Toby Fox, the creator of hit indie titles like Undertale and Deltarune, just surprised his fans with a sudden announcement about the current development of Chapters 3 and 4 of Deltarune on his personal Twitter/X account.

After sharing an illustration of Kris, Susie and Ralsei in Halloween costumes (Drawn by his colleague and the main artist for both games, Temmie Chang), Toby Fox updated his followers on the progress of the next two chapters of Deltarune. He said that he's eager to show people?? what he and his team made since 6 years ago, and confirmed that chapters 3 and 4 will "100% come out in 2025".

Curiously enough, he also explained that the specific time in which he will release these chapters will rely on localization and console porting, which is no surprise, considering that Chapters 1 and 2 of Deltarune a?re also available for free on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and that his team even localized them in other languages, like Japanese.

Will Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 be free? Or paid content?

Needless to say, fans are ecstatic about this sudden announcement, seeing as Deltarune Chapter 2 came out in 2021, more than 3 years ago. In case you forgot, Toby Fox released Chapter 1 of this new project out of nowhere in 2019. While he claims that the world of Deltarune is seemingly unrelated to Undertale, this game still managed to grab people's attention for similar reasons, like its memorable characters, its intriguing lore and its un?ique gameplay.

The first two chapters of Deltarune are 100% free, which fans all around the world certainly appreciated, but Toby Fox still hasn't confirmed whether Chapters 3 and 4 will also be free or not. Curiously enough, in the past, he has claimed that he wants to relea??se Chapters 3, 4 and 5 as?? a single paid title. Regardless of what he ends up going for, these are such fun and unique games that he definitely deserves the monetary support from fans, especially after giving away the f??irst two chapters for free.

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The Undertale creator shares some of his latest musical creations

The latest Pokémon game is out in the wild, and players have been exploring the new region of Paldea. As it so happens, some of the tunes playing while they roam around this Pokémon world were penned by Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale.

Fox announced he'd be working on Scarlet and Violet's soundtrack before the game's release. Now, Fox has shared his exact contributions in a newsletter mailing list that he spun up for fans of Undertale and Deltarune. (Destructoid has received a copy of this because yes, I would like to receive news about Undertale and Deltarune.)

In it, the developer writes that he had the honor of making a few songs for the game. These include the tracks "Tera Raid Battles", the "Academy Ace Tournament", and "Battle! Zero Lab". (??Beware of spo?ilers if you go digging into that last one, by the way.)

Fox also composed "Area Zero", which was re-arranged by Pokémon composer Go Ichinose. Fox also apparently wrote a "majestic theme melody" for the song "Academy", which ended up used as a field th?eme for the game. All songs using the melody were made by other composers.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK20iZfOU1k

Turn up the PokéTunes

I had a sneaking suspicion that certain tunes in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, particularly the ones that play during the endgame section, had to include contributions from Tob??y Fox. So it's nice to have those guesses validated.

This isn't the first time Fox has contributed to a Pokémon game, as Sword and Shield also had tunes from Fox in the soundtrack. But it's nice to see this collaboration continue, and especially see how it's helped shape the sonic direction of Pokémon.

As for Fox's personal projects, Deltarune is still in development. We heard earlier this year that there won't be another chapter in 2022, and Fox confirms as much in his newsletter. There's a lot of minutiae in the update, but it sounds like progress is proceeding apace for Deltarune. Unti?l then, we'll always have Area ??Zero to hold us over.

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No more Deltarune until 2023

As a veteran of internet culture and creative, interactive storytelling, Toby Fox has been revered for years now as the creator modern classic game Undertale, as well as his newest game Deltarune. The first two chapters of Deltarune were released back in October 2018 and February 2019 respectively, so it's been quite a while since fans have seen an update on the game. This week, however, Fox took to Twitter to provide a much-needed Deltarune update.

"We don't be able to put out any new chapters of DELTARUNE this year," Fox said. Well, at least he's straightforward. Then he teases "something special" coming up to celebrate the anniversary of Undertale and Deltarune Chapter 2, so there's something coming relatively soon.

We'll just have to hold out a bit longer. F??or what it's worth, you can't really blame Fox for taking his time considering he's pretty much the only one who works on these games. Making a game at all is an impressive enough feat, let alone doing all the coding, a??rt, music, and so on completely by yourself.

//twitter.com/tobyfox/status/1566962055470784519

In the meantime, though you can get your next fix of Undertale at an? awesome pop-up event �so long as you live in Southern California, anyway.

