(Spoiler alert: This review is spoilerriffic in its
revelation of story events. This part contains all the info on MAJOR battles of two paths. Don’t wanna be spoiled? You know what to do. )
Well, there's not much going on here. |
However, as we gather the keys, we meet enemies
encountered throughout our journey, monsters who explain the grand story of
this world. King Asgore used to be married to Toriel, and they had a child
named Asriel (which, for the record, that’s a name I associate still more with
the cat in the Smurfs than with the young goat boy, even if it’s spelled
differently). One day, a human child fell down into the Underground and the
royal family eventually adopted them. Asriel and the child became best buddies.
However, the child got sick and, dying, requested to
see the flowers of their village. Unfortunately, it was impossible to pass
through the barrier without both a monster and a human’s souls. The child died,
and in anguish, Asriel absorbed their soul and took the child’s body, intent on
going through the barrier to give the human child their last request, if
post-mortem. Pass through he did, but a monster (even a kid) walking through a human
village, carrying a dead human child, didn’t fly well with villagers, who
attacked the goat boy, mistakenly believing he had killed the human kid. Not
fighting back, Prince Asriel had no choice but to come back to the Underground,
and passed away due to his injuries shortly afterwards.
Grief-stricken, Asgore devised a rather ill-advised
plan to bring hope to his people: Gather seven human souls to permanently destroy
the barrier and set all the monsters free. Unfortunately, that meant killing
human children, which Toriel disapproved of, and that’s the understatement of
the century. It also meant waiting for seven children to fall into the Underground, which could take decades. In fact, before the events of this game, Asgore has collected six souls already.
I mean, I may have thrown a punch or two, but never killed anybody with my fists. |
After Sans disappears, we move forward and meet King Asgore,
who’s as much a fluffybuns as some monsters built him up to be. Even as we
follow him towards the barrier’s exit, he remains agreeable and pleasant, even
trying to tell us that this will be like going to the dentist. It’s not, he’s
gonna try to kill me! He even gives us a chance to prepare before the fight.
‘Cause when it starts… there will be no turning back.
Feels like no matter how well I do, all I can manage is scratch damage. |
If you get his HP down to 1, he realizes he is going
to lose, and so he explains his behavior. He only wanted to bring hope to his
people, even if it was in the most misguided of ways. You now have the option to
FIGHT him again (to kill him), or Spare him (the button was repaired somehow).
But if you choose to Spare him, a stray bullet shows
up and kills him for you. And out appears Flowey. He calls the human child an
idiot, after which he absorbs the six captured human Souls and…
CRASH
He… he crashed my game! No problem, I can reopen it!
>Play
The game opens, and - wait, that’s not the regular
intro.
…Oh no. Oh no, Flowey broke the game. And there he is…
on a screen? And what is that large… body… Uh oh.
So that’s what it’s like to have six souls within? Flowey,
you look like the sort of monster H.P. Lovecraft would create if he was writing
books in the 21st century. No, stop mocking me! For all the troubles
I went through in the Underground, there is no way I am losing against a
monster like you! Whoa, I have full freedom of movement, but… Flowey keeps
attacking with an arsenal that even the toughest bosses shouldn’t have! Oh no,
I died!
And he… he… HE OVERRIDES THE GAME OVER SCREEN TO MAKE
FUN OF ME.
CRASH
Again? Whoa!
>Play
Another try… And dead again.
CRASH
>Play
Okay, I’m getting the hang of this. …Darn!
CRASH
I… can’t… give up!
>Play
Dodge those bullets. Avoid those vines. Flee these
waves. Okay, I think I’m improving. Wait, what’s that…? Some area on Flowey’s
Eldritch body turned a different color, and now I’m going against white knives
all over the screen? And… the ACT button is among them? Quick, get to it! And…
“You call for help.”
And then… whoa! The knives all turned into green
bandages! The green attacks heal the human child’s soul. But the fight is far
from over - Photoshop Flowey reappears, and off goes yet another round of utterly
insane attacks. Another part of him flashes… and we’re in a new screen with
white attacks again. Moving gloves. And the ACT button is there again… Is that
how it’s defeated? I still can’t harm it! In fact, it’s going stronger and
stronger with attacks- Darn! Died again!
CRASH
>Play
Okay, okay… this time… a different area flashes. And
it’s not knives or gloves, it’s… dancing shoes that appear? And this repeats
three more times after this… And I’ve gotten good enough at avoiding Flowey’s
attacks to get to those phases… but the bastard, now he is constantly saving
and reloading to put our red soul exactly in the path of his attacks! But wait,
what’s that? After the sixth soul section is complete, they join together to
heal us and set Flowey’s defense to 0! We can fight back! Attack, attack,
attack!
Yes, his health is down! I have defeated y- …wait, did
his HP return to full?
Uh oh. He just reloaded the previous save. And then he
starts killing the soul over and over, just to prove he can! And then, after
making the player think they can call for help again, he prepares his last,
inevitable attack…
…cancelled just in time? What? And now, the souls…
they appear and… they’re taking Flowey down! He’s defeated! And back to a
normal flower.
It's not too late to give you the Mercy you need. |
In the end, Flowey doesn’t even understand why we keep
doing this, so he flees. As a result, we can finally cross the barrier…
and thus is the end of the game.
Or is it? After the end credits, we get a call from
Sans who tells us what the situation’s like down in the Underground. Toriel has
taken her place as rightful queen, Papyrus is Captain of the Royal Guard… stuff
like that. However, after the call, we meet Flowey again, who says
that there’s an even better possible ending, and that it can be achieved only
if you go back to befriend everyone you forgot to become buddies with…
Well then, I guess that’ll be in Part 6… for True
Pacifist!
