When Undertale came out I had just started my senior year of high school (10 years ago at the time of writing this, dude I'm getting so old...) It was a time where I was obsessed with RPG Maker games like Mad Father, story based games like Life is Strange, and watching let's plays on YouTube (specifically Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, and Pewdiepie), so it was was released at a time that perfectly aligned with my current interests. I was first exposed to Undertale through Jacksepticeyes lets play of it and have been in love with the game ever since. The story, mechanics, characters, UI, art, just everything about it was exactly what 17 year old me loved.

I look back really fondly on that time of my life, and I think thats part of the reason why Undertale has stayed one of my many obsessions. Joe and I had just gotten together, I was having fun in school with my friends, I basically had no other responsibilites. I remember coming home from school just to go on YouTube and checking my subscriptions to see if Jacksepticeye or Pewdiepie posted a new video. No thoughts, just vibes.

Undertale I think completely changed the game when it came to basic RPGs. I had never seen a story in a game like this change based on the amount of enemies you killed. Nothing that I had ever played conveyed such a meaningful story with such simple graphics and gameplay. If you've read any of my other posts, you've probably guessed that yes I did cry hard at the end of this game.

There isn't any one thing that I can pin down for Undertale to ramble about like I can for other things I love, I really do just love everything about this game and how it made me feel. I wish I could go back and experience it again for the first time. Hey, maybe I'm just nostalgic for my carefree high school days, but this game I think really just rewired my brain.

The first time I saw the final fight with Flowey I just about lost my mind. 'WTF is going on and why does he look like that and ew I don't wanna look at it anymore.' Just the entirety of the genocide run? I felt so awful seeing every character you've come to love need to be killed off. The Sans fight? I could never beat it and never want to try lol. The end of the genocide route? It's just so good!!!

Side Note: seeing the True Lab for the first time absolutely freaked me out. こわいです！

Even today I eagerly await every new chapter release of Deltarune, Toby Foxs new game (which is not a sequel to Undertale! but has a lot of similarities). Seeing the familiar graphics and hearing the familiar music fills me with a sense of nostalgia that not too many other things can. I'm glad that Toby Fox continues to make and work on absolute bangers of games (remake of OFF, let's go!), it always makes me so happy to see creators making more cool things.

I know this shrine isn't as fangirly as my other ones, I just genuinely love this game and thought that it needed a spot among the other things I love, even if I can't yap about it forever. Basically just go and play Undertale, preferably blind if you've managed to go this long without spoilers.

...and yes dogsong has been my ringtone since 2015