My Undertale Playthrough - Part 5: The Core

Hello, and welcome! This is Part 5 of my telling of my Undertale playthrough; the choices I made, the initial thoughts I had, etc. Hope you enjoy it! Without further ado, let’s get to the core.

But first, let me return to this lovely theme I bring up so much. I like how again this whole theme of each area alternating between being silly and serious continues here with the core. After Mettaton and Hotland which were pretty lighthearted, things return to being dramatic as you reach the end of your journey. And I notice too that, just like when this happens after Snowdin, I think the moment it begins is when you speak with Sans again. Sans reminds you that this fun lighthearted journey you’ve been on could have ended at any time if not for Toriel, and not to take things for granted. It definitely hits you hard, and I can’t help but notice how Sans is always the one transitioning things here.

Think about it. When you first leave the ruins and you’re super tense, Sans comes to make things lighthearted. During the climax of the great dramatic fight with Undyne, Sans appears briefly to lighten things up. He’s always there to drop the dramatic bombs to bring us back to reality, and to lighten things up with his silliness. Looking back, I wonder if this was intentional at all, and I really like it. It makes me wonder more and more about what’s up with Sans, and oh…so cool, so cool.

Getting back to the core itself, this was a really cool area. I liked how it was sort of this maze that did a surprisingly good job of confusing you with its three way fork. I remember wondering which way to go, east to the end, north to the warrior’s path, or west to the sage’s path. I remember when I first got here, I thought it meant like, go east for the neutral ending, north for genocide, and west for pacifist, since on genocide you’d be a strong warrior, and on pacifist you’d be like a sage. I thought the way it worked was that, regardless of which path you take, there would only be one path open depending on which route you took. So naturally, I went the pacifist way, and went west. I solved the puzzle, went ahead, and then the more I explored the more I realized there actually were no paths, and that it was just all connected. I explored and eventually did everything before moving on the end, which I thought was kind of interesting. You see, my partner vines got kind of lost and I had to wait a while for him, and while watching my roommate questing play, I noticed that they didn’t even explore the whole area, and knew on instincts to go east and north and such. Interesting the way we play differently.

I remember also loving that the enemies were the same as those of the first area, and it really made it feel like this was the end. Like, I remember waiting at the boss door for a while for vines to catch up, because I thought behind the door was Asgore and the final battle…as I said at the end of my last write up, boy was I wrong.

The next boss would be the first one to give me a lot of trouble. Like this wasn’t just the first boss I died too (though I died a lot to enemies before this), but this boss took me like 3 to 4 deaths or something. I don’t remember, but it was a long tough journey. Very fun though, I really love the boss battles and the way you play them all differently, and I had a lot of fun with this one. The shooting mechanic was used in some really neat ways, and it made the battle quite fun. I remember the one when you dance under a disco ball in particular, and have to shoot so the lines change was incredibly fun and tense.

Hilariously enough, I also remember that I never really paid the ratings counter much attention, and I thought it was there for purely aesthetic affects, so I didn’t care at all about increasing it or not. I think I eventually did just pose every turn though, but it was pretty funny when weeks after finishing the fight and game I was reading about favorite bosses on the reddit, and there I saw a few saying Mettaton cause they loved the ratings mechanic and I was just like “……the w-w-what now!?” :p

After defeating Mettaton, I continued to the elevator, pausing when Alphys gives you that powerful message; in which you must kill Asgore in order to cross the barrier, and if not, you will be killed by him. I remember being really tense after that, and thinking a lot about it. I like how after that message there’s a long stretch of walking, so the player just thinks about what happened, and phew, I thought it was a fitting final dilemma, especially since I was doing a pacifist run. I was reminded of the final dilemma Aang faces in Avatar the Last Airbender, in which he must decide between killing the Fire Lord or not, and I thought that was really awesome, so I was really excited to continue, despite being very tense.

And then came the backstory. Now, I tried not to spoil much of this game, but I did know there was a goat child, but I also had no idea how they fit in or even that they were the king’s son. Hilariously enough, I knew they were Toriel’s, but not the King's, and it never hit me that Toriel was the queen and Asgore was the King, making Asriel the prince, and yeah…I guess I was just really into the moment and cutscene, because god it was beautiful and really powerful, all of the feels were going.

This whole thing was really neat though! I loved that you know there was all this talk of this big monster city, and then you actually got to see there were a lot of monsters there, and that they were ones you’d encountered before. It was really powerful and really helps you to understand why the monsters are so against humans and…..phew it got me hyped. Amazing music too.

