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Undertale General

Last posted Jun 22, 2016 at 06:50PM EDT. Added Oct 02, 2015 at 05:25AM EDT
374 posts from 79 users

Undertale's winning exposes GameFAQs' Generational Gap Bullshit
My perfect news headline.

"It's a beautiful day at Final Destination, the items are dropping, the characters are "ridiculed" and Melee Smashers like you should be playing SSB4!"_ – Sans

Last edited Dec 13, 2015 at 06:15PM EST

You know that feeling you get after finishing a game and recognizing that it's one of the best games you've ever played? Like, more than just a really fun game, but a game that makes you feel something deep down? Man, that's something special. I felt it a couple years ago after beating Bioshock Infinite and I'm feeling it right now. It's that rare feeling that I just experienced some fine art. I'll write something more coherent once the afterglow dies down a bit.

Last edited Dec 14, 2015 at 01:54AM EST

So I finished the Neutral route just now, and am now working on the True Pacifist route. I got the phone call from Undyne so I just need to do the rest of it. I'm probably not gonna play a genocide run because I heard it permanently affects future runs unless you delete certain files from the Steam Cloud. so I'll probably just watch a let's play of it.

I did spoil a little bit of the game for myself, but I do have to say I did not expect what happens after you beat the Asgore.

Pretty fun game I must say, though I still think it's a bit short. A friend told me it takes 10 hours each run but I got to Asgore in about 3 (and I befriended everybody).

Flowey is a dick. Killed him the first opportunity it emerged. Pretty interesting boss fight though.

So it Undertale taking an early lead in the poll, it appears that silly season has begun:

I mean, it's a goddamn fan-poll on the internet. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't actually matter. But absurd narrow-mindedness on the other hand . . .

Platus wrote:

So it Undertale taking an early lead in the poll, it appears that silly season has begun:

I mean, it's a goddamn fan-poll on the internet. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't actually matter. But absurd narrow-mindedness on the other hand . . .

>By the standards of 20 years ago

Literally stuck in the past.

Gaming, gaming has changed….

Platus wrote:

So it Undertale taking an early lead in the poll, it appears that silly season has begun:

I mean, it's a goddamn fan-poll on the internet. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't actually matter. But absurd narrow-mindedness on the other hand . . .

Lol mad cuz dunked on

So I just beat the game on the True Pacifist route, and looked up some info on the Genocide route (cause what kind of monster plays that route?) and have some questions I'd like to ask you guys if you want to answer.

1. So in the Genocide route it is revealed that Chara took over Frisk's body to use for destroying the whole world. Since it's implied that he was there the whole game, does that mean that Chara is present in Frisk even during your first run (without doing a Genocide run prior)? Possibly Chara possessed Frisk and was the reason why he/she was climbing the mountain in the first place and the whole pacifist run is fighting off Chara's influence?

2. The six souls that Flowey uses during his battle in the neutral route help you out during the fight. So do you think it means that they were good people who were unfortunate enough to fall into the mountain and Toriel was unable to save them from Asgore or they help you mainly out of obligation so that Flowey doesn't keep their souls?

3. It is explained in the True Lab what determination is, but I'm still a bit confused. In normal battles, it is explained that you are able to come back from the dead due to your determination. It also is what revived the monsters that turned into the abominations in the lab. However during the Asriel fight Frisk's determination allows him/her to survive even after dying. So is the heart reforming just there as like a fast-forward to the part you died to make the fight less frustrating, or is it something else entirely?

Who's up for an essay-length post about a game everybody finished two months ago?


Undertale had been released for about two months before I gave it a try, but of course I had already noticed the game’s immense popularity. A small, cynical part of me gets annoyed when a game or show becomes so popular that everyone goes out of their way to praise it and related images fill up the galleries. Still, the reviews were uniformly positive and Earthbound is one of my favorite games, plus I found the bits and pieces of gameplay videos I watched funny, so I went in expecting something good. Any hostility I had towards Undertale melted away almost immediately after I started. By the time I played the quiz show battle, I decided it was one of the funniest games I had ever played. By the time I got the Neutral ending, I decided it was one of the most cleverly executed games I had ever played. And by the time I got the Pacifist ending, I decided it was one of the most moving pieces of media I had ever experienced. Anybody who wants to be involved in game design or just wants to have a greater appreciation for games should take a close look at Undertale. So, yeah, I’m willing to give the fanbase a pass on their enthusiastic clogging of the gallery.

