Undertale's true pacifist is the best ending I've ever seen in a game

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Now for genocide mode, and having my heart ripped out of my chest along with my guts.

Is your heart ripped out of your chest yet? Its not that long a game from what I know.

Okay, I'm at Sans, and Jesus butterfucking Christ. This is honest to god the hardest boss I've ever encountered in any video game ever. Perhaps the hardest I'll ever encounter. I just can't for the life of me get the patterns on his psychokinesis attack right. My reflexes always push the arrow keys in the direction Sans waves his hands instead of the opposite. I've spent the last 3 hours of playtime trying to get past this monster to no avail, and it seems I'm not even close to the end. Well, gotta keep that d e t e r m i n a t i o n. The game's already brilliant on so many meta levels, and it's reaching another one where the difficulty is actively putting me off the game.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Now for genocide mode, and having my heart ripped out of my chest along with my guts.

Is your heart ripped out of your chest yet? Its not that long a game from what I know.

Okay, I'm at Sans, and Jesus butterfucking Christ. This is honest to god the hardest boss I've ever encountered in any video game ever. Perhaps the hardest I'll ever encounter. I just can't for the life of me get the patterns on his psychokinesis attack right. My reflexes always push the arrow keys in the direction Sans waves his hands instead of the opposite. I've spent the last 3 hours of playtime trying to get past this monster to no avail, and it seems I'm not even close to the end. Well, gotta keep that d e t e r m i n a t i o n. The game's already brilliant on so many meta levels, and it's reaching another one where the difficulty is actively putting me off the game.

If you haven't beat Sans yet:

Spoiler

Press "Do Not" once you reach the end, trust me the result is much more interesting than choosing "Erase"

 

[Drathnoxis]

Now for genocide mode, and having my heart ripped out of my chest along with my guts.

Is your heart ripped out of your chest yet? Its not that long a game from what I know.

Okay, I'm at Sans, and Jesus butterfucking Christ. This is honest to god the hardest boss I've ever encountered in any video game ever. Perhaps the hardest I'll ever encounter. I just can't for the life of me get the patterns on his psychokinesis attack right. My reflexes always push the arrow keys in the direction Sans waves his hands instead of the opposite. I've spent the last 3 hours of playtime trying to get past this monster to no avail, and it seems I'm not even close to the end. Well, gotta keep that d e t e r m i n a t i o n. The game's already brilliant on so many meta levels, and it's reaching another one where the difficulty is actively putting me off the game.

I think it took me 6 or 7 hours to beat him. On par with The Guy from I Wanna Be The Guy.

I really love the Sans fight, though. It breaks pretty much every rule about battles that the game had established up until that point. I can't think of any way to make a more imposing boss battle that for the boss to blatantly break the games own rules.

 

[Dalisclock]

I played Undertale at the end of last year, it was alright. It was funny, charming and all that. But it was simply alright, I don't get why this game got so much praise heaped upon it.

It had that Earthbound/Mother Quirkyness that some of us would like to see in more games(especially since Earthbound was very much a niche game and a flop here in the states). Beyond that there's just the sheer subversion of JRPG tropes in general and how there was a lot more beyond the first playthrough. I know other games(Such as the Drakengard/Nier series) have also played with this as well but this one did a lot with it. It's not often you see a story where there's a massive amount of difference in sheer tone based on how you play(Pacifist is heartwarming, Genocide is fucking bleak as hell).

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I've fought bosses whose difficulty I would call murderous, like Knight Artorias, Darkeater Midir or Slave Knight Gael. But Sans's difficulty is just full on...

genocidal.

Eh?


Eeeeeeh?

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I've fought bosses whose difficulty I would call murderous, like Knight Artorias, Darkeater Midir or Slave Knight Gael. But Sans's difficulty is just full on...

genocidal.

Eh?


Eeeeeeh?

So did you win against Sans?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I've fought bosses whose difficulty I would call murderous, like Knight Artorias, Darkeater Midir or Slave Knight Gael. But Sans's difficulty is just full on...

genocidal.

Eh?


Eeeeeeh?

So did you win against Sans?

