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First impression
Deltarune is a Halloween special from creator Toby Fox who’s behind Undertale game. (I also realized Deltarune is anagram from Undertale). Deltarune chapter 1 seem to happen in Undertale unvierse, but as the creator Toby Fox said the game is just a game you can play after finishing Undertale. So I think this means it’s just a game that uses similarities from Undertale. I loved Undertale and how original it was and hoping Deltarune chapter 1 won’t let me down. This game is also free of charge for PC and Mac :)
Story
Everything starts with you, Kris, being in a school and teacher asks you to go and fetch some chalk from the storage room. You go with a school bully Susie and together you find that within the storage room is a portal to another world, or realm, what ever you wanna call it. You soon find out this realm is ruled by a darkness and you are the only one who can save everything.
I liked the story and how it progressed and had twists and turns and humour in it. The story, in overall, has deep meaning and many things are left for players perception. I like these kind of stories that leaves room for your own thoughts and aren’t just black and white. This is something I loved in Undertale and with this, too, developer(s) have done great job.
Gameplay & Controls
Gameplay is very similiar to the Undertale, but with Deltarune it has different style. Player still has a heart that needs to be protected from enemies attacks in a small box that appears to the screen in battle. Player also have moves like fight and act that lets you decide not to fight but to reason or spare the enemy. Enemies can’t be spared just like that, they need to be get tired first. As in Undertale, with Deltarune I was sure there are most likely different endings. I tried to not to kill everyone, but sometimes I just wanted to kill the enemies to get over with it more quickly.
I played this with computer (Mac) and all the controls was arrow keys and Z,X,C (choose, run/back, menu). I liked the simplicity of the controls but it was little bit difficult try to move the heart inside the box diagonally. Otherwise I wouldn’t change anything with the gameplay or controls.
Graphics
Deltarune is very simple with graphics and there wasn’t any special effects either. This game is more story-driven than visually amazing. It’s actually good thing as it leave even more room for players imagination of how things would look.
Artistically and graphically Deltarune is weird and it has very unique approach on everything. This game reminded me strongly of Adventure Time cartoon and if you know what I’m talking about, you can guess what kinds of characters Deltarune has. Not just characters, environment is also very questionable and mostly I just wondered ‘how that even came to be?’
Sound
Deltarune is not voice acted or has any special effects with it either, but the music is beautiful and original. The music in the battle scenes were nice and I noticed that different characters had different ‘sound’ as they spoke. This little detail replaces voice acting very simple and nice way, it reminded me of the GameBoy game Pokemon Red/Blue when I memorized all the Pokemons cry.
Difficulty
I thought Deltarune would be overly difficult but it wasn’t. I think I died once but save points are often found. Difficult might be to get certain ending/playthrough (if there are any. I played this only once.) It would make sense of there being endings like Pacifist and Genocide like in Undertale. I think Deltarune is more linear and there wasn’t any room to get lost or wondering where to go.
Last impression
I know I have compared Deltarune with Undertale a lot, but the game is very similiar to it. It’s not sequal or prequal, it’s simply just a new game that just looks and plays similiar to Undertale. I’m not sure do you need to play Undertale first in order to get this one? Personally I think this is playable to anyone, but as this being only chapter 1, I don’t know what the end will be like and what twists awaits there that is only be understood people who have played Undertale. (It says in the official website * This is intended for people who have completed UNDERTALE.)
For Deltarune being 3 hours long and FREE OF CHARGE it is totally must. Deeply story-driven with quirky and original characters I think this game should not be free as of how much work it has taken by like a handful of people. I deeply respect people who are not greedy and give away free something as good as Deltarune is.
You can download it here.
One More Level 