Undertale
semiticgoddess
Member Posts: 14,903
in Off-Topic
I got this game as a gift and can hold it in no longer. Undertale is the most adorably adorable piece of cuteness I have ever seen. I have never felt a spiritual connection to a game before, but I do now.
I strongly recommend trying out the game. And if you don't want to play it, I recommend you watch a Pacifist run of Undertale on Youtube without commentary. It is a pleasant experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQY0V2G9gc8&list=PLxyG63y66psw2S_Evd2zr8XDffkLXv_5d&index=1
Or you can also watch a Genocide run of Undertale, if you want to have a bad time. But this post is to express my feelings on the game.
UNDERTALE is a very non-standard RPG by the composer Toby Fox. I could say it's a darling story full of lovable characters. I could say that it is a parody of video game tropes. I could say it's an exploration of the power of human empathy, or the depths of human cruelty. But these words fall short.
In Undertale, you play as the only human in the Underground, where the monsters of the world were exiled in the wake of a war with the humans on the surface. You can progress in the game through combat, like any RPG, or you can beat the game by being nice to everybody.
Being nice to everybody is the intuitive response most of the time. The game oozes sweetness. This is how you're taught to fight:
You can "CHECK" your targets or use "TALK" to learn more about them. Sometimes they give clues to how to be nice to them. Other times, it just tells you something cute.
The whole game is like this. It's ultimately possible to spare every monster in the game, even those that really despise you, though it can sometimes be hard to figure out how. In some ways, Undertale is a deconstruction of video game tropes. But it doesn't feel like it's tearing down RPGs--it feels like something completely new.
Like any good RPG, Undertale also confronts you with complex moral quandaries and challenging puzzles.
Toriel is a motherly goat monster who wants to take care of you and keep you safe. She guides you through the first area, and literally holds your hand taking you across one of the puzzles, looking back at you with love in her eyes... just to make sure you don't hurt yourself.
Those spikes don't even cause damage. When you finally part ways, she hugs you. You can practically feel her arms around you.
You WILL fall in love with every character in this game. Toriel is only the beginning.
The combat system is very engaging and well-designed. To attack, you use a timing-based action command system, similar to Paper Mario. To defend yourself, you dodge little bullets that fly at your SOUL, represented by a heart. If you're not the murderous type, you can ACT with various critters to figure out how to SPARE them (all-caps is how the game renders these terms). It all depends on the enemy. Some are easy to figure out--dogs in particular are pretty intuitive.
Remember: you can never pet them too much!
ACT commands can get pretty surprising. You can actually flirt with certain monsters. The reactions vary.
My favorite is a little volcano monster named Vulkin, who thinks its lava can heal you. It's so innocent.
I just wanna squeeze it. That smile is just so darling.
The boss battles are more complex. They are epic in scale and have dramatic music--all of the music in this game is brilliant and immersive. On my first run, I only figured out how to SPARE one of the bosses... Papyrus, the overenthusiastic, egotistical skeleton who is fanatical about capturing humans, designing puzzles, joining the Royal Guard, and his own sense of over-the-top awesomeness. Also, making spaghetti.
If you flirt with him, you can go on a date, and it's just as ridiculously over-the-top as Papyrus himself. He takes the date very seriously. His enthusiasm is actually pretty infectious.
That's a plate of spaghetti on his head. He made it just for you!
I fell in love with the other bosses as well, and when I played a pacifist run of the game and SPARED them all, I found even more reasons to love them. All of the major characters are charming. Besides Papryus and his outrageous egotism, you also have Alphys, the socially awkward and reclusive lizard scientist.
She has a lot of guilt in her life, and doesn't always manage it very well, but she has a good heart. She just wants to do the right thing--she just has trouble figuring out how. A lot like me, on my first run.
Or Alphys' friend, Mettaton, a homicidal robot TV star, whose favorite method of generating drama is violent threats.
But Mettaton's interests are much more sophisticated than just bombs and chainsaws and electrocutions. He also has a flair for cooking shows... and even the opera.
As always, the music in this game complements the tone perfectly.
Then there is Undyne, a hot-headed spear-wielding warrior fish woman with a thirst for your blood. She is easily the most motivated monster in the game, and her goal is to destroy you. She is intense.
She is all about fighting people. And if you've been playing nice up until that point, she will mock you for it.
