UnderLive is a Game Mod for Undertale created by an anonymous modder, acting as a crossover for Live A Live that expands on the story of the first fallen human.
The game follows the usual events in Undertale as the protagonist (Canon Name: Frisk) as he goes about the original events of the story: awakening and befriending Flowey, exploring the land of the monsters, so on and so forth. However, a malevolent force thought to have been vanquished by seven brave heroes rears back its ugly head. After this event, and the introduction of the Demon King Odio, things rapidly begin to shift around, and mostly for the worse...
Tropes appearing in the mod:
- Adaptational Context Change: In the original story, Flowey's "kill or be killed" was primarily born of sheer nihilism due to his time shenanigans. Here, a huge and very blatant part of that is at least partially knowing everything would've been significantly better if he had just fought back. He could've still be alive, the monsters could've been free, all if he had just relented and let Chara kill off the humans attacking him.
- Adaptational Sympathy: Chara, most definitely. While Asriel was busy being killed by all the humans, Chara was outright begging for Asriel to let them take over their shared body, wanting to protect him above all else. His refusal to fight back, subsequent death, and their presumed prior human-related trauma is what ultimately led to Odio manifesting in them, and if you do things right, it's even possible to purge Odio's influence from them.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Again, Chara in the Spare Route. Poor kid got what they wanted but paid for it with their life...
- All Your Powers Combined:
- Odio-C's attacks are roughly inspired by the previous incarnations of Odio, such as a barrage of energy bullets evoking O. Dio's gatling gun, creating spots of Damage Over Time poison all around the battlebox akin to Ode Iou as Gamahebi, and even recreating a rudimentary version of Archon's Mark. Despair of Odio, on the other hand, primarily uses roughly more human-sized versions of the original Odio's final boss attacks (barring Saint Alethea), including a directly-offensive variation of Armageddon in the form of a beam that will One-Hit Kill anyone who's caught in it.
- In the aforementioned Despair of Odio fight, Asriel fights with a combination of nerfed versions of his god form's attacks, as well as skills that are more definitively Flowey-like.
- Demon of Human Origin: Turns out, Chara has been following in Oersted's footsteps in becoming a demonic incarnation of Odio. As one may guess, none of it is good on their psyche.
- Evil Makeover: Chara as Odio-C has white hair, blotches of black on their right side that extend into a single black wing, and black streaks going down their eyes that resemble running tears.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: Chara can be subjected to this regardless of the route.
- In the True Pacifist Route, Chara's narration begins growing more and more confused at your constant kindness, before inevitably relenting to it during the fight against Asriel. Odio is purged from them, and they can be in peace.
- Meanwhile, in the No Mercy Route, watching you slaughter the monsters causes Chara to begin feeding into their Humans Are Bastards ideology, eventually fully succumbing to their hatred towards them as Odio-C. After that, you can try and kill them to essentially just prove them right, or spare them for one last shot at breaking them out of Odio's grasp with the help of their adopted family's spirits.
- Multiple Endings: The True Pacifist and Neutral Endings play out as normal, but No Mercy stands out for having Chara turn into Odio-C, and how it will play out will depend on your actions during the fight:
- Kill: repeatedly attacking Odio-C will cause them to unleash Armageddon. Enough said.
- Spare: You gradually run through your options, purposefully missing your attacks proving your determination to spare Chara, as they begin to see Asriel in Frisk, before transforming into Despair of Odio and forcing you to kill them.
- One-Winged Angel: Right as Chara is on the verge of snapping out of their hateful funk during the sparing route of their fight as Odio-C, something very similar to the final battle of the Live A Live remake occurs as all of Chara's grief and hatred is transformed into one final opponent: Despair of Odio, a large suit of armor resembling Sin of Odio that wraps around Chara like a shell.
- Redemption Equals Death: In the Spare Route after defeating Despair of Odio, Chara finally returns from the influence of Odio, but they are too weak to stand up, and they warn that Odio would return should someone be consumed by hatred, especially Asriel with how he acted in the story. Asriel, Toriel and Asgore lament their situation as they finally die, but not before begging you to reset everything.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: While the game's graphical fidelity have been improved to resemble Live A Live more, nothing much comes of it gameplay-wise, as it takes the Dusttale: Last Genocide approach of simply using the Undertale battle system with more detailed spritework. That is, until the potential Despair of Odio battle at the end of a No Mercy/Spare Route, which occurs in a manner more akin to Live A Live with a party consisting of Frisk, Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel.
- Unreliable Narrator: Chara is one. Their despair over having seen Asriel die has them narrate their own thoughts and Frisk's actions depending on the route. In the True Pacifist Route, she will express confusion at your constant kindness, before seeing your determination in saving Asriel so that he may finally be at peace, purging Odio from them.
