Deltarune facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Deltarune |
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| Developer(s) | Toby Fox |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Designer(s) | Toby Fox |
| Programmer(s) | Toby Fox |
| Artist(s) | Temmie Chang |
| Writer(s) | Toby Fox |
| Composer(s) | Toby Fox |
| Engine | GameMaker Studio 2 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release date(s) |
Chapter 1
macOS, Windows
October 31, 2018 Nintendo Switch, PS4 February 28, 2019 Chapter 2
macOS, Windows
September 17, 2021 Nintendo Switch, PS4 September 23, 2021 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Deltarune is a role-playing video game developed by Toby Fox. The player controls a human teenager, Kris, who is destined to save the world together with Susie, a monster, and Ralsei, a prince from the Dark World. During their quest to seal the Dark Fountains prophesied to end the world, the group makes both friends and foes. The combat system is turn-based and uses bullet hell mechanics. Similar to Undertale, enemy encounters can be resolved peacefully or through violence.
Development of Deltarune began in 2012, three years before Fox's previous game, Undertale, was released. Though it shares some narrative elements with Undertale, including alternate versions of characters from Undertale and the fact that Deltarune is an anagram of Undertale, it takes place in a different setting. Deltarune's battle system was overhauled to more closely resemble the combat of the Final Fantasy series. The first chapter of the game was released for free on October 31, 2018, for macOS and Windows; the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 editions were released on February 28, 2019. The second chapter was released for free on the same platforms in September 2021. More chapters are planned for a paid release, but no release date has been announced yet. What has been released so far of the game has been generally praised by critics for its soundtrack, characters, and sense of humor.
Contents
Gameplay
Like Undertale, Deltarune is a role-playing video game with a top-down perspective. The player directly controls a human named Kris, but selects actions for other characters during battle. Similarly to Undertale, Deltarune includes both puzzles and bullet hell sections in which the player must move a heart-shaped soul around a limited area to avoid attacks. Undertale's random encounter system has been removed; players can see the enemies in the environment before they encounter them, allowing for the possibility of avoiding (or deliberately engaging) them.
The game utilizes a turn-based combat system. Players can choose from a set of actions each turn: FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, MAGIC, SPARE, and DEFEND. In-game mentions of these actions are stylized in all caps. Grazing atttacks, defending, and hitting an enemy increase the Tension Points (TP) gauge, which allows party members to use spells or particular acts. For example, Ralsei can pacify tired enemies with a spell. When a party member's hit points (HP) drop below zero, they are downed and will not be able to fight until revived. The HP of downed party members will regenerate slowly until it reaches 1, but other healing sources can also revive a downed party member.
While the game often encourages the player to avoid fights and spare monsters, this is made difficult during some of the first chapter: Susie, who is not initially controlled by the player, will attack enemies rather than spare them, and thus the player must also warn enemies of Susie's attacks if they want to show mercy.
Plot
Deltarune's narrative spans seven chapters, of which two have been released, with five more being planned for a later release. Although it features some characters and elements from Undertale, it takes place in a different setting.
Chapter 1 – The Beginning
The game begins with the player being prompted to create an avatar, but the "vessel" is ultimately discarded, as "no one can choose who they are in this world". Instead, the player is given control of human teenager Kris, who arrives late to school one morning. After being paired up with their delinquent monster classmate Susie for a group project, their teacher, Alphys, sends the two to get chalk from the supply closet. However, the closet pulls them into a strange realm—the Dark World—where they meet the dark prince Ralsei. He tells them that the three are heroes destined to close the geyser-like Dark Fountains that give form to the Dark Worlds in order to preserve the balance between light and dark. A new Dark Fountain has created a Dark World east of Ralsei's, guarded by the tyrannical King. Susie, uninterested in Ralsei's story, joins King's son Lancer in trying to stop Kris and Ralsei, but both are eventually convinced to change sides and join the party.
Lancer refuses to confront his father and does not want his new friends to be hurt, so he imprisons them in King's dungeon. Susie helps Kris and Ralsei escape and fights Lancer, but reconciles with him and promises not to hurt King. Kris, Susie, and Ralsei confront and battle King, after which he falls over in exhaustion. After Ralsei heals him in pity, King incapacitates the group and prepares to kill them. If the player has not violently subdued any prior enemies, Lancer leads the Dark World's inhabitants in overthrowing and imprisoning King; otherwise, Susie distracts King, allowing Ralsei to cast a Pacify Spell on him, putting him into deep slumber. After sealing the Dark Fountain, Kris wakes up in an unused classroom with Susie, revealing that Dark Worlds are ordinary rooms transformed, and returns home. That night, Kris rises from their bed, rips out their soul, locks it away, and draws a knife, with their eye flashing red.
Chapter 2 – A Cyber's World
The next morning, Kris' mother, Toriel, discovers Kris has eaten a whole pie with their knife. After school, Kris and Susie return to the Dark World and reunite with Ralsei. He instructs Kris to return to the unused classroom and pick up the items inside. Upon carrying them to the closet, the Dark World's Castle Town expands and becomes inhabited by previously encountered Darkners, including Lancer and an imprisoned King.
Ralsei urges the two to leave and work on their group project with their classmates Noelle and Berdly. Kris and Susie head to the library's computer lab but discover a new Dark World has been created inside it, and Noelle and Berdly have been sucked in. The Dark World's ruler, a robot named Queen, kidnaps Noelle, intending to use her to create new Dark Fountains. Berdly, out of admiration for Noelle and Queen, joins the latter. Ralsei travels to the new Dark World to help Kris and Susie against Queen.