The first thing to impress me was Undertale’s ability to evoke emotion. Most of the time, this comes in the form of humor. Throughout the game, humorous dialogue and descriptions made the experience a treat. I’d liken the comedy to Earthbound, though the jokes tend to go further over the top and are much closer to center stage most of the time. In particular, the humor in the dialogue helped make already believable character more endearing. Something I did not see coming, however, was that Undertale just as successfully evokes other emotions. At times, it can be heartwarming, heartbreaking, disturbing, and triumphant. It’s impressive that something as ridiculous as the snail race and something as horrifying as the True Lab can be present in the same game and neither feel out of place. In part, this comes down to atmosphere, which again I’d compare to Earthbound. Remember how Earthbound used humor and childlike innocence to hide a sinister threat, only to hit you with the hard stuff at the very end? Undertale pulls it off multiple times. As for the retro visuals, they work well for a game that is both an example and examination of RPGs. The game tries to represent the whole genre, especially Earthbound-era JRPGs, so taking the visuals back to the 16-bit era was appropriate and contrasted strikingly with the more sophisticated music. Speaking of music, the soundtrack sets the atmosphere perfectly and conveys great emotion, particularly boss fights and recurring musical themes like Flowey’s theme and the tune you first hear from the statue’s music box.

Something I’m surprised I don’t see a little more discussion of online is Undertale’s subversion of game design, player choice, and the relationship between player and game. On its surface, Undertale has all the ingredients of a conventional RPG: a young protagonist, a world of monsters, turn-based battle mechanics, level-based progression, seven powerful artifacts, etc. But the game is constantly messing with our expectations of the genre. All the monsters are in some way sympathetic. Giving the player the option to spare opponents raises uncomfortable questions. Is it really okay that most games incentivize killing? If you choose to kill instead of spare, what does that say about you? Nowhere is this more evident than in the Genocide run, which is also the most conventional in terms of RPG fair. You fight your way through monsters and grind for EXP/LV. Same as it ever was, but the game makes you feel like a sociopath for doing so. I don’t take this as a condemnation of violence in video games, so much a means of making the player think about the greater implications of what they do in games and how games are designed. Undertale’s greatest trick is in how it takes apart the flexible morality of players doing multiple runs. When some of the characters remember what you did on previous runs and openly judge you for your actions, it makes you think carefully about how you want to play the game. One Genocide run forever taints your save file. What strikes me is how effective all this is at getting in the player’s head. Here’s a game that openly dissuades you from replaying because you could ruin all the characters’ lives. I can’t do a Genocide run, because I don’t want to hurt these people. Even though I’m curious to see the rest of the game, I’m hesitant to even watch a Genocide run Let’s Play, because I know Flowey is going to call me an asshole. It’s incredible how strong the urge is to just let the characters be.

Lastly, as a fan of Earthbound, I couldn’t help but notice/geek-out over the references to Undertale’s biggest inspirational source. Every time I came across a reused asset or similarly designed room, I had a nice little twinge of nostalgia. But it isn’t just in the name of fan service. Toby Fox has a clear understanding of what made that game special and used it, partially, as a blueprint for some parts of his game. To me, this is most apparent in the Neutral final boss. In both, a child fights a chaotic and seemingly hopeless battle against a grotesque, mad god in a universe of darkness. Ultimately, the enemy is defeated through the positive emotions of the protagonist’s supporters. The same is true of the Pacifist final boss, but with more of a sense of hopefulness befitting a true ending. In short, I’d say it’s fair to consider Undertale the heir to Earthbound’s quirky little throne, though it should also be respected as its own work.

In summary, Undertale is a rare example of an overwhelmingly hyped game which actually lives up to its reputation.

Platus wrote:

So it Undertale taking an early lead in the poll, it appears that silly season has begun:

I mean, it's a goddamn fan-poll on the internet. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't actually matter. But absurd narrow-mindedness on the other hand . . .

Long Time Gamer
Did he play this before?

