Deltarune

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Deltarune is a Western RPG created by Toby Fox whose demo/first chapter was released without announcement on October 31, 2018, with the second chapter dropping on September 17, 2021. It's a Spin-Off/Sequel/Prequel/Alternate Universe/What Have You to Undertale, though Fox announced it as a game for those who had completed Undertale first.

You play as Kris, the (apparently) only human resident of Hometown, a sunny suburban town populated by monsters. While searching some school material along with Susie, the resident bully of the school, they both fall within a mysterious closet into what can only be defined as a "Dark World". There, Kris and Susie meet the Prince of Darkness, Ralsei, who claims that the three of them together are the Delta Warriors, beings destined to travel across the Dark World to stop the flow of darkness into the Light World (Kris and Susie's world).

The game is a role-playing game like Undertale: Combat is performed similar to most standard turn-based role-playing games, choosing from a set of actions such as "Attack" or "Mercy". While the goal of the game is implicitly to avoid fights and spare monsters, this is made difficult in that Susie, who is not initially controlled by the player, tends to prefer to attack rather than have mercy, so special actions must be taken to keep her cool.

WARNING! There are unmarked Spoilers ahead. Beware.

Tropes used in Deltarune include:
  • Adaptational Personality Adjustment: Deltarune has this for some of the canonical Undertale characters:
    • Alphys is a lot less nervous as Kris's teacher, compared to her original Nervous Wreck personality; while she lacks authority, she's a Reasonable Authority Figure when Kris disappears with Susie in Chapter One, reassuring them that they aren't in trouble for playing hooky. Chapter Two has her inquire on Kris falling asleep in class after Berdly reads A Tale of Two Cities, asking if everything is okay at home with Asriel in college and with the Dremurrs's Internet out.
    • Undyne as the new police chief doesn't even know who Alphys is in Chapter One, when before they had Unresolved Sexual Tension. Chapter Two, however, has an optional quest where you can deliver chocolates on her behalf to Alphys, as an apology for knocking her off her bike. Undyne, being Undyne, she says the apology is to the bike and she doesn't have feelings for the fish monster.
    • Unlike his Large Ham Attention Whore personality as a game show host, Mettaton is a Shrinking Violet recluse that refuses to answer his front door. He still calls you "Darling," though, if you call on him.
    • While Asriel is off-screen owing to being at college, we can see he's not the same Asriel and it's not just him being 18 instead of 8. Since Asriel never died or was reborn at Flowey while being trapped behind the Barrier, we get hints that he's a lot mellower. He's a gamer, who plays with the off-brand one and lets Kris have the brand one, and draws NSFW art on the computer which makes Kris blush. Residents around Hometown talk about how he's a paragon, with Burgerpants saying that Asriel inspired him to save up for college as well.
  • Alternate Universe: Apparently to Undertale. Several characters from that game appear, but with wildly divergent development.
    • For starters, Asriel is in college (not to mention alive).
    • If Undyne's dialogue is anything to go by, she and Alphys have never even met.
    • Speaking of Alphys, not only is she not wracked with the guilt that comes with accidentally creating the Amalgams, she views the much darker Mew Mew: Kissy Cutie 2 as an improvement over the first (a complete inversion of her Undertale counterpart, who despises 2 and prefers the lighthearted original).
    • Likewise, Catty and Bratty, best friends in Undertale thanks to their shared love of Mettaton, absolutely despise each other in Deltarune because Mettaton never became a celebrity.
  • All Just a Dream:
    • Implied for most of Chapter 1: Kris and Susie return to an unused classroom with no sign of ever having gone to the Dark World, aside from the Ball of Junk, which happens to be Kris's entire inventory. Returning to the Castle Town reveals that not only was it not a dream, the Darkners now populate the area. Speaking of that Ball of Junk, you'd best hope you didn't toss it at the end of Chapter 1, or you can kiss those ReviveMints goodbye (assuming they weren't already used up in the Jevil boss fight).
    • Chapter 2 makes it clear that Noelle believes that her time in the Dark World is this, especially with regards to Susie. Assuming you're enough of a Complete Monster to do the Snowgrave Route, you can convince her otherwise.
  • Arc Words: Your choices don't matter.[1]
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • In Chapter 1, Kaard puts a mind control crown on the C. Round so it can attack the heroes.
    • Noelle can become this in the "Weird"/Snowgrave Route in Chapter 2.
  • Bonus Boss: Jevil in Chapter 1 and Spamton NEO. Defeating them through ACTing or fighting will net you a powerful piece of equipment depending on the methods used. Jevil will become either the Jevilstail or Devilsknife (respectively), and Spamton NEO will turn into the Dealmaker or Puppet Scarf (respectively) - but good luck surviving their myriad of attacks.
  • Collectible Cloney Babies: Alphys collects merchandise from the Kissy Kissy Mew anime franchise. In the Switch version, you can even get into an optional boss battle with one at the Dog Shrine.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Most of the Darkeners in Chapter 1 are quite friendly, only attacking you because their Jerkass tyrant of a King demanded it of them.
  • Elite Mook: The Rudinn Ranger and Head Hathy.
