The Big and Blocky Minecraft Review

 Minecraft is a game that needs no introduction. Everyone with an Internet connection has at least heard of the game. It is one of the most staggeringly successful video games ever made. This silly block-building survival game dominated the 2010's and still has a prominent fandom in the 2020's. And yet I never reviewed it properly. So let's amend that oversight and finally discuss Minecraft fully. 

Minecraft's official box art, as of 2024. Image found on Wikipedia.org

For anyone living under a rock, Minecraft is a first person survival adventure game made by Mojang, which takes place in a world where everything is made of blocks. The trees are blocks, the mountains are blocks, even the animals are blocks. You play as a person made of blocks. You can customize your blocky persona with a variety of costumes called "Skins." The default Skin gives your character the name of Steve, though this admittedly isn't that important since the game lacks any conventional story mode.

Speaking of story modes, Minecraft Story Mode is one of three spin off games based on the original game (the other two being Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends). But of the three spin off games, Story Mode is the only that is no longer publicly available. To make a long story short, the devs for Story Mode, Telltale Games, went bankrupt and almost their entire catalogue was bought out by other companies. While some of Telltale's projects would eventually get republished (such as their Walking Dead games), no one has tried republishing Story Mode. Somehow, I wrote multiple reviews for Story Mode back when it was still available, but I never reviewed its source material. Not sure how that happened, but here we are. Side note, but those Story Mode reviews are so old that I cannot bring myself to read them in their entirety, as doing so causes me to die of cringe.

Minecraft was first released in 2009, albeit with a caveat. The Beta version was released in 2009, but version 1.0 (which Mojang considers the "full" version) wouldn't release until 2011. In 2014 the legal rights to Minecraft were bought by Microsoft, who have been using the franchise as their main mascot ever since. Because of the game's popularity and open-ended nature, Mojang has added dozens of updates, adding more and more content to the game. As such, "modern" Minecraft is a different beast from its days in Beta. Also, the overwhelming popularity of this game led to the development of not just those spin-off games I mentioned earlier, but also a live action movie starring Jack Black. I haven't watched the movie yet, but I'll write up a review once I do. 

The strangest thing about Minecraft is that the game has been divided into multiple Editions. While the core gameplay is more or less the same across all versions, there are some important differences between them that are worth discussing. Minecraft: Java Edition is the version that's available on PC. This is the original version of the game, and the first to receive new updates. It also has an impressive amount of modding capability, meaning that one could create or download fan-made creatures and items and put them into the game directly. For these reasons, Java is often considered by most of the fandom to be the "definitive" Minecraft experience. The only downside of Java is that it has poor framerate on all but the most advanced computers. 

A player defends their cozy little house from a horde of undead Mobs, with another player staying inside. Image found on minecraft.net

Then there's Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, which is the version available on current-generation consoles (PS5, Xbox Series, etc.). This is the version I am most familiar with. Bedrock has a much smoother framerate than Java, and it has simplified combat. Oh yeah, combat. Quick intermission. In Java Edition, weapons have cooldowns dictating how often you can attack, with certain weapon types having faster cooldowns than others. Swords are the fastest, Axes are the slowest. But the slower a weapon is, the more damage it deals per attack. This cooldown does not exist in Bedrock Edition, so you can attack as fast as you can press the button. 

Unfortunately, Bedrock does not have modding support like Java. Instead, Bedrock has paid DLC packs, which come in a few varieties. There are Skin Packs, which are new costumes for your character. Texture Packs meanwhile change the appearance of all the blocks and creatures to match a certain theme. And finally, Add-Ons change or add onto the core mechanics of the game itself, and function similarly to mods. In fact, there's a few Add-Ons that were originally popular mods for Java before being reworked for Bedrock. These packs are typically sold for about $5 to $15 USD. These aren't needed to enjoy the game, and I personally don't use Add-Ons at all (though I will mess around with Texture Packs from time to time). So my advice is to be responsible with your money. Though this goes for any video game with microtransactions.

The next version is called Minecraft: Mobile Edition, which is (to the extent of my knowledge) the same as Bedrock but with the controls reconfigured to work with mobile devices like IPhone and Android. I cannot speak to the quality of this version, as I never played it. But if you want to play Minecraft on your phone for whatever reason, well, there you go. There's also Minecraft: Education Edition, which reworks the game so that it can be used in schools to teach subjects like math or history. Again, I never played this version, so I cannot speak to its quality. But hey, it's there in case you want it.

Finally, there's Minecraft: Legacy Edition, which is the version available on old-gen consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, etc.). This was the version I started with, and as such I feel a great sense of nostalgia towards it. Unfortunately, this version has been abandoned by Mojang and as such, it hasn't received a single update in over a decade. That being said, this edition was a precursor to Bedrock Edition, and in some ways it was even better than its successor. The standout feature of Legacy Edition was the Tutorial World, a custom-built world that taught the player all the core game mechanics in a fun and natural manner, while also showcasing some large-scale builds to inspire the player's creativity. Bedrock's tutorial, by comparison, is just a series of popups. It's simpler, but the Tutorial World was an incredibly creative way to teach the player and was more in line with the "spirit" of Minecraft.

Thankfully, you could transfer Legacy Edition save files into Bedrock Edition, so those old worlds could live on and still be played on a modern system. The only thing I could say bad about Legacy Edition was that it also had no modding support, and just like Bedrock, you needed paid DLC packs to get any additional content. Legacy's DLC was even more limited than Bedrock, as all of the "old" DLC packs were made by Mojang exclusively. No fan content in sight. Also, world generation was a lot more wacky in this version, as biome placement (more on that later) was completely random.

Minecraft has two main modes, Survival and Creative. Creative Mode is the simpler of the two, as it renders your character invincible, grants the ability to fly and gives you an infinite supply of every resource in the game. This mode exists primarily for people who like the building and artistic side of Minecraft but don't want to go through the challenges of regular gameplay. And there's no shame in that. I have spent hundreds of hours playing this game throughout the years, and I'd wager most of that time was just messing around in Creative Mode.

Two players work together to build a mountainside castle. Image found on minecraft.net

Survival Mode is the real "meat" of the game, as this is where combat and resource management is most prominent. When you start a new Survival World, you are unceremoniously dumped in the wilderness with nothing of value to your name. World generation is somewhat random, as biomes and landscapes will get shuffled around into different shapes and sizes. One World might be a sprawling supercontinent with two dozen wildly different regions to explore, another might be a small island surrounded by hundreds of miles of ocean. If you're looking for a specific kind of World, you can type in a number or phrase into the seed generator, which turns whatever you type into a specific combination of biomes and landscapes.

Everything in the game is, as previously stated, made of blocks. Every block is 1 meter cubed (or 3.5 feet cubed), and can be picked up using certain tools and placed down somewhere else. You can build a wide variety of structures, from simple huts and gardens to giant castles and statues, by rearranging blocks into the desired shape. There are many kinds of blocks, each with their own unique properties. For example, dirt blocks can used as the foundation for most farms, as you can plant crops on top of them. Redstone can be used to construct advanced machines that can handle certain tasks automatically. But the most important block in the game is the humble wooden log. 

Wood is the foundation that Minecraft's core gameplay is built upon. Simply put, it is almost impossible to beat this game without using wood in some capacity. You need wood to build your first shelter. You need wood to craft tools. You need wood to make the Crafting Table, which unlocks more advanced crafting recipes. You need wood to build bridges across perilous chasms. You need wood to build ladders to climb up and down cliffs. You need wood to build fencing for all of your animal farms. You need wood to build vehicles like boats or minecart tracks. It cannot be stated enough just how important wood is.

But how do you get wood, you ask? By punching trees. Is it realistic for a presumably average human to punch a tree down with their bare hands? Probably not. But you got to start somewhere, and in Minecraft, you start by punching trees. But once you have enough wooden logs, you can craft all of the things I just described. And you can collect saplings (which can eventually grow into new trees) by destroying the leaf blocks left behind by recently chopped down trees, so a patient player can get an infinite supply of wood by replanting all the trees they punch/chop down.

Once you have enough wood for your needs, you will inevitably head underground, either by digging a hole or finding a cave. The deeper you go, the rarer and more powerful the gems and metals become. But you can't (normally) skip straight to the best stuff. You are intended to pass through each "tier" of equipment one at a time, with each tier being stronger than the previous one. With the exception of wood, every material can only be mined with a pickaxe made from the previous tier. With a wooden pickaxe you can get stone, with a stone pickaxe you can get iron, and with an iron pickaxe you can get Diamonds. Diamonds are the rarest and highest quality material in the game. And Diamond-tier equipment is so strong that the player becomes borderline invincible. Keep in mind that all tools and armor will break from overuse, and even though Diamond tools have the most durability, they can be broken eventually.

