Undertale full version live reactions: day 10

[kjorteo]

The End. For real, this time. Well, until the upcoming Team Hatoful LP.

• Okay, so I need to go to Alphys' lab to do the extra friend scene with her, probably. Let's just exit the core and...
  
• Phone call?
  
• The Hotland elevator drops me off right in front of the lab, but I'm apparently supposed to go to Snowdin to get something from Undyne. I suspect these may be related, so against my usual "take care of the nearby stuff while I'm here" instincts, I guess I'll go to Snowdin first.
  
• Undyne does have a legitimate excuse to hate Hotland, though.
  
• I now have a top secret ABSOLUTELY DON'T YOU DARE READ THIS letter from Undyne to Alphys. I've played enough Animal Crossing to be fairly good about delivering those without reading them. Your secret is safe with me!
  
• I was almost curious enough to check what the info/description looked like, but I was so nervous about even that counting that I made it all the way back to the lab without even so much as opening the menu.
  
• It was a love letter that wasn't signed. Either that's a major oversight or Undyne deliberately set me up for some hot lizard dating action and I'm honestly not sure which.
  
• AAAA ALPHYS IN A DRESS IS ADORABLE
  
• Oh, it was a major oversight and now Undyne is in "oh crap" mode. This is suddenly awkward.
  
• Have I seen Alphys? Um... well, I don't want to make this web any more tangled, so... yes.
  
• Oh, but then Undyne just left anyway, okay.
  
• Aww, Alphys' feelings for Undyne and "if she finds out the truth about me..." thing are adorable and heartbreaking at the same time.
  
• 
  
• 
  Me on Tapestries like
  
• Oh my God, I am role-playing as Undyne and I want so badly to take the poorly-written hitting-on-Alphys option even though I know that isn't what she would say. Agh this is such a tough choice but I guess I'll be good.
  
• Aaaaa the second choice is EVEN MORE tempting. Oh God I can't take it, I HAVE to see where this leads. "THEN SHe Kisses YOu,"
  
• Oh God this is getting into Tapestries style role-playing.
  
• Alphys and the music went out of control and now Undyne is here and I can't stop laughing, please send help
  
• Oh shit, now Undyne sees WE'RE on a date. AWKWARDNESS LEVEL RISING
  
• I honestly have no idea if this was the proper resolution or if I messed up bad.
  
• Awwww, Alphys ;_;
  
• 
  ;O;
  
• FUCK
  
• Oh, this is still... okay... I think...?
  
• Papyrus and... I'm not even sure how to describe what just happened. Is that... it...?
  
• OH GOD DO I HAVE TO SHATTER UNDYNE'S WORLDVIEW, SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME (AGAIN)
  
• uh
  
• UH
  
• W-well, since the whole theme of Alphys' character arc appears to be learning to stop lying and come clean... no, anime is not real. pleasedon'tkillmeagain
  
• "Thank you, human, for telling me the truth." ;O; WHEW
  
• Date over! Now just to...
  
• Another phone call?
  
• Papyrus' entire conversation can be summed up as "SEEMS LEGIT." But as Bratty and Catty can attest, if I had any survival instinct at all, I just wouldn't be me. Back to the lab for no reason and obviously nothing but good things about to happen!
  
• Oh, well that's... off to a great start.
  
• We are now in True Laboratory and ooh I like the spooky music.
  
• OH BOY SCARY ENEMY TIME and they have awesome music too!
  
• "Come join us..." GOD WHY DO ALL MY CREEPY NIGHTMARE GIVE-INTO-TEMPTATION FETISHES HAVE TO KICK IN NOW yyyyyyes please ;o;
  
• Oh, joining apparently doesn't do anything anyway. Well okay.
  
• Red key!
  
• 
  Okay, this section of the game is legitimately creepy, and the ghost tucking you in is also legitimately creepy, but this needs to go to Out of Context Animation.
  
• "Lemon Bread?"
  
• IS THAT MONSTER PARTY
  
• Ow. Reload!
  
• I recognize all the parts Lemon Bread came from but I still have no idea why Lemon Bread.
  
• The curtain thing was terrifying and awesome.
  
• Wait... the royal family and... Teo? ... Teo is... the original human child?
  
• And also evil as fuck apparently?
  
• Reaper Bird may be my new favorite enemy in this area; the superimposed text and espsecially butterfly head swarm shambling attack are just so cool in their creepiness.
  
• Amalgamate is... it's a creepy version of the Greater Dog fight. Toby took one of the most hilarious part of this game so far and turned it on its... erm, heads.
  
• Oh God now the Snowdrake one is my new favorite just for how well it does the whole wrong version of thing. Even working in the "it's so cold" and guh, that one gave me legit shivers.
  
• After messing with the ghost bed for ages looking for that "under the sheets" clue for the final key, I finally in desperation decided to check any of the other beds. Oh, there it is.
  
• Lab complete! Yay, Alphys! Yay, back-story!
  
• ... Another phone call? To Teo, who is apparently a different child even though they're talking to me?
  
• OH BOY MORE ELEVATOR CARNAGE, was I perhaps premature in declaring the lab complete?
  
