Deltarune

Deltarune (stylized as "DELTARUNE" and "deltarune") is the second game released by Toby Fox. Chapter 1 was released for free on October 31, 2018, and the soundtrack two days later. Chapter 2 was also released for free on September 17, 2021, as well as its soundtrack. The paid release of the game, coming out in 2025, will add Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 5 is announced to come after launch,UNDERTALE / DELTARUNE NEWSLETTER: Halloween 2023 - Toby Fox - fangamer.com and additional chapters are expected in the future. 
Deltarune serves as a follow-up to Toby Fox's successful game Undertale, and is intended for those who have finished it.This is intended for people who have completed UNDERTALE. - https://deltarune.com While Deltarune has many returning characters from Undertale, the game is set in a different continuity.
Deltarune was released on 28 February, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Chapter 2 was released on September 23, 2021 as a free update.
The Deltarune demo does not have a native Linux version, but the Windows demo works on Linux using compatibility layers, and is verified on Steam for the Steam Deck.
Toby Fox has stated that official content releases for both Deltarune and Undertale will be released on their respective official accounts, as well as from his Twitter and Tumblr accounts. Content releases are also available through the mailing list on the official Deltarune and Undertale websites.
== Synopsis ==
=== Chapter 1 ===
Chapter 1, titled The Beginning, starts with the player creating a vessel that is abruptly discarded. Instead, they inhabit a vessel who they cannot choose: Kris. They are a quiet human teenager who lives with their mother Toriel and goes to the local school in Hometown. After being assigned a tall reptilian student, Susie, as a partner for a school project, she threatens to eat their face. They are forced to team up and go to get chalk from the school supply closet.
Upon opening it, the duo inadvertently discover the Dark World inside. There, they meet Ralsei, a kind hearted Boss Monster-like Dark Prince, who reveals that the three of them are the heroes of the Prophecy, destined to restore balance to light and dark. During their adventure, they meet Lancer, a goofy bad guy determined to stop them from reaching his kingdom's Dark Fountain. Feeling undervalued, Susie leaves Kris and Ralsei for a time and teams up with Lancer. Susie's friendship with Lancer helps her become more compassionate. The whole cast ends up uniting into a single team of four. In the end, Lancer helps the trio overthrow his cruel father, King. Afterward, Kris and Susie say their goodbyes to the Dark World, and, using the power of Kris's human SOUL, they seal the Eastern Fountain.
Kris and Susie return to their world together, appearing in a room filled with toys and board games, representing the Dark World and the characters they met. Kris and Susie agree to return to the Dark World the next day. Kris can leave the school and explore Hometown.
Kris goes to sleep after exploring the town. In the middle of the night, Kris shambles out of bed, seemingly fighting just to walk. They rip out their SOUL and throw it into a birdcage, where it becomes trapped. A knife materializes in Kris's hand, and they look at the camera with a menacing smile as their eye glows red. The screen then goes completely black for a few moments before the credits play.
=== Chapter 2 ===
The second chapter, titled A Cyber's World, begins with Toriel calling out to Kris. She then discovers a knife and acts shocked. However, it is almost immediately revealed that this is because Kris ate all of the pie she had baked the day before.
Kris wakes up, goes to school and enters the Dark World again with Susie. They meet Ralsei and explore the Castle Town, which has been significantly expanded by the addition of NPCs from Chapter 1. Eventually, Susie mentions they have homework to do, prompting Ralsei to banish them from the Dark World until their homework is done.
They go to the Library, where they find another Dark World, the Cyber World, awaiting them, and jump into it, this time after Noelle and Berdly, two of their classmates. They hear talk about a Queen, who acts as the main antagonist for this chapter, and meet her soon after. She captures Noelle, while Berdly switches to her side voluntarily. Eventually, Kris splits up with the other party members and teams up with Noelle. In Kris's company, Noelle learns to be less fearful, accentuating one of the game's themes of personal development. Later, after the entire party gets thrown into Queen's dungeon, Berdly learns to be less arrogant after failing to solve multiple puzzles, although he takes the lesson a bit too far. After fighting Queen in her normal form, the final boss fight begins with both parties fighting inside mechas, and then combat proceeds in the style of a Punch-Out!!-esque fighting game. Kris seals the Dark Fountain of this world, and the Lightners all return to the Light World.
