I wrote this post on New Year’s Eve and while I don’t usually put spoilers in my posts I’m warning you right now.  Do not read this post if you intend to play the game ‘Undertale’.  What is Undertale?  A roleplaying game that takes about 10-20 hours to complete to its full capacity.  I’ll mention Star Wars a few times in it, but you’re safe with that.  Nothing I say will be any more revealing than the trailers, so your mileage may vary.

Now with the obligatory warning, let me go on with my tale.

Once I left the waterfall, I made my way into a place appropriately called the ‘Hotlands’.  The final levels of a Mario game come to mind—lava usually means a climatic finish is close by.

Like Snowdin and the Waterfall, the first order of business was taking out my allotted number of monsters, by this point I was in the teens and my stats were looking pretty impressive, too bad I hit a drought on weapons and armor—Undyne herself told me her friend Alphys already lead an evacuation to make sure I couldn’t kill any more of her friends.

That bothered me.   I only killed monsters that initiated combat with me, not the other way around.   Sure I wandered around LOOKING for those encounters, but monsters certainly didn’t make an effort to end the fighting themselves.

Why should I have to make the first move, offering the olive branch?

What do I have to gain from it?

Honestly, Undyne’s accusation’s really burned me, worse than the sweltering heat of the Hotlands at least.

After cutting through a lab (I recognized some of the stuff as action figures, but the Protagonist simply noted it as junk.) I worked my way through what looked like an intricate puzzle, again disabled for convenience.  After that, I cleaned up the encounters in one pass.  Determination.

My greatest opposition was a pair of heavily armored fishmen, but neither of them posed much a threat when compared to Undyne.  I killed number one first, setting number two into a blind rage.   It actually made him easier to fight, not harder.

There was a spider woman who tried to trap me in her web.  One swing finished her.

Where’s your Determination?  Undyne had it in spades.

 

Eventually, I came to an abandoned hotel, the only inhabitant was an overworked fast food employee.  I ignored his snarky “Why do I always get the freaks” because he was more than happy to take my money and restock my healing items.  Better than the trash left by one Bratty and one Catty in the alleyway.   After reading their taunting letter, calling me a ‘mega-evil weirdo,’ I took their stuff on spite alone.

 

The employee wasn’t much for small talk, which was fine by me, I wanted to get this over with.   I smelled a tough battle up ahead.

 

The elevator took me to fight a robot who called himself Mettaton.  He put on a good show transforming into a strange looking new version of himself.   But I destroyed him with one clean hit.

 

I liked him, not because of respect, but because he acknowledged my power, identifying I would need it to escape the underground.

 

It led me to an eerily familiar house, it didn’t take me long to recognize it as a mirror of Toriel’s house.  Except there was a locked chain across the stairway to the basement.   Every so often text in blood red showed up.   Notably at the fridge ‘No chocolate.’ The knife rack ‘Where are the knives?’ and the mirror…

 

Along with the keys to the chain, I found a real knife with 99 attack power in a box (score!) and a locket.   I was ready for the final battle as I was ever going to be.

While exploring the house, Flowey (remember that guy?) told me some mildly interesting stuff about his past.  On my walk through a familiar corridor and an overlook of a castle.   It made for a fitting climatic end to my adventure.

Flowey pestered me a few time on the walk, telling me I was doing great, hailing me as someone who gets it.

I hadn’t forgotten his little trick back in the ruins, though.   I ignored him, letting him prattle as he wished until eventually he put the pieces together.  He was just another obstacle in my trip home.

He fled, (how does a flower run anyway?) and I made my way to Asgore’s castle.

When I stepped inside I walked through an orange hallway spotting a familiar figure.

sans.

 

He greeted me with his usual aloof manner.  “Heya.  You’ve been busy huh?  I’ve got a question for ya?  Do you think even the worst person can change?  That everybody can be a good person if they just try?”

 

I had no answer for him.  I also realized then I didn’t really ‘try’.  In fact, my avatar, cloaked in shadow stepped towards him instead.

“Well here’s a better question.   *his eyes grow sunken* Do you wanna have a bad time?   ‘cause if you take another step forward, you’re really not going to like what happens next.”

The taunt worked on me and I found myself pressing right on the controller, my avatar took another bold step forward.

“Sorry old lady, this is why I never make promises.”

The battle starts and I get my first look at San’s battle sprite, just as dopey and disarming as ever.

 

“It’s a beautiful day outside.

 

Birds are Singing.

Flowers are Blooming.

Day’s like this, kids like you…

…should be burning in hell.

 

He then proceeds to do an onslaught that destroys me, utterly.  I survive maybe, MAYBE 3 seconds at best.

 

Right about then, as I stared at that Game Over Screen, I sunk in… Oh, right.  I sort of killed this guy’s brother.