The game that was released was deltarune: Chapter 1. And as the title implies, this first chapter is just the first entry in a very ambitious project Mr. Fox has been working on. deltarune is currently planned to be a seven-part series (Chapters 1 and 2 are already available), with each Chapter being about 6-7 hours long. Oh, and Toby Fox himself admitted he's been planning out the main storyline for deltarune since 2012. But shortly after Chapter 1's release, Toby realized that his team is too small and it might take far too long to finish the project, so from Chapter 2 onwards he'll be working with a larger dev team. But anyway, deltarune is a story-driven RPG with a focus on comedy and solving problems in creative, nonviolent ways. So, basically, just like UNDERTALE. deltarune takes place in the same universe as UNDERTALE, but Toby Fox has stressed that it is NOT a sequel or a prequel. It's an alternate timeline where certain events played out differently. And I should warn you, you should probably play UNDERTALE before playing this game. Why? Because the game literally warns you straight up that knowledge of UNDERTALE's story and lore is pretty much required. And you know what that means, right? IT'S RECAP TIME, BABY!!! *ahem* If you never played UNDERTALE, basically your character gets trapped in the Underground Kingdom of Monsters. The Monsters themselves are not actually evil and are mostly benevolent, but are trapped because of a war they lost centuries ago. You either become an impromptu therapist for the monsters and help them out with their problems as they try to escape to the surface, or kill them all in a bloodthirsty rampage. Oh, and there's also some time travel shenanigans since the act of saving your progress and manipulating save data is an in-universe ability that your character stole from the main villain, and not just a gameplay convenience.
deltarune meanwhile takes place in an alternate timeline where the war that wounded up banishing the Monsters seemingly never happened, letting the Monsters live full and happy lives in the surface world. And deltarune wastes no time in establishing the biggest difference between it and its predecessor. You see, when you first boot up the game, a mysterious voice instructs you to create a body for your character. No matter what options you pick, your creation will be discarded and replaced with a premade character, a teenage human named Kris. The voice says that no one can choose who they are in this world, and the whole game tries to reinforce this one central theme; That your actions don't really matter that much, and you just have to roll with whatever life gives you. Which is pretty much the exact opposite moral of UNDERTALE, which is every choice you make will have consequences and you can't run away from them.
Anyway, Kris is the adopted child of Toriel, the kindly goat-like Monster Queen from the first game, who is running a school in this timeline. And while driving to said school, Toriel casually remarks about Asriel (Toriel's biological son and Kris' "brother") is supposed to be back from college soon. The fact that Asriel is even alive in this timeline is a very big deal, since his death kickstarts the entire plot of UNDERTALE. And honestly I love seeing all the little hints into this timeline's Asriel's life. Because we never really got to see what Asriel was like when he was alive (the closest we got to that was a brief conversation with his ghost/spirit), and the fact that this version of Asriel is described as that perfect Christian kid that got straight A's in school and goes to Church ever Sunday is oddly heartwarming. Also, fun fact, there's some dialogue and flavor text in Chapter 2 that implies that Asriel has a thing for dragon girls. So, uh... That's a thing.
Anyway, Kris arrives in school and is late for class. And since they were planning out group projects, Kris has to "choose" a partner. Reinforcing the "you have no control over these characters" theme, no matter who you choose, you'll be paired up with Susie, the school bully. And Susie herself tells Kris to their face that they shouldn't bother answering her questions precisely because Kris (and by proxy, the player) have no real agency in the project. But once the teacher's chalk goes missing, Susie and Kris are sent to the supply closet to get more... Only to get pulled into another dimension known as the Dark World. Which is inside the closet. Cue the Chronicles of Narnia jokes. The bulk of the first Chapter is spent exploring the Dark World, with Kris and Susie meeting new friends like the adorable yet secretive Ralsei and the wacky and cartoonish Lancer. Ralsei also informs Kris and Susie that they are (probably) the heroes described in a prophecy, predestined to save both the Light World and Dark World from certain doom. Susie, being an edgy rebel, refuses to partake in the prophecy and beelines for the exit. And indeed, up until the very last area of the Chapter, Susie will not listen to the player's commands, and prefers to do her own thing. …Which is kicking tail and chewing everything even remotely edible. And she's all out of edibles.