And then…came the scene. Oh my god, this is probably the plot twist, and the scene that blew my mind the most. Oh my god, when I saw this hall I was so tense, I was walking so slowly, then the bells, and then Sans in the shadows, I was just…oh my god, I was so into it. When Sans started talking I was so nervous, and then when he said I’d be judged oh my god.

ExP…..execution points…LoVe….Level of Violence…oh my fucking god. My mind exploded so hard, and I just, couldn’t believe it. I was worried this whole time about being low on exp and love and then….good god…good god, I was so shocked and so relieved that I chose to spare everyone, but wow…I can’t look at exp the same way again now. It just…it makes so much sense and like god he’s right, the more you kill the easier it is to distance yourself and hurt others, the stronger you get, and oh my goodness………wow this scene, I was so floored here, I just…couldn’t believe myself. This is probably the scene that I love seeing people’s reactions to the most, cause it can be really mind blowing, and I remember I just stood there for a while, unable to fully take it all in. Incredible, the ultimate twist of video game expectations, and oh man, this really makes you want to go the pacifist route more than ever.

Though on that note…if I may say one thing that kind of sort of bothered me but maybe not cause I like the message that being kind and merciful is hard, and harder than doing the quick violent thing. But the thing is…I feel like, the more you are kind to others, you get stronger in that regard too. In the same way that attacking leads to you getting better at hurting, being able to handle the pain of others and being able to understand them are powers that I think you gain more of as you get more experience in those areas. So I was kind of sad that like…you never leveled up in that way from mercy? Like gained HP because you learn to handle pain better, maybe get more options when acting from a greater degree of understanding? I dunno, again, it would hurt the theme that being merciful is hard if that also makes you stronger but…yeah, I dunno, I would love for a game with something like this, and I love Undertale for giving me these thoughts, and yeah…awesome mechanics, awesome game. <3

Back to the adventure though, after the hall of judgement I made my way to Asgore, and hoo boy…Asgore was something else. The room full of flowers and 2 thrones was beautiful and said it all. I remember when I looked at and inspected the throne behind the sheets, that’s when it finally hit me that Toriel was the queen and Asriel was their son and oh my goodness that made me just ugggggggh.

Asgore too, god, I was so pained and hurt the few times you interact with him. He’s so nice and you can tell he’s a great kind guy and he’s even nice to you and says he’s not ready either and you can just, tell that he doesn’t want to fight as much as you do, but he feels like he must, and oh my god…it was just like the Toriel fight for me where it was a fight I really didn’t want to do and it just made me feel sad inside.

I remember gasping too when Asgore broke the mercy button, oh goodness I was utterly terrified. The things you can say to Asgore during the fight too (which I just learned you can only do on Pacifist) are so powerful and so true of how you’re feeling in that point. The way you’re constantly telling him to stop, he shakes and he doesn’t want to either, and it’s just aaaah, it’s so tragic cause you don’t want to fight but you have to and aaaaaagh, god this fight ripped my emotions apart…this game is sooooo incredible. ;-;

I remember I died like…3 or 4 times here, because I just didn’t want to fight. I learned that eating the Butterscotch Pie I’d saved since Toriel weakens Asgore in the most tragic way, and oh geez. I remember too like, I tried not fighting, then when that didn’t work and I died I wondered if I’d have to fight. But then I noticed that after you die there’s a special line of dialogue for that. And I wondered, maybe if I die like 3 or 5 times he’ll stop fighting, as I was just so determined to not fight him. I also noticed that as the battle goes on his attacks change and get harder to dodge. So I wondered too, even though no dialogue is changing, and I have no reason to believe it, maybe if I just don’t hit him and last a long time, the battle will end. And I tried so hard and was on this battle for so long because I didn’t want to fight, but arrrrrrrrgh! This fight man, the way that the one boss you cannot show mercy towards comes right after the scene in which you greatly emphasize with the monsters, on top of the scene in which you learn the truth and as a result now don’t want to kill more than ever, it……creates the greatest punch in the heart ever with this battle, and god ;-;

I don’t recall why I ended up fighting, I think I may have wondered if I got his health low enough if that could do anything. Yeah, I remember, when I got his health low so that it said in the dialogue box his health is low, I tried talking to him a bunch and just waited hoping that change would do something!...but it didn’t, and I died again.

