Draft:Deltarune Chapter 1

Deltarune Chapter 1 (referred in-game as The Beginning) is the first part of episodic role-playing game Deltarune, released on October 31, 2018 for free on Windows and macOS. The game follows Kris and Susie as they discover a hidden world inside the closet of their school, and venture to seal the Dark Fountain that gives its world form.

The game was initially released for free under the guise of a “survey program” for Windows and macOS platforms, and was later released for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on February 28, 2019. The game was also ported to Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 on June 5, 2025 along with chapters 2 to 4.

Gameplay

Deltarune is a role-playing video game played from a top down perspective. The player is given direct control of Kris, but can select actions for Ralsei during battles. Battles also feature bullet-hell sections, where the player must move a heart-shaped soul inside a limited area to avoid attacks. Unlike its predecessor Undertale, Deltarune drops its random encounter system in favor of visible enemies in the environment, giving the player the ability to avoiding or deliberately engaging with enemies.

The game uses a turn-based combat system, where players can choose from a number of different actions; Fight, Act, Magic, Item, Spare and Defend. Hitting an enemy, defending or deliberately getting close to an enemy attack without hitting it will increase the TP (Tension Points) gauge, which allows party members to use spells or specific “acts”. When a party member’s hit points drop to below zero, they will be downed and cannot fight until revived. Downed party members will slowly regenerate HP until reaching 1, but can also be revived with other healing items.

During Chapter 1, Susie is a part of the party but cannot be controlled for the majority of the game, automatically attacking an enemy every turn.

Plot

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, who arrives late to school one morning. After being paired up with their delinquent monster classmate Susie for a group project, their teacher, Alphys, sends the two to get chalk from the supply closet. However, the closet pulls them into a strange realm—the Dark World—where they meet the dark prince Ralsei. He tells them that the three are heroes destined to close the geyser-like Dark Fountains that give form to the Dark Worlds to preserve the balance between light and dark. A new Dark Fountain has created a Dark World east of Ralsei's, guarded by the tyrannical King. Susie, uninterested in Ralsei's story, joins King's son Lancerin fighting Kris and Ralsei, but both are convinced to change sides and join the party.

Lancer refuses to confront his father or to see his new friends hurt, so he imprisons them in King's dungeon. Susie frees Kris and Ralsei and fights Lancer, but reconciles with him and promises not to hurt King. The three confront and battle King, who falls over, exhausted. After Ralsei heals him in pity, King incapacitates and prepares to kill the heroes. If the player has not violently subdued any prior enemies, Lancer leads the Dark World's inhabitants, Darkners, in overthrowing and imprisoning King; otherwise, Susie distracts King, allowing Ralsei to put him to sleep with a spell. After sealing the Dark Fountain, Kris wakes up in an unused classroom with Susie, revealing that Dark Worlds are ordinary rooms transformed, and returns home. That night, Kris rips out their SOUL, locks it away, and draws a knife, their eye flashing red.

Development and release

After previously teasing something Undertale-related a day earlier, Fox released the first chapter of Deltarune for free on October 31, 2018. Initially disguised as a "survey program", it was then described as a game "intended for people who have completed Undertale". As he envisioned a larger project than Undertale, he said that he needed to form a team to release the full game, which would be sold as a single package. The first chapter was later released on Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 on February 28, 2019, after being announced at a Nintendo Direct earlier that month. The console versions were developed and published by 8-4.

Reception

The first chapter of Deltarune garnered many comparisons to Undertale. Jason Schreier of Kotaku and Dominic Tarason of Rock, Paper, Shotgun compared it favorably. Schreier praised the refinements of Undertale's elements, calling it "a refreshing return". Tarason agreed, saying that Deltarune is "a higher-budget production". Although Mitchell Parton of Nintendo World Report thought that although Deltarune "doesn't significantly change up the formula", he did not have a problem with it. Nintendo Life's Mitch Vogel was less positive, being disappointed that after how "fresh" Undertale was at its release, Deltarune ended up being "'just' more of the same".

A significant amount of praise was aimed at the music, with Schreier claiming that "[t]he soundtrack should be enough of a selling point." Tarason found that the music had "a fresh new edge to it," whereas Parton described it as "emotional and solid" and expressed surprise at it being composed by one person. Adam Luhrs of RPGFan praised Fox's "clever use of motifs," feeling that they were incorporated well in Deltarune's story. GameSpot's Michael Higham pointed out similarities between Deltarune and Undertale's music, believing that they're "callbacks to remind you that these two worlds are somehow bound together." Chapter 1's soundtrack was nominated for the Game Audio Network Guild / MAGFest People's Choice Award at the 2019 G.A.N.G. Awards.

Tarason liked the chapter's pixel art, calling it "more detailed and expressive" compared to Undertale, a sentiment that Parton agreed with. Higham further elaborated that its ability to "communicate so much with so little" is one of its greatest strengths and that "character expressions and body language provide vivid displays of personality." The gameplay was also generally well received, with Parton calling it "unique" and Vogel describing the combat as "an organic and well-implemented expansion of the original". Some criticism was given by Higham, referring to some sequences—such as the Card Castle—as "a bit barebones".

Allegra Frank of Polygon mentioned that Deltarune's sense of humor is one of its "defining features". Vogel concurred, calling the humor "witty" and the story "compelling". Higham stated that "you'll be smiling ear-to-ear from the witty writing, snappy jokes, and absurdist humor". Parton and Tarason focused more on the character designs, with Tarason praising the "fresh (and lovable) set of characters" and Parton asserting that their designs range from "undeniably adorable to nightmarishly disturbing". Vogel was critical of the way that the Dark World was implemented, opining that despite it looking slightly better than Undertale, it "hardly feels like a cohesive or living place". He also criticized the "sparsely decorated hallways with very little in the way of interesting design or presentation", ending his criticism by saying that "Deltarune is unfortunately not a very pretty game to look at." Parton also listed the game's infrequent save points as a negative in his summary.