Deltarune, the Undertale spin-off, had its’ surprise second chapter release on September 18th. The game hit a ground-breaking total of players, which is only likely to grow with the later chapters’ releases.
It seems like yesterday that Toby Fox released the first chapter of Deltarune, but has in fact been three years! This break was relieved by a shock release of Deltarune Chapter 2, debuting on Steam and Itch.io. The significant gap between chapters is due to the upgrades between Deltarune and Undertale. With fleshed-out combat systems, Deltarune also brings more intricate animations – both of which take time to perfect, hence the delay between parts one and two. In fact, Chapter 1 was released almost as a demo – to test the game and work out any imperfections.
On the first day of Deltarune Chapter 2 going live, a monumental peak of 102,916 concurrent players tuned in to play at the same time – on Steam alone! This blew Undertale’s peak of players right out of the water – only peaking at just over 10,000 at any given time (this is understandable as the game is very odd, and took a while to solidify itself as a player favorite). Deltarune has not only beaten its’ predecessor but has out-ranked recent releases like Deathloop – which brought in 20,000 players at release earlier this month. The release also successfully crashed Itch.io’s platform within five minutes of the game going live!
Deltarune Chapter 1 was released in 2018 with massive success, gaining critical acclaim across the board. Though widely regarded as a sort of parallel-not-parallel to Undertale, Deltarune is in fact confirmed to be unrelated to Toby Fox’s original release. In his words, it is “a game you can play after you complete Undertale if you want to”. While the games are two separate entities, there are some similarities. Certain characters from Undertaleshow up in the game, including Toriel and Alphys. The combat system allows players to either fight or spare enemies, too. Here is where the similarities stop (aside from the obvious design choices). Deltarune is set before Undertale, and it is recommended that players finish Toby Fox’s first game before attempting Deltarune.
Currently, Deltarune Chapter 2 is available for free on all platforms because, according to Fox, “the world has been really tough for everybody recently”. He also asks fans to pay for other indie games with the money saved from Deltarune being free. What a guy. It is confirmed that the next (and final?) three chapters will likely release at once, and will be in some form of a bundle with the original two. This will come with a price tag, but players will be more than happy to drop a few dollars. It seems likely too that chapters 3, 4 and 5, will release simultaneously. Players will likely have to wait a while for the completed project, however, as Fox himself has clarified that the game is coming along slowly. The script is done, the music is coming, but the programming is far behind. Though, if playing Undertale told fans anything, it’s patience!
Deltarune Chapter 2 is available now on PC.
