250 - Undertale

I just want to note that I listened to this when it went up a couple weeks ago, and I just now decided I wanted to replay Undertale. I now cannot read Papyrus's lines without hearing Brian's voice reading them, and honestly? It improves the experience immensely.

Was ironically playing Diablo 4 to turn my brain off while listening to this podcast. The part where y'all point out the maker's apparent disdain for games where killing and farming are the whole objective got a hearty laugh from me. Then y'all had to get me all emotional with your reading of the game text. 10/10 you guys are the best I've heard at breaking down video game narratives.

*hopes and dreams starts* *I start crying* *host immediately after says the tune makes them cry every time*

I know you mostly cover American media but I'd love a Moon episode sometime since at least one of you seems to have played it. It's such a one of a kind game, especially in its slow pacing, and it's one of my favorite games ever.

One thing you glossed over is the placement of the toy knife: on a balcony by itself, with the castle in the background. The item and where it is is a beautiful bit of saying. / Implying things without a single written or spoken word.

Night in the Woods mentioned. Please please do an episode on Night in the Woods, your fucking love it

I think the reason why Toby Fox and all his stuff succeeds is because it is so genuine and sincere . Real heart on its sleeve kind of art and goddamn that is refreshing when so much media these days is all spectacle and nothing else. Also Battle Against A True Hero is a banger

If I wasn't a lesbian before, that first Undyne monologue would have fixed that. 😵‍💫 Great work with the voice acting!

thank you for not touching homestuck it is very important to me but more and more it feels like a book written in poison ink

Listening to this episode makes me want to go back and play the game again. I kinda feel like the first time I played the game I was going through the motions of a game I had seen many videos on before. I feel like going back with fresh eyes may be a good experience. This was a wonderful episode.

I don't know if it's intentional or serendipitous, but chara is Irish for friend. Obviously short for character in context, but if he knew that, could be a double entendre

Oh my GOD that dramatic reading of Undyne's speech was incredible. I've got goosebumps from that. And honestly, all the dramatic readings were really good, great work all of you!

Happy 250, young fellas. I've been hanging out with you guys for awhile now. You do good work. Brian's scream-talking is top-tier.

I appreciate y’all letting us into your friendship and lives and I hope you feel how much you mean to your audience. I’m just some freak on the west coast trying not to get too parasocial with it but you guys really are something special. Here’s to 250 more episodes!

Really fun episode !! tho I’m kinda disappointed by the lack of exploration into the idea that chara is just an inherently evil force. I feel like the idea of “human child who climbed doom-suicide mountain and was weird and off-putting and kind of mean and then said they wanted to go kill all humans cuz they think humans are evil” implies a pretty dark backstory. Charas behavior is pretty indicative of how a lot of severely abused kids can act, and while Chara & Asriels relationship is tragic but none of it was inevitable or even malevolent towards the monsters. Asriel should have said no or fought back sure but he was just a trusting kid. It’s sad but it’s not quite evil because we dont know charas intentions but we also dont know if chara thought this would, like, kill him or something. I think if Chara was really just a selfish malevolent force they might have murdered all monsters or something for their own gain? but their plan was very explicitly anti-human and pro-monster in a way that betrays a really sad view of humanity, the kind of worldview that doesn’t just come out of nowhere. Ok anyway, that’s not really a critique of this podcast. I just wanted to talk about how much I love Chara 😭

I remember like having a go of undertale because like you kinda gotta if you give a shit about the medium of games, I haven't yet finished it because I'm just not very good at bullet hells. But I remember going through the tutorial and like it being funny and frustrating but also like "fine ok I see what they are doing" and then with the fight I was still in that mindset of "oh yeah it's the first boss, she's like not going to actually die if I defeat her she'll like pop up and be like 'ohhhh yeah no your strong enough to move on' and then she's just dead. That made me feel fucking awful and was like "oh this game is gunna be special"

Literally dozens of us have played Contact!

Te adoro, AntonJ.

Cheers from a proud IATSE member, well deserved gents 💪💪

I only hope that it won't take another 250 episodes to do Night In The Woods

Soooo since we're doing a buncha RPGS that make you laugh and cry lately...Y'all gonna do an Ep on LISA: The Painful!?

This is what finally made me play the game. it was definitely a worthwhile experience

Wait you mean to tell me that Stand by me reference in one of the early Pokemon games wasn’t even JUST a reference to the movie but rather to another game referencing the movie. Dammit.