After walking through town, Kris goes home and Toriel invites Susie to spend the night at her house. She sends the pair to wash their hands. When Kris goes to the bathroom, they rip out their SOUL again and escape through the window, leaving the player to listen to a chat between Toriel and Susie. Eventually, Kris returns to the bathroom and puts their SOUL back in their body.
After Susie and Kris fall asleep while watching TV, Toriel calls the police to inform them that she saw something outside the house and found her car tires slashed. After that, Toriel also falls asleep in the living room. Later, in the middle of the night, Kris wakes up, and, with their knife, creates a Dark Fountain that envelops the entire room in black mist. The last thing that can be seen is the static television screen and a ghoulish smile on it. Then, the screen goes completely black for a few moments before the credits play.
==== Snowgrave Route ====
If the player forces Noelle to freeze enemies with ice magic, an alternate story route (commonly referred to as the "Weird", "SnowGrave/Snowgrave", or "Genocide" route) occurs. The player emotionally manipulates Noelle to freeze enemies and solve puzzles by herself and makes a deal with Spamton to acquire a ring that improves her magic. She is eventually forced to freeze Berdly solid with the SnowGrave spell after he confronts the duo. She then leaves Kris, shaken by her own actions, and is too exhausted to participate in Queen's plans. Ralsei informs the latter of the Roaring preemptively, avoiding her battle. Kris goes to seal the Fountain alone but is stopped by Spamton, who upgraded himself into Spamton NEO while Queen was looking for Berdly. Fighting Spamton, Kris calls for help from Susie and Ralsei, who do not respond. The player then calls for help from Noelle, who freezes Spamton. Kris seals the fountain. In the Light World, Berdly is found unresponsive, and Noelle may question whether the Dark World really was a dream if visited at the Hospital. The route ends the same way as the normal route, with Kris opening a Dark Fountain.
=== Future chapters ===
The third and subsequent chapters are still in development. Chapter 3 and 4 are content complete, but are undergoing bugfixing, localization, and porting.UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE NEWSLETTER: ISSUE 7 - Autumn 2024 They are expected to come out in 2025. Toby Fox has stated that the first 5 chapters would be priced more than Undertale,DELTARUNE Status Update - Sept 2021 - deltarune.com although Chapter 5 has since been cut from the initial release so that Chapters 3 and 4 come out sooner. Most of the team is currently working on Chapter 5, which has had no statement on whether it will be a free update or paid DLC.
Additionally, the existence of Chapters 6 and 7 is indicated on the main menu of the game when selecting between Chapters 1 and 2, though no information about these or any further chapters have been revealed. The game files include title card graphics for Chapters 0, 8, 9, and 10, but these could just be for testing.https://tcrf.net/Proto:Deltarune/Chapter_1_%26_2_Demo_(2021)/Unused_Graphics#Other_Graphics
== Differences from Undertale ==
* Unlike Undertale, Deltarune allows keeping 3 SAVE files at the same time, and does not offer a RESET option. However, SAVE files can be erased through the game itself.
* There is now the possibility to run by holding "[CANCEL]" button, or enabling Auto-Run in the Config menu.
* Enemies appear in the overworld as obstacles as opposed to Encounters being randomized.
* As of Chapter 2, it is not possible to flee from battle.
* The in-game menu in the Dark World is much more complex, with game settings, detailed Stats, various Equipment, and different types of items.
== Development ==
=== Pre-Release ===
The concept for Deltarune came to a fever dream Toby Fox had in college in 2011. The dream was an ending to a game, and he became determined to create it.『DELTARUNE Chapter 1』が2/28に配信決定
Toby Fox credits his 2012 inspiration for making an RPG, leading to both Undertale and Deltarune, to the unique art of kanotynes, who designed Lancer, Rudinn, Clover, Hathy, King, Jevil, and the uncredited King of Diamonds. While Fox's first RPG was Undertale, his original game idea associated with kanotynes's character designs would later become Deltarune. kanotynes's designs for Lancer, Rudinn, Clover, Hathy, and King were part of a set of 52 unique playing cards which she had devised as a project for a design class, with the full set being complete by March 29, 2012.
=== Chapter 1 ===
Temmie Chang, who previously worked on Undertale, also worked on Deltarune's first chapter, contributing more graphics than she had for Undertale. She is credited as "Main Artist, Animator, & Cleanup" on Background, Overworld, Battle, Sepia and Menu Art.
keiko_fukuichi, a translator at 8-4 Ltd who also worked on Undertale, translated the game into Japanese.
