Wow, has it really been 10 years already??
UNDERTALE is easily one of the most impactful games I've played. Maybe not emotionally, since I played it in like 2019 and had already seen hours upon hours of gameplay, but creatively.
I said it in the anni. question event thing and I'll say it now: UNDERTALE is the reason I am the way I am. It's the reason I create stories of my own. Probably why I'm constantly hyperfixated on my own ocs ToT.
My first ever proper OCs with their own world was Stardust, and it was practically an UNDERTALE ripoff. It was about a kid entering this lost civilization of magical beings where you could spare your enemies. Wow, how original. I don't have the sketchbook with me but I'm pretty sure Cross, who ended up as the protagonist after I had mostly scrapped the original concept, was functionally an Undyne copy-paste, Undying form and all.
Some things are better left buried, but I think that without UNDERTALE, I probably wouldn't love games the way I do now. I wouldn't always circle back to games as my storytelling medium. I might be a published novelist one day, but if I can make one person happy by playing a game I make, that would be pretty amazing too.
IDK, I don't really get super into my own feelings on something like this often. I guess it just felt like I had to this time!!
Happy Birthday, UNDERTALE!
-CARDINAL
