Deltarune (2025)

Just completed Chapter 2. It's more polished and varied compared to Chapter 1. The idea of sparing monsters and having them show up later in the Dark World is interesting. I'm curious if there is any benefit to going the lethal route. The relationship that develops between Kris, Susie, Noelle and Asriel is cute.

I feel like the music and sound design isn't Toby's best work. The Cyber City soundtrack is the only new memorable track I can think of. Also it's weird that he uses license-free sound effects. It's definitely an "indie" move, but with the success of Undertale, I expected something with a bit more umpf.

All in all it's a fine chapter with a cliffhanger ending.

I'm having such a good time back in this world, and with these characters! Just over an hour into the game and I've been laughing and smiling through all of it.

And the soundtrack is so good it makes me wanna stop and just listen instead of progressing - although I just saw the music is on Spotify now, so I can continue and go back and listen to the tracks later.

(HEAVY SPOILERS FOLLOW. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT SOME RECENTLY-FOUND HIDDEN SECRETS OF THE GAME)

So it turns out you can go Genocide Route on Chapter 2 using Noelle! Yay, murder!

h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfo0RjMxafo

(Link broken so the thumbnail doesn't appear, move the h back to its place)

It changes some things, the most important being that Birdly fucking dies, Spamton is the final boss instead of Queen, and is heavily implied the Player has corrupted Noelle into a cold-ass murderer.

i played through delt2 last night. and i feel like, playing it and seeing how i felt during it could be a good measurer of how I've changed since delt1 came out (and undertale for that matter). the most common emotion i felt during this playthrough was mild amusement with a straight face, which made me think that (due to the past changes and circumstances in my life) ive just become relatively jaded to this kinda stuff

but at the same time, it is more of the same thing in a lot of senses. and i liked my initial experiences from its predecessors largely because of how fresh everything felt. i think the freshness of something (and not having any confident primer of expectations that are delivered upon) can strongly influence how much of an impact it leaves on me

now obv my experience is just my own, subject to my own circumstances, so pls don't feel that im bashing those who like this. as much as i love undertale (so much as to consider it my favorite video game experience), delt2 kinda just felt reluctantly predictable -- not in any literal fashion, but just like, i knew what kind of energy to expect. and idk, maybe that's just how it is. undertale delivered a full unique experience that didn't overstay its welcome for me. i wanted more, but that's the ideal. now that we are getting more in a sense, im starting to feel the staleness of concepts settle in place (that unfortunately applies to my feelings with the music as well, as amazing as it all is)

but hey, i mean, this is still all really top notch high quality stuff. the most variety of gameplay ideas, cutscene scope, and general department of its coding/mechanics that ive seen from toby (thanks to his team i imagine). im looking forward to the next chapters. but it's no longer a pipe dream for me :p