I strongly believe that one should always experience something by
themselves in order to have their own opinion of it. As a reviewer, my task is
to discuss games, but on most occasions I actually recommend the games I am
playing – because most of them are actually good, despite my criticisms and
nitpicks, whether it’s a small aspect of the gameplay I didn’t like or a part of
the story that irked me (think of how Muramasa: The Demon Blade promised strong
female characters only for the main two female characters to turn out not so
strong). On the opposite end, there’s these games that everyone recommends,
that everyone says are amazing. The hype surrounding these games is real, and
it’s enormous. In case the title didn’t clue you in, I’m going to talk about
Undertale.
Recently, in the hopes of expanding my gaming horizons, I opened myself
a Steam account. I sincerely hope I can add Steam games to my list of things to
review in the near future. In fact, with the third year on this blog having just end and a fourth one starting, I believe that this Steam account will open
new gates for me. However, I couldn’t resist the temptation and bought
Undertale.
Now, here’s the issue; I know quite a bit about the
game and its story. I don't know everything, but I knew enough to have some idea of what to expect. I’ll do my best not to spoil much of it here, but constant exposure to
the game and its fans, saying lines from any of the characters, and eventually reading
about it on TVTropes out of curiosity, means that there was little surprise left for
me. And I went into the game, fully aware of that. Many will say that
watching/reading about it, and actually playing it, are completely different
experiences, and I will wholeheartedly agree on that. Thus, in order to bring
up my point, here is what was my first experience with this game.
Spoilers will start now, so reader beware. (Scroll down)
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I killed Toriel.
Accidentally.
Now, understand that, with my knowledge of the game, I was well aware of
the multiple “paths” you can choose. Neutral, if you kill some but keep most alive;
Pacifist if you kill none, which can become True Pacifist if you achieve some
additional things; and No Mercy, which some dub Genocide despite Toby Fox being
against the term. I was also well aware of all the consequences my choices had
in the long run. This is a game where “actions have consequences” is a fully
absorbed moral, and as a result the whole game changes either in minuscule or drastic ways
depending on what you do (including Sans’ final words to the player changing
depending on who you kill and who you don’t). You always have a choice; there
is always a puzzle for you to solve when you don’t want to kill an opponent,
and bosses have the more complex puzzles and often force you to think outside
the box… despite what appears to be a lack of information on how to Spare many
characters. Same goes when you want to spare a character but cannot find how,
or your actions seem so inconsequential that you quickly change your strategy,
deeming your previous one ineffective even if it’s actually the correct one. (As an example of a particularly devilish puzzle, the fight against Undyne where the only viable tactic is to run away as soon as possible until a point in the game is reached.)
That’s what happened to me with Toriel. You can attack as long as you
don’t kill, even if you’re on Pacifist mode the game sort of gives you that
option, but the only true way to win against her is to constantly attempt to
Spare her. Even though the first few times, it seemed to have no effect
whatsoever; and that’s what I did here, because it was my first time playing
and I didn’t yet have the Undertale Pacifist mindset. So as a result, I went
with something I know: Pokémon. To catch a Pokémon more easily, you deplete its
HP without making it faint. I went in, thinking that Undertale had a more
complex version of this, where an opponent was more inclined to listen if
slightly weakened. The game treats this as a demonstration of violence
nonetheless, though it has little to no result in most fights; in Toriel’s
case, it was different.
I kept trying to attack her, get her HP below half; then perhaps she
would accept to stop attacking me. I did realize that, once I was at 1 HP, her
attacks were purposely avoiding my soul, my weak point; but repeatedly using
Spare still didn’t seem to give any results. So I attacked some more. She was
close to half her health… I made an attack that wound up critical every single
time I tried – because I reloaded my save file a LOT before that fight. That
was the point: To show that depleting an enemy’s health won’t have any effect
when you’re trying to spare someone; either that or it makes your situation
worse. I would keep on killing Toriel, accidentally, because the Spare button
didn’t seem to be doing anything. Oh, what a mistake that was. I had to resort
to an online guide to figure out what I was doing wrong.
Long story short, I still didn’t have that habit of trying everything
except attacking in order to spare every opponent – and thus I kept making the
same mistakes.
