This text is adapted from a previous radio show, for the audio version, please feel free to check out: https://music.163.com/#/program?id=909726698
Every great game has its own essence. For some, it’s courage. For others, its justice. And don’t forget the old-fashioned elements: patience, mercy and so on. But the game we’re introducing today doesn’t fall into any of these categories. Its essence isn’t a particular quality, but more like a kind of persistence, choice, or to be accurate, determination.
Just like all wonderful stories, Undertale begins with 「once upon a time」. In the very beginning, the world was ruled by humans and monsters in harmony. But peace, being as fragile as it is, is easily broken. There was a war. The humans won. The monsters were banished to the underground. A powerful magic barrier was set up. Hmm... Typical story.However, it doesn’t end like that. That’s just the beginning. The monsters underground clearly need a hero. And that’s where our main character Frisk the human comes along. You, the gamer, control a human who falls underground into the world of monsters. Now you must find your way out…or stay trapped forever.I admit, the world of Undertale is a little strangeat first. Shattered sentences and ridiculous puns fill every corner, with no apparent logic or meaning whatsoever. The gamer becomes a child. Well, you really are a child, that’s what your character is. But you actually feel like one, wandering around this brand-new world and trying to make sense of it. And perhaps you』ll get confused about what you’re really fighting for…A pleasant chord sounds tidy and cozy, like the room it is played in. Beige wallpaper, gardening tools with worn ends, a fire place that is just the right temperature. Even those lovely things aren’t enough to make a house a 「home」. The first thing that comes into your mind when you hearth is melody called《home》is someone sweet and loving, a mom-likecharacter. Or in this case, Toriel. She likes patting your head. She wants to share all the old books she has with you. She wants you to stay. Because she wants to protect you.
She’s Toriel, the first 「nice」 person, the first 「nice」 monster you ever encounter.Even if you really don’t want to shatter the peacefulness of your new home, you have no choice but to ask Toriel how you can return to the surface.You’re ready to fight for your departure, but Toriel lets you go when she sees you do have the ability to leave. She hugs you real hard real long before letting go.You can feel her sorrow and worriedness, but the road that lies ahead tempts you to go forward. The journey ahead is dark and full of terrors. It fills you with determination.You come to a snow-blanketed town. And in the middle of this very small town, stands a Christmas tree, adorned with gifts. You meet a monster child in a corner. He tells you that he’s going to play a human role in the 「monster and human」 game. A pedestrian says there’s something strange about the lady walking her pet bunny. The monsters standing beside the street have two way different ideas about how it’s like being stuck underground.Even though nothing special ever happens around, the town is peaceful and lively.You talk with the Snowdin shopkeeper and she tells you how most residents feel:Life is the same as usual. A little claustrophobic.But… we all know deep down that freedom is coming, don’t we?? As long as we got that hope, we can grit our teeth and face the same struggles, day after day…That’s life, ain’t it?The words of the shop owner fills you with determination.Temmie village is hidden away in a place only people who stumble their way through mazes can find. You’re likely to miss it completely if you have a great sense of direction. Or perhaps you find it on purpose, after searching for it on hearing a hint from the riverman —「the roombefore the darkening lantern room」.Temmies have a long history. There were once ferocious beasts, but now they are adorable monsters that speak broken English.The temmies that live in temmie village are obsessed with humans. To them, humans are just so adorable and daft-looking. Wait… are you sure they’re not talking about themselves?And the best way to win a Temmie is to show off your muscles (even if you don’t have any). Since when it comes to humans, Temmies only like the adorable ones.This is the theme song for the heroic spider leader Muffet. She runs her own bake sale for a great cause, to rescue the spiders trapped inthe ruins. And well, she plans to do this by draining the wallets of innocent passers-by…like you.You’re touched, but broke. So you give her the remaining 5 gold, all the money you have left (since you spent all the rest onthe shopkeeper Temmie’s college fee). But Muffet is not impressed and you become a nice snack for her precious pet. If you’re nimble or determined enough to survive, you are at least chased for 10 rounds.In the end, you’re exhausted and broke. But thankfully someone sends Muffet a telegram telling her that you don’t step on spiders.And even though now you don’t have a single cent to your name, you’re filled with determination.Water continuously falls down the waterfall. It’s dark and damp. The Echo flowers glow a fluorescent blue. There are no stars, so why on earth is there a telescope here?You walk along the the stream, the stone slates silently glare at you, whispering to you, stories of the war. People were afraid of the power monsters had, the power to take away souls. So, the afraid attacked, swift and sudden. Without mercy. In the end, the war turned into a slaughter. This was inevitable, since the strong humans had determination, while all the weak monsters had was mercy.Not one human soul was lost, but countless monsters turned into ashes.The Echo flowers keep repeating a conversation between two friends. A lad wants to someday climb the mountain they're allburied under. The passing conversation you hear fills you with determination.You』ve come to the most lively, most prosperous partof the city -- the core. And the prices there are even higher than the tallest building. You look at your balance and sigh. Since, after your lovely encounters with Temmies and Muffet, there’s not much left.The shop cashier complains to you that he’s already 19 years old and has already spent more than half of his lifetime. You hear this and think to yourself 「Oh man…then I must be ancient」 Ha-ha. The boy probably thinks you’re a fossil or something.The cashier keeps on complaining, you start counting your money and try to figure out the best way to buy supplies, because you can almost smell the battle ahead.