Not even close. I'm focusing more on the Mass Effect trilogy at the moment.

It had that Earthbound/Mother Quirkyness that some of us would like to see in more games(especially since Earthbound was very much a niche game and a flop here in the states). Beyond that there's just the sheer subversion of JRPG tropes in general and how there was a lot more beyond the first playthrough. I know other games(Such as the Drakengard/Nier series) have also played with this as well but this one did a lot with it. It's not often you see a story where there's a massive amount of difference in sheer tone based on how you play(Pacifist is heartwarming, Genocide is fucking bleak as hell).

I don't think it's necessary to confine Undertale to being just a subversion of JRPGs. It subverts RPGs in general on nearly every level. Mechanically, for example

Spoiler

on a genocide run you get shittons of money, but find that there's nothing to spend it on, since everyone is running away from you in terror. Your stats increase, but it becomes nearly instantly clear that the numbers are meaningless, since everything including bosses after the Undyne fight goes down in 3 hits at most, making the victories feel empty and hollow. In every other RPG ever becoming more powerful feels rewarding and satisfying, but Undertale flips it upside down by making you feel like One Punch Man: bored, overpowered and depressed. Then there's the fights themselves, where you'll be one-shotting enemies and feeling like a bully picking on kids half their size. When I killed Vulkin the first time and he emitted that mournful moan my heart just shattered. What other game is there where getting more money and growing more powerful just makes you feel more miserable? [small]Aside from WoW hue hue hue[/small]

Also, in terms of the final bosses, someone pointed this out in a youtube comment section:
- Pacifist run: Asriel. Infinite attack and defense. Essentially no difficulty, it just takes time, and basically no effort on the player's part.
- Neutral run: Flowey. Attack and defense have to be in the thousands. The fight still progresses more through time than effort, but nevertheless requires the player to dodge effectively and pick the health up
- Genocide run: Sans. 1 ATK/DEF. One of the hardest bosses of the century, breaks every rule the game has set up, requires insane reaction time to get right and will still take hours to beat

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I've fought bosses whose difficulty I would call murderous, like Knight Artorias, Darkeater Midir or Slave Knight Gael. But Sans's difficulty is just full on...

genocidal.

Eh?


Eeeeeeh?

So did you win against Sans?

Not even close. I'm focusing more on the Mass Effect trilogy at the moment.

It had that Earthbound/Mother Quirkyness that some of us would like to see in more games(especially since Earthbound was very much a niche game and a flop here in the states). Beyond that there's just the sheer subversion of JRPG tropes in general and how there was a lot more beyond the first playthrough. I know other games(Such as the Drakengard/Nier series) have also played with this as well but this one did a lot with it. It's not often you see a story where there's a massive amount of difference in sheer tone based on how you play(Pacifist is heartwarming, Genocide is fucking bleak as hell).

I don't think it's necessary to confine Undertale to being just a subversion of JRPGs. It subverts RPGs in general on nearly every level. Mechanically, for example

Spoiler

on a genocide run you get shittons of money, but find that there's nothing to spend it on, since everyone is running away from you in terror. Your stats increase, but it becomes nearly instantly clear that the numbers are meaningless, since everything including bosses after the Undyne fight goes down in 3 hits at most, making the victories feel empty and hollow. In every other RPG ever becoming more powerful feels rewarding and satisfying, but Undertale flips it upside down by making you feel like One Punch Man: bored, overpowered and depressed. Then there's the fights themselves, where you'll be one-shotting enemies and feeling like a bully picking on kids half their size. When I killed Vulkin the first time and he emitted that mournful moan my heart just shattered. What other game is there where getting more money and growing more powerful just makes you feel more miserable? [small]Aside from WoW hue hue hue[/small]

Also, in terms of the final bosses, someone pointed this out in a youtube comment section:
- Pacifist run: Asriel. Infinite attack and defense. Essentially no difficulty, it just takes time, and basically no effort on the player's part.
- Neutral run: Flowey. Attack and defense have to be in the thousands. The fight still progresses more through time than effort, but nevertheless requires the player to dodge effectively and pick the health up
- Genocide run: Sans. 1 ATK/DEF. One of the hardest bosses of the century, breaks every rule the game has set up, requires insane reaction time to get right and will still take hours to beat

Sigh, and I am still waiting for the day they release a Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy collection with all 3 games and their major DLCs in one disc, thus making save/progress transfers smoother, despite the whole ending still resulting more or less the same.

