Undertale

1. Summary

Undertale's reviews are close to unanimous. The story comes up most in the longer reviews (41%), ahead of the soundtrack (32%) and the characters (29%), and some of those reviewers describe laughing at the game one moment and crying at it later. The fights get credit for letting you spare enemies instead of killing them, with each monster's attacks turned into a small bullet-hell pattern of its own. Players also like that the game remembers what you did, even across resets. Two kinds of long review recur: returning fans replaying a childhood favourite, and latecomers who finally played it after years of watching others. Both mostly say it held up.

Difficulty is where players disagree most. A handful of bosses, especially on the route where you kill everything, stop players for hours, and a few ask for an easier setting. A smaller group finds the opening slow and the reputation overblown. The practical gripes are scattered: arrow-key controls that can't be rebound, occasional crashes and lost saves, no volume slider, and no Steam achievements.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A story that lands, with three routes to see it fromHigh

41% of the longer reviews mention the story, writing or lore, and 37% talk about routes, endings or replaying. Players describe a tale that starts silly and turns serious, and the pacifist ending gets singled out (15% of the longer reviews mention the pacifist route by name). 8% of the longer reviews say it made them cry, and a couple say they refused to reset afterwards. "It felt like I just said goodbye to a group of friends I didn't want to leave behind," one reviewer wrote after finishing. A few dissenters call the cast's arcs thin or the happy ending unearned.

A soundtrack people keep listening to after the creditsHigh

32% of the longer reviews praise the music, usually as one of the best parts of the game. Players name individual boss themes, and some recognise tracks they first heard in online videos. Others point out how melodies come back across the game. "Definitely my favourite game soundtrack of all time now, and by a wide margin," wrote one player after their first run. A few negative reviewers find the chiptune sound repetitive or say they turned the music off.

Characters players get attached toHigh

29% of the longer reviews bring up the characters. Players single out the skeleton brothers, the goat mother figure and the fish captain, and say every monster has its own quirks and its own fight. "Somehow, a bunch of pixels managed to make me care more about fictional skeletons and monsters than I was expecting," one wrote. A few find the characters one-note or the delivery grating.

Humor that still gets laughsMedium

18% of the longer reviews mention the humor, jokes or laughing out loud. Players like the puns, the absurd encounters and the way jokes give way to serious moments. One fan thinks a little of it has dated: "The game is still hilarious, with one minor exception of humor that has aged poorly (Temmie village feels extremely 2013)." Several negative reviews call the same humor childish or cringe.

A game that remembers what you didMedium

15% of the longer reviews talk about choices, consequences or the game remembering past actions, and a smaller group praises its fourth-wall tricks. Being called out for reloading or resetting is part of the fun for them. "Save scumming, reloading after a bad choice, resetting the whole run to try again, the game is aware of all of it," one reviewer wrote. Some new players mistake its deliberate tricks for real crashes or lost saves.

Fights you can talk your way out ofMedium

11% of the longer reviews discuss the combat system, and most of them like it: you can act, flirt, joke or spare instead of attacking, and enemy turns become short dodging sections inside a box. "No two monsters fight even similarly," one player noted. Some who don't usually like turn-based RPGs say this is what won them over, while others find the combat shallow (see How much gameplay there is, below).

Cheap and runs on almost anythingMedium

10% of the longer reviews talk about price or sales, nearly always to say it is worth it, often after buying it heavily discounted. Players also note that it is small and runs on old laptops and low-end PCs. A few would only pay the sale price.

Best played blindMedium

10% of the longer reviews mention spoilers or going in blind, and the advice is consistent: play it yourself, even if you have seen it on YouTube. Several players who knew the plot from videos say playing it still surprised them. "This is one of those games that should be played by and for yourself," as one put it.

Where players are split

Boss difficultyMedium

16% of the longer reviews talk about difficulty, frustration or getting stuck. When players name the fight that stopped them, it is usually Sans or Undyne in their genocide-route versions, and less often the final boss of a first playthrough, Asgore, Muffet or Mettaton. Some players enjoyed the challenge: "i suck horribly at bullet hell, and even though i died a lot i was still able to complete the game without issues." Others hit a wall. "It is not inclusive for me, I am not a pro gamer nor I have good reflexes," wrote one player stuck on Undyne, and a positive reviewer said "there is absolutely no reason there couldn't be a difficulty setting." A smaller group calls the game too easy outside a few fights.

The genocide routeMedium

15% of the longer reviews mention the genocide route. Fans of it call its two big bosses the best fights in the game. Others find getting there a grind: "I've never seen a game make level grinding more tedious," one player wrote, and another called the route "a massive slog." Some say they could not bring themselves to play it after growing attached to the cast, and others advise new players not to play it first.

Simple pixel artMedium

9% of the longer reviews mention the graphics, mostly to defend them: the art looks basic but suits the game, and players warn others not to let it put them off. Those who like the look call it charming and expressive. A few find it ugly or say it looks like what it is, a small game made in GameMaker.

Measuring it against DeltaruneMedium

Deltarune, which reviewers describe as the developer's follow-up, comes up in 14% of the longer reviews. Most treat Undertale as the thing to play first, and several came to it after Deltarune's newer chapters. A minority says Deltarune is more polished and makes Undertale feel dated, while a few insist Undertale is still the better game.