One nitpick I have with Minecraft's progression is how it handles early-game armor. There simply isn't any kind of "wooden" or "stone" armor at all. Instead, The first armor tier is leather, which has terrible defenses compared to the amount of effort and materials needed to craft it. The second armor tier is chainmail, which cannot be crafted at all and only rarely appears inside treasure chests hidden all over the world. Just like with leather, chainmail's defenses aren't worth the effort needed to acquire it. Literally everyone who plays this game will always skip the first two armor tiers and go straight for iron. Leather's one redeeming quality is that leather boots will protect you from sinking into powdered snow, which is a hazard only encountered in "cold" biomes, but it's better than nothing. 

You also need Diamonds to make an Enchanting Table, which is a special block used to upgrade preexisting armor and weapons with magical properties called Enchantments. These upgrades, generally speaking, are so strong that a player with Enchanted gear will almost always defeat a player with unenchanted gear. You are given a choice between three randomized options each time you use the Enchanting Table. Most Enchantments are pretty good, and well worth the investment. Just to list a few examples, The "Sharpness" Enchantment improves the damage output of weapons, while "Silk Touch" allows a tool to pick up blocks that are normally too fragile to pick up (such as glass or leaf blocks). "Infinity" gives ranged weapons, such as bows and crossbows, infinite ammo. And Fire Aspect lets a weapon set a foe on fire upon striking them. 

The only Enchantment I would call outright bad is "Bane of Arthropods," which causes extra damage to spider-type enemies. The problem is that out of the 30+ creatures in this game, only two are classified as spiders. And both of them are so weak that you do not need the extra damage to fight them. In fact, Sharpness deals extra damage to ALL enemy types, including spiders. Thus, Sharpness is literally better than Bane of Arthropods in every conceivable way, as the latter is far too specialized for its own good. 

Minecraft operates on a strict day/night cycle, with each day lasting 20 real life minutes (13 minutes of sunlight, 7 minutes of darkness). Keeping track of this cycle is important, as hostile creatures called Mobs will start appearing once the sun goes down. They can also appear during the day, but only in dark places like caves or roofed forests. The Mobs include classical monsters like zombies, spiders and skeletons, but there's also some weirder beasts like Endermen and Creepers. Each Mob has specific abilities that have to be taken into consideration when fighting them. 

But Mobs are not the only danger in the game. There's also the Hunger Meter, which is basically a countdown showing how much time your character has until they starve. Whether or not you die from starvation is dependent on your chosen difficulty setting. But even on lower difficulties, you still need to keep Hunger full whenever possible, as you can only heal from injuries with a full Hunger Meter. You also need a full Hunger Meter to run at maximum speed. Hunger can be refilled by eating food, obviously. And there's a plethora of ways to get food. The simplest method is to kill an animal (such as a pig or a cow) then cook the meat by placing it inside a Furnace block. 

You *could* eat meat raw, but raw meat doesn't restore as much Hunger, and it has a chance to poison your character. Cooking meat makes it 100% safe for consumption, as well as increasing the amount of Hunger restored. Alternatively, you can plant crops on dirt blocks and start growing your food with a farm. This method takes longer to set up properly, but it can eventually produce much more food than simply killing livestock.

Minecraft's Survival Mode is legendarily open-ended. The game doesn't give you any goals to work towards outside of immediate self-preservation. This is both the best and worst thing about Minecraft's core gameplay. It's great in the sense that Minecraft is quite possibly the most "freeing" game to play. The only long-term goal you have to worry about is whatever goal you give to yourself. You could hunt down the game's bosses, build a giant fortress-city with impenetrable defenses, ride a roller-coaster that's hundreds of miles long, map out the entire world, or create an industrial complex so advanced it can produce thousands of resources with the flip of a lever. And this is not even mentioning all the wacky nonsense that mods/Add-Ons and multiplayer interactions can bring to the table. I firmly believe that the main reason this game got as popular as it did is because nothing else in the industry gives you as much freedom as Minecraft does.

But at the same time, Minecraft offers no guidance for the player at all. Ergo, if you don't have a goal to work towards in mind, you can find the game boring or even frustrating. As such, the game asks a lot out of the player to come up with a goal for themselves and actually stick with it long-term. The closest thing you get to "beating" Minecraft is defeating its two bosses, the Wither and the Ender Dragon. But even then, the game doesn't give you any hint on how to find these bosses. Nor does the game tell you that these bosses even exist. Most Minecraft knowledge is acquired either through word of mouth or through checking the wiki. Which is precisely why the Tutorial world from Legacy Edition was such a good addition. Because it actually gave the player a general idea of what to do for a standard playthrough. 

There is one last quirk to Survival Mode. In addition to all the normal difficulty options (easy, medium, and hard), there is a variant of Survival Mode called Hardcore Mode. Hardcore works the exact same way as normal Survival Mode, with one caveat; the player has only one life to work with. If your character dies while in Hardcore Mode, you will be forced to delete that world forever, completely erasing any and all progress in that world. In the case of multiplayer worlds, Hardcore simply auto-bans you from that world upon death, instead of deleting the world outright. This is the greatest challenge the game has to offer, and not one to be taken lightly. I myself have never tried Hardcore Mode, because I don't really play Minecraft for a challenging experience. I already play enough Souls Likes for that.

The player's character (who is by default named Steve) stands at the top of a mountain, overlooking a nearby village. Image found on Wikipedia.org

Speaking of difficulty, you want to know something that can completely obliterate any sense of challenge? Villagers. Villagers are pacifistic Mobs who will buy and sell various items in exchange for emeralds, a material that is only exists to be used a currency with these creatures. Now, this doesn't sound too impressive by itself. But trading with the same Villager repeatedly causes that Villager to "level up" and offer more exotic deals. What a Villager sells changes based on their job, which can be changed by placing a thematically appropriate block in their home. For example, placing a Smithing table in a Villager's home turns it into a Smith. Placing a composter turns the Villager into a Farmer, et cetera.

At max level, Villagers can sell you some *very* powerful items. You can get Golden Carrots, which are the best food source in the game. You can get Enchanting books with specific upgrades, letting you skip the random nature of Enchanting books/gear normally. You can get Redstone and Glowstone, which are needed for advanced machinery and potions. And you can get Diamond-tier tools and armor. As long as you have emeralds, you can keep buying as much of these items as you want. And you can get emeralds simply by selling surplus crops or other cheap materials back to the Villagers, so everything that they sell to you is technically infinite. Villagers are almost comically overpowered once you understand how to take advantage of their capabilities.

Now let's talk about Minecraft's endgame areas, the Nether and the End. The Nether can be reached by building a portal frame using obsidian blocks (a rare material created by pouring water on lava), then lighting said frame on fire. The Nether is meant to be a fiery, nightmarish hellscape that looks, sounds and feels dangerous. The bottom layer of the Nether is flooded with lava, and water instantly evaporates if you try to bring some with you through the portal. The Nether is also home to some of the most dangerous enemies in the game.

One of the best things to happen to Minecraft was 1.16, also known as the Nether Update. This update reworked the Nether with new biomes, tree types, structures and enemies. It also added a new Mob called Piglins, who are kind of like Villagers, but more difficult to negotiate with. Piglins are normally hostile and will attack on sight, unless the player is wearing golden armor. Additionally, Piglins will only use golden ingots as currency, and their trades are completely random. There is no way to know what a Piglin will give you until you give it some gold first. In other words, Piglin trading is the Minecraft equivalent of gambling. 

The main goal of the Nether Update (besides reworking the Nether) was to make gold more useful, as prior to this update it was considered the worst material in the game. Golden tools and armor were too fragile to justify using, and unlike wood and stone, it wasn't required to access better quality metals or gems. Gold's only redeeming quality was that it could be used to crafting Golden Apples and Golden Carrots. But now gold has an additional niche as both a currency and a deterrent to an otherwise highly dangerous Mob. Also, 1.16 added in a new metal alloy called Netherite, which can be combined with Diamond-tier equipment to make it even stronger than before. Netherite cannot be combined with any material other than Diamond, however.

Three players climb out of a Nether Portal. Image found on minecraft.net

But why would ever want to come to the Nether in the first place? There's a few reasons. Firstly, Netherite allows you to make the best equipment in the game even better, and the desire for more power is intoxicating. Secondly, walking across one block in the Nether is equal to walking across eight blocks in the overworld, so a smart player can use the Nether as a kind of "shortcut" to reach faraway places more quickly. Thirdly, the items needed to access the two main bosses can only be found in the Nether.

To summon the Wither, you need to build a cross made of Soul Sand (a Nether-exclusive block type) and place three Wither Skulls (dropped by Nether-exclusive enemies) on top of it. Once you do this, you are free to fight the Wither itself. The Wither is a beast of mass destruction, capable of blasting through most terrain. Upon defeat, the Wither will reward you with the materials needed to craft the Beacon. This is a special block that bestows one positive effect of your choosing to all players within a 50 block radius. Its effect can be further enhanced by building a pyramid made of iron, gold or diamond blocks (your choice), and then placing the beacon on top of said pyramid. While this is mostly an excuse for an endgame player to show off their wealth, the mining speed bonus can be used to clear out large swathes of land in a timely manner. Overall, a good, if niche, reward for a well-won battle.

