Deltarune

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Deltarune is an episodic role-playing video game in development by Toby Fox as a follow-up to his 2015 video game Undertale. In the game, 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. Similarly 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 characters with Undertale and features similar gameplay, it takes place in a separate setting and uses an overhauled battle system with multiple party members. The game's story is divided into multiple chapters that have been released gradually; its first and second chapters were released for free in October 2018 and September 2021 respectively, the next two chapters released on June 4, 2025, and Chapter 5 is set to release sometime in 2026. Initially, the game was released on macOS and Windows, before being ported to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2019, and the Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 in 2025. The released chapters have been largely praised by critics for their soundtrack, narrative, and sense of humor.

Gameplay

Like Undertale, Deltarune is a role-playing video game with a top-down perspective. The player directly controls a human named Kris, but has a party of other characters which they select actions for during battle. The game includes both overworld and combat sections; in the former, players can solve puzzles, collect items, and interact with characters and the world. The random encounter system from Undertale has been removed; players can see the enemies in the environment before they encounter them, allowing for the possibility of avoiding or deliberately initiating combat.

The game uses a turn-based combat system, where players can choose from a set of actions each turn: Fight, Act, Item, Magic, Spare, and Defend. As in Undertale, players control a heart-shaped soul in a fixed area, which must dodge enemy attacks in the form of bullets, though the exact mechanics are sometimes unique to the respective enemy. Defending or "grazing" an incoming attack by letting it come close to the heart without hitting increases 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.

Using acts and spells allows a player to spare enemies non-violently; from the second chapter, this can allow them to be recruited to live in the player's Castle Town. Alternatively, fighting an enemy, which also increases TP, can lead to them being defeated violently. 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.

Summary

Deltarune's narrative spans multiple chapters, of which four have been released, with three 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 a voice prompting the player 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 to school late. After being paired up with their delinquent monster classmate Susie for a group project, their teacher, Alphys, sends the two to get supplies. However, the supply 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. 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 fighting Kris and Ralsei, but both are convinced to change sides and join the party.

Lancer refuses to confront his father or to see his new friends hurt, so he imprisons them in King's dungeon. Susie frees Kris and Ralsei and fights Lancer, but reconciles with him and promises not to hurt King. The three confront and battle King, who falls over, exhausted. After Ralsei heals him in pity, King prepares to kill the heroes. If the player has not violently subdued any prior enemies, Lancer leads the Dark World's inhabitants, Darkners, in overthrowing and imprisoning King; otherwise, Susie distracts King, allowing Ralsei to put him to sleep with a spell. 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 rips out their soul representing the player's control, locks it away, and draws a knife, their eye flashing red.

Chapter 2 – A Cyber's World

The next morning after school, Kris and Susie return to the closet Dark World and reunite with Ralsei. He instructs Kris and Susie to bring the items from the unused classroom into the closet, restoring them to their Darkner forms, but then tells them to focus on a project with their classmates Noelle and Berdly. Arriving at the library's computer lab, they discover a new Dark World has been created, ruled by a computer named Queen, who recruits Berdly to her side and attempts to recruit Noelle. They find Ralsei but soon split, and Kris joins Noelle, helping her evade Queen.

Queen captures everyone, but Kris and Susie escape, convince Berdly to change sides, and reunite with Ralsei. Queen reveals that the Dark Fountain was created by the "Roaring Knight", and that she is trying to force Noelle to open a Fountain, something that any inhabitant of the Light World can do. She threatens Noelle and the party with a giant mech, but they make her realize the error of her ways. Berdly then attempts to create a Fountain, but Ralsei warns him that opening too many Fountains will cause an apocalyptic "Roaring". Instead, Kris closes the Fountain.

The four awaken in the computer lab, with Noelle and Berdly believing it was a dream. Kris heads home, and their mother Toriel invites Susie to spend the night. While Susie and Toriel are occupied, Kris secretly rips out their soul, locks it in the bathroom, and briefly leaves the house; Toriel's car tires are slashed. After everyone else falls asleep, Kris rips out their soul again, opens the door, turns on the TV, and creates a Fountain in the living room with their knife. A smile appears on the TV screen.

Chapter 3 – Late Night

Kris and Susie awaken in a Dark World set in Toriel's living room. After reuniting with Ralsei, he reveals to Susie that Dark Worlds are an illusion, and that Darkners are transformed versions of various inanimate objects. Susie and Ralsei's conversation is then interrupted by Tenna, an anthropomorphized version of Toriel's television who serves as a game show host. He forces the trio to star in various competition segments, presented as a variety of minigames. Upon continuing to participate in these games, they eventually discover Toriel being held hostage by Tenna inside of a giant toy capsule.

