Tomorrow has arrived and Deltarune is proven as a powerful indie game

Coming straight from your house, he’s the One, the KING of ONLY, he’s GROOVY and NEVER glooby, you can't get this from an EGG! The sensation of your screen, the game that makes you scream. Say it with him, folks: Chapters 3 and 4 of Deltarune!

But Fefe, what the hell is Deltarune?

If you're not familiar with the world of independent games, maybe Deltarune hasn't reached you yet, but there's a chance you've heard of Undertale. Anyway, I'll briefly tell you the story of both games.

Many years ago, a young man with a white dog avatar named Toby Fox, dreamt with the end of a great RPG. However, as he didn't have much experience with video game development at the time, he made Undertale first. Released in 2015, Fox had the help of the wonderful artist Temmie Chang, who took care of pretty much the entire art direction of the game. In the credits we see a few different names here and there, but in general Fox did most of the work himself in GameMaker with duct tape and white glue. I just won't say it had the budget of a chicken nugget because the Kickstarter campaign was so successful that it exceeded the original goal of 5 thousand dollars, achieving 10 times this amount.

Undertale was a huge hit on the internet and to this day, almost 10 years since its release, it has a very active fandom. The game's success is due not only to the spectacular soundtrack (composed and produced by Toby Fox himself), but mainly to the game's writing. The characters are very cartoonish, funny and interesting, with an immense depth that makes any player fall in love with them and really feel like they are your friends. The way the story is told is very interconnected to the medium, Fox takes advantage of the language of video games to build the plot and jokes. It's a beautiful celebration of the genre and many people’s favorite game, me included. If you haven't played it yet, I strongly recommend it, it's cheap on Steam!

Undertale trailer!

3 years later, Toby Fox launched a free "survey program" for people who had already played Undertale to download, which they soon discovered was the first chapter of Deltarune, a side story. In fact, if you've never played Undertale, you still follow Deltarune's story very well, but you end up missing some references, especially from certain characters in the town. Either way, this is a new world with a different logic. The only similarity is that you remain the only human in the story, living with a diversity of monsters.

From the first chapter, it's very interesting how the game completely breaks with Undertale, which has several endings depending on whether you use mercy or violence with the monsters you encounter. Deltarune makes it very clear that your choices don't matter, you don't decide who you are in this world. You control Kris, a teenager who goes to school and needs to do a project with the bully in the class, Susie. When you go after more chalk for the teacher, you enter a very dark room, and you fall into the Dark World. There, you meet Prince Ralsei, the third member of your party, who tells of a prophecy that three heroes would save the world from complete destruction when the balance between light and dark is broken, aka the legend of Delta Rune.

Once again, Toby Fox enchants us with his writing and his songs. This time the combat mechanics get an upgrade, with the addition of more members to your party, and with each enemy bringing new features, the bullet hell mechanic never loses its fun. With a much larger development team, the game is very polished and visually stunning, without losing the charm of a low-budget project. With each chapter release I am surprised and extremely impressed. The jump between the first and second chapters (with a gap of 3 years) was gigantic and really grounded how great Deltarune will be. Now, after another 3 years, we have reached the halfway point of the story, and I was completely floored, stunned and one more expression that I will not say to keep this blog family friendly.

Before I get into spoiler territory, if you want to play, you can play the first and second chapters for free with the demo, and buy the other chapters, available on Steam, for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PS4 and PS5. Toby Fox has already announced that this will be the only purchase, the remaining three chapters will be released as DLC for free.

I know I've already shown the trailer in another edition, but watch it again it's just so beautiful

Talking about the new chapters

After 3 years extremely excited for the continuation of the story, even more so with the end of chapter 2 in which Kris opens a new source, I bought the game without even looking at the price, I opened it and I was already shaking, goosebumps. I couldn't even believe it was real.

Right off the bat chapter 3 starting in a new Dark World, it was interesting for Ralsei to confirm what players were already speculating about the origin of these worlds, linked to where the fountains are created, sprinkling a hint of Susie's lore. After such a tense moment, comes the great opening of Tenna and help. My jaw dropped, I wanted to scream, but words wouldn't come out of my mouth, I had the same shock that anyone has when they see Photoshop/Omega Flowey for the first time in Undertale. Toby Fox, you did it again.

Overall, this was a very entertaining and funny chapter, although I did worry a bit about the recurring theme of divorce and abandonment issues (Toby Fox are you okay?). For me, the fact that Roulxs Kaard is bisexual and polygamous took me by surprise and made me very happy, him interacting with the couple Elnina and Lanino was funny and amusing. Spamton's special appearance was also spectacular, he is one of my favorite characters in the game and the fact that they keep mentioning him warmed my heart, even if it's just to talk bad about him.

The minigames mechanic was brilliant. I got beaten up a lot the first time with the cooking minigame, but I slayed at the rhythm game (I was so happy when it came back at Castle Town in chapter 4, but we will get there). Then when the chapter gets frantic, along with the fight with Tenna that basically becomes a WarioWare it was very well executed and gave a new face to the game.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the S-rank the first time I played (I'm currently playing in my Weird Route save file and I got it), so right away I couldn't find the secret boss of the chapter. But, still on the first day, my boyfriend, who was following part of my gameplay, helped me find the egg of the chapter. We had help from a video that had come out less than an hour before on YouTube (at this point it had been about 11 hours after the game's release) and I wouldn't have been able to do it alone, I would spend a long time looking for a room where the music would reset, as it was in the previous chapters. I loved that we got more information about the man behind the tree and his relationship with Kris, even if in a very cryptic way.

