Board 8 > Advokaiser plays Undertale for the first time (Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Intro:

Back in June/July, there was an incredibly hot Steam sale where my brother got me Super Meat Boy, Half-Life 1, Fallout 1 and 2, and Portal, among others, including Undertale, as an advance birthday present. Suffice to say, I was extremely happy.

I haven't really played many RPGs (particularly turn-based ones) in general. I know this game draws inspiration from Earthbound, but since I hadn't played the Mother series, I considered to play the whole series before this game to have a better point of comparison. However, I checked the overall length from the three Mother games and saw that it was going to take a really long time if I wanted to play those games and then Undertale, so I said: You know what, screw it, I'm gonna play Undertale, and if it's a good game it will stand out as one on its own right.

So I started it like a month and a half ago, but I've had sporadic game sessions since then (which I plan to do more often from now on so I don't lose the vibe of it). I have sunk some hours in, but I still want to do a recap here of what I've done before posting where I left off.

Things I know about this game:

Oh boy... Some of you may gonna be mad for some of the things I know already. The thing is, I had only played the demo of Undertale back in 2015 when BGE happened, but I didn't have a Steam account until this year and I wasn't planning on playing it on a near future, so I stumbled into some spoilerific videos without actually knowing it, but I watched them out of curiosity anyway. Some of the things I know include:

-This is arguably the most popular indie game ever, or at least since Super Meat Boy. It started a phenomenon 3 years ago which still has an impact to this day, although the fever has sort of worn of.
-You can spare everyone.
-The game has alternate endings, I believe 4, which include Pacifist and Genocide routes. Not really sure about the others.
-The name of the character you control is canonically Frisk.
-Certain character named Sans is the last boss of the Genocide route, and a song called Megalovania plays in it. I think that's common knowledge already (sort of how Sheik in Ocarina of Time is actually Princess Zelda), but I'll still put it in spoiler tags.
-Something about seven souls, which I didn't remember was a thing until I started playing and have been somehow understanding more about it.
-In the last VGM Contest, there were two (amazing) songs: Battle Against a True Hero, and Hopes and Dreams, none of which have yet appeared in-game yet. Considering I'm currently at the fight with Undyne, I was hoping I could hear BAaTH since the title made sense from what I've seen on my playthrough, and since the YouTube video actually shows her sprite, I was like: Aww... Well, not yet.
-Finally, by watching a video called What happens when you name yourself 'gay'?, I saw that among many other things, after defeating Sans, you get... an unusually lovely sprite. Apparently she goes by the name Chara? Or maybe you change the name to that? I don't know... Time to find out! Yes, I assume I was watching one of the endings, so it's a real shame, but what can you do. At least I don't know the context, so... Yeah, there's that.

That's all for now. I'll try to do a recap of my progress so far tomorrow. This is my first playthrough topic since way back in 2013 where I played Shadow of the Colossus, so I'll make sure to be constant.
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Tag.
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I'm less mad that you saw an ending than that said spoilery video was "What happens if you name yourself 'gay'"
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Tag
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Advokaiser posted...

-The name of the character you control is canonically Frisk.

Do you understand the context of what that means, though?
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tag

The spoilers you know are a shame but aren't dealbreaking. A lot of what makes Undertale special is the execution.
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crazygamer999 posted...

Advokaiser posted...

-The name of the character you control is canonically Frisk.

Do you understand the context of what that means, though?

I don't know if that affects the actual story or not, but as far as gameplay, I have a funny story to tell.
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im so excited

Advokaiser posted...

crazygamer999 posted...

Advokaiser posted...

-The name of the character you control is canonically Frisk.

Do you understand the context of what that means, though?

I don't know if that affects the actual story or not, but as far as gameplay, I have a funny story to tell.

You named yourself Frisk, didn't you?
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Lol
Well then
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kevwaffles posted...

You named yourself Frisk, didn't you?

Accidentally been there, accidentally done that...
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Taaaag
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Ok, so, here's the recap. I'm only mentioning the first part. Tomorrow I'll try to complete it:

I first played the demo 3 years ago, giving "the fallen human" a name that I don't remember. I stumbled upon Flowey, then I was guided by goat momma Toriel. The demo took me around an hour to complete (it stops at the end of the Toriel fight). I remember killing and sparing what I wanted, reaching Toriel and not being able to spare her, so I had to kill her.

