Even though William hadn't been working long as a game editor,
he'd played a ton of games by now.
And judging from what he'd seen in Undertale so far, he could clearly pick up on some of its traits.
First was the game's overall polish. Not the story or content—just the surface stuff like visuals and controls.
Undertale was okay in that regard, about what you'd expect from an indie game.
But content-wise, William honestly felt it was pretty unimpressive so far.
The puzzles—yeah, they were just intro-level tutorial stuff—but they were painfully dull.
Just moving rocks and pulling switches.
As for the combat, the game gave you mercy and dialogue options.
Players didn't have to kill the monsters.
But based on William's gaming experience, this just seemed like a basic morality system.
High morality gets you a good ending. Low morality gives you a bad one.
Nothing special. And the story itself felt like your usual dungeon-crawling monster-slaying setup.
After taking down a few weak monsters, William read the post-battle text, then moved on without thinking much.
As a game editor, his goal was just to finish the game and see how the overall flow felt.
Even though peaceful options were available, William always went with the easiest method—just fight.
After all, isn't grinding and leveling up the whole point of an RPG?
While he was moving forward, the goat mom kept popping up, asking the main character what kind of food they liked, or if they had any allergies.
After exploring a while, William let out a small sigh and shook his head.
He had a feeling that Mirror's success was just a one-time fluke.
Because right now, Undertale just felt bland. Playable, but not impressive.
There was nothing left to discover in the whole castle. No cool puzzles, no surprising twists.
Just a simple discovery—the door leading to the underground world.
After this scene triggered, the goat mom who had saved the main character earlier said the outside world was dangerous, and that if they really wanted to leave, they had to prove they could protect themselves.
If you agreed, it led into a battle.
Just like before, you could choose to show mercy in the fight with Toriel, the goat mom.
Unlike the usual monsters, William actually liked this goat mom character.
So he didn't attack her. But he quickly noticed that choosing "Mercy" didn't seem to do anything.
He tapped it a few times, but the goat mom kept attacking.
So… does he have to fight back?
Or maybe it's one of those scripted scenes—maybe you have to bring her HP to zero to trigger the story?
William guessed while trying to hit her.
The first hit took off about a tenth of her health.
The second hit chipped off another small bit.
The third hit left him stunned.
Because with that hit, her health bar went straight to zero.
Goat mom, now kneeling with one leg on the ground, still worried about the main character and told them to leave quickly.
Then she turned into shards and vanished into thin air.
"What just happened? Why did she die? Wasn't this supposed to be a no-kill route? Or maybe I was supposed to keep using Mercy?"
The game didn't give any hints, but as an experienced gamer, William quickly thought of a possible mechanic.
So to test his theory, he loaded his previous save.
Just like before, he went into the same fight.
This time, William didn't attack. He just kept clicking Mercy.
And as the turns went on, goat mom's attacks got faster and more dangerous. At one point, William accidentally ran into one of them.
His HP dropped to just a sliver.
But what happened next confirmed his thoughts.
Goat mom's attacks had started to avoid the red heart that represented the player.
Even when William moved toward her attacks on purpose, she dodged him.
"So that's how it is! The player just has to survive a few rounds, and goat mom will never actually kill you."
"It's kind of ironic compared to the version where you kill her—especially when paired with the fact that her attacks avoid you. This feels a bit like Mirror, where it explores themes like good and evil and human nature."
As a game editor, William also liked to look at things from a deeper angle.
After dodging goat mom's attacks and hitting Mercy 14 times,
he listened to the cheerful background music and watched the story that followed. He shook his head.
In the game, when the main character insisted on leaving, goat mom finally stopped trying to stop her. She gently hugged the player and personally walked her out of the castle.
"She's clearly a new game dev. This event trigger is a bit rough—having to click Mercy that many times. I get that it's meant to be hidden from the player, but…" William shook his head again.
"And if you don't want players to notice, why make the attacks avoid the player? That's like exposing the secret on purpose—it's like pulling down your pants just to fart."
Thinking back to the goat mom boss fight, William started pointing out the flaws.
In his opinion, if the dev had only used one of those mechanics, it would've been fine.
But using both just made it backfire.
Then something happened that made him freeze in his chair.
Because the next scene completely overturned what he thought he knew.
Flowey who tried to kill the main character earlier showed up again.
But what shocked William wasn't the character—it was what the flower said.
[Smart! Sooo~ smart!!]
[You really think you're clever, huh?]
[In this world, it's kill or be killed!]
[That's the only reason you've been able to do whatever you want.]
[You're feeling real good about yourself, aren't you?]
[Because you just spared someone's life?]
[Hehehe, but don't act like you're so high and mighty!]
[Because... I know everything. I know exactly what you've done!]
[You already killed her once!]
[But then you regretted it, so you went back in time—you wanted to start over.]
[Hahaha... you really are a naïve idiot. Do you think you're the only one with that kind of power?]
[This power to reshape the world... it all comes from your own will—your godlike ability, your power to save.]
[I used to think I was the only one with this kind of power... but now, I can't save anymore.]
[Clearly, your desire for this world is stronger than mine.]
[Alright, alright... while you still have that power, go ahead and enjoy it.]
[I'll be watching you.]
[Hehehehehe…]
(End of The Chapter)
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