| DELTARUNE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
| Release Date | |
|---|---|
|
Chapter 1 October 1, 2018 (Windows) February 28, 2019 (PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch) Chapter 2 September 17, 2021 (Windows) September 23, 2021 (PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch) Chapter 3 2025 More Details | |
| Genre | |
| RPG, Indie | |
| Platforms | Price (MSRP) |
 |
Chapters 1-2, Free as Demos |
| Developer | Publisher |
| Toby Fox | Toby Fox |
| Number of Players | Age Rating |
| 1 | ESRB T |
| Time to Finish | Cross Platform |
| Chapter 1 3-4 Hours Chapter 2 4-5 Hours |
No |
| Official Website | DELTARUNE Website |
DELTARUNE News
⚫︎ Deltarune Chapter 4 Nearing Completion, But Release Still Far Off
⚫︎ How Deltarune Chapter 2 Portrays A Disturbingly Dark Relationship (Gamespot)
⚫︎ Undertale Creator Offers Insight into Deltarune, Whether or Not It's a Sequel (IGN)
DELTARUNE Overview
DELTARUNE is the highly anticipated new title created by Toby Fox, the creator of the widely-beloved indie game UNDERTALE. DELTARUNE bears many similarities with UNDERTALE, where its art style and sprites look exactly the same, it retains the bullet hell combat greatly inspired by the TouHou series, it contains the ability to ACT and MERCY enemies, and they feature a few identical UNDERTALE characters.
However, the similarities end there, as the new game is primarily a classic turn-based RPG with a party of characters. The most striking difference is that DELTARUNE is split up across several self-contained chapters with its own plotlines and conclusions. This hugely contrasts UNDERTALE, which was released as one single game with a clear narrative from start to finish.
DELTARUNE centers around Kris, a silent HUMAN high-schooler in a world full of MONSTER, where they are the adopted child of the beloved goat mom and schoolteacher Toriel. Under Professor Alphy’s class in school, Kris partners with another MONSTER, the bully Susie, for a class project. Later on, as the two enter the school closet to retrieve supplies, they suddenly find themselves in a mysterious world where they can wield weapons, use magic, and encounter MONSTERs who can do the same.
Within the world of the closet, they meet the ‘Prince of the Dark’ Ralsei, who reveals that the world the two students came from is known as the Light World, and that they are called Lighters, and the current place they find themselves in is the Dark World, full of Darkners. Ralsei then recounts to them an ancient prophecy wherein a HUMAN, a MONSTER, and a PRINCE all work together to save both worlds from being brought into an unnatural imbalance that would cause chaos.
The three, with a reluctant Susie, then combine forces to seal rogue Dark Fountains that have been spawning, causing said imbalance between both worlds. Though they get off to a rocky start due to a certain Lancer’s shenanigans and Susie following suit, they eventually reconcile and work together towards their prophesied quest of saving the two worlds.
| Steam |
PlayStation |
Switch |
|||
| Price | Chapters 1-2 Free-to-play as Demos | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DELTARUNE Gameplay
DELTARUNE is a 2D turn-based RPG where you control a party of members during combat, where each character can be issued a variety of commands such as FIGHT, ACT, MAGIC, DEFEND, and MERCY. FIGHT, MAGIC, and DEFEND are your typical RPG actions where players can either deal damage to enemies or reduce damage to your party. However, DELTARUNE continues UNDERTALE’s unique gimmick of being able to convince enemies to cease the fight. They could either ACT make them lose the will to fight, thus granting the ability to provide MERCY, or they could tire them out and lull them to sleep, thus PACIFYing them.
Also sharing a similarity to UNDERTALE, enemies’ attacks are bullet hell attack patterns where players must dodge attacks to survive the onslaught and achieve victory by whichever means they wish.
DELTARUNE Review
DELTARUNE Chapter 1 Reviews
A Strong Start for the Series Going Forward
DELTARUNE comes hot off the presses with a strong start, as described by Nintendo World Report, where they praise its attention grabbing characters and story setups accompanied by its solid music. Nintendo Life also touts the storytelling as "so compelling" due to the "hefty dosage of sarcastic and witty humor used along the way," mentioning how the game doesn’t insist upon itself and opts to delight players with its goofiness.
When looking at Chapter 1’s Metacritic scores, not enough critics have yet reviewed the game, leaving only viewers to only go by the user ratings. The masses vote an aggregated 8.6/10 rating, where a few already claim the game to be their favorite of all time just from the first chapter. However, many point out that it IS only the first chapter of an unfinished game and therefore it’s hard to rate and gauge the importance and impact of said chapter, disallowing them to judge within the big picture.
DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Reviews
Consistently Good While Setting Up for Something Grand
DELTARUNE Chapter 2 continues and expands upon the first chapters world and mechanics, now allowing for most of your actions to have actual consequences for the chapter’s finale. This major point is what Screen Rant praises when comparing to the first chapter, where alongside the notable improvement, still delivers "many laugh-out-loud moments spread through the game." Polygon offer a different point of view, saying how welcoming the game is by offering players a "brief reprieve in a world that’s still healing." They also praise the game’s narrative, citing how it "This is not the conclusion of the conversation, but rather the start of one." However, due to being early in its infancy, Nintendo Life points out how it still feels like the game "is struggling to form its own identity," due to how early it is in the story as well as the inclusion of numerous UNDERTALE aspects.
Its Metacritic scores, once again only from users, average an 8.7/10 rating, where majority deem the chapter a large improvement from the previous, building off on, emphasizing, and slowly solidifying various features, mechanics, and the unfolding plot as the series progresses.
DELTARUNE Announcement Trailer
Announcement Trailer
DELTARUNE had no formal announcement trailer when it was revealed, as developer Toby Fox mysteriously posted a link to his website with an unnamed file to download, which turned out to be the full first chapter of DELTARUNE. However, he has since uploaded a custom ‘spoiler-free’ trailer alongside the release of Chapter 2 three years later, where the trailer shows multiple scenes across the first chapter but covered with dogs.
DELTARUNE Trivia
⚫︎ DELTARUNE was shadowdropped out of nowhere by UNDERTALE creator Toby Fox, disguising it as a ‘SURVEY PROGRAM’
⚫︎ DELTARUNE is a different world/universe from UNDERTALE which has most of its characters but in widely different situations
⚫︎ DELTARUNE is an anagram of UNDERTALE
⚫︎ One of the major new characters in DELTARUNE is Ralsei, whose name is an anagram of Asriel, a major character in UNDERTALE
⚫︎ The 'Delta Rune' is the symbol found across UNDERTALE, most notably on Toriel’s robe
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