(Note: Contains spoilers for all routes of the game, you have been warned)
Undertale is a game released in 2015, advertising itself as a game "where no one has to die" and "a game where your choices matter". It's become incredibly popular on the internet ever since its release, and people have praised it as being one of the best examples of morality related decision making and punishment in gaming. But what does the game actually do to enforce this?
One of the game's main selling points, the ability to avoid having to kill anyone you fight, is achieved through solving "puzzles" in combat by placating enemies either through fulfilling some desire of theirs or pacifying them through specific actions. Once this is accomplished, you can spare enemies, which still counts as a victory and rewards you for completing the battle. In fact, doing this is the only way to receive the game's best ending, titled by fans as the "Pacifist Ending". Killing even a single monster (or otherwise failing to fulfill certain other conditions) will lock your playthrough to the "Neutral Ending".
However, despite this claim by the game that no one has to die, this actually is not true at all. On a first playthrough, you are required to defeat in combat one of the final bosses, Asgore, afterwards being given an ultimately meaningless choice of whether or not to kill or spare him (which is repeated again for the "Neutral Route"'s true final boss, Photoshop Flowey) before the aforementioned true final boss kills him regardless of what you chose. This is only the first of several instances where the game's idea of giving "choice" does not actually matter beyond minor dialogue changes, and one of the most important because of it being almost entirely unavoidable on a first playthrough. The game's true ending can only be received by first having to actually defeat a monster in combat, and whether you decide to kill him or not, he dies regardless as a consequence of your actions.
What follows after this first playthrough ending is the game's "Neutral Ending", an ending monologue which contains minor variances depending on your actions during the game, existing to either praise or outright criticize the player depending on who they killed during the course of the game (or if they didn't kill anybody that the game didn't force them to). These is touted as "true" alternate endings, however, as previously mentioned, the changes made to the ending are mostly insignificant and minor, along with most endings serving to call out the player for some perceived in-universe mistake depending on who was killed, as an attempt at guilt tripping them. The neutral endings are all purposefully designed to be unsatisfying to entice the player into searching for a better ending, that being the Pacifist Ending, which you're given advice on how to achieve depending on what conditions to access it weren't achieved during your playthrough. While it may seem that the game also encourages resetting your save file and playing again from the beginning to "try to make better choices", this can also be entirely circumvented after the final boss by just reloading your save file and backtracking if you've already fulfilled every other condition to reach the true ending, where you'll be railroaded towards the last necessary task that needs to be done.
When it comes to the pacifist ending, despite the game's narrative that the player's choices actually matter, there's only one specific unbreakable set of decisions that can be made to reach this ending. Failing to achieve even a single objective that the game wants you to do permanently locks you out of being able to access the game's true ending without having to start over entirely, a consequence that's also true of the game's third ending path (which will be discussed later on). Once the player reaches the point of where the pacifist ending route begins, all semblances of "choice" that the player once had are completely eliminated, with even the option of being able to fight enemies being essentially entirely disabled (all enemies will automatically avoid all attacks, which makes the FIGHT command entirely useless for this section of the game despite still being an "option"). There's nothing more that can be done besides what the game railroads you towards, and the game even specifically locks you out of going anywhere but towards the final boss and ending after a certain point. The final boss doesn't even let you actually lose, which turns what's meant to be an emotional moment into something potentially incredibly aggravating if it keeps getting interrupted by the fake game over screen you're likely to see many times if you aren't too good at dodging enemy attacks.
After defeating the final boss and seeing the ending where everyone lives happily ever after, what comes next? Undertale decides to answer this question if the game is opened again after reaching the true ending, giving you a simple message from Flowey. The player has already been completely separated from the game's protagonist, Frisk, at this point, and made out to be a separate entity controlling the fates of everyone in the game, which is acknowledged by Flowey as the only remaining threat to everyone's happiness by having the ability to reset the game and set everything back to the way it was before. So, Flowey gives only one request to the player: "Just let them go. Let Frisk be happy. Let Frisk live their life." The game actively discourages ever playing or even opening the save file ever again, as a way to avoid "ruining" the perfect ending that was made for everyone. The save file screen even shows that there's nothing left anymore, only showing an empty space where the game's characters used to be, and the formerly upbeat music being replaced with the sound of the wind blowing, to showcase that everyone's left their old lives behind, as an act of discouraging the player from resetting the game. In pushing the player towards this ending from the very beginning, and all subsequent playthroughs trying to lead the player down this path, and openly discouraging the game from ever being played again afterwards, the game's illusion of "choice" is shattered. Everything had only been working up towards this singular moment, and no matter how much the player tries to oppose it, the game continues to encourage it at every turn.
