Call it recency bias (I just finished my replay of the game, from ch 1 to ch 4) but it amazes me how perfect DELTARUNE Chapter 4 is. Honestly, everything that happens after you fight the knight at the end of chapter 3 is complete peak. It's a nonstop stretch of perfect atmosphere, extremely clever and heartwarming character building, and amazing music. I think the sound of justice fight is one of my favorite fights in all of video games - and the third sanctuary may be my favorite piece of video game music ever made.
There's so much I'm looking forward to in this new chapter. Will we get to see Susie further develop her healing magic? Will we get to see Ralsei's room in castle town, with the furniture that Kris and Susie scrounged from the sanctuary? (which seems to be one ladder and one pillow?) What the hell is going on with Asgore? Is he gonna create the dark fountain?
(Oh I didn't say it before but this is gonna be a liveblog of DELTARUNE ch5)
Around the time of the Spamton Sweepstakes, I made a bingo board for what I thought would come up in the future chapters. It included such laughable squares as "Sweepstakes lore becomes relevant to the game" and "Chapters 3 - 5 not released in 2022" (that one seems silly in hindsight). Before the chapter released, I revised it into the below board, which I have marked for your viewing pleasure. Looking at it now, there were a few that weren't that big swings, all things considered, but I almost got a bingo. Depending on how you count it, that is.
(I'm especially proud of predicting the Lanino and Elnina Divorce arc, and 'Spamton comes back to say hi' is a very accurate description of what ended up happening.)
The night before those chapters came out, I also wrote a couple hopes and wishes for what I wanted to see. I wished for more characters in the party, which I did not get, but I also hoped for a more serious tone, and that very much came true. I even suggested it would happen in the church, and it did.
I also made a bingo board for the new chapter. I had to struggle a little to fill it out, but here it is:
But how do I think it's all going to go down? Well, we know we'll get to go to castle town, and that there's going to be a dark fountain that we can all but say for sure is in Asgore's flower shop. We also know that the festival is happening, and we'll get to walk around with Susie and Noelle. So if I had to guess, things will go down thusly:
Kris will wake up, not immediately following concequences of Susie outside of Kris's window last night. I'm not sure if there'll be an interlude before the festival (maybe the castle town segment is before the festival, or maybe it's available to visit during exploration of the festival). Possibly as the festival is winding down, Susie decides that since the tree code for the shelter is a bust, they should go ask asgore about the police one, cue dark world. I'm thinking the knight might also be there? (could be interesting to see the knight and Asgore interacting). At the end, something disasterous will happen (either The Roaring, or Susie figuring out about Kris's ties to the conspiracy) that means things will be super serious from here. Then (this is my personal prediciton) we get a 'to be continued in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7: 2028'. Why do I think this might be the case? Well it's not based on any evidence, just the idea that having two chapters drop for the big finale would be cool, and that 2028 is the 10th anniversary of Chapter 1, and therefore DELTARUNE itself. Could be neat.
There's also the going theory that there will be no Chapter 7 at all, stemming from Gerson's "After that, there was only one more chapter. The pen was lying there for the youth to write the next page, they never did". Now this could be alluding to a couple things. It could be pointing at Susie, the 'White Pen of Hope', and asking her to forge a new future aside from the prophecy with her powers of hope and nonconformity. If we're taking that line strictly metatextually, it could read as 'DELTARUNE will have 6 chapters, then end, what happens next is up for you to decide.' But that's kind of getting ahead of things.
I have a rather annoying problem on my hands. That is - my employment. I can't really take leave from my new work, and the new chapter comes out in two days time, at like 1 or 2 AM on a thursday. So I'm either waiting a whole work day to play the chapter, or waking up at 2 in the morning, playing through the whole thing sleep deprived, then having a very odd work day. Writing it out like this, the former makes a lot more sense.
I have a stupid solution to my problem. The chapter releases at 3AM tomorrow my time. I have to go to work at 8AM, and it's 6pm the previous day right now. What if I were to go to sleep now, and just wake up at 3am tomorrow to play? I can handle being tired at work for one day. I suppose you'll see whether or not I was sucsessfull by the timestamp on the next blog update...
Guess who, idiots >:)
It's cold and I didn't get much sleep at all in the end, but here we go!!!!!
The game has updated.... here we go....
Slick voices??? Toby fox did say lots of people worked on this chapter's soundtrack...
They did go outside!!!!!!! For a while it looks like....
(i'm not looking at the love letters...)
omg that toriel sprite of her on the couch is so good
always saying this.
Just a little while before we bring Asriel home????
This looks soo good.. what the hellll. I get the feeling this chapter's gonna have a huge jump in sprite quality.
Also as I sit out here it sounds like I can hear droning, like a really slowed down music track? Hmm...
I'm not sure whether to talk to Asgore first, or try and go into castle town...
I chose castle town... It seems like Susie must be in here... and everyone's preparing her for the festival? I hope she's ok...
(There's so many different options on this piano...)