• Oh, no, we're back in the final area. It was just being spooky.
  
• There are vines blocking my way back now. Good thing I already had enough items, I guess..?
  
• Well, I see nothing else to do at this point, so I guess challenge Asgore again?
  
• TORIEL
  
• Oh, that's a nice callback to her introduction :D
  
• Okay, Toriel brings up a really good point about Asgore's plan.
  
• REJECTED. You know, this is another excellent example of the depth this game's writing can have in a relatively small space. This is a realistically complicated, awkward relationship. Toriel is super frosty toward Asgore, which is a side of her I've honestly never seen. But given what happened between them and what he tried to do, this is perfectly understandable. But you-the-player-character can still befriend both of them. Toriel is our loving and beloved kind-hearted goatmom, Asgore is a basically a big fluffy doofus, neither is evil or even unlikeable, but they just do not and likely never again will go well together. That's real. Well done.
  
• UNDYNE
  
• ALPHYS
  
• I'm actually tearing up at this point and nothing particularly emotional has even happened yet. I'm not even sure what it is, exactly. I don't think it's any one specific thing. It's just the culmination of seeing all my old friends again, everyone from my entire journey (and the music is perfect for this) is just overwhelming me with the entire culmination of... just everything ;_; This game ;o;
  
• PAPYRUS AND SANS, EVEN METTATON AAAAAAA
  
• No no Toriel it's okay, I am 100% okay with Undyne and Alphys smooching it's fine trust me
  
• !?
  
• !!?!?
  
• FLOWEY YOU FUCKER
  
• IF YOU KILLED ALL MY BEST FRIENDS THIS TIME I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL
  
• oh they're okay. Er, sort of. They're not dead! That's a start. We can work with that.
  
• TORIEL AGAIN!!
  
• Okay the way the interface is symbolizing all my friends supporting me, like with Toriel's fire blocking one attack, then San's bone and Undyne's spear blocking the next, and my health recovering and just all that is honestly making me tear up again
  
• All the other monsters too! I know Flowey is going to find a way to kill this moment abruptly, I can see it coming this time, but I'm just going to pause the dialogue and savor (read: have a good cry over) this moment for a bit before moving on.
  
• Okay, there. And... yep, there we go.
  
• Aw, Flowey's goatkid form is adorable.
  
• And holy FUCKSHIT Asriel is hot.
  
• Asriel Dree-MURR.
  
• Seriously God DAMN I gotta get me some of THAT.
  
• Er, um *cough* ANYWAY
  
• Rainbow effects aren't making him any less sexy you know. I MEAN, this battle is epic.
  
• No but seriously, though, lesser games would have the problem of not having anywhere to go but downhill after something like that Omega Flowey battle, but this one apparently still has a few tricks left to pull and this is amazing and the music is amazing and just aaaaaaaa
  
• Oh God the Hyper Goner attack head is kind of cute too WHY IS THIS ENTIRE BATTLE MAKING ME SUCH HOPELESS FUR TRASH
  
• "This isn't even my true form!"
  
• DETERMINATION MAKES ME IMMORTAL God I love how this game can use its own gameplay for moments like this.
  
• Oh, no. Oh, no. No no no no NO. Is this a Sadistic Choice? NO, Do NOT make me choose which of my friends to save, game. Don't do it. DON'T.
  
• Ohhhh no. Ohhhh no no no.
  
• Items aren't going to help, Spare is wrong, Fight is obviously wrong, oh God I have literally no choice but... that choice. Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK.
  
• Um. Okay. Let's... let's rationalize this.... I'll never be able to pick based on who I love most or anything like that; they're all my precious children. If I can only choose one then I need someone POWERFUL. I refuse to cosign any of them to oblivion, but maybe... just maybe I can pick someone powerful enough to help me go back and save everyone else, too. Now, logically... hmm. Well, if I'm going by who's the biggest hypercompetent timeline-protecting secret agent badass who would be perfect for this exact job, that would be Sans. But you only find that out on the genocide route and I'm technically not supposed to know that. In the interest of not cheating, um... I will save... oh God, forgive me... I will save... Toriel.
  
• Toriel and Asgore??
  
• Oh God, this isn't a Sadistic Choice, it's an I Know You're In There Somewhere" Fight! I'm going to cry again.
  
• IT WASN'T A SADISTIC CHOICE!! The game was just letting me choose the order. Thank God.
  
• Well now that I don't have to worry I'll just go down the list.
  
• Everyone's attacks are callbacks to their previous fights, too! The Lost Souls aren't the only ones having their memories flooding back. But who would Alphys fight like, then?
  
• Oh, Mettaton, right.
  
• God, seeing the Lost Soul version of my friends and hearing their dialogue is heartwrenching, but their encouragement when you save them is just so gloriously triumphant.
  
• Now for Asriel himself? Oh God here come the feels (well, even more feels)
  
• Are his attacks winding down as I'm getting through to him?
  
• They are! He's doing the Toriel fire-avoiding-you thing now!
  
• Oh, or this could end in him throwing a tantrum but me outlasting it with .0000whatever HP and DETERMINATION.
  