This even includes playthroughs done of the game's third ending, the "Genocide Route", where the game actively tries to talk you down from going forward with it on numerous occasions and failure is extremely simple, which just sets the game back onto the neutral path as if nothing ever happened, completely forgetting everything that had happened prior. These attempts to appeal to the player's better nature make up the large majority of the Genocide Route's dialogue, since most major and minor story scenes, character interactions, and puzzles that would exist on a normal playthrough are entirely skipped, with them either not happening or the relevant areas just being blocked off. While the game presents this route as a choice the player is able to take if wanted, the game also spends most of its playtime trying to stop the player at every turn by making it completely monotonous and telling them how bad of a person they are whenever possible. Ironically, however, this route is actually the only one where your choices actually have some form of real consequence. When completing this route, the game is entirely "deleted", with the only way of bringing it back and being able to play the game again (otherwise, you're stuck staring at a black screen) being to sell your soul to the game's main antagonist, an otherwise previously unseen force who is the driving factor behind why everything in the game happened as it did. In doing so, you permanently corrupt all future Pacifist Ending playthroughs, with the ending being altered to showcase the consequences of you selling control of your soul to the game's antagonist to completely demolish the otherwise happy ending at the very end of it all.
While Undertale presents itself as a game of choices, in actuality, there's only one path that the game considers worth taking, and it tries to (subtly or otherwise) push you towards it at all possible opportunities. The game shouts and complains whenever you don't do things the way it wants you to, and criticizes the player for almost all of the negative decisions that can be made, even if they were done out of not knowing what the game wanted you to do, something that's made intentionally obscure at points in order to encourage multiple playthroughs. However, it's difficult to incentivize wanting to play the game and doing things "correctly" the next time when the game complains about you playing it the way it's presented, and not knowing what you would likely only be able to figure out on a second or further playthrough. The game's attitude can be an incredible turnoff for people, and this is likely why the game's "sequel", Deltarune, heavily dials back on the multiple ending/decision making in order to tell a more cohesive and focused story, rather than one that's told in fragments some people may never even see from requiring the player to essentially completely bleed it dry of content in repeat playthroughs.
Undertale is a game released in 2015, advertising itself as a game "where no one has to die" and "a game where your choices matter". It's become incredibly popular on the internet ever since its release, and people have praised it as being one of the best examples of morality related decision making and punishment in gaming. But what does the game actually do to enforce this?
One of the game's main selling points, the ability to avoid having to kill anyone you fight, is achieved through solving "puzzles" in combat by placating enemies either through fulfilling some desire of theirs or pacifying them through specific actions. Once this is accomplished, you can spare enemies, which still counts as a victory and rewards you for completing the battle. In fact, doing this is the only way to receive the game's best ending, titled by fans as the "Pacifist Ending". Killing even a single monster (or otherwise failing to fulfill certain other conditions) will lock your playthrough to the "Neutral Ending".
However, despite this claim by the game that no one has to die, this actually is not true at all. On a first playthrough, you are required to defeat in combat one of the final bosses, Asgore, afterwards being given an ultimately meaningless choice of whether or not to kill or spare him (which is repeated again for the "Neutral Route"'s true final boss, Photoshop Flowey) before the aforementioned true final boss kills him regardless of what you chose. This is only the first of several instances where the game's idea of giving "choice" does not actually matter beyond minor dialogue changes, and one of the most important because of it being almost entirely unavoidable on a first playthrough. The game's true ending can only be received by first having to actually defeat a monster in combat, and whether you decide to kill him or not, he dies regardless as a consequence of your actions.
What follows after this first playthrough ending is the game's "Neutral Ending", an ending monologue which contains minor variances depending on your actions during the game, existing to either praise or outright criticize the player depending on who they killed during the course of the game (or if they didn't kill anybody that the game didn't force them to). These is touted as "true" alternate endings, however, as previously mentioned, the changes made to the ending are mostly insignificant and minor, along with most endings serving to call out the player for some perceived in-universe mistake depending on who was killed, as an attempt at guilt tripping them. The neutral endings are all purposefully designed to be unsatisfying to entice the player into searching for a better ending, that being the Pacifist Ending, which you're given advice on how to achieve depending on what conditions to access it weren't achieved during your playthrough. While it may seem that the game also encourages resetting your save file and playing again from the beginning to "try to make better choices", this can also be entirely circumvented after the final boss by just reloading your save file and backtracking if you've already fulfilled every other condition to reach the true ending, where you'll be railroaded towards the last necessary task that needs to be done.
