This might be your daddy’s Undertale
Just when I thought I was out, he pulls me right back in. To be honest I’d kind of forgotten about Deltarune. Well… not forgotten exactly, but it wasn’t anywhere near the top of my brainspace (which is completely occupied by Final Fantasy XIV nowadays). So thanks a lot Toby, because now I’m right back to wanting every episode injected into my veins. If Chapter 1 was cautiously feeling out a new space and warning people expecting Undertale 2, Chapter 2 settles into its new environment by embracing the things we’ve come to expect from Undertale: namely branching paths, insanely deep content, and instantly memorable characters. Fox’s ambition has grown, and with it so has his team.
Simply put, it’s a blast all around.
The number one reason is thanks to The Queen, this chapter’s main antagonist after the previous King (who honestly, I remember almost nothing about). She currently reigns over Cyber World – aka, the Library’s computer lab in the “real world” – and wants to take over the rest of it because it would be fun. I don’t know how he did it but every single line of hers is funny, just pure dlight every time she shows up. Chapter 1 wasn’t lacking for humor, but 2 feels like Fox and co have gotten fully comfortable in this new universe enough to lock on to that particular style of irreverence unique to Undertale. It doesn’t feel like a course correction from the former’s more dour and mundane tone; rather, like the rest of this chapter it’s an expansion of scope and returning to the things that made him so beloved.
Which brings us to the gameplay. I’ll be honest, it knocked me flat on my ass several times, just like Undertale did. So far Deltarune shares a similar problem in that there’s no real way to upgrade your stats for a pacifist run. Certain gear will give you little boosts like enhanced Graze time – and Graze itself provides a new dimension to the bullet hell segments that gives it a little bit of Bayonetta‘s Witch Time, in that putting yourself in danger is a genuine strategy. But when it gets hard, it gets hard, and not even towards the end. That being said, it’s fun as hell. The addition of 2 other party members expands ACTs, changing them from something you spam to strategic attacks all their own. Now you can balance everyone ACTing with having one act, maybe one heal, and then one spare to make things go faster. It’s a fantastic system, and within it are a bunch of different minigames; the whole thing has gotten a little more interactive, like parts where you have to avoid music bars hitting you as you traverse the world.
I’ve only played through it once, and I’m fairly certain I missed a lot of stuff, at least judging from online comments. From what I can tell, there’s an entire genocide route called Snowgrave where you don’t directly cause mass murder, instead forcing another party member to do it. Fox seems to be continuning on the theme of choice, or rather your lack of it. As of this posting, it hasn’t been datamined yet, so who knows what secrets are hiding. The game seems to be going in a much darker direction than Undertale, what with Kris losing control and whatnot, or even Spamton (who, it should go without saying, has an absolute banger of a theme song). Who even knows if your romance choices will play out and be respected? There’s also the fact that you’re collecting enemies like Pokemon, possibly for an army (another reason to keep you playing the battles). I truly have no idea how long Deltarune is going to take. But honestly, I’m excited to see the rest of where this crazy journey goes. I still can’t even fully wrap my head around the implications of theories, something which could be a detriment if more esoteric and hidden stuff starts becoming important. In any case, even if the completed product goes the way of Kentucky Route Zero and takes a decade, I feel like it could be something monumental. At the very least it’ll be funny.
Life of the Mind 