Indie UNDERTALE YELLOW: A late anniversary gift to a great Fangame

Bakuma is sad, Undertale’s birthday is over, Deltarune doesn’t release chapter 5 until next year and even then, he can’t afford it, if only Christmas came sooner

Bakuma: Who I have to shot to get more Undertale, with characters that feel like made by Toby, memorable plot and polished Gameplay?

The moon shined… before dimming again

Bakuma: Even I don’t know what was that supposed to… *Get Noscoped directly in the snout by a paperboy, the package is removed revealing a game box* Well… Wait a minute who use those anyway? Whatever *vigorously as thumbless hooves can he reveals the package, as if it was the Golden Ticket, he smiles* so… beautiful

Undertale came from nowhere ten years ago, and just like that from nowhere the game garnered a great reputation, immersive gameplay, quirky lovable cast, unique battle system and most notoriously, SOUNDTRACK MADE by THE GODS THEMSELVES, regarding as the best game of the decade and the best overall, but not exactly flawless *Floats to the side a little, a giant safe falls where he was* as I can tell *Ahem spam ahem* in a past review I already reviewed Undertale, noting all the good stuff the game offers, but also acknowledging glaring flaws, especially in its moral about forgiveness, despite those flaws that game is worth a playthrough, naturally people wanted more Undertale, entire plots about saving Goatbro, slice of life antics before and after the True Pacifist Ending, and most importantly, fan games, to be fair, those are kinda mid *A coconut falls on his head* really, even that is contested?

Anyway Fangames weren’t short, but they weren’t as memorable, most of them were more outedgying Genocide Sans or single battles, most tried to make Undertale 2 while others being meme fights, but either got scrapped or simply nothing came, while I know about Deltatraveler, that is more a Deltarune fangame as it name implies, after seven years in the oven, a yellow spark of hope fell from the sky to make Toby Fox’s legacy justice, now let’s see if the seven years were worth the wait, now, let’s talk about…

UNDERTALE
YELLOW

PLOT: BEFORE THE FALL THAT GAVE THEM FREEDOM, CAME THE FALL THATGAVE THEM HOPE…

A fall not by chance, but out of DETERMINATION
Undertale is the story of a young kid that by causality ended up in the Underground, a pit where nobody that falls come back… this is not his story yet

Set in an ambiguous number of years before Undertale, the plots follow a young kid in cowboy clothes called Clover, unlike the past humans, Clover did fall on the Underground in his own accord, toy gun in hand and MISSING poster in the other Clover made the jump, unaware of what he would meet but certain that he will make it… little he knew what will going on down there…

The game proper starts with a copy paste of the iconic ruins’ tutorial, however a wrong lever, or rather a faulty one ensued the plot didn’t stay a repeat for long

You fall into a pit after you fail to solve the lever puzzle, well, I guess I can simply wait for Toriel to rescue me *waits* oh good she did it, now let’s continue the game and

…

…

…WHATTHEACTUALFU

Well, something wants me to stay in the hole, it can’t be Flowey this time, he actually asks us to dodge the bullets this time, there is nothing to do, I can just, run around but that would get boring after a while, so let’s see what is next

The plot still has some story repeats from base UT, but the plot itself has enough spins and turns to feel like an actual fresh experience, Clover unlike Frisk who was a blank state for us to decide whatever he does, the former has a fixed personality, first of all being a huge cowboy fan and second having a sense of justice, he also has them steps

Look at the goody goober go, WOOOH!

He never emotes, well, almost never, but he still has enough personality in his dialogue to note that he is fleshed, this is a prequel focused in a character that canonically dies, so don’t get too attached to Clover

The characters while not as unique as Undertale, being mostly either Furries or something-headed humanoids they are made up by Lore and characterization too, the Lore while still having made up stuff to fit the narrative, still gets stuff right, ¿Remember how Frisk is the one with the DETERMINATION? Clover lacks it, at least before the final battles, so instead Flowey, suspiciously caring, saves for you

You also meet the best character in the entire fiction oh my god she is so cute,Please be real AND MARRY MEEEEE! *Technical difficulties* Royal guard Martlet, a blue bird that despite her best efforts, she just can't bring herself to hurt a SOUL, so after declaring you aren't a threat, she says to her Protocol "Screw this" and helps you danmed be the consequences

Dalv is our first taste on the new Underground zones, but like Toriel he simply… puffs of the plot no matter the route, Martlet in the other hand feels like a sister, only in sparce parts of the plot she follows you, but she makes it worth being easily the cutest blorbo in the Undertale Fan characters verse, In the proper Western… sorry Wild East zones we meet a gang of sheriffs, the Feisty five and Ceroba, Ceroba looks like a mere straight man to the Feisty Five’s antics, especially North Star, their leader, which grasp on the actual cowboy lore is… as accurate as the Underground’s knowledge of the Surface, but as we will see below, she is by far the deepest character on the entire game

