Undertale is a beautifully written RPG game created by Toby Fox that allows the player to express themselves in a multitude of choices. With an impeccable story, unique story, and unremarkable soundtrack, it’s no surprise that this game is as widely received as it is. One of Undertale’s biggest traits, however, is its cast. All individually crafted with their own personalities, traits, and routes of befriending, it’s clear Toby cared deeply about his characters and it shows. But with so many to choose from, which ones are the best?

To help answer that question, we’re going to be breaking down the characteristics into different categories: design, story, battle, and theme. Design will look into not just how the character appears but how they act, taking into account their personality as a whole. Story will assess their relevance to the plot and how well they play their role. Battle, as it suggests, will evaluate how fun and stylistic their fight is. Finally, the theme will judge the character’s associated musical theme (if they have one). With that established, let’s begin the rating!

10. Alphys

Design: 1/10

Story: 6/10

Battle: 1/10

Theme: 1/10 (Alphys theme)

Don’t get me wrong, Alphys is a good character. Her awkward personality and interest in anime is certainly something to heavily relate to. But for the purposes of this list, she just doesn’t have much going for her. Her design is most certainly unique, taking on the appearance of a yellow dinosaur. But her constant messaging towards the player throughout Hotlands, albeit very in character, can certainly be mildly annoying. Luckily, though, Alphys has great relevance to the plot. Her slow development with Undyne is not only adorable, but is literally a fundamental plot towards achieving the True Pacifist ending. As for her fight— well, she doesn’t even have one. Finally, her theme is again admittedly in character, but isn’t necessarily the biggest hang-banger so to speak.

9. Temmie

Design: 2/10

Story: 1/10

Battle: 2/10

Theme: 2/10 (Temmie Village)
 

Appearing by surprise in Waterfall, Temmie is most certainly a peculiar character. Her character is rather adorable, with button eyes and a small, cat-like appearance. Furthermore, her chaotic and compulsive personality can be amusing at times. Unfortunately, she has little to no relevance to the plot, however. Her fight errs on the more average side, but there are certainly elements of it that spark a short laughter. Her songs are unique and match her character greatly, but again may not be the song of choice to have on repeat.

8. Mettaton 

Design: 4/10

Story: 2/10

Battle: 5/10

Theme: 5/10 (Death by Glamour)

Lights, Cameras, Action! This drama loving robot is all about putting on a show for all the underground. Their vast audience spanning from monsters to players has gained them a lot of attraction. Their design starts off as boxy and dull, sharing traits of a game show host. During one of their interactions, however, the player unlocks Mettatons ‘hidden form,’ gaining hair, a torso and legs.

Despite their continuous appearance, they don’t have any major relevance to the plot of the story and are more of a fun side character to help breathe life into the underground. Their theme, specifically ‘Death by Glamour,’ is a catchy beat that connects heavily to Mettaton’s game-show personality and fashion-based judgments.

7. Asgore Dreemur

Design: 7/10

Story: 8/10

Battle: 7/10

Theme: 7/10 (ASGORE)

As the ‘final’ boss of Undertale, Asgore certainly strikes players with anxiety, and he plays his role well. Throughout the game, the player hears his name associated with the assassination of human souls and is posed as a figure of hope for the monster's freedom. Asgore’s design resembles this greatly, appearing a large figure mimicking features from his ex-queen Toriel. His personality contradicts this however, as we learn that he is sorrowful for the things he’s done, and even misses Toriel greatly. However, he feels he has to kill the human because it’s the only way to free the monsters, so he bears the burden. His kind heart juxtapositions his role, which adds greatly to his character.

Also a small note that his trident is one of the only things in an undertale battle that has a colored sprite. As the king, he serves a great purpose to the story, setting up events to put Undertale in the situation the player finds it in. His theme represents this as it’s not only catchy, but possibly shares melodies of all sections of the underground.