Objectively Mediocre Game
93 on Metacritic, 83 on Meteoritic and a whooping 98% on Steam without a shocking drop!

Real Gaming
Uh Oh! It’s like someone didn’t like To Pimp a Butterfly if he likes All Eyez on Me.
In the future, if he enjoys old games and hates the new good ones, then it must be some Wrong Generation bullshit going on.
Each GameFAQs profile has its own game collection, so find someone who happened to played these three games before.
But wait! You said it because it was non-GameFAQs members vote on it. Are you kinda suspicious?

True Games List
They’re very good, but however overrated (except CT) because you wanted to see the same old title to win again. This list wasn’t enough

Let’s face it, The reason the crew behind the making of this contest decide to list this game is because…
1. It changes the way how you view RPGs
2. It’s unique. Mario & Luigi can dodge enemy attacks by self-defence in rhythm of jumping or hammer swinging while Frisk moves her soul while her ways kept expanding.
3. They had it with some generational gap bullshit the GameFAQs community had, even worse forced hostility and animosity against the newest best.



Top Players of GameFAQs vs. the majority of Tumblr

“*To Pimp a Butterfly* of Video Games”- Kendrick Lamar
“Video Gaming’s Answer to Pan’s Labyrinth” -Guillermo Del Toro
“A video game’s equivalence to the three movies I just made” – Pete Docter

yummines wrote:

So I just beat the game on the True Pacifist route, and looked up some info on the Genocide route (cause what kind of monster plays that route?) and have some questions I'd like to ask you guys if you want to answer.

1. So in the Genocide route it is revealed that Chara took over Frisk's body to use for destroying the whole world. Since it's implied that he was there the whole game, does that mean that Chara is present in Frisk even during your first run (without doing a Genocide run prior)? Possibly Chara possessed Frisk and was the reason why he/she was climbing the mountain in the first place and the whole pacifist run is fighting off Chara's influence?

2. The six souls that Flowey uses during his battle in the neutral route help you out during the fight. So do you think it means that they were good people who were unfortunate enough to fall into the mountain and Toriel was unable to save them from Asgore or they help you mainly out of obligation so that Flowey doesn't keep their souls?

3. It is explained in the True Lab what determination is, but I'm still a bit confused. In normal battles, it is explained that you are able to come back from the dead due to your determination. It also is what revived the monsters that turned into the abominations in the lab. However during the Asriel fight Frisk's determination allows him/her to survive even after dying. So is the heart reforming just there as like a fast-forward to the part you died to make the fight less frustrating, or is it something else entirely?

1. I'm not so sure Chara POSSESSED Frisk per say. Flowey was wrong about Frisk's identity in the pacifist and neutral runs, so I wouldn't take his word for it, and I don't think it was confirmed at the end. I believe what it said was that Frisk "awakened" Chara from death. Frisks extreme determination stirred up Chara again after they had given up, I guess is what happened. Remember how hard Sans is – the amount of determination needed to get through that surpasses anything needed in the rest of the game. So my guess is that that last push of determination wakes up Chara.
2. There's no reason not to think they were good people. The average person isn't a jerk. Moreover, we don't hear about other humans who were murderous in the past. I doubt Royal Guards 01 and 02 would have let you free just so they could go talk about their feelings together if in the past there were humans who killed monsters. My guess is they just didn't have the sheer determination Frisk (you, the player) had. Thus, I'm guessing they were just fed up with Flowey's crap and decided to fight back.
3. I think this was a really smart part of the game that would only make sense to the majority of people playing, as it's based on emotions. When I got to that part, and from what I know many others felt this way too, I was determined to get through it. My thoughts were all "lets do this". The background, the buildup, and especially the music leads you to have immense feelings of determination and will. As Frisk's determination is essentially based around you, the player, the fact that Frisk's heart refused to stay broken makes sense here.

Last edited Dec 16, 2015 at 12:53AM EST

Oh no.

After seeing the True Pacifist ending again and looking at the Asriel Reborn AU right afterwards, I think the game's starting to affect me on an extremely emotional level.

Any advice from you guys?

Last edited Dec 18, 2015 at 04:42PM EST

Somari the Adventurer wrote:

Oh no.

After seeing the True Pacifist ending again and looking at the Asriel Reborn AU right afterwards, I think the game's starting to affect me on an extremely emotional level.

