How Undertale PERFECTED Meta Storytelling 

I like to point out how every character loses their "charm" in Geno. Besides Flowey, only one that comes close is Undyne because HER determination is inspiring. But even then, you just get half of it. You miss out on her bombastic friendship, her flaws, and her connection to other characters. But Sans is the only one in tact. He jokes around, he eventually loses because he gets "too tired" (aka demotivated), and he cares about Papyrus (at least during Snowdin and muttering his name in his last breath). He's the only "character" left in Geno and since every character has turned into merely enemies and bosses, his character is in the forefront of Geno. This could even play into the whole "stopping the player" thing, using his humor and twisting it to make it threatening might be an attempt to stop the player.

I swear to god Toby Fox scares me so much with how he was able to play with us so much with this game and that laughter genuinely gave me chills

I don’t like living in the Meta Renaissance and miss Sincerity. Undertale’s Meta aspect works because it does something interesting with the meta storytelling rather than it being. “LOOK LOOK LOOK LOOK! Guys!! We’re in the video game!!!”

There is another take on the Soulless genocide ending that I like even more regarding this subject. After a player completes all the main routes, there won't be much else left to do. There are a few "paths you haven't taken", but Undertale is pretty much "gone" for what it had to offer. In this state, playing the same exact route you already played again doesn't usually have the purpose of finding new content. If there is a single different secret, you can simply look for it online. The most common way people find themself playing Genocide again is because they are attached to Undertale. Because they -miss- when it still had something for them, when numbers could still be increased and it didn't feel soulless. They miss fighting Sans or Undyne the Undying for the first time and go through the game aimlessly hoping it can make them feel that way again. Upon meeting Chara, they'll say "This SOUL resonates with a strange feeling. There is a reason you continue to recreate this world. There is a reason you continue to destroy it. You are wracked with a perverted sentimentality." For those who don't know, being sentimental means being overly attached to good memories of something and ending up acting guided by emotion rather than thought. Chara, being everything that is your detachment from the game cannot understand that. For what they embody, this world means absolutely nothing to them. It's a world like any other, made to be consumed because it's possible to do so. They walk through papyrus' puzzles, ignoring him and calling him forgettable. They interrupt dialogues from others, impatient to reach the end and not caring about the content itself. When you equip the true knife they comment "About time." The addictive nature of numbers increasing in videogames can become destructive if you allow it to take control of you. Destructive for your own experience. You can only discover a piece of media once, that's why you should care about each part of it. Let it create sensations, emotions, memories that stay with you and make it much more than something useful only as long as it has something to offer. In fact, after Chara calls you out for your own sentimentality, they ask to destroy the world again. And if the player chooses "do not", their reaction will be "No...?This feeling that you have... This is exactly what I spoke of. Unfortunately, regarding this... YOU MADE YOUR CHOICE LONG AGO." - followed by the game's death. In an interview, Toby was asked something about this. The interview mentioned how Undertale is filled with miniature "voids" where you are forced to contemplate your experience without being rewarded directly. And asks if Toby believes people have become addicted to experiences and contents. Toby's reply was: "The addictive quality of numbers increasing is what drives a lot of games. However, some of the most important things in life cannot be accurately represented by numbers." Which is why Chara, the feeling "every time a number increases" can't understand those important things. The more humane part of you, outside of the demon. The one part that you lost control to when your curiosity became so much you erased your happy ending just to have more, which is why Chara "steals" your SOUL. About the abc123 file, I wanted to add something you'll love. Many players are familiar with that creepy audio, but not many know the full story. The files of Undertale had lots of secrets to satisfy players' curiosity. One of them, along with the abc file, is found at the start of the Undertale code. This string of text became known as "The Demon Message" in the datamining communities, because every single variable for it is titled "Demon" in the code. Message is the following: "Part of this game's charm is the mystery of how many options or secrets there are. If you are reading this, please don't post this message or this information anywhere. Or doing secrets will become pointless. By the way, most of the seemingly unused text/files are used. If you can find the in-game context for an asset, you can show it off. But if you can't, it probably means you haven't looked hard enough. Anything truly unused I'll probably post myself, later. Living in a world like this, where people can simply cheat out the answers from the code... your impatience has REALLY damaged you, hasn't it?” This message was purely aimed at dataminers, who started exploiting every secret of the files sometimes before even actually checking if something appears in the game or not. A tedious, repetitive, Impatient hint of thousands of strings just for the far hope it contains something new. Reminds you of anything? =) After Undertale received its first update, the abc message was updated to the creepy laugh we know about. This is because players did not listen to the warning and did not resist their curiosity, immediately posting the secret online. However... The demon message changed as well. The entire original demon message got deleted, and from V1.001 forward, if you choose to open the code you are welcomed by the demon messages that will now say "Greetings. You have made yourself completely clear. Understood. I, your humble servant, will follow you to the utmost..."

