One really cool thing that I never see anyone talk about in this fight is the way your health is displayed. When you first start taking hits, your health bar plummets, but as you take more and more damage, the bar shrinks more slowly. This means that at the start of the fight, you feel hopeless in the face of such strong attacks, and then the tension ramps up as you cling to those last few pixels even though you actually have a pretty good chunk of health left. It sort of builds Determination into the fight as you struggle to stay alive.
Alot of games do this trick or similar things to increase tension by having more effective health when low. Having the player feel like they are on a razer edge when they are not quite so.
Conversely, the lower health you have, the more healing you get when picking up the SOULS green items. They're rooting for you and giving you more health when you really need it
I interpreted this as if it were saying that you can't lose, so I stopped putting so much effort into trying to dodge and still managed to beat it first try. The first time I found out you could lose was watching a lets play
all of undertale's final bosses are designed to not be lost, i personally like that because it ensures the final boss doesnt lose its "omg final boss" energy in way of "damn im dead again oml"
My favorite part of this is that, when Flowey cheats and has your soul surrounded at 1 HP, you can annoy him by running it into the pellets over and over in the middle of his speech. It catches him so off guard that he briefly reverts to his normal Flowey face to tell you to knock it off.
You neglected to mention how his reaction to taking damage changes. Initially it’s a sarcastic “ow”, but when he loses his defense, each subsequent hit has him realize what happened before being just howls of pain. Really makes the final phase all the more cathartic.
It went from "yow!" Like a kid to "HÆƏªH" like a O̸̙͙̺̰͚͎̙͔̦͇͗̒̋͛̄͐̓̽̄͛́͂̀̑̕ͅͅͅM̴̨̦͓̰̌͆̉̃̄͆͜ͅĚ̵̢̧̛̦̼̜̲͕͕͍̤̙͉͓́̅͒̽̍̐͋͜͝G̶̨̛̼̹̮͚̻͔̘̣͉̏̈́̿̅̀̏̀͌͒̀̐̇́͘Ą̵̘̥͉̘͖̱̥̺̿̀̈̒̂̅̀̅̈́̓̏͊͘͝F̴̢̛̗̹̼̮̲̪̼͕̓͒̃̆̑̊̓̇̔̆̓͝L̴̢̥̞͚̫̠̰̳͍̹͎̠̲̺̳͛̾͌̆́̂̒͗̓͝ͅO̸̙͙̺̰͚͎̙͔̦͇͗̒̋͛̄͐̓̽̄͛́͂̀̑̕ͅͅͅW̴̪̼̩̘͔͒̏̓͐͂̆͑̐͝Ě̵̢̧̛̦̼̜̲͕͕͍̤̙͉͓́̅͒̽̍̐͋͜͝Ỵ̷̡̛̟̱̑̍̀̉̿̿̉D̸̢̮̫̰̥̗̘̱͉͙͙̺̫̏͒̅̌I̸̡̛̳͌̉͋͐͒̍️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝T̶̢̧̨̝̺̺̿̑͆̀͋̎̅̓͘̕͝R̴͇͌̀̆̍̽͝͠ͅ️I̸̡̛̳͌̉͋͐͒̍️Q̷̛̭͕̬͖̼̥̇̌͗̈̐̆̚️Ĉ̵̢̢̱̞̻̣͕͈̱̥̤̳͉T̶̢̧̨̝̺̺̿̑͆̀͋̎̅̓͘̕͝Ỵ̷̡̛̟̱̑̍̀̉̿̿̉️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝B̴̢̠̋̊͑̈̾̑̊͒͗̽️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝U̴̡̥̱̫͕̞̐͂͒̑̽̋̐͊̈́͗̚
The most fascinatingly disgusting thing about this is that it genuinely looks like a pile of flesh taken over by a flower. There are 4 eyes and 2 mouthes, similar to the 6 souls, and as you said, it looks like the tubes are clogged with flesh. It’s just 6 children’s flesh struggling to breathe. It’s so beautifully horrifying
Flowey's face wasn't floating in the sky before absorbing the souls, if I interpreted what you said correctly He was showing his face on the TV screen while in the darkness, and the souls appeared to do the little battle start animation just like your soul does
Honestly, possibly my favorite part of the boss is the opening. The fact that after the classic battle start animation with your soul popping up and the special sound effect, that happens SIX TIMES for each of Flowey's souls really makes you feel like you're badly outmatched
When you showed the zoomed-in body parts of Photoshop Flowey, I realized that actually every time I look at this battle, I never look at Flowey. Its design is so uncomfortable that I just focus on the red soul and dodge the attacks. This captures the mood of the fight quite well - it doesn't matter who your enemy is and how much stronger and more terrible he is than you, you just need to have the will to live - your Determination.
I have something to say about the fight, namely an attack and a line of dialogue. First of, the finger gun. You may think it's just another creepy attack, but what if there's a reason behind it? Asriel died in 201X. There is a good chance he was shot with a gun. (Edit:to be clear, it's not the yellow soul attack. It's the attack where a bunch of hands shoot out smiling flowers that is present at 6:06 . I just think the fact he does the finger gun combined with what I say later might be a reference to him getting shot. Not saying it definitely is, but it might) Second, the line "Mommy, daddy, somebody help". While he is obviously mocking us, I think there's another reason. The first thing he did after waking up as a flower was call for help "Mom, Dad, somebody help me!". But nobody came. Nobody could help him. So why would anyone help us? What Flowey wants us to understand is that we played the game the "wrong way". We either didn't kill enough, or didn't kill at all. Like he did in the village. And he got punished. He didn't get a happy ending for being kind, so nobody can get it. And if they try, he'll show them what the world will do to them
well sorry to break it to you, but the gun part is actually a reference to one of the soul being a cowboy who loved guns when he was alive. Other than that I had the exact same thought about the "mommy daddy help" thing flowey says to mock us when I first played the game. I had this feeling that him always mentioning that "nobody came" had to be somewhat important to his character. And then, when you do the pacifist run, everything became more clear; nobody was there for him when he became a flower, nobody even understood him when he was alive (only Chara did according to him), and nobody was there for him when he got attacked by the humans.
@@nekoaile that first part about the gun is probs wrong because flowey uses an arsenal of modern weapons like guns, bombs and flamethrowers. he probs was killed with all of those and its nothing to do with the cowboy
@@nekoaileI think you misunderstood. I was talking about the attack during the main fight where a bunch of hands come out of the sides and shoot flowers, not the yellow soul attack
something that not many people have noticed is how flowey's hit sounds change over the fight. in the beginning you do completely negligible damage, which is reflected by his mocking "ohh! ooh! ;p" noises (which are ronald mcdonald btw). however, when finale (best song in the ost) kicks in and you start completely whalloping the scallywag, he starts actually screaming in agony/fear/anger. its a really nice way to show your progress through the fight
My favorite sound byte of those is one towards the end, where it's a painful "urgh" mixed with a sense of surprise. For some reason, in games, THAT SAME BYTE format is used for enemies that act feral, deranged, and tend to appear unstoppable.
I like to think that all the buck wild elements like bombs and flamethrowers are Flowey's idea of what's badass and scary and cool. Much like the true pacifist final boss, but an empty, warped and soulless version instead of fully realised. Both are essentially a little boy's fantasies.
I think it actually mightve been the weapons the humans used to kill him, or maybe chara just told em about it and youre right on how he considers it "badass" after learning of them but idk
At the start of the fight it’s very sarcastic “ow”, because he knows your attacks are doing jack-shit. And then he discovers the loss of defence in the final phase the hard way.
Fun fact! Those "big spiked plant balls with mouths on them" are called dentata in the code. A dentata is... well it's a certain other "mouth looking" body part but with teeth. Yeah, those are way worse than just mouths.
I always found Photoshop Flowey so bizzare. His attacks are just terrifying. As his theme suggests "Your Best Nightmare" it truly shows how he literally wants you to die when he starts to attack. And adding some realistic stuff into him just makes him look like some sort of monster. The TV always showing a horrifying face of a man screaming is even more uncannier. Seeing let's players horrified of what Flowey turned himself it just shows that Omega Flowey is truly a great boss.
But he doesn't. He wants to win. Over and over and over. But he doesn't want you to die, that's why he keeps loading. The goal is to play and beat you forever. Like most small children.