The only way to exit the Dark World (at least initially) is to track down these places called the Dark Fountains and close them up, which is something that only Kris can do. So Susie reluctantly cooperates. At least until she befriends Lancer, who is the son of the King of Spades, the main villain of this Chapter. Lancer tries very hard to be a villain himself, but his idea of "evil" is comedic and harmless, and he and Susie form this kind of Team Rocket style dynamic. And honestly, not only are Susie and Lancer's antics hilarious, the friendly bond they form is rather heartwarming. Eventually Lancer switches sides once he realizes that Lightners (the catch-all term for creatures born in the Light World) aren't that bad, but his loyalty to his tyrannical father leaves him conflicted. So Lancer decides to imprison his new friends for the sake of their safety. Susie does not take kindly to this, and we get this super intense showdown between Susie and Lancer. And I love the showdown scene. Lancer refuses to back down despite Susie's intimidating demeanor, but he doesn't willingly harm her at all during the ensuing boss fight. And Susie can't bring herself to kill Lancer, despite lashing out violently against every other enemy she faced up until this point. Lancer reveals the reason he trapped the Lighteners was to protect them from his father, who has a murderous hatred of everything from the Light World. And Susie learns that sometimes, brute force isn't necessary and from here on out, she'll actually listen to the player's commands.
So our heroes go to confront the King, and in a franchise all about compassion and mercy, the King of Spades lacks both of these. He's pretty much the only antagonist that cannot be reasoned with or talked down, nor does he have any characteristics that make him sympathetic or relatable. He's a despicable monster in every sense of the word, and that is a breath of fresh air. All of the villains up to this point (and even back in UNDERTALE) are either tragic anti-villains with legitimate reasons for their actions, or comedic goofballs who weren't that evil to begin with. The King, meanwhile, wants to commit a literal genocide and uses his own son as a meat shield. And when he's weakened enough, he feigns surrender so he can take a cheap shot at the heroes. Once he's defeated, Susie and Ralsei have a surprisingly meaningful conversation that I think delivers the main moral of this Chapter; That while trying to solve problems with peaceful solutions is preferred, there are some people in the world who are sadly too dangerous to be reasoned with, and have to be confronted with force.
Anyway, Kris and Susie seal the Dark Fountain in the King's Castle and return to the Light World. Their adventure took up most of the day, so all the students are returning home at this hour. And to my surprise, you can actually explore the town and talk with all the major residents before returning home yourself. Most of the conversations are lighthearted and jokey, but there is some meaningful lore stuff in there as well. Like the fact that Sans the Skeleton has returned, this time running a grocery store. And during the conversation he makes a joke about "befriending" Kris' mother... So that argument I had with my friend many years ago about whether Sans and Toriel were romantically involved have now come full circle. Thank you, Toby Fox. Very cool. Anyway, we also get snippets of Kris' backstory through their interactions with the various residents of this quiet rural community. Namely, they were apparently a rather mischievous prankster before we took control of them, playing morbid pranks on their neighbors. They also used to be quite talented with the piano, but it appears that they can't play it well when influenced by the player. And I bring all this stuff up because in UNDERTALE, the player was supposed to be a separate entity from your character. You're not supposed to self-insert in this universe. You are attached to the main character, but you aren't literally them. And deltarune is making a similar connection. Kris is a person with a preestablished history and personality, you're just using their body to interact with the game. And in both this Chapter and the next, when you make certain dialogue choices the other characters will react to any implied inconsistencies between your desires as a player and Kris's desires as a person living in this world. And I think that's cool, personally. Because no other game series tries to make the player themselves into an important entity in the story. And it makes the final scene of Chapter 1 that much more... Concerning.
This next section contains massive spoilers for the end of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, so feel free to skip. So in the final scene of Chapter 1, just before Kris goes to bed, they rip out the Player Soul (which you've been using to control Kris's body this whole time) and brandish a knife. In the real-life three year gap between the release of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, there were hundreds of theories of what this ending was supposed to mean. These ranged from Kris simply freeing themselves from the player's influence while they go cause mischief in the night, to Kris secretly being Chara all along (Chara being the narrator of UNDERTALE, who potentially turns evil if you complete the No Mercy Run). Personally, I gravitated to the "Kris is Chara" theory because Kris looks like an older, more mature Chara (they even have the same color scheme when in the Light World). And Chapter 2 answers these questions, with a lighthearted joke about Kris sneaking out to eat some pie behind Toriel's back. Somehow, Toby Fox turned a genuinely unsettling cliff hanger ending into a joke. And then he turned around and revealed that "free" Kris is an actual danger to the universe, since the Chapter 2 ending strongly implies that without a Player Soul stopping them, Kris is the one creating the Dark Fountains in the first place. Which is bad, because if there's too many Dark Fountains in the universe, these creatures called the Titans will awaken and destroy everyone, Lightner and Darkner alike.
