“Despite everything, it’s still you”: How the player becomes a condemned god in undertale by engaging in sartrean bad faith through the true reset function

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ID: 287031
2025
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Abstract
This paper will delve into Undertale's True Reset Function to elucidate the claim that the game and its True Reset function posits bad faith, as well as makes the player out to become a “condemned god”. Sartre first defines bad faith as a form of self-deception wherein individuals deny their radical freedom to avoid the anxieties and pressure of choice. On the other hand, the True Reset Function in Undertale gives players the option to erase all their progress and the originally obtained ending to play the game all over again. However, it cannot be said that the player is an external or sovereign entity alone. Rather, the player becomes a condemned god, cursed by the power to rewrite the game's reality and abuse the power they possess. Alongside this, the player cannot possibly "unknow" or deny the previous playthroughs or worlds they created in the game universe. Much like a god, they are condemned to be free to do whatever they want and reset timelines. Still, they are unable to change their awareness and power over those timelines, putting themselves into a tragic and contradictory position. Thus, the argument structure of the paper will posit that the player's self-deception, which is prevalent in the act of selecting the True Reset function, is an act of bad faith but also imposes on the player the burden of omniscience. Based on Sartre’s “No Exit”, this paper then aims to explore how Undertale turns its players into a condemned God, one that can reset everything in the game universe except for their facticity by falling into the trap of bad faith and placing themselves in a Sartrean hell of repetition.
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Authors Villalobos, Kyla Thea Marie Santiago
Journal Malay Journal
Year 2025
DOI
DOI not found
URL
https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_philo/25
Keywords Keywords not found

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