Deltarune Is Almost Here! | Deltarune: Newsletter Thoughts | Deltarune Theory and Analysis 

Noelle staring into the flashlight might just be a "deer in headlights" thing lmfao 😂

I feel like chapter two having very "internet humour" makes sense considering the dark world is themed on well... The internet?

I'd love if, instead of "funny haha gameshow host", we got "corrupt, cruel director" as the next Dark World leader archetype. Someone who might be funny on the surface, while the cameras are still rolling, and open to funny moments, but can be _genuinely cruel_ to their staff and employees. From comedy to tragedy. Queen was kinda mean at times, but her villainy was always played for comedy, and, Hell, when the plugged darkners aren't serving her, _they still get to live their lives. And they like their cool bodies!_ Someone who's more of a reflection of the corporate cruelty behind the scenes instead of just being comically misguided and self-centered would be a breath of fresh air, in this case. It sounds like Spamton and Mike got really screwed over by them, after all. A scar that never healed.

My theory is a flashback of Noelle sneaking looking for presents

Personally, I feel like the old ch2 queen would feel to close to king. I prefer having one wacky and one menacing character instead of two menacing ones.

I think the reason for the flashlight and the dark room in the Noelle screenshot is a power outage. We know from the 2022 screenshots that it's gonna rain during Ch 4, so I can totally see that developing into a full on storm while Kris and Susie are visiting the Holiday Mansion.

To me, Noelle’s flashlight angle makes it look like she’s telling scary stories and wanted mood lighting.

In my opinion, chapter 2 being quirky fits the computer and internet theming very well, the internet has always been unserious and casual for most people, and with memes being VERY huge in internet culture. It only makes sense that the queen of the computer would be that way. would a scary medusa person really match the general feel of "the internet"? Don't get me wrong though, I still really like the Queen's first design, but I think that what Toby ultimately went with was better for the chapter's theme.

I'd prefer a darker more threatening villain later. Keep in mind that they see this as a form of escapism, the gang needs to be lulled into a false sense of security and that requires a sillier tone with only small pieces of darkness being hidden away enough for them to ignore.

I believe Chapter 2's lighthearted and humorous tone is well-suited, considering its online setting. The Snowgrave route is dark enough on its own, and the portrayal of the Queen as a safe space for Noelle enhances the alternate narrative and creepy atmosphere similar of how a creepypasta would be portrayed, like, inside a jolly silly game, there’s a secret route where everything is twisted. Susie being more open speaks volumes about her personality and how she quickly gains confidence with people who treat her well, similar to how street dogs are with people who give them affection - it's like she was always silly but never had someone to unleash it with.

imagine if the chapter 3 villain is like that wacky game show host and they're like kinda friendly at the beginning, but towards the end they really start showing how mentally corrupted they are and just care about being famous and all that even if it meant causing the roaring. another point is that, queen had a reason to protect her dark world... and she didn't know about the roaring, but if this villain already knows that guarding the fountain can cause the roaring then they should have another reason for doing so and it would be weird if they don't know about the roaring and ralsie explains it again, and the last interesting thing about this villain is... well they don't know who is the knight, they couldn't have seen kris create the fountain bc the smile appears after kris puts back his soul and goes back to sleep, so they could've heard about the knight but they're not sure if he's the one who made their world and i guess they will try and make a false assumption like making undyne seem like the knight or smt, this villain seems to be the most interesting one yet in my opinion, and i guess the chapter 4 one will be much more serious bc angel church and whatnot. there's also the fact that they're the TV, probably the closest boss to kris and his familly

Toby REALLY wanted some pizza pie from my newsletter.

Queen being silly kinda makes sense. If there was any time to do a silly villain it should be for the internet/computer dark world.