I’m not pro-killing Toriel. I’m a guy who kills in video
games by force of habit, like just about everyone who touches this game for the
first time. You’d make a case that not all gamers are natural pacifists outside
of games, and I’d believe you. But I am, so the Pacifist route seemed to me
like a given. I knew you could go through every fight without ever killing, so
Toriel was always a mistake. Never a willful decision. I did end up sparing her
successfully and could continue my playthrough, meeting Sans and everyone else.
The whole game rests on the choices you make, and as soon as you hear
about the multiple paths you already have an idea of what you want to do. As
for me, the choice became evident; Neutral/Pacifist, then True Pacifist. No
interest in doing No Mercy. For once that an RPG allows me to not kill anyone,
I was gonna carry through with it. Besides, like I said, I know almost everything
about No Mercy, up to and including the final boss fights. And despite the
insistence of some that I should also experience No Mercy to get the full story…
No, I don’t want to. I know the full story, and many other games already let me
kill everything on my way, with more challenge than Undertale (since apparently
No Mercy becomes a boring venture as you become way too strong against enemies
for them to remain a danger). No Mercy shoves it in the player’s face not only
that killing is wrong, that these horrible actions have even greater
consequences, but also that a quest for strength alone is pointless if you
don’t think about the opponents you defeat. It’s funny how I’m writing this
text to get my mind off my long review of Pokémon White, which explores a
similar theme with Cheren, the rival who’s bent on becoming stronger but never
thinks twice on what to do after he’s acquired that strength.
So I decided, and it’s final, that I don’t feel the
need to explore No Mercy. I couldn’t care less what Flowey thinks of me, that
I’m a chicken who’ll only watch videos of it. This game may be fantastic,
Flowey is still just pieces of data, and I can choose who I want to listen to
in this game; namely, everyone except Flowey. This is one of the rare games
where I don’t want to achieve 100% completion. Not because I can’t; I certainly
could if I were to put the effort into it, like I do for even longer games
where 100% completion takes hundreds of hours of gameplay; but I grew attached
to the characters, and I just can’t see myself killing them.
Willingly, anyway; I’m sure any further Neutral,
Pacifist or True Pacifist playthroughs will see me accidentally killing one
monster or another, but never willingly. Even if I CAN choose to stray off the
No Mercy path in late-game, it’s too painful to watch from the start. I
wouldn’t enjoy it, and I play games to have fun. I like the emotions a game’s
story can bring me, but I don’t like feeling like an asshole as I play.
That’s me, only me. The success of Undertale is that you can choose what
you want to do. Want to have “100%” completion and do Neutral, Pacifist, True
Pacifist, No Mercy and Pacifist again? Go ahead, but be aware of the
consequences. Do what you want. Want to do only Genocide? Have fun killing.
Want to Let’s Play the game? Be wary of everyone who’ll be telling you what to
do.
Don’t listen to them. Seriously though, this is a game that welcomes
this kind of free exploration between the paths, a game to experience the way
you want. And I can’t understand why some Undertale fans just can’t grasp that
concept. Your favorite order of paths to play this game won’t be the same as someone else’s. Everyone’s free to make their own decisions here, so don’t force someone else to play the game the way you played it.
Playing only Pacifist, like I do? You’ll miss on major parts of the
plot. No Mercy? If you carry through to the very end, your next playthroughs
will be tainted forever (even if you uninstall and reinstall the game; there
are ways to undo that but I’m not enough of a computer buff to explain them).
Neutral, over and over again, by sparing some bosses and killing others, almost
at random, to see what Sans’ final words will be? Enjoy that. I made my
decision and I stand by it.
Some Let’s Players showcase the first time they play the game. I’ve heard stories of infighting in the comments section, every viewer having an idea of what the LPer should – nay, MUST do. Christ, that has to be one of the most heated arguments in gaming these days. The interest of Undertale is to discover how it’s played, how every fight has its little special actions you can do, and what these actions lead to. Discovery is what makes this game unique, and nobody has the correct answer on how to play this game to the fullest.
