Do You Absolutely, Dapsolutely Want The Answer?
At zarla's encouragement, I've played Undertale! Undertale is a short and interesting retro-style indie RPG that it's probably best to go into unspoiled, but obviously nobody's actually going to buy a game knowing absolutely nothing about it, so here's the post by zarla that first caught my attention. The other thing I'm going to tell you is that I got friendzoned by a skeleton and it was great.
And now I'm going to talk in more spoilery detail about this game! I reached the neutral ending without actually killing anything, then reloaded and did the sidequests required to get the true pacifist ending. I haven't done a kill-everything run (and I'm not planning to), but I do talk about it under the cut.
Flowey crashing the game scared me to death. His in-game actions were unsettling enough (and his final form was terrifying, just in how utterly it refused to fit in with the game's visual style), but I suppose this in particular freaked me out because it was something he was doing to me as the player, rather than to the main character. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO CLOSE ME OUT OF THE APPLICATION. Undertale is a game that's generally very aware of the player's presence behind the main character's actions, but this was the point where I really felt it had lashed out and attacked me rather than the pixellated kid on the screen.
Horror aside, though, Undertale has a lot of charm. All the characters are so endearing! (Er, apart from Flowey.) I didn't realise quite how fond of everyone I was until I reached the True Pacifist ending and there they all were, waiting by the barrier, bickering with each other and being cute. (Toriel's text messages as you take your last walk around the Underground are possibly my favourite part of the game, particularly when she and Sans start fighting over the phone.)
I'm never going to do a kill-everything run (which is distinct from a run in which you just kill everything you happen to encounter; you actually have to go out of your way to kill everything in the game). I don't think I'd even be able to watch someone doing a kill-everything run. Just the knowledge that the option exists sort of gives me the creeps. But I was curious enough to watch the Sans fight that only takes place on a kill-everything run (nothing happens from 10.00 to 13.30, so you can skip that, OR, EVEN BETTER, STOP WATCHING), as I'd heard it was absolutely hellish (it looks it!), and I'm glad I did; it gives some fascinating insight into Sans. His 'just give up. i did' line when I was trying to save him in the true pacifist ending really caught my attention, so it's good(/emotionally devastating) to understand it now. IT'S OKAY, SANS, I GOT A GOOD ENDING AND I PROMISE I WON'T RESTART.
A more positive note about Sans: I bought a hot dog from his stall at the Hotlands, filling up the last slot in my inventory, and then I thought 'hey, I wonder what he says if I try to buy a hot dog when my inventory is full?' So, naturally, I tried it.
His response was 'looks like you don't have enough room in your inventory. i'll just put it on your head instead.'
And he did.
If I kept trying to talk to him, he just kept stacking hot dogs on my head.
SANS.
If you're intrigued, the site is here and there's a free demo, which I played before deciding to buy the entire game. I'd definitely recommend trying the demo rather than buying the game entirely unseen; Undertale has clever ideas and charming characters and great music, and the battle system's like nothing I've seen in an RPG before, but I don't know if it's something everyone would enjoy. And there's something a bit unsettling about it, even on a pacifist route.
And now I'm going to talk in more spoilery detail about this game! I reached the neutral ending without actually killing anything, then reloaded and did the sidequests required to get the true pacifist ending. I haven't done a kill-everything run (and I'm not planning to), but I do talk about it under the cut.
Flowey crashing the game scared me to death. His in-game actions were unsettling enough (and his final form was terrifying, just in how utterly it refused to fit in with the game's visual style), but I suppose this in particular freaked me out because it was something he was doing to me as the player, rather than to the main character. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO CLOSE ME OUT OF THE APPLICATION. Undertale is a game that's generally very aware of the player's presence behind the main character's actions, but this was the point where I really felt it had lashed out and attacked me rather than the pixellated kid on the screen.
Horror aside, though, Undertale has a lot of charm. All the characters are so endearing! (Er, apart from Flowey.) I didn't realise quite how fond of everyone I was until I reached the True Pacifist ending and there they all were, waiting by the barrier, bickering with each other and being cute. (Toriel's text messages as you take your last walk around the Underground are possibly my favourite part of the game, particularly when she and Sans start fighting over the phone.)
I'm never going to do a kill-everything run (which is distinct from a run in which you just kill everything you happen to encounter; you actually have to go out of your way to kill everything in the game). I don't think I'd even be able to watch someone doing a kill-everything run. Just the knowledge that the option exists sort of gives me the creeps. But I was curious enough to watch the Sans fight that only takes place on a kill-everything run (nothing happens from 10.00 to 13.30, so you can skip that, OR, EVEN BETTER, STOP WATCHING), as I'd heard it was absolutely hellish (it looks it!), and I'm glad I did; it gives some fascinating insight into Sans. His 'just give up. i did' line when I was trying to save him in the true pacifist ending really caught my attention, so it's good(/emotionally devastating) to understand it now. IT'S OKAY, SANS, I GOT A GOOD ENDING AND I PROMISE I WON'T RESTART.
A more positive note about Sans: I bought a hot dog from his stall at the Hotlands, filling up the last slot in my inventory, and then I thought 'hey, I wonder what he says if I try to buy a hot dog when my inventory is full?' So, naturally, I tried it.
His response was 'looks like you don't have enough room in your inventory. i'll just put it on your head instead.'
And he did.
If I kept trying to talk to him, he just kept stacking hot dogs on my head.
SANS.
If you're intrigued, the site is here and there's a free demo, which I played before deciding to buy the entire game. I'd definitely recommend trying the demo rather than buying the game entirely unseen; Undertale has clever ideas and charming characters and great music, and the battle system's like nothing I've seen in an RPG before, but I don't know if it's something everyone would enjoy. And there's something a bit unsettling about it, even on a pacifist route.