Deltarune Chapters 1-5 Thoughts
Spoilers ahead (obviously)
It's really been over 10 years since Undertale first came out, and I still remember my initial experiences with the game positively. At the time the battle system felt genuinely innovative, combining a turn-based system into part demon conversation not too dissimilar from a Shin Megami Tensei game, part shmup with dodging projectiles in a mini form. The writing and visuals that game creator Toby Fox employs are witty and humorous, with more serious moments that make you invested in the world and characters. On top of it all though is the soundtrack, which fits each situation in the game to a tee and will stand the test of time as an all time great game soundtrack. While I did have some of my issues with Undertale at the time, and I wouldn't consider it a favorite of mine, I was excited when I learned that Toby Fox was continuing his work on a new RPG called Deltarune. The launch around Chapter 1 of Deltarune I remember being pretty mysterious, but it soon became pretty widely known and I did end up playing it when it came out in 2018. After that however, I felt like Deltarune was much of the same as Undertale, not really adding a ton in terms of new ideas, and in an incomplete state as only the first chapter of this story had released at this point. So, I decided that I wouldn't play the rest of Deltarune until it was fully completed, whatever that looked like. Fast forward to 2026. Deltarune Chapter 5 had released not too long ago, and has people excited, including a lot of my friends. After some consideration, and some bargaining I had made with one of my friends, I decided to get caught up, as there's only 2 more chapters to be released in finishing this story. That brings us to today, where I'm all caught up and have at least played Chapters 1-5, and I wanted to really sit down and think about what I thought about each Chapter.
Chapter 1
It's made clear early on that when first starting Chapter 1 that your choices in this game will still have some weight, but will not matter nearly as much as they did in Undertale. The character creator in deciding how you appear is quickly discarded and the game makes that point pretty clear. It's also clear that this world is either the same or an alternate reality to Undertale, with a lot of characters making a return in the home town of the game, which is nice to see. After getting to school and meeting Susie, who seems to be the school bully, the adventure gets started after going to get some supplies from the closet, and finding that it takes us to a different world of the Darkeners, a place devoid of light compared to where our main character comes from as a Lightener. We also meet Ralsei, who is a Darkener and explains to us what we're doing here and our objective As the adventure progressed, I felt like Toby's strengths were still there, not to the same extent as Undertale. A lot of the character writing at this point isn't as strong, but I chalk that up to this being mainly introductions. The humor this time around has some funny moments, usually when it plays on other JRPG tropes or general curiosity. When Susie finally decides that joining the team is beneficial and not a stupid idea, it was a highlight of chapter to me.
Other parts of the humor though feel more "online" so to say, and that point get accentuated more in later chapters. I felt like the soundtrack was good, but decidedly weaker overall. I felt like a lot of the songs were much shorter loops that just repeated, but they weren't bad just a bit underwhelming. Some stand outs to me were Hip Shop, Chaos King, and THE WORLD REVOLVING. The last track in that list was the highlight of the combat in this chapter to me, but we'll come back to that in a moment. Overall the combat hasn't changed much compared to Undertale, but it has some quality of life changes like showing the percentage needed to mercy or pacify an opponent. Other than that, if you liked Undertale's combat you'll like this game. I did fight the optional secret boss of the chapter, Jevil, and he was the highlight of the chapter overall for me personally. It's a bit unfortunate though that some of the games best content was locked (no pun intended) behind a secret that some players will never experience. I don't have much to say on the character's this time around, as again we just got introduced. It's nice to see Susie come a bit more out of her shell towards the end of the chapter, and other than Ralsei taking off his hat, I feel like he's a bland lorekeeper and that's the only real reason he's here at this point. Lancer is fine, a bit annoying at points but his friendship with Susie is sweet. Our character, Kris, doesn't have much personality at this point either, but we do see at the end of the chapter them ripping their "heart" out and putting it in a cage, showing they have a more sinister side. The story itself so far wasn't the greatest hook I had felt playing an RPG, but it was also retreaded territory as this was the only chapter I had played previously.
