Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27907368-20160528162922/@comment-28574714-20160629050859

Isthereaplace wrote: We don't know if the damage is physical. Monster attacks are magical, they possibly damage the soul, since:

- The whole underground's healing magic and consumables couldn't keep Chara alive. That is, at least certain forms of physical harm are incurable with them.

- Mad Dummy's attacks and Napstablook's tears (which are also their attack) hurt Mad Dummy. We know that physical attacks can actually make their body fall apart (which doesn't happen from their attacks), but don't actually hurt them.

- Your HP correlates with your LV, which measures emotional coldness, not physical stamina.

- There is no indication that you suffer broken bones or bleed or go black and blue. The bandage is the only item that suggests that you may suffer some physical harm during the game, but hey, you fell down a hole to start with. You have also used the bandage multiple times before falling down to heal physical injuries, so it isn't even sterile to start with, and it shouldn't just suddenly heal getting hit with fireballs. On the other hand, if you think of applying the bandage as a comforting ritual, it makes sense that you can heal immediately, from damage that can't be just patched up.

- When you hug a Vulkin, it hurts your body, but doesn't reduce your HP.

- You can still move around and try to evade Asriel's attacks even when you explicitly can't move your body.

As for the second part, no:

Amount is like units, say 100. Concentrations is like percentage. If we say that a monster soul is for example 10 units of determination and 90 units of something else, and a human soul is 90 units of determination and 10 units of something else, then combining the two gives 100 units of determination and 100 units of something else, which is a 50% determination concentrations. Giving a monster 90 units of determination without 10 units of something else, is 100 units of determination and 90 units of something else, which is a 52,6% determination concentrations.

Now, let's assume monster souls are weaker in every aspect. They don't have colors, so why would they have large amounts of say, justice or bravery? So, they are 10 units determination, and 10 units something else. While human souls are 90 units of determination and 90 units of something else. Absorbing a human soul would still yield 100 points of determination and 100 points of something else, that is, 50% concentrations. Gaining only the determination of a human soul would yield 100 units of determination and 10 units of something else - a whopping 90,9% concentrations, with the amount remaining 100 units.

If we think like that, a physical body doesn't help in holding more determination units, but a higher determination concentrations. A monster could possibly absorb an infinite amount of souls, as long as they have balanced determination concentrations. I still disagree with the first point. There was no subtext saying that monsters attacks can only hurt the soul. If it was, all the monsters would attack humans from long range until the soul shatters. We have no choice but to assume the damage is physical. Nothing is telling us otherwise besides the Soul cursor we move around, but this assumption is countered by the fact that NO ONE mentions your soul when mentioning how your hurt, they just mention how "you" are hurt.

Plus, you can re-apply the bandage when you're hurt. I can't imagine a physical band-aid will help your soul. Its better used for stopping you from physically bleeding all over your physical self.

I can actually explained why food is used as healing in RPGs too. Its based around this logic: You're dying because something is knocking the blood out of you. Eating foods can build more blood in your body. Since food returns lost blood, food can stop you from dying!

Yes its really dumb logic (which is why a lot of RPGs use medicine instead), but it is the staple logic. Since Undertale is paying homage to old RPG games, it would make since that food would be healing you in the way described above

Besides the bandage, but that's obvious.

The reason why Chara couldn't be healed is because Healing magic is unable to heal  heal mortal damage. Basically, If you're going to die, that's it. In other games, especially RPG games, magics made to heal are only countered by magic that can instintly cause death, like Wack in Dragon Quest. With this assumption we can say that while the monsters in Undertale lack reviving magic, like Zing being the counter to Wack.

Also, thanks for explaining the last bit about Concentrations. I really thought that Concentrations was synonyms with Amounts.