Lurker > Advokaiser

So I felt like procrastinating a little bit on this topic, so before this purges (and before we reach New Year), I wanna thank everyone for their comments of support towards my debut on The Show. I was a little worried about the outcome, but I'm truly grateful to everyone who commented on the subject. I also want to thank Ng, yo and Leon for helping me feel more comfortable about the actual recording part (it was awesome talking to you in the backstage about chilaquiles and stuff, lol), I was affraid to be interrogated from the start and I turned out to be the one asking questions and talking a lot in the backstage. I was also very happy to see that the board was so cool and chill, more than I thought.

Fun fact: I usually go to bed pretty early and sleep a lot. That night though, we finished recording at 3:30 a.m. where I lived, so the next day I slept all day, and that particular day was incredibly short, as you can imagine, to the point where it practically didn't exist. Still, it was a blast hanging out with you guys and it was really worth it.

Another fun fact is that I remember Ng posting a topic just before the contest started, offering anyone who posted an invitation to The Show. I didn't post since I was affraid I wouldn't do a good job; but when I won the Guru, I knew it was my opportunity to get over my own fears and experience something different.

Some other things I'd want to cover and clarify as well:

-I ran out of words about the start times thing, but ultimately what I was trying to say was that you'll never have everyone happy with one specific start time, since there are tons of factors that have an influence, not only about people preferring morning, day, or night start times, but also people doing lots of other activities around the globe. I guess you can make a case out of GFAQs being a site primarily for U.S. residents, but other than that, there's not much you can do about it.

-Link vs. Link as a mini-bracket may be a good thing to do as a bonus if they don't get to retire him just yet. But if it was done before a contest starts so they face off against Division Winners or Noble Niners, the opponents should be paired up accordingly. Adult/Young Link, as well as maybe TP Link would be way too powerful for the rest of the field, but I can see the rest of them having fairly debatable matches.

-I loved BYIG as opposed to most people, so when I said that Best System would be like BYIG 2.0, I meant that I would love it, but surely the rest of the board won't.

-Similarly, Best Song sounds awesome to me on paper, but as everyone said, it has too many cons to make it viable.

-Game of the 90's was that kind of contest that I wasn't so sure of running it at the beginning since I thought the whole purpose of Game of the Decade was to exclude OoT and FFVII from a main bracket with newer games, as well as I conceiving GotD to be a contest that happened every future decade and not going back to something like the 90's. I actually changed my mind about all that when the podcast ended since not only did I grow up with lots of 90s games but also OoT may still become vulnerable to Chrono Trigger based on 2015, and FFVII Remake hype (or even its release by then) may also keep FFVII fresh again. It would be awesome to have that contest, especially since I could root for underrepresented series like the Soul Blazer trilogy (or other Enix games), as well as Crash Bandicoot, for example.
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I continued to battle, not letting my soul be crushed, until I could struggle no more and I started saving the rest of the souls, starting with Toriel, my nice lil' goat momma. I saved both her and Asgore at the same time. Next, I went for Alphys, arguably my best friend. Then I reached for Papyrus, saving Sans in the process. And finally I saved Undyne. I wanted to try every option with everyone, but of course, it was not possible, at least by doing it just one time.

Finally, I reached for Asriel's soul. He wanted to get rid of me, but at the same time he didn't. His attacks were desperate, and I was determined. There was this flashback showing Asriel picking me up once I fell in the Ruins. I was shocked, but in a really nice and pleasant way. I managed to spare him, and he surrendered. "You're not really Lily, are you? What's your real name? ... Frisk? That's a nice name!" "OOOOHHHH!!!". I forgave him immediately, and conforted him without hesitation. Watching Frisk's sprite turning to hug Asriel was beautiful. It was a beautiful scene to behold, indeed. He walked away and everything was over. He would soon turn into a flower again (for some unknown reason), but I got to have my happy ending!

I "woke up", and my friends were there. It wasn't actually quite over. I could talked to them, but I could also go back and talked to literally everyone in the Ruins. My completionist self florished, for better or worse, but I'm still not wanting to end the journey without visiting every area and talking to everyone. I visited the whole inn area, including Burgerpants (poor dude), but I couldn't find the painting (I think?) lessons advertised, anywhere, still. I also talked to the girls in the dumpster, and to tell you the truth, it's pretty weird that a cat monster wants to have an actual cat as a pet.

I got past the nice cream dude and onto the puzzle area, where it occured to me that I could talk to Toriel, and soon I learned that every screen could potentially have a different message.

