Undertale is Deeply Alice-in-Wonderland-y

01 Sep, 2026

A new chapter of Deltarune came out while I was still working my Summer job. And one of my coworkers was like "David, you oughta play Deltarune." And I was like "wait, isn't that the sequel to Undertale? I've never played Undertale." And he was like "not exactly, but you should play it first for esoteric reasons which will make more sense later."

So I went ahead and played Undertale, went into it basically blind. I did the pacifist route -- I had learned via cultural osmosis that this is the correct way to play the game. I really liked it and it was really funny. And, rarely for a game, I thought most of the characters were likable and well written (I was only tempted to murder like three of them).¹

But, the thing that struck me about Undertale is how Alice-in-Wonderland-y it is. I don't know if this was intentional, but it clearly rhymes. A child falls down a hole into a surreal world filled with eccentric talking animals. The whole thing clearly and consistently runs on dream logic. And at the end, a monarch tries to execute you. I don't think I've heard anyone point this out before, but it's definitely true, and I feel the need to infodump the world at large about it.