Undertale Story

Description: Gameplay: Undertale is a role-playing game that uses a top-down perspective.[1] In the game, players control a child and complete objectives in order to progress through the story.[2] Players explore an underground world filled with towns and caves, and are required to solve numerous puzzles on their journey.[2][3] The underground world is the home of monsters, many of whom challenge the player in combat;[3] players decide whether to kill, flee, or befriend them.[2][4] When players encounter enemies in either scripted events or random encounters, they enter a battle mode. During battles, players control a small heart which represents their soul, and must avoid attacks unleashed by the opposing monster in a similar fashion to a bullet hell shooter.[2][3] As the game progresses, new elements are introduced, such as colored obstacles, and boss battles which change the way players control their soul.[5] Players may choose to attack the enemy, which involves timed button presses. Killing enemies will cause the player to earn EXP (in turn increasing their LOVE) and gold.[6] They can use the ACT option to perform various actions, which vary depending on the enemy.[2] If the player uses the right actions to respond to the enemy, or attacks them until they have low HP (but still alive) they can choose to spare them and end the fight without killing them.[7] In order for some boss encounters to be completed peacefully, the player is required to survive until the character they are facing has finished their dialogue. The game features multiple story branches and endings depending on whether players choose to kill or spare their enemies; and as such, it is possible to clear the game without killing a single enemy.[8] Monsters will talk to the player during the battle, and the game will tell the players what the monster's feelings, thoughts, actions are.[9] Enemy attacks change based on how players interact with them: should players choose non-violent options, enemy attacks are easy, whereas they become difficult if players choose violent options.[3][9] The game relies on a number of metafictional elements in both its gameplay and story.[10] When players participate in a boss battle on a second playthrough, the dialogue will be altered depending on actions in previous playthroughs.[11] Pot:Undertale takes place in the Underground, a massive subterranean cave to where monsters, who once lived harmoniously with humans on the surface, have been banished after losing a war with humanity. The Underground is sealed from the surface world by an uneven magic barrier created by humanity's most powerful wizards, the only point of entry being at Mount Ebott.[12] A human child falls into the Underground and encounters Flowey, a sentient flower who teaches them the game's mechanics and encourages them to raise their "LV", or "LOVE", by gaining "EXP" through killing monsters.[a] When Flowey attempts to murder the human to take their soul for himself, the human is rescued by Toriel, a motherly goat-like monster, who teaches the human to solve puzzles and survive conflict in the Underground without killing. She intends to adopt the human, wanting to protect them from Asgore Dreemurr, the king of the Underground. The human eventually leaves Toriel to search for Asgore's castle, which contains the path (blocked by the barrier) leading to the surface world. Along the way, the human encounters several monsters, including: the skeletons Sans and Papyrus, two brothers who act as sentries for the Underground; Undyne, the head of the royal guard; Alphys, the kingdom's royal scientist; and Mettaton, a robotic television host Alphys built. Some of them are fought, with the human having to choose whether to kill them or to show mercy; should the human spare them, they become friends. During their travels, the human learns the details and the cause of the war between humans and monsters, as well as the backstory of Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel. Asriel had befriended a human child named Chara[b] who fell into the Underground and was adopted by Asgore and Toriel. One day, Chara fatally poisoned themself by drinking a tea made from poisonous golden flowers, in a bid to have themself absorbed by Asriel in order to fulfill their plan of freeing the monsters by collecting six additional souls from the surface, which would then be used with Chara's soul to break the barrier. Asriel absorbed Chara's soul, and crossed the barrier, but from there refused to carry out the plan any further, instead deciding to attempt to return Chara's body to their home village. He was killed by humans who thought he killed Chara, as he refused to defend himself out of his pacifistic ideology. With both of his children dead, Asgore declared another war on humanity, and continued Chara's plan, seeking to break the barrier by killing any human who falls into the Underground to collect seven human souls, of which he currently has six. There are three major divergent paths in the game's ending, depending on how the player resolves encounters with monsters: the Neutral run, the Pacifist run, and the Genocide run.