• Return of adorable goatkid! Return of crying forever!
  
• AAAA THAT HUG
  
• And it's over. I'm awake again and back among my friends.
  
• I actually timed this--there is about a two and a half minute pause in my recording where I just let it sit there on Toriel's first line ("Oh! You are awake! Thank goodness!") Two and a half minutes. I kept making remarks to the effect of brb crying forever or whatever, but this... happened. Again, not for any specific reason other than just the culmination of everything I spent two and a half minutes unable to continue the game because I was having a literal all-out cry. Loud sobs and wails and everything. I am not exaggerating. I am 100% serious. I broke down here, and it took me two and a half minutes before I could pull myself together enough to keep playing.
  
• 
  There needs to be a better word for the emotional state you get when someone says something dorky but also sweet and you're laughing between the buckets of tears.
  
• 
  New reaction image get.
  
• OH GOD MY INCESTUOUS GOAT FLIRTING HAS COME BACK TO HAUNT ME. OH NO.
  
• Toriel and Sans are texting each other and me and every word is golden.
  
• Oh, man. Will Toriel and Asgore ever get back together. That's a tough one. Everyone's tempted to ship romantically ever after in the ending of the story (especially with that music playing!) but... um... no. Probably not.
  
• Fanfiction. Alphys, I love you.
  
• Undyne wants an anime with fighting princesses? She should talk to Zoey, Zoey has all the Pretty Cure stuff and could totally hook her up.
  
• Awwwww the Snowdrake family is back together! :'D
  
• aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA INCLUDING THAT ONE.
  
• Well that's, uh, sweet?
  
• 
  ON THE SUBJECT OF SHIPPING THOUGH
  
• Oh wow, this game does a great job making the overworld look different and beautiful compared to the underground in which we've all been trapped. This is what we were all questing for ;o;
  
• Buuut I will stay with Toriel, because of course I will.
  
• Credits!
  
• Awww, Papyrus got to live his dream of driving down the highway :'D
  
• The audience for Mettaton's performance includes Bratty and Catty, Temmie, and two others I don't recognize.
  
• "Royal Guards - Use Your Imagination" Oh, you don't have to tell me twice.
  
• Suburban dad outfit looks good on Asgore!
  
• Aaaaa Toriel is a teacher :D :D
  
• Enemy cast I DID NOT get the yellow highlight on their name (presumably meaning I'm missing something from their battle options, even if I did spare them): Icecap, Lesser Dog, Shyren
  
• AAAAAAAAAAAAA oh it's just the Special Thanks section. And Asriel is still dashing <3 Er, *cough*
  
• Oh, I remember reading about this part! The door in Snowdin opens if you can get through it without hitting a single name. Armed with that knowledge beforehand, let's see how well I--
  
• WHAT THE FUCK THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. You know what? Never mind.
  
• 
  :'D
  
• And that's it. That's Undertale. And I just... God. What a game. After how long this post ended up being just reacting to everything, now here we are at the end and I'm honestly speechless. This is a masterpiece.

Comments

[davidn]

hot lizard dating action

As if this game didn't have enough reasons for me to love it already :D I love Alphys so much it's indescribable. It seems that you went a different route from me on the date!

Personally I had a more... emotional swing of a reaction to the ghost - when I lay down at first I waited with heart pounding in my ears to see what was going to happen, and flailed madly on the keyboard as soon as that thing appeared. Then I... tried again, just to see what happened, and got a huge laugh (probably of relief) when it just politely tucked me in. The rest of that section is... horrific - I would have thought Nightmare Flowey was enough, but monsters with names like ",", pasted-over text and nonsensical menu options give an amazing impression of a game breaking down in front of your eyes.

Your stream of thought during the lead-up to the final confrontation is very similar to mine :) The way this game uses its own interface to tell its story is nothing short of incredible. It's so good at... staying below what it really is for a long time, keeping in a very static lo-fi presentation, before gradually adding things like shifting the size, location and angle of the window, adding interactions that go outside it, then shocks you with the transition to Nightmare Flowey - something that doesn't even look like it should be in the game - and then the hyper effects of power in a similar way to Super Metroid pulling out the rainbow beam.

I imagine it's no coincidence - in addition to the anagram - that Asriel is so phoenetically similar to Azrael, the judge and the angel of death. (Looking him up just now: "In one of his forms, he has four faces and four thousand wings, and his whole body consists of eyes and tongues" - he is a Furaffinity original character.)

I was very impressed that you got such a prominent position in the credits! Not zooming past, not in a circle or vertical sliding in and out (seriously, I don't know how avoiding all the credits is possible either) - you just seem very... noticeable, I didn't have to actively search to see you.

I'm looking forward to getting together once more to play through it again :) Let's all enjoy independent games and crying!

[kjorteo]

Randomly inspired to go back and reread this series (and the comments) from time to time, and I came across this one... of course Asriel is a Furaffinity original character. He is the Absolute GOD of Hyperdeath! :)

[raptorianone.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you saw this bit or not, but remember how, at the end of the demo, Toriel was back in the very first room?

Beat Asriel and check back there again.