I Am Finally Filled With Determination · 8:58pm Jun 25th, 2021
Howdy, folks! First and foremost, as always, Adorable Applejack:
Now then, fair warning that this blog will contain spoilers for the game Undertale. Yes, I am aware that the game came out 6 years ago. Yes, I am aware that it has been the Internet's favorite game since then. Now shut up and click through.
This is gonna be one of those long and rambling blogs, so I'll throw in some art to keep it lively. Also because this game has so much adorable art.
You know, I actually bought Undertale like three years ago. It was one of the first games I downloaded onto my new gaming PC, but I just... didn't play it. And I have no idea why. It just got added to that shockingly long list of things I haven't watched/played despite practically everyone who knows me telling me, "You will love this." Like, I still haven't watched that Amazon show The Expanse which is apparently amazing, and I have yet to read Earth Ponies are Overpowered or Contraptionology, despite them both being about my favorite pony and being among the best of the fandom it seems. Why is this? Eh... iunno. it's complicated, let's leave it at that. TL:DR, I never played it.
Then a few days ago, I was in a Discord server (don't ask what kind) and someone shared some fanart of Asgore (don't ask what kind) and it got me thinking. From the very beginning I knew about Toriel through pics I've seen (don't ask what kind), but it wasn't until like two or three years ago that I learned that Asgore was even a thing. SO I commented, "Goat Dad needs more love. Mind you, I haven't played the game, so I don't know how much he is actually in it." Right after I did, I though to myself, "Wait... I don't even technically know how much Toriel is in the game, do I?" That random-ass thought spurred me to finally give it a go!
Now, despite all the years, despite all the memes, the remixes, the blogs, and everything else, two days ago I went into the game pretty much blind. Like, I knew character names, it had three endings and one was called Genocide, Megalovania, and there was some weird flower. That's pretty much it. What's weird is that I never really made a concerted effort to avoid spoilers. In the early years I would ask people not to tell me, but over the years I just sort of tuned out when it came up. The most active thing I did was not watch speed runs. So, for example, I had no idea that the game "ended" with me fighting H.P. Lovecraft's SnapChat filter while the game went all Doki Doki Literature Club on me. Props to the internet for being able to keep a secret, I guess.
Right off the bat, I'll say that yes, I loved the game. Yes, everything everyone said about the game is true. It's charming, tragic, fun, uplifting, depressing, cute, terrifying, yadda-yadda-yadda. I'm not gonna spend too much time on that stuff, because anything I would say in praise of this game has been said ad nauseum. I just sort of want to point out a few things that stood out to me, or odd/enraging things that happened while playing it.
Y'all know I often put myself down, calling myself an idiot and whatnot. Well, the truth is that I'm not an idiot, per se. I'm just... kind of thick and not in the Toriel kind of way. Like, the bleedingly obvious answer could be staring me in the face, and it'll take a while for me to get it because I honestly have a hard time thinking outside the box sometimes. For example, I actually killed Goat Mom my first run, simply because up till then I had been told that the *spare button only worked when their name was yellow. SO when talking stopped doing anything, I just attacked. And yes, I know that her screaming at me "Can you show MERCY" every turn should have been a clue, but again...
Speaking of her, as I was plying the game, I came to a realization partway through: Through a certain lens, Goat Mom was kind of the Lady Dimestricu of the game. She's only really in the first bit, but she's the one thing that even people who haven't played the game know about thanks to general internet horniness. Now yes, this ended up not being true, but it was just something that struck me.
As I was playing, I knew I wanted the "good ending," so I spared most of what came my way. I killed a few thing because I needed the health, because my twitch muscles ain't what they used to be. SO when I finally got to Undyne and she started telling me how I'm, a murdered and a monster, my legit reaction was, "What? but I only killed a few things!" And once more, despite her constantly telling me I can't escape when I'm green, I never tired to flee when I was red because you know why. Hell, I was all the way through Hottown and to the Core before I finally recalled, "Hey, wait. I know the bad ending is called Genocide, but wasn't the good one... oh, oh right, True Pacifist." So, instead of moving on and just doing it again later, I restarted from the beginning, because if I'm gonna play to the end, I want the ending I wanna see.
I said earlier how I was totally in the dark as to how the story unfolded, and that's true. However, I found it funny that there were a few tiny things that I figured out from fan art. Like, when Mettaton quizzed me on who Alphys has a crush on, I remembered all the pics I've seen of her and Undyne (don't ask what kind), so I guess her. Also, as I was playing this first playthrough, I found my self adoring Alphys, but also finding her kind of grating. Like, she was a bit too "Fan Fiction Fluttershy," where some authors think it's illegal for Fluttershy to have a line of dialogue with less than 15 hyphens and eight ellipsis. Like damn, girl. Grow a backbone. (Just wait for it...)
SO I went through the game and eventually made it to Goat Dad. I genuinely loved his character. Yeah, he did terrible things, but he initially did them out of grief and rage. He only kept doing them due to a malaise born of despair. However, he kinda got the shaft at the true end when Goat Mom told him how he could have easily achieved his goals peacefully, and he just goes, "Oh... sorry." #ForgiveGoatDad After many tries, at least a half-dozen, I finally got him down to sliver of health and spared him... and the The Thing That Should Not Be showed up.
And this is the point where I rage quit, because the game pulled that bullshit. "Hey, congrats on beating the final boss! Wow, you... oh, oh wait, you... you mean you didn't talk to those two characters we never explicitly told you to talk to? One of whom we never told you how to find? Eeeeessssshhh, mmmm, guess ya better go do that before we show you the ending, huh?" Before you start, yes, after like twenty minutes I realized that a lot of games do that. Hell, at least this game restarted you right before the final boss! In Dark Souls 3, if I beat the Soul of Cinder and missed just one of the laundry list of things I need for the Lord of Hollows ending, I have to start form the very beginning. So this morning I went back and did the stuff. Papyrus' bit was more annoying that anything, but Undyne's was a lot of fun.
