Sorry to keep you waiting! Today we’ll finally be looking at how combat works in this game.

But actually, “combat” is a bit of a misnomer. See, this game is set after the True Pacifist ending of UNDERTALE after all, so it stands to reason that Frisk is a peaceful child. And aside from that, since you’re on the surface now, resorting to violence would result in either A) much bigger and more powerful humans knocking you flat, or B) even if you successfully killed somebody, the human police force quickly ending your murderous rampage. As hilarious as both of those scenarios might be, I’d rather not include a frustratingly impossible game mode.

So instead, this game’s “combat” will represent debates, arguments, and other such contentious exchanges of words!

…Okay, perhaps it will involve a bit more magic and mayhem than that. But still, this is a fundamentally peaceful exchange! Trust me.

Remember how in UNDERTALE, a book in the librarby library mentioned that monsters sometimes use magic as a means of self-expression, but that such magic is harmful to humans? Dr. Alphys has been working on a solution to that problem. She’s developed a prototype device that will, if all goes well, allow humans to use magic and engage in these sorts of discussions without fear of harm. And Frisk has (probably) volunteered to help test this device!

Let’s take a more in-depth look at some of the features of this battle screen, with the help of some very professional labels.



• 1: Enemy - This is the person you’re locked in verbal combat with!

• 2: Enemy’s Ability Cards - These are the abilities your opponent can use against you. For monsters, these will be spells, but humans will use more mundane debate techniques. Still functions the same way, though.

• 3: Your Spell Cards - Spells that can help you in battle. You’ll have three at any given time.

• 4: Ally Character - At certain times, your friends will join you on your quest! Depending on which ally is with you, you’ll get a bonus to one of your stats, and each ally has a unique special attack they can use under certain conditions.

• 5: COURAGE - Your CG meter represents your COURAGE. If it hits zero, you lose… and it’s GAME OVER. (Sorry, having custom outcomes for losing every single argument is way beyond the scope of this project.)

• 6: SHIELD POINTS - Your SP represents how many attacks your SHIELD can absorb. What SHIELD, you ask? I’ll get to that later.

• 7: Enemy’s COURAGE - This is your enemy’s COURAGE. Reduce it to zero or destroy all of their ability cards to win the battle.

• 8: Frisk - It’s you!





==PLAYER PHASE==

Like in UNDERTALE, the battle is divided into a player phase and an enemy phase. As I mentioned before, this is a fundamentally peaceful exchange, so there is no FIGHT command. Likewise, including a MERCY command would be redundant. Instead, your available actions include ACT, SPELL, and ITEM.





ACT: As you might expect, using ACT commands is the key to resolving battles in this game. Much like in UNDERTALE, these will change from battle to battle. They function slightly differently, though. In this case, you’ll select an ACT command as usual…

…but then afterward, you’ll need to select an ability card as the target of your command…

…and if the match up is good, you’ll do damage to the enemy’s ability card! Do enough damage to an ability card and you’ll destroy it, reducing the enemy’s COURAGE. Again, if their COURAGE hits 0, or if they have no abilities left to draw, you win the battle.

…To give a less abstract example than the “rock/paper/scissors” in the screenshots above, imagine an enemy who gripes about money woes as one of their abilities. In that case, the ACT command to use against that particular ability may be a bribe. Hopefully that example gets the idea across!

SPELL: I mentioned this briefly, but the device Alphys has invented will allow humans to use magic! In this game, you’ll gain SPELLs by strengthening your friendships with monsters outside of battle. The better your relationship, the stronger their associated SPELL will be.

You can only have three active SPELLs at a time, but you can keep a few more in reserve in case they get dispelled by the enemy, or if you just want to discard one and swap another out. These SPELLs will of course have beneficial effects you can use in battle– for instance, Vegetoid’s SNACK SPELL is a basic healing ability.

You can use a SPELL and then use an ACT command or ITEM in a single turn if you’d like, but you can only use one SPELL per turn, and each SPELL has a limited number of uses per battle.

ITEM: Items are self-explanatory. I don’t need to tell you how they work. You are an intelligent person who already knows all about such things!

…also, I haven’t implemented them yet so I don’t have screenshots. Sorry.





==ENEMY PHASE==

After the player executes an ACT command or uses an ITEM, the player phase ends and the enemy phase begins. While UNDERTALE’s battle system focused on dodging enemy attacks, this game will take a slightly different approach– instead, of your SOUL being targeted directly, your SPELL cards will be facing the brunt of the enemy bullets. If a SPELL is damaged too much, it will be dispelled and you’ll take damage to your COURAGE. But of course, you have a means of defense– you can protect your SPELL cards with your SHIELD!

Your SHIELD can absorb a certain number of bullets, indicated by your SP… but once it hits zero, it will break and be unusable for the remainder of the enemy phase, until you can steady yourself enough to regenerate it. What this means is you won’t want to block every single bullet you see… You’ll need to think strategically, and block only the bullets that pose a clear threat. Avoid blocking small bullets that will sap your SHIELD but do little actual damage, and protect SPELL cards that are weak. That might seem like a difficult decision to make on the fly, but it will come more naturally with some practice.

When the enemy phase ends, your SHIELD and your SPELL cards will regenerate lost health, and if you’ve lost any SPELLs, new ones will be drawn automatically (assuming you have some in reserve).

By the way, doesn’t the idea of using a shield to block enemy bullets sound familiar? I wonder who Alphys got that idea from…



…I hope that this update did a good job of explaining how the battle system works. I fear it may seem a bit complicated when taken in all at once like this, but in the actual game it will be introduced more gradually.

Also, I hope that this does a good job of keeping the UNDERTALE “flavor” while providing a unique gameplay experience! I fear that some people may be disappointed that I’ve diverged from the original style of battles so much– especially since this sort of “deplete the enemy’s health bar” thing is rather typical of most video games, but I felt it was best to pursue something a bit different. In particular, while it was only mentioned briefly in this update, befriending monsters outside of battle to strengthen your SPELLs is going to be a big part of the game here, and I wanted to tie that into the battles somehow.

People may also miss the lack of a violent option, because that means that unlike UNDERTALE, there’s no “evil path” in this game. But it can’t be helped. A child like Frisk just can’t measure up for long in a fight on the surface, so there’s no way an “evil path” would be viable here, right?

…Right…?