Undertale snowman shows how inventory choices change outcomes

Polygon reports that a friendly snowman in Undertale, found on an isolated cliff in the woods near Snowdin, asks the player to “take a piece of me and bring it very far away.”

If you accept, a Snowman Piece is added to your inventory. At the end of a neutral run Sans tells you “you made a snowman really happy,” and on a pacifist farewell tour the snowman asks you to bring the piece to the surface. Lose the piece once and he will replace it, saying “Please be more careful this time,” but after a second loss he refuses a third, saying “I’m sorry, if I give you any more, there will be nothing left of me. I suppose it is true. Traveling beyond our limits is but a fantasy. All of monsterkind are doomed to stay underground, forever.” Use the item while standing with him and he says “Did you just… consume the part of me I had given you? In front of my very eyes? I have no words for you… begone!” and later “I shouldn’t have given myself away so easily.” On the genocide route you can take and eat three pieces; he pleads “Stop… please…” and is left as a heap, which the protagonist calls “A useless pile of snow.”

That treatment of a seemingly throwaway NPC illustrates Undertale’s attention to player choice and inventory decisions, a design choice the piece says helps keep the game memorable and influential more than a decade after its release.

Key Topics

Culture, Undertale, Toby Fox, Sans, Snowman, Snowman Piece