Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27997069-20160317174518/@comment-27620479-20160412183731

TheHauntedWikiaAccount wrote:

3. Player gains control over Chara's spirit, who possesses Frisk right away. Chara is the HUD and narrator for the player. The very first thing I have pointed out is that it is plausible that Chara isn't even present at the start of the game. It is a bit of a stretch to call it "right away".

And the HUD thing exists before that, it just doesn't show the menu options and Chara's name.