An Indie Backlog curated overview. We round up the best indie RPGs and how professional critics and players received each one — the scores and quotes below are theirs, linked to the source.
You fall into a world of monsters and are handed a choice almost no other RPG offers: you never have to harm anything. Undertale takes the genre’s oldest assumption — that you fight your way forward — and quietly dismantles it.
At a Glance
| Developer | Toby Fox |
| Released | 2015 |
| Platforms | PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, PS Vita, Switch, Xbox One |
| Subgenre | Subversive RPG / bullet-hell combat |
| Playtime | ~7 hrs (main) / ~21 hrs (completionist) |
| Metacritic | 92 / 100 |
| Steam | Overwhelmingly Positive (96% of 320,000+) |
| Peak players | 11,071 concurrent (all-time, SteamCharts) |
| Steam Deck | Playable |
| Languages | English, Japanese |
About the Game
Made almost entirely by one person — Toby Fox — Undertale drops you, a human child, into the Underground, a world of monsters sealed away beneath a mountain. Your goal is simply to get home, but how you treat everyone you meet along the way is entirely up to you.
Combat fuses turn-based menus with bullet-hell dodging: when a monster attacks, you guide a tiny heart through patterns of incoming danger. Every enemy can be fought — or talked down and spared. Those choices stack up, and the world remembers them, branching into a peaceful Pacifist route, a chilling Genocide run, and everything between.
Beneath the jokes, the lo-fi pixel art, and one of the most beloved soundtracks in games is a sharp, self-aware story about choice and consequence that lands harder than its first hour lets on.
Screenshots
Screenshots: Toby Fox (via Steam).
Why It Made the List
Undertale earns its place because almost no other RPG has reshaped how players think about violence, choice, and the people (and monsters) on the other side of the screen — and it did it as a near-solo project on a shoestring. It’s short, it’s singular, and it’s a perfect on-ramp for anyone who thinks they don’t like RPGs.
What the Critics Say
Undertale holds a 92 / 100 on Metacritic and ranks among the best-reviewed games of its era. Famously, the only “complaints” critics could muster came stapled to perfect scores — which Toby Fox proudly turned into the game’s marketing:
“The puzzles aren’t particularly impressive.”
10/10 — Destructoid
“If there’s a criticism to be had, it’s that sometimes Toby Fox doesn’t know when to let a joke go.”
10/10 — The Jimquisition
What Players Say
Players are even more emphatic than critics: Undertale is Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (96% of more than 320,000 reviews — one of the highest-reviewed indie games on the platform), and still peaked at 11,071 concurrent players years after release. The writing, the music, and the emotional gut-punches get the loudest love.
Praise & Criticism
What critics and players tend to highlight:
Widely praised
- Genre-subverting mercy system
- One of the all-time great soundtracks
- Sharp humor backed by real heart
- Short, tight, and very replayable
Common criticisms
- Deliberately lo-fi visuals aren’t for everyone
- Some bullet-hell encounters get tricky
- The humor occasionally overstays its welcome
Games Like This
If Undertale’s mix of heart and subversion lands for you, try these:
- OMORI — a surreal, emotional RPG that hides real darkness beneath its cute exterior.
- LISA: The Painful — a bleak, blackly funny RPG built around brutal choices.
- Deltarune — Toby Fox’s episodic follow-up, free to start and unmistakably his.
OMORI is on our Top 20 Indie RPGs list.
Soundtrack
Stream the original soundtrack on Bandcamp.
Where to Buy
Available on: Steam, GOG, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox.
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