When Empathy Becomes Gameplay

In most RPGs, progress means win­ning fights and get­ting stronger. Un­der­tale flips that ex­pec­ta­tion by mak­ing em­pa­thy part of the core loop. Mer­cy is not a “nice” op­tion­al choice, it is a playable strat­e­gy, and the sto­ry ac­tive­ly re­sponds to how care­ful­ly you treat the char­ac­ters in front of you.