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Trying to give Undertale a second chance (last time I got like... idk, 3/4 of the way through? and couldn't finish it).
Currently on the verge of giving up again because there's a part with the kind of game design that is so bizarrely player-unfriendly, it feels more like the developer is playing a practical joke on the player than anything else.
Explanation / vent in spoilers:
spoiler
There's somebody you gotta fight and if you're going pacifist route (where you befriend / avoid hurting anyone), you have two options with this fight. Either survive for 17 rounds of attacks (which is more than it sounds like if 'bullet hell' mechanics are not your strong point) or... and this is where it actually gets under my skin... there's a particular item you can buy early on in the game and give it to them. But you can also use this item as a consumable to heal along the way (which I did) or never buy it (which could also easily happen). So you are essentially punished for not working out something extremely obscure. On top of that, the ideology of this game has yet to make any sense to me. The "pacifist" route just seems to be a "self sacrificing against all good sense" route. The lore tries to justify how hostile so many are toward you, but the mortal threats to you means you should fight your way out if you have any sense, out of self-defense (which is considered the "genocide" route, if I'm not mistaken???). I'm vaguely aware there's supposed to be some extra layer to it and how it's designed, but it's hard to get past the identity and ideology of the game. Bullet hell is not fun to me and I don't understand what I'm supposed to be proving by trying to befriend beings who want me dead. And like, the quirky humor is fun sometimes, but the game can't seem to decide whether it's all a big joke commentary on video game design or supposed to be a genuinely challenging game. Like with the aforementioned example of design, it could be very easy to get past this part... if you know something very obscure and keep track of it from an early point to a much later point. But this is not funny or quirky or cute to me. It's just mean.