What is Undertale without the consequences of your actions? As in UT you got three endings depending on how well you behaved

Spoiler: =)

GENOCIDE

If you want to try it, first you concern me, second worry not, the game won’t pull a “Hah your game is permanently ruined now” thing,

This route is somehow different from UNDERTALE’s since instead of treating you as doing it becuz, Clover is portrayed as having a mangled sense of justice, his LoVE coming from biting Flowey’s bait, but as the plot unravels, Clover Decays into a avenger, but not a poetic one, a cruel one that won’t rest until the five humans are found, Not even Martlet, our adoptive sister is safe, she can see you won’t stop, so instead of being the goofy bird she is in Neutral or Pacifist, she will relentlessly try to pacify you, but once she realizes you won’t stop, especially after an awful truth you find in the semifinal area of the game… you will see the Zenith of your consequences

The game has a mechanic similar to Mystic Quest, enemies start to decay as you deplete their health, but since here they don’t intend harm willingly, so instead of satisfaction at seeing you super weapon wear down the beasts, you see them die slowly, with their dialogue boxes begging you to stop or not understand what’s going on making the point worse, to make everything even more bitter, your LoVE overwrites Flowey’s Determination, allowing him to kill him, with the only target being Asgore, you go, show him your true Justice, and take the souls, then… nothing…

As I mentioned mercifully there is no Soulless Pacifist here, but I felt here what the Geno in UT failed to do, the worse fact is that you don’t empty the Underground like Chara, you take the souls and leave, not only dusting a part of the Underground, but also ripping their only hope…

The route is far more polished, now only two bosses are pushovers, when the themes of vengeance not being justice fits better a cowboy themed fangame and as mentioned fixes the edginess of UT’s Geno, giving you a reason to be “Evil” instead of “Was bored LOL”

NEUTRAL

Just like how Geno doesn’t ruin your game, Neutral is no longer mandatory for Pacifist, but believe me, I recommend it

Spoiler: <>

Neutral is no different from Undertale’s the game has varied responses depending on who lives and who dies, Martlet can’t be killed unlike Papyrus, the character she is an analogue, but you try to kill her she will in fact react and fight, if you spare her through she will note that you STILL KILLED PEOPLE, noting she finds hard to forgive you the more you have, but if you showcase her honesty in your innocence, she may give you a pass, and a certain Fox will react negatively if you kill a future boss near the end of the game or will not access said semifinal dungeon if you kill the boss previous to it, I want to name them already but Grrrrr spoilers, I…must…resist… *Rips his tail and squeeze it as a toy to calm himself* uff, better, where I was?

The route is still not exactly Spec Ops on tiers of consequences of your actions, you can’t even be a dick here since here isn’t so many mean response options, but if you simply want to get some dust but want a relatively happy ending, serve yourself

The Route ends with Martlet meeting you in an alcove in UG Hotel, if you played Undertale is where you buy from Catty and Bratty, she pulls a syringe, declaring it Chujin’s last Experiment (Again, Spoilers), she was ready to use it on you were full of LoVE, but even with your dust, she can see some good on you, so she tries to be this game’s Toriel and adopts you, well, there is still time until Frisk falls, so maybe being friend of a literal bird brain may not be so ba…

FLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

After that he reveals himself as the reason why you fell, rigging the lever in Toriel’s tutorial, and what’s next is easily the most epic Flowey Fan battle ever, no wonder the damn thing took so long, the battle alone must take a month per phase, I will simplify it, Photoshop Flowey legit looks like a kindergarten show villain compared to whatever the fuck is this shit, and for the record, is the tamest face he pulls,

¿Need more scares? You technically never beat him, this battle…s happened before, neither side winning, so you just keep your soul and life because, you literally bored a god…*shudder*, well sleeping is overrated anyway

Not different from Undertale’s Neutral Route and the axing of it being mandatory for true pacifist cutting some injective to play it, you still would like to give it a shot, especially since that will help for Pacifist, where due to not being able to LV up, you will have it rough if you don’t practice, the final boss of the route alone makes it worth it, a legit creepypasta

PACIFIST

Spoiler: <3

The True meat of the game, the one where the personalities of the new cast shows up, also the one where not only the main plot, but some side ones too gather together, what it is improved of Undertale’s Pacifist route is that Clover is a perfect fit for someone that asks first and shoots later, so the pacifist moral is more in-character for Clover, in Neutral you aren’t exactly called out for simply defending yourself, but here the pacifist is more palatable since you aren’t being attacked for the kill

