Original Game

For information about the sidequest in general, see Sword Route.

Kris, luv. THAT'S what we got backstage.
The ORIGINAL game. Where YOU decide what to do.

Ramb, Chapter 3

The Original Game (JP: 元のゲーム) is the central minigame played during the Sword Route. Kris plays three rounds of this game alone in the backstage area of the Green Room. Access to the game the first two times is locked behind achieving an S-rank, T-rank, or Z-rank during the latest round of TV Time.

As explained by Ramb, it is the "original" version of the game played during TV Time, The Legend of Tenna. The gameplay of the Original Game consists of Kris finding a sword, killing enemies to become stronger and eventually claiming the Shadow Mantle.

Main story

Logo that appears before The Legend of Tenna's start-up screen

While playing The Legend of Tenna, leftovers from the Original Game emerge during gameplay. Upon the game's start-up, the silhouette of the Original Game's logo, coupled with a sword-sliding animation, can be briefly seen before the game abruptly transitions to the TV Time: The Legend of Tenna logo. During the Original Game's Island Board, an in-game replica of Tenna reveals that he based The Legend of Tenna on the game, a fact which he tries to hide from the party.

During the party's playthrough of The Legend of Tenna's Island Board, approaching the northern area of the board prompts Tenna to panic and try to convince them to return to the regular part of the game, going as far as to blockade the area with signposts if the party persists in approaching it. When Tenna leaves, Kris can lead the party to the northern area. However, progress on land that would lead to parts of the Original Game is blocked off by a tree that cannot be cut down, as The Legend of Tenna lacks the sword and the levelling-up mechanic that HERO_SWORD uses in the Original Game. It is possible that they were either dummied out or rendered unused by Tenna's editing of the game's ROM.

When playing the Original Game, Kris controls HERO_SWORD. The latter is tasked with retrieving the sword and killing every enemy on the board until their LV reaches MAX. They start out in the Desert Board, where they eventually become strong enough to travel out-of-bounds to retrieve the Ice Key. They use the Ice Key on the locked door on the Island Board, entering the Ice Palace.

With assistance from the White Cloak in the Ice Palace, HERO_SWORD retrieves the Shelter Key. After making their way through the City Board and the manhole dungeon, they use the key to open an in-game replica of the shelter; within the shelter, they face off against the Shadow Mantle holder. Upon defeating the Shadow Mantle holder, HERO_SWORD proceeds to leave the game screen and walks out of the backstage area.

After the Shadow Mantle is obtained, Susie comes in and gives Kris a FlatSoda before leaving.

Locations

• Desert Board (Original Game)
• Island Board (Original Game)
  • Ice Palace
• City Board (Original Game)
  • Manhole dungeon

Items

• Ice Key
• Shelter Key
• Shadow Mantle
• FlatSoda (after beating the game)

Gameplay

Attacking

HERO_SWORD's attacking animation

In each minigame, HERO_SWORD obtains a sword. The player attacks by pressing [CONFIRM], which damages two tiles in the direction they attack. Attacking on the ground prevents the player from moving while the animation plays, but they can still rotate mid-attack. HERO_SWORD can only attack in the four directions they can face, never diagonally, making combat more difficult. Killing enemies can drop green candy as healing items whenever the player is below maximum HP. Attacking candy with the sword collects it, allowing candy to be collected across impassable tiles.

HP

The game's screen shuts off when HERO_SWORD's HP reaches 0

HERO_SWORD has a HP bar during the minigame, which decreases when touching aggressive enemies, enemy projectiles or cacti. The HP bar's total and current HP is increased by leveling up. When the HP reaches zero, the game's screen shuts off and Kris has to manually restart the game, upon which the stage gets reset and HERO_SWORD spawns at the entrance of the area. Losing HP during the Shadow Mantle holder boss fight also deals damage to Kris's actual HP and plays the SOUL shattering animation during a Game Over.

LV

Each time a certain number of enemies is killed, HERO_SWORD's LV increases in the game, up to MAX, which is equivalent to LV 4. This also increases the number of swords displayed in the HUD and the damage done by attacks, allowing some enemies to be damaged that were unaffected by attacks before, and others to be killed in fewer hits. A higher LV also makes it possible to destroy certain obstacles and traverse previously blocked off paths.

HUD

The HUD is a persistent horizontal bar seen at the top of the screen. From left to right, it lists HERO_SWORD's current HP, their current LV progression, any items they currently have, and their current LV, represented by sword icons. Of the attributes listed, items are the only ones that persist across game sessions, whereas all other attributes reset.

Party

The White Cloak

In the second round, the player encounters the White Cloak, who can be damaged (but not killed) and joins the player's party after leaving the room. She follows behind the player and attacks when they do, sending out an ice projectile that freezes stronger enemies solid and instantly kills weaker enemies. She also allows the player to successfully navigate the Ice Palace's maze; although she cannot literally be followed as the "FOLLOW THE WHITE CLOAK" hint suggests, she refuses to follow HERO_SWORD down any incorrect path. At the end of the maze, the mage is used up to open the door to the Shelter Key.

In the third round, HERO_AXE and HERO_SCARF, Susie's and Ralsei's characters respectively, silently follow HERO_SWORD until they are killed for one LV each.

