On Thursday there were a few exchanges about the nature of random encounters in Undertale and how quickly the ACT options could get boring. Unlike in other RPGs such as Pokémon, there is no way to decrease the rate of random encounters in Undertale aside from a Genocide run. Like in any RPG, the random encounters get boring after a while, when the player figures out the right combination of ACTs to spare each enemy. Although this is a problem that eventually pops up with all RPGs, the random encounters in Undertale are even more tedious than those in other games. After all, in most RPGs the player character reaches a point where most enemies can be disposed of in one or two turns, and the result is that random encounters take roughly half a minute to play through. But in Undertale, if one wants to achieve the True Pacifist Route, this is impossible. Choosing MERCY means sitting through almost identical battles over and over, which can get pretty darned boring after a couple times.
This isn't a bug, it's a feature.
Undertale, at its core, is a game about how difficult it can be to take the high road and spare your enemies. Whether they give lots of EXP yield (boss monsters), seemingly unwilling to show any signs of mercy (Undyne or Asgore), or have repeatedly done despicable things (Flowey). The game knows that it is hard to stick with the True Pacifist Route, just as it is hard to stick with the moral high ground in real life. The sheer difficulty in finding how to spare some enemies (Undyne and Mettaton EX for example) is an example of how the game conveys this message. The tedious nature of random encounters is another—it is a test to see if the player can remain merciful even in the face of utter boredom, instead of giving into the temptation to level up and one-shot everything in sight.
In Snowdin there is a minigame with a snowball and a golf hole, which pays the player different amounts of gold for guiding the ball to the hold in different times. This is easier said than done. It is implied that the "Ball Game" as it is called, is a parallel for Undertale as a whole, as the victory messages for different finishing times are subtle references to the different fallen humans that came before Frisk (For example, one such message reads as follows: "Hopping and twirling, your original style pulled you through." This is a reference to the fallen human whose left behind the Ballet Shoes and Old Tutu items, and who attacks with pointe shoes in the Omega Flowey fight). Finishing in the fastest possible time gives this message: "Bravery. Justice. Integrity. Kindness. Perseverance. Patience. Using these, you were able to win at "Ball Game." Notably, the color of the text corresponds with the color of the other human souls.
What does this mean? If "Ball Game" is a reference to Undertale as a whole, and the other fallen humans are the "previous players" of Undertale, then it appears that these are the qualities that the game wants the player to embrace. This is the game directly telling the player what qualities are necessary in order to win at "Ball Game"/Undertale. Importantly, patience and perseverance are two of these listed qualities. This corresponds the previous point about the tedium of random encounters: Toby Fox, just like all other RPG designers, knows that random encounters get boring. But unlike other traditional RPGs, which try to provide methods for the player to avoid them, Toby deliberately avoids letting the player opt-out in order to test the player's patience and perseverance, and ability to remain pacifist in the face of a gamer's pet peeve: boredom.
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