Killing the Narrative: No Mercy Revisited | Undertale Analysis

before. Many times throughout this run in Undertale, characters like Flowey, Sans, and Undyne have questioned your lack of humanity, and now, at LV 20, you are so powerful that you have ascended beyond the form of a mere human. You are the player. You exist outside of the game and are not subject to its rules. There is no longer an enemy strong enough to satisfy you. Because Undertale's meta

narrative

is twofold: there's the "this is happening in this world" angle and "this is a game that recognizes you as an outsider, a player, someone with agency that no one in this game really has." .

True, the game could have given you a triumphant final battle with a six-souled Asgore, as teased and predicted earlier in the game... but I think there's something so empty about going in, expecting something big, but Asgore can't even recognize it. She considers him a dangerous human being and falls before he can truly understand what is happening. He plays into a similar dissatisfaction with Mettaton NEO, which faces a similar upheaval without reward. You can argue that he's subpar from a game design standpoint and even from an in-universe story standpoint, but from a meta

narrative

standpoint, he makes a lot of sense.

You're on a high after Sans, believing there's an even bigger challenge to come... But no. Nothing. You kill Asgore. You cut Flowey into nothing even as he begs you to let him live. Flowey, who was so confident up to that point, was just as willing to treat you as his equal... but in the end, he's still fictional, just pixels on a screen. And now he is in your way. And then you see the image of the fallen human, the human you name at the beginning of the game. There's a lot to be said about Chara's morality as an in-universe character and how literally the version of him should be taken here.

While I think the "with your guide" part is crucial because the actions taken on this route ultimately lead them to their final conclusions, for the sake of this video, I think it's more pertinent to look at Chara featured here. not as the literal fallen human who died so long ago, but as a symbol. This is doubly important since at the beginning of the game you will be asked to "name the fallen human." Many classic role-playing games ask you to name protagonists or even party members. Even in games that gave them more defined personalities, like Final Fantasy VII, you had the ability to insert content any time you wanted.

So if we look at Chara here as an encapsulation of RPGs at their most superficial level, then everything starts to come together. The further you progress in this race, focusing on pushing yourself and getting stronger, the more the humor and heart of the game fades. The puzzles are now solved. The main characters die before they can make a strong impression, with the only exceptions being Undyne, Sans and Flowey, and instead of the fun puzzle aspects of solving how to save enemies, you just mash z until they die and the numbers increase. Like in most turn-based RPGs of yesteryear, you would simply mash attacks to get stronger faster.

And it is very easy to stop it. The game offers you many outlets to get back to the fun and whimsy and bring some life back into the game. To get to this final screen, you have to give up all of that. You must play the game "straight", when it is not intended to be a straight role-playing game. And Chara, in this context, is the feeling you get when progressing in a game. Everything from HP, attack, LV and even gold, one could argue that even in more merciful runs, that feeling of growth and progress, that feeling of Chara is there.

And indeed, memories of her as an in-universe character appear in places like Toriel's house if you sleep, the game screens, and the Waterfall flashback... But now, even the ashes of the narrative have faded away. The only thing left is a black screen and an eerie atmosphere. If this is your last playthrough, chances are you've seen the outlines of what Undertale has to offer. Isn't it time to move on to new and better things? This is your last chance to close the game without consequences. If you close the window now, without choosing to delete or not, you will be able to reset it and play for a happier ending.

It requires you to force quit, but you still have the option, and it's not like you have anything to gain at this point except dialogue and seeing what happens. But no matter what you choose, the end result is the same. You never had any control. You were driven by that impulse, the desire to see everything consumed you. And thus the game closes. The files are created internally as a reminder of what you did, and you must wait ten minutes with only the sound of the wind to decide whether to sell your soul or remain in solitude.

It is the perfect time to reflect. But it was you who destroyed the world and pushed everything to the limit. And unlike other video games with bad endings, this is a video game that holds you, the player, responsible. And really, who cares about things like story or empathy when you can progress through games and feel the thrill of getting stronger? As my xenamoi friend pointed out, Flowey is an exploration of completionism and what that would feel like within a game world if the power to replay was an in-universe ability, while Chara, at the end of the route, represents the of the game in which Focus solely on the mechanics.

You taught them that this is the only thing that matters, so keep going and move on to new worlds, new games and keep doing the same thing. Even if you can remove the flags, it's fascinating how the game makes you assume everything is fine until the end of Pacifista. In some ways, it might even lead some players to continue playing just to see if there are subtle changes that indicate something is wrong. Personally, I interpret both endings as heartless like "Chara is going to kill everyone on the surface now lmao" and more "getting this happy ending doesn't erase what you did before." Even if everyone else forgets it, the game still remembers it.

Chara still remembers it. Regardless, it's a simple but effective way to really instill the deconstructive idea of ​​responsibility for actions in the game, as well as the urge to see everything new you can find. If you repeat the race without

mercy

, Chara even suggests that your return to the game is due to "perverted sentimentality" and that if you must continue playing after destroying the world, you should try something else. After all, isn't this what you came here for? To see if   anything changed. To feed that endless cycle of repetition and ensure that every stone is left unturned...

Until there is nothing left but an empty realization that there is no great reward waiting at the end. I think No Mercy's run is controversial for many reasons. Some hate grinding and find it boring and poor game design. Some despise how Mettaton and Asgore are promoted as great battles, only to end up being jokes in the end. And indeed, if the route was intended to be a fun and enjoyable gaming experience, then I'd say it falls short, but as a meta-narrative about the ways we connect with video games and the ways we try to stay with works that signify a a lot   with us and finding every secret and new line of text along the way, it works incredibly well.

The thing is, not everyone goes to games for accountability, and not everyone wants to endure the tedium just to get to the two cool boss fights, although, ironically, the narrative purpose of Sans' fight as ultimate deterrent drives people to seek it out. outside. You can see Undertale Yellow as an interesting response to the original version, as it includes more difficult boss fights, a more "uplifting" ending for its human protagonist, and is less of a metanarrative and more of a narrative, but I don't know. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Undertale's route was special for all its quirks and flaws, and trying to replicate it step by step wouldn't work as well the second time around.

I think that's also why Toby went in a different direction in Deltarune, exploring a completely different side of the metanarrative through the way we as players co-opt Kris's life and the way we have to pressure them into hurt and manipulate Noelle to get an alternative. At first no one was convinced that a route existed due to the apparent linearity of the game. And while I think the odd route works as a better marriage of gameplay and metagame, I don't think its predecessor was wrong. Everything from frustration and tedium to disappointment was intentional, and at the end of it all, it led me, someone who's not even really a fan of the route or how obsessed the fandom is with it, to do an almost twenty page Script, because it turns out that even I had a lot more to say than I thought.

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