Deltarune

04.06.2025

Genre: Music Puzzle Role-playing (RPG) Turn-based strategy (TBS) Adventure Indie

Dive into the parallel story of UNDERTALE, DELTARUNE...! Meet endearing cast of new and familiar characters in a tale that steps closer to its end, chapter by chapter. Fight (or spare) your way through, dodging bullets in nonviolent action-packed RPG battles as you explore a mysterious world and listen to funky, funky music.

Deltarune's narrative is comprised of seven chapters, each forming its own arc. In the game's story, the players control Kris, a human teenager. They live in a town inhabited by monsters, which has hidden links to mysterious "Dark Worlds", where most of the story takes place. Chapter 1 – The Beginning Upon starting, the player constructs a humanoid "vessel", but it is discarded, and they are told that their choices don't matter. Instead, they take the role of Kris, who wakes up and is dropped at school by their adoptive monster mother Toriel. Kris's teacher sends Kris and delinquent Susie to get chalk. Upon entering the supply closet, both of them are pulled into the Dark World. They meet the dark prince Ralsei, who tells them that the three are heroes destined to close the Dark Fountain and restore balance to the world, which has been corrupted by its King. Wanting to go back home, Susie refuses to help. Before she can leave, the three encounter King's son, Lancer, who tries to stop them with various ill-thought-out plans, and convinces Susie to join him. As Kris and Ralsei make their way to King's castle, they convince Susie and Lancer to fight with them, but Lancer refuses to confront his father, so he captures the others in King's dungeon. Susie escapes and confronts Lancer, who wanted to keep Susie and King from hurting each other. She promises not to hurt King and frees Kris and Ralsei. They ascend the castle and after a lengthy battle, King falls over in exhaustion and Ralsei heals him in pity. Taking advantage, King incapacitates and threatens to kill the heroes. If the player won against all enemies without violence, Lancer turns King's subjects against him and imprisons him, taking his father's place as king of the Dark World. Otherwise, Susie subdues King using Ralsei's Pacify spell. Kris closes the Dark Fountain so that they can return to their own world, and says goodbye to Susie. After Kris goes to bed, they limp to the center of the room, and rip out their heart-shaped SOUL, throwing it into a cage. Turning to the screen, they draw a knife and smile, with one eye flashing red. Chapter 2 – A Cyber's World The next day, Kris and Susie return to school to find that the town has lost Internet service. To confirm that the Dark World is real, they return to the supply closet and reunite with Ralsei, but he convinces them to leave and do their school project. To do so, Kris and Susie head to the library to meet their classmates Noelle and Berdly. Upon going to the library's computer lab, they enter a technology-themed Dark World, ruled by a computer called Queen. She kidnaps Noelle, who also entered the Dark World along with Berdly, with the intention of turning her into the next "Knight", a being capable of creating Dark Fountains. Berdly joins Queen due to his attraction to both her and Noelle; Kris, Susie, and Ralsei proceed to fight him. After some time, Kris becomes separated from their friends, and finds Noelle hiding from Queen. Shortly after Kris rejoins Susie and Ralsei, Queen imprisons them and traps Noelle in a tower. Lancer helps Kris and Susie escape, but as Lancer is in the wrong Dark World, he turns to stone. They find Berdly, who is guilted into changing sides, and the four devise a plan to rescue Noelle. It fails, and Queen fights Kris, Susie, and Ralsei. They are ultimately outsmarted, but Noelle stands up to Queen, making her surrender. Ralsei warns Queen about the "Roaring"—the awakening of cataclysmic "Titans" that will occur if too many Fountains are created—causing her to abandon her plans. Noelle thanks Susie for rescuing her, showing a desire to form a relationship. Kris and Susie then close the new Dark Fountain, while Queen and her followers relocate to Ralsei's realm. Kris and Susie return to the real world, where they convince Noelle and Berdly that their adventure was a dream. Susie offers to walk Kris back home and is invited inside by Toriel. In the bathroom, Kris tears out their SOUL again and climbs out a window. Once Kris returns and replaces their SOUL, Toriel discovers that her minivan's tires have been slashed, and suggests that Susie sleep over. They all fall asleep in the living room, but during the night, Kris wakes up and rips out their SOUL once again. Kris then uses their knife to open a Dark Fountain, and a new Dark World engulfs the living room. Chapter 2 – A Cyber's World Alternative Route After finding Noelle, the player can have her magically freeze all enemies they encounter. This allows Kris to be more aggressive during dialogue, forcing her to solve puzzles by herself. After performing a specific set of actions, and upon starting a second battle with Berdly, the player can harass Noelle until she uses an unknown spell that freezes him fully. Instead of Queen capturing the group, her castle is taken over by the advertiser Spamton. Noelle is too exhausted to participate in Queen's plans, and Ralsei informs the latter of the Roaring preemptively. Kris then goes to seal the Fountain, but is stopped by Spamton's upgraded form Spamton NEO, who intends to keep it open; Noelle eventually arrives and freezes him. In the real world, Berdly is found unresponsive in the computer lab, and Noelle begins to question the nature of her "nightmare".