[8][14] The default Neutral run occurs if the player has killed some but not all of the monsters, or has not killed any monsters. The Neutral run has over twelve variations depending on which monsters were killed. In general, in the Neutral run ending, the human arrives at Asgore's castle and learns that they also need a monster's soul to cross the barrier, forcing them to fight Asgore. Sans stops the human before their confrontation, revealing that the human's "LOVE" is an acronym for "Level Of ViolencE" and "EXP" for "EXecution Points." Sans judges the human based on the combined resolution of the encounters. The human fights and defeats Asgore. However, Flowey sneaks in, kills Asgore, steals the human souls, and becomes a monstrous abomination called Omega Flowey. By calling out to the six souls for help, the human defeats Flowey, falls unconscious, and awakens on the human side of the barrier; they receive a phone call from Sans, explaining the state of the Underground after the human's departure. The Pacifist run can be obtained only after the player has completed one Neutral run through the game in which he has not murdered any of the monsters and has befriended Papyrus and Undyne.[14][15] The player befriends Alphys and discovers her true laboratory. It is revealed that Asriel was reincarnated as Flowey, created by Alphys as a vessel of determination (the power that allows Frisk and Flowey to save game files in order to resurrect) as well as an intended surprise for Asgore. The player then returns to fight Asgore, but Toriel intervenes and is joined by the other monsters the human has befriended. Flowey ambushes the group, using the souls of all the monsters to take an older Asriel's form to fight the human and initiate an Apocalypse. The human connects with their new friends during the fight, eventually triumphing. Asriel reverts to his child form, destroys the barrier, and expresses his remorse to the others before leaving. The human falls unconscious, and is awoken to see their friends surrounding them, with the knowledge of the human's name – Frisk. The monsters reintegrate with the humans on the surface, while Frisk has the option of accepting Toriel as their adoptive mother or striking out on their own. The Genocide run requires the player to kill all monsters and maximize their LOVE.[11][15][14] As Frisk reaches Asgore's castle, Sans attempts to stop them, but Frisk kills him along with Asgore and Flowey. Chara materializes after Flowey is killed and explains that they were resurrected by the player's LOVE. The player is then asked to join them in the destruction of the universe, which occurs regardless of the player's choice. In order to enable further replays of the game, Frisk must first give their soul to Chara in exchange for restoring the universe. In doing so, the ending of every subsequent Pacifist route is marred by Chara's malevolent presence. Development Undertale was developed by Toby Fox across 2.7 years.[16] Development was financed through a crowdfunding campaign on the website Kickstarter. The campaign was launched on June 25, 2013 with a goal of US$5,000; it ended on July 25, 2013, with US$51,124 raised by 2,398 people (1022.48% of the original goal).[17] Undertale's creation ensued after Fox created a battle system using the game creation system GameMaker: Studio.[18] He wanted to develop a role-playing game that was different from the traditional design, which he often found "boring to play".[19] He set out to develop a game with "interesting characters", and that "utilizes the medium as a storytelling device ... instead of having the story and gameplay abstractions be completely separate".[19] Fox worked on the entire game independently, besides some of the art; he decided to work independently to avoid relying on others.[16] Fox had little experience with game development; he and his three brothers often used RPG Maker 2000 to make role-playing games, though few were ever completed. Fox also worked on a number of EarthBound ROM hacks while in high school.[19] Temmie Chang worked as the main artistic assistant for the game, providing most of the sprites and concept art.[20] Fox has said that the game's art style would likely remain the same if he had access to a larger team of artists. He found that "there's a psychological thread that says audiences become more attached to characters drawn simply rather than in detail", particularly benefiting from the use of visual gags within the art.[21] Game design The defensive segment within the battle system was inspired by the Mario & Luigi series, as well as bullet hell shooters such as the Touhou Project series.[22] When working on the battle system, Fox set out to create a mechanic that he would personally enjoy.[23] He wanted Undertale to have a battle system as equally engaging as Super Mario RPG (1996) and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003). Fox did not want grinding to be necessary at any point in the game, instead leaving it optional to players. He also did not wish to introduce fetch quests, as they involve backtracking, which he dislikes.[16] In terms of the game's difficulty, Fox ensured that it was easy and enjoyable. He asked some friends who are inexperienced with bullet hell shooters to test the game, and found that they were able to complete it. He felt that the game's difficulty is optimal, particularly considering the complications involved in adding another difficulty setting.[24] The game's dialogue system was inspired by Shin Megami Tensei (1992),[22] particularly the gameplay mechanic whereby players can talk to monsters to avoid conflict. Fox intended to expand upon this mechanic, as failing to negotiate resulted in a requirement to fight. "I want to create a system that satisfied my urge for talking to monsters," he said.[3] When he began developing this mechanic, the concept of completing the game without killing any enemies "just evolved naturally".[25] However, he never considered removing the option to fight throughout development.[25] When questioned on the difficulty of playing the game without killing, Fox responded that it is "the crux of one of the major themes of this game", asking players to think about it themselves.[25]