Reaching the Ender Dragon is a lot more complicated. In order to reach it, you first need Eyes of Ender, which are crafted using materials dropped by both Endermen and Blazes, the latter of which is a Mob unique to the Nether. These special items are needed to reach the second endgame location, the End. Unlike the Nether, you cannot build a portal directly to the End. Instead, you have to find an End portal frame that has spawned naturally within the world. There is always at least three End portal frames per world, and they will always be underground. To make finding them easier, the Eyes of Ender will always fly towards the direction of the the closest portal frame. Once you find a frame, you have to put 12 Eyes of Ender into it.

After doing all that work, you will be taken to the End, which is a small island floating in the center of an endless void. And the Ender Dragon is already here, ready to battle. The Ender Dragon is nowhere near as destructive as the Wither, nor is it as difficult. In fact, the main challenge comes not from the dragon itself, but a dozen or so crystals that continuously heal the beast. You're expected to find and smash all the crystals in order to turn the Ender Dragon battle into a fair fight.

For a long time, the reward for defeating the Ender Dragon was a tad anticlimactic. You get the Dragon Egg, a decorative block with no special uses outside of looking cool. You also get a new portal taking you back home, and upon entering this portal you receive... A poem. This poem is the ONLY piece of written narrative in the entire game. The poem is written from the perspective of two unknown beings, who (among other things) congratulate the player on surviving for so long in such a perilous environment. After the poem ends, the player is returned to their base. The player won, but the strangeness of the poem and the lackluster rewards made the victory feel a little hollow.

This was changed in Updates 1.9 and 1.11, as both of these updates expanded the End. The biggest change is that there are now multiple portals, which will take the player to more islands within the End. These islands have abandoned cities and floating ships for you to loot, as well as a new Mob called the Shulker. The Shulker is a stationary enemy that shoots darts that temporarily remove gravity on the target. These enemies drop the materials needed to craft Shulker Boxes, which are basically magic backpacks that expand a player's inventory (thus letting them carry more items on their person).

But this isn't the only reward in the reworked End. There's also Elytra wings, found on those floating ships I mentioned. Elytra wings allow the player to literally fly. Or rather, glide. You cannot fly straight up without some assistance, but horizontal movement is just fine. This item provides a massive boost to your mobility, and flying with Elytra is (to my knowledge) the fastest method of long range transport in the game besides Nether shortcuts. Both the Elytra and the Shulker Boxes make the End a more worthwhile adventure.

But what's left for you to do after you beat these two bosses and claim their rewards? Well... Nothing much, really. You can keep playing in that world, expanding your base and working on your personal goals. But as far as the game itself is concerned, you've completed your journey once the Wither and the Ender Dragon have been slain. The only thing left for you to do is wander the world you've explored and marvel at everything you (or your friends) built. That would be your legacy in that world. 

Now that I got the core of Minecraft out of the way, I want to talk about the many updates this game has received. Mojang has added a plethora of content to the game over the years. New biomes, new Mobs, new items, et cetera. Like I said earlier, the Nether Update was one of the best things to happen to the game. The Nether was always the most dangerous location in the game, but with hindsight, it was fairly bland looking and didn't have that many points of interest. Thus, there was no reason to stay there long-term.  The reworked Nether looks a lot better and is actually livable, so you can actually set up a base and live in the Nether as long as you want. Another update I really liked was 1.18, the Caves & Cliffs Update. Caves & Cliffs was actually two updates

A lovely view of Minecraft's landscape. Image found on minecraft.net

In terms of presentation, Minecraft's blocky art style is simple and iconic. In fact, this style is so heavily associated with Minecraft that ANY video game that attempts a blocky art style is going to inevitably be called a Minecraft clone regardless of how similar it is in terms of gameplay. The game does have a vaguely medieval aesthetic, especially in regards to the structures and monster designs, but it doesn't confine itself to any one genre. You can easily building something that looks modern or even sci-fi with the right combination of blocks.

In terms of sound, Minecraft's music is relaxing and cozy. It doesn't have bombastic orchestras or heavy metal rock concerts or anything along those lines. Just a few calming piano notes and some ambient chimes. It's the perfect soundtrack to listen to while reading or writing. Most of the music for Minecraft was composed by C418 (real name Daniel Rosenfield), but as of 2020, a new musician known as Lena Raine took over the role of composer. I mention this because one of Raine's songs, Pigstep, might just be my favorite song in the entire soundtrack. It's so groovy and fun, while being more "exciting" compared to the other songs. At the same time, Pigstep manages to fit in with the cozy vibe that the rest of the soundtrack is going for.

The sound effects are also iconic and memorable. From the popping noise that plays when you pick up an item to the breaking sounds of all the different block types, every sound effect is immaculate. And how could I forget that one ambient sound effect that plays when you enter caves? It's so excessively creepy for an otherwise calm and relaxing game. You get used to it after a while, as the sound effect is purely for ambience and is not meant to signal any kind of danger. But every now and again, it gets you like a bad jump scare.

Overall... What else could I say about this game? There's a reason Minecraft has dominated the video game industry for 16 years. I was actually intimidated at first when I started writing this review. How do you review a game that gives the player so much freedom? This is the video game equivalent of a treasure chest full of LEGO bricks. You may not have any instructions on what to build, but you have all the tools to do whatever you please. I have my gripes with how the game has been handled in recent years. I still miss the Tutorial worlds. I don't really like the idea of fan-made mods becoming paid DLC, especially if their free counterparts are still publicly available. But it feels wrong to give Minecraft anything less than 5 stars out of 5 simply for the sheer cultural impact this game had. It would be like giving Star Wars: A New Hope or Lord of the Rings a low score.

Minecraft is the property of Mojang and Microsoft. None of the images used belong to me. Please support the original creators.

deltarune Chapters 3-4, going darker than dark. A very determined review

Back in 2021, I reviewed the first two Chapters of deltarune, an ambitious indie game project created by legendary game developer Toby Fox. That was actually one of my favorite reviews that I ever wrote. And deltarune itself is just a fun game to play and talk about. Fast forward to June 5th, 2025, and we see the official release of deltarune Chapters 3 & 4, which were released simultaneously. So naturally, I want to review the new Chapters, because I have a lot of thoughts on them.

The official logo of deltarune. Image found on Wikipedia.org

I do, unfortunately, have to make an important PSA. Chapter 4 (or at the very least the PS5 version, which I played) contains a glitch that can potentially soft-lock your playthrough, thus forcing you to reload to an earlier save file. Because I only had one active file when the glitch happened, I had to replay ALL of Chapter 4 to get back to where I was. This softlock soured my opinion of Chapter 4, despite enjoying the overall experience. Just to be clear, I don't hate or even dislike Chapter 4, despite getting soft-locked. I still consider the Chapter to be a worthwhile experience. But this was a valuable lesson for me, to always have a backup save file ready to go in case something like this happens again. Also, there's a good chance that this glitch will be fixed in an update, at which point this criticism is rendered null. But now that we got the PSA out of the way, let's get back to the review.

deltarune is a story-focused roleplaying game with an 8-bit art style, famous for its eccentric sense of humor and emphasis on pacifistic gameplay. It takes place in the same setting as Toby Fox's previous game, UNDERTALE. In both games, the world is populated by Humans and Monsters, the former being strong but unskilled with magic, the latter being magically gifted but cursed with fragile bodies. Both games have a Mercy System in which you can use nonlethal abilities called Acts to convince enemies to surrender peacefully. Both games have Bullet Hell sections where the Player has to dodge a barrage of thematically appropriate projectiles by using a cartoon heart to fly around. And both games have branching storylines that change based on how violent or merciful you were, with the good ending being locked behind the path of pacifism. 

However, deltarune is NOT a direct sequel to UNDERTALE. Toby Fox likes to call it a "parallel story." While both games have similar mechanics and themes, deltarune focuses primarily on a brand-new cast of characters, with a handful of fan-favorites returning in supporting roles. There are also new game mechanics, like Tension and magic spells. Tension builds up when you "graze" past an attack (i.e. get as close to the projectiles as you can without taking damage). You need Tension to cast magic spells, which can be used to either deal more damage, heal allies or put wounded/tired enemies to sleep. For lore reasons, only Monsters can use magic.

Speaking of Monsters, let's talk about the three main heroes of this game; Kris the Human, Susie the Monster and Ralsei the Dark Prince. For the sake of both humor and brevity, I will referring to these three heroes as the Fun Gang.