6. Flowey/Omega Flowey

Design: 8/10

Story: 9/10

Battle: 9/10

Theme: 3/10 (Your Best Nightmare)

He may look like just a small flower, but don’t let that fool you. Flowey is one of the most important characters in the story, and likes to put the player through hell for their own amusement. Their original design resembles a small flower with yellow petals; an important symbol of Undertale. While not as impressive of a design, Flowey transforms into a behemoth known as Omega Flowey when collecting the other human souls, looking so freakishly out of place that it deserves its high ranking.

His personality is relentlessly evil, and only after three transformations actually changes for the better. While annoying to deal with, he deserves points for sticking strongly to his beliefs. He is highly relevant to the story, playing as the underlining villain of the story, urges the player into a secret ‘genocide’ route, and and is the only reason the player is able to complete a true pacifist route. 

Their fight, only really happening during the Omega Flowey fight, is arguably the most unique fight in all of Undertale. The player plays without a box to limit movement, without controls to retaliate, and without a save to go back to. Omega Flowey is one of the only fully colored sprites when in battle mode, and is also the only non-pixelated boss in all of Undertale. His unique fight and diverging methods of being defeated prove to be one of the best fights. The theme ‘Your Best Nightmare’ starts off menacing, playing as he slowly inches on the screen, is cut by a maniacal laughter, then continues in a terrifying beat.

5. Toriel Dreemur

Design: 3/10

Story: 4/10

Battle: 3/10

Theme: 4/10 (Heartache)

Playing a motherly role for the character, Toriel– as the name may suggest– acts as the home keeper for the game’s tutorial. Her caring soul and obsession for snails has earned her a well received fanbase. Her design reflects her personality, appearing harmless and inviting. Her personality allows the player to be welcomed into the underground and feel safe from harm's way. Her relevance to the story is not as prominent as other characters, although as the ex-queen of the underground and the first stage of the game, she plays a decent role.

Her fight, being the first real boss fight of the game, is a heartwarming experience: as the player continues to fight, Toriel becomes less willing to actually harm the character. The song that plays meanwhile is a blend of sworn duty and sympathy, playing heavily to Toriel’s personality. Despite all these good things going for her, Toriel is unfortunately up against some highly-competing characters, and hence isn’t placed as high.

4. Undyne/Undyne the Undying

Design: 6/10

Story: 5/10

Battle: 6/10

Theme: 8/10 (Battle Against a True Hero)

A battle-hungry fish fighting for the underground, Undyne is not to be taken lightly. Her first Appearance in Waterfall sends menacing vibes to players, attacking them every chance she gets. Her heavy battle armor and eyepatch resembles her strong-willed spirit, and her spear in hand compliments her related attacks. During a genocide route, however, through the power of determination she transforms into Undyne the Undying, a whole new boss with unbreakable resolve. Her eye glistens with spears, making for an overall glorified and intense design. Her personality is even more violent, finding overdramatic ways to even make tea.

Her relevance is quite significant too, as she is the leader of the royal guard fighting for the king, and is Papyrus’ whole inspiration for wanting to be a royal guard. Her battle on Pacifist and Neutral routes are intense, mildly difficult, and unique as the player is introduced to a new soul. Her Genocide varient, however, is much more difficult; argued to be the most challenging. Swift attacks and high amounts of damage make her a fun opposition. Her theme when transforming into Undyne the Undying starts off as soft and heroic before swiftly transforming into an intense melody perfectly suiting the intense battle between a megalomaniac and an unbreakable spirit.

3. Papyrus

Design: 5/10

Story: 3/10

Battle: 4/10

Theme: 6/10 (Bonetrousle)

Who doesn’t love a determined, underdog skeleton brother? Papyrus, the final boss of the Snowdin area, is sans’ brother, puzzle master, and soon-to-be member of the royal guard. Contrary to his brother, Papyrus’ personality can be labeled as a goody-two-shoes who will stop at nothing to please Undyne; even if it means trapping the human after losing to him during his fight. With his childish humor, players are sure to get a good laugh from his expense. He wears a red scarf with matching gloves and boots with a hidden Earthbound reference on his shirt, which in canon could be an apprentice uniform for the royal guard.

