6 years ago (exactly), Toby Fox, creator of Undertale, logged onto Twitter-dot-com and gave half of his fans a heart attack by posting strange Tweets like a total weirdo. The next day, he sent out links to a “survey program.”
Players made their own character, gave it a personality and name, and then they were told that their “creation would be discarded.” They were told that they cannot choose who they are in this world and then immediately given a new character to play as while they were being awoken by a familiar face – Toriel (Undertale’s beloved mother goat monster).
I remember all of this like it was yesterday. Except I didn’t play the survey program first hand because I watched Jacksepticeye play it. But I remember the tweets. And I remember being sad that I couldn’t play it because my only computer was struggling to even turn on. I did end up playing both chapters of Deltarune on a labor day weekend just a few years ago.
After the survey program, players take the role of a character named Kris. They have an unsurprisingly familiar look to Undertale’s antagonist, Chara, and a similar name to Undertale’s protagonist, Frisk. Players explore the house before getting in the car with Toriel and heading to school, traveling through “Hometown” and recognizing all of the familiar faces and noticing the new ones.
After a precious little hug and kiss from Toriel, Kris goes to class and has to find a partner for a project. We meet Noelle, a sweet reindeer that used to be close friends with Kris, and Berdly, a dorky and ridiculous blue bird that may or may not be one of my favorite characters. Soon enough, Susie, a tattered, purple… dinosaur? walks in. She is described as the most intimidating person in school and a bully.
Susie and Kris are paired together for their school project and are also ordered to go to the storage closet to get more chalk since the teacher, Alphy’s (another character from Undertale), can’t find her’s. Kris catches Susie eating the chalk and their life is threatened over this discovery. They make their way to the storage closet but it’s insanely dark, but the two hesitantly go in. The floor below them falls and they enter the first Dark World of Deltarune!
There, they meet Ralsei, the prince of dark that scarily resembles Kris’ brother, Asriel (another character from Undertale), and he tells Kris and Susie that they are the heroes of the prophecy and they need to restore balance amidst the Dark World and Light World by sealing “Dark Fountains.”
Dark Worlds in Deltarune are sort of these imagination lands that are based on a real location. Chapter 1’s dark world is based off of the unused classroom/storage room. There’s a location titled “Card Kingdom” that is based off of a deck of playing cards. There are multiple other locations and characters based off of items in the unused classroom like chess pieces or (my favorite) an old doll that turns into a shopkeeper in the Dark World named Seam (pronounced Shawm). In Chapter 2, the Dark World is based in a library computer room so there are plenty of references to viruses, spam emails, pop up ads, and more.
Sorry that first description part is so densely packed, the beginning of Deltarune is honestly a lot. Now imagine how 10-year-old me felt seeing all of this for the first time. I was geeking out.
I actually won’t describe the plot of Deltarune anymore in this blog, I thought it would be nice to just introduce it because it’s literally free to play. So if you liked the initial description, there’s no excuse for you to not play it now. It’s great, it’ll take over your mind, and the next installments should be coming soon! If you’re just now getting into it, you won’t have to wait as long as I have for another chapter. It’s been a lonely 3 years…
In my previous blog, I talked about how I found Undertale and how much I loved that as a kid. I can’t remember the total impact it had on me because I was so young (I’m lying, I do remember but I won’t tell you…). Since Deltarune was released when I was actually conscious, I remember it all. I was there when it was released and I’m still here waiting for Chapters 3 and 4 to come out.
My favorite character is Kris, the non-binary, mostly silent protagonist that’s the only human in Hometown. I kind of see my younger self in Kris. Back then, I was (and might still be…) a total weirdo like Kris but that’s what most people love about their character. Now that I think about it, there’s not a single character that I don’t like. Each one has their own unique qualities and personality with both good and bad traits. Even the antagonists are so easy to love because Toby Fox makes incredibly characters. Especially Queen, the antagonist in Chapter 2, she’s definitely my favorite antagonist in any game ever because she’s so funny (and other reasons I won’t spoil).
Music made by Toby Fox is literally one of a kind. There are countless tracks from both games that send me back into my favorite memories the second I hear them. Some tracks make me feel like I’m walking in the middle of an empty road in a striped sweater in the midst of autumn. Others make me feel like I’m battling monsters in an imaginary, colorful world. Last year, I had a lot of trouble falling to sleep. I was also smack dab in the middle of my most intense Deltarune hyperfixation. So, I made a playlist of the most relaxing songs from Deltarune and I listened to it every single night for about 2 months straight… I still have the playlist but I don’t want to listen to it again because it’ll feel like I’m sleeping in my room back at home again and that might make me sad. The happiest track I know is probably “School,” the most chill and catchy is “Hip Shop,” and my absolute favorite is “You Can Always Come Home.” Honestly, it’s just a different version of “Home” from Undertale but that’s what makes it so special to me. Like it still gives me those memories and the nostalgic feeling I get when I listen to Undertale music but with the association of Deltarune.
When I was writing this, I got so overwhelmed with my emotions that I just went “Oh man, I love Deltarune.” Also, there’s a strange amount of references in my life that relate to the word “Delta.” My dog that I love with my entire heart and more is named Delta (and we didn’t name her we rescued her), I live in the Mississippi Delta (I think), and my favorite game is Deltarune. I wonder what that means, if anything.
Tomorrow (October 31) is the 6th year anniversary of the initial release of Chapter 1 and that is quite strange to think about. So happy birthday to Deltarune!
happy birthday deltarune!! i love this so much- i relate so heavily to watching youtubers play a game that i so desperatly wanted to play but either couldn’t afford or my mom’s ancient pc was too old to run it. for me it was yandere sim with ihascupquake, dogcraft mods with stacyplays, sallyface with jacksepticeye, or the entire fnaf series with markiplier. i lived vicariously through so many youtubers lmao. getting to play the games firsthand that i remember watching others play as a child is such a powerful moment of joy and nostalgia. i felt that excitment in this post. makes me wanna go play old versions of minecraft and rewatch markiplier playing fnaf :3
Always wanted to get into deltarune, but I wanted to wait until I finsihed Undertale but as you know I hate that spider and have never went near the game since then,, Anyways, Toby Fox makes such good music in his games, I could listen to them for hours.