Writing about/playing UNDERTALE in the year of our lord 2024, huh? Yep.

The sheer level of continued activity in the Undertale community - still actively creating artwork, animations, video essays, and online discussion - nearly 8 and a half years since its release, is a testament to both the emotional weight of the game, as well as a sign of the sheer influence it had on the gaming industry and the internet as a whole.

So... what is Undertale? What kind of game could have this impact? And why, in the modern internet environment, dominated by short attention spans and short lived memes, are people still thinking about it?

Let’s find out together as I replay through this indie classic, and write my thoughts as I go. But first a little bit of background info.

Undertale is a 2015 kickstarter-funded indie roleplaying game with a convention-subverting metanarrative created almost entirely by two people (Toby Fox on music, writing, programming, and Temmie Chang on overworld pixel art), featuring what are now some of video gaming’s most iconic soundtracks and characters. The sheer influence that Undertale had on certain parts of the internet (and on me) around the year 2016 is difficult to overstate.

Before even opening the game, it’s relevant to note how the game markets itself - as the friendly RPG where nobody has to die. The game’s marketing material and trailer also put a heavy emphasis on encounters with monsters and player choice, making it clear that the player has a decision to either spare the monsters in combat, or slay them as one would in a typical RPG.

Now let’s blow the metaphorical layer of dust off of my digital copy of the game and boot it up. Opening the game, the stage is set with a simple cutscene. (I hope you watch this (and all videos on this page, for that matter) with audio, as that track’s leitmotif will come up again. Toby Fox loves his leitmotifs, and I do too.)

This intro does a few things - for one, it establishes the retro style of the game, setting expectations for how the rest of the game will look and sound. It also establishes a simple background narrative for the game, with the tale of how the humans defeated the monsters long ago.

After the intro, we're met with a simple instructions screen that explains how to control the game, and then with a prompt to "Name the fallen human." I went with the name "Lacuna" for the purpose of this retrospective.

We confirm that our name is, indeed, "Lacuna", and the screen fades to white before dropping us in the game. We're met with a small bed of golden flowers, and an honestly kind of odd player sprite. This small section of the game has no background music.

Walking to the right, we pass through a doorway topped with a distinctive sigil (keep an eye out for it, it'll come up a lot!), and come face to face with a little flower with a smiley face, who introduces himself as Flowey the flower. How cute! His theme begins to play, titled "Your Best Friend."

Flowey recognizes that we're new to the underground, and remarks that we must be confused. He decides to show us how things work down here. He pulls us into a battle, and begins to explain the game's combat mechanics.

He teaches us to move our SOUL around the white box on screen, tells us that it starts out weak, but that it can grow strong if we gain a lot of "LV", which stands for "Love, of course!" He offers to share some love with us.

Uh... Sure, man. Seems legit, I guess. He asks us if we're ready, and fires the "friendliness pellets" into the box containing our soul, urging us to run into them, in order to gather them. Accepting his offer, we run into his pellets, and-

They instantly bring our health from 20 points down to 1. He asks "Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this?" before surrounding our soul in an inescapable ring of bullets.

The circle begins to close in on us, and it seems the end is nigh, until... A small ball of fire appears next to him, knocking our assailant aside. Our rescuer soon shows herself.

The track "Fallen Down" begins to play, and our savior reassures us to not be afraid. She refers to us as "her child" and introduces herself as Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. She tells us that she passes through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down, and that we are the first human to come here in a long time. "Come!" she says "I will guide you through the catacombs." She tells us to follow her to the north.

Okay, so that was quite the intro. We've only just begun, and we've already had our expectations subverted. A character that appeared to be a friendly tutorial NPC of sorts betrayed us, before espousing his view of the world, only for it to be immediately contradicted by a character who's name is literally a pun on the word tutorial.

We follow behind Toriel, walking through another emblem-marked doorway (did you notice that Toriel has the symbol on her robes, too?) and emerge into a much more colorful room. The track "Ruins" begins to play. Toriel moves, leading us towards the far doorway. This room also contains a sort of animated shining light, so we interact with it.

The light serves as a save point, and restores our health.