Alphys ( / ˈ æ l f i z , ˈ æ l f ɪ s / ) is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale and the 2018 video game Deltarune . She is a bisexual reptilian monster who serves as a scientist under the leader of the Underground, Asgore , and is a fan of anime and manga. She is also a friend to Mettaton , a robot, and the captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne , who eventually becomes her girlfriend. She suffers from social anxiety, depression, and self-harm tendencies, and the depiction of her struggles with these have been the subject of praise and commentary by critics. She watches the player-character throughout the game, offering guidance at some point, though with limited benefit. She is revealed to have dark secrets, including ones that relate to experimentation. She also appears in Deltarune in a different role as a school teacher.
40-442: Alphys was designed by Toby Fox and Temmie Chang . She was initially conceived as a male character, but Fox did not like this, so he made minor changes to her design and changed her gender. She has received generally positive reception, though some critics identified her as an annoying character. She has been identified as a positive representation of both mental illnesses and LGBTQ+ characters, with multiple critics identifying her as
80-438: A "massive twine-ball of self-doubt for all of his life." Writer Eric Walsh discussed how Alphys represented a "negative depiction of unhealthy fandom," tying that to her lack of self worth. Alphys has been well-received as both a queer woman and for her relationship with Undyne, with NintendoLife writer Kate Gray described describing her relationship as "absolutely wonderful." Eurogamer writer Natalie Flores related to Alphys
120-480: A Halloween-themed ROM hack of EarthBound, which released in 2008. He then moved on to compose a variety of music for Andrew Hussie 's 2009 webcomic Homestuck during his senior year of high school . Though he did not initially respond when Hussie started a Music Contribution Team in April 2009 and put up a news post asking composers to participate, Hussie took note of his work when Fox started uploading piano covers of
160-410: A factor in the delayed development of Deltarune 's second chapter. [REDACTED] Media related to Toby Fox at Wikimedia Commons Toby Fox on Twitter Laura Shigihara Laura Shigihara ( Japanese : 鴫原 ローラ , Hepburn : Shigihara Rōra ) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, video game developer, and Twitch streamer of Japanese ethnicity. She is best known as
200-472: A lab coat and glasses, working as a scientist. She has multiple mental illnesses, including depression, social anxiety, and self-harm tendencies. She is also a fan of anime and manga. Temmie created sprite art for her in MS Paint , and Fox changed her eyes to make her cuter. An initial concept art based on the sprite was made by Temmie, though Fox felt it was too round and that she should be more "triangular." Alphys
240-408: A relatable character. Alphys overcoming her issues was particularly cited as a strong example of Undertale ' s message of characters finding courage in themselves by Destructoid writer CJ Andriessen. Alphys was created by Toby Fox for the video game Undertale , with collaboration from other artists, including Temmie Chang . She is a bisexual yellow lizard monster who typically wears
280-528: A very similar skill level, trading wins and losses equally. Sans , a character from Undertale , was later included in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a Mii costume available through downloadable content , along with an instrumental composition " Megalovania ", for which Fox provided a new arrangement. On October 30, 2018, Fox tweeted a request for fans of Undertale to check the game's official Twitter account in 24 hours. The following day, Fox released
320-510: Is an American video game developer and composer . He is best known for developing the role-playing video game Undertale , which garnered acclaim and has received nominations for a British Academy Game Award , three Game Awards and D.I.C.E. Awards . He is also the creator and head of the ongoing development of Deltarune , which contains many characters and features from Undertale , and has garnered significant praise. Fox's early work consisted primarily of composing music , notably for
360-424: Is the son of Robert Fox, a financial planner, and Barbara Fox, a retired paraprofessional. Fox was raised an Episcopalian . He studied environmental science at Northeastern University and graduated in 2014. Fox is secretive and does not typically do interviews. He has chronic wrist and hand pain that regularly disables him from programming and composing. In September 2020, Fox cited a flareup of this pain as