I killed Toriel; if I had been Let’s Playing this, one third of the
people would have told me that I’m a monster, another third would have told me
to continue on my way, and the last third would be made of different opinions
on how to approach Neutral playthroughs. That’s how divided people are. What’s
worse is how everyone is so willing to spoil large parts of the game when,
really, Undertale should be experienced blindly – something that is practically
impossible now as any point of criticism on the game will contain a spoiler.
Long story short, I’m not surprised that there are Let’s Players out there who
outright refuse to showcase themselves playing this game, with how toxic the
discussions can get among the viewers.
Live and let live, I guess that’s what I’m trying to say here. You love
this game? Love it all you want. But accept that some people play the game
differently than you do. I really enjoy my experience with Undertale so far, thouh I do have a few points of criticism about it; but in the end, what irks me is really the fans who can’t realize that there are
other ways to play aside from theirs.
There are other things, of course; controlling a (mostly) mute character
means that everyone’s talking to you, but you hardly if ever talk back to them,
and for a game that promotes a form of socialization with the NPCs, it’s a bit
of an oversight – then again, it would be near-impossible to program, or it
would take a lot of time. I can barely imagine how long it took Toby Fox to
program everything Papyrus says when you call him, since his lines changes on
every single screen where you can contact him. Same goes for the little bits of
text that change when you start a new save file after beating it, from Flowey’s
comments at the beginning to the little things NPCs say to indicate they
recognize you, to Sans’ final words changing.
Also while the battle system is unique (who ever thought of mixing
Bullet Hell and RPGs that way before? And which game has ever had so many
options to defeat an opponent through kindness?), it can get a little grating
at times, especially in how some attacks are extremely hard to avoid, and it’s
sometimes impossible to avoid taking damage. Even
then you’re not always told what you can do – and sometimes remembering which
colors do what on the Bullet Hell box isn’t always a good indication. I would
say the game often takes too long to show a change when you’re trying to spare
a boss and the fight's internal time counts turn per turn how often you've tried the Spare button… but that’s just me. In the end, I still enjoy it. But I have to enjoy
it my way.
That’s all I really had to say about Undertale. I will probably never
review it – everyone already has. I will probably never Let’s Play it – for
everyone who will read this article and take my request to heart, there’s at
least 10 more who don’t follow the advice and pester LPers with how they should
be playing. Besides there are many other games I’d want to LP first. I might
reference it sometimes and grow my fanbase out of it; I think I already made a
few Undertale jokes this year. This Friday I’ll post Part 1 of my review of
Pokémon White, which also discusses heavy subjects based on what we’ve taken
for granted all these years in Pokémon. It’s that little edge of deconstruction
that I love about games today. See you there.
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Added note, post-completing Pacifist and True Pacifist: Completing a
Pacifist route leads to a fight against Asgore that is exactly the opposite of
Toriel’s, when taking into consideration my Pokémon metaphor. To spare Toriel,
I thought I first had to weaken her, the same way I weaken a Pokémon to have
higher chances of capturing it. Because at that moment, the player is yet
unaware of the thousands of curveballs the game will toss at them in regards to
regular RPG actions. Asgore, on the other hand, makes sure there is nothing you
can do to spare him, leaving the only option to be to fight him. I felt so
sorry killing Toriel, after a whole game spent sparing people, I didn’t want to
kill Asgore. However, in normal Pacifist Route, Asgore’s HP has to be depleted
slowly but surely (and it can’t go below 1, something the player never finds
out about until they finally “defeat” him; plus, on the Pacifist route your
stats are extremely low, so your only chances at survival against Asgore are to
equip the weapon and armor you find before you battle him, and to stock up on
healing items). In other words, Asgore is the closest to a normal RPG fight in
the whole game, forcing you to play against him like you would in a normal RPG,
and you, so close to the end of the adventure, after spending the whole game sparing people, not wanting to attack him even though it becomes the only option. Brilliant.
I will say this, as my (possibly) final words on Undertale; I’ve seen
the endings I wanted to see in-game. These characters are too happy the way
they are now. I’m determined to keep it that way. (Or, perhaps, reset and do
Pacifist/True Pacifist again. Enough RPGs out there allow me to kill already.)
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