self-contradictory nature of the recruits system
one of the biggest complaints I've heard about undertale is that the encounters are random and do not have any warning. deltarune fixed this, and with it brought the ability to dodge an enemy. these two games are bullet hells, so the gameplay revolves around dodging things. does toby want us to follow this and avoid encounters?
well evidently, yes. most non-mandatory encounters present dodging as favorable. for example, in chapter 2, there's a section where swatches patrol a path with pottery, and there are crevices for you to hide in periodically. a similar section in chapter 4 has guei instead of swatches. avoiding these fights feel like a minigame. more on-the-nose still is the cheese maze in chapter 2:
In all these examples, hiding from the encounter is presented as a challenge. engaging in the fight causes disappointment, and avoiding it causes a sense of achievement and skill. even in less obvious examples, many people still treat encounters like overworld bullet patterns. also, many people do not want to engage in minor fights because they might seem repetitive.
so if toby clearly intends you to dodge in many of these situations, what do you get when you follow him? secret dialogue? an item?
WAIT. dodging too much gets a sympathetic character killed, and potentially locks you out of the good ending of the game??? the world can end because i didn't fight a ribbick back in chapter 1?
i'm aware that simply avoiding a fight does not make it impossible for you to get recruits, but it in any way toby intended you to certainly makes it infinitely harder and require a lot of backtracking.
TLDR: You are encouraged to dodge enemies in the overworld but then punished for not fighting and recruiting them.