400-505: The Undyne battle song "Battle Against a True Hero" from Undertale as "U.N. - Owen Was Hero?". In September of the same year, he announced a new partnership for the same game on YouTube. The video contains a very brief preview of the song, which appears to be based on "Megalovania". Robert F. Fox was born on October 11, 1991, in Manchester, New Hampshire . Along with his three brothers, he
440-630: The webcomic Homestuck . Following the success of Undertale , he went on to compose music for a number of other indie games . Other notable works include contributing to the soundtracks of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the Pokémon video games. Fox has stated that as a child, he was mesmerised by the music and atmosphere of Final Fantasy VI . Other Japanese role-playing games , such as EarthBound , Secret of Mana and Super Mario RPG served as major inspirations; Fox looked up to Yoko Shimomura's works in particular. Her song "Megalomania" for
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#1733092527315480-450: The 2018 Games Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his role in creating Undertale ; by then the game had sold over 2 million copies. The success of Undertale , especially in Japan, afforded Fox the opportunity to visit Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai at his home, where they discussed the series and played Super Smash Bros. Ultimate against each other, and the two reportedly had
520-555: The Touhou Project track "Necrofantasia" at his church's summer camp. He was inspired by Touhou's philosophy of not giving up on a game simply to hear the music. Fox later conducted an improvised Touhou music session on Tumblr , in which he created "improvised Touhou music that doesn't actually exist" including a boss track named An Apple Disaster . Toby Fox's earliest well-known work is the EarthBound Halloween Hack ,
560-582: The U.S, Shigihara took a job as the sound director for a company that produced an audio talk show and English learning materials through Apple Japan. She also released a studio album and composed her first video game soundtrack for a small casual game called Wobbly Bobbly . She stated that she would work voluntarily, and soon the company liked her work and paid her to create music for several subsequent projects. From there she built up her portfolio and has worked on over 30 published titles including Plants vs. Zombies , Deltarune , World of Warcraft , Minecraft and
600-486: The Waking World, was a "turning point" in his musical journey; it was used as the background music for a major moment in the fifth act of Homestuck. Fox's most well-known work is the 2015 role-playing video game Undertale , which he also composed the soundtrack for. The game sold more than 1 million copies, becoming a "breakout hit" and " pop-culture phenomenon". Fox worked on the entire game independently, besides
640-606: The art assets—which he asked Temmie (Tuyoki) Chang to help with—to avoid relying on others. He had some experience in game development before Undertale , using RPG Maker 2000 with his three brothers to make role-playing games and EarthBound ROM hacks in high school, the most notable of which was Earthbound: The Halloween Hack . He thought of the character designs and ideas for Undertale while in college, where he drew them in his notebook. Following its release, Undertale garnered an extensive fanbase. Fox commented that he did not mind if people stated that they did not like
680-494: The captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne , having met her while hanging out in the garbage dump. When the human meets Alphys, she guides them through Hotland, though a robot she said she created, Mettaton , attacks the human at various points. She offers to help with puzzles over the upgraded phone she gives the human with limited results, though they also get social media updates from her. They discover from Mettaton that she created
720-408: The first chapter of the followup to Undertale, named Deltarune , (an anagram of undertale) for free under the guise of a "survey" . On November 1, Fox shared more details regarding the game, including that the rest of the chapters were expected to release simultaneously, but work had not yet started, and there was no estimated timeframe for completion. Fox also stated that he had been working on
760-462: The game Live A Live was particularly inspiring for Fox, and he originally intended to use an EarthBound-themed cover of the song in a game, but he got tired of transcribing it and eventually made a new song called " Megalovania ". In middle school, he discovered the Touhou Project series when he downloaded the demos for the sixth and seventh games in the series. He played a piano rendition of
800-406: The game, saying that it was "not for everyone". Despite Undertale ' s awards and widespread acclaim, Fox wrote that his personal opinion was that the game was still "niche" and deserved an "8/10" review score. In 2016, Fox released a number of unused musical tracks from Undertale . He also became a contributor to the A Profound Waste of Time magazine. Fox was then chosen to be part of