Since I didn't know if to do everything in one go or not, I decided not yet, since it's a long way to go still.

Total time: 1062:39

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So, before I end my journey, what do you guys recommend I do? OH! I almost forgot about the secret door near Snowdin. I'm not sure I can open it just yet, though. Anyway, that's all for now!
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Day 25: Hopes and Dreams
Time spent: Around 1 hour.

This session unfortunately had to be interrupted once, deep into the boss fight, so I had to continue the next day; but at least it made me remember and notice some things I didn't last time. (I'll be mixing both playtimes as I write.)

So the second time, I just waited 10 more minutes before reaching Asgore again. I really wanted to see the 1000 minute barrier surpassed just for fun. I eventually did it, although I did not quite save at the exact 1000:00 mark. Instead, I saved both at the 999:59 mark and at the 1000:01 mark. Well, I checked the menu and nothing changed other than seeing an additional number up there, both in the title screen and in the save menu. It was kind of what I expected anyway, so I think it was worth it, but I also forgot to screenshoot it and show it to you as well. I did find an image that represents me (and Lily) upon not only failing to save exactly at 1000:00, but also for forgetting to screenshoot it:

https://imgur.com/a/I1Jkn8Z

So what did I do in those 10 minutes? I went through the whole "New Home" area and it was still pretty fast and not enough, so I stood under the throne area and noticed not only the birds singing but also a dense wind current while being there as opposed to being outside the leafy area. I also realized that the elevator was shut with vines. also arranged my phone items, saved, and finally went to the barrier.

(First playthrough): "Back so soon?" "What? So soon?" Time must pass really fast in the barrier or something.
(Second playthrough): "Let's cut to the chase. Let's do this!"

I confronted Asgore and filled myself with determination. But then... Toriel came in. I didn't know Asgore did what he was doing with the humans. Still, I think he was not liking what he was doing, unlike Flowey. Anyway, more people came in, and eventually I was there with Undyne, Papyrus, Sans and Alphys. "Is this another timeline or something?" I also noticed the soul-crushing tears in Asgore's eyes the second time around. "Ugh! Alphys, Undyne... Please don't do that! Oh, thanks, Toriel!" Then Papyrus mentioned a tiny flower and...

BAM!

"You Idiot" started playing, but I was over my trauma from before. Flowey was so stubborn in making this last way longer than it should. I was trapped, but the monsters started helping me. Then every monster started helping me, but Flowey absorbed all their souls.

"I was so tired of being a flower"...

A S R I E L D R E E M U R R

*Hopes and Dreams starts playing*

"OOOOOHHHHH!!!"

This was it. The final showdown. I was glad to have saved up to 1000, but it was also useless once I saw that you could still continue past that. Anyway, I was having a really epic fight, and in my first playthrough I could only reach the part with the "Lost Souls". The second time, though, I noticed something that somehow flew over my head the first time:

ACT -> CHECK -> "Asriel, the result of the absortion of every monster's souls"

"So EVERY monster is inside him. Wow."

I continued to battle, not letting my soul be crushed, until I could struggle no more and I started saving the rest of the souls, starting with Toriel, my nice lil' goat momma. I saved both her and Asgore at the same time. Next, I went for Alphys, arguably my best friend. Then I reached for Papyrus, saving Sans in the process. And finally I saved Undyne. I wanted to try every option with everyone, but of course, it was not possible, at least by doing it just one time.

[...]
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Write-up coming up in less than 24 hours.
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Playtime session finished.
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Playtime at halfway point.

This. Is. SO. HYPE!
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Okay, so I haven't come around to playing and writing, but it should be fine from now on.

I'll keep you informed.
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I'm gonna bump this one more time.
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Raka_Putra posted...

Advokaiser posted...

(Note: It took me a while to realize "Asriel" is a combination of "Toriel" and "Asriel".)

I'm sure you meant 'Asgore' there lol.

Oh, yeah, lol.

As far as the telling part, maybe you could tell me once I finish my next playthrough/come around to that part. There have been many things covered in spoiler tags in this topic as well, so I wouldn't mind reading them afterwards.
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I think it would be good to point it out.
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LunaticCritic posted...

Also, huh, no mention of the golden flowers.

Oh, right! Golden flowers that actually looked really dusty... It seemed kind of random taking into account that the "Undertale" section was beautiful and this was kind of the opposite.