The party demands Tenna stop the games, allowing them to seal the fountain and return home with Toriel. He refuses, citing his feelings of abandonment as Kris's family stopped watching television due to the hospitalization of Noelle's father, Toriel's divorce, and Asriel leaving for college. He additionally mentions that the Roaring Knight promised him relevance in exchange for keeping the fountain open. After a fight serving "final challenge," Ralsei and Susie comfort Tenna, explaining that he has already spent years bringing joy. However, he is suddenly attacked by the Knight, who also attempts to capture Toriel.

The party fights the Knight, and upon defeat, is rescued by Undyne (a police officer in Hometown), allowing Kris and Susie to escape to the Light World with the Fountain remaining unsealed. The two follow the Knight and Undyne to a previously sealed-off bunker, which now appears to have a Dark Fountain created inside of it. The door shuts before they can enter, causing Susie to bang on its door until a hidden electronic keypad is revealed. Susie then runs back to Kris's home to rescue Toriel, suggesting Kris come with her. The chapter ends with the bunker door opening itself for Kris.

Chapter 4 – Prophecy

After Kris and Susie close the living-room Fountain, Toriel invites them to church. The two ask townsfolk about the bunker, concluding that their best source is Noelle's mother Carol, and get Noelle to invite them over so they can investigate her house. In the bedroom of her missing sister Dess, Kris finds the bunker lock code in a guitar, but before the player can read it, Kris interrupts, ripping out their soul. The player gains control of the soul and infiltrates the house's ventilation, finding Kris on the phone with an unknown person, who instructs them to stop Susie getting the guitar. Although Kris fails, Carol returns home and expels Susie from the house before she finds the code.

After discovering their house is locked, they find a Dark World inside the church, which they enter to rescue Toriel. Within, they encounter depictions of Ralsei's prophecy and an elderly tortoise-like monster who helps Susie gain self-confidence. The party seals the Fountain, but find another Dark World behind a locked church door. Susie discovers the old monster is a Darkner created from the deceased monster Gerson, and creates a new Fountain to ask him for help unlocking the door. However, a hostile statue resembling Gerson fights Kris and Susie, who are saved by Ralsei.

The party unlocks the door, finding the Knight in the Dark World. It opens another Fountain, which transforms into a "Titan," a harbinger of the Roaring. The party defeats the Titan with unexpected help from Gerson. Susie runs ahead and sees part of the prophecy that Ralsei tried to hide, which she smashes before the player sees. They seal the Fountain and return home, only to find Toriel with convenience store "janitor" Sans. In Kris's bedroom, an unknown person calls, reminding Kris to "[not] forget their promise".

Alternate route

During Chapter 2, the player can begin an alternate route (commonly referred to as the "Snowgrave" or "Genocide" route, and internally referred to as the "Weird" or "Side B" route) by forcing Noelle to use her magic to freeze enemies, with the help of Spamton, a spambot normally encountered in an optional sidequest that leads to his superboss fight. As the player continues to manipulate Noelle, she is eventually forced to freeze Berdly, becoming shaken by her actions and too exhausted to participate in Queen's plans. Ralsei informs Queen of the Roaring preemptively, preventing her battle. Spamton, who took over the mansion and upgraded himself, tries to stop Kris, but is frozen by Noelle as Kris seals the Fountain. In the Light World, Berdly is found unresponsive, and Noelle later questions if the Dark World really was a dream. The route ends identically to the normal route, with Kris opening a Dark Fountain.

If the player took this route, Chapter 4 reveals that Berdly is still alive, but remains in a coma, having been carried by Kris to the hospital off-screen. When Kris and Susie are visiting Noelle at her house, after the player attempts to read the note in Dess's guitar and Kris removes their soul, Noelle asks Kris if they can talk privately. Once the player infiltrates the ventilation system and exits Noelle's room, they overhear a conversation between Noelle and Kris. The player can then enter the room to assume control of Kris, and either reassure Noelle or force her to wear the ring she used in the Dark World, revealing to her that the previous events were not a dream. If the latter occurs, Kris shoves the soul into the bathroom's garbage bin afterwards and furiously beats it up. The game continues similarly until Chapter 4's end, where Carol calls Kris to inform them that Noelle is looking forward to seeing them at the festival the following day.

Release Date

Chapter 1

  • macOS, Windows
    October 31, 2018
  • Nintendo Switch, PS4
    February 28, 2019
  • PS5
    NA: June 4, 2025
    EU: June 4, 2025
    JP: June 5, 2025
  • Nintendo Switch 2
    WW: June 5, 2025

Chapter 2

  • macOS, Windows
    September 17, 2021
  • Nintendo Switch, PS4
    September 23, 2021
  • PS5
    NA: June 4, 2025
    EU: June 4, 2025
    JP: June 5, 2025
  • Nintendo Switch 2
    WW: June 5, 2025

Chapters 3+4

  • macOS, Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5
    NA: June 4, 2025
    EU: June 4, 2025
    JP: June 5, 2025
  • Nintendo Switch 2
    WW: June 5, 2025

Chapter 5

  • WW: 2026

Also See

Sound Effects Used

Image Gallery

Audio Samples

External Links