Dalv attacks you since you entered his home, accidentally alas and you spare him by showing you aren’t a threat, leading him to stop being shy and go touch grass

Martlet doesn’t want to attack you, but she is part of the Royal Guard, as soon as she spares you, she declares she didn’t want to face you, and break protocols to lead you home

El Matador… is a plot irrelevant boss, even then he doesn’t attack you, I must assume you dance so bad you die

North Star is pulling a show for the western themed town he protects and try to give hope

Heck the final boss of the Route, Ceroba, despite being the only one that WANTS you dead is the most soul crushing boss… yeah, let’s put into detail

Ceroba turns out to be the wife of one of the latest Royal Scientists before Alphys took the role, however his inventions weren’t the best, his most powerful, Axis, nowadays is a nightmare, but back in the day it costed Chujin his job, infinite mistakes with the last straw being the burning of Asgore’s flowerbed, with no job he got a hold of one of the Souls, experimenting on himself, but dying since Monsters can’t whistand Determination, Ceroba was blinded with devotion to her husband, so she never questioned it, that came to bite her when the one Chujin wanted the most out of his mistakes sneaked in what happened to dad…

Kanako, a small girl and only offspring of Chujin and Ceroba, felt it was her duty to help too, out of grief of Chujin dying and out of blind optimism, she begged Ceroba to let her be “Monsterkind’s heroes”, Ceroba blinded by her devotion, took the syringe… and a hopeful smile shut down forever

Making it worse is that she in despair sent Kanako to Alphys, no need to remind you what happened to the people she tried to heal, right?
Clover’s soul is so pure, so innocent, Ceroba wants the Legacy of Chujin complete and maybe save Kanako, but they spent so much time together, the conflict turns her into the route’s final boss, not out of hatred, but of love…A mother’s love, even that is not enough for Clover’s justice, realizing her mistake, you can talk things out and WOAHWOAHWOAHWOAHWOAH the final boss ask me to kill her?, obviously you can say no but that went Seinen real fast
To be partial in hindsight it was Ceroba's fault her daugher is now a goopy spoon, my first time playing learning her story i was like *Sad tapir noises* but the second playthrough, reading between lines i was like "My sister in The Angel, you injected that corrosive shit in your daughter despite your dead husband telling you
NOT
TO
INVOLVE
KANAKO
And if you agree to kill her, despite she asking you and literally wanting to kill you over a MERE CHANCE to bring Kanako back earlier, you are called a SOB...Y!?

Despite everything, the battle is perfect, a reminder that between all the fun and quirks the monsters has, deep down is an entire species that is suffering the persecution of long dead humans, Ceroba only appears in the last parts of the game and her family appears less than Toriel herself in base Undertale , but the tragedy of the Ketsukane family stuck in me, the route if you spare Ceroba ends with your friends deciding how to adopt you, hard thing since the Royal Guard will be in Clover’s heels, Clover remembers his journey, not the good, but the bitter, all the injustice the monsters faced, it wasn’t the last one, but it will give them hope, that’s right, this is in fact how the Underground got its sixth soul, his sacrifice is accepted, and with a final farewell, Clover did in fact went to the Underground to deliver justice, earning his rest… until he hear a call for help

Dontcry Dontcry Dontcry DONTCRY DONTCRY DONTCRY

*Puff smoke of his trunk, the cigar reveals itself as a pop he was licking unnaturally fast* Absolute cinema, Neutral isn’t bad until the end but still isn’t remarkable unless you want to experiment the story “Chronologically” and Genocide is more of a bonus, Pacifist is the best route of them all, I mean if Clover was doomed to be a cute heart stuck in a jar of pickles, his odyssey may as well be a fun ride, I knew all the way Clover’s odyssey was going to end bittersweetly, yet he was so good as a MC that I got attached to him

The plot is more focused in being more world building so don’t expect the main game’s gang, Toriel and Asgore appears only in the beginning and finale respectively, Undyne is vague alluded, Alphys only shows up in flashbacks and if you have funny skeleton burnout good news: They don’t appear ETALL,

A great plot with an equally great MC, can I get a Yeehaw?