I love how Undertale Yellow, Deltarune, and TS!Underswap managed to recapture what made this game good and then some

This is something I only discovered recently, but is possibly my favourite part of this game. So, many people know if you do entire runs back to back, small things change, but I recently did two true pacifist runs back to back. Many changes were subtle, papyrus saying he recognised me, undyne saying she feels like we're friends, standard stuff. However, the most interesting changes in character is flowey. At the start of the game he pops up in the black screen like he usually does at the end of a run, and he tells me to make friends with everyone. After that when the game loads up, mot only did he not try to kill me, but he wasnt even there in the ruins. Most shocking of all, the end. So I killed asgore expecting him to go omega, but he didnt. He showed up with the souls, but just said, 'they'll probably just revolt again, so theres no point' then broke the barrier. I lost my shit, I wasnt expecting that at all. All this to say, this game handles the concepts it uses extremely well

This clip with Etika, i didn't even know how to act when it came up He will always be my number one person when it comes to undertale, i can't think of a single other big youtuber who was attached to this game to the point where he almost cried when killing Froggit, i wish he was still here On the other note, these undertale essay videos never fail to amaze me, the understanding you have of the game and the characters is remarkable, and the way how no matter how many year pass there will still be topics to be discussed about this game is exactly why it's so timeless

Holy crap I can already tell this video is going to be a banger, let me grab a snack or something hold on a sec

I see something interesting with the Sans boss fight Flowey as a final boss weaponizes the reset, but Sans weaponizes everything else Going first, dodging his enemies’ attacks, not being allowed invincibility from his opponent’s attacks, and a betrayal kill on someone sparing him, these are all things the player can do.

I am so glad we're at a point in this game's lifespan where the thematic intent of why it was made is being discussed so frequently. HELL YEAH!!

6:25 Not every enemy is treated with respect. I mean how could you ever respect Jerry?

I'm so glad someone finally talks about Chara's characterization instead of chalking it up to 'theyre just a demon representative of evil'. Over and over again I'd hear people say that Chara is on board with whatever we do, subtly appearing when we interact with the game, that were the ONLY evil thats forcing Charas spirit to bear our sins burden. It never sat right with me and I was always convinced that the characters connections and story are playing a role in their dialogue and actions, chosing to appear when their needs are met or feel like they can gain something out of us, the player, whos even further beyond the game than Flowey and Chara are. They dont exist as mere vessels to make us do their bidding. They didnt live through the horrors they did for us to simply chalk them up to being soulless evils. This is probably the best analysis I've watched so far, even after 8 years I still find out more things about my favourite game.

I never considered the parallels between Pacifist "Chara's plan to free monsterkind that Asriel goes along with, but can't see through to the end" and Geno "Chara's/your plan to destroy the world that Flowey goes along with, but can't see through to the end" man undertale is so good

In case you can't read Wingdings, the Gaster at 15:19 says "SUBSCRIBE"

Catch your “here before this explodes” pass here!