A slow opening and a big reputationLow

Players who quit early describe a walking-and-reading game with simple fights, and some can't see why it is so praised. 5% of the longer reviews call parts of the game boring or slow, and the complaint is far more common among the negative reviews. "The constant encounters and easy puzzles make it feel like more of a chore to play," wrote one. Several positive reviewers say they had the same first impression and that the game won them over later.

How much gameplay there isLow

A small group, in both positive and negative reviews, says the story carries a thin game. One fan called the gameplay "honestly pretty bland" before praising everything else, and another fan wrote that it won't satisfy anyone looking for "more gameplay depth than a glass of water."

The game's moral stanceLow

3% of the longer reviews bring up being guilted or punished for fighting. A few negative reviewers feel lectured: "the game starts brow beating me and lecturing me because I killed the enemies." Fans read the same design as the point and say it never preaches: "The game doesn't wag a finger at you and tell you what's right."

LengthLow

4% of the longer reviews mention that it is short, mostly as a strength because it doesn't overstay its welcome. A few wished there were more of it, or that it would get a sequel.

What frustrates players

Arrow-key controls that can't be reboundLow

Movement is locked to the arrow keys with no WASD option or rebinding, and a few short negative reviews from people who quit within the first few hours give it as a reason. "No reliable way to change movement keys," one wrote. Players with compact keyboards say it's worse for them: "As someone with a 60% keyboard, holding down the FN key the entire time I played was a bit annoying." Some fans post keyboard workarounds, and a few say they got used to it.

Crashes, freezes and lost savesLow

A scattered set of reviews reports technical problems: freezes in the first minutes, crashes in specific fights or areas, a black screen on launch, stutter that made boss fights harder, and one player whose game "doesn't start on Windows 11 25H2." Others lost saves to corruption, a PC change or a Steam account issue. One positive reviewer flagged "the improper use of the steam cloud, with it only saving specific run-related content," and another reported input lag in the latest version. Each of these problems comes from only a few players.

Missing settingsLow

A handful of players ask for basic options: a volume slider ("Disgusting settings menu. Add a volume slider. 10/10 game"), a way to mute the dialogue blips, reliable fullscreen or window scaling, support for a second monitor, and proper controller support. One player said nothing they tried would put the game on a second screen short of switching their primary monitor.

Route requirements that are easy to breakLow

Some players reaching for the best ending say small missed steps undo a long run, such as one stray attack, a skipped hangout or a forgotten item, and that the game keeps one save. "You will need a guide for pacifist," one fan warned. Others dislike replaying the whole game for another ending: "Redoing a route isnt fun and there is very little differences til the ending which you have to replay the entire game to get to," and one noted "You also can't skip dialogue on later playthroughs."

No Steam achievementsLow

A few reviewers note the Steam version has no achievements, which one said the PlayStation version has. Most mention it in passing, though one short negative review gives it as the whole reason.

No official translationsLow

A few Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking players ask for an official translation, some of them in reviews that otherwise praise it, and one player who says the game meant a lot to them growing up wrote "Toby come on man, translate the game." One Italian fan points others to a fan-made translation patch.

3. The player conversation

The conversation is overwhelmingly warm and often personal. 8% of the longer reviews say the game changed their life or shaped who they are, and some read like thank-you notes. Returning fans replay what they call a childhood game (12% of the longer reviews mention replaying, childhood or nostalgia), sometimes to prepare for a concert or for Deltarune's new chapters. Newcomers explain that they finally played it more than a decade on (9% of the longer reviews), often after years of YouTube playthroughs or after Deltarune. Both groups mostly report that it still holds up.

The short reviews are mostly one-line ratings and in-jokes, and a number of reviewers wished the game a happy 11th anniversary.

The negative side is small. Players who stopped in the first hour or two tend to complain about boredom, the hype or the controls. Those deep into a second or third route complain about specific bosses, usually Undyne the Undying or Sans, and several of those reviews read as venting more than a verdict on the game. At least one reviewer later flipped a negative review to positive. Week to week the mood barely moves: across the weeks from late July to mid-October 2026 that hold most of the slice, the positive share stayed between 95% and 99%.

4. What the developers could do

1. Add key rebinding, including WASD movement. Locked arrow-key controls come up in reviews from players who quit early and from people on compact keyboards.
2. Fix the remaining stability and save problems on modern PCs. Players report launch failures on Windows 11, freezes, crashes in specific fights, input lag in the latest version, lost saves and a Steam Cloud sync that one reviewer says only keeps part of the save.
3. Offer an optional assist setting for the hardest fights. A few players stuck on Undyne, Sans, Asgore or the first final boss ask for an easy mode, and some quit there.
4. Fill in the basic settings menu. Players ask by name for a volume slider, a way to mute dialogue sounds, better fullscreen and window scaling, second-monitor support and proper controller support.
5. Make the best ending's requirements easier to track, and smooth out repeat runs. Players lost long runs to one missed step, and those replaying for other endings wish they could skip dialogue they have already seen.
6. Add official translations, starting with Spanish and Portuguese. Players from those languages ask for it directly, sometimes in otherwise positive reviews.
7. Bring achievements to the Steam version. A few players miss them and say other versions of the game have them.