Papyrus can convince her to make friends with you, and Undyne makes friends the same way she destroys her enemies: with unbridled righteous fury. You can see why Papyrus and Undyne get along so well.
She actually has a long history of passionate violence, dating back to when she was very small.
All these things are just snapshots. There is so much more to all of this than I can show you.
Then you have Flowey the Flower... a whole other kind of monster.
His facade doesn't hold up for long. Get smart with him, and he does not like it.
That freakish expression fits his personality like a glove. That little flower is capable of far more than you can imagine.
Even ordinary critters have special charms to them. Sometimes it's easy to please them.
Other times, being warm and fuzzy just isn't what they need.
And sometimes, it's best if you just leave them be.
As much as you want to reassure them that everything is okay.
The monsters in Undertale really span all types. Some are a tad unsettling.
Another one, Temmie, is adorable. There's a whole village of them. They're a bit... off. One of them has adopted a baby egg, and is quite pleased with its parenting abilities.
The Tems also have a long history, as the shop owner will explain to you.
If you pay for Tem to go to college, she gains an even greater understanding of Tem history.
This kind of thing is all over the game, in every corner. You don't need to go far to find something cute or charming or goofy.
At first, I thought this game was all about kindness and being friendly to everybody. And for the most part, it is. But there is a darker side to Undertale, and looking at the creator, Toby Fox, it seems that Undertale wasn't made to call attention to the good things of the world--it was done to show the player what they're really doing when they do things like level grinding, reloading, and going for 100% completion in RPGs.
A pacifist run is not the only way to complete Undertale. You can also go through the game by killing everything in sight--a Genocide run. And if you do, it is a very dark game indeed. The music slows to a depressing crawl. The monsters evacuate their homes just to escape your grasp. The survivors castigate your cruelty. And you see the consequences of your actions in all of their ugliness... happening to the same critters you fall in love with in a normal run. I watched a Genocide run of Undertale on Youtube, and it was awful.
And if you complete a Genocide run, then all of your subsequent runs, even a Pacifist run, get tainted. You can never achieve a good ending after the end of a Genocide run, unless you find and delete the real save file. The idea is that the antagonist takes over your game, stealing control away from you, because your cruelty fed its awakening.
I tried a Genocide run and skipped through the dialogue, knowing from the Youtube video that reading the text was wrenching. I wanted to try a special boss, nearly impossible to defeat, that you can only face in a Genocide run. It's most known for its sheer difficulty, but it also gives a deep insight into one of the game's most mysterious characters. The opponent is a real hero, and will stop at nothing to prevent the destruction you bring.
I planned on fighting him and stopping just short of the final blow, before erasing the game. I just wanted to try it out. But when I realized that he SPARES you midway through the battle, instead of at the very end, I decided to SPARE him back, letting him kill me. It meant that I couldn't play the second half of the battle I was looking forward to, but I thought he more than deserved a stunning victory, and I was glad to see him win.
Undyne is another incredibly difficult enemy in a Genocide run. She fights a lot harder when she knows just how much of a monster you are. I died against her 10-20 times before winning once... but it wasn't frustrating. That battle really showed just how incredible she was. I was quietly murmuring "wow" to myself multiple times all through my many attempts. Undyne is a true hero as well. The Genocide run is emotionally crushing if you read the text, as I did when I was watching if not playing it, but it makes you appreciate the characters even more.
With the Genocide run ended in a resounding defeat, I erased the files and started a new Pacifist run, which I just finished today. It is just as beautiful and sweet as it always was.
I've played the game multiple times... but the thing about Undertale is that you only have one save file. If you restart after a pacifist run... you've just erased all of the joy that you created. One of the characters begs you not to do so. But after a couple of false starts, I found out where to find the save file and duplicate it. I now have 100 copies of a completed run on my computer. A hundred happy endings, just because.
Attached is a .zip file with a happy ending of Undertale on it. If you download it and make a few copies on your computer, you'll always have a few tiny worlds of monsters living happily in your hard drive. Just because.
I love Toriel for her motherly sweetness. I love Papyrus for his ever-present enthusiasm. I love Sans for his subtle complexity and affable temper. I love Undyne for her fiery passion. I love Alphys for her goofiness and her charming insecurity. I love Mettaton for his outrageous presence and sense of drama. I love Asgore for his warm heart. I love Asriel for his compassion. I love Flowey for his demented sociopathy. And I love Frisk for their purity and kindness.