Any advice from you guys?

develop a man-crush on Asriel like everyone else on KYM but denie it.

Basilius wrote:

develop a man-crush on Asriel like everyone else on KYM but denie it.

That makes it even more depressing.

Farm Zombie wrote:

I am loving these videos.

>I'm not the only one who likes Timber Pupper's VA's
Last time I checked, I was the last of my kind.

Some things struck me as odd when completing a pacifist playthrough. (obvious spoilers ayy lmao)

The subplot where Mettaton was actually helping Alphys feel heroic the whole time in the Hotlands felt kind of out of place. Alphys doesn't really act like she's doing that in her previous phone/text messages, and when you talk to her later the subject never gets brought up again. The focus is entirely on how Alphys was doing bad experiments with souls, and there's no mention of her games with Mettaton.

Flowey's rant telling you not to reset the game. He acts like everyone has achieved true happiness, but it's really fake if you think about it. Toriel may have opened a school on the surface, but it's a cardboard cutout; it's only a picture of a wall that she's going to stand in front of forever. The ending is a gilded cage of prosperity, since everyone's frozen in place at a particular moment. Flowey made a similar comment during the end of a genocide run, regarding how people only had a set amount of options.

Hey guys, just finished this game on the Neutral route (Killed Undyne, Muffet with betrayal and Asgore but nobody else including normal enemies), can give my more detailed thoughts if anyone wants them but the bottom line is this: I was really quite impressed and even though I was really, REALLY spoilered a lot of things still really surprised me.

Main reason I'm posting here is because of my next run. Wanting a bit of advice since I'm wanting to try the other two routes.
Pacifist is obvious but I have some thoughts on why I might consider Genocide next: Mostly having a more "different" experience and ending my initial runs on a high note.
But at the same thing, for the obvious emotional reasons I'm tempted to do Pacifist next and for some other reasons (mostly the tedium and not even knowing if I can make it past the special fights) I'm considering not bothering with the Genocide route at all. Any suggestions would be cool.

On a related note since I never got a proper answer on the comments, has anyone tried the Undertale Genocide Remover with the Steam version? If so, how well does it work?

CrashGordon94 wrote:

Hey guys, just finished this game on the Neutral route (Killed Undyne, Muffet with betrayal and Asgore but nobody else including normal enemies), can give my more detailed thoughts if anyone wants them but the bottom line is this: I was really quite impressed and even though I was really, REALLY spoilered a lot of things still really surprised me.

Main reason I'm posting here is because of my next run. Wanting a bit of advice since I'm wanting to try the other two routes.
Pacifist is obvious but I have some thoughts on why I might consider Genocide next: Mostly having a more "different" experience and ending my initial runs on a high note.
But at the same thing, for the obvious emotional reasons I'm tempted to do Pacifist next and for some other reasons (mostly the tedium and not even knowing if I can make it past the special fights) I'm considering not bothering with the Genocide route at all. Any suggestions would be cool.

On a related note since I never got a proper answer on the comments, has anyone tried the Undertale Genocide Remover with the Steam version? If so, how well does it work?

Genocide Route is typically done last mostly due to how the game presents it to you and the difficulty of completion. They tell you at the end on how to get the "happy ending", but they don't really tell you how to do the Genocide Route, do they? You have to find the mechanism on your own. Secondly, performing a Genocide run before performing a True Pacifist run would spoil some lore that you come across during the Pacifist run, and not in a happy way. And thirdly, the difficulty. The Genocide Route of Undertale is….harder. But it's fun! So try it after you beat the Pacifist Route :D

Secondly, performing a Genocide run before performing a True Pacifist run would spoil some lore that you come across during the Pacifist run, and not in a happy way.

Doing a pacifist run would also spoil some parts of a genocide run, however…

CrashGordon94 wrote:

Story spoilers, or the whole corrupted ending thing? Because that's why I brought up that program.

Both, really. Story spoilers as in, whatever route you choose, the certain thing me and Jarbox are thinking will be provided in both routes, but it will be provided much earlier in the Genocide route, and it may cause some confusion. I mean, I'm not sure if it will or not, because I did Genocide last.

