Undertale

Violence, pacifism and consequences: a decade later, how does Toby Fox's smash RPG hold up?

- KHEE HOON CHAN

Be it the pummelling of soft, fleshy faces or the crushing of bones and sinew, games are often marked by a startling degree of violence, led by military shooters and the action-adventure genre in particular.

Causing violence of some kind is one of the de facto 'base' interactions in videogames, something that feels as fundamental as jumping, collecting items or using the main menu.

But not in Undertale. When it was released in 2015, the RPG's explicit message of pacifism may have felt, at least at first, anomalous amid gaming's routine brutality. Described by its creator, Toby Fox, as the “RPG where you don’t have to destroy anyone”, rather than simply killing them, Undertale allows you to spare the monsters that you meet in combat. The game plays upon the long-established conventions of the genre: though you can use attacks to whittle an enemy's HP down to zero, via an almost identical mechanism you can also speak with them, build an understanding of them, and spare their life.

Undertale’s encounters are modelled on the turn-based fights of a traditional JRPG, and when you want to engage an opponent, you have four tools or ‘moves’ from which to choose. The ‘Fight’ and ‘Item’ options are self-explanatory and familiar, enabling you to attack foes or consume stat-boosting items respectively. But unique to