This is an IGN opinion piece from writer Brendan Graeber. He reviewed Deltarune’s first four chapters and has been analysing the mysteries of Toby Fox’s mind for over a decade.
A little more than a year ago today, developer Toby Fox and his team released the long awaited third and fourth chapters of Deltarune, a parallel story to Fox’s own hit indie RPG, Undertale. Arriving seven years after the very first chapter was released as a free demo, I and other fans have now obsessed over the trajectory of Detarune’s story for eight years. Aside from just decoding the events I’ve played through so far, this long duration also gave me plenty of time to mull over where Deltarune’s story was headed in its fifth chapter, which arrived just last week, on June 24. Thanks to sprinklings of foreshadowing, ominous portents and an even stranger ARG, I’d been able to make some reasonable guesses. And while the general setting of chapter five held true to what I expected, the events within caught me totally by surprise, and have me more excited than ever for the next two chapters.
I know not everyone will have finished Deltarune’s latest chapter yet, so I’ll save discussion of the major moments until later in this article – there will be a spoiler warning! Before that, though, I want to touch on some overall themes and interactions, as well as some of the new ways the chapter presents itself in. Naturally, that means some details do await, so read on at your own risk!
In prior chapters there have been several signs, both big and little, that have pointed toward the main event of Chapter 5, namely a festival that takes over the town, and that one of the fantasy-filled Dark Worlds that Deltarune has you explore was destined to involve a familiar location. Beyond that, Toby Fox himself claimed that the chapter would “have one more fun adventure” to focus on the good times and “watch the sun, before it goes down completely”. Ominous! Perhaps it was that wording that led me to believe things would soon be hurtling toward a very dangerous place, but the pacing and revelations of this latest chapter panned out in a way I didn’t anticipate. There’s a very large and complex mystery at the heart of Deltarune, and Chapter 4 had been home to some startling developments, but Chapter 5 largely steers clear of advancing this plot too much. I expect this will prove fairly divisive.
Instead, this chapter is determined to capture the happy and wacky adventurous vibes of the first chapter – complete with tons of callbacks, excellently remixed music by guest composers, and a stubborn insistence that things will all be okay so long as you don’t think about that storm looming on the horizon. Such a reliance on nostalgia and avoiding the pressing matters of the overarching plot could have easily have seen this entry stray into repetitive filler territory, but Chapter 5 deftly avoids such a fate by introducing a cast of truly unhinged frenemies to contend with.A near non-stop barrage of hilariously deranged character writing (as well as new and improved spritework to match) is broken up only by some wisely placed solemn moments for the main cast to catch their breath and let their doubts about the future trickle in. I keep having this delusion that I’ve seen the weirdest characters that Toby Fox has to offer, and yet it wasn’t long into this chapter before I found myself saying “Oh, I hate this guy” while laughing every time they appeared to steal the spotlight.
Given how it sidesteps a lot of the pressing questions looming over the gang, I suspect many may still think of this as a “filler” chapter, despite those new characters. But I’ve come to see this latest entry as a very necessary piece of the puzzle, as it allows the main cast to grow in ways I wasn’t ready for. Deltarune’s story has moved at a pretty rapid pace, with almost every chapter spanning a single day, and so its heroes rarely have a moment to breathe and reflect. Chapter 5 does a great job at showing how this pace is beginning to affect everyone, and taking a moment to avoid the impending horrors and focus on this is a good call.
This reluctance to face fate even extends to the segments that occur outside of the adventures in the Dark World. Certain developments in relationships between characters felt almost out of place until I realized how they portrayed yet another form of chasing happiness to avoid a crushing reality. The highs and lows of escapism have always been present in Deltarune, and the way this topic has seeped into the story’s every crevice makes this new chapter’s conclusion shocking in a way that I truly was not ready for. After a bombastic and harrowing end to the previous chapter, I’ve come to realize Chapter 5’s ending is a different brand of despair altogether – more like the lingering pain after a punch to the gut than immediate grief.
I’m also pleased to see that Chapter 5 has continued the previous few chapters’ tradition of introducing entirely new ways to traverse the world, taking you temporarily out of the confines of traditional top-down RPG exploration into something more reminiscent of an action platformer. I wouldn’t say every new chapter gimmick has been a home run, but I really enjoy how this wrinkle adds new ways to solve puzzles, and even makes certain boss fights both entertaining and climactic – something the usual turn-based combat format would typically rely on cutscenes for. It also goes a very long way to ensuring no two Dark Worlds ever really feel like the same old song and dance, which is a pitfall I’ve encountered in many RPGs of a similar style.
