UnderTale-+Caitlyn

= = =Will you choose MERCY or will you FIGHT?= “Do you wanna have a bad time?” (-Sans) then choose a different game. Undertale is a unique RPG, that truly is all about the choices you make. You plays as Frisk (you get to choose your name and this is the name revealed for the character at the end). Frisk is the fallen human, so named because she fell down a hole in Mnt. Ebbot into the Underground. She travels through a land full of monsters, and with each battle, the players gets a choice, “kill or be killed,” or rather fight or mercy. This is made clear by Toriel or “Goat Mom” as she has been dubbed by fans, as she leads you through the tutorial (Toriel - Tutorial, get it) she tells you that you just have to talk to the monsters, and she’ll show up to shoo them off. It is only when you kill the sweet mother figure (most likely be accident, after you try to spare and talk to her a few times with seemingly no result) that you realize every creature has a permanent death, and it’s up to you to choose.

There are three different versions or “runs” of the game. Neutral, No Mercy (also known as genocide to a lesser extent) and True Pacifist.

A neutral ending is possible two ways, as your first playthrough where no monsters are killed, or any playthrough in which you kill one or more monsters but not all of them. An interesting note, many new players are filled with horror when they accidentally kill Goat Mom, and reset the game from a save before killing her. The game will point this out via the character Flowey (see more below), telling you they know that you killed her and changed it. This is your first hint that your playthroughs are all connected. Characters “remembers” when you kill them. As you go through your game making choices, these affect how the game will end. Characters left alive will talk to you on the cellphone, things you're wearing, what items you used, can all change the flavor text, but most importantly there is a ramification for human/monster relationships in the future.



True Pacifist route is accomplished when you either return to the previous save after finishing the neutral route for the first time (remember your game knows when you’ve reset) as long as you didn’t kill anyone in your route, or by replaying two neutral games back to back, without killing anyone. This leads to the “best” or most positive ending for humans and monsters, and is also known as the “True Ending.” Not only do you have to not kill ANYONE, but you also have to complete friendship tasks, run errands that lead to nothing but extended story, you aren’t rewarded with items for these things, you do it because you love the characters.

The No Mercy Run, also known as the Genocide Route. Here you kill everything. Every monster and snowman you meet, every main and side character. You have to seek and kill monsters in each of the four main game areas until you get the message “but nobody came.” There are limited monsters in each area, this isn’t grinding, it’s murder, and you have to go through 108 deaths and an attempted killing on a armless youth named “Monster Kid.” Sans (see below) attempts to stop the genocide run after meeting the protagonist after they kill Toriel, and so does his brother in the boss fight. If you spare anyone, or don’t kill enough monsters before continuing, this route is aborted for the neutral route. If you go through with it, and soft reset (start a new game but not wiping the other games data from your hardrive (a true reset)), you can never achieve the true pacifist ending.

Upon restarting, Chara, Frisk’s murderous alter ego, will ask if you want to go back to the world you destroyed after you have been sitting on a blank screen for ten minutes. Chara suggests that she could bring back the world in it’s seemly original state in exchange for your soul. Say no, and she shut down the game, and makes you start the process all over, say yes and she’ll bring you back to the main starting screen. Future attempts at the pacifist route are considered soulless and will always have an altered negative ending. Do a second genocide route and Chara will tell you your soul is twisted beyond hers, and wonders why the player recreates the world to destroy it again and again. When you soft reset afterwards, and Chara asks you to sell your soul, if you don’t she will tell you that you made your choices long ago, and will jump scare you.

= Main Characters = ==

Frisk - Main character/protagonist for Pacifist/Neutral runs. Non-descript, she is what you make her. Generally accepted to be a young child

Chara - Antagonist the anti-Frisk.

Flowey - The first character you meet, and prods you to a “kill or be killed” attitude, and tries to kill you as your introduction to the game. He is the antagonist of the mercy runs, and one of two characters able to see your past crimes and actions, for example if you reset after killing Toriel. Is discovered as a science experiment that has been given Asriel’s soul. Sometimes when backtracking you can see him following you.

Toriel - Goat Mom, leads you through your first few interactions, and shows you how to use mercy, and solve puzzles. She is a mother for the protagonist and all monsters, and loves bad jokes/puns.

Sans - speaks in Comic Sans, and fancies himself a comedian, he specializes in bad puns. While many people just don’t take him seriously, he turns out to be one of the toughest characters in the game. While he speaks and judges you on the behalf of all monsters, this lovable character has a special love for Toriel, and his brother Papyrus. On a genocide run he provides the HARDEST battle of the game, and is like 51% of the reason I would never play that route. 49% because I love the characters too much.

Papyrus - Sans brother, and a huge goofball who fancies himself a royal guard, and master spaghetti cook. He’s a real cool dude, who invites you on a date if you spare him, but decides you should probably just be friends. He also really wants you to meet Undyne.