Fox found Laura Shigihara, who sang and arranged the ending ballad Don't Forget, through Kan Gao's game, To the Moon.
With no prior warning, Chapter 1 of Deltarune was teased for one day on the Undertale Twitter before its release on October 31, 2018. On release, the game was disguised as a survey regarding "something new" Toby Fox had planned, saying it would "all start with [the players'] feedback." As such, the game's folders and shortcuts are named "SURVEY_PROGRAM" by the installer, although the actual game executable is called "DELTARUNE." Toby Fox stated he really wanted players to believe the game was related to Undertale, so he tried to imitate Undertale at the beginning of Deltarune, even going as far to make two different choice menus.
Players were asked to refrain from discussing what was in the game, or even what it was, for twenty-four hours after the release. On November 1st, 2018, Fox made the chapter's soundtrack available on Bandcamp.
Unlike the first demo for Undertale, the creation of Deltarune's first chapter took a few years, and a full version would likely take over 7 years for Fox to complete as "a single person (and Temmie)". He has therefore floated the idea of assembling a team to work on the game with him. Fox does not intend to make a Kickstarter campaign for Deltarune, and initially planned to release all potential remaining chapters simultaneously as a single-purchase game if it was completed. There is currently no projected timeline for the game's release or information about what platforms it will support in total, and some things about Chapter 1 may be changed prior to a full-game release, though the game is actively being worked on.
=== Chapter 2 ===
On September 15th, 2020, Toby Fox announced a development update on Chapter 2 and future chapters. In March 2019, Toby attempted investigating alternative engines to GameMaker before deciding to go back to GameMaker, believing it to still be the best fit for the project. Proper development of Chapter 2 would begin on May 2020. In the same update, he posted rough estimates for the completion of Chapter 2 and future chapters, announced he now had a team helping him develop the game amid chronic wrist and hand pain, and that he was looking for applicants to help develop Chapter 3 onward. on September 16th, 2020, he had already received 1000 applications.
On September 15th, 2021 during a YouTube livestream celebrating Undertale's 6th Anniversary it was announced that Chapter 2 of Deltarune would release on September 17th, 2021 for PC and Mac.
=== Upcoming Chapters ===
Following the release of Chapter 2, Fox stated that the game's third, fourth, and fifth chapters would be released as a single paid title once completed with no details being provided of Chapters 6 and 7. 
On May 2022, Toby made an additional comment to a Deltarune concept art tweet, stating that development for Chapters 3-5 was going well, and he had hired more people to help with the game's development.
On September 15th, 2022, Toby announced a development update, reaffirming the steady progress and showcased screenshot and music previews for Chapter 4. At the end of the post, he revealed the Spamton Sweepstakes event, a twenty-four hour charity/auction campaign that included Deltarune-related items, teasers, and pre-game anecdotes.
In the Halloween 2023 Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter, Toby announced that he intends to release Deltarune for purchase once Chapter 4 is completed. He also has hired a new producer that will help speed up the game development process for future chapters.
In the Summer 2024 Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter, Toby revealed a series of "quests" the development team has to complete before Chapters 3 & 4 can be released. Among these is testing a new function in GameMaker called game_change that enables separately launching different games in the engine. A public test of game_change through an updated version of Chapters 1 & 2 with the feature implemented was released on November 25, 2024. Work on Chapter 5 has been done in the meantime before game_change's release. Additional quests before Chapter 3 & 4's release include completing the console versions, the Japanese translation, and bugfixes.
In the Autumn 2024 Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter, Toby Fox confirmed that the development team has met the producer's internal deadline for Chapter 3 & 4's main content, and that he has completed all the work he could do before localization and testing. He additionally announced that anyone not working on localization, console porting, or fixes are now working on Chapter 5, which will be the team's main focus moving forward. On Halloween 2024 for Chapter 1's 6th anniversary, Toby Fox confirmed that Chapters 3 & 4 will "100%" release in 2025, with a more specific release date being dependent on localization and console porting.
