Monsters? Adventure? Determination? If these words spark the gaming spirit in you, then Undertale, an RPG created by Toby Fox, is the perfect game to play! 

Released in September of 2015, this game follows the story of a human, the protagonist, that has fallen into the Underground, a land of monsters. Humans and Monsters were separated by a war that drove the monsters into the underground, and the player learns that the monsters wish to join the surface world again. Human souls have a power monster’s call “Determination” that makes them stronger than monster souls. As you play, you meet many different monsters and enemies, you can choose to either befriend them in a pacifist route or kill them in a neutral run or genocide route.   

The most charming aspect of this game is the complex slew of characters you can interact with; each has their own personality and motives, and the player can choose to either befriend or fight them. The main monsters you meet are Toriel, Flowey (Asriel), Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Dr. Alpyhs, Mettaton, and Asgore.  

Toriel is a motherly goat monster (Also the former wife of Asgore) that takes in the protagonist after saving them from Flowey, a malicious flower monster that is amused by violence. She brings the player to her home in the Ruins, a tutorial area at the beginning of the game, and warns them about the dangers of the underground. She teaches them to use the ACT option in fights that is used to befriend monsters and discourages the player from leaving the Ruins. When you eventually do persistently try to leave, she battles you in hopes of protecting you from the rest of the underground. If you manage to complete the true pacifist route at the end of the game, you are given the option to live under Toriel’s care in the human world.  

Sans is a carefree, lazy skeleton you meet after leaving Toriel’s home in the Ruins and traveling to the next area Snowdin. He helps his brother Papyrus in guarding the underground from humans. Sans loves making puns and has been a fan favorite of the game since its release. He is incredibly mysterious and makes cryptic, ambiguous comments leading the character to think that he knows more than he is letting on. If the player follows the genocide route, where you kill all monsters and bosses in each area, Sans fights you in what is considered the most difficult boss battle of the game.  Papyrus (my personal favorite character) is Sans’ charming, hilarious brother who loves puzzles and pasta. His goal is to join the royal guard of the underground, and he treats the protagonist as a friend even when he shouldn’t be. He makes you solve his puzzles as a way of “thwarting” you, which is basically a bunch of silly gags, and eventually you battle him at the end of the area in Snowdin, where you can choose to spare him or kill him (It’s not hard to kill him in this fight but almost emotionally impossible because he is such a kind soul, it will make you cry). After this point if you spare Papyrus he will want to become good friends with the player, and you even have the option to go on a dating minigame with him, where he will ultimately friend-zone you -ouch.  

In the next area, The Waterfall, you meet the captain of the royal guard, Undyne, whom Papyrus looks up to. She is a fiery, passionate fish warrior whose goal is to hunt the protagonist down in order to protect the Underground from humans. In this area the player must solve puzzles and walk through the labyrinth of The Waterfall while also battling monsters and avoiding Undyne. In a battle with Undyne at the end of The Waterfall area, you can choose to spare her by repeatedly running away after wearing her down. She will eventually chase you into the next area, The Hotlands, and become dehydrated, where you can then offer her a cup of water and make her leave. Papyrus will encourage you to become friends with Undyne throughout the span of The Waterfall area and after sparing her the player can go to her house to befriend her with Papyrus’ help. If the player goes down the Genocide route, Undyne will not forgive the player for their transgressions or for killing Papyrus and will become more powerful than ever in an extremely difficult boss battle, where she transforms into Undyne the Undying.  

The Hotlands is the next area in the game, which features the characters Dr. Alphys, the royal scientist, and Mettaton. Alphys guides the character throughout this area and showcases much of her nerdy personality through phone calls and social media posts. She helps you solve puzzles and fight against Mettaton, the sentient human-killing robot she created whose only goal is to hunt you down and kill you. Mettaton is the TV personality of the underground and all of his attempts to defeat you are centered in his personal TV show. We learn in Mettaton’s final boss battle that Alphys was trying to impress you and act as a hero, so she manipulated all the situations encountered with Mettaton. Alphys is incredibly insecure and filled with self-doubt, she often expresses to the protagonist her social anxiety and self-confidence issues. Mettaton is a foil to Alphys in the sense he is extremely confident and boisterous, loving the attention of others. When completing the true pacifist run, the player learns that Alphys is insecure about herself not only because of her personality and social anxiety, but because of her past mistakes and scientific failures.  

The game wraps up in a confrontation between you and Asgore, the king of monsters. He is mentioned frequently throughout the game, and all the players actions up to this point have led to this moment. His goal is to collect 7 human souls to break the barrier between the underground and the surface world, allowing monsters to once again join the surface, he only has 6, so he is forced to kill the player to serve his people and reclaim the world they lost. This is incredibly heartbreaking to Asgore, who does not wish to hurt anyone because he is a big softy, however, he understands his duty and will not falter in his resolve. He destroys the spare option in this fight, but after defeating him you can choose to spare him anyway. In your first run-through of either the neutral or pacifist run, Flowey, the monster from the beginning of the game, will battle you after stealing the human souls for himself and killing Asgore (If you chose to spare him). In the true pacifist ending of the game, Flowey transforms into Asriel, the presumed dead son of Toriel and Asgore, and tries to defeat the player. If the protagonist beats him in this fight, you can join the surface world with all your friends made in the game, and humans and monsters can live in peace once more.  

There are still so many things not covered in this overview that the game offers, and there are loads more aspects of gameplay that add to the charm of both the characters and the plot. If you want to see the wonderful game of Undertale in full, it is downloadable on Steam, and there are countless gameplays available on YouTube for you to watch and enjoy.