You play as Kris, or rather, the Soul inside of Kris. This is an important distinction, as you are not meant to project yourself onto Kris the same way you would with a conventional self-insert (i.e. your average RPG protagonist). Kris had a life long before the Player showed up, with their own friends, family and hobbies. Kris knows that they are being controlled by someone else, and they are not happy about having to share a body with the Player. They will occasionally rebel against the Player's commands, such as making chosen dialogue choices sound more sarcastic than intended or interpreting commands in ways that are maliciously compliant. Like, if you tell Kris to "turn a doorknob" they will do as instructed, but they will not open the door unless you specifically say the words "push open the door." Whenever Kris does something automatically, without Player input, is when we see a glimpse of their true nature. And that's what makes Kris an interesting character. Name one other video game where A; the protagonist is aware of the Player controlling them, and B; said protagonist is actively trying to sabotage the Player's goals whenever they can.

Susie meanwhile is too wild and independent for anyone to control. A common joke you'll hear among deltarune fans is that Susie is the "real" main character, as her choices are the ones that move the story along the most, or allow it to go in unexpected directions. She also gets the most character development. Without spoiling things too much, Chapter 1 Susie is almost a completely different person from Chapter 4 Susie. Don't get me wrong, she's still as vulgar as a T for Teen rating will allow, but she goes from being a high-school bully to being the coolest best friend Kris, Ralsei and the Player could ask for. Honestly, Susie is my favorite character so far, and the game is all the better for her inclusion.

Ralsei is content to follow Kris and Susie's lead, but that's because he's following a prophecy. Said prophecy is the titular Legend of Deltarune, which warns of the arrival of eldritch beings called Titans, who are destined to destroy the universe. As such, Ralsei is doing his best to "stick to the script" while Kris and Susie do whatever they want. The most interesting thing about Ralsei is that despite his wholesome, boy scout persona, he clearly knows more about the world than he lets on.

Our heroes, Kris (top left), Susie (middle left) and Ralsei (bottom left) can use the Mercy System to defeat enemies peacefully, usually by putting on silly costumes and performing comedic Acts. In the example above, they have to literally shoot the enemies' socks off. Image found on steamdb.com

This game's story is divided across seven Chapters, with each Chapter being effectively a full blown video game in and of itself. While the exact contents of each Chapter vary, they all follow a somewhat similar structure. The Fun Gang goes to/starts in a Dark World, they befriend/defeat all the Darkners (enemies) inside said Dark World, and they seal the Dark Fountain at that Dark World's center. Somewhere along the way they get to visit Castle Town, which is a sort of home base for the Fun Gang. If you show Mercy to enough Darkners of the same type, they will be recruited as townsfolk for Castle Town, which causes things like new shops and minigames to appear.

Hidden in each Chapter are the Super Bosses, optional enemies that are much stronger than their peers. If you can find and defeat each Super Boss (either with violence or with Mercy), you will be rewarded with new weapons and armor, as well as additional lore and story details. All Super Bosses are identified by two characteristics, they all carry an item called a Shadow Crystal and they all have the Freedom motif in their respective theme songs.

All available Chapters are about 10 hours long each, possibly longer depending on how much time you spend on the Super Bosses. However, Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are not available yet, as they are planned to be released as free updates. Buying the game now only gets you Chapters 1-4. I already reviewed the first two Chapters, as they were released for free. This review focuses mostly on what's actually new, as most of my opinions about the first two Chapters remain mostly unchanged. But because of this game's episodic nature and its connection to UNDERTALE, I will have to warn you that this review contains spoilers for both games. It's kind of impossible to discuss the new Chapters without spoiling twists from the previous Chapters, and some story beats only make sense with context provided by UNDERTALE. You have been warned.

Chapter 1 was equal parts tutorial for the game and an introduction to the world of deltarune. To make a long story short, Kris and Susie were regular high schoolers who wandered into the first Dark World by accident. They meet Ralsei, who tells them of the Prophecy and offers to guide them home. Susie learns a valuable life lesson about how violence is not always the answer to your problems, the Fun Gang defeat the evil King of Spades, and the Dark Fountain of this Chapter is successfully sealed.

Chapter 2 was a major expansion to the game's scope, introducing the existence of multiple Dark Worlds and hinting at the game's main overarching villain, the Roaring Knight. We do not know who the Roaring Knight is, only that it is responsible for creating the Dark Fountains (and by proxy, the Dark Worlds). Also, this Chapter focuses heavily on Noelle Holiday, Kris's childhood best friend and Susie's main love interest. While Noelle is not considered a "main" party member (yet), she's important enough to be considered an "honorary" member of the Fun Gang.

Also, Noelle's presence allows for the start of the Weird Route. This is an optional but very dark side story in which the Player forces Kris to psychologically abuse Noelle until she becomes a cold-blooded killer (literally in her case, as Noelle's specialty is ice magic). Completing the Weird Route results in Noelle being forced to murder her classmate, Berdly. This is the most evil thing the Player can do in this game. And make no mistake, we would be the bad guy for pursuing this storyline. Kris doesn't want to hurt Noelle, and they give us, the Player, plenty of chances to abandon the Route and make things right before it's too late.

Regardless of whether or not you did the Weird Route, Chapter 2 ended with the Fun Gang sealing the second Dark Fountain, saving the day and going home. Susie decides to have a sleep over at Kris's House. But while everyone else is asleep, Kris removes their own Soul (thus regaining complete control of their body) and they create a Dark Fountain right in the middle of the living room. This was one heck of a cliffhanger ending. 

There was a four year gap between the second and third/fourth Chapters' release. In that time lots of theories about where the story was headed propped up all over the Internet. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have theories of my own going into the new Chapters. The most popular theory floating around was the idea that Kris was the Roaring Knight all along, because they made a Dark Fountain. Which, to be fair, was a reasonable assumption.  

Another mystery that was left unsolved was whatever happened to December "Dess" Holiday, Noelle's older sister who went missing prior to the start of the game. And then there's the mystery of the Weird Route and why it exists. And of course, there's the mystery of the bunker at the southern edge of town, which seemed to have no clear purpose aside from being vaguely ominous.

Chapter 3 takes place right after Chapter 2's ending. Susie wakes up in the new Dark World along with Kris, who is under the Player's control again. Susie never learns that it was Kris who created this Chapter's Dark World, nor does she care to learn. She's been viewing the Dark World occurrences as nothing more than fun little adventures she can do with her friends.

They meet up with Ralsei, and while Susie invites Ralsei to the Light World for an upcoming festival, Ralsei declines. Not because he doesn't want to go to the festival, but Ralsei literally can't leave the Dark Worlds. Ralsei explains that Dark Fountains turn fantasy into reality by bringing inanimate objects to life. This is how Darkners are created. But once the lights come back on, those objects will revert back to their original form. Ergo, Darkners (like Ralsei) will cease to exist if they ever leave the Dark Worlds.

What makes this worse is that Ralsei's inability to exist in the Light World is clearly affecting his mental health negatively. He straight up says that none of the Darkners are truly real, including himself, and claims that the Darkners only exist to serve the Light World. Susie, naturally, tells him not to think of himself so lowly because as far as she's concerned, all her friends are equally real.

The main antagonist of Chapter 3, Mr. Tenna (right), is a crazy game show host who forces our heroes to partake in his show. Image found on rpgfan.com

This heart-to-heart is interrupted by the main antagonist of this Chapter, Mr. Tenna. Mr. Tenna is a TV-themed Darkner who forces the Fun Gang to take part in his game show. Most of the Chapter is spent playing minigames with Mr. Tenna, with the minigames being themed around old NES-style video games and various TV Channels. Just to give a few examples, there's a cooking minigame where Kris has to toss piles of food to passing customers, a music minigame where the Fun Gang act out a rock concert and a Legend of Zelda style adventure minigame where you explore an expansive map and solve simple puzzles.

The whole time these minigames are going on, Mr. Tenna is trying to pander to Kris's nostalgia by reminding them how much fun they had watching TV with their family. Almost as if he's afraid that Kris will discard him if he's not "entertaining" enough. And that's really Tenna's whole deal. He's an antagonist, sure, but I hesitate to call him evil. He's just a lonely guy who buries his insecurities underneath a larger than life persona.

While the Fun Gang do find Mr. Tenna's antics amusing at first, they insist on leaving Tenna's show to seal the Dark Fountain. Things take a turn for the worse when the Fun Gang discover that the "grand prize" of Tenna's show is a toy ball containing Toriel, Kris's (adoptive) mother who has slept through the entire Chapter. The only thing I can truly complain about Chapter 3 is that Toriel doesn't get to actually do much in this Chapter. I understand why, as she is a returning character from UNDERTALE and returning characters are basically fanservice for Toby Fox's older fans. Still, it is a shame we never see her reaction to the Dark World or get any interaction between her and Ralsei, given that have similar designs and similar abilities (magical healing, cooking, et cetera).

Unfortunately for everyone, Mr. Tenna has a psychotic breakdown, which culminates in a battle in which all abilities besides Acts are disabled. The Fun Gang manage to escape by exploiting certain limitations with the Acts, which is a really clever way to solve that problem. The rest of Chapter 3 is spent escaping from Mr. Tenna's TV Dark World and recruiting all of the new enemies. Despite being just as long as the other Chapters, Chapter 3 feels oddly short in comparison, partly because most of this Chapter's runtime is spent on the minigames. But to be fair, this is mostly a lighthearted romp with an emphasis on the comedy side of the game.

