I played Undertale for the first time in 2026, knowing nothing about it. It was amazing.
This year I played Undertale for the first time in my life, without ever hearing anything about it. I thought it’s a perspective a veteran community might enjoy reading. TLDR: this is one of the best games in my life, and playing it without any prior knowledge was the best way to enjoy it!
I picked it up on a whim after seeing a meme that commented on some absurd statement that “it sounds like something an Undertale NPC would say”. I love absurd humor, so I thought, “heh, that sounds like a fun game”. I was lucky that I was absent-minded that evening and didn’t notice the “RPG where nobody has to die” description on Steam. **I went in completely blind.** In hindsight, having now completed True Pacifist, I understand how lucky I was that I went in completely blind.
The game started with my character falling down a mountain (which nobody allegedly survives) and immediately being betrayed and attacked by a murderous flower. Another creature then saved me. She seemed nice, but how could I have known that I could trust her? I was quite wary of going to sleep in her house. After all, maybe she’s a freak who loves cooking pies with little children as ingredients? Quite a repeating theme in many folk tales, needless to say. During my times in the ruins I have seen some messages about mercy and took note that I don’t always need to fight and can spare enemies. It was also my first time playing bullet hell games, so the gameplay, characters, visual style, and dialogue were so unusual (in the best possible way), that at no point in time did I have an idea of what would happen next. And this was incredible. It’s one of my favorite feelings in the world, to be surprised by something. It makes me feel like a child again.
Assuming that my character fell down the mountain just by accident, I obviously tried to immediately press Toriel on how to get out. When she attacked me, I fought back. Hell, my own dad had some questionable methods of trying to make me “toughen up”, but even he didn’t blast lethal fireworks in my direction! But when she actually died, I felt so painful. Even if I was wary of trusting her, I could feel that she was a genuinely caring and good person. In hindsight, I think this is such a sad and good example of how terrible people who break our trust (thanks, Flowey) then make us mistrust and hurt genuinely good people. When her heart broke, I felt that this was a painful emotional “graduation” for my character. He is indeed ready for the cold world of the Underground.
When Sans appeared, I started trusting him early enough. After all, he could have just helped Papyrus capture me, but he didn’t. Actions speak louder than words! Snowdin Forest part mostly felt like comic relief, and I loved every second of it. I was just rolling with laughter. The “deadly puzzle,” which includes crosswords? Wonderful! A snowman who wants to travel and gives me a piece of his body? Lovely and absurd - just the way I like it! This felt like Monty Python wrote this game, and I love Monty Python. I killed some enemies to gain EXP and level up a bit, but also because they kept hitting me and I couldn’t find a diplomatic way with every enemy. Snowdin town was lovely and funny, and it was the first part of the game that I felt at ease. After all, a whole town that is pretty nice towards you feels safer then a bunch of creepy ruins with hostile creatures, where only one strange lady distributing pies seems to be nice towards you.
When it came to the battle with Papyrus, I could see that he didn’t want to fight. I saw how his ego was pushing him towards a military career, but I also saw that his heart wasn’t in it. So, I was able to spare Papyrus and start trusting him. Bad mistake! Just an hour in, he betrayed my character to save his military career and told his murderous boss how to find me! I wasn’t able to trust Papyrus until the end of the game and rarely called him. After all, if your “friend” is OK with sending a death squad your way, his funny antics probably aren’t what you will remember about him. Blooky saved my ass from the Mad Dummy, so we hung out. Cool guy. Still one of my favorite characters in the game. Also Ghost Fight/Dummy! is my favorite track in the game, tied with Spider Dance. I killed Undyne, and it was the only enemy I killed with joy - she was way too eager to take my character’s life.
Alphys was annoying, but Mettaton shows were completely incredible. I just couldn’t believe my eyes and was taken aback at the raw display of human creativity which went into making those segments. At this point, I already got better at resolving fights diplomatically, so I’m really proud of making that gay royal guard couple happen! Also, I was always happy to see Sans. His actions were consistently the most friendly and supportive towards my character. I didn’t interpret the infamous “dead where you stand” part as a threat, to me it felt as a solemn confession by someone who came dangerously close to killing an innocent person. At no point in time have I foreseen the plot twist that Alphys is the mastermind behind Hotland puzzles, so that was quite a shock! Soon Mettaton attacked me. At first I tried to just wait it out (hoping that the ratings would drop low enough for him to cancel the fight), but it didn’t happen. So, Mettaton took a bullet to his bullet-shooting heart.
I met Sans in the Corridor of Judgment. He told me to look inside myself, and I did. I didn’t feel any guilt. I think my character did the best he could have done with the limited information he had. He spared those who didn’t want to fight, and killed those who did. In hindsight, isn’t this a true definition of neutral? Not going out of my way to harm people, and also not sacrificing my goals and health to help them.
I tried to spare Asgore. I could see that he didn’t want to fight. But alas, he pushed himself to do it. I still tried to spare him after the fight, but Flowey finished the job. I killed Flowey. I suspected that that’s what he wanted, but still, he felt like too much of a danger to keep alive. I got a phone call from Sans telling me about Papyrus becoming king. I thought that it was an awfully bad choice for a king, but at least it seemed that Sans would be the power behind the throne. I have assumed that my character would stay in touch with Sans and help the monsters find a way to get out of the Underground.
That was a fantastic playthrough. Playing Undertale for the first time with no idea of “rules of the game” really is the best experience one can have. You have no idea of what to expect, whom to trust, what is dangerous, and what is not. You are just exploring this new and dangerous world and trying to find a balance between surviving and minimizing damage.
Playing Undertale for the second time was different. I already learnt from the Internet that I could spare literally everyone. So this was a playthrough in which I started falling in love with Undertale as we know it - getting to appreciate character quirks, their personal struggles, relationships, the impossible choice that Asgore is facing… I didn’t understand at first why the game forces you to play it twice to get a good ending, but now I get it. Because a *good* ending requires you to go an extra mile. Like, a really long extra mile. To transcend your initial “I’m just a guy who is trying to go home” role and to become someone bigger than that. And I think with the limited information that you have on the first playthrough, it’s almost impossible if you accept the circumstances the game puts you in and act pragmatically, as a normal human would.
My second playthrough was when I started reading lore, getting to *truly* know everyone, googling answers to lore questions that I didn’t understand, and really falling in love with the characters. This is one of the most precious experiences I have ever had, and certainly one of the best games I have ever played. I have spent the last few weeks telling everyone around me about how great Undertale is, listening to music covers on YouTube, and re-reading lore (I can’t bring myself to take away the good life from Frisk and others, even for another True Pacifist route. I don’t plan on doing genocide).
This was an experience that was emotional, funny, beautiful, deep, lighthearted, and serious at the same time. Most importantly, it was perfectly original. It made me laugh, shed a tear, vibe to jazzy tunes, and think about how there always is a diplomatic solution to a conflict. I love this game so much, and having finished it only two weeks ago, I already know it has filled a special niche in my heart.
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