#oh no. something something lancer is going to get more attached to queen than rouxls and he's going to realize he lost the one thing he was

[girlwiththegreenhat]

asljkf saw your tags on the darkners post i made and grinned evilly i hope you know that thinking about that was what initially prompted that post

HAHA OH FUCK

i am so fascinated by darkners and the dark world and how it all works dude. its interesting to think about what happens to those who are deemed useless. can they carve their own meaning out of the life they've been given? or is it truly and entirely up to the lightners, or Other Forces (looks at spamton's man on the phone/gaster). perhaps not, as "your choices don't matter"? spamton's "usefulness" wasn't permanent. he went back to being a nobody, cinderella without a glass slipper.

thats one of a gazillion reasons why i like his relationship with lancer, it gives him a purpose where he's otherwise been unable to find one. he's lancers dad :) somebody needs him. it's not a lightner but Somebody needs him.

rouxls makes me so fucking insane he is so Bizarre and strange and a total joke character (seemingly) but there's depth there. there's depth there guYS I SWEAR THERE'S D-

[anewfreind]

Hey so, you played DeltaRune right? What was your first impression on the main cast? i.e. raslei, lancer, Susie, Kris.

Oh fucketh yes thou kindeth basterd, let thine doith this.

Alright, so imma talk about the game and new characters, and if you would like, send asks on the undertale cast, and how they changed, because i would love to talk about that! I would also love to talk about theories for both Deltarune and Undertale! Do send asks! Now lets begin:

*ahem*

I was NOT expecting it to be this long for what I thought was a free demo

I loved ALL the characters this time. I didn't think I'd like Susie and Lancer much, but they grew to be my favourite characters of the story this time.

Also, I knew Deltarune was an anagram of Undertale, but I went through the entire goddamn game without realizing that Ralsei was an anagram for Asriel. Yes, I'm stupid.

I really like the new party battle mechanics! I didn't use the fight option, but still.

I wasn't able to find part B of the key that would unlock that mysterious cell in the prison. Did anyone else find it?

This was a very easy game to get a Pacifist run in, and I got the good ending straightaway! Seemingly.

SEEMINGLY.

WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?!?

Still here? Cool lets go

So, some interesting points and thoughts I had about the game and characters, and other things and tropes I noticed:

Ascended Meme: Toriel mentions that Kris and Asriel enjoy playing Super Smashing Fighters, a clear Shout-Out to the Super Smash Bros. franchise. At the time of the release of Deltarune Chapter 1, a popular meme was that Sans would be confirmed as a character for the then-upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Anti-Frustration Features: Should you make at least three unsuccessful attempts to clear either timed-tile puzzle, Ralsei will offer a hint on how to solve them

Attack! Attack! Attack!: Susie's main method of fighting: She'll keep attacking enemies and won't listen to Kris. Fortunately, she gets better during the final dungeon. Perhaps this is how she was raised?

Awesome, but Impractical: The Top Cake heals your entire party for 160 HP, but your entire party only has 90, 110 and 70 HP anyway and can't be increased at all. Furthermore, giving the Top Cake back to the Top Chef makes him give you the Spin Cake, which, while only restoring 80 HP, is unlimited and any encounter that isn't a Boss fight will probably not shave off your entire HP.

One thing that annoys me with the game is that Lv can’t increase, but we will get back to that later

Bait-and-Switch: A lot of the plot details are set up in a similar fashion to the previous game, only to subvert expectations.

Susie threatens Kris early on and is a berserker who attacks monsters on sight and doesn't care about the quest she's nominally on, much like a No Mercy run from the previous game, but she refrains from killing anyone and ultimately makes a Heel–Face Turn.

Lancer is similar in both a recurring antagonist role and has a skeletal appearance with a blue color scheme, which might lead players to believe he has a connection with Sans and Papyrus from the previous game; he and his father turn out to just be Darkners who resemble skeletons and have no apparent connection with Sans and Papyrus at all.

A mysterious doorframe appears early on and savvy players (or fandom nerds) might expect them to tie into Gaster as they did in the previous game. They end up being a fast travel system (which is lame).

Lastly, there's Lancer's dad, the King, who might look like a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Asgore, right down to one of the people close to him trying to persuade both you and him not to fight (Undyne for Asgore, Lancer for the King). However, when you actually encounter the King, not only does he threaten to throw Lancer off a roof if the Lighteners don't kneel before him, he also tricks Ralsei into bringing him to full health so he has them at their mercy again. He ends up being defeated by Ralsei putting him to sleep while Kris and Susie escape, or captured by Lancer when he turns his own troops on him.

Big Door: There's a large bunker-style door built into the landscape in the forest to the south of town. Locked, unfortunately.

One of the encounters can be resolved peacefully by getting Ralsei to sing a lullaby, which also puts Susie to sleep. This later turns out to be the key to peacefully resolving the fight with Susie and Lancer. It comes up again in the "bad" ending to the King fight, where Susie notes that while she can't take the King down, Ralsei can. Susie: “I'd never forget something I made fun of you for.”

