Game Experience

After Chen Xu announced the existence of "Undertale,"

ordinary players had not noticed much yet. They only felt that the battle situation had escalated.

This was not just a war of words—it was a head-on clash!

But for well-informed game media outlets, it felt like they had been screwed over.

Good grief, they had originally thought this was just an impetuous young man standing up and firing back.

This had been a premeditated publicity stunt all along!

Still, knowing was one thing; they could not afford to miss out on the traffic brought by this juicy scoop.

With reports from all sorts of media outlets, the popularity of both "Undertale" and "Blossom" quickly began to soar.

At River Media, Zhong Mei was rather irritated by this.

Because the two games were now practically tied together.

And the reason their popularity had risen so quickly was not only because of the Official Blog sparring between him and Chen Xu.

More importantly, he had invested a considerable amount in promoting the game.

But now?

It had all become a wedding dress for "Undertale."

On July 15, "Undertale" officially launched on the Official Game Platform shop.

Compared with Zhong Mei's "Blossom," "Undertale" had launched three days earlier.

It had seized the initiative.

Many game designers and players were watching "Undertale's" performance closely.

After all, this game was not a gentleman game like "Magic Mirror."

Although "Magic Mirror" had performed exceptionally well, it was still an 18R game.

Now, everyone wanted to see just what quality Chen Xu's game, "Undertale," possessed.

At the editorial office of a media outlet called Game Time Media, Wu Tian, who had only recently joined the company, sat before his computer and prepared to review "Undertale."

Though it was an ordinary indie game, its recent popularity was simply too high.

The only thing depressing Wu Tian was that today happened to be Sunday.

Which meant he had to work overtime.

"Forget it, I'll just bear with it. At least there's overtime pay." Wu Tian sighed as he looked at the time.

He recalled what his editor-in-chief had told him before: 'The company pays pretty well for overtime, so just put up with it.'

After tidying up the miscellaneous items on his desk, Wu Tian opened the game called "Undertale."

It began with a simple logo: the words Nebula Games stood against a black starry background, with a line of English beneath them.

After a brief black screen, a yellowed picture appeared. It showed a little girl with an indistinct face holding a long-haired creature.

Beside her stood another faceless animal. Judging by its appearance, it looked a little like a rabbit, a dog, or perhaps a sheep?

Wu Tian studied the yellowed picture and made his guesses.

Like a comic book, the opening animation began turning pages.

"They didn't have the money for a CG animation, so they used a comic-book style to tell the opening story? That's actually not a bad approach."

Wu Tian guessed to himself.

This opening alone had already given Wu Tian a fairly good impression of "Undertale."

At the very least, there was a good chance that today's overtime would not be torture.

The picture began turning pages.

Background music started playing. The simple notes had quite a bit of charm.

'Long ago, two races ruled over Earth—humans and monsters.'

'One day, war broke out between the two races.'

'After a long war, humanity emerged victorious and sealed the monsters underground.'

'And now, many years have passed...'

'Mount Ebott—201X. Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return.'

It was a simple background introduction, nothing particularly remarkable.

Then, after naming the game's protagonist, he saw the protagonist awaken in a patch of grass covered with yellow flower petals.

Following the control prompts that had appeared earlier, Wu Tian guided the character forward.

After arriving at a gate resembling a castle entrance and stepping inside, a sunflower-like Flowey appeared.

'Howdy!'

'I'm Flowey!'

'Hee hee hee!'

'You must be new to the Underground, right?'

'Golly, you must be so confused.'

'I guess I'll have to teach you the rules of this place.'

'Flowey has no choice but to teach you personally. Are you ready? Let's begin!'

What a strange character.

Wu Tian thought as he looked at the sunflower-like Flowey before him.

"LV makes you stronger when it goes up—isn't that supposed to be a level? What the hell is LOVE?"

Wu Tian did not quite understand as he read Flowey's dialogue.

Was it being deliberately mysterious?

And what exactly were these Friendliness Pellets?

Flowey did not seem like a good thing at all.

Wu Tian thought to himself, and the following gameplay confirmed his suspicion.

Accompanied by a sinister laugh.

The seemingly friendly Flowey revealed a savage face after telling him that LV increased by touching Friendliness Pellets.

The moment he touched the white pellets, his health bar instantly dropped to 1.

'You idiot! In this world, it's kill or be killed! Who would pass up such a perfect opportunity?'

'Die!'

As expected, someone should come in to save him next, right?

A standard RPG scripted death scene.

Wu Tian felt no emotional stir as he watched the heart-shaped icon get surrounded by countless white particles.

He more or less understood the game's combat system. It was like dodging bullet patterns in a rhythm game.

It was just that this plot arrangement felt rather old-fashioned. Wasn't it simply a traditional RPG?

Sure enough, just as the ring of bullets was about to touch him, the health bar that had been reduced to 1 suddenly refilled completely, while the attacking bullets vanished.

Flowey in the game also wore a stunned expression. After a series of exaggerated facial expressions, Flowey was sent flying by a burst of flame.

A woman with sheep horns appeared and rescued the protagonist.

'What a cruel creature, tormenting such a weak and helpless child.'

'Do not be afraid, child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins.'

'I come to this place every day to see whether anyone has fallen down. Before you, it had been a long time since a human came here.'

'Come. Let me guide you through these Catacombs.'

'This way.'

After a brief exchange, the motherly sheep named Toriel led Wu Tian down the path ahead.

She taught him how to solve puzzles and operate mechanisms.

She also told him that when encountering enemies, he did not necessarily have to fight; he could also persuade NPCs.

The puzzles were extremely simple: ordinary stone-pushing, and memorizing not to step on the leaves.

"At least it isn't torture, but this quality is way too dull. It even feels less interesting than the Match-3 game in 'Magic Mirror.'" Wu Tian sighed.

When he encountered a monster, he did not choose to talk or show mercy by hugging it.

Instead, he went straight into battle.

So far, the only things he found remotely interesting.

Were Flowey's exaggerated expressions at the beginning and this combat segment.

Though it used a dodgeball-like gameplay style, different monsters fought in different ways.

For example, when fighting a frog, it was a frog hopping around inside a box.

It could be said that this matched the monster's appearance quite well.

"I hope this game doesn't drag on forever. I'd like to get off work early." Wu Tian sighed and shook his head.