Chapter 23: Undertale's Multiple Endings

Game Development: Starting by Healing the Players 

Chapter 23: Undertale's Multiple Endings 

Putting aside its meta elements, Undertale's story was already quite outstanding on its own.

The game was filled with all kinds of interesting and charismatic characters.

For example, there was Sans, who shook hands with the protagonist while secretly holding a whoopee cushion in his hand, and his brother Papyrus, who was obsessed with using puzzles to block the protagonist's path.

Sans appeared extremely lazy and loved making skeleton-related puns to tease his brother Papyrus.

His brother Papyrus, meanwhile, was extremely enthusiastic about using puzzles and various mechanisms to stop the protagonist. Yet whenever the protagonist didn't actively solve the puzzles, or simply had no way of figuring them out, Papyrus would take the initiative to reveal the answers.

Then there was the female scientist who lived like a shut-in.

But what truly shocked players was what Sans said in the magnificent golden corridor just before the final boss battle.

There, Sans began passing judgment on everything the player had done.

From Sans, players learned that EXP didn't mean the usual "experience points." It stood for "execution points."

And LV wasn't what players had assumed either. It wasn't simply "LOVE," but an abbreviation for "Level of Violence."

Every time the player killed a monster, their execution points increased. As their execution points rose, their Level of Violence would increase as well.

It wasn't experience.

It wasn't character level.

It was the game's measure of violence.

That was where Undertale overturned the traditional conventions of RPGs.

Killing monsters to level up was something that most RPG players took for granted.

But in Undertale, things were different.

For most players experiencing the game for the first time, they would reach the first ordinary ending. They would encounter Flowey and be deeply shocked by what happened.

However, if players chose not to kill Flowey at the end of the ordinary route, they would learn from him how to achieve the Pacifist Ending.

In the Pacifist route, players had to avoid killing a single monster and instead make friends with every monster through dialogue and interaction.

As they progressed through this route, players would discover that every monster had its own unique personality.

Even monsters that looked terrifying had an adorable side to them.

Take Undyne, for example. She was practically the textbook definition of a tsundere!

“Listen, human, we're not just going to become friends.”

“We're going to become best friends.”

“I'm going to make you absolutely obsessed with me.”

“This is my perfect revenge.”

Under Papyrus's use of reverse psychology, the legendary captain of the Royal Guard ended up accepting the protagonist as a friend.

She even gave the protagonist a cooking lesson, although that cooking lesson ultimately resulted in her house being burned down.

The skeleton brothers, Toriel, Undyne—and especially the final confrontation with the King and Toriel's adopted son, Asriel, brought countless players to tears.

During this battle, when the player died, the game didn't display a traditional "Game Over."

Instead, a line of text appeared:

“But it refused.”

Finally, with the determination of countless friends helping them, the player defeated Asriel.

At the same time, they learned more about the game's backstory from Asriel himself.

Long, long ago, a human child had fallen into the Underground.

By chance, Asriel rescued the child, and the King and Toriel took the human in.

The two children became the best of friends.

But for some reason, Asriel eventually lost his friend.

Asriel then absorbed the first human child's soul, transforming into an immensely powerful being with the ability to pass through the barrier.

Asriel left the Underground and went to the surface in order to fulfill his friend's final wish.

But the humans mistakenly believed that Asriel had killed the child and attacked him.

Eventually, covered in wounds, Asriel staggered back home.

He collapsed in the garden, turned to dust, and scattered throughout the flowers.

His determination, meanwhile, was infused into a golden flower.

This was the origin of Flowey.

In this final battle, Asriel finally found release and peace, letting go of the pain he had clung to for so long.

The ordinary ending and the Pacifist Ending had both been obtained.

It seemed that players should have been satisfied by this point.

But human curiosity was relentless.

The mysterious EXP, the Level of Violence, the execution points, and Flowey's darker side all seemed to drive players toward uncovering yet another ending.

And it was in this ending that players would truly experience an indescribable level of shock, along with a profound degree of spiritual and philosophical reflection.

………………

Sitting in front of his computer, Jiang Ping's expression was extremely serious.

“Three remaining in the current area.”