So…I’m pretty sure someone already said this in the comments, but I just gonna say it: The Geno route is purposefully trying to make you stop doing it. Think about it. You have to wander endlessly killing until you get the “but nobody came”. Then the game becomes ominous. All the puzzles in the Ruins were already done, and everyone fled from you, so the only thing you can really do is just go to Toriel and kill her. Then there’s Snowdin, and you grind yet again. Papyrus’s puzzles don’t appeal as much as they did before, because you automatically walk past them. Snowdin Town is a ghost town, with an eerie note begging you to spare the shopkeeper’s family. Then, you kill Papyrus. Waterfall is where things get really interesting. You fight Monster Kid, who could easily get killed. The two of you have been touring Waterfall and telling stories, but now you have to kill them. Undyne (I hope I spelled that right lol) steps in, and for a second you think this will be the climax you’ve been waiting for. All those massacres, bland puzzles and betrayals would finally be worth it. But instead, you’re treated with an incredibly hard boss fight. The amount of times you would die in this is intense, and I bet some RU-vidr’s actually quit Geno because of it At last, you murder her and continue. But this time, it’s much worse. I’m pretty sure Hotland has the most creatures to kill. And with Alphy’s evacuating everyone, it’s up to Mettaton to stop you. But he doesn’t. You have to go on another bland massacre, with most of the puzzles disabled. You take a pit stop at MTT resort, but BurgerPants is the only guy you can talk to. Then there’s the core. More enemies, less interactions. Alphys doesn’t guide you anymore, so you just cruise over to Mettaton. This time, they transform into Mettaton NEO to kill you. And yet again, after all the killing, running,stealing, betraying and dying, you think it’s gonna be worth it. But they die in ONE HIT. At this point, the game has given up hope on stopping you. Flowey gives info about his past, and now that’s pretty much the only interesting thing at New Home. But even then…Flowey gets afraid of you. Then there’s Sans. Sans is the games last defence, their last attempt of stoping you. Every action you make either stalls the fight, or makes it harder. After that insanely difficult fight, it’s over. There’s nothing you can do. The Asgore fight gets completely abandoned, and Flowey actually feels something. But it doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters now. You’ve did it. After the hardships and struggles, your determination prevailed. At the end of the day, it’s just a game after all. Honestly I think my essay will be clowned at lol.

"Every battle is treated with respect" ...except Jerry.

5:39 That is probably the most down-to-earth way I've heard anyone describe Sans' arc in the story.

I'd like to bring attention to the other meta element of Undertale. If the game realizes you're cheating by modifying your save data, you'll be treated to the "dirty hacker" ending, an ending that has Sans calling you out for cheating.

I don’t comment often but wanted to say your take on this game feels like one of the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve been a fan since my friend told me about it years ago, but i feel like a lot of people who both like, hate, or are indifferent about the game are not able to place ‘why’ it was and still is such a sensation. This gave me a lot to chew on. Also you’re a real one for the Etika clips (RIP). Loved this video.

that ending had me quietly screaming "DON'T YOU DARE" over and over on by school bus

I like how everyone just uses my geno playthrough video because they don't have the heart to do it themselves lol.

The neutral route is like the middle sibling, always forgotten. Atleast undertale yellow went all out with it

Undertale is a game that accurately shows how scary human determination is

Ironically, One-Shot would reconstruction the New Game Plus as being a simulation of events before the true finale, so you're not screwing with the lives of people you've already saved in the best ending, but are exploring different possibilities.

Undertale my beloved, you were my first fandom and I see you in ever new interest I gain

I played Undertale when I was around 8 years old. Any message it was trying to convey was lost on me because there were jokes and my baby mind focused on that. In the assumption that the genocide route would have some more fun I played that. It made me feel awful... I didn't get out of the "funny" perspective until around a year ago when someone else discussed the genocide route and I realized that I didn't need to play it. I am haunted by my sins. 10/10 game.

I mean…it is “character”. So “chara” would likely be pronounced as the prefix to “character” at least, what I think. (I woullldddd tone down the sound effects a bit. It got a bit irritating at the start) 😅 But that aside, freakin excellent breakdown. I love the distinction between The Undertale and Undertale TM. That’s a pretty unique way on interpreting this game that I haven’t seen in many other places. Also the discussion about the moral not just being “murder bad” is not something I normally think about, that was quite insightful ^^

Pacifist isn’t dubbed “true pacifist” actually. Pacifist refers to the neutral ending where you don’t kill anyone and “true pacifist” refers to the specific pacifist ending you get if you also hang out with papyrus, undyne and alphys🤓

2:22 correction: Toby Fox's current magnum opus is "The Baby is You"

Me, having never seen this channel before, after the first minute and a half of this video: *Ooh, I’m gonna like this creator.*

“Defining a Medium” Yeah…. Hell of a game for us whos childhoods were defined by said medium, after peeling back the layers, its no wonder Undertale got the attention for the being as speical as it is. Personally, those last two Chara monologues have been burned into the back of my mind since and summer of 2017.