Also many fake plants.
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[...] When I went north, I reached a TV room. Eventually I got to see every tape, which made me have a lot of theories:

-Was I an adopted child of Asgore and Toriel?
-Was my memory erased somehow?
-Were Asriel and I playing together on Mt. Ebott before I fell down?
-(And now that I'm thinking about it, if some of the above is true, then... am I the protagonist of the Undertale and does that mean that both me and Asriel aren't truly dead?)

(Note: It took me a while to realize "Asriel" is a combination of "Toriel" and "Asriel".)

I reached a room with refrigerators and eventually got to a monster from the snowy mountains. The song was really distorted, but I realized it was just the song from the mountains. I also CLEARLY saw a refrigerator moving, but I could never get anything out of it.

Finally, I went right, turned on the fans, and this ugly monster came to me. Poor monster, it just wanted to play and be pet a little.

All of the switched were turned on and the lab completely explored. "Nice!" I went back to the main room and entered the door. It was an elevator, but it didn't work for the moment, as well as the screens. Then the monsters almost reached out to me, but Alphys came to the rescue. To tell you the truth, I was afraid Alphys was going to be a boss battle of some sort, or that she would turn out to be evil, but THANK GOD it wasn't the case. She was her own genuinely nice self. She explained to me that the monsters where the failed experiments she had, and I went out. I saw the entries (which I also don't really remember at the moment), but then someone called me on the phone. "Could... Could it be Asriel?!" I was quickly sent straight up to Asgore's castle and I couldn't go back. I could use the nearest elevator to cut to the chase, but I didn't use it until I saw what would happen if I went to the "New Home" section. Everything was empty, and there was no music, so I went back and used the elevator.

There were no save points this time. There was just this star before the barrier. I saved there.

Total time: 989:53

It seems like I'm finally going to finish the game, but I want to reach the 1000 minute mark to see what happens! Either way, there are still lots of plot holes still to be filled, so I hope this isn't just quite the ending. Will it somehow be Asriel? (Actually, while thinking about the voice, it kind of sounds like a mixture of Toriel and Asgore.) Let's find out, possibly today!
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Day 24: Little lab of horrors
Time spent: 56 minutes

So I continued from where I was earlier, remembering that there were electronic writings on the walls that would of course be useful to keep in mind for future reference. I didn't know where to go first, but after reading the note on the floor, it was clear that I had to advance in a certain path (which path was still to be unveiled). I picked up some potato chips and then I checked them. *info* "Just some regular potato chisps" "Um, okay. Wait... potato 'chisps'... (are they some kind of typo?); no, wait, po... popato chisps. lol" Anyway, I grabbed the popato chisps just to realize they were later labeled as potato chips. Even after reading the note, I checked the door at the center and the one at the right just in case. I could just go left then.

Popato chisps.

I read some more entries on the way and reached a room with what looked like beds, where I thought there were probably some monsters' bodies. I reached the sinks and after turning them on from left to right, he last one had a monster coming out of it. It was creepy, although nowhere near as creepy as I thought it would be after Flowey's fight. They couldn't be identified until I used my phone, and even then I didn't understand much of what they said, other than "Become one of us" or something like that. I was quickly running out of HP, so I ate my "chisps" and put on the Temmie Armor (I had the Heart Locket on). I defeated them, grabbed the key, used it on the switch in the next room and proceeded right.

Popato chisps.

I entered the red door and read the entries on the walls. Many of them I don't remember, but I learned that Alphys was doing a series of failed experiments with monsters and their souls. I reached a room full of beds and I thought I heard a clicking soundwhile passing through the bottom of the room. "Eh..." I saved afterwards, then explored the room. I left the suspicious-looking beds for last, so I grabbed the key on one, then saved IIRC, and then I lied down on the bed. The music turned off. I... was... expecting a jump-scare or some cheap crap (seriously, my previous experience with Flowey was nearly-traumatizing and made me have lower expectations of Toby's later narratives). Either way, the ghost almost touched me and I jumped out of bed, causing him to disappear and the music to play again. "Creepy..." I repeated the process until the ghost finally spread the sheets over me and disappeared; then I wondered if something would happen if I waited a little bit more, but nothing happened.

Popato-freakin'-chisps!

I went north, but I knew there was a road near the star to the right, then two paths north. "Darn it, I can't decide". I went right, but when I saw that the fog was dense and the music stopped playing, I went out assuming something important would happen here. I went to the road east of the room full of beds and eventually encountered a weird monster that had all sorts of glitchy text, and it threw many spinning heads at me and sometimes his head was full of butterflies. Yeah, it was pretty creepy, but nothing truly shocking. I think it laid a key upon defeat.

