I Played ‘Undertale’.

I had heard for a long time that Undertale is one of those games. It’s one of those games that shaped this generation, that really left an indelible impact on the people who play it. And for a long time, I kept it on a pedestal, something where I was trying to “be in the right headspace” to be able to play it.

I don’t think I really needed to do any of that, to be honest. I am glad that I played the game, for sure, but I think it brought into perspective how deeply impactful games can be to someone on a personal level. In gaming, when we decide to separate the mechanical and the intellectual, we end up in a situation where the Game that we’re playing ends up trying to weave its own entertainment when truly, it’s the Narrative that’s trying to do the heavy lifting. If we don’t allow it, it becomes an effort in deliberate undermining.

Undertale’s “Whole Thing” is its commitment to Friendship and the ever-increasing value of Deliberate Acts. As a turn-based RPG, we have been so trained to look for a Fight or Attack command alongside Item and Ability and Flee. This go around, we’re treated to a new option called “Act” which gives us a few options such as Talk and Flirt and Hug (and Unhug?). One of the earliest lessons we learn in this game is to never harm another individual. Our mentor, Toriel (who I initially assumed was a play on the word Tutorial) gives us a very clear thesis on Peace and Acceptance, and ultimately teaches us in a few words to never attack, but to always try to sort out the differences with our opponents. It wasn’t until far later in the game that I learned that this was a “Pacifist Run” option, and that going through the game without Fighting is not the game’s premise, but instead almost works as a “Feature” and a way to “Unlock” a specific ending.

Playing through this game was far simpler than I expected. Having gone through so many turn-based RPGs in my time, I always imagined that this experience was going to be near-endless. I love that in this modern era of game design, we have decoupled The Grind with what makes these games “good”. I remember games like Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest), Final Fantasy (1, 3/6, 7), and Fire Emblem would only be good once you started to level yourself up enough to be able to defeat enemies and make your way through the dungeons and the battles. Modern RPGs have all but removed this element from the games and have made the entertainment the star in lieu of the barrier formed by the power element of the game itself.

Games like Pokemon and Earthbound (another game I intend to take on now that I’ve experienced this one’s themes) have already explored the concept of childhood as a prevalent setting, but somehow, this one’s vagueness and brevity highlight a sense of a day’s worth of play and imagination. This game has a very clear sense of A to B direction, and never gets itself mired in fetch quests or item purchasing or leveling up or items to alter abilities. In this way, I think it betrays the RPG genre, but also somehow augments the way that we would think of a Walking Simulator or a Point-and-Click adventure. We’re kind of wandering through this dream-like world, one where Humans and Monsters are inherently connected and this young Genderless Child is the force of will where they have the ability to alter the course of that relationship.

Nearly every screen that we go through (kind of like the original Legend of Zelda) is a new setting, a new portion of the world, a new pocket where discovery and revelation becomes the major reveal. Aside from a few moments where we have to decipher puzzles, almost every screen holds a very specific and “””important””” part of real estate throughout the game. Considering this game was meant to be ~2 hours long, my 6 hour playthrough granted it triple the amount of attention it initially considered, and in that sense, I think the authorial intent begged this game to exist as a ripe and constantly considered engagement from front to back. I don’t think any of this game wanted to be dead air or just a place that you pass through. Each square and town feels memorable. And I think that plays further into the concept of how you play as a child and each memory and turn becomes rich with intent.

As you play through the storyline, I think we start to realize how important each element of our forgiveness and attention to each other’s desires and intentions becomes more and more clear. While playing through the game, we find the homes of many of the NPCs and get to wander through them, finding not only the ways that they live in some important way, but also the small things they love and the ways in which they decorate their spaces to make themselves happy. It adds a dimension to even the smallest folk, to even the most conspiratorial enemy. I actually really liked that element of the game, that things which we found could mean nothing to us, but in the dialog of the game could mean a lot to each of those individual characters. Books, dressers, plants, picture frames, all of those things came together to form a third or fourth dimension to these previously flat characters. And I think a major lesson to this game is that if we initially acted towards these characters through violence, I think we would either be met with regret or worse nothing at all. This is a sensitive game. This is a game which grants feelings through its actions and due to how few the interactions and instances are between the characters and their spaces, I think each one of them becomes more potent and robust.

I found it interesting that the most evil encounter we had throughout the game was a robot, a being with sentience only granted through its programmer, and the most evil being to be a sentient plant (neither human nor monster). Every other Thing that you speak with, interact with or fight is some form of organic and sentient creature and each of them feel, on some level, only interacting or fighting you in the midst of a broader and wider scope within their life and desire.

This game, while not particularly engaging on a level that I found satisfactory, still maintained a sense of meaning. I think that if played at the right age or in the right state of mind, it can actually be a deeply meaningful game. Going into it, I expected it to be a bit more profound and to have significantly more layers and metaphors. It didn’t. And that’s fine! I think this is a game that is meant as an early expression into how Video Games Can Be Art, and works as a statement for the creator’s core intention.

In spurts, this game was super fun. The combat continued to present a joy from one encounter to the next with its “bullet hell” design. The dialog was mostly funny and light and kept me coming back for more, despite any degree of simplicity. And when I came around in the end, the premise of the game was crystal clear. That’s something that I really appreciated, all-in-all. I think over all of these years hearing about the game, I’m very thankful that I was never heavily handed summations or descriptions of how the game got to people. The more I’ve thought about it since I’ve finished it, the more I’ve been able to appreciate what it can possibly mean to people, especially as I think about why people come to video games in the first place, why people engage with screens at all, and how it can alter the way that people think about the world at large based on the lessons learned within the content.

Cool game overall! Not sure I recommend it, but I definitely “get it”. Shout out to everyone who’s recommended it to me on multiple occasions!