So here's something I just realized: Muffet's characterization, and that whole "raising money" thing she's doing, might be a sly reference to the concept of a Money Spider. As the TvTropes page says:

For many game economies, wealth is associated with dangerous creatures; if you can attack it and it is alive (in some sense) and/or able to theoretically attack in return, it probably has some actual currency which will become available upon its death. This will be true almost without regard for the creature's ability to carry money, its interest in money, whether it's sentient enough to comprehend money, or any connection with the existence of the money.

What's neat is that she is a "money spider" in that she's a spider who really wants to make money, but she is also not a money spider because if you kill her she doesn't actually drop money. You get zero gold for wiping her out.

So yeah, I just thought that was neat and decided to share. Also, sorry for linking you to TvTropes and destroying your productivity for the rest of the night.
.
.
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(but actually is not sorry at all ahuhuhu!)

Could, but even then the connection might be more to real money spiders (what gave that Trope its name) than anything else.

On a sidenote, I indeed started my True Pacifist run. All the way up to just before Asgore, than had to go back to befriend Undyne and Alphys.
Speaking of Muffet, while I felt like shit for killing Undyne in my first run (and like a dope for not figuring out how to properly escape her), no such deal with Muffet. Having brought along a Spider Donut, I actually betrayal-killed her again (before reloading and accepting her offer the second time). It's a combination of my unrelenting hatred of spiders and her surprising lack of sympathetic qualities that does it, I'd say.

Sorry to bump, but just in case anyone cares I just finished the True Pacifist Run. A bit corny in places but HELL was that emotional… Now I'm not so certain I'm ready to do a Genocide run anymore…

Do have a question though, isn't Mettaton supposed to be in the ending photo?

jarbox wrote:

Of all the sounds he could have sampled, he went with that crappy one.

Meanwhile, the Onett theme gets crappier with each successive Smash remix, desperately begging for a savior…

WEE OOO! WEE OOO!
You just set off the Negative Nancy Alarm. The Positivity Police will arrive at your home shortly.

The inevitable happened and I started playing Undertale last night. I know that this game has a huge influence of the Mother/Earthbound series but, for someone like me who has never played any of the trilogy (I know I should, just give me time), I was immediately hooked with just 3 minutes in.

I've reached to the point where I get to meet Papyrus and, so far, I'm liking everything that I've been seeing. Y'know, music, characters, environment, battle system (quite interesting to "battle" some guy and winning by just being diplomatic), etc.

There's, however, something that confused me…

Before the main title could appear on screen, I killed Toriel, apparently. Was that supposed to happen? Did I fucked up big time? Was there a way to avoid that? Should I restart? Should I stop asking these questions and keep playing until that confusion of mine is resolved?

Necromagenvion wrote:

The inevitable happened and I started playing Undertale last night. I know that this game has a huge influence of the Mother/Earthbound series but, for someone like me who has never played any of the trilogy (I know I should, just give me time), I was immediately hooked with just 3 minutes in.

I've reached to the point where I get to meet Papyrus and, so far, I'm liking everything that I've been seeing. Y'know, music, characters, environment, battle system (quite interesting to "battle" some guy and winning by just being diplomatic), etc.

There's, however, something that confused me…

Before the main title could appear on screen, I killed Toriel, apparently. Was that supposed to happen? Did I fucked up big time? Was there a way to avoid that? Should I restart? Should I stop asking these questions and keep playing until that confusion of mine is resolved?

So the first problem I had was that the frog tells you "you might have to spare someone even if their name isn't yellow". So I tried doing that and, being a veteran gamer of older RPGs, when a textbox says "…" twice, that's generally a roadblock. But it's not. You have to keep pushing the spare button and endure all their attacks before they run out of things to say. Same with Toriel. Keep pushing the spare button. You can restart and undo her killing, virtually no changes.

Last edited Jan 12, 2016 at 01:20PM EST

What I'd say is this:
Just go with it right now, do what's natural, it'll probably be more impactful that way.
There IS a special ending for killing nobody and some other stuff, but I'd say try that out after this.
Just do whatever now, and if you want to see the special ending, look up the stuff you couldn't figure out the first time when you go for it.
Of course there's nothing stopping you from looking stuff up, restarting and so on now, it's your choice. Just most say it's better to not be spoiled.

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