.spsihc otapoP

Remember the clicking sound I mentioned earlier? I realized it was just the entry on the wall (but man, it has a wide range!). At northwest, I entered a bathroom with a bathtub, and something was CLEARLY there, but I only got a key.

Then I wanted to save. "Another star so near? Okay..." But not rally. It was a really fun fight, I really liked the concept of hiding under certain teeth; but I died quickly due to the rest of the attacks. I defeated it on a rematch, but I couldn't save there, so I went back, saved, and returned here. [...]
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Almost! Just a few more hours...
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Playtime session finished.

You know, after Flowey's hell, this was like a walk in the park.

Write-up tomorrow.
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LunaticCritic posted...

Now, on to the next question I have: does Asgore deserve to be forgiven for what he has done?

I think he does given how his motives were much more different than Flowey's, for example. He was heartbroken and tried to avoid getting hurt again by not being emotionally attached to anyone ever again, but you could see that even he didn't want to do what he was doing, evidenced by the crush of his will upon defeating him, revealing his consciousness and that what he was doing was wrong.
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_SecretSquirrel posted...

@Advokaiser Which division winner draws CD-i Link?

Missingno., so joke votes can cancel each other out.
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LeonhartFour posted...

You did a great job, dude. Your responses were very well thought out, and you weren't afraid to disagree with us when need be.

Thank you very much, Leon. I really appreciate it.

It was a pretty fun experience all around and I'm happy with the outcome.
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40 minutes into the podcast at the moment. I don't sound nowhere near as bad as I thought I would, especially considering the talking part is my by far my low point when communicating in English (sometimes I had some slight blackouts and stuttered a bit by not finding the right words to keep it going); but I gotta give props to Ng for saving my opinions for last out of everyone since it gave me some time to elaborate my ideas better. Maybe I would've had the microphone closer so I wouldn't sound so quiet, but overall I really liked the outcome.
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LunaticCritic posted...

Oh, I'm not belittling your take on it; I acted about the same way at that junction.

I do, however, want to ask this: Do you think Flowey deserved to be spared for what he has done?

I don't think so, although killing Flowey would just mean that I wouldn't forgive them and that we would be trapped in here forever without having any kind of happy ending. That's incredibly depressing.

Even then, showing Flowey that you can show mercy despite what he has done is an incredible opportunity to start things over and look for friendship. It's pretty rewarding what Toby Fox did on the matter if you ask me.
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Oh man, you know what I was thinking the other day? If Sans had gone past Round 4, they would've had to reuse the same picture over and over again (assuming only official artwork was allowed). That would've been both hilarious and sad at the same time.
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LunaticCritic posted...

Advokaiser posted...

"NO IT ISN'T, YOU ABOMINABLE BEAST!! IT'S CALLED 'DOING THE PACIFIST ROUTE'. DO YOU THINK I DON'T WANT TO GET RID OF YOU?!"

I wonder what would have happened if you didn't know there was a pacifist route to begin with...

Ah well.

You know, when you go as far as to avoid killing at all costs, knowing that you can spare literally everyone in the game, you kind of want to go all the way 'til the end of the game to see what happens, especially that far into the game

Play session and write-up likely next Thursday. I'll be a little busy tomorrow.
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Wait... How does a Zero Suit pic hurt Samus? She looks way cooler without the Power Suit imo.
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Oh...
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Who was hentai rallied anyway? And how did you know?
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ShatteredElysium posted...

Well eventually it will do that, I just don't know how long that process takes and I'm impatient

The results will be published January 1st. They will show the kind of entry for every user as well as their prize.
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Bump
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Bump.

I'll keep you informed.
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Awesome.
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How are we going to materialize the prize?
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SuperNiceDog posted...

I also thought that the pre-nomination "hype for the contest" period might have been better than the actual contest once it started.

Somehow I missed this comment.

I was about to type "Its official announcement" as one of the options, but I figured it would be kind of pointless.
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Can't speak for anything pre-2010, but here's my contests ranking:

1._GotD
2._CBX
3._RR
4._BYIG
5._BGE (2015)
6._CBIX
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Thank you! =D
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SuperNiceDog posted...

Advo would you feel the same way if you didn't win the Guru though?

The Guru may have been an overwhelming experience, but it wasn't something I even remotely saw coming and the actual possibility of winning showed up really late into the contest. The Oracle has always been my favorite board project, but I also loved the formatting and overall flow of the rounds and matches as well as no annoying rallies ruining the contest. The Guru was just the icing on the cake.
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Guys, this may have been discussed before, but...