Roadblocks

During the Original Game, there are some roadblocks that cannot be destroyed unless HERO_SWORD has a high enough LV. They usually block off important parts of a Board, hindering progression until the available sections are cleared, but some are design elements and not required to destroy. They are as follows:

Original Game roadblocks

Image	Roadblock	Location(s) encountered	LV required
	Fern	Desert Board Island Board	LV 2+
	Cactus	Desert Board City Board	LV 3+
	Tree	Desert Board	MAX
	Dungeon Tree	Ice Palace Manhole dungeon	MAX
	Stanchion	City Board	LV 3+

Enemies

While playing the Original Game, HERO_SWORD encounters enemies roaming the boards and dungeons. They are initially docile, but enter an aggressive state and attack HERO_SWORD after attaining LV2 on Board 1. On subsequent Boards, they maintain aggressiveness once HERO_SWORD obtains the sword. Enemies also move and attack faster the higher HERO_SWORD's LV is.

Contact with docile enemies does not damage HERO_SWORD, even being able to phase through them; however, contact with bullets fired by docile enemies (such as yellow lizards) does cause damage. Once they become aggressive, contact with them does inflict damage. Enemies occasionally drop healing items upon defeat that restore HP.

The following enemies are encountered in the Original Game, in order of first appearance:

Original Game enemies

Image	Monster	Location(s) encountered	Behavior
	Purple Monster	Desert Board Island Board	Roams the area in random directions, harming HERO_SWORD if touched.
	Goldenrod Monster	Desert Board	Can only be damaged after attaining LV 2. Attacks by shooting red arrows at HERO_SWORD in a straight line at specific intervals. These arrows pass through solid objects.
	Yellow Monster	Ice Palace Manhole dungeon
	Orange Flower	Desert Board Island Board	Stationary, attacks by shooting flashing projectiles at HERO_SWORD. Has three variants that behave identically.
	Purple Flower	Desert Board
	Yellow Flower	Ice Palace Manhole dungeon
	Blue Fish	Desert Board Island Board Ice Palace Manhole dungeon	Swims in bodies of water. Attacks by lunging at HERO_SWORD when they enter its line of sight. In later areas, they are seen on the ground, making them more dangerous.
	Blue Bird	Desert Board Ice Palace	Desert Board: Flies around the area and lands on predetermined treetops. Ice Palace: Impervious to standard attacks. Blocks progression into the maze and must be frozen in order to pass through.
	Yellow Lizard	Island Board Ice Palace Manhole dungeon	Attacks by shooting flashing projectiles at HERO_SWORD. Travels the area by jumping to predetermined spots, indicated by a targeting reticle.
	Gray Monster	Ice Palace	Impervious to standard attacks but otherwise behaves identically to the purple monsters. Contact damage against this enemy can be disabled by attacking it. They appear as part of certain puzzles involving freezing them and pushing them onto pressure plates.
	White Monster	Ice Palace Manhole dungeon	Ice Palace: Behaves identically to the purple monsters. Manhole dungeon: Remains stationary and does not attack.
	Orange Monster	Manhole dungeon	Attacks by shooting flames at HERO_SWORD.
	Black Monster	Manhole dungeon	Mirrors HERO_SWORD's movements and is part of a puzzle that involves guiding it to them so they can automatically kill it.
	Green Lizard	Manhole dungeon	Attacks by jumping to predetermined spots, shooting rings of lightning at the apex of its jump.
	Blue Lizard	Manhole dungeon	Travels the area by jumping at a much faster pace than the yellow lizards.
	Gray Fish	Manhole dungeon	Behaves identically to the blue fish, except with much higher HP.
	Singing Cat	Manhole dungeon	Moves around slowly and attacks by shooting music notes in a circular pattern.
	Silent Cat	Manhole dungeon	Initially sleeps in inaccessible areas. Once the singing cats are defeated, they wake up and attack by constantly diving toward HERO_SWORD.
	Shadow Mantle holder	Manhole dungeon	The final boss of the Original Game.
	FRIEND	Manhole dungeon	Minions of the Shadow Mantle holder that attack by pathfinding their way toward HERO_SWORD.

Trivia

• It is possible that the Original Game's title is "MANTLE", as the word seems to match the silhouetted logo appearing on The Legend of Tenna's start-up screen.

A placeholder sprite of a black deer meant for the Black Monster

• Some of the characters in the Original Game heavily resemble or allude to various characters of Deltarune and Undertale, such as the White Cloak (Noelle), blue birds (Berdly), yellow lizards (Alphys), blue and red fish (Undyne), purple monsters (Toriel), golden-colored flowers shooting projectiles at HERO_SWORD (Flowey), and yellow monsters surrounded by many of the golden-colored flowers (Asgore). This, along with the connection between certain elements of the Sword Route's Ice Palace and the Weird Route, could be a call-back to Undertale's Genocide Route.
  • In the manhole dungeon, the yellow lizards rock back and forth before disappearing after witnessing the gray fish be killed by HERO_SWORD. This may allude to Alphys's disappearance (presumed to be suicide) in some of Undertale's neutral endings if Mettaton and/or Undyne have been killed.
• White Cloak and Black Monster have similar placeholder sprites, those being a brown deer and a black deer respectively.
  • In the game's files is a variable named toriel, which is set to true by default. Setting the variable to false replaces Black Monster's sprite with its respective placeholder sprite.
• While controlling Black Monster’s movement, it is possible to make HERO_SWORD miss their automatic attack. This leaves time to damage them before HERO_SWORD attacks again.