Undertale thoughts (heavy spoilers within)

Undertale thoughts. Spoilers ahead. This is very long (17736 characters), so there's a tl;dr at the top.

	tl;dr
	Undertale is much better than it looks at first glance, but if you didn't enjoy the gameplay on a neutral run it's not for you.
	If you did but thought the story was overhyped, do a pacifist run and then a genocide, if you dare to. Those specialized runthroughs really reveal how much thought went into the game, beyond a few dialogue replacements.
	Those three playthroughs took me around 18 hours: definitely worth the asking price (though, a single 6 hour runthrough would NOT).
	There were some very clever decisions made, such as not including achievements (the mere existence would ruin some of the impacts of the player choices) and playing into RPG expectations to ultimately subvert them, even going so far as to take UNDERTALE CONVENTIONS AND THEN SUBVERT THOSE AND THEN SUBVERT THE SUBVERSION.

Undertale is not a game about first impressions. Undertale is a game about lasting impressions. My first impression after about an hour was that the game was okay-nothing special, but enjoyable. I would see it through to the end. Playing through to that end, very little of my opinion changed up until the final hallway. The conversation that takes place hinted at what laid beneath the surface. The final boss and remainder of the approach to took everything you would expect and turned it on its head, right AFTER hammering home what made Undertale different. Then the "true" final boss came out of nowhere.

Turn back now if you don't want spoilers.

No, seriously.

Turn back.

Everything above is as non-spoilery as possible and written to pad the length so that scrolling down is the only way to see spoilers.

If you haven't played the game yet what follows will absolutely ruin most of the experience.

Still with me? Alright.







Last warning to turn back.





Alright. So to spoilerize the above, Sans' judgement plays on XP and LV, expected terms, and what you've done throughout the game. I treated Undertale like a standard RPG, and as a result, what I got out of it was a fairly simple RPG with bullet hell elements and a gimmicky option to not kill enemies. The approach to Asgore juxtaposed inevitably with fighting fate, as well as played with player expectations of the point of no return. Then the fight itself, interestingly enough, is easier the 'worse' (as killing enemies is clearly the worse option) you played. But then, it makes sense. The more you stray, the easier it is to keep straying. Asgore also subverts UNDERTALE ITSELF by destroying the option for Mercy and ignoring your attempts to talk peacefully. It must end in violence.

Except it doesn't, right before you win, you're given the choice to Fight, end Asgore and take your happy ending of escaping the underground...or give Mercy and live in the underground in peace. I chose the latter. This choice is meaningless. Flowey shows up, kills Asgore if you hadn't already, absorbs the human souls and takes over your save file.

Yikes.

THIS fight is mostly an infodump in a Cave-style true last boss fashion...and it works. Notably, you can't re-trigger this fight as Flowey knows it would end the same way, but this is still a very effective moment as yet again in the home stretch, Undertale subverts your already subverted expectations. At the end, you get the same option you got after Asgore, except it actually matters here. I chose to end Flowey as I didn't particularly feel like sparing him.

That was enough to convince me to try pacifist. I'd killed random enemies throughout the game (as well as Mettaton because he annoyed me) and so I missed out on everything with Undyne. This replay...I have mixed feelings about it. Pacifying every encounter got tedious and nothing was really that difficult, as many of the bosses rely on the player not knowing the attacks or gimmicks in advance. My first Undyne attempt died to the yellow arrows because I took a bit to acclimate, but every single fight went down very quickly. Pacifying everything also revealed how many of the choices in the game don't actually mean anything, though this is a necessary consequence of branching stories in games. It's just not practical to branch early as doing so essentially requires making two games in one- more on that later. I was pleasantly surprised by how many choices actually DID matter, and about halfway through I decided I had to see what would happen with the other route I'd heard about: Genocide.

Back on pacifist, it was clear this was the intended path for the player to take through the game as a lot of content is only available if zero execution points have been obtained. Undyne's cooking lesson was hilarious, and the True Lab revealed some unsettling information. I was more DETERMINED than before to go through with Genocide, to see the other side, see what led to this, get more information. After the judgement, I went forward and refought Asgore even though I didn't have to (won handily even with the handicap of being at level 1) and Flowey showed up again, mocked the player (ME!) for thinking killing him would persist after a save, and left. Reloaded, did all the pacifist stuff, and was forced back to Asgore...

...

Everything up to now has been minor spoilers. If you're still reading this and don't know what's about to happen, don't read forward. It will ruin the impact of the moment.

...

Alright.