Something I don't see discussed enough(partly because it doesn't seem to be as widely noticed as it should be) is the fact that everything the SOULs do during the fight proper was actually faked by Flowey. The entire Finale segment was just Flowey tricking Frisk into thinking they had a chance before he rips it away yet again. First of all, there's a very scripted nature to the way the SOULs supposedly rebel that indicates that Flowey knew it was happening and did nothing to stop it despite being more than capable of it. They appear on his TV screen, which he has control over, clearly announcing themselves, the "petal" tubes gradually go dark and stop pulsating as a visual indicator of how many SOULs, and the TV even switches to whichever SOUL will show up next during the healing phases. When Frisk dies, Flowey, despite being more than capable of reloading back to the true start of the fight, as he does when "defeated", deliberately treats these as a checkpoint. He even taunts them with "Do you even realize what will happen if you defeat me?", which indicates that he has a plan for if this happens, not to mention "Are you letting me kill you on purpose?"...which, given Flowey has a bit of thing for projection... yeah. The format of the SOUL phases is also odd, as the SOULs have no reason to attack Frisk, and even less to offer them a way out built into their attack in the form of the ACT button. During the Finale segment, despite his defense supposedly having been at zero from the start, the damage being done to Flowey increases. Flowey not only sits there and takes it when we know he can reload, he even actively seems to take the fight less seriously, starting out with easier attacks and stopping with his mid-attack SAVE file abuse even once he seemingly remembers "Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be fighting for my life here". Even the music suggests who is really in control, through the use of Flowey's own leitmotif both during the SOUL phases and the Finale segment. Additionally, the SOULs, which, being human SOULs, do not have innate magical abilities, attacking and healing using bullets based on items that they possessed when they were alive(notably, the only way Flowey knows them, because Frisk is the first human he's encountered since his death.). The words used by the purple SOUL can also all be tied into Flowey's backstory, notably including dreams and dreamer(Dreemurr) as separate healing words. It is odd that these items, which many of them discarded or lost well before their deaths, would be the means their literal SOULs use to attack. Almost like it might actually be the guy who can do much more extreme things with his bullets than this impersonating them. Then there's Flowey's own reaction to the SOULs breaking free the "second" time. If the SOULs had actively been rebelling, he shouldn't have been so confused and surprised by their disobedience here. He was clearly aware of it happening, as previously mentioned. He also is notably confident that nobody will help Frisk when they call for help, despite the SOULs supposedly having responded to Frisk doing exactly that, describing them as being alone. Heck, the moment he sees something weird, Frisk being suddenly healed instead of dying in one hit, he tries to reset, despite not having done this throughout the fight when stuff that he should be finding much weirder is happening. Most explicitly, there's the SAVE files themselves. Flowey retains the ability to use the SAVE files belonging to the six humans throughout the fight, including when he resets after his initial "defeat". However, right before the SOULs appear at the end, he suddenly loses access to those SAVEs, repeatedly trying and failing to load them. This indicates that the SOULs did not break free during the fight itself, or else Flowey would have been unable to reload to avoid defeat. The SOULs were still obeying him up until this point. Throughout the fight, Flowey is merely toying with Frisk. He could do his reset into one-shot combo infinitely if he wanted, at any time, but his goal isn't simply to kill them over and over. He chooses to give Frisk these little rays of hope solely because he wants the pleasure of crushing that hope. Because at his core, Flowey is motivated by curiosity and the belief that he is exempt from the consequences of his actions, and he wants to see Frisk's reaction, he wants to see their spirit broken. Him toying with Frisk is the only reason he resets when they die at all, because he wants the pleasure of tormenting them until they give up entirely, and that doesn't just mean physically.
Fantastic analysis, fits his twisted form of experimentation and manipulation that he outright says about being the reason he does anything cruel he does (Being unbearably empty/bored and behaviour like that being the only thing that makes him feel anything whatsoever anymore). Kinda similar situation as GLaDOS from Portal, being numb to everything and sadistic toying being the only thing that remotely fills the void. He's simply toying with us throughout the fight, giving us false hope that he intends to tear away, like gifting a Child candy and then taking it right back before they can get a proper taste, and the SOULS grow tired of it eventually and wake up for real with his own cocky hubris being how he loses.
@@D0NTHEMAN You didn't read properly, The Souls only rebelled after the fight ended when he was being extra cruel and taunting you about to destroy you with the pellet circle style stuff he does at the start of the game, his saves were working fine up until then, and he only starts looking genuinely concerned/confused when he realizes he can't load anymore, up until that point the whole fight was just him acting and pretending to take damage.
In the art book, the back tubes of photoshop flowey are stated to actually be worms. Making his appearance more icky and messed up on closer inspection.
I played Undertale for my first time when I was 9, and I just absolutely loved it. It was the best and most difficult game I had played yet and I never really experienced anything like it. Everything changed when I got to Photoshop Flowey. As he slowly crept down into the screen with the creepy music playing I already felt super uncomfortable, And when he finally revealed what he looked like I was literally shocked. I didn't even move my soul. So I died, and when it said "This is all just a bad dream" I let out an audible sigh of relief. Than when it started laughing I just turned off the game. *I didn't play it again for 2 years* Fast forward to today and I think Photoshop Flowey is the best final boss ever created. I would also like to say this is a great video and it encapsulates why Flowey is horrifying perfectly.
Bro that's literally the same thing that happened to me but I was watching dantdm play and I already felt unnerved when he was coming down and when he showed himself I felt my soul leave my body for 10 seconds then I snapped back and I got too much chills frights but unlike you I was 7 and I watch Dan play the WHOLE fight and then when it got to the finale I felt fine like being able to play your games after being grounded for 1 month and when he was fighting omega flowey I couldn’t hold back cheering for Dan and when the fight was over I felt a sigh of relief also I was 7 so this scarred me for 5 fucking years
same i played this back in 2018-2020 dont remember when exactly on the switch and got here and was so terrified i deleted my save LOL, like not in undertale i went into the system settings to delete it but i did go back and beat it eventually, didn't help when i got there is was like 2am
Photoshop Flowey to this day holds the spot as my favorite video game character design, I love your dissection of him and his fight. Something I don't see many people talk about is probably my absolute favorite part of his design, though. He's made to almost resemble a mechanical-botanical "Biblically-accurate angel" - a seraphim specifically. It's especially noticeable in his earliest concept art, where he has arms shooting out of the tubes and mouths/eyes lining the middle vines. It's interesting, because he (Asriel) is named after the angel of death, Azrael. Azrael is described as having "4,000 wings and a body formed by as many eyes and tongues as there are living human beings" the wings being replaced with the plant life (just compare the cacti arms to seraphim wings) and the latter was included abundantly in Toby's concept art. If Asriel's form with 7 souls is the "God of Hyperdeath," then it makes sense for his form with 6 souls to be the "Angel of [Hyper]Death," ergo the appearance of Photoshop Flowey resembling Azrael/seraphims! Everything about this character and his design was thought out, I love it.
I once saw a comment saying how much Undertale characters are related to angels and other religion stuff. I forgot what they said but it was literally like half of the game which was kind of impressive.
@@ghostygamerz4800That's because it's not in the bible, although it is quite the popular description for Azrael - And just to be fair, the book of Ezechiel in the Bible does describe an angel with four heads and four wings, so yes, it does say that, just not Azrael's specific description. That one, from what I could find, seems to have been popularized by the fourth volume of the Encyclopædia of religion and ethics by James Hastings, in the article "Demons and Spirits (Muslim)” by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes. That's where the english description comes from. In the bibliography of the article, he gives his main source, which is a german book by M. Wolff, which says that the description comes from the Kitâb es-Sulûk” (Something like "The book of the journey to God and to perfection") by Muqâtil Ibn-Salmân. But I can't find this text, and neither could the guy that I saw explaining this, so it's probably a very obscure arabic text - Because not every mention of angels are exclusive to the christian Bible
7:28 the thing I like most about his use of friendliness pallets is that the player's immidiate conotation to this attacks is "an unavoidable attacks". In other parts of the game, every time he uses them is a time where you are on a single HP, with no way for you to escape the attack on your own. But now in this fight you are on your own, and he uses this attack not once, not twice but many times
[Read edit at bottom] In case you were curious, part of the reason "Your Best Nightmare" sounds so chaotic is due to the use of a breakbeat. Essentially, it takes a drum loop and speeds it up to an insane bpm, and often chops up the music. It creates the very quick and stimulating effect where there's not much downtime or empty space, and for this particular fight it helps keep you on edge by subtlety telling you "it's not over yet" without ever having to say anything. Edit: The next person to repeat what the first reply said I will find your spiritual ancestors and beat them with my own fists. Y'all need to chill out, breakcore is the only genre of this style of music I'm familiar with. I just wanted to give an explanation that made sense to me, oh my god. It's really not that deep. I don't care about your "ermm actually ☝️🤓" behavior over how it's actually a different style, the point I'm making still stands. Can you people just shut up and move on from this stupid comment already?
@@emmabellhelium After commenting "piano breakcore" on Azali's weird piano video and getting a bunch of replies, I now realise what a buzzword "breakcore" seems to be \(-_-)/ So yeah you're right
@@emmabellheliumdrum and bass uses more repetitive drum loops, but in the song, the drums are played around with a bit, but I agree that this feels a lot more like a dnb track than a breakcore one
Fun little fact, Omega Flowey's music falls under the genre Breakcore. A type of music where chaos is the main focus. It's made to be fast paced and crowded, the percussion is always the most present thing on this music genre.
@@xanious3759fr, this comment was right after that one for me. it's probably cuz of the difference in likes so not as many people got to it but, tbh I'm glad. it's just an innocent fun fact, not some statement of 100% correct truth. Dunno why people got so pissed ab it over there
I honestly think the ending where you spare flowey is absolutely brilliant because of another reason: once you win, he will remark how this doesn't seem to be a very good ending, and gives you clues on how to get the Pacifist ending, in which you befriend everyone. However, in doing so, you cause everyone to gather in the throne room, which gives Flowey the amount of souls he needs to become Asriel again. I like to think that Flowey had planned this all along (his dialogue after pacifist Toriel also implies that) and the "happy ending" he had given you hints for was actually just a way to become more powerful
another reason why this boss is brilliant and fits perfectly to the neutral route is the fact that you have to both act and attack to beat him, the two options used in the neutral route.
