UNDERTALE

Undertale is a role-playing game created by indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface. Some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.

Outside of some artwork, Fox developed the entirety of the game by himself, including the script and music. The game took inspiration from several sources. These include the Mother, Chrono Trigger, Brandish, and Mario & Luigi role-playing series, the bullet hell shooter series Touhou Project, and the British comedy show Mr. Bean. Originally, Undertale was meant to be two hours in length and was set to be released in mid-2014. However, development was delayed over the next three years.

The game was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in September 2015. It was also ported to Linux in July 2016, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in August 2017, and the Nintendo Switch in September 2018. The first chapter of a related game, Deltarune, was released in October 2018.

Undertale takes place in the Underground, a realm to where monsters, once equal to humans, were banished after war broke out between them. The Underground is sealed from the surface world by an imperfect magic barrier, the only point of entry being at Mount Ebott. A human child falls into the Underground and encounters Flowey, a sentient flower who teaches them the game's mechanics and encourages them to raise their "LV", or "LOVE", by gaining "EXP" through killing monsters. When Flowey attempts to murder the human to take their soul for himself, the human is rescued by Toriel, a motherly goat-like monster, who teaches the human to solve puzzles and survive conflict in the Underground without killing. She intends to adopt the human, wanting to protect them from Asgore Dreemurr, the king of the Underground.