The Ralsei dress!! cUTE!!! (Ignore starwalker)
(Oh the new dojo song kind of bangs)
The ended up bringing Jackenstein home!! Yay! ( I thought for a sec that since Mallius was outside the bakery, Top Chef would be in here. Lol.)
OMG "4rd Sanctuary????"
That song was very hard, but I have Seen something with mine eyes... Kris and Ralsei's names and portraits were marked on the music game where they weren't before. Does this mean something about possibly getting other players in the game eventually?
I went back out to talk to Asgore, to learn the Nose Nuzzle Lore.
UH HUH. YEAH.
He wants his old job back???
Normal. About this.
Shadow crystals contain the power of lost dreams? Everyone thought they would say determination. I suppose it makes sense with the spamton robot, but what about Gerson or Jevil was giving 'lost dreams'?
HINT for the MANEQUIN ARMOMR??? CAT ELEMENT FIGHT???????? who who who what.
please let me make her a duck
YES!! (the royal dress says "you will look normal and good". I can see the Theams here.)
I'm gonna do the duck outfit. Why not.
Kris Lamp.
Susie slept in Kris's dark world bed? Adorable...
Toby Fox should've released only this screenshot as promotional material for ch5.
(I love this game so much)
I just put something together... If we're fighting a cat enemy as the secret boss... could it be seam? I guess the element is maybe not *just* cats...
Noelle joined your tour group!
This song is going to make me cry... I can feel it...
RUDY YOU SHOULD NOT BE UP THERE!!!!!!
(carol is.. investigating the bunker??? I guess to make sure susie didn't get in....)
Oh hey alvin, thought you were kidnapped...
Yay! the old man's note worked!!! Also, I guess Alvin wasn't in on the plan to put gerson in the dark world? Then why exhume the hammer?
Ok... I'm hesitant....
That's the resolution to the don't forget thing? Why? Hopefully we learn something else about that... hmm...
It's for Papyrus? This isn't making sense to me...
Susie doesn't want to say hi to Toriel... Seeing her last night definitely rubbed her the wrong way...
I think Berdly thought a little more about the whole romance thing between chapters... He was a little less weird about it this time..
It's not azzypants, but the pizza yaoi is real.
(Love Lost today)
Damn it.. I picked the 'think about something else' option the first time, then reset and lost some progress to think about Noelle and Susie... Props to Kris I guess for letting them have some alone time lol.
Cute... but.. I feel something foreboding...
i am going to cry when something bad happenes to these two so badly
we're in the yuri particle accellerator right now. The romantic tensions will keep building and building exponentially untill either they kiss or the entire world blows up in an explosion of magentas and oranges.
yeah...
i hate to analyze this, but are we taking falling down as in 'fell off the ladder' or like the thing monsters do in undertale when they die?
NOW??? OUTSIDE????
(that animation of kris falling backwards into the dark world is so cool)
ROBERT RADIATION FOX YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT. ASRIEL GJINkA? WITH FULL ANIME CUTSCENE?? GO AWAY???
ew he speaks
oh so it's a flowey gjinka. of course.
A golden suit of armor too big to wear? Oh right the asgore king armor.
Hat Ralsei is back! ( I kind of grew to prefer the no hat version over time)
lol Ralsei says you can shut this guy up if you want to
THe FIELD of WHO and WHAT??????????????????????????????
The Themez.. they are developing... We're directly paralelling chapter 1 in ways I didn't think we could.
Get him OFF my SCREEN
Oh hello! Toby fox can't resist using characters from ch1 as enemies in later chapters.
(I'm also wondering if the flower cutting mechanic was repurposed from unused train stuff that was supposed to happen in the holiday house but got cut from ch4)
I can't help but noice there's also a lot of 'getting cut in half' stuff, especially relating to kris in this chapter.
I also just noticed susie got a new magic calld Scythemare???
I remember saying this last time but.. we're doing this?? Now?? Oh no.. (oh yes >:)
no this is a fake-out right
WHAT DO YOU MEEAANNNN
oh ok
why does susie like flowery so much?
Sustingus?
hello, Checkov's shrine bell..
...
I actually really like the ambiance of this room. The nice music and rushing water.. is peaceful.
I'm jamming, I'm jamming...
Why does this dark world have such a Thing about Humans? I'm noticing that there's gonna be colored characters for each flower. Yellow is the cowboy, the magenta or something one was here off scren (and kind of looked like kris maybe? hard to say). This one isn't the blue one though, because it seems they speak in colored text.
TRUE
ah, it's trailer knife time. you're the blue one.
I"M A FOOL! yellow is cowboy and justice... I'm gonna forget all the other ones. light blue was toy knife and ribbon?
I'm jamming harder.
(I wish I was better at picking up on leitmotifs...)
Uh huh.. ok...
An interesting fight... I'm very interested in fighitng the other six...
That's going to have to be where I stop until tonight. I've gone back to the diner save point, and had a shower. I can't progress because I don't know where the next save might be, and I can't miss work...
I'm interested to see where this is all going. It looks like asgore's seven floweres have all turned into humans? Six color ones plus flowery. what does it mean? What does Asgore think is happening here? What did Toby think up 10 years ago to make this happen? no ideal.
