Battle with Toriel is phenomenal

[Gubernator, M.D.]

Undertale has a lot of amazing battles with every major boss bringing something unique to the table. However, the one that stuck with me the most was the one with Toriel.

I wasn't interested in the game until now, so I went to play Undertale knowing just 3 things - internet loves Sans, Flowey is bad and "you don't have to kill anyone".

After Toriel saved me I instantly fell in love with her character, the caring mother figure. When she was happy with me just talking to the dummy I quickly decided to never kill monsters. To make her happy. And then I noticed, that getting to know the monsters and learning actions that make them lose interest in fighting is way more engaging than just attacking and dodging.

When the first Froggit told me, that monsters can be spared not just by acting a certain way, but also by depleting their health I thought "well, that might be helpful in the future".

Then there's the boss battle. Where I was supposed to prove I can survive outside the ruins. I had no intention to hurt her, so I decided to do what I did up until this point. What SHE taught me is the right thing...
Ironically, talking does not seem to be the solution to this situation.
I was shocked. I had no idea what to do. I was running low on health, so I fled to save and replenish my health.
If talking isn't the solution, then I'll prove myself in battle and spare Toriel once her health drops enough for me to be able to spare her. With each attack doing 30 damage, a fraction of her health, I watch the green bar slowly get smaller, waiting for her name to turn yellow. For her to surrender...

...and then I do 10x more damage and fatally wound her.

I read her last words. I watched her turn to dust. I watched her heart break. I couldn't believe what just happened. I didn't want it, I didn't want to kill someone who believed this is what she has to do to protect me from what she deemed was a mortal danger.

I loaded my last save, I talk to her again.
You thought about telling Toriel that you saw her die.
At that moment I knew this game was something special. I talk to her again.
Can you show mercy without fighting or running away...?
Only then I remembered the other Froggit. I realized that I have to refuse fighting altogether.
So I kept on sparing. And when I got low on health again I noticed that her attacks move away from me. That she doesn't really want to hurt me either. She just want to keep me from leaving. Last time I was so focused on fighting that I completely ignored that her attacks miss me.
Finally she stopped fighting too.

For me it's the most important boss fight in the game. It influenced how I approached all future battles, but also subverted everything I learnt prior. It's not challenging, since you can't even die. There are no special gimmicks, like blue/green/purple/yellow hearts. But the emotional impact, the character building, introduction to true complexity of this game's story is what made the first boss battle so memorable for me.

What do you think? What battles were the most impactful for you and why?

[BIKING VIKING]

Wow. That was beautiful. For me though, its the fight with sans, and im not just saying that because of the memes, but because to sans, this is the battle for the end of the world. He didn't know that you could just sell your soul and reset at the end, he thought you will end humanity as well.

In every ut fight you have determination, the ability to reset after death and practice the fight until you win, and although you sans cant prevent this he does know about this, making the fight very, very interesting.

Another cool thing about it is the fact that sans is breaking a promise to toriel he sworn to keep, even if it could result in an endless cycle of destruction.

I really wish this fight wasn't memed so much. In my opinion, its one of the most intense and dramatic fights in gaming history.

I think im gonna award your post. The way you talked about the fight is fantastic.

[Spartan Delta 27]

Very nicely done.

The Game does its best to have an Emotional impact and the Fight with Toriel is a really good start to that, one with a lot of conflicting feelings too.

[Colonel 999]

I was SHOCKED when I had to fight her; the person who took care of me as if I was her own child..

The music and the intensity of the fight honestly made me shed some tears..
I REALLY DIDN'T WANT TO FIGHT HER!

However, I kept attacking because I didn't know that you can avoid hitting monsters altogether, I thought that I must lower their health before getting the option to spare them..



And then she died O_O

I still consider her boss music the best and most touching music in the game

[Robi]

I think every boss fight is phenomenal. Papyrus shows how kind-hearted he is and how he would never hurt a fly. You can't die in the fight, even less so than Toriel where I believe there is a very small chance where you can die and Toriel is surprised. I also love the true pacifist final boss, Asirel's boss fight because you finally see that there is good in everyone. Even Flowey, who seemed irredeemable, taunting and watching you through the whole game, then betraying you at the end, had good in him. However, it was only through showing good to everybody that you could save Asirel.

