I think that if there's one statement that sums up Undertale's thematic identity it would be "your actions have consequences." There's a lot that can be said about Undertale and how that direction made it such an important game. What's most interesting about Deltarune is how it directly contrasts the core message of Undertale. Rather than slowly letting you come to the realization of your influence over the world in Underale, this games comes out and immediately tells you its own core message: "your choices don't matter."
As someone who loves to study the work of individual artists/studios and see how their works evolve and what lessons they learn over time, this makes Deltarune immediately interesting to me. How will tobyfox develop this idea throughout Deltarune's lifespan (however long that may end up being) to say something as powerful as Undertale while challenging what Undertale had to say while also not contradicting it? It's a very exciting hook.
Deltarune further differentiates itself by embracing more tropes of RPGs whereas Undertale intentionally subverted the expectations tied to the genre. You have party members in deltarune, you have a magic system (that's actually super cool and would love to see other games expand on), there are no more random encounters, battles start instantaneously like in Chrono Trigger and its many successors, and the battle screens even resemble Final Fantasy instead of Dragon Quest. Deltarune makes it very clear from the beginning that this project is not going to be Undertale 2.0 and I couldn't be happier with the direction it's taking.
All of these thoughts apply to both chapters. My thoughts on chapter 2 exclusively though... I actually like chapter 1 more. I played both chapters the way you're supposed to play Undertale, and that method worked well in chapter 1. I think that, despite a very predictable ending, Susie and Lancer are better written characters than anyone in chapter 2 and the writing both comedic and emotional works better in chapter 1 over chapter 2. I also really don't like the cyber city aesthetic of chapter 2, it's not as interesting of a place to inhabit and very visually dull. I also don't like the music or the side characters kinda at all.
This chapter definitely has stuff I enjoy. The presentation is better overall, I love Queen and all the punch out boss fights, and snowgrave is a completely different beast from the rest of the chapter (I played passive and watched a snowgrave run afterwards), and in both chapters the ending outside of the dark world is the best part. But overall I enjoyed chapter 1 more. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I first played them back to back as opposed to everyone who had to wait three years in between, iunno.
As someone who loves to study the work of individual artists/studios and see how their works evolve and what lessons they learn over time, this makes Deltarune immediately interesting to me. How will tobyfox develop this idea throughout Deltarune's lifespan (however long that may end up being) to say something as powerful as Undertale while challenging what Undertale had to say while also not contradicting it? It's a very exciting hook.
Deltarune further differentiates itself by embracing more tropes of RPGs whereas Undertale intentionally subverted the expectations tied to the genre. You have party members in deltarune, you have a magic system (that's actually super cool and would love to see other games expand on), there are no more random encounters, battles start instantaneously like in Chrono Trigger and its many successors, and the battle screens even resemble Final Fantasy instead of Dragon Quest. Deltarune makes it very clear from the beginning that this project is not going to be Undertale 2.0 and I couldn't be happier with the direction it's taking.
All of these thoughts apply to both chapters. My thoughts on chapter 2 exclusively though... I actually like chapter 1 more. I played both chapters the way you're supposed to play Undertale, and that method worked well in chapter 1. I think that, despite a very predictable ending, Susie and Lancer are better written characters than anyone in chapter 2 and the writing both comedic and emotional works better in chapter 1 over chapter 2. I also really don't like the cyber city aesthetic of chapter 2, it's not as interesting of a place to inhabit and very visually dull. I also don't like the music or the side characters kinda at all.
This chapter definitely has stuff I enjoy. The presentation is better overall, I love Queen and all the punch out boss fights, and snowgrave is a completely different beast from the rest of the chapter (I played passive and watched a snowgrave run afterwards), and in both chapters the ending outside of the dark world is the best part. But overall I enjoyed chapter 1 more. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I first played them back to back as opposed to everyone who had to wait three years in between, iunno.