Nearly three years on from the release of Deltarune Chapter 1, the long-awaited release of Chapter 2 is finally here. Available as a combined download on the eShop with the previous chapter, it’s far from a conclusive follow-up, and it introduces more questions than answers, but this generally feels like a worthwhile continuation of an intriguing release. Plus, it’s also free, so you really don’t have any excuse to pass up giving it a try.
The story picks up right after that cliffhanger ending, though it amusingly treats that event in a rather anticlimactic fashion. From there, it isn’t long before Kris and Susie find themselves back in the Dark World and caught up in another adventure with Ralsei. This time, your party has to explore a city inspired by the early internet and you primarily fight against a goofy, wine-drunk antagonist named Queen. And while choices made in the previous chapter may have affected the story leading up to the ending — but not the ending itself — there is a notable second route you can take here that leads to a fittingly cold and substantially different result.
As expected of a Toby Fox game, the off-color and absurd sense of humor is on full display here, making for a refreshingly silly take on the traditional RPG format. Item descriptions are often written in a sarcastic manner and there are occasional moments of fourth wall-breaking to keep things interesting. For example, when one notable boss fight is dragging on for too long, one of the party members decides to do an action they aren’t ‘supposed’ to be doing to speed things up. The humor is well-balanced, however, with sudden contemplative moments and sharp tonal changes that keep you on your feet.
Gameplay mostly mimics the previous chapter, with the biggest change here being that you can ‘recruit’ most enemies. If you choose to go the pacifist route in battles, you’ll eventually recruit your foes into a town where all the other recruited enemies go, and you can then go back to interact with them and learn more information about them. Then, when the final battle is initiated, all your recruits will come together and make the final fight a little easier depending on how many you saved. Recruitment isn’t a massive adjustment to what came before, but it adds in a nice bit of extra content for completionists looking for more replayability, and it feels like an organic extension of the morality system that lies at the heart of Deltarune’s combat.
Much like the previous chapter, it still feels a bit like Deltarune is struggling to form its own identity. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—Undertale was a massively popular game for a reason—but the borrowed art style, battle system, and writing do mean that the distinct ‘X factor’ that made its predecessor so pleasantly surprising is now something that you merely expect. At any rate, Deltarune Chapter 2 is a fascinating, fun, and thrilling deconstruction of RPG tropes and for the retail price of nothing, you might as well give it a shot.
Comments 42
I really must revisit the first game. Loved the atmos but can stuck very early on. This looks fab too. One at a time
Spamton has one of the most annoying themes I have heard in a game, but otherwise chapter 2 was great.
I think I'd disagree with the last part. While Deltarune C1 definitely struggled with forming it's own identity, I feel like C2 was much more successful at breaking out of Undertale's shadow.
Otherwise, pretty much a spot-on review.
I personally dont really see samey as a con. Just gimme more Undertale and I'd be happy.
honestly chapter 2 is such a step up from chapter 1 in so many ways and i absolutely adore it for that, the soundtrack, the bosses and the plethora of secrets toby and his team hid in the game is outstanding, i cannot wait for chapters 3, 4 and 5.
@Tobiaku Fits with his unnerving presence
Deltarune party based combat is totally different from undertale, doesn't feel samey at all to me
Want to play it, even have it already downloaded but I am just going to wait until the full thing is out.
Will all 5 chapters be free? I assumed Part 1 was free and the others would have a fee but it'd be a bit weird now to charge for 3-5 surely?
@Stevethejedi he's dropping 3-5 in one and when they do release, he's going to be charging for them, according to the site, not sure how he's gonna do 6 and 7 yet tho
@Tobiaku It grew on me after listening to it a few times, although I wouldn't say it's my favorite song in Chapter 2. That would go to either "A Cyber's World" or "Attack of the Killer Queen"
It was a lot of fun, happy to buy the future chapters
@Dpishere I'd just play it now since it's gonna be a long time before it's finished. It's gonna be 7 Chapters long and we're only on Chapter 2. The wait between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 was 3 years and even if Toby and his team managed to trim the wait time down, it probably won't be done until the late 2020s/early 2030s
I think separating it into chapters killed alot of the momentum it had .
I absolutely loved Chapter 2. Had great writing, music, battles, character moments, it was just a damn good time. Probably helped that I made sure I wasn't spoiled before the Switch version dropped. Can't wait for chapters 3-5 whenever they come.