SPOILERS AHEAD: From here on, I’ll be discussing story moments with more detail. This is your final opportunity to back out!
At the end of the Deltarune Chapter 4, Susie confides in Kris about a “stupid dream” she has where every day can be a happy one full of adventures with her friends, the same as the day before it. To say it in the face of a morale-shattering prophecy (a supposed tragedy even we don’t know the full extent of) is admirable, but I’ve come to see this new chapter as highlighting the peril of chasing such a dream. This is mirrored by Asgore’s insistence that focusing on the fantasy world will solve everything and bring back his happiness. It’s no surprise, then, that this latest chapter mirrors the first in many ways, invoking a familiar path through forests/gardens of hopes and dreams that lead to large castles.
Despite those uplifting elements, there’s an underlying current of despair. Even from the start, Susie doesn’t really act the way she normally does, both in her eagerness to reciprocate whatever feelings her friend Noelle has for her without fully understanding them (she professes multiple times later on to not even know what love is), and how she handles familiar scenarios that echo their first adventure in uncharacteristic ways, leading to a moment where she decides that she and Ralsei no longer need to wait for Kris to tell them what to do when in a certain puzzle room – something that we have come to expect in how we navigate the world. You can’t even use direct attacks on the final boss without the rest of your team defying your commands to heal up and win through pacifism. Though these moments are brief, they feel like set up for an upcoming larger conflict that will explore how we perceive the world and are bound to the rules of Deltarune as a game, and how some of its characters are beginning to break free of these constraints.
There’s something interesting in how Deltarune wants you to experience its world. While you begin the game in the body of Kris, you soon learn that Kris has some very separate goals from what you, the player, have been told to follow, and that they know much more than they let on. Given their stoicism and lack of reaction to most scenarios, it doesn’t take long before you’re instead seeing their new friend Susie as your official stand-in. She’s new to all of this, initially hesitant but soon jumping into her role as a hero full force, and her reactions to the developing plot often echo your own. I can’t shake the feeling that something has subtly shifted in Chapter 5, setting up a great sense of isolation for Kris.
There’s been some really great attention to detail in how Kris and Susie have bonded over the course of the story, meeting as weird loners and going on to become part of a special prophecy about saving the world. Some of the best moments are even found in optional and easily missed events that are no less important than the main scenario in terms of how these characters grow and understand each other. And yet, since we are in possession of Kris, there’s always a limit to what can be done, and anything said is usually because we the player make that choice. Still, there are many quieter moments where you can infer by the subtle choices Kris makes independently of us about how much they care about their new friend.
When you look at how differently Susie approaches things throughout this chapter, it starts to become apparent that her dynamic with Kris is starting to be stripped away, even if she doesn’t realize it. What feels like a subtle blow to her wanting to spend time with someone other than us is actually targeted at Kris, who we are now identifying with more and more. Over the course of the chapter, all of those previously mentioned bonding moments Kris and Susie shared are suddenly opened up to include someone new. None of Susie’s actions are inherently malicious; at the heart of it all she’s just a neglected teen discovering how relationships can bloom. Whether or not Kris is supportive of this new direction is irrelevant, because just as with our control over them, they don’t get a say in the matter. Even if they wanted to speak their mind (and there are more than a few opportunities), Kris is still chained to whatever secret double agent promise they’ve made that directly interferes with Susie and the player’s mission.
All of this chipping away culminates in the final moments of Chapter 5, where things seem to be heading back to how they were before. Kris and Susie share a personal moment walking through the streets at night, talking about how great of a team they are. And then, in an almost perfect reflection of the first chapter’s “Let’s go back there tomorrow”, Susie fractures the mirror by happily announcing that “our thing” has now become Noelle’s thing too, taking away the last private connection the pair had, before she cheerfully thanks Kris for walking her “home” – home being The Dark World, the only place she feels safe now (which in reality is just spending the night in a storage closet).
When I first completed Chapter 5, I was surprised by the lack of a high stakes ending promised by Chapter 4. Now, after having given it plenty of thought, I can see this is still a high stakes ending, just on a much more personal level, as Kris slowly trudges away, one of their parents having just been kidnapped, bound to an unknown and apparently sinister promise, and looking well and truly alone. Meanwhile, Susie — already suffering from what has been alluded to a seriously bad home life — is so shaken by the prophecy’s dire conclusion that she’d rather call a dreamland her home, and thinks inviting Noelle, who is currently dealing with an extremely dire family emergency in the real world, will want to come run away with her.
I think I finally understand truly what Toby Fox meant by having one last adventure before the sun goes down, and I couldn’t be more invested to see this descent into darkness.