Can We Take A Minute to Mention This? (Undertale Edition)

Have you ever done something, then just couldn't stop looking back at that one thing? It gave you some type of high that seems to linger far longer than it's worth? You could even call it...addictive?

I am that person right now.

Recently I played the hit indie game Undertale. An adorable computer game that is a throw back to old role playing games, has lovely music, fun characters, a meta magic system, and a surprisingly deep storyline. I learned about this gem two months ago. Yes, now you know where I disappeared to. I kinda burrowed into my mother's basement and am only just resurfacing to write this. Yeah, I'm a filthy nerd, deal with it.

Anyway, you're probably wondering what that has to do with anything. Well, I just wanna talk about the story. (And fangirl, but you could already tell, huh?) For all intents and purposes, the story of Undertale is about the child Frisk falling into the Underground, a mysterious place under Mt. Ebott, and trying to find their way out. Problem is that the monsters imprisoned there need seven souls to break the barrier that keeps them from leaving. Now guess what number Frisk happens to be, no go ahead and guess...I'll give ya a minute.

It seems like a pretty copy and paste story, but it becomes complicated when they throw in the meta. Holy mother of God does it have some meta. You know that save, load, and reset function video games have? Yeah, the bad guy is completely aware you have it. Heck, he was the one spamming it before Frisk tumbled along.  And if that's not bad enough, if you decide to kill off all the characters, when you load back in because you feel guilty, some will have a feeling of deja vu. Then there is one particular character that will know and comment on how many times you killed them.

The reason Frisk has this magic is because their soul is full of determination. Determination is a trait only humans possess, and monsters cannot sustain it in their bodies due to their weak souls and physical bodies. In fact their weak souls must be combined with a human soul, which is naturally stronger, to become powerful. This little fact is what spurred the war between humans and monsters, and caused them to get sealed under Mt. Ebott.

For what could be considered a kids game, it went through some very heavy material. Suicide, racism, child death, megalomania, genocide, sacrifice, body horror, and otakus. But all of it subtle and with a certain type of whimsy that you could swallow until the bam endings.

It's really a game designed to jerk on your emotions, and it works. It mostly has to do with the cast of quirky characters. All of them are well written, given proper arcs, and were designed in the perfect ways for you to both reject and accept them depending on your personality. Since, as you've probably guessed, this game has a lot to do with player interaction and reaction. And even if there is something about a character that you dislike, you'll probably find something else within them to find endearing if not enjoyable.

Of course this is all a matter of opinion. Some people don't like the game, which I understand, but I do and I run the blog , so there! Actually, I'll be doing a character analysis on Sans the Skeleton, probably the fan favorite of the game. I feel like he's one of the better developed characters in the game, and there's something we could all learn once he's broken down.

Anyway, I hope you guys like this side questish thing. I want to do more in the future, though we'll have to see how passionate(obsessed) I get about something else.

I'm gonna go do laundry now...