Chapter 2
Continuing on, Chapter 2 feels like a bit more of the same as Chapter 1, but with more expanded character dialogue, and a stronger setting. This is also the introduction of the Castle Town, where if you decided to spare the enemies you face, they show up here to help you on your journey and get additional flavor text from. This place is nice to start each chapter, catch up with old foes and see what's new in the town either with items or characters. One thing I wish is that the recruit list available when you save the game shows is enemies that you just didn't encounter, beside the ones that you just may not have fully recruited. Outside of a few things though, I felt like most of the enemies here were largely forgettable outside of the more major bosses of each chapter which later on start getting their own rooms in the castle. The real meat of the chapter starts with some more expanded characters being Noelle and Berdley. With each dark world you visit being correlated to a real world place, it adds to the overall setting for the chapter. Since this time Noelle and Berdley invite us to the library computer lab to study for whatever group assignment Kris and Susie have, this chapter's setting feels like you're inside a computer itself. Noelle I think as a whole was my favorite or second favorite character across all of the chapters that are available at this point. She's a very sweet girl who also has some trouble sharing what she's really feeling. Her family as we later learn also has some pretty high status in the town, with Noelle's mom being the mayor. Noelle's character wouldn't be complete without her crush on Susie, and seeing how that relationship unfolds throughout this chapter as a cute first beginning, but the later chapters as well was probably my favorite part of Deltarune as a whole. I'm a sucker for cute lil' love stories. Let's talk a little more about Berdley then. I didn't really like Berdley outside of a few jokes and things that he says throughout the chapter. He's a stereotype on a nerd who's a little overconfident and thinks that they're always right, and although he grows to be better at the end of the chapter, I really don't think that he added much of anything to the experience outside of a "gamer" reference.
That brings me to one of my gripes with Deltarune as a whole, its humor. Don't get me wrong, there are funny moments throughout this and future chapters, but I feel like a large portion of them you have to be either chronically online or understand a certain subset of internet and gaming culture to find a lot of the humor humorous. Berdley and the main boss of the chapter, The Queen, are prime examples of this to me. Berdley and the Queen team up for part of the chapter under the guise that Berdley is helping keep Noelle safe, but the Queen doesn't really like Berdley (don't blame her) and tries to constantly run away. In one scene, Berdley is looking for the Queen when he says "They're just... busy retro gaming somewhere!! I bet they're waiting for me on the player select screen!!" Now then. Imagine if you're an average person or gamer, I have a hard time believing that this type of humor will land. I also feel like it would get outdated in like 15 years, and ultimately drag down the experience for new players then. The Queen is like this to a similar but lesser extent. Because they're technically a laptop, they talk like a computer, but one that's referential and casual in it's tone a lot of the time. Compared to Chapter 1's boss, the King, the Queen just feels like much less of a threat and more of an obstacle than anything.
Gameplay this time around is largely the same. A lot of the bullet patterns from enemies and bosses that you encounter aren't the trickiest to dodge, but still make for a ok challenge, especially if you don't play other shmups or games similar. The secret boss this time around was about the same difficulty as the secret boss of Chapter 1, but they had a few cool attacks and moments that I wish more enemies had. At a few points in the chapter, including the fight against The Queen there's also a style of combat akin to a Punch Out!! game where you dodge and fight back against patterns that way. This was the first different gameplay style that Toby introduced that I could remember, but it certainly isn't the last. It's a nice diversion in this case, and it also helps that I really love Punch Out!!. Music this time around is about as solid as Chapter 1. I didn't have a ton of standout tracks, but I did really enjoy My Castle Town and Knock you Down !! as my favorites for the chapter. That's the one thing I cannot deny about Toby Fox as a game creator is his ability to set a tone through the OST, and his ability for composition. Everything fits right where it should be and only additive to the experience.
