/lit/, despite all the memeing and deliberate contrarianism that

Haven't played Undertale but video games as a medium have unique strengths that they should focus on instead of trying to be more like good books or (more commonly) more like movies.

The main advantage being that they can present a world and let the player discover it's depths at their own pace. Top tier examples of this include Dark Souls, Super Metroid, Fez, Shadow of the Colossus and the old Western RPGs like Baldurs Gate and Fallout.
If only game makers would focus on that and stop wanking themselves over being the next Hollywood and cranking out second rate movies like Last of Us.

>>9088403
>unique strengths that they should focus on

Fucking medium specificity. This ain't the 50s grandpa.

>>9088403
I agree, and based on what you said I think you'd like it.

Just don't spoil yourself before hand.

>>9088381
Played it a couple years ago when it came out.
I found it engaging; moreso due to the innovative combat system and eccentric NPCs/items than "actual" gameplay or narrative.

It was obviously geared to be cozy, but I think it's success lies in the involvement it demands from the player, not necessarily the "literary" narrative. The characters were well developed and the plot was thought provoking and the narrative was emotionally charged, but it was about as "literary" as a children's book.

>>9088381
>What did you think of UNDERTALE from a literary perspective, and as a story?

Compared to books it's okay. Nothing serious or dramatic about it, it's just a story about a fall from grace and (possibly) pacifism. Nothing insightful or groundbreaking. Same deal with the MOTHER series. The dialogue can be funny sometimes too.

Compared to other video games it's decent.

>>9088381

Good characterization, it does a good job of emotionally involving you, mainly due to the good characterization (I felt like a huge piece of shit doing genocide)

But there's not much serious deep thinking going on under the hood. It deals a lot with player agency but meta-commentary on player agency was a stale meme when Spec Ops did it.

It's basically Spec Ops the line but not shit.

The video game elements are very thin also, I hated the combat system and felt like it was just getting in the way of the story. That's not good.

>>9088606
You didn't like the combat system?

I thought (at least in contrast to traditional rpgs) it was one of the game's greatest asset, especially in serving characterization, which further serves the story. Aside from all the really obvious stuff, I was absolutely tickled at the asgore-flowey circular attack link.

What didn't you like about it?