Finally, the long-awaited question: Assuming 2013 Draven = 2018 Draven, how much does 2018 Link put on 2013's weakest character?
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Oh, I forgot to add a great one:

The "['x' character] is a FRAUD" meme.
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Polycosm posted...

Hold onto that nom'-- you earned it! I'll be more than happy to put my vote towards whatever you choose, whenever we wind up cashing it in. (Here's hoping the wait isn't too long).

Thanks! This really motivates me.

I'll hold on to it. =)
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Waluigi1 posted...

Wtf your playtime lol. But also you're not done yet!

I always take my time to really savor each game. Usually I take exactly double the time as most people (including my brother) for each game. I'm a hardcore completionist as well, so it definitely plays a major factor in it as well.

Besides, I want to see what happens when I pass the 999:59 barrier!

tcaz2 posted...

Advokaiser posted...

(Actually, what would have happened if I had battled him again? I was too scared to do it to think about it anyway.)

Flowey shows up and kills him again, then is like "We don't really need to do all this again, do we? We know how it ends" and the Omega Flowey fight is skipped. He tells you to become better friends with Alphys again to get a better ending and leaves, then you get the same ending as before.

I was tempted to try it out in my next session, but I would have hesitated as well. I'll still see it by myself, though.
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[...]

I arrived at Alphys's lab and slided the letter in. She thought I was the one who wrote it, but it was clarified that-- Wait... Actually, I don't remember if it was clarified or not. Anyway, I proceeded, and suddenly... We were on a date. She offered me nice but useless things. *awkward silence... (and a funny one, actually)* So... Do you like anime" "Yes" "Great, me too! [...] I know the perfect place to hang out: The dumpster!" "lol"

Now there, Undyne came close. Alphys hid. "Have you seen Alphys?" That was a hard question. Would I lie to protect Alphys, or would I do the right thing by telling the truth? I told the truth. "So she's around here... I'll keep looking" Then the plot twist(?) came: "It's obvious, isn't it? I really like her" "Uh... What?" Well, I helped her gain confidence, playing the role of Undyne myself, and then she stumbled upon us. Long story short, Alphys told everything to her, and Undyne was like "I don't care about any of that; I like you because you're cool". Papyrus then came and helped her train by exercising; meanwhile, Undyne was like "OMG, please tell me she was not serious about anime; anime is real, right?" "Uh..." I didn't really understand the question, since I thought she was thinking cartoons were was she was actually watching instead of anime, hence the question. I say "Yes" anyway, though, so I didn't really lie...

I came back to the lab, and saw Alphys's note. I noticed her handwriting didn't contain any stuttering, but it made sense. I entered the "true lab", and read the writings on the walls. I learned more about the research about souls, and learned that the force that made a human soul prevail after death was something called...

"Determination."

I stopped there.

Total time: 936:46
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Part 3...

Finally, after the slight emotional relief of knowing I could have a better ending, I checked the intro to see if there was no monkey business this time around. "And to think I was always moved by the way the song played at the intro and watching Frisk's fall... I had no idea what I was getting into... *sob*" notaliteralsob

(I guess I can make another pause for a comment. I've been really happy with all the blessings and overall peace I've been experiencing in my life for the last 10 years. God has really changed my life. This game had a lot of that overall peaceful, happy and rose-tinted vibe I love about things in general. The fight with Flowey, however, was a pretty low point overall and threw it away... Although not entirely. If I had played this game 10 years ago... Heck, maybe even 5, I probably wouldn't have been able to stomach this out. Something I hadn't realized until way after I stopped playing this session was that there was even one particular segment that kind of touched me, just before all of this, and that was actually the whole Undertale segment, just one play session away.

Either way, I realized it made sense to go back to the initial save file since there were a lot of question marks in the way that just couldn't be left out: Alphys's sadness and lonelyness, the mysterious door in the mountains, Burgerpants... And a pretty obvious thing that I never thought about: The procedence and identity of the six souls!

So I went back to my file, and everything was normal. Creepily normal. Asgore was alive and...

"Are you ready".
"Go back, go back!!"
"I see..."
"Ehm... I'm not sure you do."

(Actually, what would have happened if I had battled him again? I was too scared to do it to think about it anyway.)

I quickly returned and went all the way to the back of the hotel, when suddenly my phone rang. It was Undyne. There was an unexplicable turn of events. Something that would only happen in, like, a parallel world or something. Undyne wanted me to give a letter to Alphys. She told me were she was, but I was still so overwhelmed that I didn't pay full attention to it. I had to reset the game to see it again and advance. Eventually I got to Snowdin. Finally the pair had something else to say this time around. Undyne gave me the letter and I took off.