Chapter 3
I think looking back, Chapter 3 was my favorite chapter in some respects, and my least favorite in others. Let's start off with the negative, so we can boost this chapter up toward the end. I felt like Chapter 2 did an ok job sprinkling character writing and lore throughout the entire chapter. Chapter 3 just puts all of its lore and impactful moments at the very end, and that 's also assuming you did the secret "boss" of this chapter. I genuinely can't remember much other main party development other than Susie liking us a little bit more than last time which she does just about every chapter. This chapter also has the most gameplay types of any chapter. From cooking minigames to quizzes, from rhythm games to Zelda clones, this chapter has it all. Because of this, I feel like it doesn't perform exceedingly well at any one thing and is lucky if the minigame that you're experiencing isn't detrimental. I really could care less for the Zelda-like gameplay that was a decent portion of the chapter, and was disappointed that it's also where the secret boss was located this time around. It's just boring and tedious, straight up. This was also the chapter I really noticed that I don't know why there even is an equipment system in this game. I never feel like any equipment I get actually benefits me in a serious manner, and it might as well not even be there, which is crazy to think about for an RPG.
Now with the good. Tenna as the main "antagonist" of this chapter is an absolute delight. He hit all of the right notes for me. He has a great sense of humor in his dialogue and he's very charismatic. Visually he's not like anything else in Deltarune or Undertale for that matter, being prerendered and very fluidly animated as compared to the rest of the game. Even the intro animation when he's first introduced has stuck in my mind with its VHS scanlines and warped audio. Even as an antagonist he's hard to hate with his motives of just being left behind and no one wanting to pay attention to the TV anymore. So much attention to detail and thought was put into this character that it makes him the best part of the entire chapter. When Tenna is on the screen, I am looking and listening with intent as I do in fact, love TV.
Chapter 4
Easily the most lore heavy chapter from beginning to end. Starting off in Noelle's house to study, and having Kris rip their heart out once again but each time getting riskier and riskier to where someone is going to catch them is pretty nerve wracking. Getting to see Susie and Noelle's relationship grow as well is sweet in these more private moments. The church scenes at the beginning of the chapter were also interesting, seeing the Deltarune itself as a religion that most of the town follows, as well as a way to see Kris and Susie's relationship grow as they talk during church, and go to the diner afterwards. Susie has grown so much since being indifferent and a bully in the first chapter, to genuinely caring about Kris, Noelle, and everyone in the Dark World so much. However, they know that the Darkeners can't come to the Light World, and that after first meeting the Dark Knight/seeing Undyne get captured in the last chapter they get a quick reminder that they're the heroes in a prophecy, and that the situation more serious than the fun adventures they've been on so far will let on. This is echoed in the Dark World of this chapter, as its the most serious its been in Deltarune so far. Throughout the chapter being in the dark version of the church, Kris and Susie see the prophecy in a more physical form from mosaic like images that show up as they're adventuring. Ralsei doesn't really enjoy this however, and wants to avoid showing the final part of the prophecy to Susie and Kris. This is after a chapter where Ralsei was specifically hiding a few things from Susie, promised to be more open, and then immediately turns around and does this. Susie ends up seeing the last panel of the mosaic, smashes it and doesn't tell Kris what it says. I'm assuming that it says something about someone either having to sacrifice themselves, or that someone in the group will turn against the rest, but we don't know for sure at this point. The ending of the chapter is pretty exciting as well, getting our first viewpoint of an event called "the roaring" where a dark fountain is opened too many times, and we get to fight against a titan. The story of this chapter is easily the best so far, and it helps make this chapter my favorite I think. It's hard to say because I do really like Tenna lol.
