The Point of Undertale (and why it matters for Deltarune)
1SPOILERS for all endings of Undertale + Deltarune Chapter 1 and 2
I was talking to some friends and was kind of shocked at how many of them either never played Undertale, never saw the whole story, or just plain forgot major story beats due to how long ago it released.
In honor of Deltarune Chapter 3 + 4 coming out, I wanted to touch on some of the most major themes of Undertale so my people who haven't yet played Deltarune would fully understand the cultural context that it (and Undertale!) came out under, from my perspective.
This is my first time publishing any type of fictional media analysis, so I hope you all enjoy! I was very hesitant to provide any commentary on Undertale due to the immense oversaturation of content, but due to the time that passed, I felt it was about time I could post something that would actually be interesting to people.
0:00 Introduction
1:56 Undertale is not just a silly fun RPG
3:27 Undertale is not just about nonviolence
5:34 Goal from a game design perspective
7:14 Previous games about player choice
12:35 How Undertale makes choices matter
17:55 Why it matters for Deltarune
19:05 How Deltarune makes choices not matter
24:03 Why does Deltarune do this?
24:55 Conclusion
Sources for images/videos:
3:22 https://meloshantani.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/toby-foxs-undertale-dev-2-dev-interview-1/
12:55 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3168554885
14:39 (watch to see Flowey's full dialogue!) • Undertale - Genocide Route Flowey Chat (Em...
17:00 • Undertale (Neutral) - Toriel Boss Fight
17:49 • Undertale - Absurdly Secret Flowey "stop i...
18:40 https://www.reddit.com/r/Deltarune/comments/xjk0a3/when_deltarune_first_released_it_was_called/
19:38 https://deltarune.com/help/
19:48 • [Brynn Plays] DELTARUNE Chapter 1 & 2 Long...
24:31 https://bsky.app/profile/vecderg.bsky.social/post/3lrecxc3umc2y
Sources for info:
"Toby Fox wanted to make something very personal and unique" -- couldn't find the source for this (I distinctly remember him saying something like "even if nobody wanted to buy Undertale/Deltarune I would still make it just for me" or "Undertale was me making the game I wanted to play") but many specific mechanics he mentions are related to very specific gripes he had from video games: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/undertale-dev-every-monster-should-feel-like-an-individual/
"Most choices in Telltale games don't really matter" -- https://digitaldevildesigns.com/2018/02/21/the-walking-dead-the-choices-that-matter/
There's also this one, but it seems to have more major spoilers -- https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/20/17881800/walking-dead-telltale-clementine/
Video editing software: Shotcut
Thumbnail software: Paint.NET
VRC Model Base: https://darbi.gumroad.com/l/d_otter
VRC World: https://vrchat.com/home/launch?worldId=wrld_07f13662-8755-49db-bad6-f43f54714a59
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