Eventually though, I don’t know if it was intentional or by accident, but I finished him. I might of just wanted to get his health low and then did a lot more damage than I expected, but…eventually…I beat him…it was hard, and took me very long, but…I succumbed to it, and I felt bad…boy was I relieved to see afterwards that I could spare him, phew, that was great, if a little silly.

And then he was being sweet and I was happy and like I can stay in the underground, I’m fine with that, you guys are awesome, and he mentioned his wife and I was happy thinking of Toriel, and everything was gonna be all right…

…

Then that demon from hell freaking took over and closed the game, ayefhbajfbhawgsdb. ;-;

I remember when that happened, I don’t know why but, I knew instantly that that was intentional, and that it was meant to show that Flowey has taken over. I remember when my partner vines got there he told me the game crashed, and I’ve seen a few others do that too, but yeah. When I came back I was…so so so scared and I just…oh my god. I thought I was ready, but I wasn’t, there was no way I could be ready for what was about to come…

This freaking boss, oh my god. The music was terrifying, the laugh horrified me like never before, and the freaking way Flowey looked oh my god what the fuck was that!?!?!? That was not okay! I was so scared and tense this entire battle. I can distinctively recall that I was shivering with fear and that at times I was physically shaking on the sofa with my laptop, because I was just so friggin terrified. I think I died 2 or so times on this battle, and oh my god I was so so scared. It was horrifying, and I just wanted it all to end and fuck this fight, fuck you flowey god damnit, I still have bad visions of this and flinch thinking about it. I still cannot bring myself to look at this beast because it terrifies me. It’s been a month now, but I am finally able to listen to the music that plays during the fight, but it is still hard, and still scares me, and the laugh still makes me want to cry. This god damn fight was supposed to terrify you, and boy did it work. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared and horrified from a video game (probably because I purposely stay away from horror games :p ).

What, you think I’m actually going to post a picture of this beast?

It probably made the ending then feel empowering in a way few games can, but hoo boy, I was so so relieved when it ended you have no idea. Getting to finally take down this evil horrifying monster that was scaring me to no end was the greatest thing ever, and arrrrrrgh yes yes yes yes, get rekt you, pardon my language, fucking stupid monster. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

……..ahem…….But then…after the dust settled…….a choice appeared, the last choice seemingly…mercy or fight…

I recall that as I breathed heavily, as the shivering and shaking from that battle began to slowly disperse, I wondered here. A part of me did want to end him, this terrible terrible horrifying monster that seemed to have no good inside him at all. Surely…we’d be better without it. And yet…as I thought of that, I knew in my heart what I had to do. What Toriel had taught me, what I stayed true towards for her sake, was to show mercy to all, even the most despicable of monsters. So in the end, I spared him. The dialogue was crazy, the way he threatens to kill you all, and boy I could tell he was doing everything he could to get me to not spare him, but when that line he uttered finally came…about not being able to understand why I was being so nice to him…that was when for the first time, we saw Flowey hurt and scared, and in that instant I wondered…what caused this horrible creature to be, and how can I help it?

And then the credits rolled, the ending played, and I learned how Toriel returned, and the underground remains full of hope as they try and find a way out. And I have to admit, despite the scary final battle, I really liked the ending, and thought to myself, “you know, if this is it, I’d be happy with this as an ending.”

I liked how they told you not to lose hope in whatever you were doing, with you leaving symbolizing you finishing the game, so you won’t be playing it anymore. I enjoyed too how everyone seemed to be doing all right, and that Toriel returned! But aw I was so sad I didn’t get to speak with her, that made me so ergybshfd ;-----;

Aferwards, Flowey appeared, and spoke of befriending Alphys for the true ending, and I thought “wait a minute”…

I believe after this I quickly went on undertale wiki to check if I was at the end or not, and learned of the whole Neutral Ending and Pacifist Ending thing, and that I had to befriend Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys. I thought I only had to not kill everything to get the Pacifist ending, so this surprised me. It gave me direction though, so I knew what to do. And in hindsight, I love this detail, as it’s a great clever way for people who first play through Undertale on Pacifist to have to do the Neutral Ending before Pacifist, which I think works really well in the game’s overall narrative and timeline multiverse.

Thus concludes my journey through the core and beyond. For the final part, I return to the game for the final area. Stay tuned for the end of the story of my first play of this wonderful game!

Image Source: http://juh-juh.deviantart.com/art/Undertale-The-Judge-586499309