Thank you Nintendo for sending us Deltarune to review!

It's been 7 years since Deltarune Chapter 1 was released free of charge for the world to play. That's seven long years of speculation, waiting, a second free chapter, and repeatedly refreshing the Undertale/Deltarune Twitter feed for updates. What we saw in the first 2 chapters was a fun evolution of the original Undertale formula, with a full party to control during combat, a parallel universe with Undertale's characters to explore, darker undertones, and some deep mysteries to uncover. Then we finally got the news that the "full release" of Deltarune would be a launch title for the Switch 2. Does it live up to the hype? Undeniably, yes...if you're okay still waiting for the second half of the game.

See, Deltarune's title menu contains a chapter select screen. Upon opening it, you will see the game is slated for 7 full chapters. But the "full release" currently only has 4 chapters: the original 2 plus 2 new ones. This means there are still 3 unfinished chapters to be released. The current MSRP for the game is $24.99; new chapters will be added with no additional cost. According to the most recent newsletter, the next chapter is set to release in the second half of 2026. Basically, my only real disappointment with the game is knowing I'm still going to be waiting years to finally find out what's going on. Fortunately, what we already do have is an absolute blast to play.

We already covered Chapter 1 before, but the essentials of the story up through Chapter 4 is as follows: You play as Kris, the adopted human child of Toriel and Asgore Dreemurr, in an above-ground town completely populated with monsters. Hints and tips throughout the game make it clear that this is not something that takes place after the events of Undertale, but instead takes place in an alternate universe, presumably one in which humans lost the war between humans and monsters spoken of in Undertale. While at school one day, you and the school bully Susie find a mysterious world of darkness inside the school's supply closet. There, you meet the prince of the Dark World, Ralsei, who lets Kris and Susie know that they three together are the heroes of a prophecy that tells of the struggle between Light and Dark. Dark Fountains are appearing, creating more Dark Worlds. When the balance is upended, darkness will overtake the world of light and Titans from the darkness will destroy everyone and everything. It is up to you three to find out who or what is making the Dark Fountains, seal them, and prevent this cataclysmic event known as the Roaring.

Each chapter mostly takes place inside of a new Dark World, with brief interludes in the Light World. These Dark Worlds are a fantastical reflection of their Light World counterparts. For example, Chapter 1 takes place in a school room full of board and card games; the characters in the Dark World are things like Chess and Checkers pieces; walking Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs, and Spades; and a stuffed cat that is the court magician. Chapter 2 takes place in the local library's computer lab, and the enemies there are things like computer viruses, mice, and living popups. The two new chapters take place in Kris' living room and the local church. Chapter 4 also spends a lot more time in the Light World, building the overall story and characters outside of the combat and puzzles of the Dark World. Notably, there are multiple major mysteries all being built up, with huge revelations and hints dropped. What exactly are the Dark Worlds? Who, or what, is Ralsei? What is the shelter south of town? And, most intriguingly, what is the nature of the SOUL in Kris, and why does Kris keep removing it? I refuse to elaborate further here because it's all worth seeing and discovering for yourself. That last question gets some serious consideration in Chapter 4.

Of course, no story stands without dialog to carry it along. Toby Fox is great at interjecting humor in all sorts of ways, with situations and jokes that land more often than not. Arguably the funniest moment for me was getting into repeated fights with a water cooler that was far stronger than an inanimate object had any right to be. The roster of colorful characters keeps growing, with a 3D-modelled sentient TV, a huge Frankenstein/Jack-o-Lantern creature, and a returning shopkeeper from Undertale all being introduced and built upon in ways that are both funny and heartwarming. Finally, we get to see the evolution of Kris and Susie's new friendship (though, given the nature of Kris' [HeartShapedObject], I find myself wondering very often if their on-screen friendship is a reflection of Kris' desires or our own).