Okay this is probably my favorite take on a character that has more takes than actual info on them. The explanation you gave for chara as both a representation bur also a character in the game which makes them unable to truly represent us completely.

Even beyond what's in the game itself, I think it adds more onto the meta-narrative that once the fanbase had seen every little thing there was to see, they started to create their own content via fan AUs and other fanfiction. Quite a large amount of people became so obsessed with Undertale that they couldn't let go after doing everything there was to do and started making their own worlds. Thinking of it from a meta-narrative standpoint it makes perfect sense that Sans is the most popular character, he's the most fleshed out character who is aware of the player's actions outside of any single playthrough. There isn't anyone better suited to tie together all the fan content people create in their endless need for more time with the characters. From a meta-narrative standpoint it would be interesting to envision the fanbase as a self-serving deity, creating worlds solely to live vicariously through its creations and experience all the fun, drama and suffering they do. Very well made video, hope you can grow your channel because you deserve it with content like this.

this is surely THE undertale video. you just encapsulated a lot of points that i couldn't put to words and did it perfectly, and the irony of this video existing is so cool to me. maybe this is the first time im watching it, but no way its the last

This is a really good analysis, I feel i understand more about the game than before! Great video

This topic seems… Very Very Interesting… (Now I gotta get back to watching this amazing video!❤✨)

Man I did not expect an Etika cameo. I miss Etika

I think that OneShot has the best meta story telling! It takes the player as an actual character much like undertale! You don’t control the main character, but you instead guide them!

The story of this game is really good and interesting for me and everyone. “Despite everything, it’s still you”. I know what it means for me. The routes teaches me a lesson. That also kindness are not the answer but the violence is sometimes the answer but not really. I felt the same thing. But not much.

The editing is so charming! Love love love the sound FX, and the motion graphic elements! Also, awesome breakdown of the narrative 🎉. Haven’t played the game, but the joyful tone it seems to evoke from you makes me interested! I better clear up some time in my schedule, and re-download the game on the switch ❤ also, never even considered the actual messaging of the game 😭 I know that sounds crazy, but you did a phenomenal job explaining the meaning of the game

Oh my god that ending sequence with the heartfelt music and beautiful moments and then the true reset is haunting

Chara: CAR-uh (IS CAHARA A CAR) CARE-uh (MAYBE CHARA CARES ABOUT YOU) Char-uh (I don’t know) CHAIR-UH (IS CHARA A CHAIR UNDERTABLE LORE INCOMING)

This is THE Undertale video that explains and shows every aspect of one of the primary reasons as to WHY I fell in love with this game. Thank you for your video ❤

... well. a video essay on my favorite aspect on my favorite game? this is not what i was expecting for today. that being said, this is a cool video. learned things i didn't know before, seeing things in a bit of a new light. and of course abc_123 or whatever had to be put in there... this just puts all the random ideas i had about this game floating in my head into one cohesive group, and that's awesome.

I hope there's never a movie or TV adaptation. Undertale would not be Undertale if it wasn't a game.

Honestly I prefer oneshot. It feels like it sticks the meta landing better. Obviously it'll depend player to player but frisk being a blank slate protagonist really makes me feel a bit less connected to the world than the characterization Niko gets.

I'm almost 100% sure that Deltarune is going to be THE meta storytelling game of ALL TIME cuz Toby made UT as practice to make deltarune. Plus he said he had thought of an ending so good, that he had to make a game for it. (it being DR)

This is an amazing video! I had my mind blown so many times, you’re bringing out new ways to look at the game that I never even thought about before

I was a huge fan of the game for years from 2016 and eventually grew out of it, but an artist brought Undertale Yellow fan content to my timeline and I had to check UT out again. I've just watched multiple new playthroughs, reinvesting my love for the game after a long time. It made me want to remember everything I forgot. The reactions were amazing and just as they should've been, but they didn't cover all that I knew they could've. I wanted to see all the extra content again. It's funny I found this video. 100% I'm not a gamer, but I adore seeing theories and ranbles and fan content and analysis and anything I've not seen before. I love that I personally don't have to do it. There are people out there willing to look and create. I'm happy to consume. Thanks for making this video. You've earned a subscriber. :D

This is such a great video!!

upon my playthrough of the game, i originally played with my boyfriend. he had killed a couple monsters despite me not wanting to, but nevertheless i continued on a neutral run and finished the game. then i completed the true pacifist run on my own. i loved every single bit of it and made sure to experience every bit of content for myself. then it ended. i couldn’t bring myself to do the genocide. to this day that game remains on my desktop with the option of the true reset. the possibility scares me.