840-581: The indie RPG To the Moon . She participated in Akira Yamaoka 's charity album Play for Japan where she contributed an original song called "Jump", alongside other composers like Nobuo Uematsu , Koji Kondo and Yasunori Mitsuda . On November 16, 2011, she released her single "Cube Land" in relation to Minecraft and Plants vs. Zombies . As a game developer herself, Shigihara published two adventure games: Rakuen in 2017 and Mr. Saitou in 2023. She
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#1733092527315880-476: The last of which was arranged by Pokémon composer Hitomi Sato. He also composed a track for Pokémon Sword and Shield , a vocal song for Itoki Hana's PRAY album, and multiple tracks for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet . In 2024, he partnered with Japanese game developer ZUN for the game Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost , which included a track that combined the Touhou song "U.N - Owen Was Her?" with
920-511: The lead composer and sound designer for the tower defense game Plants vs. Zombies and the creator of the acclaimed indie RPG Rakuen . Shigihara has worked on over 30 other published video game titles including Deltarune , World of Warcraft , To the Moon , defuncted mobile game High School Story and the 5th Anniversary Edition of Super Meat Boy . She co-created the ending theme song for Minecraft: The Story of Mojang with C418 and worked together with Yasunori Mitsuda on
960-424: The message of Undertale . He felt that there should have been more conflict between Alphys and Undyne over Alphys' experimentation, since Undyne is someone who "takes her protectorship very seriously." Destructoid writer CJ Andriessen felt that Alphys represented Undertale ' s "message of courage" best of the whole cast, particularly the "courage to be herself" which resonated with him as someone who has been
1000-746: The monsters' souls, becoming Asriel Dreemurr . She appears in the fight against him, and must be saved by the human by reminding her of who she is. After the fight, she, along with other monsters, are able to escape through the now-destroyed Barrier. Alphys is seen in the credits being kissed by Undyne. She later appears in Deltarune as a school teacher, with this depiction not being a continuation of her story in Undertale . And as such she in no connection to Undyne in Deltarune. Alphys has received multiple pieces of merchandise, multiple pieces produced by Fangamer . She
1040-470: The most out of the Undertale cast due to her also being "a socially anxious and shy woman who has a crippling fear of failure," also praising the scene where she confesses to Undyne as the best in the game. She discussed how the scene exemplified the "all too common shyness between queer women who are attracted to each other" and social anxiety. She felt that the scene was both "sweet and touching" and "silly" due to Undyne both praising Alphys and dunking her in
1080-514: The official Square Enix Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross 20th Anniversary Album. Born to a Japanese father and a French American mother, Shigihara grew up in both the United States and Japan. She was classically trained on the piano for 11 years and taught herself guitar and drums. While studying International Relations, Business and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley , she
1120-405: The player visits her true lab, discovering experimentation she conducted on monsters who died to keep them alive by injecting them with "Determination" derived from six human souls, which leads to their bodies fusing together. She ultimately vows to return them to their families and come clean. When attempting the fight against Asgore again, it is interrupted by her and others, only for Flowey to take
1160-450: The project since 2012, and that the idea for Undertale developed from Deltarune during production. On June 12, 2019, as only the first chapter of Deltarune had been playable for several months, Fox expressed on his Twitter account he had hope he would complete the rest of Deltarune , saying: "Slowly I'm writing and drawing it all out." He stated that he had written "about 50 songs past Chapter 1". On September 17, 2021, Fox released
1200-444: The puzzles to involve herself in the human's quest. Her fate is dependent on the player's actions before the fight against Asgore. In a run where the player does not kill any monsters, Undyne will ask the human to deliver a love letter to her, leading to Alphys misunderstanding and going on a date with the human. Ultimately, she admits her feelings for Undyne, only for Undyne to show up and for them to talk out their feelings. Afterward,