PEAK ALERT OMFG

FUCK YOU FOR MAKING ME CRY! How dare you end on that music. I hope I listen to this podcast...when OUR home is built, when we begin to heal, when we remember love, when we begin to dream again, when we are finally, as a species...home

My son loves this game and I knew very little about it until now. I really think the lesson it teaches about kindness is so important and valuable. It’s something that has stuck with me from growing up Catholic. Kindness does not come with conditions, it’s not something that needs to be earned and it should not be reserved for certain people. Expecting some kind of reward for being kind or deciding who deserves your kindness is a twisted way of viewing everything as transactional. I guess I need to play this game now.

While I always grew up playing games, I think playing undertale when it came out as a kid (oh god, it was that long ago?...) is something that cemented my _love_ for the medium, it was one of my first experiences of "fandom" in the way Toby himself was inspired by, and was the first thing to help me realise I was nonbinary/trans. This episode is generational work, the interstitial is one of the best ones yet and the love pours out from every part of it.

My son has been a huge Undertale fan since he was in elementary school. He's now in college. I used to watch him play all the time, and while I didn't get the full picture, I did get that emotional vibe. I remember once I just happened to catch that ending and inexplicably feeling a wave of emotion. That's how good this game is. You can even get something out of it from a secondhand experience. Anyway, I want to thank you for doing this episode. I now understand my kid and his deep love of Undertale even more because of you.

Crazy that undertale went on sale the day this episode dropped…..

If y'all ever do Brave Little Toaster I will personally anthropomophize the appliance your choice, each (I am certified J-STD-001 and a Spellcraft IV necromancer.)

I really think you guys should play deltarune before it comes out, for 2 reasons: 1. It coming out in chapters like chunks is the best way for you all to understand Homestuck hiatus brain[I dont read homestuck but all the fans in my life tell me this is true] without going through the whole thing, this is important because most Fandoms mirrored the tendencies the homestuck Fandom had back in the day. 2. Deltarune is amazing, improving all undertale is almost all ways. Deltarune has fully replaced Undertale[not to say UT is bad or anything, great game] in my heart, DR tackles its themes with much more subtly, grace and character than UT does. Also its 400% more gay. Most UTDR videos on YouTube are complete bullshit, but one video I think that is an intresting lens to look at Deltarune is the video analyzing DR as a piece of Metamodern art, which has some legs as a theory even if its not all well thought out

Touhou project when

Congratulations on making me cry ugly tears as I remembered how the True Ending completely shattered me and changed the way I see the world, 10/10

As soon as I say the announcement for this episode a countdown to my crying while at work started. Even after all these years it still gets me, and as a then-recently-ex-catholic it changed me for the better. and now Tricky Tony's second game is once again getting my ass so good it makes me a bit mad

very cool starter segment ✊

I would pay just to have Brian be Papyrus for a whole episode…. Whatever subject

These boys got me crying in the club over a video game I've never played

For a three and a half hour episode this kind of flew by and I mean that as a compliment. Side would you guys ever do metal gear? Felix from chapo did an amazing series in it and know you guys would make one just as fun. Or maybe not a series but one of two of the games at least. PLEASE DO METAL GEAR RISING IF YOU DO ITS SIMULTANEOUSLY THE BEST AND WORST ONE

I'm currently half way through the episode and all the voice acting everyone is doing is peak. But also, for some reason, I'm getting a lot of David Lynch from that Papyrus

I loved this episode and I am restraining myself from being so annoying about the minutiae, I will just add re trans-allegory /canon trans characters: Napstablook, Monster Kid, Chara, Onion-san, all use singular they explicitly. The Mad Dummy is a trans woman. Additionally a significant part of the art team and testers were Transfem which is not really a surprise given Homestuck circles also being very queer and trans.

