Am I the only one who was caught completely off-guard by the release of Deltarune Chapter 2? No? Good.
In the wake of the pandemic, Toby Fox, the famed developer of Undertale and now Deltarune, released the next installment of his bizarre pseudo-sequel (though it works amazingly well as a standalone game) completely free. He’s even bundled it with the first chapter on PC and consoles.
The fans went wild instantly. There was fanart up within hours of the game’s release, and the active community of lore-digging theorists were ready to dive into the strange world we were presented with.
SPOILER WARNING
There are spoilers ahead for Chapters 1 and 2 of Deltarune.
Welcome to The Cyber World
In the second chapter of our new adventure, we once again join our hero (?), Kris, as they head to school the day after the events of Chapter One. We meet up with our project partner Suzie yet again, and today, we’re invited to the library to study with Noelle and Birdly. When we arrive, though, the door to the computer lab is a familiar pulsing black.
We dive into a new Dark World, and this time, it’s all about computers, of course. We briefly see Noelle but discover quickly that she’s been taken captive by Serial Number Q5U4EX7YY2E9N – more easily referred to as Queen. Now we have to trek through mice, cityscapes, and battery acid to retrieve our lost friends.
It’s a brilliant, fun concept accompanied by upbeat techy music you can really bop along to. I loved the updates to the fighting mechanics, the variety in the bosses, and the overall silliness of the world. It was, unsurprisingly, full of puns at every corner, and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Be a Big Shot
Unsurprisingly, the Deltarune fandom has latched onto the strangest possible character in the game: Spamton, the malware miniboss.
Spamton holds the same sort of appeal that Jevil did in Chapter 1; he’s deranged, his hidden fight is visually interesting, and his mechanics are difficult to beat. On top of that, he has an incredibly catchy song that seems to get stuck in everyone’s head for hours after playing his main story section.
It’s becoming very clear that whatever Toby Fox does, he has a knack for creating lunatics with sad stories that make the fans go absolutely bonkers (We’re definitely side-eyeing Sans).
Kris’s Dark Ending
It wasn’t all fun and arcade games, though.
The very end of Deltarune starts out innocently enough, with Toriel inviting Suzie in to make a pie with her and Kris. Kris goes to wash their hands…and then things get weird.
We get an echo of the ending of Chapter 1, with Kris ripping their heart out and shoving it aside. This time, though, they exit the room, and we know they’re gone for a long time; Suzie and Toriel have a whole conversation.
We also get some insight from Toriel in the next scene; she caught on to the fact that someone was prowling around their house, and that someone had slashed her car’s tires. Is Kris plotting something?
Finally, we get the climactic ending of Kris being revealed as the Knight, leaving us to wonder how the next chapter will start.
This one focused quite a lot on the dangers of the Dark Worlds bleeding into the Light World, so to see our “protagonist” willfully start a new danger is…unsettling. I can’t wait to see where this goes. I’m so curious to see how Kris came to have the power to reject the player, and whether it has anything to do with Determination.
More Chapters to Come
Probably the most exciting part of this new release was the reveal that the game is going to be much, much bigger than anyone anticipated. And it was done in a clever, subtle way.
Fans who went back to their saves to play again discovered a remarkable thing: there are seven chapters of Deltarune planned! And it looks like each one will have its own unique Dark World theme to explore.
This means that not only are we likely going to get to meet the elusive College Brother Asriel, we’re also going to get answers to the game’s dark, pressing mysteries surrounding Kris and their strange ability to…well, be “heartless,” shall we say?
The Future of Deltarune
Whatever Fox decides to do with the remaining chapters, I will be excitedly waiting to pick it up and play it, on PC and Switch if I have to to get all the content. His work is so enticing that I’m more than willing to pay for any of his games twice (though Deltarune is, shockingly, free) to get the full experience.
I’m excited to see what Chapter 3 brings. New characters, new worlds, and new dark, disturbing lore.
Deltarune is available on PC, Mac, and consoles.
Images courtesy of Toby Fox
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