Deltarune Chapter 2 is out right now on Switch, totally free. It's from the same creator that made Undertale — in fact, the title itself is an anagram of Undertale — and to celebrate the release, Nintendo Japan secured an interview with Toby Fox himself.
A massive disclaimer here: there are large parts of the interview that Google Translate didn't really do very well with, so apologies in advance... but here are some highlights!
"My feelings now are... tired. I want a day off. May I [speak to] Mario for a moment? "Take me to Yoshi Island". I also want to eat that green fruit with an extended time limit. If you eat it for breakfast, you can oversleep for 27 hours a day, right?"
- Toby Fox on how he's doing
Fox actually hired a team of people to help him finish the game (you can see full credits here), and he speaks about how that affected the development:
"The time it took to develop "Chapter 2" itself was actually a year and a half. There were a lot of things before we could start full-scale development. However, three years is long... I feel a little sorry for making everyone wait so long...
I programmed "Chapter 1" and "UNDERTALE" all by myself, but now I can't program for a long time because I hurt my wrist. So, "Chapter 2" is about 90% programmed by another member of the team. Yes, I've become a director from this time (imagine a professional dog in a beret)."
However, leading a team brings its own challenges, and Fox says that "instructing people is easy" but actually getting them to make what's in your head is "10.2 times harder" than doing it yourself.
As for Chapter 3, Fox says (jokingly!) that the development time gets extended by a year every time someone asks when it's coming out. It looks like there are 7 chapters planned, and Fox says that they're still coming:
But serious story, once Chapter 3, 4, and 5 are finished, I would like to release them. It took a year and a half to develop Chapter 2, so it's a simple calculation... yeah, that's a lie!? Help!
Finally, a fun fact from Toby Fox, who studied Japanese and was able to assist in the localisation of the game, which was done by industry legends 8-4 (who also localised Return of the Obra Dinn, Hades, and Firewatch):
The Japanese word 「グラマー」(glamour) has a slightly different meaning from the English word "glamour". In English, it means "luxury" or "glossy", but in Japanese, 「グラマー」 means something like "big boobs and big buttocks".
For the first time, I knew that the BGM of "UNDERTALE" against Mettaton and the Japanese title was "Brilliant Death Fight".
The original English title is "Death By Glamour", so if this is a title like "Killed by Glamour'" in Japanese... Japanese people [would] say, "Mettaton is an enemy who suffocates the player with big boobs and buttocks." I might have misunderstood.
Goodness.
The rest of the interview is full of spoilers, so we'll leave it there, but if you want to check it out for yourself, head to the Nintendo Japan blog!
[source topics.nintendo.co.jp]
Comments 20
Being interviewed with Nintendo, meeting Sakurai, composing for Pokémon… looks like Toby’s becoming a real [Big Shot].
Toby is the funniest, most creative man I have ever seen. A huge inspiration since forever, I remember listening to his Homestuck music back in the day, and bought Undertale day 1. He has progressed a LONG way and every word that comes out of his mouth, even for a small interview, is a roller coaster. I wish him a wonderful development progress, and an award in the future for being the first huge piece of media to feature a non-binary lead role
Sakurai said in his interview with Harada that his tendinitis was doing better. Now, Toby is having problems with his wrist that makes it hard for him to program games. Looks like he must have given it to Toby when they met. Classic Sakurai, always transmitting muscular diseases.
The man who made three masterpieces and more on the way. From the bottom of my heart Toby is the greatest game dev ever
Undertale is one of the best indies I have ever played. I haven't yet played Deltarune but it is downloaded, and I will get to it soon.
Woah, what? Since when does Nintendo interview people? Well, apart from Iwata Asks I suppose.
@Munchlax dammit.. you win
Imagine Nintendo do hiring toby to make an earthbound 4 or giving him the ip like they did zelda to crypt of the Necrodancer. He did start off undertale as a halloween earthbound hack…
Now I'm not a blind follower of this dude, but his story ( and all that he has achieved so far) is simply great.
Also Undertale ended being one of my fav games despite it's utterly cancerous fanbase
This feels like the Definitive version of the game Toby wanted to make back then, The combat, the characters, the writing, Its amazing, And he has giving both of them for free, I need to pay this man some how!
Somehow I haven't played either game yet despite being super intrigued by them. My kid has told me a few times that I should play Undertale. I have it on the Switch. One of these days...
@Thelastjedi2007 okay, let’s not get carried away there, pal…
How, glamourous looks at camera and winks
@PessitheMystic I'm just getting started
@Arkay let’s be honest, anything that gains a massive following is going to have unsavoury elements to the fan base. Fan bases are made of humans, and the more there are involved, the more likely there are to be rubbish ones involved.
The cancerous part may not even be the biggest part. Just the loudest.
@Alpha008 trust me I know that, thing is they really put me off from trying the game.
Either way I did and absolutely loved it.
So much love to Toby Fox. Stay strong, dude! ❤🧡💛💚💙💜💀💀
@Arkay Oh I know. The obnoxious fanbase also put me off from playing Undertale for years. Glad I finally played it though as it is now one of my favourite indie games. I'm happy for Toby Fox's success across the board.
I like his games a lot. But I can't really say I like the way Toby is in interviews.
Half the time it just sounds like he just says weird stuff on purpose as a forced persona.
Yeah, I get what you mean — if it was a an online MMO where player interaction wàs unavoidable, then a toxic community would certainly put me off, but Undertale/Deltarune can be played completely independently, and you don't need to endure a syllable of bad community vibes in order to fully enjoy it.
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