I get your gripes w/ ch.2, but I cant help but feel it was purposeful. Chapter 2 is the point in the story where the fun gang and all associated lightners are engaging in the fantasies of the dark world that the story is working towards proving can be dangerous and malevolent behind the curtains. To prove to us as the players that the dark world is an alluring and captivating place, we have to see its splendor before we see its dark underbelly. Chapter 2 is quirky, fun, and the exact kind of place youd WANT to go on an adventure in, which is why what we see of the underbelly worked so well in the chapter (Spamton, notably). I think that as we get further in the game, the quirky schtick will slowly drop and we're gonna see the horrors of the existential implication that IS the dark world, with its place in the narrative and meta-narrative of the game and I personally cant wait

Noooo don't take away my December 2024 hopium

I see your point about Queen, but I think between King last chapter and Spamton in chapter 2, having Queen be goofy and nonthreatening was the right call. It's similar to Snowden from Undertale. The game starts a little serious and then foreshadows that there will be some more serious material in the future, then gives you a fun goofy space to play around in so that the future serious tone feels like a bigger shift from where you started. Also, these are a bunch of teenagers who have just discovered magic. A theme looks like it's going to be how we interact with this kind of escapism. We need to have a little bit where the Dark Worlds are good and fun and only scary enough to be exciting. That darkness is still there if you scratch beneath the surface (Spamton, Snowgrave) but at a glance? These kids will want to keep the dark worlds coming.

13:40 I don't think the recontextualisation of King's behaviour was due to Chapter 2 being more light-hearted. Rather I think it has been planned from the start that by the end of the game we'll see King much more sympathetically.

Spamton isn't a funni li'l guy, his story is deep and metaphorical

I agree that it would be INCREDIBLY funny if "the freedom motif" didn't actually become a thing and it was just a part that TWR and BIG SHOT happened to share, but at the same time, I personally have fallen in love with that motif over the past 3 years and would be super disappointed if it wasn't a reoccurring thing with secret bosses

I think that I would have preferred Queen if she was a mix of her current and beta iterations. Because, Queen is dangerous, but Chapter 2 doesn't make it the most obvious with her constantly being goofy. I think I would have liked of they still made her goofy, but acknowledged more clearly how dangerous she can be outside of that final scene with Noelle. Also, I think it's interesting and could have been brought to the front of her themes that Queen is a character who indulges in her obsessions. Like, she constantly drinks battery acid, and the Swatchlings in the room with the video of the Knight creating the Fountain inform us that she likes watching funny videos. We also know that she's gone even more "crazy evil ruler" since the Internet outage started. So maybe what it means is that she started lashing out as soon as she stopped being able to indulge in these funny videos that she loves watching. Heck, maybe that's why Queen became obsessed with the Knight and his goals, as told to us by Sweet Cap'n Cakes. Seemingly the only video they have since the Internet outage is the video of the Knight creating the Fountain. And so, since she's obsessed with watching videos, she latched onto this one, the only video left, the one with the Knight. And she's grown so obsessed with it that she wanted to continue what she thought was their goal. What I'm saying is pure interpretation and I don't think is really confirmed. But it would make sense. And making that part of her more evident in the game would have made her feel more dangerous. Because we would see that she's basically addicted to these videos (and to battery acid), and we would see how far she can go when she can't watch those videos anymore, latching onto the only video left in a very unhealthy way and lashing out due to not being able to indulge like she used to. Heck, I think it's my headcanon now, because it makes a lot of sense. And maybe her misguided care for Noelle is what made her change her mind at the end. Because she does care for her, and she realized that what Noelle wants is more important than one silly video. But of course she's still herself and she still indulges. Literally in one Chapter 4 sneak peek, we see her constantly drinking battery acid, and she can't say a full sentence without interrupting it in the middle by sipping her battery acid.

The trailers probably coming in december. Once the japanese localization is done everything will be ready for a trailer to be made, and everythings already ready for the english one. Financially, if the game is able to be preordered before christmas it will make more money

I'm on the extremely late December release date train, but minimum I'm expecting the next newsletter to at least give some info around then even if it's not a release date or the release of chapters 3&4. But if Toby, Temmie and co need more time, then 100% I say we give them more time. Like that's our call, but still we've waited 3 years (again) we can wait another few months minimum

There’s a gif of a red solo cup with legs meaning chapter four is probably the church

Gasped and then started kicking my fit in the air like an anime girl. Good title.