I have a feeling all of the war-themed attacks (such as bombs) could be Flowey using you, as a human,'s own things against you. Asriel states that Chara hated humanity, and one of those reasons could have been how they wage war on each other, which Chara could have told Asriel about. Hence, Flowey uses the very nuke-shaped bombs that killed many in the fight as a scare/"this is what YOU'RE like!" tactic against the player.
Wrong Enemy (theme of So Sorry) is even more underrated. (not necessarily better than Finale but it is rated near the bottom in lists consistently when it is actually not a bad theme at all)
I would like to point out how in deltarune, the only enemies capable of overcoming the battle box and using the whole screen are the shadow crystal holders, all being extremely powerful beings. In undertale, the only characters that do this are omega flowey and asriel dreemur showing how powerful they are. Also sans is able to stretch it in his last attack but idk if that counts.
Both Papyrus and Muffet stretch the battle box during certain attacks, Papyrus during his final attack and Muffet each time she "feeds her pet". Since there's no way in hell that Muffet is stronger than the Skelebros/Flowey with 6+ souls, this likely means either that battle box stretching is no indication of power level, that Muffet should be discarded for power indication, that Muffet is secretly a demi-god, OR HA HER PET IS STRONGER THAN ASRIEL DREEMURR ANGEL OF HYPER DEATH /j for the last one ofc.
@@TheGudeGamerthe real reason why muffet can stretch the battle box is because it's actually sentient and scared by muffets pet, so it stretches to try to escape it.
1:22 it's even more dark that flowey immediately destroys the soul. which would've been your escape to the underground. furthermore, this is his father.
Even worse, Flowey, who had been listening in, attacks only as Asgore mentions living with frisk as a new beginning. Flowey feels like his father is trying to forget the past, replace _them_ . He can't bear the thought of his father treating another child like his own as if nothing - the buttercup poison, the plan to pass through the barrier, two corpses in flower fields - had ever happened. Just like not letting Asgore raise another child does, he destroys the soul to prevent those events from happening again.
@@65591nah he knows what will happen and will promise not to mess with Asgore if You don't kill anyone if you do but don't go to the lab he actually won't appear but Asgore continues his dialogue and decides it is best to let frisk leave begs for them to find a way out of there for his people and kills himself so frisk can take his soul which flowey does destroy
A nice detail about this fight, is that when Flowey challenges to ''Call for help'' right after you ''defeat'' him, he actually looks nervous when you actually do so. For a brief moment, even if short, Flowey doesn't discard the possibility his house of cards will fall, almost having a ''Wait no, I didn't screw up didn't I?'' Moment.
I think the reason of what makes this fight so terrifying is how JARRING Omega Flowey is compared to the rest of the game. Like Dead Hand or Lavender Town, this "thing" pops up out of nowhere and scares the ever-loving shit out of you.
What also made this fight my favorire is how the music and the fight are planned, it might be hard to explain but the music plays a role here, it is always in sync between phases since there's no menu and you're always fighting.
Another thing to add about the music specifically, the genre that the song would fall under is a genre called 'Breakcore' which is fitting given that he's breaking the core elements of the game throughout the battle
It's a shame how photoshop flowey has been almost completely forgotten by the fandom. Before the AU stuff took over, animations for photoshop flowey (or Omega Flowey as he was called by the fandom at the time) were EVERYWHERE, it feels like there were way more animations about PF than about Sans
I almost played through Undertale in one sitting when I got it originally. The neutral route, I mean. I played it until it was like 1 AM and the sun had been down for a while outside. I came to this battle, and once Flowey was revealed from the shadows and started laughing, I quite literally just closed my laptop and went "well that's enough game for today." I finished the game the next day, natch.
13:14 You forgot to mention the Easter egg where if you keep running into the pellets he starts to get annoyed He’ll say, “Could…. Could you stop that?” With an angry flowey face
A nice detail I wanted to add is that flowey wasnt using his true power till the very end of the fight, he was just playing with you to make you feel completely hopeless, and everytime you die your game crashes cause you really died, you no longer have the power to save and comeback, and when you open the game to try again its because FLOWEY reset just to get to kill us again
This is true on some level but falls apart if you believe "the player is canon" theory, which I believe Genocide strongly implies. Because then, Flowey literally cannot prevent you from just opening the game again. The Player's power is greater than just Frisk's ability to save and load and is second only to Annoying Dog/Toby in power level.
@@plasmakitten4261 Well the player IS cannon, its not even a theory I guess, but floweys dialogues really imply he is reseting for fun, maybe if he didn't we wouldnt be able to open the game? Idk it doesnt really matters but the thing is we lost the player hability to save
@@Nujabes_TC OK but if Frisk is experiencing a true death every time they die, then Flowey's resets should be sending us into a different timeline from Frisk's perspective, akin to how Sans perceives the multiple fights. But that's clearly not what it looks like from where we are. Flowey literally can't stop us, the player, from just opening the game again; we can force him to reset on Frisk's behalf whenever we want.
@@plasmakitten4261 You are overthinking it, of course we would be able to open it, it would be fun if we didnt. But toby even said he wanted the game to uninstall itself when you died but he couldnt program it
This might be interesting to you, and a little bit of history about how Photoshop Flowey even came to be, design-wise. When I first played Undertale, I actually recognized the bizarre style immediately as being Everdraed, a formerly proflic photoshopper, artist, and video editor/animator who would contribute a lot to Somethingawful back in the day (I'm old ok). Sure enough, when you get to the credits, he's credited there as the "Photoshop Flowey Battle co-design". Everdraed also made the trailer for the game. Everdraed's steam review of the game is still there and briefly mentions that he was so "super impressed by the [early] demo" that he reached out to Toby directly and asked if there was anything he could do to help out. I'm sure Toby either already knew of Everdraed from the SA forums, or checked out his stuff then, and agreed there was something Everdraed could do. And that's how Photoshop Flowey came to be.
I like how the ninja star attacks LOOK impossible. But actually they’re actually really easy too avoid, like flowey trying his damn hardest to make an impossible attack but you can still find a way though. Also it gives you an absolutely PHENOMENAL ego boost when you dodge it for the first time
I've always adored Flowey's expressions. The way they stretch and contort according to what he's saying is so interesting. I could grin as wide as he does in 'I knew you had it in you'. The kind of imperfect blankness of his 'dead' face, like a pencil mark not full erased is also interesting.
When I first got into this fanbase, some people thought it was weird I significantly preferred this fight over the Sans fight. This perfectly explains why I felt that way.
I love how you can see how just mish mashed his form is. On the mouth you can literally see the black background added onto the picture in photoshop. ITS SO COOL
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already but I also want to mention that the weird vertical mouth, four eyes, and some other aspects of this design can also be seen in Gyftrot in the Snowy area.
what I really like about the Omega Flowey boss fight is that his transformation is visually striking and sets the stage for an epic battle It's a memorable underrated fight from the game
4:02 i think it's pretty much just a description of the pain the human souls are in, they're being forced to attack you against their will. i guess the screen has the same meaning you said tho
11:50 not to mention during this section before the beat drop, you can VERY QUIETLY hear "his theme" (asriel's theme) he is just a singular soul away from becoming asriel again, and this leitmotif shows it.
14:08 "...the true extend of your kindness." Not gonna lie, my intentions were malicious. I had beaten him at his best and now was refusing him the one validation he was looking for. Naw, dude, you're not getting the sweet release of death. I'm gonna spare you and force you to live with that forever.
Fun Fact: Omega Flowey is the name the fandom gave to it. The actual name (as listed in the credits after the fight) is Photoshop Flowey. Some of its sprites also call it God Flowey though. It is never called Omega Flowey anywhere inside the game. Omega Flowey just became such a widespread name for it though that people just accepted it as canon. It actually became such a widespread thing that the fandom's name for it is even mentioned and used in some of the official Undertale merchandise and kind of is canon now.
Don't his sprites just call him Flowey X? Also, I know this has no actual proof but I like to think one fan called him "Omega Flowey" as reference to Dragon Ball (More specifically GT) where Syn Shenron absorbed all the other six dragon balls and became Omega Shenron.
Another thing I love about this fight is how out of the blue it appears. After you leave the Ruins, Flowey disappears from the game completely, except for couple of easter eggs. It makes the player somewhat forget about him and move on with the story, all the characters and events distract you from him, so his return and his boss fight hits you like a slap on the face. It's like you're walking peacefully and suddenly trip and fall. You have little time to think or analyze the situation and you panic. At least that's what it felt like to me.