Man that was GOOD. Thank you so much for your work!

Last time I did a geno run I named myself "cheese" so when chara showed herself she said "I am cheese" best line in the game

god this is so good… subscribed

Its still so cool that undertale always has something new to be talked about. the game released when i was 8 years old. i didn't play it then but i discovered it years after. and today i am 17 and I'm about to turn 18 in a few months. its so crazy that this game still has something to say. Toby Fox is a flippin' genius and this video just proves that again.

another parallel between the player and flowey similar to the player and chara one you mentioned: flowey has reset time and time again, starting with pacifist, and then doing genocide and presumably every single route possible. but when you fall down, he's still a murder psycho. i guarantee you, if a real player was to see a random major change they hadn't seen before, they would play pacifist again, like shown how basically everyone played pacifist first in deltarune when that came out. if someone else smarter than me could help interpret this that'd be great, but it was something i've been thinking of recently.

Had to pause at 23:38 because even the first few words hit me like a train. Dropping that without warning was so cruel, but I don't think you could've chosen a better way to convey your point.

Something I find interesting that I don’t see a lot if people talk about is how Geno isn’t just about “kill all the monsters that you can for content”, but how it’s about twisting the story itself for what YOU want. Undertale already has a very clear story that it wants you to follow, even if there are neutral branches. To do geno, you have to push against how the game itself is constructed. The grind is boring because it’s not meant to be a game about grinding kills, the story falls apart because you kill off important characters, etc. You make it into the power fantasy that most RPGs are built to be: everything is crushed more and more easily except for a couple super bosses, but part of the power fantasy is going up against a worthy foe. Then you conquer all foes, and thus the game/world. Then there’s Deltarune, where you have to go out of your way to break the story by using Noelle to kill people. Part of this route also has you being possessive/controlling of her (like saying she’ll ride the Ferris wheel with you, that we’re “something else” instead of just friends before taking the snow ring by force, etc.) which suggests that the Snowgrave route will also disrupt the (probably) planned pairing of Susie and Noelle by having Kris have her instead. In fact I wonder if having the options to pick/flirt with other chars like Ralsei could also have ramifications later. A commentary on games where you can make characters fall for you perhaps? In both cases, you’re making the story about YOU and what YOU want, rather than just being just one person in a living world and mostly being along for the ride.

Huge thumbs up, that video really gave me ynother point of view on this game, thx man, keep it up

You did an amazing job on this video. This is the best analysis for Undertale I've ever seen. The detachment the player has to have to the characters in the Geno route is such a commentary on how people consume video games today and even how detached people are to real world problems while they're happening through a screen. Great video.

*Seeing you talk about Frisk's story fills you with determination.*

I always figured it was "Care-uh" because I thought Chara was short for character.

Every time you show Gaster as you say "very, VERY-", i die a little more out of laughter I have no idea why or how that shit makes me laugh still almost a decade later

"It's me chara" GOLDEN FREDDY IN UNDERTALE CONFIRMED

wonderfully written and executed. subbed.

Thanks for the video!✨ This thing Toby did was amazing!♥️ I love undertale!! You're video does show how good of a game he made and what elements full potential he showed!!

this is the best video essay on Undertale I've seen :)

26:17 I... never actually thought about that. We all knew that was emotion filled but not the implications that come with that.

I always took the use of the title "True Pacifist" to distinguish from the Pacifist variant of Neutral ending, with the use of true coming from the area exclusive to it: True Lab

To add on to the point at 22:35, in the Asgore fight he DESTROYS the Mercy button. And, in that battle, the more turns you delay fighting the stronger his attacks becomes. You can only win by making him weak enough (and then deciding his fate).