Okay, spoilers over. Overall, I enjoyed Chapter 1. It was a great introduction to a new cast, and the main characters are just as enjoyable, possibly more so than UNDERTALE's cast. I love Ralsei and how he manages to be simultaneously cute and wholesome and yet so knowledgeable of the greater world around him it's actually kind of concerning. He teaches you the controls and mechanics, and in any other franchise I wouldn't bat an eye at this but this is a Toby Fox game, and I know he likes to turn mundane game mechanics that players take for granted into canon in universe abilities (for example, manipulating save data is treated as in-universe time travel). So anyone showing even the slightest hint of knowledge towards game mechanics in this franchise has me concerned. On a lighter note, I also really enjoyed Susie's growth from a violent bully to a proud protector of her new friends. The writing and dialogue are as great as ever, with that signature wit and borderline surreal commentary that Toby Fox has become known for. And the combat system has dramatically improved from UNDERTALE. It still has the Fight/Spare system (while you can fight by attacking with your weapons repeatedly, you can instead have Kris use context-sensitive commands called Acts to calm enemies down peacefully), but now with the addition of additional party members and the ability to cast magic spells, there's a lot more variety in your options and in some cases, there's now more than one way to Spare enemies. The Bullet Hell sections (where you have to avoid enemy attacks by maneuvering a little cartoon heart around various obstacles) have also been improved, with more diverse attack patterns and even Bullet Hell traps that activate outside of combat while exploring.
But if you think we're done talking about the story, boy are you wrong! That's right, I'm covering Chapter 2. You can technically start your playthrough from here, but I wouldn't recommend it. Not only do you miss out on some story context (like Susie's character development or Ralsei's true form), but despite the game telling you your choices don't matter, there actually is some carryover from certain actions taken back in Chapter 1. Like in Chapter 1, you get "tricked" into designing a robot for Susie and Lancer (you can customize the robot's appearance), and in Chapter 2, a flamboyant puzzle maker named Rouxls Kaard (pronounced "rules card") uses that exact same robot during his boss battle. In fact, Chapter 2 seems to have more branching choices that actually have a consequence. I mean yeah, the ending is still roughly the same no matter what, but while Chapter 1 had virtually no difference between a Pacifist Run and a No Mercy Run (the only difference is what kind of reward you get from the bonus boss; Armor for Pacifists, and a new weapon for the Merciless), Chapter 2 has a unique Snow Grave Run. Which is somehow darker and more disturbing than anything you did in UNDERTALE's No Mercy Run. But more on the Snow Grave Run later. Chapter 2 picks up one day after Chapter 1, with Kris being sent to school once more. Only this time, Susie showed up on time and is no longer bullying everyone else (the worst she does now is some lighthearted banter). We get (re)introduced to two class mates in particular who made cameo appearances in Chapter 1; Berdly and Noelle. The former is a cocky and arrogant bluebird and the latter is a sweet but timid reindeer. I bring them up because if Susie and Lancer were the stars of Chapter 1, Berdly and Noelle are the stars of Chapter 2.
Noelle walks in on Susie and Kris just as they try to reenter the Dark World for a new adventure, but rather than causing trouble for our heroes, she invites the two over to the local library so they can all work on their group projects together. But why Kris and Susie specifically? Simple! Noelle has a positively enormous crush on Susie, and Noelle's been looking for an excuse to hang out with her specifically. But guess what? The library has been consumed by a new Dark Fountain, transforming into a new Dark World. And while Chapter 1's Dark World is themed around various card games and board games, this new Dark World is themed around technology and the Internet. And thus a new adventure begins, this time in the Cyber Dark World. And I LOVE this chapter. It's wild, wacky, and brings in new lore. For everything. And I really like the two new additions to the main cast. Noelle is a sweet yet awkward nerd, and her interactions with the other characters (especially Susie) are adorable. And Berdly is an absolute buffoon. Arrogant to a fault and hilariously inept. And honestly, Berdly gets some of the best jokes in the whole Chapter (even if most of them are made at his expense). From building a statue of a much manlier version of himself, to confessing his love for Susie upon realizing that she is a TRUE GAMER(tm). The dude is literally every "neckbeard" stereotype rolled into one, and the whole thing is played for laughs. Honestly, I was half-expecting to see him refer to himself as an "Alpha Male" unironically.