GAMEPLAY: The brave kid learns the stuff

This time, the stick is swapped by the empty holster
Enough of the plot, I want a review, not a Stephen King Novel, just as the plot, UNDERTALE’s Gameplay while good, was kind of rough, MetalSwordRemix looks like if he played lots of the original, seeing most of the flaws are ironed

For starters you get a Sprint button, only that made me thank the Angel, second I want to correct a goof in Undertale’s Review, I commented that spared enemies and bosses doesn’t drop money, that said only a few enemies drop money when spared, here every spare nets you gold, making Pacifist less a Survival Horror of a fishing of encounters marathon, lastly as mentioned all the Endings can be seen in a go, Genocide doesn’t fuck your Pacifist routes nor you need to play Neutral to get true Pacifist, not only that, but you get to restart the battle if you die instead of being dragged to your last save, if you don’t want to suffer too much, the game has accessibility options, one of them being an Easy Mode, netting you permanent 3 DEF points

When Frisk could wield all the weapons of the fallen SOULS, Clover is limited to a gun, and the bar like microgame to power the attack is replaced with a bullseye, eventually the single bullseye gets replace by six, harder to center but giver of a massive damage boost, and in the final battles of each Route you get a new add on: The BIG SHOT, AKA a charge shot for you pellet shooting mode, considering you need to shoot in the boss pattern to win, that is welcome

In UNDERTALE you got only a Weapon and Armor Slot, but here you get three slots of defense, giving you some more leverage, that said is Cumbersome to identify which Armor falls where, making that if you screw up, you may toss aside good armor because the one in the wrong slot was better

There is not much in the way of Side quests like in UNDERETALE, you could do a small side quest to get a good piece of armor for at least the next two areas, but you can still find some hidden Lore, including Chujin Foreshadowing and a hidden lore regarding the hidden story of the Blue SOUL, the one that fell down before Clover, oh, the game also has FUN values, in my very first playthrough near Snowdin I went to a weird meadow of flowers, only a unicorn was there, and she mentioned some Monster disappearing… *Shudder*

Once again, boss sparing tends to be limited to *Do nothing and wait until the boss says you good”, but in my playthrough you had to do more stuff to spare them, I never found BS when figuring how to spare either the bosses or random mooks, making clear the makers did want to polish the game at their best

Overall while remaining the same, the gameplay is smoothed and more polished

DIFFICULTY: Not as much DETERMINATION, still you have your own Determination to keep going

As usual there is puzzles, worry not, they are still easy... until you reach the Steamworks, there you will struggle ENTERING, damn valve puzzle can go to Hell!, still not a bad spot

Maybe Placebo or maybe the fact the I got out of Practice, but UNDERTALE YELLOW’s enemy patters are far rougher to reach, what wasn’t Placebo is that after you leave the Ruins, enemies’ stats get way high, not to a cheap extent bout if you are used to tanking attacks in UNDERTALE, here you actually need to learn to, quoting TFS, DOOOOOOOODGEEEEE

Genocide makes the difficulty ramp more obvious, here enemies still fall down in a single bullet, but Bosses will still make you sweat ink, Special mention goes to Martlet
of all characters, the last character you expect to be a threat will be the reason you will fear blue birds in a while, I don’t mean her as Route final boss, I mean HER FIRST ENCOUNTER, so much for a Girl failure Blorbo, the another roughest boss, Ceroba
, will go the extra mile to make you suffer, for starters her attacks are far more hectic, but in her second phase (Yes she has a second Phase OHMYGODSHEHASASECONDPHASE) she will take HP away from you, as in MAX HP, well, you wanted a challenge okey?

Pacifist is its own can of worms, for starters the “Stuck at level 20 and relying into Armor for defense” thing remains, fortunately you can do it in Easy, the game doesn’t put a bow in your character or locks you of any route if you do, granted I wanted a challenge, so I played as intended, the game’s bosses are harder, but not in an average boss fangame extent, more in a tough but fair way, fitting for a kid that unlike Frisk doesn’t even has his DETERMINATION

That said a legit complain is the lack of boss Antepieces, FYI Antepiece is a small non-text tutorial consisting of easier versions of either levels or patterns, in Both Ceroba Battles this is notoriously needed, and when you have two DEF boosting armor slots, at times they feel like placebo numbers since enemies still slapped 3 HP of me near the end

Damage isn’t the only way you are tested, Bosses has a unique gimmick aside of just stall them and survive… well, Dalv no but he is an intro boss anyway, consisting of either interacting with their bullet patterns in a way or cleverly using the ACT command, making boss sparing more like a satisfactory puzzle instead of a drag

Overall, the game is not as bad as many fangames, ESPECIALLY SANS CENTRIC, but the game still feels made by and for people that played the Original one

