W. D. Gaster

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W. D. Gaster
Undertale character
Wdgaster.png
"Mystery Man", a sprite believed to belong to W. D. Gaster in Undertale
First game Undertale (2015)
Created by Toby Fox

W. D. Gaster is a character from the 2015 video game Undertale . He cannot normally be encountered in the game, and is never discussed directly as part of the game's main narrative. Players can only encounter events related to him either by luck or by modifying certain game files. A sprite from one of these events, internally named "Mystery Man", is generally used to portray W. D. Gaster, though the sprite's connection to the character is only hinted at, and not confirmed.

Contents

The existence and nature of W. D. Gaster has been the subject of speculation among both fans and critics. Multiple theories exist about him, including ones that suggest that he is related to Sans and Papyrus. It has also been argued that his name is a reference to the Wingdings font, similar to Sans and Papyrus being named after the fonts Comic Sans and Papyrus.

Concept and history

W. D. Gaster is a character created for Undertale . Although he himself does not appear in the game's main story, he is alluded to through cryptic references in rare dialogue from minor characters. He is also indirectly referenced during an optional fight against Sans, who wields weapons that are labelled "Gaster Blasters" in the game's files. [1] Gaster's existence in Undertale was discovered after players looked through the game's code. [2] There are two sprites within the game's files that are believed to represent Gaster, known as "Mystery Man" and "Redacted". [3] [ better source needed ] According to IGN , the "Mystery Man" sprite appears to be based on the design of the character Uboa from Yume Nikki . [4]

In addition to these sprites, modifying an internal code value labelled "fun" can cause hidden characters called Gaster Followers to appear in the game and divulge details about Gaster. [3] [ better source needed ] [1] They describe Gaster falling into "his creation" and "shatter[ing] across time and space", with one claiming that Gaster is still nearby and "listening". [3] [ better source needed ] A Tumblr post written by Undertale creator Toby Fox, written from the perspective of Sans, also contained language suggesting that someone was "listening". [1] Players can also modify the game to place their character in an unused room internally labelled "room_gaster", containing a message written in the Wingdings font titled "ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN", in reference to a missing entry in a series of logs in Undertale's main story. [3] [ better source needed ] [1]

When Undertale creator Toby Fox released update version 1.001 for Undertale, fans believed that certain lines of dialogue added to the game suggested that Gaster was indeed a real character in the game. [5] This update added a rare event that would allow the player to enter a room containing the "Mystery Man" sprite, which was originally only possible by modifying the game's code. [6]

Despite the numerous hidden references to Gaster in Undertale, its spiritual successor, Deltarune , which contains copious overt references to Undertale, does not contain any direct references to the name "Gaster" or a similar character in its current state. However, numerous pieces of circumstantial evidence suggests that Gaster is deeply tied to the game's overarching story. [7]

"Royal Sciences LLC", a company founded by Toby Fox in October 2015 to manage the copyrights of both Undertale and Deltarune appears to reference the character's job as the former royal scientist. [8] [9]

Appearances

Gaster is referenced in Undertale at various points, but with only few exceptions, does not actually appear in the game. According to information found in the game, Gaster once existed in the world, but due to falling into one of his machines, caused his existence to be scattered across time and space. After this happened, no one in the world seemed to remember he existed. [10] Through code modification or random factors, the player may encounter a character believed to be Gaster. Players can also find a theme in a secret sound test room, where the song "Gaster's Theme" could be played, and if they try to name themselves Gaster, the game will restart, not allowing it. [1] If players name themselves Gaster in Deltarune , the game will similarly restart. [7] While Gaster is not shown to appear in Toby Fox's other game, Deltarune , there are references to Gaster's theme at multiple times throughout the game and he is often a topic in fan theories about the game. [11]

A rare possible event in the town of Snowdin in Undertale has the protagonist receive a mysterious phone call asking "Can I speak to G..." before the caller decides it was a wrong number and disconnects. Many fans speculated that the "G..." was intended to signify "Gaster". Undertale was localized into the Japanese language by 8-4, and this particular line was considered difficult to translate. There is no way in the Japanese syllabary to represent only the letter "G", and an early draft translation by 8-4 used が (Ga), which would have been taken as further confirmation the line referred to Gaster. Toby Fox wished for certain mysteries to remain mysteries, and the entire phone call instead remained intact in English in the Japanese version, released in 2017. [12]

