Despite everything, it’s still you
If we scored each game in my backlog with an equation like "cultural-impact-and/or-significance" multiplied by "time-spent-waiting-for-me-to-play-it", Undertale might just come out on top (equations are for illustrative purposes only - no math has actually been done here). Which is to say, it's probably some sort of crime that i haven't played it until now
If you somehow don't know about Undertale, i'd love to know how you managed that while still clearly being on the internet (reading this). But in short, it's an adventure/RPG that tries to subvert much about those genres - lots of millennial internet humour, with post-modern writing and themes. It follows in the footsteps of strange Flash games from odd websites in the '90s
Many games have tried to capture this vibe, with a wide range of success, but somehow Undertale came out on top. My rough theory is that it clearly wants you to root for the cast of lovable monster weirdos (not derogatory), which i think a lot of people on the internet - and a lot of people in general, to be fair - can easily feel represented by. I don't know…
Good game, and an easy recommend.
I wonder what would be second on that hypothetical scored list…
With alot of games I can say games fit into 2 ways, its better to watch someone play it, or you can watch someone then play it yourself without much trouble. Undertale was the opposite though, going into the game knowing everything just does not bring the same excitement. I remember when I played it and it was just boring but I loved watching jacksepticeye play it as it truly was a great game and still not many games take on that approach
With deltarune I watched a tiny bit of it back when it had like 1 episode out, with it being a gtlive episode so constant talk and breaks, so that’s definitely one I’ll go into blind as I assume it would end up the same way. Great but boring when you know everything already
Oh that’s interesting. Somehow i managed to avoid any serious spoilers with Undertale, so i guess i’m lucky (obviously i picked up bunch of small things through, well, just being on the internet, but i didn’t watch any full playthroughs or anything).
What makes the difference, do you think? Maybe it’s story vs gameplay driven games, because i have similar stories, but in reverse, where i’ve watched a playthrough, and then went on to enjoy the game myself, but other times once i’ve watched something, i feel no desire to experience the game for myself (even if it’s a good game)
I’m not sure what made undertale so different as I’ve played so many games after watching them and had 0 issues with them. The only time I’ve had issue is with life is strange where I played it then watched it and was like ugh just do this ahhhhhh. But I’ve watched games like that and then enjoyed it myself even if I picked the same choices as them.
I mean edna and harvey for example is one I watched before playing, you can’t really change how things go so the biggest difference I hit was doing the annoying grinding achievements but I had a great time with those.
I can’t pin point the latest game I played that I said should only be watched as otherwise its not fun, but it wasn’t like that with undertale as I didn’t finish it thinking this only works with youtubers. I think it simply is just the fact it was such a unique game that the charm just didn’t go through when I played it myself. Maybe it was the fact I played it way to soon after watching it? But then replaying it also just left me going okay that was nice while normally when I’ve replayed a game I still have the same if not slightly different joy from picking up on things I know is gonna happen. I mean to bring up life is strange again, I’ve watched it be played by 1 youtuber, I played it myself multiple times, for others and despite replaying the same game, with the same choices cuz I can’t bring myself to go for something different, I still end up enjoying it
The humor is really good, and I REALLY, REALLY love the soundtrack - it’s a great case of limitation breeding creativity. It also took me an ungodly amount of time to get to it, but I’m glad I finally did a few months ago!
Using your equation, my candidates would probably be Mass Effect, Disco Elysium, or Batman Arkham Asylum. Would GTA V count too? I’m glad I knocked Elden Ring, Papers Please and Gone Home recently hehehe
Ooh Elden Ring has a large impact, but its
comboyear multiplier is not so big yet - Disco Elysium as well, but slightly less so. Papers Please and Arkham Asylum are real top scorers though. Personally at least, i think they’re quite important games (and good ones too).Hmm toying with this score system is actually kind of fun…