Everyone you spared shows up and talks Asgore out of fighting you. Papyrus told everyone to show up. Wham Line: A flower told him. This is less so for the characters, as only Frisk and Sans know the true impact, but everyone is shocked. Flowey shows up and vines everyone. Flowey is actually Asriel, which the True Lab revealed as well. Flowey/Asriel absorbed all the human souls while the bosses were showing up. Asriel regains his body, wipes your save, and the best song in the game starts playing (Hopes and Dreams). It's...impossible to die in this fight and that cheapens a lot of its impact (though the rainbow missile attack is stupid) but it was a very emotional moment. Just recovering the Lost Souls by going through the attacks, dealing with the Asriel phase, ACT being replaced with SAVE with the double meaning of save the game/save a person... This is what turned the game from "okay to good" range to "great to amazing" range. It's still not the best game ever by any means, but it's still something well worth picking up and playing.

Playable epilogue, talk to everyone, yadda yadda yadda, talk to Asriel back in the very first room of the game, Chara is a jerk...everyone gets their happy ending on the other side of the barrier since Flowey tried destroying everything and Asriel tried resetting everything. Yes that distinction matters. Again, the final part of the game has 2 dual choices, the first being meaningless and the second having a small impact. Back at the end of the Asriel fight, forgive or not forgive (I chose forgive), and at the end of the epilogue, stay with Toriel or go off on your on (I chose to stay).

Everyone got their happy ending.

...aw crap, I have to undo it and kill these guys to see everything now.

...and relaunching the game has Flowey ABSOLUTELY CALL YOU ON THIS, no characters, no game, not even a menu. Just Flowey in an empty void talking DIRECTLY to YOU, THE PLAYER. There's no fourth wall, and then treating the fourth wall as a freaking MECHANIC. Reset is replaced with True Reset, wiping memories as well as progress. This...in the short time I'd played the game, almost entirely through the Asriel battle and playable epilogue, the characters had left a real impact. Could I really go through with shattering the happy ending, just as Flowey calls you out on wanting to do? Just to see what would happen if I killed EVERYONE? Even KNOWING that this would be a decision there would be no going back from?

...I could.

It still took sleeping on it (I finished late at night and didn't start genocide until 2 days later).

Genocide...changed my opinion further, taking Undertale into brilliantly designed territory. I expected minor differences here and there. What I got was an entirely different game past the Ruins. Distorted music, "but nobody came", saves telling you how many enemies are left, NPCs not being around (even those completely unaffected!), bosses all dying in a single hit (with two very notable exceptions), and the shopkeepers behavior (Gerson especially having the tenacity to stand up to Frisk who, up to this point, has been an unstoppable killing machine).

And then Undyne saves the Monster Kid at the cost of her life, doesn't die, becomes Undyne the Undying and unleashes a battle the likes of which had only been seen in final bosses up to here. The music, Battle Against a True Hero, sums it up very well. She's fighting you, knowing her life is already forfeit, just trying to stall for time so Alphys can evacuate Hotland. Knowing no matter what she does here, it's already over. Knowing that even doing her absolute best, it won't be enough to win. And in spite of all of this, going through with it. In that moment, Undyne was the hero, and the player became the villain.

*I* became the villain.

Of course, as the player, Undyne's heroic sacrifice was doomed to be for nothing. My own determination to see this through outweighed hers to stop Frisk once and for all. Even if she had won, my determination was sufficient to use Frisk's to just reload, which Undyne couldn't have known about. In the end, the struggle of the NPCs I had so valiantly worked to cultivate friendships with last timeline was ultimately futile this time.

And Flowey called me on it pre-emptively before wiping his memories.

I was playing the game, and unlike every other game I've played, the game was playing me back.

That...unsettled me.

There was a shift in tone here, both in writing after the fact and while playing. No more was this just a game of Frisk vs. the Underground and just trying to get out. This stopped being about that the moment I hit True Reset. This was now about me, and my playstyle and play experience vs. Undertale. That shift is what cemented the game as brilliant as NOTHING else has managed to even come close to this sort of feeling. Undertale didn't hammer in any messages, didn't force any choices. What it did was give you exactly enough rope to hang yourself with throughout any part of the game and then brutally call you on it for doing so.

And that made its call-outs all the more impactful.

Kill anything in the ruins? Flowey calls you on the randoms being 'people' too. Kill Toriel after sparing her? Flowey calls you on that too, for just wanting to see what would happen. Kill everything in the ruins? Flowey says it's a wonderful idea, SPOKEN, and after pacifist you know anything he agrees with is a terrible idea. On Genocide and spare the monster kid? Undyne calmly chews you out for ending Papyrus's life.

The game also goads you into specific playstyles for those with no knowledge going in. Treat it like an RPG, aided by "kill or be killed", and get called on it. Undyne calls you on it and won't hang out with a murderer, but at this point you're far enough in that going back to undo is a hassle. Sans calls you on it and explicitly reframes your (as in, the player's) every action. Spare everything for the rest of the game, even Flowey, get more hints for how to get a better ending. Actually get that better ending and everything practically dares you to kill everyone on a subsequent play, right up until Flowey calls you on that thought. Go through with Genocide, and up through Undyne the Undying the game is daring you to stop, to stray from this rigid murder spree, and the moment you do, whomever you spared will call you on it.