As has been touched on in the original review, the gameplay of Deltarune is a direct evolution of Undertale, which itself most closely resembles and old-school turn-based RPG. You walk around, talk to people, interact with signs and objects, and get pulled into random battles. During battle, you can attack or ACT on enemies during your turn, then take part in mini manic shooter scenarios during enemy attacks. The key difference in combat from Undertale is the fact that you have three characters to control and manage the health of rather than one now. Like Undertale, you have the option of physically attacking enemies or ACTing on them to make them no longer willing to fight you, giving you the ability to show mercy and making them your friends. Undertale would also let you attack enemies and then mercy them once their health got low. Deltarune switches this up in that NPCs with low health instead become tired, allowing them to be mercy'd by casting Ralsei's Pacify spell on them. In Chapter 1, only Kris can ACT, making them the sole person who can lead to mercy endings to battles that don't involve attacking enemies. Chapter 2 gives Susie and Ralsei the ability to perform a smaller subset of actions as well, usually for a smaller percentage of the Mercy meter's completion.

The other big deviation from Undertale in terms of combat is the Tension Points (TP) meter. TP is needed for certain special ACT options Kris can perform in certain battles, but it is mostly used by Susie and Ralsei to perform their magic attacks. TP is gained by performing successful attacks, defending, or by "grazing" bullets, in which you move your SOUL such that they just miss the bullets of enemy attacks. Some armor pieces that can be equipped will increase the range that you can graze bullets; others will increase the TP gained by grazing.

While the main game is particularly difficult, each chapter has at least one secret boss battle that provides a substantially more difficult challenge. The secret bosses in Chapters 1–3 each took me multiple hours to beat. Chapter 4 has two secret boss fights. Neither are particularly difficult, but they are both fun, and one makes some very interesting use of the Switch 2's joy-con mouse mode.

Of course, it wouldn't be a talk about Toby Fox's work without mentioning the music, of which I am an unabashed fan in general. A greater part of my personal music indulgences are Undertale and Deltarune remixes by a variety of artists. Personally, I think Chapter 2 contained the bulk of my favorite tracks from the game, but no part of it is a slouch in the music department. Every boss fight has its own unique music that perfectly sets the mood for the battle and the feelings the characters are experiencing, whether it be silliness, fear, spookiness, or anxiety. Toby Fox is a master at reusing melodies in new ways; somehow, he managed to reuse "Spooktune" from Undertale in a way that's been stuck in my head for over a week now. (The boss fight in which that music features is also hilarious in its own right, and is very unique in its danmaku patterns.)

Deltarune is mostly free of bugs and performance issues. Strangely, what issues I had seemed isolated to Chapters 1 & 2, where the game lagged a little during fights with a lot of bullets on-screen, such as the fight with Jevil. There was also some lag one of the times I ran through the Queen's monologue near the end of Chapter 2. There was also a noticeable graphical glitch in these chapters when running up and down stairs. I didn't notice any issues once I got to the new chapters.

The story, its motley crew of characters, and their combat does lead into the game's bigger moral concerns. The combat is honestly the least offensive thing here; it's typical RPG swords and magic with no blood shown. Deltarune definitely encourages mercy over direct combat. If you do attack enemies directly, they usually run away rather than dying this time around (in contrast to Undertale). All the monsters in Deltarune are capable of some kind of "magic", at least in the Dark World. The real moral issues begin with the dialog, which, while humorous, contains frequent PG-13-level cursing. Susie is especially prone to outbursts of "dumba**" and "g*dd**mit". There are many other instances of God's name taken in vain, along with the likes of "d**n", "a**", "screwing around", "heck", "hell", the middle finger gesture, "pee", and "Tity [sic]". Other, more severe swear words are referenced but censored, like Susie wanting their group to be called "the $!$? Squad", with another character remarking how their dad won't let them use "Tier-TWO swear words". Beyond swear words, Chapter 1 includes many instances of Susie threatening violence, including twice where she threatens to eat a character's face.

Blasphemy and false religion are also common in Deltarune. There is a church in the town, but the church centers around the prophecy of the Light and Dark. The prophecy includes a line about "banish[ing] the Angel's Heaven". People in the church pray, but it isn't clear to what or to whom (most likely the angel of the prophecy). Spamton blames heaven for controlling him and, in the secret Chapter 2 story route, claims that he is busy "becoming God" as he powers up behind closed doors. Finally, Ralsei says that the Darkners (denizens of the Dark World) believed that "[The Lightners, denizens of the Light World] were like Gods to us. Our protectors. Our creators. Those who gave us purpose."