Omega flowey is the perfect boss fight. You feel like it's over before it starts and the first time through, your fears are basically confirmed, but as you play over and over again, you realize you might actually be able to do something... it almost feels like the stakes are real. And once you reach the hopeful part, it really hits emotionally
Honestly, Finale slaps really hard. Also, funny how Flowey is the final boss of both Pacifist and Netural and only time we dont fight him is in Genocide and even then, he is the last person we kill.
during finale, if you listen carefully you can hear little dings that sound like “his theme”, a small but noticeable detail that shows flowey’s actual identity
Glad to see someone else appreciating Finale, I genuinely consider it one of my favorite tracks in the game and that drop is immaculate. I love how you just paused your explanation for a moment so everyone could hear it play uninterrupted lol :D
[I'd like to apologize in advance if I say something nonsensical since English isn't my first language] I was gonna defend Flowey by stating how much the fight is like a "revenge" or vent for everything he went through, but a lot of people here in the comments have done it already so imma just say how much I love finale because it perfectly displays both our and his feelings. I don't know how exactly to describe it but the song gives me a feeling of hope and anxiousness, an uncertainty of what will happen, and that rings true both for Flowey as it does for us because even though the souls are helping us, we don't really know what he's capable of doing after "losing". I also really like the subtle use of 'his theme' in the bg of the song because as @suitov said, deep down, buried beneath layers upon layers of leaves and earth, Flowey is still Asriel, and in a way, it's all just a little boy's fantasy gone wrong. And when you've said at the end that "flowey is not a good person", I believe he's just a confused child with a 2D perception of the world. When he was Asriel, he believed everyone could be a good person and was willing to die at the hand of humans instead of fighting; while being Flowey, he believes fighting is the only option and there's no such a thing as kindness for the sake of being kind. By the end where you spare him, that concept is challenged, bringing him back to the notion that "everyone can be a good person", even though he doesn't want to believe it since it lead to so much suffering. This thus leads us to the pacifist ending, and upon talking to asriel in the ruins, we learn that HE has learned that the world is not so black-and-white, and ask us to not kill and not get killed. And even when he turns back to Flowey, he pleads us to just let the game be and let everyone be happy, because if we keep coming back, that'll eventually lead to a genocide (and he says that from experience). Thanks for listening to my autistic rant he's literally my favorite character 👍
A detail I wanna mention about the music that I haven't seen brought up a lot: Your Best Nightmare truly is the sound form of a night terror. As someone who experienced those often as a kid (for totally unrelated reasons) I think it matters to point out that his battle theme feels like the audio form of your literal worst actual nightmares. The dread. The panic. The sheer consistency and persistence of it. He's truly put you in the ultimate nightmare and even the music refuses to let you forget that. And then the soul segments are those brief breathers you sometimes get in a bad dream. You turn a few corners and lose The Thing That's After You for a while. You can rest a moment under the table. It won't see you here. And then the next phase of the music starts as you realize That Thing Can Crouch And Crawl And that's why I kill Flowery every. Single. Time. He's my favorite character but ye defi itely deserves it. "I kNeW yOu HaD iT iN yOu" I'm at LOVE 17 you stupid flower could you not tell by my stats alone that I'm willing to kill to defend myself? LMAO
Y'know what i noticed? The ending where you get to choose where to kill or spare flowey indirectly parallels that of asgores. With similar motives and beliefs too actually....they both deem themselves unworthy of any kind of mercy after what they've done. Knowing it'll only press on if it keeps going any longer. Like father,like son.
Fun fact: While the game has a way to register all the fights with IDs, Photoshop Flowey's battle is the only battle in the game that has no battle ID because it all happens in a room (room_294_floweyx)
Honestly this whole video was perfect. New subscriber. It’s great to see analysis’s in to how and why set pieces like this work so well. And that is a great point about Deltarune! I wonder if something will go down a similar route like Omega Flowey, like the Titan’s or if not them then a true final boss.
Flowey in general [not as Asriel] has always been my favorite FAVORITE character. I'm so glad to see him done justice and people that noticed the same things as I did. I don't think I've really seen any Flowey videos, just, sigh, Sans, Gaster, maybe Chara, thats it.
Thanks for covering this fight, loved the video dude! ive been through this fight more than I'd like to admit and ive been working on a big project related to the fight for a while now. It makes me smile and happy to see someone else share the same... Fascination of this thing, the music has and always still goes hard, the sheer contrast in design in every way, along with the haunting feeling it gives you without having to try much. There's also alot of cool info regarding the concepts and unused attacks/names of everything, but anyway You got a like and Sub, i enjoyed the work you put into it!! 😁
I think omega flowey should be a longer and crazier fight, because if he just needs one more soul to become an absolute GOD, he shouldn’t be so easy as a fight.
This video was downright fantastic! I’ve never seen someone cover this fight, and I loved seeing your insight. I also loved when you talked about Finale. That’s my personal favorite track, and that drop goes HARD. I always felt like the song didn’t get the credit it deserved for being such a banger
To add onto your points, I think the fleshy parts of his design is meant to be representative of Flowey’s exploitation of the 6 other souls. His cruel nature combined with the forced capture of the human souls perverts his appearance, thereby making the souls completely unrecognizable to what an actual human looks like. I also think this further emphasizes to the player that Flowey is completely beyond redemption and you NEED to take him down. Like you said in the video, the combined perverted flesh, Flowey’s plant appearance, and the mechanical tubes make a horrifying godlike amalgamation that we need the determination to fight.
i love how his theme, or the melody, changes the more souls you save, it reminds me a lot of the titan dweevil from pikmin 2, as the melody changes the more parts you remove from him
A bit late but I wanted to add. After Flowey absorbs the Human souls his appearance and attacks gain a human element. Finger pistols, Dentata, Nukes, Flamethrowers. It's not until he absorbs the monster souls and stabilizes/gains full control of the souls, that he returns to the classic black and white monster look.
great video! i love this fight and while i can’t personally explain the brilliance in it with my lack of literature skills, i find you really put it into words just how wicked it is, so thanks !!
![[UNDERTALE SPOILERS] Photoshop Flowey Battle in Minecraft](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2IprmKr31pU/mqdefault.jpg)
One really cool thing that I never see anyone talk about in this fight is the way your health is displayed. When you first start taking hits, your health bar plummets, but as you take more and more damage, the bar shrinks more slowly. This means that at the start of the fight, you feel hopeless in the face of such strong attacks, and then the tension ramps up as you cling to those last few pixels even though you actually have a pretty good chunk of health left. It sort of builds Determination into the fight as you struggle to stay alive.
Alot of games do this trick or similar things to increase tension by having more effective health when low. Having the player feel like they are on a razer edge when they are not quite so.
Conversely, the lower health you have, the more healing you get when picking up the SOULS green items. They're rooting for you and giving you more health when you really need it
I interpreted this as if it were saying that you can't lose, so I stopped putting so much effort into trying to dodge and still managed to beat it first try. The first time I found out you could lose was watching a lets play
all of undertale's final bosses are designed to not be lost, i personally like that because it ensures the final boss doesnt lose its "omg final boss" energy in way of "damn im dead again oml"
@@waffler-yz3gw meanwhile sans:
My favorite part of this is that, when Flowey cheats and has your soul surrounded at 1 HP, you can annoy him by running it into the pellets over and over in the middle of his speech. It catches him so off guard that he briefly reverts to his normal Flowey face to tell you to knock it off.
yeah, that was funny to see
Flowey:
Why are you so suicidal?
no way really?!
@@danielthecake8617jeez buddy everything okay?
every day I learn something new about this game!!! I love it
You neglected to mention how his reaction to taking damage changes.
Initially it’s a sarcastic “ow”, but when he loses his defense, each subsequent hit has him realize what happened before being just howls of pain.
Really makes the final phase all the more cathartic.
yesss i love that detail
It went from "yow!" Like a kid to
"HÆƏªH" like a
O̸̙͙̺̰͚͎̙͔̦͇͗̒̋͛̄͐̓̽̄͛́͂̀̑̕ͅͅͅM̴̨̦͓̰̌͆̉̃̄͆͜ͅĚ̵̢̧̛̦̼̜̲͕͕͍̤̙͉͓́̅͒̽̍̐͋͜͝G̶̨̛̼̹̮͚̻͔̘̣͉̏̈́̿̅̀̏̀͌͒̀̐̇́͘Ą̵̘̥͉̘͖̱̥̺̿̀̈̒̂̅̀̅̈́̓̏͊͘͝F̴̢̛̗̹̼̮̲̪̼͕̓͒̃̆̑̊̓̇̔̆̓͝L̴̢̥̞͚̫̠̰̳͍̹͎̠̲̺̳͛̾͌̆́̂̒͗̓͝ͅO̸̙͙̺̰͚͎̙͔̦͇͗̒̋͛̄͐̓̽̄͛́͂̀̑̕ͅͅͅW̴̪̼̩̘͔͒̏̓͐͂̆͑̐͝Ě̵̢̧̛̦̼̜̲͕͕͍̤̙͉͓́̅͒̽̍̐͋͜͝Ỵ̷̡̛̟̱̑̍̀̉̿̿̉D̸̢̮̫̰̥̗̘̱͉͙͙̺̫̏͒̅̌I̸̡̛̳͌̉͋͐͒̍️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝T̶̢̧̨̝̺̺̿̑͆̀͋̎̅̓͘̕͝R̴͇͌̀̆̍̽͝͠ͅ️I̸̡̛̳͌̉͋͐͒̍️Q̷̛̭͕̬͖̼̥̇̌͗̈̐̆̚️Ĉ̵̢̢̱̞̻̣͕͈̱̥̤̳͉T̶̢̧̨̝̺̺̿̑͆̀͋̎̅̓͘̕͝Ỵ̷̡̛̟̱̑̍̀̉̿̿̉️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝B̴̢̠̋̊͑̈̾̑̊͒͗̽️S̴̨̛͇̺͇͕̟̘͎̗͖̙͍̭̞͇̒͆̀͝U̴̡̥̱̫͕̞̐͂͒̑̽̋̐͊̈́͗̚
I never noticed that! it truly makes sense...
@@glist_gloomI mean you aren't wrong
@@glist_gloomHow do you do the Zalgo text..?
Flowey referencing the atomic bombs is such an uncalled-for and dark joke. And that fits PERFECTLY with him.