I'm hoping for a Christmas release because _December Holiday_ is an important character to the lore, but that's probably very optimistic so I feel like it'd have to be Winter 2025, (as in the beginning of the year) with Spring 2025 being the absolute latest I can see it being

the only reason I think chapter 3 and 4 could still come out in 2024 is the fact that toby fox hasn't out right said its coming out in 2025

Yo pro tip on the sansfield fight. The attack where he launches exploding odies at you you can just sit in the bottom left corner and be completely unharmed

My theory about the screenshot in Chapter 4 is that we know it's going to rain, so Noelle, Kris and friends will go to the holidays house and wait there until it stops raining. The reason it's dark is because it rained so much that there is no electricity, so the screenshot takes place when Noelle turned on the flashlight to see it work. It will be great to watch they talking about all times and make sense for narration.

Agree with you that it would be nice to see more serious antagonists in the future. You don't have to get rid of the silliness, just tone it down a bit as the stakes get higher

What if the chapter 3 villian is like flowey at the beginning of undertale? Starts and seems like a somewhat silly goober, but drops the act quickly.

The Japanese localization for chapter 3 started around late January (early Februrary), and in the September newsletter we were told that its in its final phases (them running through everything for mistakes). The rough draft of Ch4s translation will be finished sometime in October then it'll go through the final drafting phases. Because Toby is very specific in how he refers to characters, the names, the references, and the jokes the whole process takes a while (The official Undertale Japanese localization started in early 2016 and ended in 2017 (localized release in August) and was noted to be a somewhat difficult process due to the nature of some jokes). Additionally they had to test Chapters 1+2 with the new GameMaker function (game_change) as well as implement it into the new chapters. Since this is going to be the first big paid release since Undertale, the team wants it to be the best they can possibly make it and have a simultaneous console and PC release in English and Japanese. Taking all of this into account, I think we'll get the next chapter early 2025. I'm hoping for some kind of teaser in the Winter Newsletter before it releases. But who knows, it could release late December this year for plot.

Deltarune Chapter 3 Theory: What is Mike is actually a Microwave and not a Microphone

I don't think the roaring is gonna happen. I think ralsei made that stuff up about the roaring because of how suspicious he's been. Plus the chapters seem to be suggesting a different ending of some kind, more mysterious. And Toby said that he wanted to make Deltarune because he had a fever dream where he dreamed the ending and he knew he had to make it his mission to make a game with that ending. So I can only imagine that the ending is going to be a major twist or something that we don't expect at all. If Toby is doing great, then the following chapters are not going to be something that we can really predict based off of current info. And he succeeded at that with the last chapter so I believe he can do that.

I feel like the Noelle screenshot actually takes place in the basement of the Church? It looks like she's wearing a nice dress, and I'm pretty sure Rudy mentioned that service is "tomorrow". Maybe the town keeps holiday themed props there for the town celebrations?

I wasn't really displeased with the more comedic tone chapter 2 took as if I remember correctly Toby mentioned it intentionally was supposed to be more like a lighthearted adventure and in general I begin to see that the surface dark worlds are gonna be intented as your predisposed fun adventure where it all goes right AS LONG as you do what you're ment to do and it's when the real problems coming from the real world and the characters not wanting to stick to the predestinated path that the safe facade is gonna start making to crumble (and we already see that with Spamton and Snowgrave route) I can also still see chp 3 boss still working as a genuily evil presence while still having the show host vibe, and if another cho ends up being in the church I can see it even more likely having a more serious main boss

I think another reason why this update will take a lot longer is because Toby’s aiming for the paid release on Windows and Mac, as well as all consoles in English and Japanese simultaneously.

