Undertale / Deltarune / Toby Fox Discussion

[Oilspill Battery]

He added some hidden lore regarding FRIEND and the eggs most likely because the most common complaint about ch5 is that it barely answered anything.

What the one in the shop? That's even more vagueposting mystery box bullshit, it still doesn't answer anything.

 

[Coolio55]

Boy, he really is turning out to be indie gaming's own J. J. Abrams isn't he?

In retrospect, has JJ actually made anything good?
I know that UNDERTALE is a pretty divisive game but it's certainly had a longer cultural lifespan than Lost or the Star Trek reboot or the Star-Wars sequels.

 

[Super Malario]

You know the way the guy who made Evangelion despises it's fanbase? Do you think Toby's going to become like him?

It's the opposite, we the fanbase despise him

 

[SIMON THE PIEMAN]

Dude I fucking HATE how lore in media now is basically just "no dude you don't get it, you have to find this extremely obscure fact that Glup Shitto likes green eggs and ham from this NOW DELETED TWEET from its creator on the Wayback Machine, or dig through a 17 hour livestream they did for charity where they namedropped who killed Glup Shitto's mother! This is super duper important and totally justifies the dogshit writing of what I like u guys, TRUST!!!!!!"

Don't get fooled, you don't actually have to do any of that. You can just interact with the media the same way 95% of the audience will do: through the game itself. If the story of the game fails at explaining itself without tons of supplementary material then it is poorly done and you're free to laugh at how the entire thing is the digital equivalent of a dog shit in the middle of the road.
Someone else in this very thread mentioned eebrozgi (one of the people in the credits for the chapter 5 of Deltarune) and the game he worked on called Void Stranger.

Spoiler

Apparently there's a troonout somewhere in the picture but the game itself is not really all that poisoned by that and the author has close to zero social media presence so I am willing to give it a pass.

Void Stranger is a very good example on how to do "hidden lore" the right way. A casual player can beat the game and not see about 80-90% of what it has to offer because the hidden lore is skillfully hidden in the most munduane of places. Discovering the hidden meaning of these places is extremely rewarding and recontexualizes the entire game in a way I've never seen done before. The deeper you go the more rewarding it all becomes. You also get the complete package right away; the author doesn't require you to wait a decade for some sort of a plot twist. It is a proof that you can hide things away in a satisfying way without burying these things deep in the game code or relying on some sort of an obscure ARG that will eventually get forgotten.

 

[Smack Patrick]

Anytime I see vague posting in games; especially indie games; I immediately assume it's to bait the theory videos.
I mean for fuck sake Toby, you're popular to the point the game cannot fail. There is literally zero need to be baiting theory videos for views.

 

[John Hazbin]

^^ The fact that homestuck niggers cannot be hunted for sport is a crime honestly ^^^

ALSO mixed in with le "KIDDDY TEENAGE DRAMA WAS ALWAYS THE FOCUS CHUD!!!!" i swear to god these people will the death of toby's career MARK. MY. FUCKING. WORDS.

 

[John Hazbin]

this is insane no one is talking about this I genuinely have a feeling Toby's career might go the way of his sensei hussie.

 

[Angry Muda]

I'm going to assume Friend is going to be mute like the knight, and after 5 or maybe 6 chapters of hype, it has to be a most difficult secret boss Toby has made to live up to it.