Sometimes, players have different ideas about what to do with their futures. Why go traipsing about on an adventure, when you can kill some nameless villager and live in his house?
Not many games allow for this kind of misplay, and even fewer are specifically designed for it.
The first time I played Undertale, I thought it would be a great idea to
- Kill Toriel
- Live in her house
I went back and played up to this part in Undertale, and killed Toriel. I then proceeded to go through the motions of ordinary life in the house.
undertale-depression from Ben Scott on Vimeo.
To record the video, I figured I’d just do a few “days” of getting up, going to the fridge, and pretending to live life in the house. In doing so, I noticed some really scary, awful things.
Most things about the house are the same, but having killed Toriel, lots of things take on a new context. Most of the messages are the same, which is almost more impressive.
There’s food, but you’ve lost your appetite.
There are toys, but you don’t feel like playing with them.
This message pretty explicitly notes Toriel’s absence.
The most chilling thing I found is that one message changes. Once you kill Toriel, this message changes to:
I find this to be very innovative. Instead of doing something lazy, instead of having a magical elf appear and say “hey, think about playing the game properly”, Tobyfox instead takes pains to really elucidate the guilt and shame of killing someone who cares for you, and uses that to move the game forward.