Deltarune

Deltarune is a role-playing video game with a top-down perspective. The player controls a human named Kris Dreemurr and has a party of other characters who they select actions for during battle. The game features both overworld and combat sections. In the overworld, the player can solve puzzles, collect items, and interact with characters and the environment.

Different chapters introduce unique traversal mechanics, such as climbing, or statues that shift the game into a 2D platformer with action-based combat. Unlike Undertale, Deltarune does not have a random encounter system; instead, players can see the enemies in the environment before they encounter them, allowing for the possibility of avoiding or deliberately initiating combat.

Deltarune's narrative spans seven chapters, of which five have been released. Although it features characters and elements from Undertale, it takes place in a parallel universe distinct from that game's setting.

The game begins with a voice prompting the player to create an avatar, but the "vessel" is ultimately discarded, as "no one can choose who they are in this world." Instead, the player is given control of human teenager Kris Dreemurr, who arrives at school late. After being paired with their delinquent monster classmate Susie for a group project, their teacher Alphys sends them to get supplies. However, they fall into a strange realm within the supply closet, called a Dark World, where they meet the dark prince Ralsei.

The idea for Deltarune came to Toby Fox in a fever dream he had in 2011 in college. In the dream, he saw the ending of a video game and was determined to create it. Fox was also inspired by a collection of playing card designs posted on Tumblr by artist Kanotynes. Development of the game started in 2012 but was abandoned before Fox could create the first room. Some music from this initial attempt was recycled for Undertale, most notably the main battle theme (which became "Bonetrousle") and a piece called "Joker Battle" (which was reused as "Heartache").

During the Kickstarter campaign of Undertale in 2013, Fox decided that if he were to finish making Undertale, he would revisit Deltarune by combining the original concept of the game and Undertale. The game's title is an anagram of Undertale. Various factors, such as the improved graphics, an overhauled combat system, and Fox's new commitments from Undertale's success, made Deltarune a more challenging game to produce. Following the release of Chapter 4, he compared the scope of each chapter to a full game, describing the first four chapters as the equivalent of "two and a half Undertales". During the development of each individual chapter of the game, whenever Fox needed to explain the plot of a chapter to the game's team, Fox would instead make a "live radio drama" by himself for the team to watch and even prompt them to make choices during the story.

The first chapter of Deltarune garnered many comparisons to Undertale. Jason Schreier of Kotaku called it similarly "charming, funny, and impactful", and Dominic Tarason of Rock Paper Shotgun compared it to "a higher-budget production". Although Mitchell Parton of Nintendo World Report thought that the chapter did not "significantly change up the formula", he did not have a problem with it, praising the "captivating" story and "unique" gameplay. Nintendo Life's Mitch Vogel was less positive, feeling that despite "solid" gameplay and story content, it failed to innovate from Undertale, resulting in "uninspired sameness".

The initial version of the paid release, containing Chapters 1–4, also received positive reception, with 100% of reviewers rec­om­mend­ing it on OpenCritic. Brendan Graeber of IGN described Deltarune as "something incredible" that he was "not likely to forget", and Ana Diaz called it a "phenomenal expression of [Fox's] signature idiosyncratic style" in her review for PCGamer. Errielle Sudario of Checkpoint Gaming stated that the additional chapters were "worth the wait" and contained "humour and heart" and more "polish, challenges, and questions". Mitch Vogel, writing again for Nintendo Life, thought that the game alleviated his previous criticism by establishing a "distinct identity" which made it a "worthy follow up to Undertale", but viewed its unfinished nature as leaving a "lingering feeling of dissatisfaction".