Analysis

W. D. Gaster has been a popular figure in the Undertale community, the mystery behind his existence sparking a large investigation by members of the community into the truth around him. [10] The identity of W. D. Gaster was identified as one of gaming's biggest mysteries, by both Gaming Bolt and The Gamer staff, the latter who noted that Gaster was popular with roleplayers online. [2] [13] Kotaku writer Nathan Grayson noted that W. D. Gaster was the only secret left remaining in Undertale, discussing how, despite all of the work put into investigating Gaster, the mystery still remains unsolved, suggesting that the data in the game files could have been leftover content not intended to be found. [1] Tunic game designer Andrew Shouldice spoke of his appreciation for "risky secrets" like Gaster that cause players to "consider a new approach that'd never crossed their mind, or reveal a submerged mechanic that they'd never interfaced with." [14] Fanbyte writer Kara Dennison speculated that Deltarune would eventually answer questions surrounding Gaster and other mysteries from Undertale. [15]

Gaster has been the subject of various theories, including a theory that he is a long-lost brother or father of Sans and Papyrus. [6] Kotaku writer Heather Alexandra suggested this could be the case, citing design notes that allude to a character related to Papyrus and claiming that this could be Gaster. [16] Players also speculated that the 'W. D.' in his name stood for "Wingdings", which furthered the connection to Sans and Papyrus, who are named after Comic Sans and Papyrus fonts respectively. Nathan Grayson also speculated that strange symbols found in Sans' lab may also be in Wingdings. [1] Another fan theory is that, following his apparent death, his existence was spread all across space and time. [1] In reference to the NPCs found through file modification, fans theorize that they are fragments of Gaster speaking about the experience of existing across time and space. [1] Writer Mattia Podini discussed the presence of techniques he suggested were used by Toby Fox to manipulate players into responding to certain details in a certain way. For Gaster, he suggested that he served as an example of players experiencing apophenia, the perception of meaningful connections between unrelated things. He argued that many things players took for granted to be true about Gaster, such as his appearance, character connections, and other background details, were not confirmed to be true. [17]

Related Research Articles

Wingdings is a series of dingbat fonts that render letters as a variety of symbols. They were originally developed in 1990 by Microsoft by combining glyphs from Lucida Icons, Arrows, and Stars licensed from Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes. Certain versions of the font's copyright string include attribution to Type Solutions, Inc., the maker of a tool used to hint the font.

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Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface, although some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toby Fox</span> American video game designer and composer (born 1991)

Robert F. "Toby" Fox is an American video game developer and composer. He is best known for developing the role-playing video game Undertale, which garnered acclaim and has received nominations for a British Academy Game Award, three Game Awards and D.I.C.E. Awards. He is also the creator and head of the ongoing development of Deltarune, which contains many characters and features from Undertale, and has also garnered significant praise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flowey</span> Undertale character

Flowey the Flower is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of the 2015 video game Undertale, developed by Toby Fox. The first NPC the player encounters in the game, Flowey initially appears as a friendly and helpful talking flower, but quickly reveals himself to be a megalomaniacal sadist with more sinister goals. Towards the end of the game, if the player is on the "True Pacifist" route, it is revealed that Flowey is the non-empathic reincarnation of Asriel Dreemurr, the son of Toriel and Asgore and former prince of the Underground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asgore</span> Character in Undertale and Deltarune

Asgore, commonly referred to in-game as Asgore Dreemurr, is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale developed by Toby Fox, and its 2018 spiritual sequel Deltarune. The king of the Underground, he is a special type of creature known as a Boss Monster and serves as the penultimate boss of the game. Having previously killed six other humans as part of a plan to break an ancient Barrier created to entrap the Underground's denizens, he intends to take the protagonist's soul as the final one, freeing the monsters and getting revenge on the humans for killing his son, Asriel. He was created by Fox, with support from artist Temmie Chang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megalovania</span> Video game music track

"Megalovania" is an instrumental video game song composed by Toby Fox. It was first composed for the Radiation Halloween Hack, a ROM hack of EarthBound, developed for a Mother fansite's competition in November 2008. Inspired by "Megalomania" from Live A Live and the final boss music of Brandish 2: The Planet Buster, the track was intended for the ROM hack's final boss battle, and was developed by Fox screaming "whatever [he] felt like" into a microphone and copying it down. The name itself is a combination of "megalomania" and "Transylvania", the latter of which intended to tie into the project's Halloween theme. Years later the track would be remixed for the webcomic Homestuck's soundtrack as "MeGaLoVania" with help from Joren "Tensei" de Bruin, and Fox would use another rendition as the final boss theme for the "genocide" route in his 2015 video game, Undertale, when fighting the character Sans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toriel</span> Character in Undertale and Deltarune

Toriel is a character introduced in the 2015 role-playing video game Undertale, acting as the first area boss. A motherly figure created as an embodiment of excessive video game tutorials, she is a member of the monster race with hanging ears, small horns, white fur, and a purple robe. The player can choose to kill her or convince her to stop fighting, which affects the way the story plays out. She also appears in Deltarune in a different role.