It is difficult for me to describe how I feel about this game. But I have kindred spirits among these characters, and they can express it as well as I can.
I strongly recommend trying out the game. And if you don't want to play it, I recommend you watch a Pacifist run of Undertale on Youtube without commentary. It is a pleasant experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQY0V2G9gc8&list=PLxyG63y66psw2S_Evd2zr8XDffkLXv_5d&index=1Or you can also watch a Genocide run of Undertale, if you want to have a bad time. But this post is to express my feelings on the game.
UNDERTALE is a very non-standard RPG by the composer Toby Fox. I could say it's a darling story full of lovable characters. I could say that it is a parody of video game tropes. I could say it's an exploration of the power of human empathy, or the depths of human cruelty. But these words fall short.
In Undertale, you play as the only human in the Underground, where the monsters of the world were exiled in the wake of a war with the humans on the surface. You can progress in the game through combat, like any RPG, or you can beat the game by being nice to everybody.
Being nice to everybody is the intuitive response most of the time. The game oozes sweetness. This is how you're taught to fight:
You can "CHECK" your targets or use "TALK" to learn more about them. Sometimes they give clues to how to be nice to them. Other times, it just tells you something cute.
The whole game is like this. It's ultimately possible to spare every monster in the game, even those that really despise you, though it can sometimes be hard to figure out how. In some ways, Undertale is a deconstruction of video game tropes. But it doesn't feel like it's tearing down RPGs--it feels like something completely new.
Like any good RPG, Undertale also confronts you with complex moral quandaries and challenging puzzles.
Toriel is a motherly goat monster who wants to take care of you and keep you safe. She guides you through the first area, and literally holds your hand taking you across one of the puzzles, looking back at you with love in her eyes... just to make sure you don't hurt yourself.
Those spikes don't even cause damage. When you finally part ways, she hugs you. You can practically feel her arms around you.
You WILL fall in love with every character in this game. Toriel is only the beginning.
The combat system is very engaging and well-designed. To attack, you use a timing-based action command system, similar to Paper Mario. To defend yourself, you dodge little bullets that fly at your SOUL, represented by a heart. If you're not the murderous type, you can ACT with various critters to figure out how to SPARE them (all-caps is how the game renders these terms). It all depends on the enemy. Some are easy to figure out--dogs in particular are pretty intuitive.
Remember: you can never pet them too much!
ACT commands can get pretty surprising. You can actually flirt with certain monsters. The reactions vary.
My favorite is a little volcano monster named Vulkin, who thinks its lava can heal you. It's so innocent.
I just wanna squeeze it. That smile is just so darling.
The boss battles are more complex. They are epic in scale and have dramatic music--all of the music in this game is brilliant and immersive. On my first run, I only figured out how to SPARE one of the bosses... Papyrus, the overenthusiastic, egotistical skeleton who is fanatical about capturing humans, designing puzzles, joining the Royal Guard, and his own sense of over-the-top awesomeness. Also, making spaghetti.
If you flirt with him, you can go on a date, and it's just as ridiculously over-the-top as Papyrus himself. He takes the date very seriously. His enthusiasm is actually pretty infectious.
That's a plate of spaghetti on his head. He made it just for you!
I fell in love with the other bosses as well, and when I played a pacifist run of the game and SPARED them all, I found even more reasons to love them. All of the major characters are charming. Besides Papryus and his outrageous egotism, you also have Alphys, the socially awkward and reclusive lizard scientist.
She has a lot of guilt in her life, and doesn't always manage it very well, but she has a good heart. She just wants to do the right thing--she just has trouble figuring out how. A lot like me, on my first run.
Or Alphys' friend, Mettaton, a homicidal robot TV star, whose favorite method of generating drama is violent threats.
But Mettaton's interests are much more sophisticated than just bombs and chainsaws and electrocutions. He also has a flair for cooking shows... and even the opera.
As always, the music in this game complements the tone perfectly.
Then there is Undyne, a hot-headed spear-wielding warrior fish woman with a thirst for your blood. She is easily the most motivated monster in the game, and her goal is to destroy you. She is intense.
She is all about fighting people. And if you've been playing nice up until that point, she will mock you for it.
Papyrus can convince her to make friends with you, and Undyne makes friends the same way she destroys her enemies: with unbridled righteous fury. You can see why Papyrus and Undyne get along so well.