But I have to talk about the best character in the entire Chapter; Queen. Queen is a chaotic mess of computer terminology and Internet "lol so random" meme-humor, and I absolutely adore her. Because Queen is literally an anthropomorphic personification of the Internet. She started out as a peaceful program only wanting to make people happy, but has been twisted into a toxic and misguided tyrant, and has in turn converted the Cyber Dark World into a crazy theme park of madness. Also, she gets the best jokes, from customizing her prisoners' cells based on their search history or demanding Kris pick up bananas that appear inexplicably in the middle of the street. Queen steals the show with every scene she's in, and she is by far my favorite antagonist in the whole franchise. It also helps that she has one of the most unique and interesting boss battles so far, with her using a brainwashed Berdly as a weapon in the first phase and changing the entire combat system to a loving homage to Punch-Out! in the second phase.
But this Chapter in particular has a bit of a dark side. And that is mostly relegated to the Snow Grave route. …Which is officially called the Weird Route in the game's source code, but the fandom has collectively decided that "Snow Grave" describes it better and sounds a lot scarier. But what exactly is the Snow Grave route? To make a long story short, it's the equivalent of a No Mercy Run, but somehow darker and more disturbing. In this optional story line, you help Noelle become strong enough to defend herself... By turning her into your obedient attack animal. Despite the fact that you wind up with a smaller body count than the No Mercy Run, it's still disturbing in the sense that you are manipulating and mentally abusing a sweet and innocent high schooler into committing mass murder on your behalf. It even culminates in you forcing Noelle to murder Berdly with the titular Snow Grave spell, which instantly kills him by freezing him solid. And Berdly's death is the point of no return. No matter how many enemies you Spare afterwards, you can't undo the blood on your hands once you kill Berdly. And it gets worse. Once Noelle realizes that she killed her closest friend, she tries her hardest to convince herself that everything was just a bad dream. And then, when you return to the Light World in the epilogue, you can give her a quick little reminder that the events of the Snow Grave Route were real, which only serves to traumatize her further. The whole route is dark, and is quite possibly the creepiest thing Toby Fox has ever put into a game. Of course, I haven't even touched the Snow Grave route myself (can you believe I actually LIKE being a good person in video games with branching morality?), and I doubt I will until all the remaining Chapters have been released, so that we can see the full consequences of this storyline. I mean, I appreciate the fact that the Snow Grave route exists, since I can't really think of a game that lets you alter the course of a main character's growth and development in such a drastic (and frankly horrific) manner. But I also like that you don't HAVE to go down this path if you don't want to. You can either corrupt Noelle and turn her into a weapon, or support Noelle through her struggles and help boost her self-confidence in a positive and healthy manner that DOESN'T involve murdering her best friend in literal cold blood. The Snow Grave Route is completely optional, and is so well hidden that it is literally impossible to stumble across by accident, since the requirements to start it are so specific.
Overall, Chapter 2 was amazing. It's significantly wackier than Chapter 1, and has some of the most creative puzzles and boss battles yet. It also has the nightmarish Snow Grave Route that exists to remind us all that Toby Fox really likes putting creepy alternate storylines in his goofy games about quirky creatures and pacifism. But the locations were great, the comedy was great, the story was great. Great times all around. I'm not entirely sure how Toby's team could top this Chapter, simply because it has set such a high bar for future Chapters.