All forms of romantic and sexual orientations take center stage in the story. For example, much emphasis is placed on the budding romantic relationship between Susie and Noelle, another girl in their town. Their romantic affections are mentioned in every chapter, and Chapter 2 has a fade-to-black moment in the secret ending route that implies there was some physical romance taking place between them. Chapter 3 then introduces a couple that evolves into a throuple; the third wheel comments at one point about how attractive he should be to them due to the size of his posterior. There is a gay couple in town that appear in a handful of chapters. When they appear in the church in Chapter 4, Susie comments how "tolerant" the church is. Finally, Kris' parents are separated (unclear if formally divorced or not), and their mother begins a romantic relationship with another character. There is a sign advertising an "ice-flavored" food that reads "(Melts in your pants not in your mouth.)" (Yes, I know it's a play on M&M's old tagline, but in this game, it definitely doubles as an innuendo). One other thing to note: I have heard some people comment on the player character in both Undertale and Deltarune being "non-binary". I personally never got the feeling that they were explicitly "non-binary" in sexual orientation, but that they were just meant to have an indeterminate gender to better allow the player to slip into the role of playing as them, regardless of their own sex or sexual orientation.

There are multiple alcohol references. In Chapter 2, one robotic character repeatedly gets drunk from drinking battery acid. A big portion of her fight involves her getting increasingly drunk on the acid so you can safely free another NPC that is under her thrall. One character at the end of Chapter 4 is seen drinking a wine glass, getting blushed and dizzy enough to fall over onto the floor. Chapter 4 also had a moment where a character smashed some glass and was bleeding, only to then accidentally smear that blood on another character's face.

Then there is the game's aforementioned "dark undertones". For starters, one of the NPCs named Lancer is put directly in harm's way by his own father during Chapter 1. While the future chapters show that his father does have some love and concern for him, his callousness in that first introduction as Chapter 1's villain cannot be ignored. Undertale was known for its multiple endings; Deltarune, on the other hand, starts out in Chapter 1 repeatedly enforcing the idea that neither Kris nor the player's choices matter. This is evidenced in the fact that Chapter 1 ends the same regardless of whether the player spares everyone or attacks everyone. Chapter 2 reinforces this, with Spamton looking to sever his puppet strings, and gain FREEDOM (enticing Kris with the same). In fact, Kris' entire relationship with us as the player is akin to possession in the way its portrayed. Our control over Kris against his will makes us question every action of Kris', putting them and their consequences, good or bad, squarely on the player.

The darkest part of this twisted control we have over Kris takes place in what is called the "Snowgrave ending" in Chapter 2. During Chapter 2, we temporarily lose Susie and Ralsei as party members and pick up Noelle the reindeer instead. During this time, we can force Noelle to freeze enemies instead of sparing them. Unlike the other modes of battle, the enemies do not run away when we do this, instead being permanently frozen even in the overworld when the battle is over. Over the course of this route, we repeatedly mentally abuse Noelle, pushing her to harm (or kill?) the people around her, put herself directly in harm's way, and even betray one of her own friends. Her fear and self-justification show just how conflicted and torn she is by all we are telling her to do, until she finally begins dissociating and blacking out to protect herself from the reality of the terrible things she is doing. These mental issues are not isolated to Noelle; there is evidence in Chapter 3 that Kris is going insane, as he begins seeing some very strange things when alone while hunting for one of the secret fights in that chapter.

Despite its myriad moral issues, Deltarune is, so far, an absolute blast of a game. The characters are colorful, the writing is funny, the gameplay is fun, the story is intriguing, and the themes are engaging. Like Undertale, the main game won't be too difficult for most players, but there are plenty of secret bosses that will be a challenge for all but the most expert of gamers. The new chapters perform well on the Switch 2 and are even longer than the first two chapters. In terms of length, my pacifist (no attacking) run took me around 14 hours, and my violence-only route took another 8. For $24.99 and the promise at the end of Chapter 4 that this is only the game's halfway point, the price is worth it if it means we can fund Toby Fox to get us the remaining game in a timely fashion. Deltarune is an excellent RPG I would recommend for any older, mature gamer; despite it's looks, this game is really not for kids.

Toby Fox, if you're reading this, I have just one thing to say to you:

-maestro_dana