Deltarune chapter 3 & 4 hype thread

[Pocket]

ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN​

DARK DARKER YET DARKER​

THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING​

THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER​

PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE​

THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT​

SEEMS​

VERY​

VERY​

INTERESTING​

...​

WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK​

So chapters 3 and 4 are coming out soon, and people are excited. I've seen videos pop up in my YouTube recommendations of streamers I know replaying the first two chapters to prepare. So I figured it was high time we got our very own thread for it.

What is this?

For those who just joined us, Deltarune is an episodic RPG of absolutely relatively epic length and scope from Undertale creators Toby Fox and Tem Chang (with assistance from like a dozen other people, because otherwise it really would be taking forever to get done). It features many of the same characters, but is set in an alternate universe (as one commenter noted, leave it to Undertale of all games to have its own official AU) where monsters and humans already/still live together on the surface. This time, instead of venturing underground alone, you and one of your monster classmates discover a portal to a "dark world" inhabited by personifications of everyday objects and abstract concepts, known as Darkners. There you meet up with Ralsei, a self-proclaimed prince with no subjects (but he does have a castle), and the three of you are now going on adventures into different "dark worlds" representing some aspect of life that has been abandoned by your kind, and whose leaders are preparing to invade the surface world at the behest of a mysterious figure known only as "The Knight".

Unlike in Undertale, where the protagonist had to face every encounter alone, the three of you now fight as a team using a greatly expanded battle system. You have three health bars to manage, a mana bar powered by blocking and near-misses, spells, and team attacks (of sorts).

I didn't play Undertale. Do I need to?

Yes. Just generally. Because it's one of the greatest games ever according to pretty much everyone who matters. But more specifically I can't imagine you'd appreciate this game if you're not already into that one. Greater scope aside, ultimately it's still a game about deescalating conflict (unless you'd rather not), goofy humor, and quirky creatures to become besties with. If you've been avoiding it for any reason than you're sure you won't like it, seriously just fork over the ten bucks and play it already.

Then play the first two chapters of Deltarune, which released for free in a manner akin to DOS shareware. (The next two will be out June 4. The rest will be done when it's done. The original plan was to release only the first chapter as a teaser and then the rest all at once, but it was taking ages and still is.)

Then come back and discuss it with us. From here on out, unmarked "spoilers" for chapters 1 and 2 are fair game!

 

[Pocket]

Anyway, two days to go, it's speculation time. Chapter two gave us a lot of plot threads to tug on, the big one for me being what happened to December. My theory is that she somehow disappeared into a dark fountain and became a missing persons case that Asgore and his police department couldn't solve, and since December's mom is the mayor and a world-class hardass, she sacked him for it. If so, Rudy sure has been taking it well.

The other big thing is the question of whether Kris is the Knight or not. They're definitely capable of creating dark fountains, somehow. If December really did go missing in a dark world, maybe that's what they're up to—trying to find where she disappeared to. How they have this knowledge and power is the real mystery.

Also, some people have been replaying the game and streaming it, so I've been watching some VODs from both then and now, and one thing that kept coming up that I totally missed before is that they're suspicious of Ralsei. It never occurred to me that we've only had his word for it that the dark fountains are bad. It's also worth noting that he's been alone his entire life (minus the few months he may have spent being Kris's hairband) , desperately lonely, and just happens to inhabit the one dark world that everyone else can go live in when we seal theirs up.

Also here, have a silly thing I drew back when the first chapter came out.