Things only really get serious after the heroes confront Mr. Tenna for the final showdown. Speaking of which, I really like Mr. Tenna's boss battle. He has the ability to force the heroes to play a random minigame and how well you perform in the minigame affects how much damage the Fun Gang takes. In other words, all the minigames you have been playing with Mr. Tenna was actually training for his boss battle. And I think that's cool. Assuming you showed Mercy to him, Susie gives Mr. Tenna a pep talk, telling him to not worry about being thrown away or replaced. She also says that if Kris's family doesn't want him anymore, then the Fun Gang can just find Tenna a new home. Moved by Susie's words, Mr. Tenna has a change of heart and agrees to give back Toriel.

But oh boy, here comes the mother of all spoilers. I really don't want to spoil this Chapter's final battle, because the ending of Chapter 3 is a major highlight of the entire game and irreversibly changes the tone of the story to something comparatively more serious. But I cannot continue the review without mentioning it. Just know that I give deltarune Chapter 3 five stars out of five, and I give deltarune Chapter 4 four stars out of five, at least until that glitch I mentioned gets fixed. Go play this game if you can afford it. It's only 25 US dollars, at the time of writing. If you want to know my more detailed thoughts on this game, come back after you finished Chapter 4.  Understood? Good!

So you remember the Roaring Knight I mentioned, and how there was a lot of speculation as to who the Roaring Knight was? Well, the good news is that we get official confirmation that Kris is NOT the Roaring Knight! …Because the actual Roaring Knight appears seemingly out of nowhere and KOs Tenna with a single blow. The Knight also tries to kidnap Toriel for unclear but obviously malevolent reasons, thus starting a battle between the Fun Gang and the Knight.

You know, it's funny. After 4 years of nonstop speculation and theorizing, no one predicted that the Fun Gang would simply get ambushed by the Roaring Knight in part three of a seven part story. I distinctly remember my first reaction to the Roaring Knight's debut being "WHAT DO YOU MEAN we have to fight the Knight now!?" And I'd bet that most other deltarune fans had a similar reaction.

The Roaring Knight is also this Chapter's Super Boss, and perhaps fittingly, it is the most difficult opponent the Fun Gang will ever fight. Not only does the Knight have complex Bullet Hell attacks that leave no room for error, it also cannot be shown Mercy at all. Just this once, our normally pacifistic heroes are allowed to use violence to defend themselves. You can make this fight easier by equipping a special armor called the Shadow Mantle, but this armor can only be acquired by completing an easily missed secret minigame. Said minigame also provides instructions for doing the Weird Route, in case you didn't know how to do so already. I'm totally sure there's no distressing narrative implications about this. 

Should you manage to lower its health down 75%, Susie can break off a piece of the Knight's sword, which becomes this Chapter's Shadow Crystal. Kris will also be rewarded with a unique weapon called the Black Shard, which is the most powerful weapon in the game (so far). But no matter how well you do against the Knight, it will always end the battle with an unavoidable, one-hit KO attack that leaves the Fun Gang kneeling.

Before the Roaring Knight can finish off the Fun Gang or capture Toriel, it is attacked from behind by Officer Undyne, another returning character from UNDERTALE. Why was Undyne in the Dark World, you ask? She entered the Dark World while investigating some property damage Kris caused back in Chapter 2. Anyway, the Knight grabs Undyne and drags her kicking and screaming all the way to the bunker in the Light World, the one at the southern edge of town. 

Kris and Susie give chase, but by the time they catch up, the bunker has been completely locked down. Not even Susie, the strongest of the three heroes, can break through its doors. The only way in is with a passcode, but none of our heroes know the code. The Chapter ends here, with Undyne trapped inside the bunker and Kris and Susie forced to go home, as there is literally nothing else for them do. And let me just say, boy, am I glad that Chapters 3 and 4 released simultaneously. If Chapter 3 released by itself, this fandom would not survive a cliffhanger like that. We barely survived Kris opening a Dark Fountain. Also, getting to see the Roaring Knight this early into the project is crazy to me. I always figured that the Knight would show up in Chapter 5 at the earliest, but what do I know?

Ralsei explains the Legend of Deltarune, a prophecy dictating the events of the entire game. Image found on rpgfan.com

Chapter 4 is still only 10 or so hours long, but so much plot and character development happens in this Chapter that it feels a lot longer to play through it. This is both a good thing, since it provides a plentiful experience on a first playthrough. But it's also a bad thing, because it can feel repetitive going through the longest Chapter again on a second playthrough. And because of that softlock and my careless save file usage, I had to play through this entire Chapter twice. I'm still a little salty about that, but I will try not to let that cloud my judgement.

Chapter 4 starts the day after Undyne's kidnapping, with Kris having sealed the Chapter 3 Dark Fountain offscreen. Toriel invites Susie over for church service, to which she agrees. Not because Susie is religious, but so she can hang out with Kris and look for clues for the bunker code. I really like the church service scene, it's a heartwarming bonding moment with Susie that really cements the idea that Kris and Susie are best friends by now. Especially since we don't control Kris while they're goofing around with Susie, so we know for a fact that those shenanigans were 100% voluntary on Kris's part.

After the service, Kris/the Player has to ask around the church for clues, in which they learn only two people have ever opened up the bunker in the town's history; The Chief of Police and the Mayor. Unfortunately, the current Chief of Police is Undyne, who is in no position to share the code for obvious reasons. Which means that the Fun Gang's only option is to visit the Mayor, Carol Holiday. Who coincidentally happens to be Noelle's mom.

Before we go to the Holiday Household, we get a free roam section where Kris and Susie are free to explore the town and talk to literally everyone, including Berdly (if he's still alive), Toriel and Kris's many neighbors. You can even pop into Castle Town to hang out with Ralsei for a bit (and catch him up to speed on everything going on the Light World). Most of these conversations are lighthearted and humorous in nature. In case you're wondering whatever happened to Mr. Tenna, he's fine. Well, sort of. If you recruited all Darkners back in Chapter 3, Tenna will survive the Knight's ambush. If you don't, he's straight up dead for the rest of the game. If he's still alive, you can keep Susie's promise to find him a new home by either taking him to Castle Town or giving his Light World form (a TV set) to one of Kris's neighbors. Either way, Tenna gets what he always wanted; a new audience to entertain. This is the last we'll see of Tenna for now.

Our heroes (left) get attacked by enemies (right). In order to dodge attacks, you need to control a red cartoon heart and move it away from hazards. Image found on SteamDB.com

After exploring everything in town, Kris and Susie go visit the Holiday Household, ostensibly to work on a school project with Noelle. This was just an excuse to go snooping around the Household without drawing too much attention to themselves. And the Holiday Household might be my favorite location in the Chapter. It is a beautifully designed Christmas mansion that is filled to the brim with secrets, lore and a whole lot of Christmas puns.

The only room in the Household that is not readily accessible is Dess's old bedroom, but Kris can enter it once Susie starts distracting Noelle. And in Dess's room, we find (among other things) a guitar that has the code to the bunker inside of it. Before the Player can finish reading the code, Kris rips out their Soul again and throws it into a supply closet. Which leads to a stealth section where we must control the bodiless Soul and navigate the air vents, while avoiding the now openly hostile Kris. It's a tense scene that makes you feel vulnerable during a first playthrough, but with the benefit of hindsight, it's basically a Tom & Jerry skit. Just replace Tom with Kris and Jerry with the Soul.

The most important revelation about Kris's character comes from a phone call that the Soul can eavesdrop on. Kris is working for someone, strongly implied to be the Roaring Knight, and is actively trying to keep whatever is inside the bunker a secret from everyone. And honestly speaking, the idea of Kris being a secret double agent working for an unseen villain is actually more interesting narratively than simply having Kris be the Knight directly. But now we have a new mystery to solve; Why is Kris involved in such a sinister scheme? I have a theory, but explaining it would spoil the Chapter's ending. For what it's worth, I don't believe that Kris is willingly evil.

The whole time Kris and the Soul are duking it out, Susie and Noelle bond over a shared love of horror movies and video games. It's another cute and wholesome scene, made comical by the fact that Kris is beating the snot out of their own Soul in the background with a hockey stick. And I got to say, Toby Fox is a master at writing small talk. Like, the way Susie and Noelle bounce from one subject to another before returning to something they talked about earlier is the exact way most friends talk to each other in real life. At least, based on my experience. It is uncannily believable dialogue. This scene definitely highlights how good the dialogue in this game is.

Eventually, Susie grabs the guitar and puts on an improvised performance for Noelle at the latter's request. Which is also cute. All of Susie and Noelle's scenes are cute. They're just cute together, in general. Keep in mind, I am not a romance guy. Not in the slightest. BUT. Susie and Noelle have genuinely good chemistry together and I find myself feeling oddly invested in their relationship.