So now we’re in New Home. I’ll be honest, I’m looking
forward to the end of this. Genocide feels like such a chore. This place is all
grey and boring, too. Say whatever you want about Snowdin, the place had
personality. Even if there was literally nobody around. When we enter Asgore’s uncreative little grey home, as it’s too
much like Toriel’s, we’re strangely reacting to some of the items that can be
interacted with. A lot of red text, a lot of odd comments in red text as well.
“My drawing”? “My bed”? I never lived here before, did I? The kid bedroom has
two beds, too…
But I didn't want to. |
Hey, you're the one who started by telling me that we should murder everyone here. |
This child has become a mass murderer. And there is no
stopping them. Even Flowey becomes terrified of them. He flees. The child
enters the great judgment corridor and we meet a familiar face again - the
big-boned Sans. It’s judgment time. We’ve killed his brother, we killed
everyone on our way. He doesn’t take it well. He has no reason to take it well.
And yet, the child (Chara now?) is still stepping forward, in spite of Sans´
warning of a bad time coming if we keep going.
You… you know me?
So we’re going to fight now, is that it? You're the final boss for this path?
And with this, the fight begins. And… WHOA! He
immediately opens with a barrage of various attacks! I’ve been hit already!
>GAME OVER
Already? Dammit! He... he opened with his strongest set of attacks from the get-go!
>Reload
And so the battle is restarted and… he didn’t even finish his opening monologue this
time! Talk about a sneak attack!
>GAME OVER
Fuck! Shit!
>Reload
Starts with almost nothing... Becomes your greatest nightmare. |
Sans is, hands-down, the toughest battle in the entire
game, which is more than enough reason for some to carry through a Genocide
route. The self-awareness, combined with a true test of skill, rapidly changing
tactics from this boss, and some very interesting surprises lead to this being
the most memorable RPG fight some people have seen in their entire lives.
Mind you, Sans only has one HP. However, he dodges
every attack you’re throwing at him. Then he strikes back with three billion
different ways to shoot your HP down to 0, also using a form of poison-like
system called Karma. Literally, your bad karma has come back to bite you in the
ass.
Well, at least the music’s good.
It's the accumulation of gimmicks that makes his pattern so difficult to learn over time. |
>GAME OVER
Dammit!
>Reload
And now he’s throwing in Gaster Blasters, attacks that
throw gigantic blasts of white across the bullet hell screen!
No! I… won’t… do that! It would be a cop-out!
>GAME OVER
Wait, what happened? Oh, I see. I stayed around one
hurtful bone too much. Wow, he even removes our post-hit mercy invincibility!
He is definitely not playing by the rules.
I… I… it’s true, I had completed a True Pacifist long
before writing this review, and I started Genocide just so I could talk about
it, but…
More bones… dammit! More blasters!
>GAME OVER
>Reload
>GAME OVER
>Reload
>GAME OVER
>Reload
>GAME OVER
>Reload
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Tabarnak!
Yes, but… this is different! Well… No, you’re right. I
know what happens past the Sans fight… just let me try a final time, I’m gonna
give my all.
…Deal. I'd shake your hand, but then it has a whoopie cushion or maybe another trap in it.
As the fight against Sans continues, he keeps
dodging every blow from you while throwing more and more erratic and
convention-defying moves. At one point, Sans tries to spare the child - but
it’s a trick to defeat them instantly. He knows you expect it to happen again,
so he won’t put in as much effort if you die there, then come back and reach
that part once more. After that part, he literally skips time every once in a
while, forcing you to adjust in barely one or two seconds to new situations. Then
bones appear over the dialogue boxes and the menu options! This is breaking the
1024th wall! And then… insane bullet patterns, Gaster Blasters,
changing the Soul’s color, changing the direction of gravity at will inside the
bullet hell box AND skipping time! Those last attacks have to be seen to be
believ-
HOLY~ |
Oh no.
>GAME OVER
If Sans breaks the rules... so can the player. |
Cut to a child looking very similar to the
protagonist. This is Chara, who thanks the player and says that they couldn’t
have gotten this far without the player. After all, were it not for the gamer’s
conscious choice to carry through with Genocide, Chara would have not awoken,
ready to erase the entire world of Undertale. Alas, if you try to back down
from this, Chara overrides your decision. Whatever you do, Chara launches an
attack that deals a goggle of damage to the game window itself and crashes it.
Upon reopening the game, a text wonders why you want
to come back to the world you destroyed. And if you do choose to return, you
must give something to the fallen child: Your soul. If not, there’s no
replaying the game. Agreeing, however, creates a special file saved to your
Steam cloud. Undertale will never forget that you carried through with
Genocide. You are never allowed to forget what you’ve done. And if you try to
atone for your sins with a Pacifist, or even a True Pacifist playthrough, and get to the end… your
happy ending is stolen from you, it’s implied a demonic entity (perhaps Chara) will
take over the human child’s body and go slaughter all the major characters once
more. Without your help. You’ll never get an actual happy ending in Undertale
again.
Unless you find and delete the file, but that’s
undermining the entire moral of the story: that actions have consequences.
I don’t, I really, really don't need to see this happen. I don't want to see this happen.
I am not ruining my chance at replaying this game to
give everyone the happy ending they can get. Genocide was such a chore. This…
this didn’t feel like me. The excuse of “playing through to experience it”
feels so bogus now - what would be the point of it, after all? The
game on Steam doesn’t have achievements, there is nothing to be gained from
reaching 100% completion! No reward to seek, no candy at the end of that stick. This is one game in which you really don't need to see everything. Now I’m feeling much better. Hey, how about we start this over and do a proper
Pacifist/True Pacifist again? Thanks, Sans.
See ya on the other side.
>X
>Play
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