Now, as I was playing through the whole game, there was one thing I really wanted to see, but never did, or even heard his name. That thing, of course, was this adorable little shit.
Y'all, I don't know what it is about this boy, honestly. I've spent the last ten years immersed in a fandom based on characters who were specifically designed to be as cute as possible, yet no pony has ever triggered my Cuddle Reaction quicker or as thoroughly as this sweater-wearing ball of fluff. SO I kept wondering where the hell he was, especially after I read how he died. I mean, I know he's in the game! I even know he has a God form from fan art I've seen (don't ask what kind). Remember, it wasn't until after beating Goat Dad and my subsequent checklisting that I visited the True Lab, where Alphys redeemed herself, and I was reminded that I had theorized that Asriel was the flower when I heard he died and his dust was scattered in the garden. God, that Lab sequence was just gut-wrenching, wasn't it?
Anywho, I persisted because a friend told me that the True Pacifist ending was worth it and... yeah. Yeah, it was. The final fight with Asriel was emotional in all the best ways. Having to remember what your friends like to bring them back—tell Sans a joke, play hit Undyne, ask Alphys about anime—along with the swelling music made me really feel like a hero, like I was beat down but then found the inner power to fight back and was just brushing off attacks. Asriel's constant screams to stop helping him while you just click *SAVE over and over again. And of course, that final moment of...
It was one of the most emotionally and thematically satisfying endings I've ever experienced. After the ending credits, I walked away happy, smiling, and content... which is why I will not be going back to try for the other endings. You just spent 300+ minutes making me love these characters. I'm not gonna go back and kill them all. That's actually a thing I love about the game. In most games, if you want the "true happy ending," you have to do a lot more work, talking an dsaving people. But in Undertale, it's actually easier than the bad ending. A lot easier, apparently, as someone told me that to get the Genocide ending, you have to not only kill everyone you fight, but you actually have to scour every area and kill everything until no more encounters spawn. nahfuckdat.
So, yeah. Even after all these years, Undertale lived up to the hype. I'm probably gonna get around to Deltarune before too long despite it being unfinished. Either way, I loved the game. NOw, since I know the story and can fully appreicate it, I'm gonna go look at more lovely fan art!
don't ask what kind
Is this about undertale?
I CALLED IT!
Btw, Frisk, Papyrus, Sans and Toriel are best Characters.
For the record, you literally can't talk to one of them until you beat Bill Cipher's midterm art project. Everyone's got to go through that at least once unless they decide to kill 'em all from the very beginning.
In any case, glad you finally played this, and that you enjoyed it! (And, you know, it's funny you should mention it. I have something planned relating to it... though not the fan art. And I won't ask what kind.
)
Undertale came first by about two years.
Fun fact: the only time he tells you your answer to that question is wrong is if you pick yourself, and even then there's no penalty because he admires your gall.
Near the end of it, the game even calls you out on doing something this dumb, tedious and evil for no apparent reason other than because it allowed you to. The Genocide-exclusive final boss is even explicitly trying to cause a ragequit from his seemingly endless parade of bullshit that breaks most of the rules the game has taught you up until now, because he's just barely meta-aware enough to realize that that's the only way to actually stop you.
I actually did, too, so don't feel bad. I didn't know any better and the clues didn't come to me. So I ended up with a Neutral ending first. THEN I went back and played the True Pacifist route and DAMN was it worth it.
I actually just downloaded Deltarune a week or two ago and have every intent to play it (and started), but I keep getting back on my computer in hopes that some DaD material will finally come to me. And I've been waiting for a neighbor/client to get some work shit to me and he finally did yesterday. AND I'm now house sitting AND dog sitting literally right after that and FUCK it doesn't stop...
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Oh, that is just lovely.
I still haven't played it... at this rate I never will.
Impressive how seductive evil can be, isn't it?
Undyne's fight gave *many* people grief, don't sweat it. I hope you didn't restart fully after the first not-yet pacifist ending, the game lets you re-load and go back and it's cake from there. Glad you enjoyed it, it deserves the fame.
Genocide does give some story that you wouldn't get otherwise, so might be worth a youtube if you're hungry for more. I didn't play Geno myself, either. As with MLP there is a good deal of comics, art and the like to indulge in if you're hungry for more.
Also
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c5481bb8-415a-4b4c-9607-cf7461e83db6/d9v5ux7-eedf1058-6145-4e3f-942c-853206e852d0.png/v1/fill/w_1024,h_792,q_80,strp/toriel_and_celestia_____by_muniversalarts_d9v5ux7-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NzkyIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvYzU0ODFiYjgtNDE1YS00YjRjLTk2MDctY2Y3NDYxZTgzZGI2XC9kOXY1dXg3LWVlZGYxMDU4LTYxNDUtNGUzZi05NDJjLTg1MzIwNmU4NTJkMC5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.mckT0QkysFu3ZpzUovmy20MdFu3wRxHN8xV7HV4mxJc
Oh, and it bears repeating that the absurdity of this sentence out-of-context is the entire point of the game. Like, you're "The Army Guy" and so presumably inured to this kind of thing, but most civilian gamers would think it too because they're not used to caring about collections of pixels.
YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE EXPANSE YET?!
I’m barely through the third paragraph of your blog and I’m already flicking wildly on my iPad to get to… here.
I hyperventilate and try to calm myself by remembering that there are people out there for whom THE BEST GODDAMN EPISODIC SHOW IN THE UNIVERSE is just another media to stream When I find the time !
…(some undetermined span of time later)
I’ll get back to reading your blog now.
I mean, but really?