Unfortunately, Susie never notices the bunker code as she's too busy trying to impress Noelle. While this is happening, Kris calls their mysterious benefactor (who I will call the Voice on the Phone) that Susie has the guitar. Whoever the Voice on the other side of the phone is, they say that they will "be right there."

Not even ten minutes after Kris makes this call, Susie and Noelle's bonding is interrupted by Carol Holiday, who had (allegedly) just got home from work. Carol has maybe five minutes of screen time in this Chapter, but man, she makes those five minutes count. She is immediately introduced as an intimidating, no nonsense woman where the only thing colder than her icy appearance is her stern demeanor. She forcibly takes the guitar away from Susie and forbids her from seeing Noelle ever again. 

Carol's attitude warms up slightly when speaking to Kris, but even when she's trying to be pleasant she gives off a sinister, vaguely threatening vibe. Specifically, she says "As you know, you are welcome here anytime." With the second "you" in that sentence being highlighted in blood red text. And deltarune is a game where text is only colored either as the setup for a joke or because that word is important somehow. I'm not sure about you, but this scene doesn't strike me as humorous, so I have to believe that it's the latter. Especially since the shade of red used is the exact same shade of red that the Player Soul is colored in.

Kris and Susie are forced to leave the Holiday Household (but not before the Soul repossesses Kris). Neither Susie nor the Player got the code, and Kris clearly isn't going to share what they know with anyone. Also, because this scene sees the return of Noelle, we get the long-awaited(?) continuation of the Weird Route. 

If you play Chapter 4 on a save file that has completed the Weird Route, Kris removes their Soul like before, but this time they take Noelle into her bedroom so they can explain the whole situation to her privately. This is ironically the best look at Kris's true nature that we get. The Voice on the Phone doesn't matter in this Route, the only thing Kris cares about is protecting Noelle from the Player. Which is why I don't believe they are evil. At worse, they're a reluctant accomplice for someone else's villainy. Unfortunately, The Player can still possess Kris even while they are consoling Noelle, at which point you can either abandon the Weird Route by saying "It was just a prank" or continue it by saying "Proceed." 

The latter option leads to the Player forcing Noelle to wear the Thorn Ring (a weapon only found when doing the Weird Route). Once the Thorn Ring is back on Noelle's finger, there is no going back as her mind is broken beyond repair. After all, the Thorn Ring's existence is proof that the murders Noelle committed on the Player's behalf actually happened and weren't just a bad dream. And honestly, this whole scene is just... immensely uncomfortable to watch. Like it feels like you're about to witness a crime. So congratulations! We successfully traumatized a cute little anthropomorphic reindeer (again). That's our reward for doing the Weird Route.

Back on the Normal Route, Kris and Susie head home, only to discover that A; it's raining and B; Kris's House is locked. Which means that our dynamic duo needs to find Toriel to unlock the house. Toriel went back to church for choir practice, so Kris and Susie go to church again. But whoops! The Roaring Knight is back, and it has already opened a Dark Fountain in the church. And thus we finally get to the main Dark World of this Chapter, the Dark Sanctuary.

Kris and Susie find the Dark Fountain almost immediately, but are attacked by the Roaring Knight again. Both of them are sent tumbling down to the lower part of the Dark Sanctuary, and spend the rest of the adventure climbing back up. They meet up with Ralsei again, but something seems... off with Ralsei. As if he's worried about something. And Susie starts feeling insecure about her own capabilities once she realizes that Ralsei is a better healer than her.

The Fun Gang finds the Prophecy describing the titular Legend of Deltarune after exploring around. Back in Chapter 1, Ralsei mentioned the Prophecy, but his version was simplified and had key details left out. The Prophecy seen here is the original, full version. But before the Fun Gang can read the final passage, it gets destroyed by a mysterious stranger.

This leads to the introduction to the main "guest" character of Chapter 4, the Old Man. Who is the Old Man? The Fun Gang never learns his name, but anyone who played UNDERTALE will immediately recognize him as Gerson Boom, the old Turtle Monster who runs the shops in that game. And as far back as Chapter 1, you can visit a grave that has Gerson's name on it. When I first saw him, my initial theory was that Gerson never died, he just got trapped in the Dark Worlds and everyone just assumed he was dead because he's been missing for so long. Which is... Not even close to what's really going on with Gerson, but I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The game gets a lot of humor out of Gerson, as he acts like an absent-minded elder but is secretly wiser than his gnarly appearance suggests. Case in point, there's a unique "Old Man" Act that Kris can use as long as Gerson is on the team. The description of said Act only reads, "I'm Old!" And using that Act causes Gerson to interrupt the battle and perform a random, but always positive effect. He might heal the party with candy, deflect enemy bullets with his cane, or even just instantly Recruit enemies.

A boss battle against Jackenstein, a Halloween-themed enemy that has to be fought in the dark. Image found on rpgfan.com

Also, I want to talk about a boss named Jackenstein. Jackenstein is a joke boss that shows up halfway through the Dark Sanctuary and is one of the funniest things Toby Fox has cooked up in a while. Jackenstein's gimmick is that all of his "attacks" are not Bullet Hell patterns, but Pac-Man mazes, complete with collectible pellets. And if you take too long to complete the mazes, Jackenstein summons a pumpkin that speaks with a Text-to-Speech device, and the only thing it says is "YOUR TAKING TOO LONG." And then Jackenstein starts sentence mixing the pumpkin to make it say goofy nonsense like "YOUR LONG" and "YOUR TAKING TOO TOO." Jackenstein also marks the beginning of a HUGE difficulty spike, as Tension buildup is reduced during his battle (thus making it harder to use Susie and Ralsei's magic spells). But other than that, this fight is peak comedy. 10/10, would take too long again.

After the Jackenstein fight, Gerson notices Susie's insecurities and encourages her to start practicing her magic more seriously. Which means that Susie's "Ultimate Heal" spell is now worth using. For context, Ultimate Heal was the worst spell in the game, as it only existed for the sake of a joke. It cost 100% Tension to cast and only restored 1 hit point (out of 200+). But after the pep talk with Gerson, Ultimate Heal has been renamed to "OK Heal" and it will both heal more and cost less Tension with each cast. You can eventually get the cost down to 80% Tension and get it to heal 100+ hit points if you keep letting Susie heal you instead of Ralsei. And that's a cool way to tie game mechanics into character development. Practice makes perfect, after all.

The same time Susie gets an upgrade, Kris gets a upgrade called the Claimb Claws (typo intended). These claws let Kris (and by proxy, the Fun Gang) climb up certain walls. Now, you *can* use Kris's newfound climbing skills to move on to the next area, or you can backtrack to all the places you've already been to. Because the Claimb Claws let you access a bunch of hidden areas. In three of these hidden areas are golden music sheets, and if you play the completed melody on a golden piano, the path to the Chapter 4 Super Boss is revealed. And this one might be my favorite Super Boss yet.

So playing the melody reveals a hidden chamber in Gerson's study. And lying in that chamber is the Justice Axe, which is the strongest weapon Susie can equip. But before she can even grab the Justice Axe, Gerson tells her that she needs to pay for it. The Justice Axe is so expensive that it is impossible to buy it. Like, I don't even think the game will let you carry the amount of money that Gerson is asking for. So instead of paying, Susie makes a deal with Gerson; If she can cut off a hair from Gerson's beard, then he has to give the Justice Axe to her for free. Gerson agrees to the deal, and reveals his true power.

In case you haven't realized it yet, Gerson is the Super Boss of this Chapter. And this fight breaks a lot of rules. Firstly, it's a 1vs1 duel between Susie and Gerson. Kris and Ralsei are not allowed to interfere. Secondly, Susie is forbidden from using consumable items like health potions, as Gerson will steal them if she tries. Thirdly, Gerson can force you into Green Soul Mode, replacing your ability to fly around with a shield that can block directional attacks. And finally, Gerson can just straight up parry Susie's signature spell, Rude Buster, and throw it back at her. The only advantage Susie has is that losing to Gerson doesn't count as a Game Over, as he will end the duel once Susie has been reduced to one hit point, then he will give her a chance to heal up and try again from scratch.

So how are you supposed to beat Gerson? With magic of course. The whole point of Susie's character arc in this Chapter is learning to get better at magic, and this fight is meant to train her magic up. Any time you cast a spell, whether it be Rude Buster or OK Heal, Susie's magic will get stronger and Gerson will be impressed. Impress him enough times and Susie will figure out how to distract Gerson long enough to chop off his beard. 