No matter how old I get and how much stuff happens in my life, I still cry whenever I see this game

ETIKA UGH MY FEELS NO😢

Undertale is the sort of game that makes you think and feel, and feel, and FEEL. You can play it however you wish... sort of. The game sees you and is aware of every. little. thing you do. and it reacts to you. I respect that.

I predict this will be your most popular video for a while.

this was such a good analysis!

After this video ended I immediately clicked on your profile icon to see if you made anything else like this. Good stuff.

Always love new videos always analyze why Undertale is so popular and one of my fave games

I never even did the genocide run to find out what would happen, I just looked online. I don’t have that kind of will, that kind of determination. My soul is green bro.

this is such an amazing videos i loved it so sosoososos much!!!

I will watch all your Undertale/Deltarune esseys religiously. Make more i beg you 🔥😳

IIRC Chara isn't the one who started stabbing Flowey, the player is. They hesitated, and only took over once you pushed them again. (but even then Flowey killing Asgore means the player can't take his soul, pass the barrier and escape to the world of humans). In general, I like to think of Chara as a helper who can turn as bad or good as the player, but I'm a strong supporter of Chara not being evil so I'm a bit biased here. PS: Thank you for including Etika's let's play of Undertale, it's one of my favorites on the platform. He was so hyped by how badass Undyne the Undying sounded. It is so tragic what happened to him. Rest in peace.

1m sub RU-vidr-quality video

I am a firm believer in the idea that the true experience of undertale is to play the game, get a neutral ending, play again without killing anybody, get the true pacifist ending, and then delete the game forever.

You did a really great job with this video! It was fun to listen to and I really liked the point at the end about being remembered for what it has to say, it was pretty nice. Thank you for all the work you put into this video!

Awesome essay !!!

You cannot "perfect" metalinguistic art for Kantian self-criticism is an infinitely self-referential process. Undertale is post-Kojima, who is post Mother and so on.

The thing about Undertale is the game lets you decide what you want to be, whether you're a pacifist (good), a genocidal maniac (evil), or somewhere in between. This game is a sort of morality test, and your choices are what change the results. This game is so limitless with decisions that there are technically over 90 endings, if you count every change in the Neutral ending (the changes are from your choices) as individual endings. Basically, what I'm trying to say is your choices are what decide the fate of not just the Monsters, but your own fate, and the game won't just let you erase your actions unless you finish True Pacifist (disregarding true Genocide, there's no fixing that).

10:51 I got the game a few months ago cause I was finally able to get steam to work. Before that I already knew basically 99% of the lore and a bunch of theories about it

Can we just appreciate that there are many people today who can be recommended to you even if they don't have that many subscribers? honestly the best videos I have seen in the last let's say 2 years have been from people with under 100k who under the circumstances of 10 years ago youtube, I would have never knew that they existed. Too bad at the same time there is a lot of low quality content , but people like you turn the balance over and make this site enjoyable, nice job

Tons of games have done meta-storytelling to varying degrees, but when it comes to what the best case of it in recent memory could be, there is, atleast in my opinion, no topping UNDERTALE. Some games have come before and after and have gotten close, that much is true, but UNDERTALE is on its own level to me, and this video is a great showcase of how and why. This is a great watch!

The only thing missing is the fact tht you barely aknowledged the fact that neutral and pacifist are meant to be 2 separate runs. You were never meant to never kill a monster in your first run.

I thoroughly enjoyed this video :)

28:40 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Absolutely

Undertale is an experiment by toby fox afterall, an experiment towards the audiences' DETERMINATION

I appreciate you including mad mew mew and showing a clip of mad dummy, because they’re the same character.

this just made me think about how so much info about gaster is so heavily gatekept by toby and we don't even truly know if the figure in waterfall is him because of people trying so hard to know absolutely everything about undertale and searching endlessly for it. like i think we'll truly never know the full complete story and we as a fandom will have to make a lot of inferences on the full ut + dt story/timeline because we'll never get those final bits of small info that people scrape all over for.. if that makes senseeee.. like people are trying to milk the game for all its content as described in doing the genocide route (even multiple times) just to know more but like this is the one thing we can't do that on ..

This was literally amazing

The red gaster lettering says "SUBCRIBE" yes in all upper case 15:19

When after finishing the pacifist game and go all the way to the beggining you can have last conversation with asriel.