（A strange light fills the room.Twilight is shining through the barrier.It seems your journey is finally over.You’re filled with DETERMINATION.）Your final opponent, the king of monsters, isn’t at all the ferocious monster you thought he would be. Actually, he looks like a Mr. Nicey Nice who likes drinking tea.He’s actually so nice that it seems a bit cowardly, despite his menacing height. But as the monster king, he must kill all humans that accidently fall down to the underground, since they need 7 human souls to open the barrier. And how fortunate! You’re the 「lucky」 number seven. The monster king turns out to be menacing in battle. Every time you save and reload, you tell him how many times you』ve been killed. He feels sad for you,but still chooses to keep on fighting.But in the end, you』ll be the one who wins. You have infinite tries to win, but Asgore loses the second you win, with no chance of trying again. That’s because you are the gamer, you can reload, you have Determination.Undertale is a fickle game. It is frank, gives you all kinds of hints. But it also becomes naughty sometimes and pulls pranks on you. For example, if you find the hidden legendary artifact. No matter what you do, it’s always stolen from you by an annoying dog. The annoying dog. Actually, this dog is meant to be the form Toby takes in the undertale world. There’s this bonus scene in the credits that shows a dog barking at a translation system, accidently making this game. The dog sounds cute and very very annoying.So why is so highly rated? I think how it reads the minds of gamers is the key to its success. This RPG (Role Playing Game) has 4 types of endings. Neutral, Genocide, True Pacifist and Soulless Pacifist. To reach the True Pacifist ending, you must not kill anyone and become friends with everyone. As for genocide, well you』ve got to kill everyone. Everyone, I mean, even the little monsters crawling in the ruins.Determination is what strings the whole game together. Be friend or behead, Determination is always there. It isn’t good or evil, just a kind of hope. And well… If the player chooses the genocide path, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s really evil or cruel. Sometimes it’s just because he thinks that he can complete the GE path. And since he can, he will.Another word that follows you your whole journey is a verb, 「Spare」. The game creator uses Toriel to tell you at the very beginning that you don’t need to kill every monster you encounter. When their names turn yellow, you can spare them. And when their names aren’t yellow, you can interact with them to make them don’t want to fight you. Toby makes it clear at the very beginning that you can get out of every battle without violence.But for gamers who have 「kill, kill, kill」 implanted in their brains, this option seems unnecessary. After all, what’s all the fuss, is someone going to sue you for killing an imaginary monster?Well, of course not. Actually, you won’t even have any blood on your hands, since monsters just turn into ash. And as long as you don’t kill every single monster, the ending won’t be that bad. Well, apart from the inerasable monster-human grudges and your being trapped underground.Whatever it may be, Sans phones you to tell the ending you』ve written. You’re its creator since it’s based on the actions you』ve made. And eventhough the details of the conversation may differ, you』ll surely hear him say: 「 Hey, if we’re not giving up down here, don’t give up wherever you are.」Some say that the characters in are too bland in personality. The good guys are too good, the bad guys are too bad. Well, perhaps is a little too fairytale-like. Some of its characters are too kind, some too naïve and others too stubborn. But Sans, the monster who seems the most flesh-like disregarding his boney appearance, has a very colorful personality. He likes pulling pranks and telling jokes. He’s lazy and pessimistic. He… well, maybe I’m painting the wrong picture. He’s actually very powerful. He knows when and how many times you have loaded your save file and remembers every monster you』ve killed. But he just watches, in silence. In other games, such a character probably is one of the bad guys, maybe even the bad-guy final boss. But in this game, he is the last guardian of justice. The real bad guy is the gamer who kills all monsters without mercy from the beginning to the very end.So what about the true pacifist ending? Well, just listen to this song《hopes and dreams》. You become friends with all the monsters, bring hope to the underground and destroy the barrier that have kept monsters imprisoned for so long. But that doesn’t mean that the gamers who finish this route are entirely innocent. What we do know, however, is that they are determined, determined to never take an easy kill, to never ignore their conscience. Whatever difficulties they were faced with, they tried to do the right thing. They refused to kill any innocent souls, and never gained any LOVE, but found real love.Ah and that reminds me. There’s one last thing I want to tell you about the game. Remember how I mentioned the word 「love」 twice in the sentence before? In the game , LOVE and love and completely different things.Toby uses whimsy abbreviations. LOVE, EXP, none of them are the things you thought they were. LOVE stands for Level Of ViolEnce. And EXP doesn’t mean it’s usually meaning 「experience」, but rather EXecution Points. Every time your EXP goes up, it means you』ve slaughtered another monster. And in the end, this all makes perfect sense, since you remember how you got no EXP when sparing…As an independently-developed game with a unique plot and funky music, the game was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews just 2 months after release. It got more than 98% likes in the first 13000 reviews. Even though it’s just a game, tells a tale that the gamers get to shape themselves. The tale can have a happy ending, or maybe not that happy… But whatever kind of tale he or she creates, the music, the characters, the determination is carved into the gamer’s heart.This show was adapted from its mirror chinese version「2017年05月18日自由音樂
——《Undertale》」, special thanks to Nawati for her wonderful Chinesedraft. I』ve really enjoyed sharing one of my favorite games with you all andthanks for listening! It seems that this piece is finally over and the weekend just around the corner. You are filled with determination.
英格蘭小土豆
小熊貓科小熊貓屬小土豆。
已赴英格蘭學習炸薯條的做法。