Another nice encounter, eh? How ya been?
cillian murphy🧿_🧿
Oppenflower
@@autisticgamer8664ain't no way
The bombs have Flowey’s face on them. So you can read that like he’s dropping F-bombs on you XD
The most fascinatingly disgusting thing about this is that it genuinely looks like a pile of flesh taken over by a flower. There are 4 eyes and 2 mouthes, similar to the 6 souls, and as you said, it looks like the tubes are clogged with flesh. It’s just 6 children’s flesh struggling to breathe. It’s so beautifully horrifying
When you put it that way, now I can see how terrifying it is-
Flowey's face wasn't floating in the sky before absorbing the souls, if I interpreted what you said correctly
He was showing his face on the TV screen while in the darkness, and the souls appeared to do the little battle start animation just like your soul does
Honestly, possibly my favorite part of the boss is the opening. The fact that after the classic battle start animation with your soul popping up and the special sound effect, that happens SIX TIMES for each of Flowey's souls really makes you feel like you're badly outmatched
@@all-starsilver1835And, in many ways, you are.
You’re saying he became Omega Flowey before absorbing the souls?
Actually, the thought of Omega Flowey being concealed by the darkness with only his TV screen showing is terrifying.
When you showed the zoomed-in body parts of Photoshop Flowey, I realized that actually every time I look at this battle, I never look at Flowey. Its design is so uncomfortable that I just focus on the red soul and dodge the attacks. This captures the mood of the fight quite well - it doesn't matter who your enemy is and how much stronger and more terrible he is than you, you just need to have the will to live - your Determination.
i noticed that too just now :D
I have something to say about the fight, namely an attack and a line of dialogue.
First of, the finger gun. You may think it's just another creepy attack, but what if there's a reason behind it? Asriel died in 201X. There is a good chance he was shot with a gun. (Edit:to be clear, it's not the yellow soul attack. It's the attack where a bunch of hands shoot out smiling flowers that is present at 6:06 . I just think the fact he does the finger gun combined with what I say later might be a reference to him getting shot. Not saying it definitely is, but it might)
Second, the line "Mommy, daddy, somebody help". While he is obviously mocking us, I think there's another reason. The first thing he did after waking up as a flower was call for help "Mom, Dad, somebody help me!". But nobody came. Nobody could help him. So why would anyone help us?
What Flowey wants us to understand is that we played the game the "wrong way". We either didn't kill enough, or didn't kill at all. Like he did in the village. And he got punished. He didn't get a happy ending for being kind, so nobody can get it. And if they try, he'll show them what the world will do to them
i think he would have been shot no matter when he was born lol guns have been around for like 300 years
That actually makes a lot of sense, good job!
well sorry to break it to you, but the gun part is actually a reference to one of the soul being a cowboy who loved guns when he was alive. Other than that I had the exact same thought about the "mommy daddy help" thing flowey says to mock us when I first played the game. I had this feeling that him always mentioning that "nobody came" had to be somewhat important to his character. And then, when you do the pacifist run, everything became more clear; nobody was there for him when he became a flower, nobody even understood him when he was alive (only Chara did according to him), and nobody was there for him when he got attacked by the humans.
@@nekoaile that first part about the gun is probs wrong because flowey uses an arsenal of modern weapons like guns, bombs and flamethrowers. he probs was killed with all of those and its nothing to do with the cowboy
@@nekoaileI think you misunderstood. I was talking about the attack during the main fight where a bunch of hands come out of the sides and shoot flowers, not the yellow soul attack
something that not many people have noticed is how flowey's hit sounds change over the fight. in the beginning you do completely negligible damage, which is reflected by his mocking "ohh! ooh! ;p" noises (which are ronald mcdonald btw). however, when finale (best song in the ost) kicks in and you start completely whalloping the scallywag, he starts actually screaming in agony/fear/anger. its a really nice way to show your progress through the fight
My favorite sound byte of those is one towards the end, where it's a painful "urgh" mixed with a sense of surprise. For some reason, in games, THAT SAME BYTE format is used for enemies that act feral, deranged, and tend to appear unstoppable.
I love how your pfp is a Strollin Stu, the "completely walloping the scallywag" part really says somethin about it lmao
@@plaidhatter1674 I knew that sound from Fear And Hunger was familiar!
"walloping the scallywag" i love silly words
Asgore>
I like to think that all the buck wild elements like bombs and flamethrowers are Flowey's idea of what's badass and scary and cool.
Much like the true pacifist final boss, but an empty, warped and soulless version instead of fully realised. Both are essentially a little boy's fantasies.
Clever
"BOMBS FUCK YEAH 😈😈😈" - Flowey or something
He is goddamn right
The finger guns are kind of a hint to that imo... Like every young kid at one point mimics a gun with their fingers...
I think it actually mightve been the weapons the humans used to kill him, or maybe chara just told em about it and youre right on how he considers it "badass" after learning of them but idk
Fun fact or not: those tubes in the back when you said they look fleshy. Yeah that is because some of those tubes are not tubes. THEY'RE WORMS
wut da hail
NOOOO
honestly not that scary. hes a flower. he knows about worms.😊
@@user-jm8zl9yk3c funny dirt straws
Or maybe *roots* (since he's a *flower*...)
The main reason i like Photoshop, omega flowey is the finale theme
Also you can hear the memory soundtrack as a secondary.
same and its also the most unique fight... obviously
Same
hey wait it's you
lazy guy you comment on my videos sometimes
his voice is absolutely TERRIFYING. it sounds like "OW!",but as you keep hitting him,it gets more terrifying.
At the start of the fight it’s very sarcastic “ow”, because he knows your attacks are doing jack-shit.
And then he discovers the loss of defence in the final phase the hard way.
@@seant1326bro said “AUGGGGHHHH”
After he's under a third hp he sounds like he is about to vomit
“ow! it hurts so much! just kidding!”
“ok human let’s be rational here”
did you know his voice is ronald mcdonald from the mcdonalds adds
Fun fact! Those "big spiked plant balls with mouths on them" are called dentata in the code. A dentata is... well it's a certain other "mouth looking" body part but with teeth. Yeah, those are way worse than just mouths.
I will note, dentata is just Italian for "bite" or a mark made with teeth. Asriel's like ten he probably doesn't know what a vagina is
I searched it up all I got was Mexican pasties
@@dweebicusmaximusFlowey is more than ten and probably has access to the internet.
oh gosh ;-;
@@dweebicusmaximus Asriel was born prob 100 years before frizk
I always found Photoshop Flowey so bizzare. His attacks are just terrifying. As his theme suggests "Your Best Nightmare" it truly shows how he literally wants you to die when he starts to attack. And adding some realistic stuff into him just makes him look like some sort of monster. The TV always showing a horrifying face of a man screaming is even more uncannier. Seeing let's players horrified of what Flowey turned himself it just shows that Omega Flowey is truly a great boss.
But he doesn't. He wants to win. Over and over and over. But he doesn't want you to die, that's why he keeps loading. The goal is to play and beat you forever.
Like most small children.
He just wants to kill you over and over, when you die he brings you back, only to kill you again
fun fact that i don’t know if it’s real but i saw it on the internet!!
the face shown on the TV is toby’s
Something I don't see discussed enough(partly because it doesn't seem to be as widely noticed as it should be) is the fact that everything the SOULs do during the fight proper was actually faked by Flowey. The entire Finale segment was just Flowey tricking Frisk into thinking they had a chance before he rips it away yet again.
First of all, there's a very scripted nature to the way the SOULs supposedly rebel that indicates that Flowey knew it was happening and did nothing to stop it despite being more than capable of it. They appear on his TV screen, which he has control over, clearly announcing themselves, the "petal" tubes gradually go dark and stop pulsating as a visual indicator of how many SOULs, and the TV even switches to whichever SOUL will show up next during the healing phases. When Frisk dies, Flowey, despite being more than capable of reloading back to the true start of the fight, as he does when "defeated", deliberately treats these as a checkpoint. He even taunts them with "Do you even realize what will happen if you defeat me?", which indicates that he has a plan for if this happens, not to mention "Are you letting me kill you on purpose?"...which, given Flowey has a bit of thing for projection... yeah. The format of the SOUL phases is also odd, as the SOULs have no reason to attack Frisk, and even less to offer them a way out built into their attack in the form of the ACT button. During the Finale segment, despite his defense supposedly having been at zero from the start, the damage being done to Flowey increases. Flowey not only sits there and takes it when we know he can reload, he even actively seems to take the fight less seriously, starting out with easier attacks and stopping with his mid-attack SAVE file abuse even once he seemingly remembers "Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be fighting for my life here". Even the music suggests who is really in control, through the use of Flowey's own leitmotif both during the SOUL phases and the Finale segment.
Additionally, the SOULs, which, being human SOULs, do not have innate magical abilities, attacking and healing using bullets based on items that they possessed when they were alive(notably, the only way Flowey knows them, because Frisk is the first human he's encountered since his death.). The words used by the purple SOUL can also all be tied into Flowey's backstory, notably including dreams and dreamer(Dreemurr) as separate healing words. It is odd that these items, which many of them discarded or lost well before their deaths, would be the means their literal SOULs use to attack. Almost like it might actually be the guy who can do much more extreme things with his bullets than this impersonating them.
Then there's Flowey's own reaction to the SOULs breaking free the "second" time. If the SOULs had actively been rebelling, he shouldn't have been so confused and surprised by their disobedience here. He was clearly aware of it happening, as previously mentioned. He also is notably confident that nobody will help Frisk when they call for help, despite the SOULs supposedly having responded to Frisk doing exactly that, describing them as being alone. Heck, the moment he sees something weird, Frisk being suddenly healed instead of dying in one hit, he tries to reset, despite not having done this throughout the fight when stuff that he should be finding much weirder is happening.