  • Harsh Life Revelation Aesop: Ends the first chapter on one: while Ralsei believes in being pacifist and showing mercy, Susie points out that not everyone is going to let them defeat them politely and steamrolls her way through various monsters and bosses. In the end, when the Spade King sucker-punches everyone after Ralsei heals him out of goodwill, Ralsei acknowledges that Susie is right: not everyone will respond to kindness with kindness in turn. Sometimes you do have to fight to protect your friends. Susie in turn notes that if you spend your whole time attacking everyone, you never get the chance to make friends that will return that kindness.
  • Hidden Villain: In Chapter Two, the Queen's Butlers make reference to a figure called the Knight, in an optional room, that opened a fountain to create Cyberworld. The Knight inspired Queen to use Noelle to open a fountain. The ending of Chapter Two implies that Kris may be the Knight.
  • Jerkass: The King. He's willing to use his own son as a hostage to get the Delta Warriors to surrender. While he does show some signs of genuine concern for Lancer later on, he adamantly refuses to change his outlook on the Lightners.
  • King Mook: King Round serves as this to the C. Round. Not only does it have more HP, but it can also heal itself faster than the player can feasibly damage it, requiring ACTs like bowing to loosen the crown atop its head.
  • Mind Screw: In the ending of Chapter 1, Kris rips their own SOUL out and looks menacingly at the screen in the ending cutscene with a knife in their hand. The opening scene of Chapter 2 has Toriel discover the knife and scream - because Kris ate all the pie. Again.
    • In Chapter 2, they pull out their SOUL again... and create a Dark Fountain. This has led some to believe that Kris is the Knight, though that remains to be seen.
  • Role-Playing Game: As with Undertale, Deltarune is a subversion of RPGs as a whole, though it starts with more "standard" tropes, such as a party composed of two or three characters.
  • Parental Substitute: Considering the King of Spades is a vicious tyrant, it comes as no surprise that his son Lancer views Rouxls Kaard as his "Lesser Dad". Mind you, Kaard doesn't think very highly of Lancer, but he's still leagues better than the King. In the epilogue of Chapter 2, Lancer becomes attached to Queen, declaring her his "girldad".
  • Playable Epilogue: After Kris and Susie return to their world in each chapter, the player can have Kris walk around the city. The ending cutscene only plays once they goes to bed.
  • Wham! Shot: Tends to end chapters with these:
    • At the end of Chapter 1, Ralsei removes his hat. He's virtually identical to Asriel save for the pink horns and perpetual blush. Susie reacts with appropriate shock, and later references that Ralsei looks like a distant Dreemurr relative.
    • Chapter 1 ends with Kris ripping out their soul, locking it in a birdcage, and looking to the audience with a Slasher Smile.
    • In Chapter 2, the party manages to convince Berdly on the Main Route that he is on the wrong side after Queen betrays him. They agree to a plan where he helps rescue Noelle and escorts her to safety while they tackle Queen. Due to Noelle shaking him silly and blowing their cover, however, Queen reveals that she "improved" Berdly, and shows him with a plug in his face.
    • Chapter 2 has Ralsei reveal that too many fountains opened will bring about the Roaring, an apocalyptic event that will plunge the world into total darkness. The images that accompany this description are nightmarish.
    • Chapter 2 ends with Kris opening a fountain in the living room, while Susie and Toriel are sleeping. We also see a very familiar grin, likely Flowey's, on the television screen as smoke fills the area.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: This seems to be Rouxls Kaard's schtick, as are puzzles so easy a preschooler could solve them.
  • You Are in Command Now: Kaard was only promoted to Duke of Puzzles because the King had fired and imprisoned everyone else.
  • Zero Effort Boss: Rouxls Kaard's puzzles are incredibly easy to solve. You'd have more difficulty fighting a single Rudinn than solving one of Rouxls's puzzles. He claims to have a better puzzle, but refuses to show it to the heroes (given how ridiculously easy the first two were, that's probably for the best).
    • He poses much more of a challenge in Chapter 2; he found and repaired Susie's Thrash Machine and is now using it to attack you, all the while you're playing a game in which you try to take control of more houses than him. There is a way to defeat him very quickly, but even then, it takes roughly two or three turns to pull off, and depending on your dodging skills and the parts you used for the Thrash Machine, those two or three turns could be either a cakewalk or Jevil v2.0.
  1. Throughout the game (and even outside of it), you're told that your decisions will have little effect on the plot. To an extent, this is true; twice in Chapter 1, Susie will ask you a question, then interrupt you before you can answer. Whether you FIGHT or SPARE the Darkners, you'll have to leave the Dark World either way. In Chapter 2, Susie will always go with Ralsei, regardless of who you want to go with. It's only once Noelle joins your party when you're finally able to make a choice that matters, and even then, most players choose not to walk the road less traveled for reasons that should become obvious very quickly. On a more meta example, it's heavily implied that Kris and the player are two separate individuals, and that whatever goals Kris has may not align with the player's goals.
  2. Noelle, a party member introduced in Chapter 2, has IceShock, the first ability available to the player that can actually kill enemies. Use of this spell, along with choosing "proceed" or similar dialogue choices at every opportunity, is required to initiate and stay on the Snowgrave Route, up until Noelle gets the Thorn Ring and uses SnowGrave on Berdly.