Despite Everything, It's Still You.

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Despite Everything, It's Still You.

15/09/2025

+ It's 2015. December 23rd, to be exact. I'm sat in front of my + PC with my parents in the other room. And I'm crying. +

+ It's 2016. Sometime in May. I'm sitting on the bed with my + girlfriend in her flat in Sheffield. And I'm crying. +

+ It's 2017. I'm sitting in my partner's front room. We're + eating pizza. And I'm crying. +

+ It's 2022. I'm jumping up and down in the Bodega in + Nottingham. Anamanaguchi are playing their last song before + the encore. And I'm crying. +

+ It's 2025. I'm sat in a very hot concert hall the day before + I'm due to start back at work, two months after major surgery. + And I'm crying. +

All of these events have one thing in common: Undertale.

+ Undertale came out ten years ago today. One of the last smash + hit indies that would be released before the entire market + fractured and changed. It is unlike anything else released + that year. Or the previous year, or the next year. The only + game that will come close to Undertale is its + sequel/prequel/sidequel/something else Deltarune, but even + that isn't quite Undertale. Undertale both stands alone and + yet will also influence hundreds, if not thousands of games to + be released in the next decade. +

+ Undertale is something of a rosetta stone for the last decade + of video games. I think if you have any interest in the medium + it is a must-play. If you haven't, please stop reading now, as + I will be talking in less generic terms after the screenshot + here. +

A screenshot of Undertale, from early game area Ruins. Napstablook and the player character are on screen.

Ok, are they gone?

+ The common thread in those events is Undertale, yeah. But it's + more specifically Hopes and Dreams. What a track, huh? I can + only really think of two songs that equal it - one from + Stormblood, and one from Deltarune, of course. It's a track + that really captures the hype of the finale, but it's also + melancholic - the main melody, of course, is His Theme. The + fight itself at this point is bittersweet. You've SAVEd your + friends, you've perservered and stayed determined. The earth + refused to die. And all that's left, at the end of everything, + is a crying little boy. +

+ I've never replayed Undertale myself. I played it through once + in 2015 and then kept the save, safe and backed up on my + desktop, for years. But I have watched two partners + play through it, and cried at the same points every time. +

+ I can't even listen to the title track without crying. That + walk through New Home... there's nothing else like it. +

+ It's bizarre to say, maybe, but I think Toby Fox is a + generational talent. One day he'll be spoken of in the same + breath as people like Stephen King, David Lynch, Hideo Kojima + - incredibly impressive, omni-talented indivduals with + singular, totemic vision. I guess that would make Deltarune + Fox's Twin Peaks, his MGS3? It's only half-finished and it's + far beyond most works in the form. One can only imagine what + chapter 5 and on can bring. +

+ But, yeah. Only played once. It feels... kinda wrong to play + it again? I never did a No Mercy route either. How could I + hurt all these characters I'd grown to love? +

+ And then Deltarune arrived. And one of its many themes is the + horror of getting lost in escapism. Why do you care about + these characters? Why should you? They're not real, after all. + Ralsei even says it to camera. +

+ It's a rarity to see in games, a follow-up so in conversation + with its predecessor and with its fanbase. Deltarune chapter 1 + retells Undertale, asks why you care, and then, after it's + broken you down, dares to ask: "after all that, is it still + you?" and plunges you into a new story about finding things + long thought lost in the dark. +

+ It's magical. And it wouldn't be possible at all without + Undertale; the game would not be able to deliver its gut punch + in even close to the same fashion if Undertale hadn't laid all + that ground work. +

+ Deltarune, impossibly, makes a once-in-a-generation game even + better. If, for some reason, you haven't played Deltarune, + this is your sign to do so. It will make Undertale even better + for you. +

+ And if you kept reading anyway, despite my warning above: + please. Play Undertale. Then play Deltarune. Then DM me so we + can go insane together. +

+
+

+ At the end of New Home, you reach a house. And in that house, + is a mirror. And you look in that mirror, at the end of your + journey. And it drops a line that has reverberated through + culture ever since. +

+ It's been a decade. But despite everything, it's still you. +