Undyne - Undyne wants to kill you. She has a hatred for humans, and wants to use your soul to open the door to the human world, and conquer them. She eventually befriends you under Papyrus’s assistance. Has a huge crush on Alphys.

Alphys/Metaton - Alphys is a -for lack of a better word- genius nerd. She loves inventing, science experiments, anime, and Undyne. She created the robot Mettaton as a game show host, and human killer.

Asgore - King of monsters, and Toriel’s ex. After he began killing humans as revenge for his son’s death she left him, and tried to protect humans. Kindly King Fluffybuns, doesn’t like killing, and is a kind and generous king, but wants to conquer the human world for what they did to his son.

Asriel - Son of Asgore and Toriel, soul hidden and broken inside Flowey. Kindly little goat, who was friends with the first fallen human, and tried to go to the human world with her, on her request. His was killed there.

= = = How does the game teach? = You are started off with two conflicting tutorials, Goat Mom, and Kill or Be Killed. One teaches you how to dodge attacks by directly attacking you, and the other holds your hands and guides you through puzzles, and then leaves. You wonder on your own through there, and whatever you can’t figure out by yourself, you read on sign posts (like how inventory storage works) or learn from the people you’re fighting (doggo telling you to stay still for blue attacks). Mostly it’s knowledge through exploring, with inconsistent rewards, rewarding exploration determination (determination is the theme of the game), and getting to know the characters better. Even in a genocide route it is impossible to not get to know the characters in some manner, and sometimes you know them better because you killed a different character (i.e. Sans).

= = = What does the game teach? = == Through your emotional connections, you learn a few things. First don’t judge a book by it’s cover. The cute little flower, and his friendliness pellets are going to kill you, but the giant anthropomorphic goat, and skeleton will help you. You have to figure that out quickly, and explore different options. You have to learn how to dodge attacks. Some attacks require you to stay still, others for you to dodge, others you have to go into the attack so it doesn’t hurt you, and others can heal you, and it all depends on the color. You also have to learn that mercy is a choice, it’s just not always easy. Characters like Toriel aren’t going to be spared after talking to her one, or sparing her once. You have to keep working to spare her, and you're rewarded with new dialogue when you are on the right path. Fail to understand that there is always a mercy option, even when it doesn’t seem like it and you could kill your favorite character, and abort the true pacifist route. Explore and stay determined on your journey. Life, even in Undertale, isn’t easy. Stay determined and your efforts will pay off. The last puff of snow you check, only if you check them all has gold in it, there's hidden secrets everywhere, but only if you keep looking for them. Lastly do nice things for no reason. You get fun character moments, and access to different content, like Alphys’s secret lab.

= FTF: For the Fans: =

In a game about Mercy, Undertale fans are pretty cool. There are a wiki site, a wiki page, theories and playthroughs on YouTube (for a playthrough check out GhostCartidge and for all the theorising you could ever need about Undertale and games in general try TheGameTheorists). But just like anything else becareful for what you search for, Sans Bone Attack might not get the google image result you were expecting ;). I personally am part of a safe for work fan page on FB called The Undertale Fandom, where you can see some incredible art.

Undertale is a one of a kind RPG, where the only way to win, is not to gain LV (levels) or LOVE in Undertale (Levels of Violence), or EXP (Execution points). In a game all about Mercy, and haunting consequence for the wrong choice, it’s one of my favorites. Most games give you no true choices, you are the good guy (maybe even the bad guy) and you are fighting for your side, and you get fake choices, where when you choice it just circles you back to where the games wants you. Here you make choices, they last and they count. Maybe it’s because I was a big choose your own adventure book fan, or a big fan of Scooby Doo. But for me heres what is boils down to, you make your choices, “in a land full of “monsters” the only monster is you, at the end of a genocide route.”-MatPat, Game Theory.

= Fun facts? Fun facts: =

-Thanks to MatPat the Pope owns a copy of Undertale -TobyFox game creator also composed for Undertale and Homestuck -He also did an Earthbound ROM hack that may have been this game's inspiration -The names you choose at the beginning of the game matter! -If you try to chose a character name you will get flavor text telling you, you can’t have it. -Choosing Mercy or Murder will tell you you're a little on the nose, but let you name it. -AAAAAA will tell you you are not creative. -You can be named Chara without effect just text, but naming yourself Frisk activates hard mode. -Sans will sell you hot dogs that bark when eaten, or hot cats. If you buy hot dogs with no inventory space he will stack them on your head. Up to thirty. They fall and disappear once you move, and you can begin again. -You can change the color of important text from yellow to pink by taking to a beginning game froggit. -Red text shows up in the genocide run. It is Chara talking to you. The most chill inducing is during a no mercy chara looks into the mirror and instead of Frisk’s “It’s you.” she says “It me, player name” -Fallen Child has no specified gender. And in the fan base it changes between boy or child with no hesitation. Mostly in fan art she is depicted as a girl.