aww this cant go in my "deltarune might come out in 2024" affirmations playlist

I really like that little bit of characterization of Chara, where they want to become powerful, to become invincible so that nobody can hurt them. With that plus the fact that they hate humanity, that the reason why they fell into the Underground "wasn't a happy one", and that their first reaction when seeing the humans when fused with Asriel was to want to kill them all, it basically confirms that they were hurt by humans. At the very least psychologically. And it's great for me because this really fits into the characterization I have for Chara in my "Control Route" AU, where Chara and Frisk attempt a different path, to try and become god-like and not be limited by the rules of the world anymore. But after that, Chara would have to face their insecurities and grow from them as they use their god-like powers to reshape the world with Frisk and create scenarios where they can lash out and try to forget about them. But the thing is, they have Asgore's soul. They needed it to absorb the 6 human souls, since human souls can't absorb other human souls, and become the god of this world. And so Asgore, from within their soul, tries to talk to Chara, to understand, guide and help them through their pain. He's their father after all. But Chara attempts to ignore it, to distance themselves from it all and try to not face their problems. Also Flowey is there, because Flowey always destroys Asgore's soul at the end of the runs where they kill him, so Frisk and Chara promised that they would spare him and take him with them once they reached infinite power if he doesn't do that. Flowey didn't want to accept at first, but Chara threatened him with their creepy smile by saying that they would get that soul one way or another, and that it would be beneficial for him to not make it difficult for himself. So he begrudgingly agreed, and he's alongside Frisk and Chara in their sadistic games, playing with the Underground and its inhabitants like they're toys. But Chara still acts cold towards him, as she considers him the reason why they both died. Frisk meanwhile, they're mostly here to support Chara. Because clearly this story is about Chara, not Frisk. Frisk doesn't have the trauma that Chara has, but they've grown to care about Chara throughout all the runs, and so they want to have Chara's back. Frisk is basically here to show Chara support, to let them know that they're not alone, and to make them feel accepted, and slowly allow them to feel happiness again, eventually leading Chara to learn and to grow from their problems. From then, they would be more open to listen to Asgore, and to slowly forgiving Asriel, as well as slowly reforging the sibling bond that they lost. I think it's a great idea, but the problem is that, while I have this idea for a long time, I struggle with figuring out the exact execution of the scenario, as well as writing the dialogue between all of these characters.

I'm assuming chapter 4 is about the church and maybe Noelle was late for it so you go to her house to check on her, and maybe something happened and the lights went out and that's why she has a flashlight in the teaser

I agree that, on her own, the unfinished version of Queen would be better. But another "dark scary menacing final chapter boss" isn't very interesting, it just sounds like it would be King again. Queen as she is is distinct from other final boss concepts I've seen. If the entire game was dark and scary, then the darkness would have no meaning. Undertale was silly very often. The entirety of pacifist Snowdin is just goofy fun, we just remember the dark parts of the game better. I think some people are just aging out of Deltarune's humor, we're all 5-6 years older than when Chapter 1 came out and most of us fell in love with the game. Susie also still has a whole unfinished character arc with her parents, and opening up to the other kids who still only see her as a bully. You're also never punished or called wrong for fighting beyond just, people who you beat up don't want to be friends with you. Yes, the Snowgrave route calls you out, but thats because you're doing everything you can to change the ending to a game that only has one ending.

Friend inside me

My theory is either the dress Noelle wears is her church dress(? or Rudy died and that's why she is wearing black

Maybe the Christmas-themed stuff isn’t owned by the Holidays, but instead belongs to the church. Sure they’re literally based after Christmas and related media, but the holiday itself comes from religion, so Deltarune’s version of Christmas could be related to the Angel and therefore related to the Church. And because of that, maybe the Church has a bunch of Christmas decorations in their basement. That’d also explain why Noelle seems to be wearing black instead of her red-and-green sweater (or at least is wearing something black over her sweater)

I get what you’re saying about menacing villains but I think they’ll probs be more akin to whatever themed world they’re in. It makes sense for the internet villain to be silly and stuff, and perhaps the tv one too. But I think like you said it’ll get more serious as we go. And even so there’s one villain I’m sure that will be quite menacing… Mrs mayor, any words?

what about chara’s theme lowkey being at the end of spamton’s original theme? i feel like it’s notable considering that spamton has ties with the [x left] dialogue. also, the holy bassline gets used in power of spamton!

...I still want to see that final predictions video

i’m so glad we didn’t get freaqueen 😭🙏

Friend Inside Me

given the name of the chapter 3 image is ch3 intro area it would make sense if it was the couch

