DELTARUNE

I went in expecting a charming Undertale follow-up and came out the other side genuinely rattled by a pixel-art RPG about teenagers and a dark closet. Five chapters deep, DELTARUNE has quietly assembled one of the most carefully constructed narratives in indie gaming, built around a core question that the game plants in chapter one and refuses to let go of: who, exactly, is in control here? The player pilots Kris Dreemurr through a small monster-populated town and a series of increasingly strange Dark Worlds, but the game makes it uncomfortably clear that Kris resents the arrangement. That tension between player agency and character autonomy is not a gimmick; it is the spine of everything. The combat system keeps Undertale's bullet-hell DNA intact. Regular encounters ask you to dodge enemy attack patterns in real time while choosing between fighting, acting, and sparing opponents. The ACT commands are where most of the personality lives: figuring out how to recruit a flower enemy that tries to spare you first, or navigating the specific emotional logic that unlocks the Weird Route's darker branch through Noelle, rewards close attention in ways that a generic turn-based system never would. Boss fights across all five chapters are the clear high points, multi-phase affairs with distinct musical identities and pattern design that leans closer to Undertale's famous Sans fight than anything padded or routine. Regular enemy encounters are the weakest link. By chapters three and four, the combat loop against standard enemies starts to coast, and the game hands out currency generously enough that grinding is never a concern but attrition occasionally is. Chapter four in particular draws mild criticism for its thinner enemy variety during what is also its longest runtime. What saves every chapter from any mechanical monotony is relentless structural variety. Chapter three drops the top-down RPG almost entirely in favor of a game-show format: trivia rounds, a rhythm game, a cook-off, a section literally called PHYSICAL CHALLENGE. Chapter four navigates dark rooms using sound-projection puzzles and introduces a climbing mechanic that the community has had mixed feelings about (it returns in chapter five, for the record). Chapter five adds a perspective-shift system that swings between top-down and side-scrolling mid-area, creating puzzles that require you to mentally map both views simultaneously. None of these ideas overstay their welcome, and the willingness to restructure the entire experience chapter by chapter is what keeps a seven-part episodic RPG from feeling formulaic. The writing is the reason people stay. Susie's arc from aggressive loner to someone who desperately wants her first real friends to see her at her best is handled with more empathy than most AAA RPGs manage for their main characters. The Susie-Noelle relationship across chapters four and five is written with an awkward, specific warmth that feels true rather than performed. Kris's family history surfaces slowly and deliberately, and the game's alternate Weird Route adds a genuinely disturbing layer that recontextualizes ordinary scenes in ways that linger. Toby Fox's soundtrack does a lot of this heavy lifting too: the chapter five reprise of "Field of Hopes and Dreams" lands as an emotional gut-punch specifically because the game has spent five chapters teaching you to care. Critics have broadly praised the characters, narrative, and score, and the game took home Best Game at the 2025 GameMaker Awards. The one recurring note of criticism across chapter five coverage is that lore hunters wanting macro-plot answers will find chapter five deliberately unhurried, preferring to deepen relationships over revealing the next mystery piece. That is a fair read. It is also, for this particular reviewer, the correct choice. If you have not played Undertale, finish it first. DELTARUNE is a parallel story, not a sequel, but the emotional payoff of seeing familiar faces in unfamiliar circumstances depends heavily on knowing where they came from. If you have played Undertale and somehow waited this long: five chapters are available now, with two more planned, and the game is already operating at a level where it has no obvious peers in the genre.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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