Deltarune is a role-playing video game developed by Toby Fox. The player controls a human teenager, Kris, who is destined to save the world together with Susie, a monster, and Ralsei, a prince from the Dark World. During their quest to seal the Dark Fountains prophesied to end the world, the group makes both friends and foes. The combat system is turn-based and uses bullet hell mechanics. Similar to Undertale, enemy encounters can be resolved peacefully or through violence.

Sans (<i>Undertale</i>) Character in Undertale and Deltarune

Sans is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale. He is the brother of Papyrus and initially appears as a friendly NPC with an easy-going, laid-back personality. Sans is also featured in the 2018 video game Deltarune, where he can only be found at his shop, which is a remodeled version of Grillby's Diner from the original game. Sans was created by Toby Fox with support from the artist Temmie Chang. The character's name is based on the Comic Sans font, which is used for most of his in-game dialogue. This sans typeface was replaced with a "cutesy irreverent typeface" in the Japanese version of the game.

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<i>Undertale Soundtrack</i> Music from the video game Undertale

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Undyne</span> Character in Undertale and Deltarune

Undyne is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale and the 2018 video game Deltarune. She is a monster who serves as the captain of the Royal Guard of the Underground under its king, Asgore. She is initially an antagonist to the player-character, the human, but depending on the human's actions, she may become their ally. She is reluctant to befriend the human, but through persistence by the player, eventually realizes that they were a good person. If the human makes a point of killing every monster possible, Undyne will transform into Undyne the Undying, vowing to destroy the human in order to save humans, monsters, and all other life from their actions. She is a lesbian, revealed to be in love with Alphys.

Characters of <i>Undertale</i> and <i>Deltarune</i> Characters in Toby Foxs games

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Papyrus (<i>Undertale</i>) Undertale character

Papyrus is a character introduced in the 2015 video game Undertale. He is a skeleton with a large ego who aspires to join the Royal Guard, and also the brother of Sans and friend of Undyne. He is eternally optimistic, and despite wanting to capture the human to prove himself, finds himself befriending the human instead. He does not appear in Deltarune, but has been alluded to. He was created by Toby Fox with support from Temmie Chang. He was originally envisioned as a creepy person who wears a fedora and has no redeeming qualities, though Fox did not like this idea, so he scrapped it. His character communicates with the papyrus typeface, which had to be changed to a "faux hand-drawn vertical script" when translated into Japanese.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Grayson, Nathan (November 13, 2015). "Players May Never Solve Undertale's Final Mystery". Kotaku . Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "15 Shocking Video Game Questions That Are Still Unanswered". The Gamer. June 4, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Creswell, Jacob (August 14, 2021). "Undertale: Who Is W. D. Gaster?". Comic Books Resources. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  4. ↑ Rad, Chloi (January 10, 2018). "Cult Horror Game Yume Nikki Hits Steam, New Project Teased". IGN . Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  5. ↑ Frank, Allegra (January 21, 2016). "Undertale's first patch claims to fix bugs, but fans found hidden content". Polygon . Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  6. 1 2 Dingman, Hayden (January 23, 2016). "Undertale's Patch Is Full of Secrets". Rock Paper Shotgun . Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  7. 1 2 Grayson, Nathan (November 1, 2018). "Undertale Fans Already Have Theories About What's Going On In Deltarune". Kotaku . Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  8. ↑ "WebVoyage Record View 1". web.archive.org. January 8, 2022. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Royal Sciences LLC". opencorporates.com. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  10. 1 2 Fisher, Luca (June 22, 2022). "Geometric Realities: Cosmic and Symbolic Shapes in Games". Fanbyte. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  11. ↑ Srebro, Staci (October 7, 2021). "8 Ways Deltarune Is Connected To Undertale". The Gamer. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  12. ↑ Mandelin, Clyde (November 2022). Legends of Localization Book 3: Undertale. Fangamer. p. 152. ISBN   9781945908019.
  13. ↑ Parijat, Shubhankar (December 3, 2018). "15 Times Games Left Unanswered Mysteries In Them". Gaming Bolt. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  14. ↑ Wright, Steven T. (May 10, 2019). "Tunic's devs reveal the secrets of the cutesy but mysterious Zelda-like". Red Bull. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  15. ↑ Dennison, Kara. "Everything I Want From the Future of Deltarune". Fanbyte. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  16. ↑ Alexandra, Heather (January 9, 2017). "Undertale Creator Shares Notebook Full Of Early Concepts And Art". Kotaku . Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  17. ↑ Podini, Mattia (April 15, 2021). "7 Nudges & Manipulative Techniques present in Undertale". Game Developer. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
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