UNDERTALE

[Sketchasaurus]

a game isn't guided by its art direction. It should be made abundantly clear that a game's "look" is far from any of the important elements of the game. While art direction is somewhat important for a game, the most important thing about a game is whether or not it's mechanically playable; and in addition, whether the story can be followed easily enough in the case of RPGs. It's naive to assume that game design is all about the visuals, and being hung up on that misconception is going to interfere with any discourse of the subject. Sure, there are often games that I'll avoid because of their poor art direction as a knee-jerk reaction, but if I see something about their gameplay that I think "hey, this could be fun" I'm more inclined to try it out.

good art =/= good game
bad art =/= bad game

Now that's out of the way:
I found the battle system to be rather interesting to see (I haven't played it, so this is all from observation) Having more-involved battle segments is something I like to see in RPGs. The vibe I've gotten from watching a bit of this game was a sort of "Cave Story meets Earthbound" feeling, which I find to be somewhat interesting.