She actually has a long history of passionate violence, dating back to when she was very small.
All these things are just snapshots. There is so much more to all of this than I can show you.
Then you have Flowey the Flower... a whole other kind of monster.
His facade doesn't hold up for long. Get smart with him, and he does not like it.
That freakish expression fits his personality like a glove. That little flower is capable of far more than you can imagine.
Even ordinary critters have special charms to them. Sometimes it's easy to please them.
Other times, being warm and fuzzy just isn't what they need.
And sometimes, it's best if you just leave them be.
As much as you want to reassure them that everything is okay.
The monsters in Undertale really span all types. Some are a tad unsettling.
Another one, Temmie, is adorable. There's a whole village of them. They're a bit... off. One of them has adopted a baby egg, and is quite pleased with its parenting abilities.
The Tems also have a long history, as the shop owner will explain to you.
If you pay for Tem to go to college, she gains an even greater understanding of Tem history.
This kind of thing is all over the game, in every corner. You don't need to go far to find something cute or charming or goofy.
At first, I thought this game was all about kindness and being friendly to everybody. And for the most part, it is. But there is a darker side to Undertale, and looking at the creator, Toby Fox, it seems that Undertale wasn't made to call attention to the good things of the world--it was done to show the player what they're really doing when they do things like level grinding, reloading, and going for 100% completion in RPGs.
A pacifist run is not the only way to complete Undertale. You can also go through the game by killing everything in sight--a Genocide run. And if you do, it is a very dark game indeed. The music slows to a depressing crawl. The monsters evacuate their homes just to escape your grasp. The survivors castigate your cruelty. And you see the consequences of your actions in all of their ugliness... happening to the same critters you fall in love with in a normal run. I watched a Genocide run of Undertale on Youtube, and it was awful.
And if you complete a Genocide run, then all of your subsequent runs, even a Pacifist run, get tainted. You can never achieve a good ending after the end of a Genocide run, unless you find and delete the real save file. The idea is that the antagonist takes over your game, stealing control away from you, because your cruelty fed its awakening.
I tried a Genocide run and skipped through the dialogue, knowing from the Youtube video that reading the text was wrenching. I wanted to try a special boss, nearly impossible to defeat, that you can only face in a Genocide run. It's most known for its sheer difficulty, but it also gives a deep insight into one of the game's most mysterious characters. The opponent is a real hero, and will stop at nothing to prevent the destruction you bring.
I planned on fighting him and stopping just short of the final blow, before erasing the game. I just wanted to try it out. But when I realized that he SPARES you midway through the battle, instead of at the very end, I decided to SPARE him back, letting him kill me. It meant that I couldn't play the second half of the battle I was looking forward to, but I thought he more than deserved a stunning victory, and I was glad to see him win.
Undyne is another incredibly difficult enemy in a Genocide run. She fights a lot harder when she knows just how much of a monster you are. I died against her 10-20 times before winning once... but it wasn't frustrating. That battle really showed just how incredible she was. I was quietly murmuring "wow" to myself multiple times all through my many attempts. Undyne is a true hero as well. The Genocide run is emotionally crushing if you read the text, as I did when I was watching if not playing it, but it makes you appreciate the characters even more.
With the Genocide run ended in a resounding defeat, I erased the files and started a new Pacifist run, which I just finished today. It is just as beautiful and sweet as it always was.
I've played the game multiple times... but the thing about Undertale is that you only have one save file. If you restart after a pacifist run... you've just erased all of the joy that you created. One of the characters begs you not to do so. But after a couple of false starts, I found out where to find the save file and duplicate it. I now have 100 copies of a completed run on my computer. A hundred happy endings, just because.
Attached is a .zip file with a happy ending of Undertale on it. If you download it and make a few copies on your computer, you'll always have a few tiny worlds of monsters living happily in your hard drive. Just because.
I love Toriel for her motherly sweetness. I love Papyrus for his ever-present enthusiasm. I love Sans for his subtle complexity and affable temper. I love Undyne for her fiery passion. I love Alphys for her goofiness and her charming insecurity. I love Mettaton for his outrageous presence and sense of drama. I love Asgore for his warm heart. I love Asriel for his compassion. I love Flowey for his demented sociopathy. And I love Frisk for their purity and kindness.
It is difficult for me to describe how I feel about this game. But I have kindred spirits among these characters, and they can express it as well as I can.
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