Undertake provides adventures for pacifist players

By: Cody Hood

Imagine being dropped into a strange hole, only to end up in the Underworld. You meet a monster, ready to burst into tears upon meeting you, frightened of dying at your hand. Do you kill it, or do you spare its life? This is the question that Undertale forces you to ask yourself and act upon.

Undertale is a very recent RPG (roleplaying game) that has just been released on the Steam platform for PC at a low price of $9.99. It takes very heavy inspiration off of the extremely famous Earthbound, a timeless classic amongst most gamers.

Undertale was originally an idea on Kickstarter, getting funded $50,000 for its creation. Everybody seemed to love the idea of a RPG where nobody had to get hurt, and it definitely exploded in popularity when it was released, selling 9,500 copies within the first five days of its release.

Undertale places you in the role of a child falling into the Underworld, where you meet monsters. They all are just like us; they have insecurities, feelings, hopes and dreams. Some may be hostile, or may just hurt you on accident. You can go through the game and kill everything, or you can decide to find a way to spare every monster you meet. Remember: You can spare everybody, you just have to find a way how.

Undertale also has a unique mechanic of dodging abilities. You aren’t very durable, especially if you aren’t leveling up due to a pacifist run. Instead of taking those hits or dodging them, you take control of a small red heart during the enemy’s turn to fight as you dodge attacks.

An example is during the fight against one of my favorite bosses, Muffet. She sends spiders out to attack you, as well as sending out her titanic spider-muffin that she calls her “pet.” During the fight, you’re restricted to vertical and horizontal movements, which is a very nice change of pace to the free-roaming in the small box to dodge, and it helps bring in the spider theme that she has going.

One of the biggest appeals of the game, though, is the hilarity. It’s quite a funny game. No doubt it could make a player chuckle at least once during the time of playing. You get a cell phone, which ables you to call characters you’ve met, as well as see text messages and read through social media. The creator of Undertale, Toby Fox, really did a great job in reflecting how social media works. Nothing will be said here; the jokes of the Twitter-like social media are something you have to witness yourself.

The soundtrack is also great, using a pixel-type soundboard in order to create the music that it uses. It combines with other instruments at times, making great battle music to fight to. Some are silly, and some can even sound dire at times.

The monsters may fall at the hero’s weapon or be spared by their deep compassion and care for any living being. It’s up to the player to choose the difficult road of love and respect, or the easy, simple edge of a blade. It’s your choice, hero, just remember that violence will always have consequences.