Why Undertale Rules So Much

I don’t have much to write about right now (which is an admittedly ironic start to a blog).

That’s not a bad thing, it’s not a good thing (unless you're especially sick of my writing), there’s just nothing jumping out to me to write about.

What I'm feeling could be considered a form of writer's block except for the crucial fact that I’m not actually a writer, I’m secretly three kids in a trenchcoat masquerading as one. 

Luckily for me, Google doesn’t know that, so I tottered shakily to my local library (get it? Because of the kids-in-a-trenchcoat gag? Okay fine, whatever, I’ll drop it) and checked out some online blogs on what writers do when faced with a lack of inspiration, so as to nudge loose some form of idea of what to write about.

The prevailing wisdom I found was that when writer's block inevitably strikes, you should find the last thing you remember feeling moved by and write about that, and unfortunately it can’t be the unutterable shame of eating a McRib during daylight.

So, that’s why I want to talk about Undertale, a game I recently completed for a second time whilst, quite honestly, going through quite a dark time in my life, and why I find it so inspiring.

What is Undertale?

It’s a video game. 

In the 2 seconds since I wrote that previous sentence, I have reflected and matured enough to realise it’s an insult to your intelligence to provide an explanation so simple so I’ll explain a bit more about it.

Undertale is a 2D RPG that tells the story of a human child that falls into “The Underground”, a plane of existence where monsters have been forced to reside after losing a war with humans that takes place sometime before the game. 

To get back to the surface (where the humans live), the human child must traverse the Underground, meeting (and battling) a host of monsters along the way.

‘Battling’ in Undertale is a super unique experience as a turn-based combat system (usually something I’m not a fan of) where the player has the options of FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY. 

What makes Undertale unique is its ability to be played completely in a completely pacifist manner if the player chooses, not killing a single monster in your entire runthrough. 

Coincidentally, I also found out the hit game Fallout can be played in a pacifist manner when I was about 11, because I got freaked out by all the irradiated monsters and spent most of my time trading tin cans for bottlecaps in the first settlement I found, but that feels more like a skill issue upon reflection.   

Enough of me regaling you with my youthful cowardice, let’s get back to Undertale.

As part of the ACT actions during battle, you can talk and interact with the monsters, finding out more about them, and on numerous occasions finding out why they’re attacking you (usually out of some form of their own internal mental processes or issues rather than an innate desire to kill, although in the case of the frog enemy ‘Froggit’, one suspects he might just be a dick). 

The MERCY option (which is often ‘unlocked’ via using the ACT action to learn more, or for surviving long enough, or slightly less pacifist, knocking their health bar down enough) allows the battle to end without you killing the attacker. This pacifist approach wildly changes the storyline, which I won’t spoil here, but using these mechanisms Undertale focuses heavily on themes of loss, choice, connection, love, cycles of violence and determination.

All delivered with humour and wit, and with incredibly low res graphics. Speaking of the graphics…

When did Undertale come out?

Looking at the UI for Undertale, it’s easy to think it was a 80s or early 90s game, where graphical fidelity was hampered by the technological issues of the time. 

But it actually came out in 2015, the same year as Fallout 4, The Witcher 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider (which you can see in the below pics, are visually stunning games).

The reason for Undertale’s graphically simple art style is the same reason my blog looks like something a five year old built out of Lego after a sugar crash : Undertale was built by a single person.

Who built Undertale?

Toby Fox is the elusive creator of Undertale, and (with the slight exception of some of the games art) single handedly coded, wrote, composed and built the entire game by himself as a self-taught programmer.

Stunningly, he was learning about arrays (one of the simplest things you learn right at the start of learning any programming language) and decided to make a game using that new found knowledge.

This fact alone is why Toby Fox has the vaulted status of ‘one of my heroes’, which I am sure he would be very happy about if he hadn’t created a game played by millions and earned tens of millions of dollars for it, which is probably something he has greater pride over than the opinion of a basement dweller like myself. 

Every time I learn something new, I think to myself ‘oh it would be cool to use it for X’ and then I invariably give that up to go and eat donuts and write about video games, but Toby Fox didn’t do that. He built one of the most universally adored games off of what for most coders is a throwaway thought.

How long did it take Toby Fox to develop Undertale?

It took Toby Fox 32 months to complete the development of Undertale, starting in December 2012 and releasing on 15 September 2015.

To fit with the DIY ethos of the game’s entire production, Toby Fox actually crowdsourced the money to develop the game, originally seeking $5,000 from his Kickstarter campaign, and ended it with 10x that, $51,124 raised in a single month, due to the compelling pitch and comprehensive demo.

Why do I find Undertale so inspiring?

I adore Undertale. That much should be obvious by the fact that I have warbled on for over 700 words about it. 

Since my recent playthrough, where the games emphasis on determination and forgiveness really struck a chord with me as I finished it in the wee hours of the morning, illuminated by only my television and wearing my duvet over my head like a slightly uglier ET, I have been really reflecting on just why I love it so much.

I’ve narrowed it down to two reasons.

The first is the extremely relatable fact that there’s a lot of evidence that Toby Fox didn’t have much idea what he was doing when building the game.

To illustrate this point, you’ll have to indulge me in proselytising about code.

In coding, there’s something called a switch statement. 

A switch statement is “a selection statement that transfers control to different statements in a switch body based on the value of the switch expression” or if you don’t want to sound like someone noone wants to talk to at a party, a switch statement basically takes a variable, and does different things dependent on that variable. 

An example of JavaScript doing different things dependent on a checkout item with a switch statement would look like the following : 

switch(what_they_just_put_in_trolley){

case ‘An Undertale T shirt’: 

comment(‘Nice! Great choice’);

break;

case ‘A flat peaked cap’:

comment(‘Don’t do that to yourself man’);

break;

case ‘A tie dye shirt’:

comment(‘Definitely don’t do that to yourself man’);

break;

}

As you can probably see, it’s an incredibly manual way to code something dependent on the situation, that you probably shouldn’t use for something that has >10 possibilities of what it could be. 

Undertale has a 1000+ long case switch statement…

Toby Fox is widely acknowledged as a  “terrible” programmer by basically all standards, but he’s a remarkable testament to a man who read a f*cking Wikipedia article on data structures, had an idea most would forget about in the time it takes to make a Hot Pocket and went on to develop one of the most loved and commercially successful games of all time, completely by himself. 

The second reason I love Undertale so much is the message it tells through its gameplay mechanics and witty dialogue.

Put simply, it’s a beautiful metaphor of the way life works. 

Most fantasy RPG’s are essentially wish-fulfilment. You’re usually a jacked guy (or girl, as is more common nowadays) slaying dragons with a deadly combo of a comically large sword and the confidence of a man who chose "chainmail skirt" as his outfit for fighting axe wielding skeletons. 

RPGs usually teach you that via levelling up and working hard, any monster can be vanquished whereas Undertale teaches you that by talking and listening, any monster can be understood. I mean, yes, technically you can still vanquish them, but where’s the art in that. 

Undertale’s message is a really expertly delivered endorsement of the beauty of hope and understanding. I honestly believe that the fact Toby Fox was a one-man-band who was a self-taught coder infuses this game with so much more character and meaning, because it’s creation is a meta-example of it’s core message : you can accomplish anything if you remain true to yourself and ‘stay determined’.

Much as I don’t have much to write about, I’m also at a loss of how to end this blog, so I’m just going to say : play Undertale! You won’t regret it!