His relevance, sadly is not too great, serving mostly as a major motive for sans’ actions in the Genocide route and the reason Flowey collects all the souls of the monsters in the True Pacifist ending. His fight is a strange exchange between peculiar jokes and alternative battle mechanics, introducing not only blue attacks, in which the player cannot move when touching, and the first soul transformation, which applies gravity to the player. These mechanics make his fight amusing and entertaining, even more so when accompanied by the catchy tune playing in the background.

2. Sans

Design: 9/10

Story: 9/10

Battle: 8/10

Theme: 9/10 (Megalovania)

You knew it was gonna happen eventually. Sans, the beloved, comical skeleton brings a lot to the table when it comes to overall perfected characters. The font of his speech is represented in both his name and his attitude, his chill and laid-back attitude attracts many fans, but most of all his die-hard finale in the Genocide run immediatelymarked him as many players favorites. His relevance to the plot may seem ill-placed at first, but when taking into account his unseen interactions with Flowey, his relation to Toriel, his supporter in his brother, and the bearer of knowledge towards the human’s ability to reset the universe, sans has his fair share of importance.

His battle, competing with Undyne the Undying as the hardest boss fight, brings an epic dynamic in a final effort to break the human’s will into giving up as even he knows that with enough resets, the human will finally defeat sans. The contrast between the stakes of this fight and sans’ unexpected attempt to try at all sets this fight really high in comparison. Everything between the abuse of gravitational manipulation to the advanced bone and gaster blaster maneuvering to the attacks during the player's turn to his special attack breaking the meta of the game only adds to what was already a beautifully written fight.

And to put the sugar on the cream, the theme ‘Megalovania’ that plays in the background of the fight entices headrocks from the player between matches. As a final note, ‘the song that might play when you fight sans’ does not in fact play at all when fighting sans, and was instead used as a red herring towards the player to convince them that there is no fight with sans (if they are playing any route other then Genocide).

1. Asriel Dreemur

Design: 10/10

Story: 10/10

Battle: 10/10

Theme: 10/10 (Hopes and Dreams)

And finally to our number one spot: Asriel Dreemur. Everything about this character and fight builds to the story, theme, fight, and overall mood of the player. Just their introduction grasps players by surprise, reeling them into an epic fight between the unkillable and the god of death. Upon appearing, the battle starts seemingly normally. Checking Asriel reveals that he has infinite attack and defense, trying to attack him floods the player’s screen with ‘MISS’ symbols, and the ACT option reveals that the player can either hope or dream, which is also the name of the song that plays in the background.

When said song reaches the beat drop however, everything changes as the background collapses into a rainbow of colors and Asriel dances across the screen with multicolored afterimages. Asriel’s design closely resembles his parents having the robe of Toriel and the horns of Asgore. His personality was born from the fallen prince Asriel, who as a young child, killed by the humans when trying to return Chara’s body. In a desperate attempt to save their child, Toriel and Asgore had Alphys fuse his remains with a golden flower– hence their symbolism– which created Flowey. Asriel’s return after fusing with every soul in the underground creates a beautiful story, which when weighed with the elements of the fight creates what many realize as a ‘perfected character.’

During the fight, Asriel has the player fight against some of the beloved characters, where they regain their memory when ACT is replaced with SAVE. Following the rescue of the player’s friends, the player saves Asriel, where we then watch him shred the player's life to a fraction. Every aspect of this fight is not only complimented greatly with the theme of the character, but also advances the story and breaks the meta of undertale’s fighting system. Finally, the songs that play in the background add to the heightened intensity, combining violin chords, epic guitar riffs, and melodic leitmotifs.

Everything about this fight was perfected to every last pixel, and hence deserves its rightful spot as number one.

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