A notification appeared on the monitor.

In the Underground, the monsters had already been slaughtered almost to the last one.

There were only three monsters left in this area that he had yet to find.

The map was deserted, and the lively tavern that had once been bustling with activity was now completely silent.

At this moment, Jiang Ping felt something he couldn't quite put into words.

He had been very curious about Chen Xu's new game, Undertale, especially after playing Mirror, the adult game.

From his initial disdain upon entering the game to the shock he felt when he completed it, the experience had been quite a journey.

After achieving both the ordinary ending and the Pacifist Ending, he had become curious about the so-called Genocide Route.

But now, he felt a little regretful.

The monsters who had once been his friends in the previous playthrough were dying one after another at his hands, all simply to satisfy the requirements of the game's story.

Including Papyrus.

That skeleton, who was practically like a little angel, still believed right up until his death that Jiang Ping could turn over a new leaf.

“What a convenient excuse. Surely you understand better than anyone else how liberating this method can be!”

“But at least we're better than those hypocrites who stand by and watch evil being done. Those pathetic people want to see it for themselves, but they're too cowardly to do the dirty work themselves!”

The game's narration was filled with biting sarcasm.

But Jiang Ping still didn't stop.

Every monster was killed in a single blow.

Until he encountered the captain of the Royal Guard once again—Undyne.

Beside a waterfall, Undyne appeared and took a blow meant for a small, yellow, bean-shaped monster.

As the captain of the Royal Guard, she had always protected the monsters of the Underground.

But now, she said that she had let everyone down.

Yet just as she was about to die, an impassioned BGM suddenly began to play.

The wind howled.

A flash of white light swept across the screen.

Undyne the Undying appeared.

“Heroine reformed by her own DETERMINATION to save Earth.”

As Jiang Ping listened to the stirring theme, “Battle Against a True Hero,” he couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of irony.

The monster in the game had been given the title of a hero.

Meanwhile, the protagonist he was controlling was doing exactly what a monster should have been doing.

This was the most difficult battle he had faced in the game so far.

After struggling desperately to kill Undyne, he continued onward.

Eventually, he arrived at a familiar place.

The throne room entrance.

It was magnificent and bathed in golden splendor.

And there, waiting ahead, was a familiar figure.

Earlier, Sans had judged the player for everything they had done.

But now?

There was no need for any more words.

The battle began immediately.

“What a beautiful day!”

“The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming!”

“On days like these, people like you…”

“Should be burning in Hell!”

As the final words fell, an overwhelming barrage of attacks swept toward him like a tidal wave, instantly killing the completely unprepared Jiang Ping.

He tried again and again.

He made attempt after attempt.

Finally, just when he was on the verge of defeating Sans, Sans seemed to come up with a solution.

He simply stopped taking his turn.

But unfortunately, Sans still failed.

Just as when the King had been killed, Flowey appeared again and launched a surprise attack, killing Sans.

But unlike the Flowey from the ordinary ending, this time Flowey was filled with fear toward the protagonist, desperately begging not to be killed.

But in the next moment, eight consecutive slashes tore him into pieces.

It seemed that everything was finally over.

But then someone appeared who left Jiang Ping completely stunned.

Chara.

The human child who had originally been the first to fall into the Underground.

It had been awakened from death.

Two choices appeared before him:

Destroy this world.

Or do not destroy it.

Looking at the pitch-black, lifeless surroundings and the eerie figure of Chara, Jiang Ping felt an overwhelming sense of oppression.

At first, he had only wanted to find out what happened in this ending.

Halfway through, he had regretted his decision.

But he hadn't stopped.

And now, that regret was even stronger.

So he chose “No.”

But in the next moment, Chara's expression became sinister.

“You misunderstood something. When did you get to decide what happens to this world?”

As Chara's words appeared on the screen, a flash of the knife swept across it.

The game screen began trembling.

A series of blood-red damage numbers—9999 after 9999—filled the entire screen.

Then the game automatically closed.

Was this the ending of the Genocide Route?

Sitting in front of the computer, Jiang Ping took a deep breath and pressed his lips together...

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Tn: I updated the story once a day, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.

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