(At this point I couldn't stop playing; I had to see what was going to happen next, hoping that everything improved further, although I was aware that this probably was going to take some more time to wrap everything up.)

Before delivering the letter, I wanted to try something first. I saw a video a while back titled: "What happens if you sell Undyne's letter?" I didn't remember it, so I went ahead and tried to sell it at the tEM shOP. I... couldn't. "Well, I tried. Besides, Flowey would have probably found out and given me another good scare by corrupting the file again, ending the game or something like that."

[...]
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This is the most fun I've had since my first contest (Game of the Decade). It redeemed the last couple of contests in so many ways, and almost all of it was magnificent. There are just so many great things this contest had to offer, it's really hard to pick just one.

Karakteru Batteru Ekkusu!!
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Ngamer64 posted...

To The Moon (2011)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/206440/To_the_Moon/
(more of a narrative experience than a game, but very well done)

I've been wanting to play this game once I saw like 3-4 years ago that there were lots of people moved by it. It's actually on my Steam wishlist.

Anyway, our account (mine and my brother's) is elcochran90.
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Okay, now that I've cooled down from that initially terrifying experience and listening to the OST so far, I can tell you: "You Idiot" is singlehandedly the most dreadful song in the entire game. No wonder I was feeling so scared, to say the least.

"Your Best Nightmare", on the other hand... That is an incredible masterpiece from start to finish. Listening to it without the overwhelming implication that it carries over is actually pretty awesome.

Write-up on the way...
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='D
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[...]

Opening the file again, I entered the fight again, while simultaneously listening to Flowey's foul words. I just kept dodging until the screen somehow changed and there were lots of knives flying everywhere. Suddenly, a light of hope lightly shined: The "Act" option was there. I quickly got to it while making sure NOT to die again, and I was fortunately able to use it. "You called for help" Suddenly the knives transformed into something else, something green that made me regain life.

Back to the fight, the same things were happening until I got into another one of those screens. After dodging some more, I called for help. My life was partially restored. This happened a total of 6 times (one of those times there were lots of negative words, turned into positive ones). You know, I didn't actually count the number of times this happened, I just assume it since there were the 6 trapped souls (what, you think I actually cared to count them when I was shocked by all of the aforementioned psychological crap?).

(Wait... I just realized, by writing this up, that there were daggers, ballet shoes and a frying pan. All of that has to be a nod to my weapons and armor, right? Oh, there was a gun too! Yeah, that was a nearly-impossible-to-dodge gun, as well as receiving health from it, which scared me because I seriously did not want to die again.)

I also noticed that I was sometimes at the left of the creen and I was respawning at the right. I then saw the actual "File 2 loaded" text. After all of that, I was trapped by Flowey and they started loading the "third" file just to kill me over and over, while also saying that I would never get out of that situation. I would be trapped forever. It genuinely, truly gave me a sense of hopelessness, like I haven't experienced for a really long time. 10 years maybe.

...But I still had hope. I knew the game wouldn't be soooooo cruel. It would be the single most absurd ending in gaming history. Might as well reset everything, do Genocide (if I can also stomach its ending) and get done with this. And I was right: I was trapped by a single rotating circle, but I recovered all of my halth. I was still confused, but it was a good sign from what I guessed. Yes, it was. The souls started to rebel themselves, and I was given the option to fight, so I took it. Every bit of damage I dealt, Flowey had disturbing moans. There was a point were I literally only had a tiny fraction of health left, so I thought I could no longer die. I'm not sure if that's actually true, but I'm pretty sure you can't die anymore.

Finally, I defeated Flowey. Then the credits came. That shocked me as well, since I really thought it was all over. But then... I don't know what came first: The Mercy-fest, or the phone call. I think the latter. I listened to their message, and long story short, I learned that Toriel was the queen, so my hypothesis was confirmed in terms of Asgore being his husband. But then came the Mercy-fest. What do I mean by that? Well: Just kill me. *Mercy* Huh? *Mercy* I don't understand... Why? *Mer-- ehm... Fig--... Mercy* No, seriously, I even considered doing that at some point, but I thought there still was no turning back now. "Mercy" wasn't apparently doing anything, but turns out it did. "I guess this is what you call... Determination". "NO IT ISN'T, YOU ABOMINABLE BEAST!! IT'S CALLED 'DOING THE PACIFIST ROUTE'. DO YOU THINK I DON'T WANT TO GET RID OF YOU?!" Flowey ran away, then returned or something like that, and he offered me a different way to end all of this. A happier ending, which I of course accepted.

