First I'd like to say that (in my opinion) Undertale is not the best game ever. It's a damn good game, but it's not the best. It has its pros and cons, but I wouldn't elevate it on a high pedestal over all others. There is a lot of hype for the game, and that did put me off from even looking into it for awhile. Hype Culture can definitely taint a game/movie/show/etc, and I feel like my opinion on Hype Culture in general is pretty negative. (This video pretty close to my own personal thoughts on Hype Culture.)
Long story short Hype Culture can definitely mess with people's heads. It gives you the illusion that something will be better than it is, and gives you incredibly high expectations upon seeing it. Of course this backfires, as nothing is perfect, and will usually make someone scorn over not having their expectations filled. Not saying that's what happened with you OP, or anyone that disliked the game. Though it is a reason that a lot of times over-hyped media gets a lot of backlash.
Onto the actual game itself, I didn't find the gameplay anything too special. I enjoy RPG-Maker esque games, so I wasn't turned off by the graphics or the gameplay. Some things were a bit finicky, though nothing to really shake a stick at. I thought that the battle concept was pretty interesting, nothing fabulous, but not shabby by any means.
The main plot was... interesting, at least I thought so. Most of my issues with it lie at the beginning and at the end. (This is assuming that I'm playing a Pacifist Run.) The ruins served as a tutorial, I get that. Though I found that it dragged on for too long, and my interest was waning by the time that the tutorial was coming to a close.
The Genocide run was a bit of another thing altogether. What I loved about the Genocide run was how much your actions really impacted your public appearance, and how others reacted to you. Sure you could play an assassin Dragonborn in Skyrim, or a renegade Shepard in Mass Effect, but above all that you were still the goddamn hero. Undertale said 'fuck that noise' and made you the villain when you decided to walk down the darker path. Which was awesome.
I won't get into my opinions of the various neutral endings, because (to be frank) I don't know most of them.
What really made the game for me was the characters. The fact that if you chose to do a Pacifist route, or even Neutral that you would have to interact and find out the charm of each enemy you faced. You weren't just facing 'randomly generated bandit #314' but a character with their own quirks. I'm a big character buff, and usually I don't see that kind of detail in NPCs, so I really enjoyed that. I found most of the main characters (with perhaps the exception of Toriel) to be enjoyable. Even a character like Sans, who I wasn't a huge fan of (at least not to the extent most people are), I could respect the writing that went into him.
I found that the game seemed to have character. I liked a lot of the witty dialogue and puns. I liked a lot of the hidden easter eggs that were left to be found. I liked the fact that they incorporated something like a save feature into the main story (which I was really intrigued by. Throwing a game mechanic and making it into a plot point is genius.) No, it wasn't perfect, far from it, but I still really enjoyed myself with it, and would recommend it to anyone who likes story-based games.
Not that I get huffy over other people not liking it. In fact I like it when people dislike something that I enjoy. It gives me perspective on way they feel that way, and that makes looking at the game objectively all the more clearer.
I also have mad respect for Toby Fox, as he pretty much made the entire game by himself. Damn son.
Long story short Hype Culture can definitely mess with people's heads. It gives you the illusion that something will be better than it is, and gives you incredibly high expectations upon seeing it. Of course this backfires, as nothing is perfect, and will usually make someone scorn over not having their expectations filled. Not saying that's what happened with you OP, or anyone that disliked the game. Though it is a reason that a lot of times over-hyped media gets a lot of backlash.
Onto the actual game itself, I didn't find the gameplay anything too special. I enjoy RPG-Maker esque games, so I wasn't turned off by the graphics or the gameplay. Some things were a bit finicky, though nothing to really shake a stick at. I thought that the battle concept was pretty interesting, nothing fabulous, but not shabby by any means.
The main plot was... interesting, at least I thought so. Most of my issues with it lie at the beginning and at the end. (This is assuming that I'm playing a Pacifist Run.) The ruins served as a tutorial, I get that. Though I found that it dragged on for too long, and my interest was waning by the time that the tutorial was coming to a close.
The Genocide run was a bit of another thing altogether. What I loved about the Genocide run was how much your actions really impacted your public appearance, and how others reacted to you. Sure you could play an assassin Dragonborn in Skyrim, or a renegade Shepard in Mass Effect, but above all that you were still the goddamn hero. Undertale said 'fuck that noise' and made you the villain when you decided to walk down the darker path. Which was awesome.
I won't get into my opinions of the various neutral endings, because (to be frank) I don't know most of them.
What really made the game for me was the characters. The fact that if you chose to do a Pacifist route, or even Neutral that you would have to interact and find out the charm of each enemy you faced. You weren't just facing 'randomly generated bandit #314' but a character with their own quirks. I'm a big character buff, and usually I don't see that kind of detail in NPCs, so I really enjoyed that. I found most of the main characters (with perhaps the exception of Toriel) to be enjoyable. Even a character like Sans, who I wasn't a huge fan of (at least not to the extent most people are), I could respect the writing that went into him.
I found that the game seemed to have character. I liked a lot of the witty dialogue and puns. I liked a lot of the hidden easter eggs that were left to be found. I liked the fact that they incorporated something like a save feature into the main story (which I was really intrigued by. Throwing a game mechanic and making it into a plot point is genius.) No, it wasn't perfect, far from it, but I still really enjoyed myself with it, and would recommend it to anyone who likes story-based games.
Not that I get huffy over other people not liking it. In fact I like it when people dislike something that I enjoy. It gives me perspective on way they feel that way, and that makes looking at the game objectively all the more clearer.
I also have mad respect for Toby Fox, as he pretty much made the entire game by himself. Damn son.