Kris is temporarily separated from Susie and Ralsei and joins Noelle, helping her evade Queen. During this section, Kris encounters Spamton, an insane spambot who wants to obtain "freedom" by taking their soul. Through an optional sidequest, Kris can later help Spamton enter Queen's basement and upgrade himself into the superboss Spamton NEO.
Kris and Susie convince Berdly to change sides, but he is captured by Queen. After Berdly is freed, Queen, desiring to fill the role of the figure who created the previous Dark Fountains, the "Roaring Knight", reveals that any inhabitant of the Light World can open a Dark Fountain through the use of "Determination". Before she can force Noelle into assuming this role, the rest of the party arrives; Queen then attacks the party with a giant mech and threatens to kill them if Noelle does not follow her plans, but Noelle refuses to obey her. Realizing the error of her ways, Queen encourages Noelle to choose the world she wants. Berdly attempts to create a Dark Fountain, but Ralsei tells him to stop, warning that opening too many Fountains will cause a cataclysmic event known as "The Roaring" that will drown the world in darkness. Kris closes the Dark Fountain, and Queen and her followers relocate to Ralsei's Dark World.
Kris and Susie awaken in the computer lab with Noelle and Berdly, who believe that their adventure was a dream. Susie walks Kris home and is invited in by Toriel. In the bathroom, Kris tears out their soul again and climbs out a window. After Kris returns and puts their soul back in their body, Toriel discovers that her car's tires have been slashed, suggests that Susie spend the night, and calls the police. After Toriel and Susie have fallen asleep, a limping Kris rips out their soul again, turns on the TV, and uses their knife to open a Dark Fountain in the living room. The screen fades to black as Kris holds up their soul, and a smile appears on the static TV screen.
Alternate route
If the player forces Noelle to freeze enemies with ice magic, an alternate story route (commonly referred to as the "SnowGrave/Snowgrave" or "Genocide" route, and internally referred to as the "Weird" or "Side B" 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 has 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 later questions whether the Dark World really was a dream. The route ends the same way as the normal route, with Kris opening a Dark Fountain.
Development and release
Chapter 1
The idea for Deltarune came to Toby Fox in a dream he had in 2011 while he was in college. In the dream, he saw the ending to a video game and was determined to create it. Fox was also inspired by a collection of playing card designs posted on Tumblr by artist Kanotynes. Development of the game started in 2012 but was abandoned before Fox created the first room. Some music from the original project was recycled for Undertale, most notably the main battle theme (which became Papyrus' battle theme, "Bonetrousle") and a piece called "Joker Battle" (which was reused for the Toriel fight as "Heartache"). Various factors, such as the graphics, an overhauled combat system, and Fox's mental state, made Deltarune a more challenging game to produce than Undertale.
Temmie Chang, who previously assisted Fox with character art in Undertale, served as the main artist for Deltarune. She helped design characters, sprites, and animations. Fox came up with Susie's design after playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. He originally based her on Maya Fey, and she would act "nice and cute". However, as her design progressed, she eventually turned into more of a "thug". Fox stated that he planned to give an unnamed character a fire spell that they would not be good at using but decided against adding it in the first chapter.
Deltarune was developed by Fox in GameMaker Studio 2. The game introduces a new battle system comparable to the one used in the Final Fantasy franchise, contrasting with Undertale's combat system (which shared similarities with that of the Mother series). While some of the game's music is completely new, it also incorporates portions of the Undertale soundtrack. Unlike Undertale, Fox has stated that Deltarune is planned to have only one ending.
After previously teasing something Undertale-related a day earlier, Fox released the first chapter of Deltarune for free on October 31, 2018. Initially disguised as a "survey program", it is described as a game "intended for people who have completed Undertale". As he envisioned a larger project than Undertale, he said that he needed to form a team to release the full game, which would be sold as a single package. In November 2018, Deltarune merchandise was announced in collaboration with Fangamer, including T-shirts, a poster, plushies, pin sets, keychains, and the Deltarune, Chapter 1 soundtrack on CD and vinyl.
A Nintendo Direct was released on February 13, 2019, announcing that the first chapter of Deltarune would be released on Nintendo Switch on February 28. On February 21, 2019, the official PlayStation Twitter account announced that a PlayStation 4 version of the first chapter would also be released on February 28. The Switch and PlayStation 4 versions were developed and published by 8-4.
Chapter 2
Development of the second chapter began in May 2020. In addition to further designing the game's story and characters, Fox spent much time experimenting with game engines other than GameMaker Studio 2. He eventually concluded that GameMaker "still felt like the best fit for the project", and using the first chapter as a base, he began working in May 2020, with Fox and Chang joined by a few other team members. Fox has stated that Chapter 2 may actually be the game's largest due to it having the most cutscenes, the chapter's use of a large number of characters, and other factors. In the 2020 update, Fox said he is considering expanding his 4-person team following wrist and hand pain, which has slowed down production on the game. Since then, Fox has received over 1000 applications. During a livestream celebrating the 6th anniversary of Undertale on September 15, 2021, Fox announced that the second chapter would release on PC and Mac via Steam and itch.io two days later, on September 17, 2021, as another free release. The Switch and PS4 versions were updated to include Chapter 2 on September 23, in conjunction with that day's Nintendo Direct. In his blog, Fox stated the second chapter was also released for free as the COVID-19 pandemic made the world "really tough for everybody recently."
Fox also revealed that the game's third, fourth, and fifth chapters would be released as a single paid title once completed; the game's menus currently depict a total of seven planned chapters. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are currently being developed, with no release date announced. Two years later, in September 2023, Fox stated in a seasonal newsletter that the third chapter of Deltarune was playable from beginning to end. A month later, in October 2023, Fox announced that, due to the length of development, the initial paid release would only include the third and fourth chapters.
See also
In Spanish: Deltarune para niños