End of part 2; part 3 tomorrow.

Part 2:

Something I wondered at certain points in the end of my journey while meeting and battling Asgore is if he would be Toriel's husband.

Before continuing, I have to explain something about myself.

I'm a hypersensitive person. Here are two examples of this:

When I was 5 or 6 years old, around the year 2000, my older brother was fascinated with Ocarina of Time; so much that he liked defeating Ganondorf over and over. Whenever he did it, I was scared about everything: from the ominous atmosphere before his encounter, to the actual battle itself. I even went with my parents one time and cried out of fear. They consolated me. Nevertheless, I managed to complete the game properly at age 13 when I had the chance to play the game for the first time and experience it myself, and I have to admit, it was pretty amazing.

Fast-forward to 2013. I was playing Shadow of the Colossus for the first time, and I was thrilled. Long story short, when the ending came, I was completely and utterly emotionally crushed by it. So bad even that I had to talk to my family about how much of a horrible experience that was.

And I was freaking eighteen!

Unlike with OoT though... That remained a game-ruining experience.

Now, back to the game session: When I defeated Asgore, I didn't hesitate in selecting "Mercy"; but I was still feeling a little nervous that I had actually killed Asgore. That feeling was reinforced when his soul was destroyed in front of me. "Was this a blunder?!" When Flowey appeared and said their monologue, I quickly (IIRC) realized about the "regicide" thing mentioned at the beginning of the game. They laughed, then they got all of the souls for their own, I remained trapped (along with the rest of the monsters), the King was killed, and the game shut down.

"This... This can't be happening... THAT'S IT!! THIS IS THE LAST TIME I FALL INTO THE TRAP OF THINKING I HAVE TO PLAY EVERY ACCLAIMED GAME JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE CONSIDERED 'AMAZING'!"

After all this time, I can still become so invested in a good game experience that a terrifying turn of events can still make me feel uneasy.

So I reopened the game, and skipped the intr-- "Wh-What is this...?!" The game acted really weird and glitchy, leaving only a really weird file available. "Wh-When did Doki Doki Literature Club come out again?!" I then realized DDLC came out 2 years later than Undertale, so I wouldn't be surprised if that game actually grabbed that idea and expanded upon it. Either way, I closed and reopened the game again to pay attention to the words that were being said in the intro: "[...] One day, all of the monsters disappeared." *glitchy textures and sound* I hesitantly selected "Continue".

I was trapped in this dark room, then I saved on the nearest star. I advanced and my encounter with Flowey the abominable monster quickly showed up. He started to attack me and I just tried to dodge everything while also feeling really uneasy.

I was... catatonic.

I noticed there was the "Fight" option, but I didn't reach for it because I still hadn't learn anything from the last fight. I kept dodging and dodging, until I ultimately died. "This is all a bad dream! And you're never waking up!" *game closes*

*shivers*... *shivers*...

[...]

Congratulations to the Oracle Soldier!

Dva69 posted...

You're thanking god for helping you win a video game contest? You dont think theres more pressing matters he could care about

Oh, don't misunderstand me, He really does. It's just that, to be fair, I thank God for everything in my life, including every accomplishment, be it big or small.

Shoutouts and Special Thanks:

- God. I believe in Him, He's my Lord and Savior and I've been enormously blessed by Him.
- My brother and mother, for their endless support in everything I do and care about.
- Kamikaze Potato, because without his contest analysis, my bracket would have gone an entirely different way (you should pay closer attention to his analysis next time!).
- @Ngamer64, for hosting the Guru; @NowItsAngeTime for co-hosting it, as well as everyone involved in the process.
- @Team_Rocket_Elite for hosting the Oracle, participating in the Stats and Discussion topics and being an overall awesome authority here.
- @Steiner, for hosting the Battle Challenge, in which I also participated in.
- @hylianknight3, for never letting me catch up to him in the Oracle Challenge, and both @tennisboy213 and @LusterSoldier for reinforcing that barrier.
- @ZenOfThunder for making me laugh continuously with his great GIFs and memes.
- Luster, TRE and @LeonhartFour, for contributing nice info and updates in the Stats topics, as well as everyone who also contributed to it.
- @charmander6000, for his pre-matches' analysis, which I also took into account to make my own predictions.
- And everyone who makes their own projects, write-ups, etc., and that overall make this board a really cool place to hang out (and that I may have forgotten to mention).

