One of the games that I loved the most growing up was Final Fantasy 2 on SNES. In many ways it is the prototypical roleplaying game: you play a warrior protagonist in a medieval world, collecting items and equipment as you slay monsters and journey toward the source of ultimate evil. You defeat him, save the world and the story ends. It has been well over 20 years since Final Fantasy 2 was released, yet virtually every roleplaying game since then has used the same formula. The roleplaying genre is one that is notoriously stuck inside of its own mythology. So when something breaks out of that pattern, it gets attention.<\/p>\n
Undertale is a highly unconventional roleplaying game which discards most of the legacy that games like Final Fantasy have left for it. Genre conventions that remain are turned upside down in Undertale, so the game is as much a story and experience in itself as it is a commentary on the RPG genre. You play Chara, a human who travels through the subterranean monster world\u00a0seeking a way to to return to the human world. In a genre filled with deeply entrenched conventions, it is a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n