GRAPHICS: Grace at the beauty of a trapped civilization

Monsters can’t see stars, but they have even beautiful alternatives

The lack of a Temmie Chang was not a wall into Team UTY’s way, the backgrounds look pretty, be the ones of familiar areas as well as the new areas, enemies has small animations far more polished than OG UNDERTALE and the bosses at times look alive with all the movement they do, while obvious at parts, the glow up is also subtle, for an example in Dalv’s battle you can see the small aisle you face him in the background, since he uses lighting magic the room literally brightens anytime he attacks

The art style… while still good, it could be too obvious it is a fangame, your troupe of Boss friends had unique designs, but here all your allies are either furries or something-headed humanoids, the mobs also seem to be more focused in being Sanrio-esque than the notoriously American-style of Toby fox’s designs, mercifully the NPC’s retain the weird factor of the predecessor, one of them being a bunch of eyes and another one being a slug…thing, that said what in concept they lack, the main characters are still recognizable and memorable enough, so that’s a bonus

The highlight, thou must go to
Flowey’s battle, the battle gets better graphically ironically as the situation gets worse, the corrupted bosses he summons in the first phase look so… wrong in the good way, the creepy attacks feel like playing a Creepypasta game done right, and the second phase makes it better, especially the Hand-drawn frames and the ones made on Stop-Motion, if that was the longest part to make, I won’t be surprised, and frankly I take my hat

MUSIC: Howdy Partner, blow that harmonica of yours and grace this campfire with some tunes
Once again, the music is so good it must be illegal

What do you mean I wasn’t just joking!?

Mercifully Toby sorted Mirage Studios’ shenanigans and the game can stay

That nonsense aside, let’s talk about the music, some tunes are directly remixed of the Main game, the most glaring one being their take on Once Upon a Time, the same song but with its own notes to be its own version

The music uses the base UNDERTALE’s songs as leitmotifs while giving us enough original compositions to make clear this is an original plot, behold, the anthem of the best character in fiction

Seriously, Martlet, like Papyrus or Toriel, are the reason why I will never touch Geno willingly

The new areas past the Snowdin parts encapsulate the Western theme, boasting music that makes you wonder who will scream “DRAW” or will pull a Lasso, Piano man, roll the scroll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuHE_GRzT5Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9_vxGFuVLk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Z_GFpXScI

The Western theme isn’t the only one that shines here, just listen to this theme, remember Kanako’s name and try to not end a wreck when finding her fate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rZ0R94YT3o

while I found grips with most of the game, I literally has no bad things to say about its music, and once again thanks Toby for being a Real one and defending those masterpieces to exists, and you suits that believe other’s works are yours because you buyed a brand… Fuck you

IMPACT: His Harmonica is silent, but his song will never end

While given props for being the first full-fledged fangame that doesn’t ended in a limbo or flat-out axed, it was the fun cast that made the game so memorable apart of many others, seriously, just look for the game in Reddit and the amounts of Fanfics where a character whose only role “Show up for a short flashback, be cute and innocent and effing die” lives a happy normal life, especially when being friends with Clover and two bit characters you can neglect to talk and the plot remains the same will end you like this

Not only Clover gets the same amount of “Revive him/never died and get a normal life” than Asriel, but the rest of the cast got to stick around, having their own lores and fan stories, that’s right, a fangame managed to spawn more fan content, you don’t get that every day, heck, Toby himself gave them a shoutout in his 10-anniversary stream, YEEHAW

Now that I think of it, it’s been ten years since the Original Undertale was released, and ten years are enough to make a person change, be simple changes to flat-out 180-degree changes, maybe the fans grew up, maybe the timing was right on point, maybe perhaps, the UNDERTALE fandom is no longer the bunch of cult-like fanatics and instead simply now enjoy the game, now it’s time to see how it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qP_NY5c5II

godDAMMNIT!!!

CONCLUSION: Lay your hat and gun down clover, the justice has been delivered

I never felt the game tried to impose its own canon, in fact the attention to detail to Toby Fox’s own Lore shines here, at times it felt like instead of a fangame I was playing legit free DLC, the game can be as divisive as the game this one is a Fan story, but I can tell for certain, this game was worth the wait, I never learned of it until the Pacifist final boss showed up in my recommendations of YouTube, if I wanted to give the game a (Heh) shot, imagine those souls that waited, and waited, and waited, and got their dream finally come true, because of that, today in the game’s second anniversary, I raise in honor of a love letter that when not perfect, was a big deal, the game itself? It earned the Bakuma seal of

Happy second anniversary Underale Yellow, may you last as much as your parent game, for the time being...

Bakuma out​

 

[DragonMals]

I'm going to read this but I already LOVE the fact that someone had done an article on this incredible fangame of Undertale.

 

[Blueskunky]

I would love to read this!!
But I’m trying to avoid as many spoilers as I can for this game tbh