Outside of the story, the presentation this time around is much more grounded, and I feel like its impactful because of it. The tall rafters of the church, mosaics with the story of the Deltarune, and the rooms where it goes pitch black except for when you take a footstep make it a visual treat. That's not to say the entire chapter is grounded, the fight with Jackenstein was quite a good time, both in terms of the fight itself, and how Jackenstein talks like a YouTube Poop. Music this time around was meeting the standard of the other chapters I felt, with my personal highlights being From Now On, Castle Funk, and The Second Sanctuary. The climbing gimmick of this chapter is fine for the most part gameplay wise, with a few parts that were a bit unresponsive. I think its at this point though I realized that the gameplay of Deltarune was not the reason I was playing. I was caught up in the story, and I wanted to see what happened to the characters. Now most good RPGs end up doing this where a story beat or characters will hook you into seeing the rest of the game, but the best RPGs will have the gameplay to back it up, with intense boss battles, impactful loot and side quests, and unlocked abilities that further make your strategies in battle more efficient and destructive. I don't feel like that's the case with Deltarune. The gameplay at this point when you're sparing enemies or attacking them is getting a bit stale. We don't really unlock any major abilities, and really the only ability that I can think of being unlocked is Susie's ability to heal a little bit now. Equipment just straight up doesn't matter. I haven't felt the impact of an armor upgrade or a perk that it's given throughout 4 chapters of the game. I can see that some armor gives something but like I don't know what a fluffiness increase does on Ralsei, and I never found a spot in the game where that was explained to me. This I think is because of the nature of the game, where sparing enemies is by far the preferred way to deal with enemies, it makes it hard to strategize when you're just trying to spare the enemy regardless. Most enemies aren't difficult either, and that includes most of the secret bosses too. So if the bosses aren't that much of a difficulty spike, the equipment you get doesn't matter, and you don't unlock many if any abilities to help make combat quicker or more engaging, I have a difficult time putting it in a similar ground to other RPGs. All of this to say, unless some of the gimmicks hit for you, I don't think the gameplay of Deltarune is the reason to play the game. It's for the story and the presentation. With that being said, let's continue on to the final chapter released at this point in time as of August of 2026.
Chapter 5
Jarona. This chapter felt like the lead in to the last two chapters that have yet to be released, setting the stage and foreshadowing we can expect from our characters, while also calling back to some similar characters to Undertale, further connecting the two worlds. Starting the chapter at the town fair, and seeing the scene with Noelle and Susie by the water (is it a river or a lake or the ocean? I couldn't tell) was extremely sweet. I'm such a sucker for little love stories man. Going into the chapter and seeing the different types of soul flowers be brought back from Undertale was fun as well, getting to see a different kind of personality in each one. I don't know if I had a personal favorite flower, but there wasn't any one of them that I didn't enjoy their company during the chapter, and I did go back to the café that you go to later in the chapter to talk with each one more, as well as hear more conversations between the flowers. Asgore was good in this chapter too. Seeing him come to the realization that if he let go of the past he could move forward with everyone easier, and that no one blamed him for anything he did previously. Flowery's voice lines were memorable throughout the chapter, and seeing his fully anime intro animated by Studio Khara (!?!?!?!) was pretty insane. The soundtrack has continued to be another bright spot, with some songs that have a more eastern sound so to say, to match the visuals of the castle that you go through to close out the chapter. My highlights for this chapter are Garden of Hopes and Dreams, Sunset of Seven Suns, Flower Castle and Cutie Mew Mew Magic. The gimmick this time around are these pillars that you can hit to move into a 2D plane that turns the game into an action platformer. It's competent, but again, nothing special. It does break things up I guess, but as a I voiced in the last chapter recap, I wasn't super impressed nor looking to be at this point. The secret boss this time around was the one I had the most trouble with, and I even died to them like 2-3 times which I hadn't done with any other enemy yet to this point. Overall, this chapter was solid and I'm curious to see how Toby and the team follow up to wrap the story up with a nice bow.
Conclusion
Toby Fox has a pretty deep love for the Japanese game industry as a whole, and its even more evident in Deltarune than it is with Undertale. With that being said, its interesting to see what he picks and chooses to add to Deltarune, as it feels like he's trying to cram as many different love letters and ideas into one game that doesn't really need it. As I mentioned in the Chapter 4 recap, it gets to a point where the gameplay doesn't become the leading reason to continue playing Deltarune. But what Toby does do very well is character writing, settings of a story/world building, and presentation. The game is nice to look at during 95% of the game, and the music is good all the time while sometimes being even great. I understand that there's still things I haven't seen with Deltarune, as it's a game that has multiple routes and easter eggs. Unfortunately, I don't feel like the gameplay is worth all that much to see some of these routes, so I'll probably get caught up in other ways like YouTube. I do think that the game is worth experiencing, but it would be difficult to classify it in the same echelon as the RPGs that Toby is emulating and pulling from.
Thanks for reading!