Gerson admits defeat after losing his beard, and he will give Susie both the Justice Axe and this Chapter's Shadow Crystal. He'll also share some wisdom about how our destiny is not set in stone, no matter what the Prophecy says, and that stories can be changed as they pass through the generations. When Gerson was in his prime, he wrote an in-universe fantasy novel series called "Lord of the Hammer" which was based on the Prophecy, but changed some core details around. And when that series got popular, it was made into an in-universe video game franchise called "Dragon Blazers," which made even more changes to the story. Gerson says that both his own work and the video games it inspired are equally valid, as like he said, stories change as they pass through the generations. And that's a really cool take on the idea of adapting preexisting stories.

Like I said, Gerson is my favorite Super Boss, both because of the story surrounding him and because it's just a fun fight in general. Also, Susie's healing magic is upgraded once again after Gerson is defeated, being renamed to "Better Heal" and only costing 75% Tension to cast. It also FULLY restores all HP as long as the target has not been KO'd yet. So now Susie has a genuinely strong, if somewhat expensive, spell to cast.

Okay, back to the main story. The Fun Gang climb up a series of pillars and find a giant piano. In order to solve the next puzzle and reach the Dark Fountain, you need to play a melody on this piano. But there's just one problem. The nearby music sheet that Susie and Gerson discover is too long for most Players to memorize. To solve this puzzle, the Player has to willingly lose control of Kris, and let them play the song instead. It's a cool moment that's made better because the whole game has been foreshadowing it. Kris loves playing the piano, but cannot play it while the Soul is possessing them, because the Soul can only interact with musical instruments during minigames. So by loosening their grip on Kris, the Player is giving Kris a taste of freedom, while placing all their trust in Kris to solve this puzzle voluntarily. The piano puzzle gives way to the Dark Fountain, and the Fun Gang seal it with no issue.

But as Kris and Susie return to the Light World, they find a conundrum. The Roaring Knight made two Dark Worlds in the church, one in the lobby and another in the actual congregation. The door to the rest of the church is locked with another code. So now Kris and Susie have to look around the lobby for clues. Which leads to Susie snooping around in the pastor's office, and finding a glass case... Containing a dusty hammer and a photograph of Gerson. Remember what I said about Monsters having fragile bodies? As explained back in UNDERTALE, when Monsters die, their body crumbles to dust. As such, Monsters don't bury their deceased as there is nothing for them to bury. But they do cover the dust in an item that is heavily associated with that Monster, and bury the item instead. There's also a book you can read earlier in this very Chapter that explains how Monsters perform funerals.

Susie puts two and two together and realizes what exactly happened with Gerson. Like Ralsei said, Dark Fountains turn fantasy into reality by bringing inanimate objects to life. And the dust left behind by a dead Monster counts as an "inanimate object." Which means that Gerson really was dead, and that the Gerson we got was just a Darkner version of him. This is both infinitely more creative than what I thought of and infinitely more disturbing. Imagine dying and coming back to life as an idealized version of yourself because someone brought your cremated remains to a fantasy world. That's the human equivalent of what happened with Gerson.

No matter where you look in the lobby, Neither Kris nor Susie can find the code, so Susie comes up with a plan; create a Dark Fountain of her own and ask a newly revived Gerson for the code. When he was alive, Gerson's family visited this church frequently and his son, Alvin, became the current pastor. Susie also wants to try bringing Gerson back to Castle Town, despite that raising all sorts of ethical questions.

Kris and Susie climb a wall while avoiding fireballs made of dark magic.

The Dark World that Susie creates, the Second Sanctuary, is messier and more chaotic than the first. It even warps the colors of the Fun Gang, changing Susie from purple to orange, Kris from blue to pink, and Ralsei from green to blue. Despite the warped nature of this Dark World, the Prophecy is still intact. Which means we can read it in greater detail without interruption. Notably, it says that three heroes are required to stop the Roaring Knight; A Lonely Prince from the Dark (referring to Ralsei), a Cage with Human Soul and Parts (referring to Kris and the Player), and a Monster Girl, with Hope crossed on her Heart. 

There are some additional details in the Prophecy (some of which are obviously joke predictions), but the most important detail is this part; "LOVE will find its way to the Girl." Susie assumes this means she will fall in love one day, but because this game is set in the same universe as UNDERTALE, this has me wondering. Because in that game, LOVE is an acronym, standing for Level of Violence. Basically, it's a number on a person's Soul that measures how much death that person has caused, and their capacity to kill others in the future. The higher the number, the more powerful (and the more violent) a person becomes. Remember, UNDERTALE was a critique on the glorification of violence in video games, and it forced the Player to ask if it's even worth getting stronger if the only way to do so was by committing an act of unjustifiable murder.

Now, we can't get Susie to kill anyone, she's too independent to be manipulated. Even if we order her to attack Darkners during battle, they will always run away before suffering lethal damage. But you know who can be manipulated? Noelle. And you know can kill enemies permanently? Noelle. And you know who is also a Monster Girl, who also has Hope crossed on her Heart? Noelle. So there's a good chance that Noelle was meant to be one of the three heroes instead of Susie. Ergo, the Weird Route is what the Prophecy intended to happen, if this theory is true. Even if it's not true, the Weird Route still ties into the central theme of deltarune, which is the pursuit of freedom. If the Weird Route is not what the Prophecy intended, then the Player can only have real "freedom" by tormenting Noelle and ruining Kris's life, forcing us to ask "is freedom worth it if this what we have to do to get it?" If the Weird Route is what's prophesized to happen, then not only is the Player forcing Kris to torment Noelle (stripping both characters of their agency), the Player is taking away any chance for a "free" future from these two by forcing them along a predetermined path. Either way, the Weird Route is unambiguously evil, and it cannot be justified.

While in the Second Sanctuary, Kris and Susie get trapped in a dark room, and are forced to fight what they think is Gerson. This boss is basically a "Simon Says" minigame where you have to block directional attacks in the correct order. Susie tries to reason with "Gerson" and comes to regret making the new Dark World. Ralsei arrives just in time to save the day, and he just straight up kills this boss, which is revealed to be nothing more than a statue mimicking Gerson's appearance.

Ralsei explains that Gerson is not in this Dark World, and even if he was, the Fun Gang cannot take him back to Castle Town. Darkners modeled after the deceased can only exist in "specific" Dark Worlds, and thus are incompatible with Castle Town. Which leads to Susie snapping at Ralsei for not saying that sooner. And also for not telling anyone about the Roaring Knight, or how the Dark Fountains work, or the many other details that Ralsei neglected to mention. 

But Ralsei isn't withholding this information because he's evil. Far from it. Ralsei was cursed with the knowledge of how EVERYTHING in the world of deltarune works. He knows about the Prophecy, he knows about the game mechanics, he knows about the Save Files. Heck, he probably knows about the Player. But his own knowledge scares him, and he never knows when to say something when it's relevant. And he is terrified of the Prophecy's ending. The reason he's been acting weird in this Chapter is because he's been doing his best to cover up the ending. But the fact that he is going to such lengths to hide it already speaks volumes about how unpleasant it must be.

The Fun Gang get to the code to the lock, seal up the Second Sanctuary and head inside the third and final Dark World of this Chapter, the Third Sanctuary. Now I'm going to put another spoiler warning here, because now it's time for the final boss of this Chapter. And it is pure insanity. Like, I'm shocked that Toby Fox would use this kind of boss for Chapter 4, because any sane developer would've waited until Chapter 6 or 7. But now I'm left wondering who the final bosses of Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are going to be, because I cannot think of any way to top this boss.

So the Fun Gang catch up to the Roaring Knight, and it looks like the boss is just going to be a standard rematch. But then the Knight opens a Dark Fountain while still inside the Dark World, which summons a Titan. Yeah, those eldritch beings I mentioned that are prophesized to destroy the universe? The Knight just casually summons one. As you do. And that's the final boss of this Chapter. Much like with the Knight, my first reaction to this boss was "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO FIGHT A TITAN NOW!?" And again, most other fans had a similar reaction.

The first phase of the battle is a climbing sequence where Kris has to climb up the Titan's body, Shadow of the Colossus style, and the second phase is a more straightforward battle against just the Titan's head. And again, this is one of the few times where the Fun Gang is allowed to use violence to defend themselves. Because at this point, they aren't fighting wacky supervillains anymore. They're fighting Lovecraftian Gods. Not only does the Titan have a shield that Kris needs to break through with the "Unleash" Act, but once its health drops low enough, the Titan will start regenerating. And the speed at which it heals is faster than the speed at which the Fun Gang can damage it. All hope seems lost at this point... Until Gerson arrives and joins the party. Gerson may be a Turtle Monster, but today, he is the GOAT (greatest of all time).

With Gerson's help, the Fun Gang manages to defeat the Titan in the most hype boss fight in the entire game. While Gerson is my favorite Super Boss, the Titan is now my favorite Final Boss. At least, it's tied with Queen from Chapter 2. This fight is perfect. It has gorgeous pixel art animation, it has a banger theme song (both before and after Gerson arrives), it even brings back the gimmicks from Jackenstein's battle. This fight is peak cinema. 10/10, would climb up a Titan again.