Most explicitly, there's the SAVE files themselves. Flowey retains the ability to use the SAVE files belonging to the six humans throughout the fight, including when he resets after his initial "defeat". However, right before the SOULs appear at the end, he suddenly loses access to those SAVEs, repeatedly trying and failing to load them. This indicates that the SOULs did not break free during the fight itself, or else Flowey would have been unable to reload to avoid defeat. The SOULs were still obeying him up until this point.
Throughout the fight, Flowey is merely toying with Frisk. He could do his reset into one-shot combo infinitely if he wanted, at any time, but his goal isn't simply to kill them over and over. He chooses to give Frisk these little rays of hope solely because he wants the pleasure of crushing that hope. Because at his core, Flowey is motivated by curiosity and the belief that he is exempt from the consequences of his actions, and he wants to see Frisk's reaction, he wants to see their spirit broken. Him toying with Frisk is the only reason he resets when they die at all, because he wants the pleasure of tormenting them until they give up entirely, and that doesn't just mean physically.
This comment needs more likes
Fantastic analysis, fits his twisted form of experimentation and manipulation that he outright says about being the reason he does anything cruel he does (Being unbearably empty/bored and behaviour like that being the only thing that makes him feel anything whatsoever anymore).
Kinda similar situation as GLaDOS from Portal, being numb to everything and sadistic toying being the only thing that remotely fills the void.
He's simply toying with us throughout the fight, giving us false hope that he intends to tear away, like gifting a Child candy and then taking it right back before they can get a proper taste, and the SOULS grow tired of it eventually and wake up for real with his own cocky hubris being how he loses.
Amazing theory! But.. if the souls didn't rebel, then how did flowey lost access to the save and load system?
@@D0NTHEMAN
You didn't read properly, The Souls only rebelled after the fight ended when he was being extra cruel and taunting you about to destroy you with the pellet circle style stuff he does at the start of the game, his saves were working fine up until then, and he only starts looking genuinely concerned/confused when he realizes he can't load anymore, up until that point the whole fight was just him acting and pretending to take damage.
essay
In the art book, the back tubes of photoshop flowey are stated to actually be worms. Making his appearance more icky and messed up on closer inspection.
I played Undertale for my first time when I was 9, and I just absolutely loved it. It was the best and most difficult game I had played yet and I never really experienced anything like it. Everything changed when I got to Photoshop Flowey. As he slowly crept down into the screen with the creepy music playing I already felt super uncomfortable, And when he finally revealed what he looked like I was literally shocked. I didn't even move my soul. So I died, and when it said "This is all just a bad dream" I let out an audible sigh of relief. Than when it started laughing I just turned off the game.
*I didn't play it again for 2 years*
Fast forward to today and I think Photoshop Flowey is the best final boss ever created. I would also like to say this is a great video and it encapsulates why Flowey is horrifying perfectly.
Bro that's literally the same thing that happened to me but I was watching dantdm play and I already felt unnerved when he was coming down and when he showed himself I felt my soul leave my body for 10 seconds then I snapped back and I got too much chills frights but unlike you I was 7 and I watch Dan play the WHOLE fight and then when it got to the finale I felt fine like being able to play your games after being grounded for 1 month and when he was fighting omega flowey I couldn’t hold back cheering for Dan and when the fight was over I felt a sigh of relief also I was 7 so this scarred me for 5 fucking years
Dude I wasn’t traumatised at all and when I saw the face I thought that the face on the TV were the soul’s faces.
How did you manage to beat it when you were 9
same i played this back in 2018-2020 dont remember when exactly on the switch and got here and was so terrified i deleted my save LOL, like not in undertale i went into the system settings to delete it but i did go back and beat it eventually, didn't help when i got there is was like 2am
Oh you're making me feel old
Photoshop Flowey to this day holds the spot as my favorite video game character design, I love your dissection of him and his fight.
Something I don't see many people talk about is probably my absolute favorite part of his design, though. He's made to almost resemble a mechanical-botanical "Biblically-accurate angel" - a seraphim specifically. It's especially noticeable in his earliest concept art, where he has arms shooting out of the tubes and mouths/eyes lining the middle vines. It's interesting, because he (Asriel) is named after the angel of death, Azrael. Azrael is described as having "4,000 wings and a body formed by as many eyes and tongues as there are living human beings" the wings being replaced with the plant life (just compare the cacti arms to seraphim wings) and the latter was included abundantly in Toby's concept art.
If Asriel's form with 7 souls is the "God of Hyperdeath," then it makes sense for his form with 6 souls to be the "Angel of [Hyper]Death," ergo the appearance of Photoshop Flowey resembling Azrael/seraphims! Everything about this character and his design was thought out, I love it.
No where in the Bible does it say that angels have wings so idk what your talking about
@@ghostygamerz4800 not angels, seraphims.
(No, seraphims are not angels, they are living creatures made by God, angel is actually another category)
@@SomeCatFromFrance No, pretty sure seraphims are angels. Where are you pulling this from?
I once saw a comment saying how much Undertale characters are related to angels and other religion stuff.
I forgot what they said but it was literally like half of the game which was kind of impressive.
@@ghostygamerz4800That's because it's not in the bible, although it is quite the popular description for Azrael - And just to be fair, the book of Ezechiel in the Bible does describe an angel with four heads and four wings, so yes, it does say that, just not Azrael's specific description.
That one, from what I could find, seems to have been popularized by the fourth volume of the Encyclopædia of religion and ethics by James Hastings, in the article "Demons and Spirits (Muslim)” by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes. That's where the english description comes from.
In the bibliography of the article, he gives his main source, which is a german book by M. Wolff, which says that the description comes from the Kitâb es-Sulûk” (Something like "The book of the journey to God and to perfection") by Muqâtil Ibn-Salmân.
But I can't find this text, and neither could the guy that I saw explaining this, so it's probably a very obscure arabic text - Because not every mention of angels are exclusive to the christian Bible
7:28 the thing I like most about his use of friendliness pallets is that the player's immidiate conotation to this attacks is "an unavoidable attacks". In other parts of the game, every time he uses them is a time where you are on a single HP, with no way for you to escape the attack on your own. But now in this fight you are on your own, and he uses this attack not once, not twice but many times
[Read edit at bottom]
In case you were curious, part of the reason "Your Best Nightmare" sounds so chaotic is due to the use of a breakbeat. Essentially, it takes a drum loop and speeds it up to an insane bpm, and often chops up the music. It creates the very quick and stimulating effect where there's not much downtime or empty space, and for this particular fight it helps keep you on edge by subtlety telling you "it's not over yet" without ever having to say anything.
Edit: The next person to repeat what the first reply said I will find your spiritual ancestors and beat them with my own fists. Y'all need to chill out, breakcore is the only genre of this style of music I'm familiar with. I just wanted to give an explanation that made sense to me, oh my god. It's really not that deep. I don't care about your "ermm actually ☝️🤓" behavior over how it's actually a different style, the point I'm making still stands. Can you people just shut up and move on from this stupid comment already?
@@emmabellhelium After commenting "piano breakcore" on Azali's weird piano video and getting a bunch of replies, I now realise what a buzzword "breakcore" seems to be \(-_-)/
So yeah you're right
@@emmabellheliumdrum and bass uses more repetitive drum loops, but in the song, the drums are played around with a bit, but I agree that this feels a lot more like a dnb track than a breakcore one
It’s literally a single amen break, it’s an amateurs attempt at breakbeat at best
@@FireyDeath4less a buzzword and more misrep of a genre imo
@@cookiesandpudding8485can be said for any genre to exist honestly
Fun little fact, Omega Flowey's music falls under the genre Breakcore.
A type of music where chaos is the main focus. It's made to be fast paced and crowded, the percussion is always the most present thing on this music genre.
why doesn't your comment have a chain of people correcting you over the use of breakcore as a term but the other does lol
Actually it’s drum n bass
im a huge breakcore fan and your best nightmare is one of my favorites in the OST
It's even more Breakcore due to using an amen break as the main drum.
@@xanious3759fr, this comment was right after that one for me. it's probably cuz of the difference in likes so not as many people got to it but, tbh I'm glad. it's just an innocent fun fact, not some statement of 100% correct truth. Dunno why people got so pissed ab it over there
I honestly think the ending where you spare flowey is absolutely brilliant because of another reason: once you win, he will remark how this doesn't seem to be a very good ending, and gives you clues on how to get the Pacifist ending, in which you befriend everyone. However, in doing so, you cause everyone to gather in the throne room, which gives Flowey the amount of souls he needs to become Asriel again. I like to think that Flowey had planned this all along (his dialogue after pacifist Toriel also implies that) and the "happy ending" he had given you hints for was actually just a way to become more powerful
I really think this is true, due to Flowey being a Manipulative and cruel being who thrives only for power
11:12 im crying on how the egg simply dodged your soul
fr
another reason why this boss is brilliant and fits perfectly to the neutral route is the fact that you have to both act and attack to beat him, the two options used in the neutral route.
I have a feeling all of the war-themed attacks (such as bombs) could be Flowey using you, as a human,'s own things against you. Asriel states that Chara hated humanity, and one of those reasons could have been how they wage war on each other, which Chara could have told Asriel about. Hence, Flowey uses the very nuke-shaped bombs that killed many in the fight as a scare/"this is what YOU'RE like!" tactic against the player.
