What makes Undertale such a special game? Is it its compelling storyline? The zany characters? Or perhaps, is it the unique gameplay, where pressing the “restart button” does not quite equate to restarting afresh? 

Undertale is a small-scale, role-playing game developed by Indie developer, Toby Fox. It was released in 2015 using a remarkably small budget of 5,000 USD and has since grown in popularity, giving rise to a fanbase of over three million around the globe, and iconic characters such as Sans the Skeleton and the mysterious W.D Gaster. However, there is something else that makes Undertale special, something that makes it unique and unlike other games. While you can restart the game if you wish, restarting does not wipe the characters’ memories and they still remember the progress from past playthroughs. 

So, how exactly do you start anew after having completed the game at least once before? The answer to this lies in the various alternate endings which can be achieved. While the most common ending is the ‘Neutral’ route, it is not the only one which can be achieved. In fact, even the ‘Neutral’ route has multiple possibilities The closest way you can “start anew”, however, is through the ‘True Pacifist’ route, where after completion you can do a ‘True Reset’ which will wipe the characters’ memories. However, if you have done a ‘Genocide’ route, there is no way you can ever come back and reset, because at the end of a new attempt at a ‘True Pacifist’ route, it will show the villain in the end and remind you of your past sins during the genocide. Hence, there is little scope of truly resetting the game!

Restarting Undertale is nothing like any other game in this sense. As such, while it is possible to approach the game with a different mindset, either as a genocidal maniac laying waste to the world or as a pacifist spreading love through the towns, it is quite impossible to “Restart” Undertale from scratch after having completed it!