The Guru Champ Dilemma...

Due to the financial situation I've been in since I was a pre-teen, being a relatively young gamer, as well as having only become a "true" gamer until around 2009 (that is, actively looking to play critically acclaimed games, classics, and wanting to learn more about the industry in general), I haven't had much recent gaming experience. To be more precise, I haven't gone past the 6th Gen. Yes, that's right; I haven't really gone past the PS2 era. It's pretty hard to say it, honestly.

"But... What does that mean?"

It means that if GotD 2 was our next contest, I wouldn't have a thing to say, and I wouldn't want to do things like nominating Xenoblade Chronicles just because I love Shulk and mained him from the little time I played Smash 4. And do you know what game I'm playing right now? Surprise surprise, Undertale! That would be a really cruel thing to do (and besides, it will probably get in and perform realtively well anyway).

If we somehow had something like another Character Battle, another Best Game Ever (which is not happening soon), Best Item, or another Rivalry Rumble (which is probably never going to happen anyway), another story could be told.

"So, what's your plan?"

I guess I could wait until there is another contest that fits my own situation (sort of what happened in BYIG where DpObliVion had to wait for the next contest to make his nomination valid). I wouldn't feel good by relegating my nomination to someone else, but if I have to do it and you consider it fair, I'd be willing to do it.

What do you guys think?

Again, thanks to all of you. Love you guys so much.

Backstory:

Hi, fellow friends. I'm Advo, I'm from Mexico, and I'm 23 years old. English is my second language. I'm a huge fan of videogame music, and have participated in many Board 8 projects, although I've yet to start a board project of my own.

I joined GameFAQs in 2010. I was 14 at the time. I had previously been using the site for cheats and guides since around 2007 or so. I especially remember following a guide for Castlevania: Curse of Darkness -- the brand new game I was playing at the time. My older brother saw that I was using the site a lot, so he said to me: "Why don't you create an account there?" I was unsure, but I ultimately went for it. I saw that there was a Character Battle going at the time, but didn't pay attention to it, especially after I was a little disappointed with the match I had been looking for: Link vs. Alucard, since I thought it was gonna be close (how far have we come, huh?). At that time I thought Mario was the strongest character on the site.

I used to hang out in the Poll of the Day board, but I didn't feel too comfortable there, so I switched to the GameFAQs Contests board. My first real contest was Game of the Decade. For some reason, I didn't nominate any games, but I still entered a bracket anyway. I looked at it, having not heard of half of the entire bracket's games. I don't know exactly how it happened, but I stumbled upon a certain user's prediction and analysis topic. His name was @KamikazePotato. Long story short, I managed to finish 11th (I think?) in the Guru thanks to it, without ever participating in a contest before, and having no idea of any contest's stats prior. How did I achieve that? I did some tweaks to KP's predictions in debatable matches: Metroid Prime > Half-Life 2, Brawl > Melee, Majora's Mask > GSC, etc. I was really happy with my result, and didn't have a remotely better result than that in the following contests... until now. I discovered some other projects along the way, my favorite being the Oracle Challenge, and I enjoyed the board's overall mood while it lasted. I was also going through a beautiful part in my lifetime, so that contest definitely holds a special place in my heart. So I decided to stay here and participate in every contest since.

My first actual Character Battle was 2013's. I was so confused by so many unrecognizable names and overall difficulty to even make a bracket. I also skipped the Oracle since the 3-way format was nearly impossible for me to figure out. Draven was the icing on the cake for a truly devastating contest experience. BGE 2015 ran in a somewhat similar fashion, so I was disappointed and thought contests would never be fun anymore. By the time BYIG came along, my family and I where going through harsh times, but I enjoyed the contest since it was short and sweet, but most importantly, there weren't any rallies. Whatever happened to the questionable management of the contest is something I won't take into account because I still enjoyed the contest a good amount.

Fast-forward to October 2018. I followed KP's topic and went for the same strategy as years prior: Listen to him, but pull the trigger in debatable matches. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have known about KOS-MOS backstory, Tifa's superpower, or Pokmon's normal strength. I went for Tifa reaching Samus, but I also almost went for Zelda going all the way to Snake and losing to Auron. I figured Crono would boost from his game's performance in 2015, but not enough to beat Cloud, who I figured would have enough of a Smash boost to catapult himself to #2 again.

All-in-all, this is the most fun I've had since 2010, and I can't believe I am where I am right now. This is my biggest accomplishment on the site's history, and I think my Oracle performance is the best I've had as well.