On the subject of 10 years ago, it's interesting to think that the Fangamer flower ralsei shirt (pictured below) that was sold around the time of chapter 1 may have been some kind of foreshadowing? or influence into the design of this chapter perhaps? I mean, if the idea for chapter 10 was conceived 10 years ago, then it could concevably have been referenced here...
At home finally! Here are some of the thoughts that gestated while I was working:
- The whole think felt like kind of a blur. I'm not sure if that's down to the nature of the chapter, or the nature of playing it at 3 in the morning...
I wonder if Noelle is going to be the cause of the roaring? We're going to have to check back on her after this dark world is over, I wonder if she's going to try and create a dark world to heal rudy like everyone thought...
It only occurred to me while wandering around with one hand while eating my dinner, but these little statues are probably to do with the angel somehow? Probably going to ativate when we get the feather from the trailer...
SURE. WHATEVER> WE CAN BE A 2D PLATFORMER IF YOU WANT TOBY. YOU CAN MAKE SUPER SMASH BROS I GUESS
(oh god the secret boss that uses this is gonna be so hard)
String Physics? A new currency??>?
This act system is so so elaborate.....
I love this kinf of color palette....
OH MY GOODDDD THIS SONG>> THIS IS BEAUTIFUL
I'mjust enjoying myself now... Is this... ralsei meet cute somehow????
Chujin Ketsukane?
That seemed so loaded, but.. I have no idea who that could be. They come from somewhere monochrome... maybe a sepia photo?
Your whuh?
this battle is awesome.. I think Aqua is my fav new character. she's so animated..
holy...
I like this new 'opinions ralsei'
I stopped taking screenshots.. I'm Engrossed...
I really like these soul flower characters. I definitely don't understand what's going on from a story perspective (beyond being asgore's six flowers), but I like them as characters.
ok wait i've been awoken from my screenshot slumber by Ace Attorney reference. Kris is franziska von karma, susie is gumshoe, and Ralsei is... something??? I don't know if that's an AA reference I think it's just a cute outfit
Ha!! It's even more of a von karma reference!! Kris's other outfit is manfred lol.
It's time for me to stop today... I'm way too tired to properly appreciate this videos game (and I just spend like an hour looking for the last fox for that door, only for the reward to be a single pink coin)
No progress for me tonight (it's late and i'm tired) but I did watch a video of the weird route, since I didn't make a save file for it.
* Start of video * it's fascinating, seeing how much Kris is resisting. And susie is just chilling there?
amd a burger king foot lettuce reference?
Aww, susie is maming them smile
ok, the beach...
eaahh those expressions....
is this noelle angel???
uuhhh we're mirrioring the susie scene....
are we just gonna keep going?????
whuh... what...
chapter 7, side b?
does this mean the weird route's going to continue, but only in chapter 7??? that's insane????
Sorry to keep me waiting! I'm back, rested, and ready to jump back in!
I got the egg! It was rather unserious to be honest.. at least compared to the last two which seemed so strongly... like they meant something...
This song is cool! I like that we're bringing back the main theme of the game. It was everywhere in ch1, then got less prevalent as we went on...
I've been tihnking about this actually...the idea of sealing the castle town fountain... I can see it happening at the end of the game, maybe to fully to stop the roaring? my bet is that that's where the locked door in the middle of the castle leads to...
the inferno... of jelousy....
oh I'm going to love this.. I can tell...
PURPLE soul
THIUS MUSIC WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT
A lightner ghost????? Maddy is in here?
ok I failed the fist try but... wow this fight is amazing...
This is so fucking good oh my lord
Ups to ralsei for recognising that darkners are people with their own likes and dislikes!
I'm on my... 5th attempt maybe? I'm just now realising this is miku lol.
I finished the boss and have now had a shower. I've chosen the green apron and the yellow hat so far. time to run around for ages to find my last three pink coins.
It only took me about 30 mins, but I have done it. I have earned these seth specs.
Oh we're going full mega drive now...
WHAU? Orange Soul mode? (also I finally heard the flowey leitmotif!!)
Interesting that Ralsei calls out Kris maybe holding back against flowery... are they having second thoughts as well? (also new determined ralsei defend sprite)
This is so fascinating... Asgore's not gonna Know... is he? Why single out Ralsei???
Asgorebird of Sadness??
Asgore... these are dangerously close to death flags you're raising..
He's gonna tell the mayor... nonono
It tore the scarf in half....
ROOTS?
Everything from the festival wasn't put away... I know who was in charge of putting up the lights... I have a very bad feeling about this...
aww.....
What if I cried in IRL life...
So that's it... wow.. I can't imagine how this is going to close out once the rest of the chapters drop...
I love this idea of getting noelle into the action! This is also maybe fuel for her being the prophecy girl maybe? Argh so much.
This chapter also had some of my favorite music! The Garden of hopes and dreams + rakuichi buster are really cool, but Petal Dance and obviously Cute Mew Mew Magic really stuck out to me. I'm still holding on to my Dream that both CH6 and CH7 will drop in 2026, but we will have to see.. Overall, amazing.