After all the fun during the chapter, the ending left me on the floor. I didn't expect the Roaring Knight to appear so soon. Despite the scare and having died in the second round, I became obsessed with their design and the music. I thought it was kind of gender; I wanted to be an extremely powerful androgynous creature of darkness. Undyne's appearance made me so happy, such happiness that lasted 5 seconds because she was kidnapped and taken to the bunker (which its actual official name is the shelter, but I'll keep calling it the bunker). I was speechless, silent for about 5 minutes just processing. I finished playing around 1 am, I could only go to sleep around 3 because my brain was racing. Stuff got very serious very fast.

Just a heads up, I'm not going to elaborate on the Weird Route (also known as the Snowgrave Route), because, at the time of writing, I'm still trying to beat the Roaring Knight in this file, and I know most changes are present in chapter 4. However, there are some differences in dialogue, such as Ralsei saying that it's not a good idea for Kris to take Noelle to the festival, which was out of character, and Susie, after you fight the chapter's secret boss, mentions Berdly and Kris shows nervousness. I'm already scared to death of how the route will proceed in the next chapter.

Speaking of chapter 4, what a glow up. Not only in the visual aspect, but also the soundtrack. In fact, it's all I heard this last month. Everything in this chapter is beautiful. Toby Fox found a great team that brings out the best of his vision.

After a tense ending to chapter 3, the more relaxed beginning of chapter 4 was a great breather. The mass sequence warmed my heart, returning to Castle Town was a lot of fun and exploring the town with Susie again was like coming home. The restaurant scene made me appreciate Susie and her friendship with Kris even more, what they have is very beautiful (even if the player doesn't allow it to be a 100% honest relationship).

The bonus battle against Mike was really something unique and special. Too bad that the day I got to it I had my throat hurting terribly and couldn’t speak properly, I couldn't enjoy it the way Fox wanted. I even tried to put my boyfriend on speakerphone, but this proved not very effective, I only won using the mouse, but it was really cool anyway. Finding out where Pluey was implemented after so many months of speculation and memes was fun.

Getting to know Noelle's house was really an adventure. I just wanted to see my favorite ship develop, but Kris had other plans for me. Was it really Carol they were talking to on the phone? Despite being angry at them at first, after seeing videos on YouTube of Kris playing several songs on the piano for 10 minutes straight made me feel sorry for them again. How did we end up in this situation? How is Kris going to break free from us?

The Dark World of this chapter being in the town's church was not surprising (although I don't 100% understand the logic behind this fan speculation), and Deltarune delivered beautifully. The new battle music matching with the environment, the sound gimmick in the dark, everything perfect, absolute gaming (Martin Scorcese's little hands in the air). As a fan of Undertale, Gerson's return made me very happy and the references to Undyne and the justice leitmotif made me jump from my chair. It was a much easier secret boss to find, I got beaten up a lot, but I had a lot of fun. I only forgot to go after the egg, I was too invested with the unfolding of the plot.

Knowing more about the prophecy gave new weight to the story, and once again the game tries to remind us that our choices don't matter, the conclusion will be the same. However, it has been wonderful to see Susie's character development, which started out being just an aggressive and indifferent character, to a heroine who cares and wants to ensure the best outcome. Both the third and fourth chapters of Deltarune show that perhaps the protagonist of the story is her.

In the same way that I didn't expect the appearance of the Roaring Knight so early in the story, my jaw fell so hard when they opened a fountain inside the fountain and a Titan appeared. It was an epic battle (I died about 2 times until I managed to win), and the scene right after it was really a shot in the heart to see Susie bleeding (so monsters bleed?????????? Sans???????).

We close the fountain, we go back to town, it's raining. This is the place that rains. The music starts to play and I got goosebumps all over. YouTube recommended this video to me and honestly there is no better way to describe what I felt.

To end the chapter, after extremely tense moments, I see SANS dancing with TORIEL drinking WINE at home. I don't believe he really "befriended my mother" help.

Overall impressions and what to expect

I loved these chapters so much. Toby Fox is still a writing genius, and the story is heading to an interesting place. It is very bizarre to think that we are now past the halfway point.

Not to say that everything is perfect, I confess that I'm not a fan of how tense chapter 4 was. I felt that the energy weighed too much and I played the entire chapter with a sense of anguish. I think it got too serious too fast.

Not long ago I saw Noodle's review and I share a lot of his concern about what's to come. Deltarune has been releasing for almost 7 years, if it will take another 7, the ending has to be worth it. Great questions are being asked and these answers have to be satisfactory. But I trust the white dog.

A month has passed, and I feel that the obsession will not go away anytime soon, at least chapter 5 is promised for 2026. I just don't know when I'll go back to being a normal human being and think about other things (I exaggerate, I already have ideas for the next edition of the blog).