But the Fun Gang's victory is short lived, as the Roaring Knight got away, Gerson is nowhere to be seen, and Toriel is still missing in action. Honestly I kind of forgot that the entire reason we came to the church was to get Toriel, because of... well, everything else. Anyway, Susie runs ahead of the group and gets to see the ending of the Prophecy. We don't get to see it ourselves, because by the time we catch up with her, Susie has already destroyed the mural depicting the Prophecy's ending. 

The Prophecy predictions range from serious to silly. This is one of the sillier predictions. Image found on steam.steampowered.com

Ralsei frantically apologizes for letting Susie see the ending, but she just ignores his worries. Susie boasts that she "wouldn't let that happen." She also assures Ralsei that Kris "wouldn't let that happen," and of course, Ralsei himself "wouldn't let that happen." She never says what "that" is exactly, but if I had to guess, one of the three heroes is prophesized to die. Presumably in a violent fashion. It's the only thing I can think of that would justify this kind of reaction.

We also get one of my favorite interactions between Kris and Ralsei in this scene. Ralsei starts crying, because it's getting harder to put up his wholesome, boy scout persona. He knows too much for his own good, and the stress of all that knowledge is getting to him. But despite that, he still forces himself to smile. The Player can choose to make Kris say "It's okay not to smile." Doing so leads to Kris kneeling down and hugging Ralsei. Willingly. Without Player input. Ralsei is taken aback by this kindness, but getting hugged does help him feel better. Most importantly, Ralsei says that he wants to believe that their future is not set in stone, and that there can be more than just one ending for this story. Which is a bold claim, as Toby Fox himself has gone on record saying that he has "only" one ending planned for deltarune. 

The Fun Gang seal the Third Sanctuary and prepare to head home. But the atmosphere is a lot more gloomy. It's the middle of the night by now, and the rain from earlier has stopped. The song that plays when Kris and Susie walk home is a special one. It's a remix of a song from UNDERTALE, called It's Raining Somewhere Else. It was one of the most somber songs in that game's OST, being the one time where Sans the Skeleton (UNDERTALE's mascot) finally stopped joking around and had a serious conversation with Frisk, the protagonist of that game. In deltarune, the song is called The Place Where It Rained, and it somehow sounds even more melancholy than it did originally. Yet, there's something nostalgic about hearing The Place Where It Rained. Hearing it felt like I was like being transported back to 2015 when I played UNDERTALE for the first time.

And speaking of Sans the Skeleton... Kris and Susie finally find Toriel, and learn that she was never in the Dark Worlds in the first place. On the way to choir practice, Toriel got caught in the rain, and ducked inside Sans' grocery store for shelter. Evidently she liked Sans enough to bring him home and start partying. Which means that the Fun Gang's adventure to the Dark Sanctuary was technically all for nothing. 

By the time Kris and Susie make it back to Kris's House, Toriel is outrageously drunk and all semblance of her saintly mother persona is gone. She's cursing, making bad puns, flirting with Sans, and just being an overall mess. Susie immediately bails and leaves Kris alone with their drunken mother and a man who is for all intents and purposes, a homewrecker. Any chance of Toriel getting back with Asgore (Kris's dad and Toriel's ex-husband) died in this scene. Without context, this scene is hilarious, but with context, you kind of just feel second-hand embarrassment for Kris. The most accidentally funny thing about this scene is, THIS was where I got softlocked. Yeah, the scene where Kris comes home to find their mom black-out drunk with a sassy skeleton was where the glitch that ruined my first playthrough happened.

Anyway, the Chapter ends with Kris trying and failing to sleep through Toriel and Sans's drunken banter. They receive a call, but what it says changes depending on whether or not you completed the Weird Route. If you didn't do the Weird Route like a good boy/gal, the Voice on the Phone tells Kris "Don't Forget... You promised." We don't know what Kris promised to do, but that line combined with how Kris behaves in the Weird Route has led me to believe that Kris is being coerced and is not cooperating with the villain(s) willingly.

Speaking of the Weird Route, the Weird Route version of this ending has Kris receive a call from Carol (we know it's Carol and not the Voice on the Phone, because the Voice uses a different font and sound effect when speaking), who thanks Kris for "agreeing" to take Noelle on a date to the Festival that Susie mentioned earlier. Which considering that the Weird Route is "reindeer abuse simulator" is very much not a good thing.

The last thing we see before the Chapter ends is Susie walking away from Kris's House, promising to "not let that happen." Her attitude is a lot more somber than when she first saw the Prophecy's ending, so whatever it was clearly affected her more than she would care to admit. It's a bittersweet ending, but it's nowhere near as much a cliffhanger as previous endings. And honestly? Given how intense this Chapter got, having a calmer ending was perhaps for the best.

And that's Chapter 4. We're done. We're at the halfway mark, now. This review was surprisingly difficult to write, mostly because so much *stuff* happens in Chapter 4 that it's difficult to summarize it in a way that feels coherent. Heck, even this summary is omitting things like Lancer's antics, the rematch against Rouxls Kaard, and the Asgore subplot.

Aside from getting softlocked, this Chapter was fantastic. If I were to rank the Chapters now, I would say that Chapters 2 and 4 are tied for my favorite, and the only reason they tie is because of the softlock. If Chapter 4 didn't have a glitch that can softlock your progress, it would just be my favorite Chapter, no contest. But below 2 and 4 I would put 3, and below 3 I would put 1. Chapter 1 wasn't bad, mind you, it's just outclassed by the other three Chapters.

As for presentation, deltarune has a simple, yet charming pixel art style. Everyone in the game is animated in 8-bit sprites, with the sole exception of Mr. Tenna, who instead has a 3D model that was run through some kind of pixilation filter. The result is that he looks like a Donkey Kong Country character standing next to a bunch of Donkey Kong Classic characters. He sticks out like a sore thumb, but in a way that feels deliberate and oddly charming. But the most impressive thing is the animation on the Titan. The animation on the Titan's hand is the smoothest and cleanest pixel art in any Toby Fox game. 

Ignoring characters for a bit, the background art is gorgeous. In fact, Chapters 3 & 4 have by far the prettiest backgrounds. Like the Holiday Household is so detailed that it looks almost like it came out of a different game. Which in a weird way, tracks. Toby did hire some guest artists for the new Chapters, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Holiday Household was handled by the guest artists.

Kris (middle), Susie (left) and Ralsei (Ralsei) play a rock concert minigame. Image found on steam.steampowered.com

As for sound, it's a Toby Fox project. You know the music is going to be spectacular. Most of the songs are relatively simple melodies, but they sound crisp and clear. In typical Toby Fox fashion, characters that are somehow related to each other, either narratively or literally, share similar motifs during their respective theme songs. This is part of the reason the Freedom motif is so important. And also the Don't Forget motif exists. Don't Forget is the main theme song of the entire game, and as such, the Don't Forget motif appears just as often as the Freedom motif.

As for the standout songs, Gerson's theme, Hammer of Justice is a fast-paced banjo medley of a whole bunch of songs from UNDERTALE, mostly Spear of Justice and Battle Against a True Hero. And it adds a banjo version of the Freedom motif in on top of that. It sounds exciting and nostalgic, but for reasons that are more lighthearted than The Place Where It Rained. Hammer of Justice might just dethrone The World Revolving for my favorite boss theme.

All of the piano-centric tunes are a joy to listen to as well. As they should, as the piano is Kris's instrument of choice, to the point where there are multiple puzzles that can only be solved by playing piano music. One detail I like about Kris's piano playing is that while they are obviously good, they are not a perfect prodigy. If you listen closely, you can hear Kris make minor mistakes while playing certain songs. And that makes sense, as Kris is still a teen and they haven't had time to practice, because of the whole "sharing a body with the Player" thing. It's a fun bit of characterization.

The sound effects are a little bit funny. While most of the sound effects are unique, there are also a handful of public domain sound effects. All of the public domain sound effects are used exclusively for comedy and are never used when the story gets serious. The most obvious being the explosion sound. Unrelated tangent here, but one day I decided to watch The Cuphead Show and that cartoon uses the exact same explosion sound effect that deltarune uses. This is not a bad thing as that specific sound effect is public domain, therefore, anyone can use it. But it was a funny coincidence that two indie projects in completely different mediums used the exact same explosion sound effect.

Overall, I'd say that deltarune Chapters 3 & 4 were worth the wait. I wish I didn't have to harp on Chapter 4 so much, but I can't in good faith give it a 5 star rating as long as that glitch exists. But despite that technical hiccup, I still enjoyed my time with the new Chapters. The jokes were hilarious, the characters continue to be charming, the Weird Route is still horrifying. And it gave some of the best boss fights in the game. Like I said earlier, Chapter 3 gets 5 stars out of five, Chapter 4 gets four stars out of five. And now all we have to do is wait for Toby Fox to release the other Chapters. However long that takes.

deltarune is the property of Toby Fox. None of the images used in this review were created by me. Please support the original creators.