...Or so I thought, since I gave my opinion on the demo here on the board (I thought it was an okay experience), and when I mentioned not being able to spare her, someone told me: "Keep trying..." And so I replayed it, taking me around 30 minutes to do it again until I got to Toriel and tried to spare her insistently until I succeeded. Then I got a strange message from Flowey that I didn't understand until I recently watched a video called something like: "What happens if you spare Toriel after killing her?" The message Flowey says is the exact same that he said when I replayed the demo, but now I realized the scary connotation of him saying: "I saw what you did. You killed her, then you regretted it. Veeery clever." Flowey knows things, and that's a little creepy.

Fastforward to now, where I played this whole introductory section again. I didn't know her name was Frisk at first, but then I thought: "Well, I don't identify myself with a little girl, so I won't put my name on it. Frisk it is!" I got a warning saying that this game would give me trouble, but I thought every name would give you this message, so I proceeded anyway. Ohhh boy. I kept dying over and over, something like 5 times on this whole first section alone, and I thought: "I don't remember the game being so difficult. I know I haven't played it a long time but... This is just weird." Then I realized my mistake.

So I went ahead and restarted my file. Since I thought Pacifist was an easy path to start before entering harder battles on other game modes, I thought it was a good way to start. I also named the girl Lily this time since i thought it was a cute name for a merciful girl. Something I found interesting is that the game had certain memory of what you have done on past playthroughs; I noticed this when I saw Flowey saying something like: "What? You want to make me introduce myself as if I hadn't done this before? Anyway..."; and also when Toriel asked me for cinnamon or butterscotch cake, then her "guessing" that I preferred cinnamon.

That's it for now.
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Yeah a good number of people who played the game after the internet disseminated information about it fell into the 'name myself Frisk' trap.

Interesting that you think the main character is a girl - she/he is meant to be gender neutral in a 'whatever gender you want' way but most people (including me) just assume one thing and realize later that it could go either way.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Interesting that you think the main character is a girl - she/he is meant to be gender neutral in a 'whatever gender you want' way but most people (including me) just assume one thing and realize later that it could go either way.

Huh... That's a little weird considering every image I've seen of the main character, including cosplays, show it off as a girl.

Anyway, working on the write up for the rest of the recap.
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Uber tag.

Unfortunate you can't go in 100% blind, but that's practically impossible at this point. Good luck!
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By playing the same introductory section 3 years later (and after correcting my mistake of naming myself "Frisk"), it all felt pretty familiar and I managed to advance fairly quickly, maybe clocking around 45 minutes to Toriel's house IIRC. In "Frisk" mode, I had enough to afford a Spider Donut, and it was pretty necessary as well; but in "Lily" mode, I just had enough gold to buy some Spider...-something-else. Something important is that I tried different things on those two attempts; the first one started with Flowey: I first dodged all of his (her? its?) bullets to see what happened: You know what's going on down here, don't you?. But on my restart, I touched them from the beginning, draining almost all my life and hearing: In this world, it is kill or be killed. I did the same with the training dummy -- at first I just started a conversation, but the second time I did a trick I just had recently learned: you can actually spare it to boredom (lol).

I noticed everything was pretty much equal to the demo, from the candy-spilling, to the enemies, jokes, and attack patterns. I'm also a completionist, so I try to always make sure I've tried every possible option and read every dialogue (that's why I also plan to do every ending as well); I also tend to talk to NPCs at least twice with the same purpose. Even then, each time I have to choose only one option to advance, I choose either: 1._The most "pacifist" or kind one, or 2._The one I feel would flow better with the story (if I'm going to be kind and merciful, I might as well tell everyone the truth as well! So that's what I've done as well).

Upon reaching Toriel's house, I felt pretty relaxed with the music and had some nice memories of 2015. I went to bed but noticed that it didn't spawn a message I got back then, not by turning the lights on or off. Huh... Then I listened to Toriel's story until I could no longer do anything more than ask for the path to the exit of the ruins. When she told me to go back, I went to bed and there it was: Lily! Wake up! You are the future of humans and monsters! (I think that's the same voice you hear on the Game Over screen...)

Then I fought Toriel, trying to deliberately die, but couldn't. So after trying to talk to her and failing, I spared her until the battle was over. And then... Flowey: You managed to spare the life of a single being. Veeery clever. Ugh... Is there anything that could catch Flowey off-guard? Anyway, I went on my way, a light shined progressively, and...

