Undertale: A journey to break the stereotypes of the RPG genre

“If only you could talk to these creatures, maybe you could try to befriend them, form an alliance… That would be really interesting.” Indeed, when Toby Fox (game developer and editor Undertale) is looking to raise capital to continue growing Undertale, The extremely modest descriptions on the Kickstarter website are “traditional role-playing games where nobody gets hurt.” But actually, there is nothing traditional when it comes to this game, although the second part of the description is correct. Players can be friends, instead of fighting bosses in the game.

The irony here is that Undertale’s first facilities were made up of contradictions, evolving from the combat system Fox programmed in GameMaker Studio. In fact, Fox originally got his inspiration while surfing Wikipedia. “One day, while reading about arrays, I realized I could program a system using them, so I decided to make a battle system using the alphabet, which later let me know. lots of ideas to make a game. And I decided to do a demo of that game – to see if people liked it, and it wasn’t difficult to make it.”

The combination of turn-based combat and real-time elements is very different, but it is more like a different genre game, inspired by the shooter series. Touhou Project. “I wanted to do something different from what I usually do,” Fox said. Rather than poring over specific games to get an idea of ​​rhythm and detail, it was more of an iteration: Fox tweaked his designs until the matches were both challenging and challenging. equal. Fairness is important: Fox doesn’t want Undertale’s combat system to be seen as “bullet hell” (like the Touhou Project), because he uses less and larger ammo to make them easier to avoid. . “We understand that games of this genre can look quite intimidating for most players. Maybe it should be called “bullet heaven” or sub-bullet hell” (Bullet Hell Jr.).

At that time, Fox had very little game development experience, although he knew about RPG Maker, and created the ROM hack. Earthbound while in high school. Fox said that Undertale is so meaningful that I don’t know which element of Earthbound to get inspired. “I definitely wanted to create something that was mentally powerful, funny and magical like the series Mother, but don’t want to use the same directions to get there,” Fox said. “Besides, the main character is a kid, wearing a striped shirt… that’s obvious.”

Anyway, its impact on him as a child is pretty obvious. “I played Earthbound when I was four years old. I was so young and it helped me learn to speak, and changed my mind forever.” Seven years later, his love turned into an obsession when Fox started reading the Earthbound starmen.net fansite.

“I was really enamored with that site, its individuality and richness, and decided to try and create something that would impress everyone on it,” Fox said. “Now my friends from that site run Fangamer, which sells my products. So Earthbound and its fandom are always with me.”

Although Earthbound had a huge influence on Undertale, Fox also wanted to break out of its ideas. Toriel, a friendly goat-like monster, is a direct replacement for the often neglected mother role in RPG games. She also mocks the rigid guidelines of ocean games; Fox uses the “hold hands” instruction in a scene by having her lead you directly through a maze full of bumps.

Toriel is just one of the characters Fox conceptualized in his college notebooks, with quite a few ideas that are vastly different from their final versions. Fox also gives each main character a different theme song. The fan favorite Megalovania was originally written for Fox’s Earthbound Halloween Hack in 2009, when he was known as Radiation, and the song Bonetrousle was originally designed for another RPG game Fox was developing that Fox was developing. was never released. When asked if the music reflects the character’s personality, or after designing the characters to decide what music to use, Fox replied, “I’m not sure”, “It does.” Might have helped me set the tone for each character’s scenes, but in terms of Papyrus’ personality (Bonetrousle), that was before I decided to use it. Most of the other theme songs were written specifically for each character.”

Once you’ve established a memorable cast of characters, it’s boring to let players kill them all. Fox had the idea to spare the monsters before writing the script, although in execution the Pacifist gameplay was more labor intensive than the Neutral gameplay, working on continuing with the same logic. My idea is more difficult. “During games, I noticed that ‘being good’ is sometimes quite easy. But if you do everything without putting any effort into it, it doesn’t really feel meaningful.” Genocide gameplay is also more difficult, but not simply because a match is particularly difficult, but about killing characters you have become close to, which is more difficult than avoiding the rain of bullets. On the Fox side, the biggest issue is a certain fight. “I had trouble designing the Mettaton match,” he admitted. “It is very difficult for me to come up with gameplay ideas.”

Even so, Fox still had a lot of ideas when he used Kickstater in May 2013 to raise capital to continue developing the game. Fox made a demo that supporters could download from the website, and his desires for Undertale grew significantly, although he himself corrected that it would not be a short game. “I just wasn’t sure I could make it before I did the demo,” said Fox. “The reason it was bigger than expected is because my expectations for aspects, combat and other things increased a lot after doing the demo.” Fox wanted about $5,000, but ended up having 10 times the amount. He estimates that a version will be released in the summer of 2014 has made many people optimistic, with the finished version released in September 2015.

What’s more, Undertale’s warm reception shows that Fox has used this time exceptionally well. Despite the rave reviews, its success was largely passed on by word of mouth among gamers about its mysteries and challenging and extremely difficult boss avoidances. In just three months, Undertale has become one of the best-selling titles on Steam, with more than half a million copies sold. The first two months of the following year, that number doubled. In a vote for Best Game Ever to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the GameFAQs website, Undertale surpassed a series of other classic games and won, beating both The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time in the final round. Not long after that, it began to reach out further, after Fox approached 8-4 Ltd, **/*, to discuss bringing Undertale to the Japanese market. 8-4 wanted to bring it to PS4 and Vita, and in August of this year it arrived on consoles.

Fox, who originally just wanted to make the game for himself and his friends, was amazed at the success of Undertale, which, to be honest, no one could have predicted. “It’s inspired by pretty weird sources, the graphics are bad in many places, and the gameplay is simple. And most of all, the game’s humor and surprises are created from the stereotypes of regular RPG games. For me the most interesting part is that even though players are not aware of the stereotyping of the genre, they can still enjoy it, including children. That’s great,” Fox said.

Not wrong, Undertale is popular with younger players. Fox attributed this to the fact that viewers of the Let’s Play channel on YouTube learned about the game through playthroughs. “It’s funny, it’s weird, it’s pretty scary and it’s definitely not for kids, but it doesn’t ban this group of players,” Fox said. “Children like weird things that aren’t meant for them but don’t forbid them.”

Meanwhile, for Fox, success is like a double-edged sword. It’s not entirely true that he’s withdrawn from the public eye, it’s just his popularity that makes Fox very careful when it comes to interviews and what he says in front of the camera. It’s also not wrong that you’re the main creator of a game that emotionally smashes all the traditional stereotypes of the genre. Undertale feels like a ROM hack like the ones Fox has done before, but it has the punk energy and pervasive passion you see on fan-made accessories, and edgy graphics. its makes it more attractive. On Undertale’s one-year anniversary, Fox self-referred to the game as “8/10 points, a good RPG game”. Although when asked if he could do it over again, what would he edit, he said he only regrets one thing. During development, Fox worried that the Muffet miniboss might be too difficult and tweaked it a few times – but now Fox wishes he could make it easier.

Fox may not be making another Undertale, or a new game like it. But just like how Earthbound inspired him, maybe Undertale will inspire many others to create a game that is just as weird and wonderful. “I hope one day a kid who loves Undertale grows up and makes a game as amazing as it is,” said Fox. “I will definitely play it.”