In the Holiday 2024 Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter, Toby Fox talked more openly about game_change and the unforeseen issues it brought across the entire game, including reintroducing previously fixed bugs. Toby remarked it seems to "work okay", and announced prior to the newsletter that Version 3 of the feature's demo will likely be the last version. Toby also expressed that this will not be the last time GameMaker will have to be updated again for Deltarune, and it may lead to even more problems for Chapters 1-4 going forward. Chapters 3 & 4 have been completed except for translation and bug testing, and have been put on hold from releasing until those steps are completed. Chapter 3 still requires work on console-related aspects. Chapter 4's first Japanese translation pass was implemented; its final pass will take "some months" before completion and will be pending PC testing afterward, followed by console testing on both Chapters 3 & 4. Recent hires to the development team have been working on Chapter 5 in tandem with the rest of development. Toby reiterated that Chapters 3 & 4 are still releasing in 2025.
Following the holiday newsletter, Toby Fox has given smaller status updates on his Bluesky account. As of January 6, 2025, the PC version of Chapter 4 is being bug tested by a professional team.Happy New Year, friends! Deltarune Chapter 4 now being bug tested by a professional team on PC. On January 20, 2025, the Japanese translation's text and implementation were completed with some final issues being worked on, and SAVE points in the Light World were recently added to Chapter 4 by request of a tester, despite Toby's initial resistance.Translation: The text and implementation are done, working on fixing some last issues. Testing: Still ongoing. One tester said "players will find it very inconvenient that you cannot save or load in the Light World"... I was initially resistant, but I decided to add Save Points there in Chapter 4. Testing and translation began to wind down as of February 2, 2025 as the development team shifted focus from looking for new issues to fixing and checking remaining ones. Console testing Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 on all platforms (PC, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5) began on February 3, 2025.Ch4 PC Testing / Translation: Winding down. No longer looking for new issues, only fixing and checking remaining ones. Console Testing: Starts tomorrow. The goal is to test Chapter 1,2,3,4 on all platforms (PC,Mac,Switch,PS4,PS5) As games on PlayStation 4 and 5 require trophies for achievements, official achievements for Deltarune will also be created and tested for the PS4 and PS5 versions, although Toby has stated that PlayStation testers will not like testing them.PlayStation makes it a requirement to have trophies (achievements), so those will be one of the things that have to be tested. I don't think they're going to like testing the trophies though
== Updates ==
== Trivia ==
* Deltarune is an anagram of Undertale.
* The deltarune logo has no capitalized letters, in contrast to UNDERTALE, which is in all caps. Despite this, any in-game mention of the game's namesake is always in all caps.
* Toby Fox has stated that the events of Deltarune are separate from Undertale, being neither a sequel nor a prequel but rather taking place in an alternate world. Despite this, it has been suggested that there may be connections between the two games, with Deltarune being presented as part of the UNDERTALE series in store descriptions.It's a different world that might even have different rules. That doesn't mean there will be no connections at all though. - Deltarune FAQThe next adventure in the UNDERTALE series has appeared! - https://tobyfox.itch.io/deltarune
* The Delta Rune is an emblem found displayed across the worlds of Deltarune and Undertale. In Undertale, it represents the legend of the angel that will empty the underground while in Deltarune, it represents the heroes of Ralsei's prophecy.
* Toby Fox stated that the ending will be the same no matter what the player does, however this is followed by a question mark in the steam and Itch.io store pages for the Deltarune Chapter 1 and 2 demos, which suggests there could actually be more than one ending to the game.
* The user agreement that appears when running the installer for Deltarune only has a single, unexplained line that states that the player will "ACCEPT EVERYTHING THAT WILL HAPPEN FROM NOW ON."
* The subdomain "real.deltarune.com" redirects to starmen.net, an EarthBound fan forum where Toby Fox was a regular in the late 2000s and early 2010s. It's unknown if this redirect was made by Toby himself or by Fangamer.
* Although Undertale was ported to Xbox One, there has been no word on an Xbox version of Deltarune. This may be because a necessary GameMaker feature doesn't support Xbox.https://manual.gamemaker.io/monthly/en/#t=GameMaker_Language%2FGML_Reference%2FGeneral_Game_Control%2Fgame_change.htm
== References ==
== External Links ==
* Deltarune on Steam
* Deltarune on itch.io
* Deltarune on the PlayStation Store
* Deltarune on the Nintendo eShop
* Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter Archive, hosted on Toby Fox's Fangamer page.
* Official Twitter
* Official merchandise, via Fangamer
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