I view this as sort of a ‘demo’ of Deltarune the full game. This is the smallest and most basic of the seven chapters(at least, presumably), and even so, it is absolute joy despite being released for free.

With Undertale having a stacked cast of iconic characters, you might wonder if the spiritual sequel could ever hold up; truly, there are a number of incredibly humorous, lovable characters and moments that occur here.

The story, while a foundation for something greater, is still very good. I think the card kingdom aesthetic was the perfect choice to start out the idea of darkners vs lightners, as it ties all of the races together with a very visual unity, while the designs are allowed to be more free and different later on. It does a great job throughout at dropping the lore throughout and never truly feeling like exposition, even if that’s what a lot of it is; even Ralsei’s prophesy is interesting and has a lot of humor surrounding it depending on the dialogue you choose.

I think the ‘your choices don’t matter’ angle here is sharply fascinating. Opening the game with forcing the player to get attached to their created character before having the narrator throw their work in the trash is such a powerful gambit, and I remember feeling shocked when it happened, especially since one of the main themes of Undertale is the weight of your choices. I also love that there seems to be a counter-thread going through the story beneath the surface, first shown in this chapter by the secret boss Jevil, with his lovable insanity and frequent cries that “I CAN DO ANYTHING!”.

The gameplay is a really cool evolution of Undertale’s while still feeling very familiar. Deltarune leans heavier into the traditional RPG elements of turn-based combat, but ACTing and the battle board are still very much prevalent, too. On my first playthrough, I had a slight complain that the game was a little too easy, but after playing chapter 2 and repeating this chapter, I’ve begun to really appreciate it for its focus on the narrative and characters even more than Undertale; besides, it would be harsh to criticize a game too much on being easy when it’s the first 1/7th of the whole. And, Jevil’s fight was a very fun challenge and an exhilarating thing to experience, both the cryptic lead up and the fight itself.

The music is simply wonderful, as I’d expect from Toby Fox by this point. There are only a couple of true standout, blow-your-mind songs, but there are still a couple, and that matters a little less to me here for a few reasons: one, this is part 1 of 7. And two, Deltarune is extremely focused on leitmotifs, which is one of my favorite things that a game can do musically, and it makes the whole feel a lot more cohesive and emotional; even more than Undertale’s commendable leitmotifs, in some ways. I’d single out “Hip Shop” and “The World Revolving” (while two extremely different vibes) as the songs I go back to most outside of the game for chapter 1. But even the very contextual tracks are exquisite in setting the intended feeling for the moment (see: “Another Him”, “Beginning”, “The Holy”).

I think a case could be made for giving this game five stars, but I think I’ll just shave off a half-star due to knowing that this could be—or, rather, will be—much much more, despite how awesome it already is. This is certainly a piece of one of my to-be favorite games of all time, anyway!