Update in 2022-02-10: This article contains spoilers and outdated information, and I am too lazy to fix them.
After completing undertale, wanting to know what happens next, I immediately switched to deltarune, thinking that was the proper sequel.
Although it turned out not to be a "proper sequel" at all, its vibrant yet omnious world, the cute caracter(yes Ralsei is just ADORABLE), and the emotional rollercoaster simply blew my mind (again), and a few days later, I still feel the impact the game has on me, so I think it's hight time that I should write something about it.
- Game review (very long and spoiler alert, mainly about Ralsei)
(These below are still WIP)
- Recollections and Reflections of the characters (I love Ralsei!!! ...and Niko from Oneshot too)
- The semi-parasocial relationship between people in reality and virtuality
- The Hidden Boss: Escapism (And I predict it will come out in later chapters)
In general, 8/10.
The game feels similar to undertale, but it has a lot of QOL changes and introduced new systems to make the gameplay even better.
- Ralsei
- Alternative take on combat system like undertale: you can
ACT and SPARE, and you don't have kill a single enemy. - Simple yet varied gameplay mechanics: minigames taken inspirations from old arcade games, interactive puzzles.
- Plot twist, literally emotional rollercoaster: I think Toby Fox is just too good at this
- Unlike 3A games, the story is hyperrOther stuff i guesseal but is actually a generalization of our daily life, which make the game sooo easy to symphasize and immerse to. The Escapism topic and kindness vs. violence, are nice takes on morden people's existential problems.
- Ralsei reminds me of Niko: lovely, patient, and responsible. He is someone the other characters can rely on. (yeah actually this point can be fit into the "Story" part, but Ralsei deserves more love.)
- Adequately middle-level funny jokes. The joke power isn't as strong as in Borderlands, but they still put a smile on my face. The music after jailbreak is just ???
- You can flirt with Ralsei, and the interactions are just heartwarming and cute. I hope in later games the flirting can actually do something big to the plot... like dating him??? (Oh and I just realized I put 3 Ralseis in the reasoning haha)
- The soundtracks works well at forming and supporting the worlds, but are not cohensive. I hope to see more adaptive music transitions, and unique melody for the characters like undertale
- You don't actually control the character like other games do. Sometimes Kris will simply does their own thing against my will, especially when I know what they are doing are completely wrong, which brings a lot of frustration. I'm not against it, I think Fox hid the inner emotions of Kris and what we are looking at is only the most outside layer of they. I suppose the reason of this will be revealed in the next chapters.
- No multi-endings and severe 4th wall breaking (Ralsei broke some, but that's just minor wall breaking). In undertale your actions will decide the ending, and sans and flowery's ability to see through / change the game timeline closes the gap between you in reality and the characters in the game, making the experience more immersive.
- Broken in-game economy. Unlike in undertale where the prices are dymanically adjusted by your balance, and it's hard to sell items (you have to find the hidden Temmie village), you can sell your items to any trailors, and the money you earn after battle is too much, even worse, most of the time you don't even have to buy anything, since there are free equipments and items scattered around the map. Maybe in later chapters they will sell some god items on a unreasonable price to balance these.(like the temmie armor in undertale)
It asked you to finish undertale first but after finishing the game, it doesn't actually connect to the latter in any direct way.
Initially I thought this was some kind of sequel since they were not living in the underground anymore, someone recgonized Kris from the undertale (burgerpant), and someone seems like they've never met me(sans, undyne etc.). So this should be a alternate universe after Frisk broke the barrier for the monsters.
It will be interesting if these universes intersects some point in the unreleased chapters, and I think this might happen by opening more dark fountains and at some point the legend of the deltarune in two games will intersect. (but that also means Ralsei will get upset about that, noooooo!)