I will simply end off this comment with one more thing, Potassium
I like how Deltarune is super unique and constantly adds new mechanics and puzzles and features but it's too "same-ey"
Meanwhile other generic turn based RPG's with boring useless dialouge are perfectly okay and don't have this problem
Wow so there will be 7 chapters or 5!? Either way, hmm I was going to wait but given how long between 1 and 2, I might as well play as they release. How are they making money tho, I’m perplexed!?
@Tobiaku What?? You don’t want to be a [BIG SHOT]?
Snowgrave. That is all
@neogyo there's gonna be 7 but chapters 3, 4 and 5 will be released together according to Toby
I really wish people would see deltarune as its own thing, and its a step up from undertale by a long shot.
The reason why it's seen as "Samey" probably has to do with the fact that Undertale itself was a tech demo for Deltarune. Toby's original game was always deltarune, but he made Undertale beforehand.
@VoidofLight And I truly do feel like deltarune is the true version TBH.
@Snatcher Yeah. Deltarune already feels as if it's the guy's magnum opus.
@VoidofLight Fascinating I didn't know this! Do you have a source on that? I'd like to know more.
Not as mindbending as undertake, but little is. It has the same charm and witty writing but is some how less compellingly.
Enjoyed it immensely all the same.
@SwitchVogel I would have to look more into it, but the characters and the story had been made for years.
@SwitchVogel It's in an interview Toby had with Nintendo.
https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/0e438e10-2b35-11e9-b104-0a6d14145cb1
It's in Japanese, so I'll quote the part after it went through Google Translate. You can probably find a more accurate translation though.
"In 2011, when I was living away from home while I was in college, I had a flashy illness. I had a very vivid dream when I was sleeping with a high fever because I couldn't get any medicine.
It was a dream of the ending of the game, and since then I have been obsessed with the idea that I have to make that ending game.
So I tried to make it once in 2012. I really liked the artist Kannotynes I found on Tumblr, and I used that person's character design, but at that time I ended up giving up development without completing a single room.
However, some of the songs I made at that time became the BGM of "UNDERTALE". For example, the song "Pain in the Heart" was originally titled "Joker Battle", and "Bonetrousle" was intended to be the main theme of the battle.
And when Kickstarter solicited investment in "UNDERTALE" (2013), if "UNDERTALE" could be completed, the next game would be a mix of "UNDERTALE" and that dream concept. I decided.
Anyway, I couldn't help but make a game of what I had dreamed of at that time ... I don't know if it's interesting, but I still thought I had to make it."
@Seacliff Interesting, this really makes me wonder where he's gonna go with it in the future. Aren't there still five episodes due?
@SwitchVogel Toby talked about it on his twitter. All I can say is that it's somewhere on his personal twitter if you scroll down far enough.
I'd say I enjoyed Chapter 2 a lot more more than Chapter 1.
One thing I thought was particular bad in Chapter 1 was the new combat was so clunky. Sparing groups of enemies would take several turns which got tiresome and repetitive when there's so few enemy types in each chapter.
Chapter 2 felt a lot better paced in battles. Though the balancing is a bit suspect, I got two gameovers, one in the Robot Trio dance battle and another in the 1st Berdly battle. Which I kind of doubt were intended to be the toughest non-bonus battles.
@Tobiaku pls joke i beg pls
@Dpishere shall be over 3 yrs
@Stevethejedi they will not be free, it will be more than 20 dollars for the rest, he made this free because of covid
@CactusMan How's NEO? Saw it's on sale, but I'm not sure if I want to get it yet.
Im not surprised they are similar games, I’ve learnt that the idea for Deltarune emerged around the same time Undertale was conceived. Toby has had this idea in the works a loooong time. It may very well be a companion piece rather than a sequel in the long run
@CactusMan Hard agree on Ni No Kuni II, I absolutely loved that game. Ys IX was a little underwhelming for me, though; it wasn't bad at all, but I think VIII was still the better game.
@Dpishere I haven't played chapter 2 yet. But chapter 1 is a Complete, round adventure. It has a full narrative arc that gets resolved. I believe 2 does the same thing.
So you're pretty safe with playing it step by step!
I loved both chapters and I can't wait to see what comes next.
@Bunnycall Sorry, the chapter was otherwise good but that tune was really grating.
@Tobiaku Spamton is just plain annoying period, and slightly creepy looking. I don't like his theme either.
@Stevethejedi These people have bills to pay, they can't all be free. ^^
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...