1240-520: The second chapter of Deltarune for free since "the world has been really tough for everybody recently", referring to the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic . He plans to release the next two chapters simultaneously, with a price greater than Undertale , in 2025. Fox has composed music for the 2017 Homestuck video game Hiveswap , Undertale artist Temmie Chang's short narrative game Escaped Chasm , and Game Freak 's 2019 RPG Little Town Hero ,
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1280-458: The second. He felt this represented Alphys' "overeager personality." He then examined the song "Here We Are", discussing how her "happy melody has been transfigured and corrupted" into a scary melody, saying that it represents the True Lab well. Writer Andrés José Almirall Nieves also felt her theme was simple and represented Alphys well. They discussed how the "overeager left hand" caused it to "[rush]
1320-644: The tempo and [trip] over itself," creating "clumsy, half-step intervals on the first beat." The portrayal of Alphys' mental illnesses and recovery from it have received discussion from writers. Pop Matters writer Nick Dinicola found Alphys' constant communication annoying, but appreciating that she was making an effort. He also discussed her self-hatred over being "painfully shy," believing that others hate her for it as well, and how that lead to her trying to show her confidence in ways that could prove harmful to others. He noted how her complexity makes it difficult for her issues to be solved through pacifism, running afoul of
1360-645: The trash can, stating that "we deserve to grow to love who our real selves are." RPGFan writer Stephanie Sybydlo felt that the relationship between Alphys and Undyne was among the best of LGBTQ+ representation in RPGs, encouraging players to help "a lonely couple enjoy anime together". Comic Book Resources writer Rebekah Krum discussed their evolving dynamic, particularly Alphys believing herself unworthy of Undyne, and Undyne's fear of vulnerability, and how coming together helped them overcome these weaknesses. Toby Fox Robert F. " Toby " Fox (born October 11, 1991)
1400-589: The webcomic's music on the MS Paint Adventures forums. Fox created many of Homestuck's iconic tracks until its conclusion in 2016, including pivotal themes such as: a version of Megalovania, Descend and Oppa Toby Style, as well as comedic songs such as The Nick Cage Song. He has stated in a tribute post to musician George Buzinkai that tracks such as the unused Homestuck theme called "Patient" inspired Undertale themes such as Another Medium. In particular, his remix of Buzinkai's song Doctor , titled Savior of
1440-402: The world of Undertale feel "very real." Her music and themes have received coverage from critics. Writer Jason Yu discussed her leitmotif in the song "Alphys", calling it "one of the most straightforward themes" in Undertale while appreciating it for how well it represents Alphys. He discussed how it starts with a simple phrase before jumping into a higher key in the middle of the melody in
1480-428: Was given an old version of Cakewalk (known as Sonar before 2018) which she used to start learning about mixing, arranging and production by recreating old video game soundtracks and composing her own songs. After a friend leaked her original material to record companies in Japan, Shigihara was offered record contracts as a singer there, but ended up turning them down for personal reasons. Shortly after returning to
1520-562: Was included in the second set of "Little Buddies" figures produced in collaboration with Fangamer. Fangamer also produced a keychain plush of Alphys. A soundtrack compiling music related to Mettaton and Alphys was also produced by Fangamer, as well as being featured in sets of stickers and pins. Since appearing in Undertale , Alphys has received generally positive reception, though some critics found her annoying. Game Informer writer Daniel Tack and Mike Fatter were both critical of Alphys; Tack found Alphys annoying, while Fatter felt that Alphys
1560-478: Was not well written and disrupted the game's flow. Kotaku writer Jason Schreier noted that he could not stand Alphys' "nerdery," stating that Undyne could do better than her, but the final boss fight helped him appreciate her somewhat. Designer and composer Laura Shigihara , while discussing her enjoyment of games making players feel like they are "part of its culture," noted Alphys and her social media updates as an example of this, saying that it made both her and
1600-466: Was originally conceived as a man, but Fox eventually disliked that, making her female and adding eyelashes to her design. She has the most faces of any character in the game. Alphys first appeared in the 2015 video game Undertale . She is the royal scientist working under the king of the Underground, Asgore , researching how to break through the barrier using human souls. She is also close friends with
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