UNDERTALE... By Toby Fox

Nice...

Brand new area. I tried to go back to the ruins, but couldn't (Toriel herself said she didn't want me to ever come back). Okay, so I proceeded and wanted to play a little bit more. I heard some strange noises in the woods until a shadow appeared... It asked me to stretch my hand... And after a funny fart noise, Sans appeared! (Hoho! I never imagined I would meet him so soon! That's interesting). He asked me to hide behind a conveniently-shaped lamp because his brother, called Papyrus, wanted to FREAKING KILL ME. I thought he was a fearsome guy at first but... He sounded kind of all over the place. Plus, that music...

Anyway, I ended my second day of playtime saving on the nearest star.
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Ah, yes
Papyrus, the fearsome hunter of humans.

Beware of his expertly-cooked traps, human!
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Three years later and my love for the skelebros has only grown.
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Bumpin' this up.
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Keeping this bumped for tomorrow.
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Okay, so I just took a quick glance to the part on the snowy mountains in order to remember a little of what I did on that whole section, since I only remember few parts. I read again what Flowey says when you spare Toriel, and my God, I don't remember it ever mentioning something about a regicide (I can only think of the Regi Pokemon, since I've never heard that word before, but I think it has to do with a different kind of genocide).

Anyway, on my third day, I looked at this convenient box that let me put and take out things, but it wasn't necessary as of right now. I went up and saw a fishing cane, reeled it and put it back, then repeated the process but nothing happened. Eh. I returned and went right. I don't actually remember the order of things as of right now, but some of the things I did on the third and fourth days included:

-Fighting a dog, which was technically my first actual death in the game; I just couldn't figure out how to defeat it in a pacific way; its attacks always hit me no matter how much I tried avoiding them; I even tried attacking it in order to scare it a little, but it still didn't work. I was tempted to look at a guide, but didn't. Turns out the clue was when it mentioned something about movement; then I tried not moving, and it worked! A couple of screens later I see Sans mentioning the blue attacks thing.

-Kicking a snowball to deposit it into a hole, which I did a few times to have a better score, but with no luck of a better prize.

-Taking a snowman's head with the promise of taking it to every corner of the world (and I still have it until now).

-Talking to Sans time and time again (how does he teleport that fast? I mean, there's even one screen when he appears twice!). He offered me ice cream or something, although neither my money nor my will to pay him exorbitant amounts of money managed to do anything about it.

-Telling the truth... Kind of. I saved near a frozen spaghetti (in which I molested a mouse for a while, just as in the tutorial section), then I told Papyrus that jumble was harder than crossword (don't even know what jumble is, since English is not my main language, but I wanted to be polite); then I told him that I left the spaghetti untouched, which he appreciated.

-Solving various (sometimes laughably easy) puzzles from Papyrus. On the first one, I only had to swipe snow to find a secret switch. Another one consisted on going on a path without being electrocuted, in which I purposefully electrocuted myself to see what happened, and the result was hilarious. The other puzzle was explained by him, where I did understand but then I selected 'No' to see if he would only repeat it... And he kind of did, but confused himself anyway; I said 'No' again, and he left me unreadable instructions and passed through (dang... I wanted to do that puzzle since it reminded me of those great puzzles from Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, on the future era). Finally, I managed to somehow solve a puzzle that was intended to be shaped after his face, but it was failed; and then slid on the ice for another one (I actually slid many times on the path after, since you get many shapes on your head and I wanted to know if I earned something, but the shapes just repeated and went on).

-Fighting a really cuuute do--oooOOOH, the heck is THIS?! Another boss? It killed me once or twice, but it wasn't particularly difficult. Toby Fox really has a sense of humor, doesn't he?... I found a blocked path inside a tunnel, so I returned and proceeded right.

-Seeing hidden cameras constantly, which I don't have a clue (up to this day) of why are they there, or who had done that.

Finally, I reached a nice and lively town, whose name I don't remember. I saved there by the end of my session.

Something I've been liking up to this point is the extremely peaceful music. I've also enjoyed the lighthearted humor, although I haven't had a particularly strong laugh yet.
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It's actually a good thing that you don't know what regicide means.

Regi- is a prefix pertaining to royalty, after all.
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