Back on Genocide...Hotland's puzzles all could be skipped. In fact, the entire second floor was inaccessible. It was very clear that the changes were taking the game off its rails and, for better or worse, Fris- no, my reign of terror would come to a head.

Then I reloaded the game and Flowey was sitting there, smiling at me. Mocking me. I was far enough along that it was practically too late to turn back: the underground up to Hotland was murdered, and past that point was evacuated. There was no going back without a reset, and Undertale made the mistake of making the playthrough about me vs. the game.

I don't like losing.

I don't like knowing the lengths I'm willing to go to to avoid losing.

I was going to win against Undertale, in a deadly game of chicken where I lose regardless of seeing it through (outcome) or giving up (game wins).

As I pushed against Hotland/Core, I reached the Mettaton arena with 27 kills remaining. The game knew that this was the last chance to turn back and wanted to make pushing on Genocide as unpleasant as possible. It worked, but I pressed on, determined. Mettaton NEO hyped up to be an epic duel on the level of Undyne the Undying, even refraining her theme. Then it died in one hit like all the others.

New Home was even more unsettling. The approach dialogue was missing as expected, and then FLOWEY IN RANDOM ENCOUNTERS OH CRAP HE THINKS I'M CHARA AND RED TEXT CRAP CRAP CRAP HOLY BAD NONONONONO (determination)

Flowey is now sympathetic. I'm writing this as I play. And then not two dialogues later, his experimentation with determination and save points ruins that sympathy. Then he lampshades the reason why anyone would try Genocide, to see what would change. After all, once you know what someone does, that's what they are. Get out of my head Flowey.

Get out get out get out get out get out get out

Then he calls out people who wouldn't have the stomach to go through the Genocide themselves, and would just watch someone else do it.

Flowey vs. the player. Flowey wins by being Dangerously Genre Savvy. But then again, he supposedly lived through exactly what the player was doing.

Flowey/Asriel. Chara/Frisk. Two terrible people overriding two good people. One must be specifically undone, the other specifically done.

hahahahahahahaha
hahahaha
haha
ha
Even his DGS victory over me, mentally means nothing
nothing
he can't stop Chara.
and...neither can I now.

But maybe Sans can.

No, that wouldn't work. Sans could possibly stop Chara.

But he can't stop me.

He can try.

He might succeed a few times.

But my victory...is inevitable.

Okay, I lost 10 times. But 2 of those were suicides after I decided to keep all my healing items for the second phase, and 2 of those were to the final circling attack. Sans...he knew. And he only confirmed my worst suspicions. It still wasn't too late to back out and just watch a genocide ending, and avoid everything, but... is that what I want to do? It probably is, actually. I got the experience I wanted.

But at the same time, would it be wrong to avoid the consequences of my actions? To reap what I have sown? I know I can always save edit, but this is another challenge.

Another case of the player vs. the game, just like the Sans fight. Do I have the determination to follow through? Do I have the determination to avoid all the consequences?

...honestly, at this point, any subsequent playthroughs would be timed from a fresh game. Is there really any penalty to the universe if that universe ends here and now? The timeline shatters, and in its place a new one is rebuilt.

Yes. That sounds about right.

I shall complete this endeavor. I need to see this firsthand. Any penalty can be erased by various means, regardless of what it is. Would be erased by if I decide to do any speedruns. As it is, Undertale seems designed to inevitably end like this. Neutral, Pacifist, Genocide created a nice difficulty curve. This...this is how it's supposed to end.

The end of your journey is close at hand. The twilight fills you with...

Determination.

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Well that wasn't what I expected at all. Again, a meaningless choice at the end, but then..everything destroyed. Again, Asgore killed by Flowey. Then, Flowey murdered by Frisk possessed by Chara. Then, Frisk was destroyed alongside the rest of the game world. I got the jumpscare, too.

I launched the game immediately after. Nothing. Emptiness. Howling wind.

It's still up as I type this. I suspect if I wait long enough, something will happen.
What, I'm not sure.

...Chara is doing what Flowey did after pacifist and calling me out directly.
Except this time, I have none of the cards.
Except I do, the save file nonsense.
But if I didn't...Frisk's SOUL is a heavy asking price.
Would I go through with this without it? If I ever wanted to play again, I would.
But would I?









That isn't a question I can answer.

What I can answer is why this is here. This is another route parallel. Meaningless choices, and then a meaningful one. Continue playing at the cost of ruining all future plays forever, or finally repent with everyone not just dead, but destroyed, at the cost of not being able to play again. The other meaningful choices were minor. This isn't a character decision. This is asking the player what they want to do.

I didn't give it up.
Instead, I looked up what would happen.
I think that in the end, I made the right choice.
I'd seen everything there was to see, done everything there was to do, conquered everything there was to conquer.
On this one, final decision of a Genocide playthrough..I finally took the high road.

In the end, I beat Undertale...
...but Undertale beat me.