Undertale is a short, linear role-playing game, which was developed in the GameMaker engine by Toby Fox, that fully released on September 15, 2015,¹⁾ before 8-4 helped out with the localization and console ports. It would be followed up with Deltarune, the original concept.²⁾³⁾

The story follows a young protagonist who ends up underground and must find their way back to the surface, while passing through a civilization of sealed-away, personhood-exhibiting monsters that the protagonist may choose to help or hurt along the way. It shouldn't be a surprise that the main theme of 'morality' is pushed onto the player, especially given its “friendly RPG where nobody has to die” slogan.⁴⁾⁵⁾⁶⁾

Much of the game's appeal came from its simple presentation, soundtrack, and how the story was mainly told through a messy 'flag' system that encourages multiple playthroughs in order to get the 'full' experience. Details aside, the game has been taken apart to its limit and there's not much left to talk about, without bringing up the Deltarune connection or the entire 10th anniversary stream.

Toby Fox would start developing Deltarune in April 2012,⁷⁾ but shelved the project for being too dark and came up with a game where nobody had to die instead.⁸⁾ In 2013, early screenshots surfaced,⁹⁾ then Fangamer streamed a demo¹⁰⁾ that later became public,¹¹⁾ and the crowdfunding campaign raised $51,124 with a release estimate of Summer 2014.¹²⁾ The project would then be quietly delayed to September 15, 2015.¹³⁾

“i think genocide run erases everything.”
– Toby Fox¹⁴⁾

In the past, the term 'Genocide Route' was briefly controversial, despite literally involving a systematic killing, and 'No Mercy Route' was coined as an alternative name.¹⁵⁾ The misconception came from a Tumblr post where a user's sister watched a griefer's stream¹⁶⁾¹⁷⁾ and allegedly saw Holocaust jokes in the chatroom,¹⁸⁾ but it was mistaken as a demand from Toby Fox and not a general advisory.¹⁹⁾²⁰⁾

Looking back at it, these concerns are still as stupid as it was when it came up, though I would've been more open to the idea if people actually provided an equal replacement for 'Pacifist Route' was proposed as well, such as 'Merciful Route' and 'Merciless Route' for example. Regardless, the 'Genocide Route' name won out, and you've probably seen people debate the applicability of the term 'genocide' nowadays.

• Toby Fox has a lot of history that he has tried to scrub from the internet.²¹⁾ I will let you draw your own conclusions on why that is, but it's quite surprising that we have records of his EarthBound hacks,²²⁾ how a now-disgraced musician invited him onto the Homestuck music team,²³⁾ and his approach to the music team going on strike.²⁴⁾²⁵⁾
  • In The Making of Radiation's Halloween Hack,²⁶⁾ it was revealed that Megalovania drew inspiration from Brandish 2's 'Gadobadorrer' and Live A Live's 'Megalomania'.
• I used to be an Undertale Wiki administrator from October 2015 to May 2016, but I voluntarily retired as a precaution, plus the game was pretty much well documented at that point before the 8-4 ports.
  • Early on, the Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion developer, who was also a secret administrator for the Five Nights at Freddy's Wiki, was brought in as an administrator. I don't really have much to say about her, since I mostly managed the night shift and avoided the chatroom for a while.
• There used to be an unofficial Japanese translation patch for Undertale which used to available from March 2016 to August 2017, as this was long before 8-4 would be revealed to be working on the official localization.²⁷⁾ One of the most notable volunteers was Hato Moa, author of Hatoful Boyfriend.
• In the official Japanese localization, Sans uses the 'Happy Luika' (ハッピールイカ) font, and Papyrus uses the 'Tanuki Yusei Magic' (たぬき油性マジック) font in a more vertical manner.
  • For the record, the unofficial Japanese translation patch simply used the game's default font instead.
  • At one point, the Japanese localization briefly considered renaming Sans to 'Pop' (ポップ) as they initially planned to have him use 'Souei Kaku Pop-tai' (創英角ポップ体) before licensing issues came up, and Papyrus to 'Taterus' (タテルス) as a very obvious pun on 'tategaki' (縦書き).
• Based on what we know about the endings, the line of succession would be: Asgore, Toriel, Undyne, Mettaton, and Papyrus. After that, the throne would then lie vacant unless the Annoying Dog or Alphys steps in under very specific circumstances.

• Homestuck

• Undertale - The official website for Undertale.
  • @undertale and @undertalejp on Twitter - The official accounts for the Undertale series.
  • @tobyfox on Twitter - Andrew? Andrew Hussie? Is that you?
• Undertale Wiki - The unofficial independent wiki.

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