Undertale (Part 5)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7

(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. )

As gray as the situation I'm in.

Well, there's not much going on here.

Past the Core, we get to New Home. It’s a pretty boring-looking grey area with buildings in the background. Eventually the human child reaches a house near-identical to Toriel’s, except it’s all grey with a few golden flowers in pots. The way to the basement is locked, but we find the keys easily around the house.

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.

Past the hallways, as the story ends, we walk into the last corridor, seemingly inside the castle. However, an old familiar face awaits there… Napstablook! …Nah, I’m joking, it’s Sans. He is here to pass judgment on what we’ve done. As it turns out, EXP, LV… they’re not what they mean. They stand for “Execution Points” and “Level of Violence”, and if you’ve collected as much as a single point of EXP, it means you’ve killed someone down here. But to be on the Pacifist Route, a player must not have killed even a single enemy. Sans congratulates the child, but says that what’s coming is their greatest challenge.

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.

And Asgore is determined (heh) to kill or be killed. His first move in the battle is to literally smash the Mercy button to bits so that we can’t try that on him. And for this one fight, you have to play opposite of what you’ve done so far in this entire run. You have to kill Asgore. And the kid gloves are off. He will be throwing fast attacks, he will be playing with the blue and orange moves (for which you have to stand still and move, respectively, in order to not get hurt), and his patterns get faster as well. It’s heartbreaking that you must kill him… and yet, there is no other option. I hope you stocked up on healing items. I remember the first time I fought him. I was grossly underprepared, so before my second try I went to buy healing items and looked for the best weapons and armor - but no matter how well-equipped you are, in the end you’re still Level 1…

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 21^st 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

Is it me or everythng about this fight has to be shown using gifs?

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.

Well… I should get rid of him for good, after all he has done. But no. Pacifist means Pacifist, all the way to the end. It’s a code of honor. No matter how much he threatens to kill the human child, and everyone they know and care for… no. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.

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.

And as we visit Asgore’s house, we encounter a familiar face: Flowey, who starts calling the protagonist Chara (before they, too, start calling themselves that), and explaining his backstory. He once awoke in the garden in his current form and was found by Asgore, but couldn’t feel a thing in spite of the king’s reassuring words. Flowey’s compassion was completely gone, and not even his mother could bring it back. Unable to live like this, Flowey wished for his own death to come, but instead he came back to when he woke up in the garden. And so he realized that he was incapable of dying. He just kept coming back. His determination - it was too strong, far too strong!

Hey, you're the one who started by telling me that we
should murder everyone here.

At first, Flowey became friends with everyone. But as he went through endless repeats of this life, and tried literally every single thing he could ever try with every single character, he grew bored of playing nice. So he started killing. Just because he could. (Oh, and by the way, Flowey also makes fun of anyone who watches playthroughs of the Genocide route instead of doing it themselves. This plant’s a dick.) When Frisk fell, Flowey thought it was Chara. Happy to see his old friend again, he tried to initiate contact but that didn’t last. What’s more, he could no longer reload his save file. The fallen child’s determination trumped his. And so he gained hope that, maybe, with Chara’s return (apparently attached to the current protagonist), they could go free. Except… This child isn’t the friend Flowey had.

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.

Shut up already! I have to beat you! Or else I won’t see the end of this to report on it properly!

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.

Okay, I survived the first major blasts. The next attacks aren’t that hard to avoid still: Lots of bones, then he makes your Soul blue and throws in blue attacks (during which you must stand still until they pass the heart). Then he throws in moving platforms.

>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…

He is breaking time itself to break you.

>Reload

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.

HOLY~

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 1024^th 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-

Oh no.

>GAME OVER

If Sans breaks the rules... so can the player.

Okay. At the end of the fight, Sans’ special attack is nothing. As in, he does nothing, which prevents the player from having their turn. After which, the fight is at a standstill until he falls asleep and we literally move the bullet hell box towards the Fight button and click it - but he was faking sleeping and dodges. Still, we can pick Fight again and finish him. He barely leaves the screen to die and turn to dust. Past that point, the first fallen child takes over and, in a cutscene, they display their murderous rage by killing Asgore and, then, Flowey when the latter tries to stop the character.

For the record, Flowey reverts for a time to his Asriel voice. He is, for
the only time in the game, truly vulnerable - and yet the player - or,
rather, the evil spirit controlling them - reduces Flowey to literally
nothing in a matter of seconds, without second thoughts.
THIS IS ASRIEL, MURDERED BY HIS ADOPTIVE SIBLING.

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.

That's 234 nines. So it's actually more than a goggle squared.

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

>Reset