Tbh finale is the most underated song in undertale
Fax!!!!!!!
Wrong Enemy (theme of So Sorry) is even more underrated. (not necessarily better than Finale but it is rated near the bottom in lists consistently when it is actually not a bad theme at all)
True, Finale is easily one of the best themes but is often overshadowed by other themes like Megalovania
@@RandomDude-dc8dd I think that's because it's hard to fight So Sorry, since you cannonly do it on one day. Butw what do I know?
I would like to point out how in deltarune, the only enemies capable of overcoming the battle box and using the whole screen are the shadow crystal holders, all being extremely powerful beings. In undertale, the only characters that do this are omega flowey and asriel dreemur showing how powerful they are. Also sans is able to stretch it in his last attack but idk if that counts.
I think King also kinda counts. He has this one attack where he has spades across the whole screen and moves the box to damage you
@@W.d_Gaster hes only moving it tho, many enemies do that but none of them actually change the box, less even remove it.
@@theresaplatipuscontrolling5542Yea but he still uses the attack beyond the box. But I understand what you mean
Both Papyrus and Muffet stretch the battle box during certain attacks, Papyrus during his final attack and Muffet each time she "feeds her pet". Since there's no way in hell that Muffet is stronger than the Skelebros/Flowey with 6+ souls, this likely means either that battle box stretching is no indication of power level, that Muffet should be discarded for power indication, that Muffet is secretly a demi-god,
OR HA HER PET IS STRONGER THAN ASRIEL DREEMURR ANGEL OF HYPER DEATH /j for the last one ofc.
@@TheGudeGamerthe real reason why muffet can stretch the battle box is because it's actually sentient and scared by muffets pet, so it stretches to try to escape it.
1:22
it's even more dark that flowey immediately destroys the soul. which would've been your escape to the underground.
furthermore, this is his father.
Even worse, Flowey, who had been listening in, attacks only as Asgore mentions living with frisk as a new beginning. Flowey feels like his father is trying to forget the past, replace _them_ . He can't bear the thought of his father treating another child like his own as if nothing - the buttercup poison, the plan to pass through the barrier, two corpses in flower fields - had ever happened.
Just like not letting Asgore raise another child does, he destroys the soul to prevent those events from happening again.
fatherless flowey
@@65591nah he knows what will happen and will promise not to mess with Asgore if You don't kill anyone if you do but don't go to the lab he actually won't appear but Asgore continues his dialogue and decides it is best to let frisk leave begs for them to find a way out of there for his people and kills himself so frisk can take his soul which flowey does destroy
A nice detail about this fight, is that when Flowey challenges to ''Call for help'' right after you ''defeat'' him, he actually looks nervous when you actually do so.
For a brief moment, even if short, Flowey doesn't discard the possibility his house of cards will fall, almost having a ''Wait no, I didn't screw up didn't I?'' Moment.
I think the reason of what makes this fight so terrifying is how JARRING Omega Flowey is compared to the rest of the game. Like Dead Hand or Lavender Town, this "thing" pops up out of nowhere and scares the ever-loving shit out of you.
Giygas moment
@@genericname2747I think Gygass was inspiration for Photoshop Flowey
@@sonicfanboy3375 Definitely, Toby Fox loves Earthbound
What also made this fight my favorire is how the music and the fight are planned, it might be hard to explain but the music plays a role here, it is always in sync between phases since there's no menu and you're always fighting.
Fun Fact : The Low Quality Human Is Actually Toby Fox IRL Stuck Inside Flowey.
Another thing to add about the music specifically, the genre that the song would fall under is a genre called 'Breakcore' which is fitting given that he's breaking the core elements of the game throughout the battle
i think they were just going for a chaotic theme
I’d love to see a breakcore version of ‘Your Best Nightmare’.
Great video. You basically just put everyones thoughts on this fight into words, and did a damn good job at it :)
It's a shame how photoshop flowey has been almost completely forgotten by the fandom. Before the AU stuff took over, animations for photoshop flowey (or Omega Flowey as he was called by the fandom at the time) were EVERYWHERE, it feels like there were way more animations about PF than about Sans
I almost played through Undertale in one sitting when I got it originally. The neutral route, I mean. I played it until it was like 1 AM and the sun had been down for a while outside. I came to this battle, and once Flowey was revealed from the shadows and started laughing, I quite literally just closed my laptop and went "well that's enough game for today."
I finished the game the next day, natch.
13:14 You forgot to mention the Easter egg where if you keep running into the pellets he starts to get annoyed
He’ll say, “Could…. Could you stop that?” With an angry flowey face
13:23 the way the laughing animation for Flowey stops right as the SOULs heal you back to full
truly a "And that's when he knew. He fucked up." moment
A nice detail I wanted to add is that flowey wasnt using his true power till the very end of the fight, he was just playing with you to make you feel completely hopeless, and everytime you die your game crashes cause you really died, you no longer have the power to save and comeback, and when you open the game to try again its because FLOWEY reset just to get to kill us again
This is true on some level but falls apart if you believe "the player is canon" theory, which I believe Genocide strongly implies. Because then, Flowey literally cannot prevent you from just opening the game again. The Player's power is greater than just Frisk's ability to save and load and is second only to Annoying Dog/Toby in power level.
@@plasmakitten4261 Well the player IS cannon, its not even a theory I guess, but floweys dialogues really imply he is reseting for fun, maybe if he didn't we wouldnt be able to open the game? Idk it doesnt really matters but the thing is we lost the player hability to save
@@Nujabes_TC OK but if Frisk is experiencing a true death every time they die, then Flowey's resets should be sending us into a different timeline from Frisk's perspective, akin to how Sans perceives the multiple fights. But that's clearly not what it looks like from where we are. Flowey literally can't stop us, the player, from just opening the game again; we can force him to reset on Frisk's behalf whenever we want.
@@plasmakitten4261 You are overthinking it, of course we would be able to open it, it would be fun if we didnt. But toby even said he wanted the game to uninstall itself when you died but he couldnt program it
@@Nujabes_TC toby said he wanted the game to uninstall itself when you gave your soul to chara in the genocide ending, not when dying to omega flowey
This might be interesting to you, and a little bit of history about how Photoshop Flowey even came to be, design-wise. When I first played Undertale, I actually recognized the bizarre style immediately as being Everdraed, a formerly proflic photoshopper, artist, and video editor/animator who would contribute a lot to Somethingawful back in the day (I'm old ok).
Sure enough, when you get to the credits, he's credited there as the "Photoshop Flowey Battle co-design". Everdraed also made the trailer for the game.
Everdraed's steam review of the game is still there and briefly mentions that he was so "super impressed by the [early] demo" that he reached out to Toby directly and asked if there was anything he could do to help out. I'm sure Toby either already knew of Everdraed from the SA forums, or checked out his stuff then, and agreed there was something Everdraed could do. And that's how Photoshop Flowey came to be.
4:19 That's also supported by the fact the TV was originally supposed to show the actual player's face by using their webcam
Ooh might use that
I literally never knew this, that would’ve freaked me out lol
I like how the ninja star attacks LOOK impossible. But actually they’re actually really easy too avoid, like flowey trying his damn hardest to make an impossible attack but you can still find a way though. Also it gives you an absolutely PHENOMENAL ego boost when you dodge it for the first time
Just stream the attacks lol
certified domo moment
I've always adored Flowey's expressions. The way they stretch and contort according to what he's saying is so interesting. I could grin as wide as he does in 'I knew you had it in you'. The kind of imperfect blankness of his 'dead' face, like a pencil mark not full erased is also interesting.
When I first got into this fanbase, some people thought it was weird I significantly preferred this fight over the Sans fight. This perfectly explains why I felt that way.
I love how you can see how just mish mashed his form is. On the mouth you can literally see the black background added onto the picture in photoshop. ITS SO COOL
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already but I also want to mention that the weird vertical mouth, four eyes, and some other aspects of this design can also be seen in Gyftrot in the Snowy area.
what I really like about the Omega Flowey boss fight is that his transformation is visually striking and sets the stage for an epic battle It's a memorable underrated fight from the game
4:02
i think it's pretty much just a description of the pain the human souls are in, they're being forced to attack you against their will.
i guess the screen has the same meaning you said tho
11:50
not to mention during this section before the beat drop, you can VERY QUIETLY hear "his theme" (asriel's theme)
he is just a singular soul away from becoming asriel again, and this leitmotif shows it.
This truly is a domo video
i wish the song couldve been more unsettling to me but i just immediately thought it was a banger bc thats the type of music i love
14:08 "...the true extend of your kindness."
Not gonna lie, my intentions were malicious. I had beaten him at his best and now was refusing him the one validation he was looking for.
Naw, dude, you're not getting the sweet release of death. I'm gonna spare you and force you to live with that forever.
Fun Fact: Omega Flowey is the name the fandom gave to it. The actual name (as listed in the credits after the fight) is Photoshop Flowey. Some of its sprites also call it God Flowey though. It is never called Omega Flowey anywhere inside the game.
Omega Flowey just became such a widespread name for it though that people just accepted it as canon.
It actually became such a widespread thing that the fandom's name for it is even mentioned and used in some of the official Undertale merchandise and kind of is canon now.
I think this is the first time in years someone has used his original name
Don't his sprites just call him Flowey X?