I get the feeling Brian's Papyrus also has a vendetta against DR. VENTURE

MICHIGAN MENTIONED

Yalls voice acting is SO delightful 🥰

I love that Brian's Papyrus is a Gordon Cole if he had an evil mustache

Episode 250.5: SuperWhoLock

Lol I was a homestuck that hung out in a group chat with Toby before Undertale came out. It was a wild time.

baten kaitos mentioned

Why yes, the subreddit for shitposting memes about Undertale/Deltarune is called "WaterfallDump" thank you for asking

Wholock SHOULD be shipping basil rathbone and john pertwee

So I had an interesting first play through of Undertale. My first exposure was from Slowbeef’s stream. In it he showed that you can one shot Toriel when you are right on the edge of the pacifist ending . If you do kill her at that she says “You really are no different than them!” Before dying. And that colored my whole perception of the game. So through out my pacifist run, I was constantly on edge waiting for the game the heel turn, to become this dark edgy game. But instead it held to its sincerity, and that small thing is beautiful to me

Brian's Papyrus is kind of giving Wacky Races announcer

Trying to do a critical take on undertale without discussing the no mercy route is bad scholarship if nothing else. It's an essential part of the text that you're ignoring because it makes you feel bad

i genuinely believe the Hopes and Dreams/His Theme/Save the World sequence is one of the greatest musical and narrative achievements in history. even just hearing it in this podcast again almost made me weep

My partner is actually one of the very rare people that knows of Undertale, but knows very little about it beyond what some of the characters look like. We both listen to this show and she's skipping this episode so that we can do the game together soon, so I'm vibrating with excitement at that prospect. Can't wait! Thank you guys so much for covering this game that is so near and dear to many of our hearts

The ever present threat of covering homestuck that hangs over every internet episode. Never lowering but always there

Well. TIL that I needed to do a second run of this game to "get" it. Guess ill do that this weekend. If you want a good run down of Homestuck Sarah Z made a great one!

The indescribable horror of seeing this come up on my feed and knowing that I'm going to have to listen to an undertale-themed AJ Ditty musical number. Father let this cup pass from me

Shouldn't have listened to this while at work. I'm a sobbing mess 😭 God damn Josh, that delivery of Asriel's lines

i like that Papyrus is apparently The Monarch

This was kind of a nothing episode in terms of saying anything new or even conveying much of your subjective experiences with the topic. I would've liked more on the context around it, the contemporary zeitgeist of the indie scene or its impact on you personally. As is, it's a recapitulation of the story beats that is almost, but not quite, as good for understanding the plot and broad themes as a commentary-free let's play. Veggietales felt more deserving of being #250.

Homestuck

That Super Eyepatch Wolf video is great. I dipped half a toe into the AU stuff cuz my sister had friends who were minor online celebs in that space and it is A Lot haha

...AJ, you're not an acronym, and neither is LV. You're both initialisms. If it were pronounced like "age" you would be an acronym.

The mad dummy gets fleshed out a bunch in the switch port, and extends mettaton's ghosts = transness metaphor (but transfeminine rather than transmasculine). She takes up a new body as "mad mew mew", which places another trans character in relation to alphys (mew mew kissy cutie) and also undyne (undyne's training dummy, with an implied crush). Also she's plural, which is fun.

Congratulations on the SAG AFTRA agreement! I’m glad it will help you and all the cool people you get to help you make these podcasts!

oh god they're he/himing mad dummy they genuinely don't know

did not expect to get jumpscared by minnmax’s own ben hanson in this episode

on Homestuck: it is totally fair that y'all will not be covering it, it is Too Long (said as a fan of homestuck)

very fun to hear you all talking about something in a particular way that immediately has me go "omg they've only played Deltarune chapter 1 THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW"

Never realized papyrus was the mighty monarch

My nephew loves Undertale, his parents are the type of evangelicals who probably think some Things about queer people. No matter what polite nothings they say about my 'chosen lifestyle'. I am comforted knowing that this game I guess slipped by their radar and so in spite of the bullshit they are filling this kids head with, his favorite game is full of queerness. I hope it helps him understand his weird favorite auntie a little bit more

You’re about to find out why podcasters have healthcare

We love a unionized podcast. Congrats yall❤️

I wonder if Anubis knows about Anubis II

If one reaches the hall of judgement and one's heart is overburdened against the feather of righteousness, then the demon Amit devours your heart (the locus of personality and thought) which annihilates it completely. But there are myriad other perils in the duat & one might be stuck in the tidal flats of fire, or the snake palaces, or the abyssal dark...

This is MY America 250 🫡🫡🫡

Ahh so glad you guys finally got to Undertale!! Making arrangements of music from Undertale as a fan ended up launching my career, and from that I was lucky enough to work with Toby briefly on the first official Deltarune piano sheet music book (which then led to doing music full time!) It's such a special game and I'm excited to hear how y'all reacted to it!

I sure hope we get a visit from Wing Voltaire, the Royal Philosopher

How dare you post this at 1:42 am. I was just about to go to sleep.