 

[RaikuFA]

Undertale is one of those things I wish I could experience for the first time again. The ending was amazing, the final boss and the reveal had me SUPER hyped. Hearing each letter of his name make that ominous sound was chilling. And the music... holy hell. So good. Actually had me teary eyed by the end

I wish I could've experienced it for the first time.

 

[ErrrorWayz]

I played Undertale at the end of last year, it was alright. It was funny, charming and all that. But it was simply alright, I don't get why this game got so much praise heaped upon it.

I keep bouncing off it. It's just taste I think. I've never, ever been affected by a computer game except for Mafia 2 which really upset me.

Undertale is one of those things I wish I could experience for the first time again. The ending was amazing, the final boss and the reveal had me SUPER hyped. Hearing each letter of his name make that ominous sound was chilling. And the music... holy hell. So good. Actually had me teary eyed by the end

I wish I could've experienced it for the first time.

why can't you?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

FUCK! Finally beat Sans and "played" to the end. Must have taken like 6 hours and attempts in the triple digits. This is genuinely the hardest boss I've ever fought. I guess there would be technically harder bosses that have made me quit entirely, like Hades on Chaos difficulty in God of War 3, or Gwyn in Dark Souls on a soul level 1 playthrough. But of those the former feels more cheap than anything, since it's essentially a one-shot fight for the player, and on the SL1 playthrough I was deliberately gimping myself, and the only viable tactic was parrying. But Sans felt entirely dependent on my skill, and as such I never went "fuck this", but continued again and again, not even turning the soundtrack off. I must have spent like 5 hours of my life listening to Megalovania on loop in that fight, and yet it never got boring.

Sadly, I'd gotten spoiled about the ending beforehand, so it wasn't nearly as effective as it should have been. Shouldn't have watched all those LPs of it... though I thought Chara appearing at the end was an easter egg instead of a central part of the ending.

And I picked "do not" at the end. It really is a fitting end to the genocide run, since even Sans says there's nothing for the player at the end. And it's literally nothing.

What a fantastic game.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

What a fantastic game.

Eh....I am gonna be that guy, I am gonna be the cynical spoiled sport and say I find this game extremely overrated. And I don't care about the likes of Totalbiscuit and Jim Sterling discrediting the word, I still think it deserves it, I mean its exactly like I find the Mother/Earthbound games overrated aswell. I just don't think they deserve the obscene amount of praise they get. In terms of its genre I think Paper Mario 2 is still the king.

The reason the boss is hard is more down too cheap and bullshit game mechanics than anything truly related to skill.

But credit is where credit is due, the "TRUE" final boss of this game is pretty awesome and imo the game's true ending, so I hope you are ready for this beast:

Spoiler

 

[Tanis]

I really enjoyed the game, even if the graphics did kind of turn me off from it.

Why is it every damn 'bit game' thinks the 8/16 era looks like shit?
It kind of irks me.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I really enjoyed the game, even if the graphics did kind of turn me off from it.

Why is it every damn 'bit game' thinks the 8/16 era looks like shit?
It kind of irks me.

Oh man you are speaking my language because I have opinionz on the state of sprite based indie games right now and how most of them look like crap compared to the actual older days of gaming,

 

[Dalisclock]

I really enjoyed the game, even if the graphics did kind of turn me off from it.

Why is it every damn 'bit game' thinks the 8/16 era looks like shit?
It kind of irks me.

As someone who both really liked undertale and have a soft spot for the 16 bit graphics era(probably because I grew up during the days of the SNES), Undertales graphics look pretty awful at times and it's one of the few things I'd love to see upgraded if possible at a later date.

Yeah, people tend to forget that games like Chrono Trigger and FF6 actually had some really nice 16 bit graphics and that's what said retro games should be aspiring to on the graphics front.