As for presentation, in terms of artwork, deltarune just looks better than UNDERTALE ever did. Yeah, it's still fairly simplistic pixel art meant to invoke the imagery of 90's era games like Earthbound, but the sprites are cleaner and more detailed. They have more expressive animations and there's some very distinct color choices for the locations and characters. I especially like the new character designs. Every single character is unique and instantly recognizable, and even though the generic enemies are mostly goofy and comedic (most of them being walking puns), there are some enemies with legitimately cool-looking designs. Namely the Were Wires from Chapter 2. The dialogue portraits for the Lightners (such as Susie and Noelle) are still monochrome, like in UNDERTALE, but Darkners (like Ralsei and Lancer) get fully colored dialogue portraits. Personally I would prefer having everyone's portraits be fully colored, but at least there's an easy visual distinction between the two races. And on a darker note, the animation for the Snow Grave spell does admittedly look really... "Cool." One could say it's a "chilling" animation. Oh, don't give me the "cold" shoulder, you "snow" these jokes are so n(ice). In all seriousness the Snow Grave spell's animation is very impressive and honestly looks like an attack animation from a more traditional RPG. Unfortunately, deltarune is anything but traditional, and you can't fully enjoy the spectacle of Snow Grave without being hit with the reality that you mentally abused a reindeer just to get a neat magic spell, then forced her to murder her best friend with said spell.
In regards to music and sound... haha... HAHAHA!!! Do you really think I can get through a Toby Fox game without gushing about the music!? Toby Fox is a master at making catchy music that fits the scene perfectly. He even brought back some remixes of songs from UNDERTALE. Although I find the fact that Sans' theme song sounds exactly the same as it did in the original game with no changes whatsoever to be amusing. After all, Sans being too lazy to change anything about his own theme song is perfectly in-character for him. But on the subject of new tracks, I loved Field of Hopes & Dreams, which plays early on in Chapter 1. It's punchy and heroic while also somehow being full of whimsy and playfulness. And Rude Buster (the song that plays when fighting generic enemies) is leaps and bounds better than its UNDERTALE counterpart, Enemy Approaching!. Queen's theme is gaudy and pretentious, invoking the imagery of a prideful noblewoman. And of course, the theme songs for the two secret bonus bosses are also fantastic and catchy. The Chapter 1 bonus boss, Jevil has The World Revolving as his theme, and it's this insane carnival track that has the chaotic clown energy of Jevil himself. The Chapter 2 bonus boss, Spamton NEO, gets BIG SHOT for his theme, and is much more techno compared to the rest of the soundtrack and has this deliberate glitchy effect on it. Makes sense, since Spamton NEO is a malfunctioning robot. The sound effects are also charming. That little "beep" when you navigate the menus is oddly soothing, if that makes sense? Oh, and also Lancer's cartoon "Splat!" noises are hilarious for how unexpected they are.
In conclusion, deltarune manages to be a worthy successor to UNDERTALE, and in some ways it manages to surpass the original game. With a cast of colorful creatures, a soundtrack full of catchy and memorable songs, and some pretty neat lore going on in the background. And yet, deltarune is forever linked to UNDERTALE, so it's difficult to judge one without comparing to the other. But does it stand on its own? The answer is... Kind of? Not really. This game's entire premise is that it takes place in the same world as UNDERTALE and operates on the same "rules", but it follows the adventures of a different cast of characters and some events in the timeline played out differently. Basically, if you ever watched Marvel What If...? then you have the basic idea. And because of that, if you don't know anything about UNDERTALE, you likely wouldn't understand the changes deltarune makes fully, or why those changes are a big deal. Like I said, Asriel is alive in this timeline, and his death is literally the incident that kickstarts the plot of the original game. The monsters are already living on the Surface World, implying that either the war the Monsters lost never happened or that the Monsters won and defeated humanity (I think it's the former rather than the latter myself, if only because it more easily explains why a family of Monsters would adopt Kris, who is clearly a human). Mettaton and Dr. Alphys never meet in this timeline, meaning the former never became a celebrity thanks to the latter's technology. And that's just the changes I can think of off the top of my head. But anyway, if you enjoyed UNDERTALE chances are you'll enjoy deltarune because of how connected the game's are. If you haven't played UNDERTALE but are still interested in deltarune, my advice is to try it out. And if you like it, why not track down UNDERTALE so you can see just how far Toby Fox and his team have come? With that being said, deltarune: Chapters 1 & 2 get a "Oh, this? This is Beautiful!" rank from me. Now all we have to do is wait another three real life years for the next Chapter. But before I finish this review, I just want to point out that the word "deltarune" is literally just an anagram of "Undertale" (meaning that the two words are spelled using the exact same letters, just with the order of said letters changed around). Just a neat bit of trivia.
Disclaimer: All the images used in this post I found on Google Images. They are not mine. deltarune and UNDERTALE are owned by Toby Fox.
Great trivia, and caught my attention, yet no "spoilers". Well done!
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