When it comes to the pacifist ending, despite the game's narrative that the player's choices actually matter, there's only one specific unbreakable set of decisions that can be made to reach this ending. Failing to achieve even a single objective that the game wants you to do permanently locks you out of being able to access the game's true ending without having to start over entirely, a consequence that's also true of the game's third ending path (which will be discussed later on). Once the player reaches the point of where the pacifist ending route begins, all semblances of "choice" that the player once had are completely eliminated, with even the option of being able to fight enemies being essentially entirely disabled (all enemies will automatically avoid all attacks, which makes the FIGHT command entirely useless for this section of the game despite still being an "option"). There's nothing more that can be done besides what the game railroads you towards, and the game even specifically locks you out of going anywhere but towards the final boss and ending after a certain point. The final boss doesn't even let you actually lose, which turns what's meant to be an emotional moment into something potentially incredibly aggravating if it keeps getting interrupted by the fake game over screen you're likely to see many times if you aren't too good at dodging enemy attacks.
After defeating the final boss and seeing the ending where everyone lives happily ever after, what comes next? Undertale decides to answer this question if the game is opened again after reaching the true ending, giving you a simple message from Flowey. The player has already been completely separated from the game's protagonist, Frisk, at this point, and made out to be a separate entity controlling the fates of everyone in the game, which is acknowledged by Flowey as the only remaining threat to everyone's happiness by having the ability to reset the game and set everything back to the way it was before. So, Flowey gives only one request to the player: "Just let them go. Let Frisk be happy. Let Frisk live their life." The game actively discourages ever playing or even opening the save file ever again, as a way to avoid "ruining" the perfect ending that was made for everyone. The save file screen even shows that there's nothing left anymore, only showing an empty space where the game's characters used to be, and the formerly upbeat music being replaced with the sound of the wind blowing, to showcase that everyone's left their old lives behind, as an act of discouraging the player from resetting the game. In pushing the player towards this ending from the very beginning, and all subsequent playthroughs trying to lead the player down this path, and openly discouraging the game from ever being played again afterwards, the game's illusion of "choice" is shattered. Everything had only been working up towards this singular moment, and no matter how much the player tries to oppose it, the game continues to encourage it at every turn.
This even includes playthroughs done of the game's third ending, the "Genocide Route", where the game actively tries to talk you down from going forward with it on numerous occasions and failure is extremely simple, which just sets the game back onto the neutral path as if nothing ever happened, completely forgetting everything that had happened prior. These attempts to appeal to the player's better nature make up the large majority of the Genocide Route's dialogue, since most major and minor story scenes, character interactions, and puzzles that would exist on a normal playthrough are entirely skipped, with them either not happening or the relevant areas just being blocked off. While the game presents this route as a choice the player is able to take if wanted, the game also spends most of its playtime trying to stop the player at every turn by making it completely monotonous and telling them how bad of a person they are whenever possible. Ironically, however, this route is actually the only one where your choices actually have some form of real consequence. When completing this route, the game is entirely "deleted", with the only way of bringing it back and being able to play the game again (otherwise, you're stuck staring at a black screen) being to sell your soul to the game's main antagonist, an otherwise previously unseen force who is the driving factor behind why everything in the game happened as it did. In doing so, you permanently corrupt all future Pacifist Ending playthroughs, with the ending being altered to showcase the consequences of you selling control of your soul to the game's antagonist to completely demolish the otherwise happy ending at the very end of it all.
While Undertale presents itself as a game of choices, in actuality, there's only one path that the game considers worth taking, and it tries to (subtly or otherwise) push you towards it at all possible opportunities. The game shouts and complains whenever you don't do things the way it wants you to, and criticizes the player for almost all of the negative decisions that can be made, even if they were done out of not knowing what the game wanted you to do, something that's made intentionally obscure at points in order to encourage multiple playthroughs. However, it's difficult to incentivize wanting to play the game and doing things "correctly" the next time when the game complains about you playing it the way it's presented, and not knowing what you would likely only be able to figure out on a second or further playthrough. The game's attitude can be an incredible turnoff for people, and this is likely why the game's "sequel", Deltarune, heavily dials back on the multiple ending/decision making in order to tell a more cohesive and focused story, rather than one that's told in fragments some people may never even see from requiring the player to essentially completely bleed it dry of content in repeat playthroughs.