The next chapters will be revealed during the donkey kong decembrr direct

I don't think we are going to get a light World chapter Specifically because it would be 1/7 of the game that was suddenly missing the core identity and premise, and no matter how you spin it that's just wouldn't be satisfying. I think sometimes as a fandom we forget that DR is a *game.* We tend to look at it as a story, we often engage with it in the form of theories and fandom content but the basis of all of that is a game at the end of the day and it has to be something that actually works when being played. It would be really weird if Pokemon just had a 7th of the game where there aren't any Pokemon battles. It wouldn't work. It would halt the momentum of a player experience in a way that wouldnt happen for a reader or a watcher. The light world is important to the lore but from a game play standpoint, it mostly serves the purpose of letting us travel between playareas and being the setting for important cutscenes, not to mention the game as a whole. The entire time a casual player might be playing a light world chapter they would be waiting for when the dark world would open, and when it ended on a cliffhanger after a couple hours of dialogue and not a single fight or anything like that, I at least would be disappointed in that position. Although that being said I would like something like a pseudo light world chapter, like a chapter where for whatever reason you can move in and out of the Dark World and have to do stuff in the light world to progress. I don't think that's going to happen either the game seems to want to fully section off the light and dark until presumably doesn't for full effect. My point is I don't think that we will get an entire chapter in the light world, maybe in the dark world but definitely not in the light world.

that noelle screenshot...what if she used that flashlight to leave a dark world?

So you played vs kirby then, geeze that fan boss kicked my rear good.

I know she’s like the most important character besides the main trio but a Holiday House Dark World feels kinda disappointing to me…there’s such a big cast I wanna learn more about that it would be kinda weird to have another Noelle focused chapter so soon I trust the process, though

I wonder if the Noelle scene is maybe missable. Edit: Hey another person saw those Queen sprites as Medusa

13:56 I mean, in the first chapter Ralsei says not being a pacifist will lead to a less favorable outcome, but in chapter two we are introduced to a mechanic of losing darkners. And that we grow stronger by bonds we break. So it became more nuanced, not less. We have an incentive to not be pacifists.

Dosent Berdly work at the Library, maybe Mrs Boom is the run who runs the library

My first initial thought when I saw the Noelle image was that she was in her home’s garage where they keep all their Christmas stuff. Looking for someone or something. Her looking into the flashlight could be that joke where the character tries to turn on the flashlight and looks at it while turning it on, just my thought

I think you severely misunderstand King's characterization in chapter 2, you're taking his justifications for his unjust actions at face value when you're not supposed to.

I think the March estimate is still way too early. I would actually put it in summer or even all the way at the anniversary next year. Testing takes a LONG time for a major release, ESPECIALLY since this time they'll be testing the console versions as well. The console thing adds a lot of time I don't think people consider. We don't even know if a console port is completed yet, as it wasn't mentioned in the newsletter. But each console release requires an entirely new set of testing. And that's not to mention actually getting games on console takes WAY longer than people expect, getting it rated and then going through each console's own release process, all that can take months just on its own, and that's AFTER testing is mostly complete.

I wonder if the main bosses will stop being dastardly and that role will fall upon the much more menacing secret bosses. I thought all the scenes with spamton and noelle felt like that chapter one vibe you were talking about. Tenna is just gonna be wacky and the secret boss will do some fucked up shit.

I have a theory that every dark world looks like that screenshot from ch 3 and when a new fountain is created, it adapts itself to the environment in which it was made, in this case the Dreemurr household and the TV. Maybe it looks like that in the beginning because the fountain was just created and didn't have time to adapt yet.

I mean, I don't think toby really writes characters like that, even flowey became a completely different character once he became asriel. Like the closest we got was the king and people ripped into him (rightfully so) for being a extremely bland and boring villain. Plus, personally, I just don't really think the world really needs more dastardly villains? It kinda goes against the point of the game if anything. If a villain really gets in your way and isn't made friendly by the end then your only option would be to kill them in some way, which goes against the whole point of toby's work. Besides do we reeeeally need another asgore fight where we need to fight someone with a complete disregard to what route you were on before? It worked there but it's a really one trick pony thing imo.

Looking into Deltarune newsletters, I noticed the Japanese localization for chapter 3 started around late Junuary/early February, and just in this last newsletter written in early September we got to know it's in its last or one of its last phases (checking phase). Toby expects that a preliminary pass on ch4's translation will be finished in mid October, then more passes, and checking. This seems to take a good while. Only after that, professional testing in chapter 4, subsequent bugfixing, testing all of it again, repeat, which it's like to end way after this process ends for ch3 professional testing. At least ch4 seems to have been easier to translate. So many things that take a lot of time, so that's why I expect it to release between January and March.

