Keep Them Coming: Undertale

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler.

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to get into Undertale or not, as I was first introduced to it by the wave of fanart that one day flooded my Tumblr dashboard. Who’s this kid? Is that a fish-person? Why is that robot flirting with that skeleton? Alright, this is far too weird for me. Not the best first impression. Then, a friend of mine gave me the game for my birthday and I was forced to finally give Undertale a try.

I have now decided that friend is a wonderful person and an amazing judge of games. (Even if she has gifted me Hatoful Boyfriend as well. We’ll see how that goes…)

Such a warm welcome!

Stop and Smell the Floweys

Some time ago, a war raged between humans and monsters that ended in the banishment of all monsters to the underground. Unfortunately, the underground was not sealed off and while wandering one day, your character fell down a hole into the world of monsters. Luckily, their fall was cushioned by a bed of flowers, one of which greets you! Flowey the Flower offers to help and share some of his love with you through “friendship bullets.” How sweet – ow! Ow, this friendship hurts!!!

Luckily, you’re saved by a kind goat woman named Toriel, who guides you into and through a puzzle-filled structure called the Ruins. These ruins are filled with other monsters who you can choose to “FIGHT” or show “MERCY” to, including a strange ghost named Napstablook and a spider-run bake sale. At the end of the Ruins lies Toriel’s house, where she gives you pie and a nice place to sleep. When you ask to go to your real home, however… Welcome to your first boss fight.

TORIEL, because she takes you through the TUTORIAL. Get it? ;D

You’re such a comic, Sans

This game is very quick to show you what kind of game it’s going to be, and this is all thanks to the amazing writing. Every tone the story takes is introduced here in this first area, especially the tongue-in-cheek nature of things. I’ve complained many times before of games that tell you in-dialogue “Press B to ___” because it pulls you hard out of the story, but this game has a brilliant solution to this, shown best in the dialogue, “I heard using ‘F4’ can make you have a ‘full screen.’ But what does ‘F4’ stand for? ‘Four frogs?’ I have only seen a maximum of three frogs in this room.” You never leave the story this way because the character itself is very confused by this fourth-wall it seems to have broken. There’s plenty of jokes to be found in dialogue both in and out of combat, and this only grows the moment you leave the Ruins and run into easily the two most popular characters of the game – a couple of skeletons named Sans and Papyrus.

This game isn’t all comedy and puns, though. As you learn from Flowey, not every monster is friendly and not all fights can be avoided. Sometimes, you have to put the jokes away and be serious, and it might be a good idea to have a box of tissues ready as well. I can guarantee you that before you leave the ruins, there will be a heavy emotional scene. It’s a good representation of the rest of the game; there’s a lot of laughs and funny moments, but it knows when to get serious. And if you think Flowey is creepy in the beginning of the game, you have no idea what you’re getting into.

ACT Wisely

Undertale is a perfect example of a game where all your choices matter. For the most part, there’s three endings, but one of those endings has an uncountable number of variations depending on your choices throughout the game. What makes this even better is that the game doesn’t tell you when or where these choices are, because they are EVERYWHERE, and you never know what will affect what. An item received in the Ruins can end a boss fight later in the game almost immediately – if you haven’t already used it. The game doesn’t say this, either; it was by pure chance that I had the item in my inventory when I went into that boss fight, and I still went through most of the fight because I didn’t think to use it until my health was low.

When you play Undertale, will you follow Toriel’s example and befriend those you meet, or will you listen to Flowey and kill before you can be killed? It’s best to play Undertale based on your first instincts, and I won’t tell you how to play as there is no correct way. Just be careful of the choices you do make as there will always be consequences, and if you go too far…