Also, I know this has no actual proof but I like to think one fan called him "Omega Flowey" as reference to Dragon Ball (More specifically GT) where Syn Shenron absorbed all the other six dragon balls and became Omega Shenron.
Another thing I love about this fight is how out of the blue it appears.
After you leave the Ruins, Flowey disappears from the game completely, except for couple of easter eggs. It makes the player somewhat forget about him and move on with the story, all the characters and events distract you from him, so his return and his boss fight hits you like a slap on the face. It's like you're walking peacefully and suddenly trip and fall. You have little time to think or analyze the situation and you panic. At least that's what it felt like to me.
0:13 Me: *AGGRESSIVE CHEERING*
Same
yeah same
same with me.
Same
Omega flowey is the perfect boss fight. You feel like it's over before it starts and the first time through, your fears are basically confirmed, but as you play over and over again, you realize you might actually be able to do something... it almost feels like the stakes are real. And once you reach the hopeful part, it really hits emotionally
Honestly, Finale slaps really hard. Also, funny how Flowey is the final boss of both Pacifist and Netural and only time we dont fight him is in Genocide and even then, he is the last person we kill.
during finale, if you listen carefully you can hear little dings that sound like “his theme”, a small but noticeable detail that shows flowey’s actual identity
Glad to see someone else appreciating Finale, I genuinely consider it one of my favorite tracks in the game and that drop is immaculate. I love how you just paused your explanation for a moment so everyone could hear it play uninterrupted lol :D
[I'd like to apologize in advance if I say something nonsensical since English isn't my first language]
I was gonna defend Flowey by stating how much the fight is like a "revenge" or vent for everything he went through, but a lot of people here in the comments have done it already so imma just say how much I love finale because it perfectly displays both our and his feelings. I don't know how exactly to describe it but the song gives me a feeling of hope and anxiousness, an uncertainty of what will happen, and that rings true both for Flowey as it does for us because even though the souls are helping us, we don't really know what he's capable of doing after "losing". I also really like the subtle use of 'his theme' in the bg of the song because as @suitov said, deep down, buried beneath layers upon layers of leaves and earth, Flowey is still Asriel, and in a way, it's all just a little boy's fantasy gone wrong.
And when you've said at the end that "flowey is not a good person", I believe he's just a confused child with a 2D perception of the world. When he was Asriel, he believed everyone could be a good person and was willing to die at the hand of humans instead of fighting; while being Flowey, he believes fighting is the only option and there's no such a thing as kindness for the sake of being kind. By the end where you spare him, that concept is challenged, bringing him back to the notion that "everyone can be a good person", even though he doesn't want to believe it since it lead to so much suffering. This thus leads us to the pacifist ending, and upon talking to asriel in the ruins, we learn that HE has learned that the world is not so black-and-white, and ask us to not kill and not get killed. And even when he turns back to Flowey, he pleads us to just let the game be and let everyone be happy, because if we keep coming back, that'll eventually lead to a genocide (and he says that from experience).
Thanks for listening to my autistic rant he's literally my favorite character 👍
You had very good english for it being your second language!
7:01 these are the “GREAT FLOWEY NUKES” as jacksepticeye would say
A detail I wanna mention about the music that I haven't seen brought up a lot: Your Best Nightmare truly is the sound form of a night terror. As someone who experienced those often as a kid (for totally unrelated reasons) I think it matters to point out that his battle theme feels like the audio form of your literal worst actual nightmares. The dread. The panic. The sheer consistency and persistence of it. He's truly put you in the ultimate nightmare and even the music refuses to let you forget that.
And then the soul segments are those brief breathers you sometimes get in a bad dream. You turn a few corners and lose The Thing That's After You for a while. You can rest a moment under the table. It won't see you here.
And then the next phase of the music starts as you realize That Thing Can Crouch And Crawl
And that's why I kill Flowery every. Single. Time. He's my favorite character but ye defi itely deserves it.
"I kNeW yOu HaD iT iN yOu" I'm at LOVE 17 you stupid flower could you not tell by my stats alone that I'm willing to kill to defend myself? LMAO
Another detail I love is that during the "Finale" segment, the face on the screen makes a scream of pain when you hit him.
Videos like this grow my love for Undertale so much more, I got chills learning how much better Undertale was than I originally thought
i find it amazing that plants are combined with human flesh, because he is a flower is fused with human souls.
Y'know what i noticed?
The ending where you get to choose where to kill or spare flowey indirectly parallels that of asgores.
With similar motives and beliefs too actually....they both deem themselves unworthy of any kind of mercy after what they've done.
Knowing it'll only press on if it keeps going any longer.
Like father,like son.
Fun fact: While the game has a way to register all the fights with IDs, Photoshop Flowey's battle is the only battle in the game that has no battle ID because it all happens in a room (room_294_floweyx)
is it just me, did it go haunting theme, stop, mouth, eyes, light, and _then_ laughter?
Now you talk about Flowey's bossfight in Undertale Yellow
I never realized his pain sounds only happened after the beat drop, that’s so smart. Great analysis of a great fight.
Honestly this whole video was perfect. New subscriber. It’s great to see analysis’s in to how and why set pieces like this work so well. And that is a great point about Deltarune! I wonder if something will go down a similar route like Omega Flowey, like the Titan’s or if not them then a true final boss.
The healing tune is actually Your Best Nightmare slowed down and with no sustain, reverb, or accompaniment.
0:20 - he's not bored FROM the resets, he got bored OF the resets
☝️🤓
of in cold hot eat the food?
I'll still say it. Photoshop flowey will always be my favorite bossfight in all of Undertale
Flowey in general [not as Asriel] has always been my favorite FAVORITE character. I'm so glad to see him done justice and people that noticed the same things as I did. I don't think I've really seen any Flowey videos, just, sigh, Sans, Gaster, maybe Chara, thats it.
another cool thing is that on your best nightmare if you listen closelly, you can hear the damage sound effect as a extra kick
Thanks for covering this fight, loved the video dude! ive been through this fight more than I'd like to admit and ive been working on a big project related to the fight for a while now. It makes me smile and happy to see someone else share the same... Fascination of this thing, the music has and always still goes hard, the sheer contrast in design in every way, along with the haunting feeling it gives you without having to try much. There's also alot of cool info regarding the concepts and unused attacks/names of everything, but anyway You got a like and Sub, i enjoyed the work you put into it!! 😁
this single character helped me ascend into my freaky art style and damn, he will always be my favorite
if you look in the games files and find the "mouth" of flowey, you'll realise what it really is.
What is it?
What is it
I think omega flowey should be a longer and crazier fight, because if he just needs one more soul to become an absolute GOD, he shouldn’t be so easy as a fight.
8:00
normal ppl : get terrified from omega flowey
my friend : OMG A FAT DUCK
WTF
I really think this whole fight is very underrated. This video is such a good way to give it some appreciation it deserves
This video was downright fantastic! I’ve never seen someone cover this fight, and I loved seeing your insight.
I also loved when you talked about Finale. That’s my personal favorite track, and that drop goes HARD. I always felt like the song didn’t get the credit it deserved for being such a banger
Now that Undeetale Yellow (even tho its a fanmade) has out, I wonder what you think of the final neutral boss fight?
To add onto your points, I think the fleshy parts of his design is meant to be representative of Flowey’s exploitation of the 6 other souls. His cruel nature combined with the forced capture of the human souls perverts his appearance, thereby making the souls completely unrecognizable to what an actual human looks like. I also think this further emphasizes to the player that Flowey is completely beyond redemption and you NEED to take him down. Like you said in the video, the combined perverted flesh, Flowey’s plant appearance, and the mechanical tubes make a horrifying godlike amalgamation that we need the determination to fight.
There was also concept art of a monster with a human SOUL, and guess what? It looked similar to PS Flowey.
**The boss is a literal fire breathing demon**
The fans: meh
**The boss is a lazy skeleton**
The fans: WRITE THAT DOWN!!!!!
what the hell this video is so underrated
I always used to think this fight was impossible until i actually played undertale for the first time
i love how his theme, or the melody, changes the more souls you save, it reminds me a lot of the titan dweevil from pikmin 2, as the melody changes the more parts you remove from him
5:26 those 6 back tubes with what looks to be somthing fleshy in them are actulaly housing the 6 human souls as proven from consept art
bro REALLY doesent want us to disagree
insane job at explaining how disturbing omega flowey is.
1:51
idk if nobody ever realized this but this floweys face on the tv screen of omega flowey
Finale is one hell of a song.
It really rivals that of all the other route final bosses' tracks.
A bit late but I wanted to add. After Flowey absorbs the Human souls his appearance and attacks gain a human element. Finger pistols, Dentata, Nukes, Flamethrowers. It's not until he absorbs the monster souls and stabilizes/gains full control of the souls, that he returns to the classic black and white monster look.
great video! i love this fight and while i can’t personally explain the brilliance in it with my lack of literature skills, i find you really put it into words just how wicked it is, so thanks !!
its been 5 years, and i remember thsi boss like yesterday
0:43 I haven't played Undertale, I thought this video was about a new Photoshop feature called Flowey...
Make like a tree and get outta here!
@@BlazeFiresoul stop barking about tree puns, and leaf me alone
Lol@@Muffin-time1110
@@O3DGaming72-d7g bad puns :3
Why would it be terrifying?
I know everyone's gonna kill me for this but neutral run >>>>>> pacifist/genocide run