Oh man. Respect, but Queen is my favourite DR character lol

What if... Susie hust woke up as kris open the dark world in the weird route because she is worried about Noelle, causing a huge fight Susie thinking kris is the knight

The gameshow host stuff is litterally 90% fanon. Most of what we've got on the next chapters villian is a fairly menacing smile at the end of chapter 2 I really see no point in complaining about something that litterally isnt even confirmed as part of the game.

ring doorbell moment

“Take everything with a grain of salt” bro im getting ptsd from the nintendo switch 2 “leaks”

we need woody theory 2 please proceed

3:10 Personally, I think they might be the water sausages, also in the living room

It's starting to look more and more likely that chapter 4 might not have a dark world and is light world exclusive.

King was so close to that villain, but he was made into a complete joke in chapter 2.

15:23 Unfortunately a character that dynamic would have to somehow make a 180 on their dark world goals cause the roaring isn't beneficial to either side... If they are intent on it an genuinely bad then them dying at the end of the chapter or at least put in a state where they can't hurt anyone ever again would be the only conclusion... Which besides moral reform like the other two is: locked in the dungeon and forgotten about. Which only a half step up....

i personally think even if the chapter 4 screenshot probably isn't the church, they go there sometime in the chapter, because if you notice, Noelle is wearing all black in the screenshot. Or that might just be a coincidence, but i don't think it is

Wow this video is FULL of awful takes, like back to back to back terrible opinions. Lame

I do agree that the quirkiness of Chapter 2 is a bit overbearing compared to the more adventurous theme of Chapter 1

Unused castle town is WAY better then what we got. I mean, what we got WAS good, but not AS good.

Chapter 3 n 4 was being released soon for the last year, so another two years and we'll get it

For a long time, I’ve had a strong feeling that chapters 3&4 were going to be released in 2025… I guess it’s not a big deal. I’m just glad I get to play it soon-ish

I didn’t think about it much before but honestly I really agree about your opinions on how ch2 changed stuff from ch1 to be more silly, especially with lancer’s dad. Ch1’s definitely had a very different vibe, which was very different from undertale. I do hope future chapters will probably lean into that vibe more and have more evil/ambiguous antagonists.

Something i just realised, while the image is seemingly cropped, the image with Noelle just shows her, not Kris, not Susie. Of course this could just be another cut away scene, but what if we somehow end up being able to ditch Kris as the main protagonist?

I think the holiday mansion scene would make sense at the end of the Chapter 4 Light World sequence we’ve already seen before heading to the church, maybe Noelle is mysteriously late for church And maybe the Festival is the post chapter 5 light world sequence after the Knight is defeated I sort of agree with your Queen thoughts, while Queen is fun I could never take her seriously, and when Toby suddenly made Berdly say “Noelle’s face will be turned into a robot one” in the Palace in a serious way I was wondering why they were turning a mere joke into something with actual stakes

Well I certainly don't think chapter 3's villain will get the same kind of redemption as Queen. Mainly because I don't think Toriel will be okay with kris just taking the whole TV to a random school closet. Unless they frame it as "someone broke into our house and took a bunch of stuff!" (that stuff being the darkners from that chapter.)

I kinda prefer the darker, more similar to chapter 1 concepts that the newsletter showed off. I really like how chapter 2 turned out, but I probably would have preferred a more "Dark Web" theming of the chapter.

nobody has said this yet but I think chapter 5 could also be ICE-E's P'E'ZZA

What things do you have to say about deltarune?

Just like the ,,I know who wrote the Valentine letter " , this is wrong. Most likely it'll be by March 2025

"Chapter 2 was too silly and quirky" Yeah, this isn't your type of game dood

i think march is a little pessimistic, toby wants this game out more than anyone else i'd be willing to believe a march release it if the chapter 1 and 2 demo update happens maybe in november, but march or even febuary sounds a bit like an overestimate

10:20 couldnt help but notice the discord ping noise.

i really hope it releases by january bc i can then have it as a birthday present but i don't mind march bc Holidays In My Area

I thought your face was a pumpkin

I can't wait for it

15:05 This would be cool, sounds cool to happen.

Dude I did a happy dance when I saw this video

Damian Stravenue

November-January release for sure

Keebler Falls

3:00 How could that be the size of the sofa in relation to carpet fibres?