Similarly, Susie attacks automatically during the first battle with Lancer (who can't be killed), which is an early hint to the player that Susie attacks on her own and you'll have to prevent her from doing damage if you want a pacifist run.

Cliffhanger: The chapter ends with Kris (most likely being controlled) pulling out their/the player's SOUL, shoving it in a cage, and drawing a knife, at which point Kris's eyes glow red like Frisk's do if Chara's permanently corrupted your save after a genocide playthrough back in Undertale. This ending felt like a punch to the gut, and gave me so many questions to ask. Also, in the final scene, you can control the SOUL while it's in the birdcage. It won't change the outcome.

Lancer appears to be this for most of the initially-bad guy cast of Undertale, possessing a Sans-like color scheme, Papyrus's kid-brother nature and general enthusiasm for "evil," and Alphys's emotional attachment to the Big Bad.

Kris seems to be a hybridization of Frisk and Chara: their face, skin color and silent nature lean more towards the former, while their clothes and relation to the Dreemurr family (especially Asriel) scream of the later. Of course, after what happens in the ending, who knows how the three are connected? But here is something people have forgotten about, since I haven’t seen anything on it, but Kris looks exactly like the unused Frisk sprite, besides the sweater

Even if you go out of your way to beat encounters by force, enemies just get knocked off-screen. Contrast with Undertale and its infamous Genocide/No Mercy route.

After you beat the game and it closes itself, restarting shows Ralsei's legend as the intro and provides a new background for the file select screen.

Susie's hair is wild and covers her eyes, symbolizing her wild and violent outcast vibe. After the fight with the King, it's cut to reveal her eyes, and she becomes a lot more expressive and open with her emotions from them on.

All main characters are this, or have a Face Framed in Shadow. Them revealing their faces is usually a big deal.

Kris and Susie's outfits change when they fall into the dark world. Kris also becomes more blue in appearance, while Susie becomes more pink.

On the walk home, talking to numerous characters heavily hints that something is up with Kris. Numerous people refer to them as "creepy", or "quiet", and Noelle notes that they're usually quite distant from others. The game implies that Kris was being possessed by the player ala the first game

Ralsei makes direct reference to interface elements and controls as part of his tutorial-giver role. This leads to an amusing moment in the first block puzzle, as this trope doesn't apply to Susie.

Susie: (Who the hell is "[Z]"?)

Susie's solo fight against Lancer parallels the first game's fight against Toriel in a number of ways. In both cases, the foe is a family member of the king that guards the protagonist's way back home, and they're trying to prevent the protagonist from meeting the king in order to avoid bloodshed. Once the fight goes on for long enough, the foe starts attacking exclusively by dropping projectiles from above that are guaranteed to miss, showing their reluctance to fight someone they'd started growing close to.

This chapter has a lighter tone than all of Undertale. The game mechanics are more focused on solving puzzles and befriending enemies than fighting, and no one can die, even if you DO decide to attack all your enemies.

After returning from the World of Darkness, talking to several of the NPCs imply that Kris isn't acting like themselves. Noelle comments on how Kris is really talkative compared to normal, Noelle's dad implies Kris has forgotten things that they should know, the hospital clerk comments on how Kris isn't normally so bad at playing piano, and Kris in general seems a lot less "creepy" to the townspeople.

After arriving at the fountain, Kris and Susie find themselves back at the school, in a room with a chess board, playing cards, and some toys that look like the characters they encountered. But both of them remember what happened, and it's left ambiguous as to whether it really was just a dream or not.

If you have the Spooky Sword equipped, your "weapon" upon leaving the dark world will be the Halloween Pencil, leading to more questions.

If you follow the Jevil sidequest plot to its conclusion, mentions of The Queen are made, as well as Seam describing the event that drove Jevil insane as "Dark yet Darker" adding even heavier implications to Gaster's presence in the future story.

If one talks to Rouxls Kaard after starting his first puzzle, he will verbatim quote I. M. Meen. (Also Rouxls Kaard, thou art must marrith me)

When Burgerpants talks about his fellow pizzeria employees, he mentions a "Purple Guy" and wonders if he even works there.

Ralsei removing his hat and hood at the end, revealing that he looks exactly like Asriel. Judging by Susie's reaction, this is one both in and out of universe.

Right at the end of Chapter 1. Kris is tossing and turning in the middle of the night, when they jump out of bed and start walking around very slowly. They then stop in the middle of the room and pull their own soul out of their body, before throwing it into the birdcage from earlier. They then turn their head around slowly, revealing Chara's trademark smile and glowing red eye, before materializing a knife out of nowhere. Anyone who's played Undertale (so most of people playing this game, as it was recommended to those who already played Undertale) should have some very horrific guesses about what this mean

The King grabs Lancer's throat when he finds out that they let the heroes get away