best possible way No, in fact they're amateurish in the worst possible way, instead of giving it his best effort, he used a "muh style" excuse to deliver half hearted half baked garbage. The best possible way would be doing everything you can to make it as good as you possibly can within realistic time and money limits, despite not being skilled.
Kevin Hernandez
retard thread
Isaiah Evans
Of course Yea Forums likes undertale and derisively calls everything else either tranny or pretentious. Toby Fuchs we swear.
Jose Cox
A funny meme skeleton pretending the murder of his funny meme skeleton brother as a part of standard genre mechanics is a serious deal and the game expecting you to take this situation seriously is pretentious, again, well established at this point, where do you want to take this discussion next
Daniel Davis
Undertale fits your EXACT specifications to a fucking TEE you flying retard
James Carter
Every game you've ever liked is gay because it did sonjyxdmething, faggot
Jack Turner
But it doesn't, nowhere near actually, in fact it goes out of its way to do the opposite?
Camden Carter
>"they looked silly so it's ok for me to murder them" Says the man who almost certainly looks like the hunchback of notre dame. Characters should not just lay down and be okay with you murdering them because "they look funny", what the fuck, retard.
Nathan Wright
>doing everything you can to make it look as good as you possibly can within realistic time and money limits, despite not being skilled Toby >pulled in favors with an artist friend to do work for reduced pay, still expending his budget almost entirely >did his own art whenever possible, applying his best effort and using a style that he could just barely manage >produced strong and memorable character designs that can be accurately interpreted despite extreme limitations He meets all of your qualifications.
Owen Campbell
I don't think anyone even likes Undertale in this thread, OP is just so fucking stupid and bad at posting he has tricked people into defending it.
Brandon Sullivan
They looked silly and they acted silly and they were presented as JRPG monsters whose usual purpose is to be killed by an absent minded player grinding away, one of them pretending the murder of the other is a serious deal should be a joke, not a "serious emotional moment"/climax
They weren't good characters. They were just "quirky", which dumb people often confuse with good character writing
Daniel Rivera
I like Undertale. I don't think it's some untouchable masterpiece, or some huge and revolutionary critique on gaming. People who take it super seriously are indeed pretentious. But the game itself is objectively not.
Luke Carter
>game's tagline is "The RPG where nobody has to die" >marketing heavily advertises the ability to spare monsters >game is basically built around the assumption that you'll see killing Toriel as a fuck-up and go back to change it, for the end of the tutorial >"but you usually just kill things without thinking about it in this genre, so..." user for the love of fucking christ
Sebastian Miller
Wow what is this game, it sounds extremely pretentious
Hudson Smith
>A joker character is no longer friendly with you because you killed his brother and other characters as well >"WOOOOOW THIS GAME IS PRETENTIOUS" You have to be shitposting at this point.
I'll never forget Braid cuz of the Soulja Boy video on it
Nicholas Powell
>game advertises exactly what it is in multiple areas >makes it clear in the tutorial how things are going to work >game proceeds to have the story go off the rails if you disregard the way it's supposed to work >"HOLY SHIT THAT'S PRETENTIOUS! THEY LOOK SILLY! THEY SHOULD ACT SILLY AT ALL TIMES!"
The game is monochrome when it certainly didn't need to be so its an artificial limitation to make the game appear more quirky, he got outside help which means it's not an amateur effort anymore by default, the sprites look like shit and Toby even threw out ones that looked too good and replaced them with his own bad ones, he overshot his Kickstarter goal by 10x and kept the style and visuals identical to what they were before despite having the money to improve it drastically. It fails every criteria and invents new ones to fail at them too.
Alexander Phillips
it's also jarring how characters and the tone cannot be either serious or "quirky" its always switching between both. the formula is really old now. Also I found the environments more annoying than the graphics. I do not care for endless hallways.
Jeremiah Brown
So since Braid advertised its pretentiousness, does that mean it's not pretentious anymore? How does this mechanic work
>monochrome... its an artificial limitation to make the game appear more quirky Nope, it was the best Toby could do. Drawing one or two poses and tween animating them was much easier to communicate intent than fully colored and animated battle sprites. He specifically discussed this while explaining that doing fully colored and animated battle sprites was one of the main art bottlenecks of Deltarune. >it's not an amateur effort anymore by default An amateur helping an amateur in a mostly informal agreement is "not amateur anymore"? >Toby even threw out ones that looked too good and replaced them with his own bad ones Consistency... bad? >kept the style and visuals identical to what they were before despite having the money to improve it drastically Not true in the slightest, you underestimate how expensive good art is.