[dragonvale21]

The very, very interasting detail... you knew what you were saying @littlefrillymonster

[Jerboa_Queen]

Originally posted by Gubernator:

I loaded my last save, I talk to her again.
You thought about telling Toriel that you saw her die.
At that moment I knew this game was something special. I talk to her again.
Can you show mercy without fighting or running away...?
Only then I remembered the other Froggit. I realized that I have to refuse fighting altogether.
So I kept on sparing. And when I got low on health again I noticed that her attacks move away from me. That she doesn't really want to hurt me either. She just want to keep me from leaving. Last time I was so focused on fighting that I completely ignored that her attacks miss me.
Finally she stopped fighting too.

So you reset after killing her?
So did you get a special line of dialogue from a certain sadistic yellow flower after continuing to the exit of the Ruins?
How did you react to that?

[Gubernator, M.D.]

Originally posted by Jerboa_Queen:

So you reset after killing her?
So did you get a special line of dialogue from a certain sadistic yellow flower after continuing to the exit of the Ruins?
How did you react to that?

No, I didn't reset, just quit immediately and loaded up again.
After Flowey admitted he knows what I did I was certainly surprised and intrigued. From that point the world absorbed me completely.

[Jerboa_Queen]

Originally posted by Gubernator:

Originally posted by Jerboa_Queen:

So you reset after killing her?
So did you get a special line of dialogue from a certain sadistic yellow flower after continuing to the exit of the Ruins?
How did you react to that?

No, I didn't reset, just quit immediately and loaded up again.
After Flowey admitted he knows what I did I was certainly surprised and intrigued. From that point the world absorbed me completely.

If that made you like the game further, just wait till you see the true lab (unless you already did a true pacifist run idk)
That's where the game is amazing.
The atmosphere, the encounters, the MUSIC.
Best part of the game for me, or at least part of the top 3 best parts of the game.

[Gubernator, M.D.]

Originally posted by Jerboa_Queen:

Originally posted by Gubernator:

No, I didn't reset, just quit immediately and loaded up again.
After Flowey admitted he knows what I did I was certainly surprised and intrigued. From that point the world absorbed me completely.

If that made you like the game further, just wait till you see the true lab (unless you already did a true pacifist run idk)
That's where the game is amazing.
The atmosphere, the encounters, the MUSIC.
Best part of the game for me, or at least part of the top 3 best parts of the game.

Already finished the game, almost done my 2nd, final playthrough. Going true pacifist again, because I want to see the game in the new context.
The biggest surprise for me was the entire Hotlands part, because only now I see how all blatantly the puzzles were rigged. I honestly believed that Alphys was super helpful and dismissed Mettaton monologue as a bluff.

But what I liked the most were the small things and foreshadowings.
How in Toriel's house I found a joke book with bone-related puns, mentions of Undyne and Alphys in Snowdin, Mettaton's show jingle on Papyrus' TV, MTT brand cosmetics he rubbed behind his "ear", how proud he was of his spaghetti, why Undyne thought human history is so cool, all the comics in the lab.
How all the ATK/DEF items might've been related to 6 other humans.
How the game of golf reveals the personalities of their corresponding souls with each color represents either soul mode or attack type and how well it all works together.
And, of course, the realisation, that each time I died, I've heard the voice of Asgore, talking to the first human on their deathbed.
I'll stop there, because I feel I'm going full Alphys-mode.

There's so much to this game that I will probably write more threads on the forum, but I don't want to spam, so I'll stop myself for now. I am really glad I've experienced this game, because I love it and I'm also glad there's a forum where I can share my thought with others. So thank you for your responses. Also, sorry for any errors, english is not my first language.

[Jerboa_Queen]

You know, if you like lore and foreshadowing, genocide is hard, yes, but you may enjoy it for the bonus story behind Flowey and Sans

[Felliniesque]

its a good battle, but i prefer the asgore battle, much easier.