From September 15 through October 10, Requiem Café in Anaheim will be hosting an event in honor of Undertale's seventh anniversary, which includes special themed food and drink items like colorful macarons and milk tea, as well as exclusive merchandise like shirts, mugs, tote bags, and more. The café is not taking a????ny reservations for the event, but walk-ins are of course welcome.

If nothing else, a delicious peach tea with strawberry and spicy mango and some chocolate blood orange donuts will be enough to get me by. Make sure to check out the menu, because it all looks amazing.

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More Toby Fox jams will back Pokemon Trainers' adventures

A new trailer for the next Pokemon entries, Scarlet and Violet, dropped this morning. Alongside the announcement, there was also confirmation that Undertale creator Toby Fox is lending his talents to the Pokemon series soundtrack again.

As confirmed on Twitter by Toby Fox himself, the composer put together the field music for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. "After creating a concept sketch, Game Freak arranged it into many versions that you'll hear throughout the game," Fox wrote. You can even hear a little bit of it in today's trailer.

//twitter.com/tobyfox/status/1532038920183205888

That's not all, either. In a follow-up tweet, Fox confirms that a "few more" of his tracks will appear in the game too.? "This time, my music is not optional!!!" he writes.

Filled with determination

These contributions aren't Fox's first time working on the Pokemon series. The developer and composer contributed a song for Pokemon Sword and Shield's soundtrack, specifically the theme for the Battle Tower. It's a pretty great track too.

That's not a huge surprise, given Undertale and Deltarune fans will happily tell you that the soundtracks for those games are also stellar. The tunes are so good, people have been trying to get the Pope to hear them. Knowing Fox is on the Scarlet and Violet soundtrack, and in a pretty substantial way, is excit??ing news.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7AmximCnRg

Fox has also had his work appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, after playing Smash with Sakurai no less.

As for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the reception to the trailer seemed pretty positive, especially for newcomer Lechonk. Which is fair, because Lechonk is adorable and pe?rfect.

The new monster-training game debuted a host of new features this morning, including version-specific Professors, the new legendary Pokemon, and a focus on full-on co-op. Between the new generation and Pokemon Legends: Arceus launching earlier this year, it's going to be a Pokemon-filled year in gaming.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will launch on Nov. 18, 2022 for Nintendo Switch.

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Everyone needs more Susie in their lives

Honestly, I would have thought that nobody wants any more drama in their lives right now, but, in case you wish for more, then you can bask in the glorious news that Toby Fox's emotional RPG Deltarune Chapter 1&2 is now available to download on both PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The new console ports follow the adventure's respective PC releases from October 2018 and September 2021.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeGRmqAF_38

To say too much about Deltarune is to spoil its carefully crafted world and characters, but needless to say that fans of Toby Fox's seminal 2015 classic Undertale will find themselves at home in this follow-up, which features new and familiar faces and locales from the emotional and personal fantasy adventure. Players can create a personalized avatar before diving into the 8-bit world of Deltarune, which is somehow both unnerving and charming at one and the same time. Be sure to tell Susie I said "Hi"... ??But be cool about it... yeah?... actually forget I said anything... T?ell her...

Deltarune Chapter 1&2 is available to download and play for free on Switch via Nintendo eShop and PS4 via PSN. Fox recently stated his intention to release the three remaining chapters as one drop at some point in the distant future. When this happens, Deltarune will launch as a full-priced purchase, essentially making the first two chapters an extremely generous demo. You can check out more details about Deltarune Chapter 2 in our own Eric van Allen's impression piece right here.

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The latest entry in Toby Fox's follow-up to Undertale feels like it's established its own identity

The newest entry in the Deltarune series dropped with only a little heads-up last week. It was a huge moment for fans of Undertale, myself among them, to see what developer Toby Fox and the crew have in store for Deltarune, the linked-but-separate follow-up to an ??RPG that took the internet by storm.

Deltarune Chapter 2 is out, freely available, and really quite good. It's a solid RPG with lots of charm, beautiful music, and clever reworking of battle systems and settings to keep the player constantly adapting over its modest runtime. It continues to build on what was introduced in Deltarune's first chapter, including the party-based battle system and its narrative hooks around Susie, Ralsei, and the rest of the cast, while retaining the effusive quirkiness of its world and gorgeous throwb?ack-styled art you'd expect from Toby Fox.

But what's really grabbed me about Deltarune's second chapter isn't just what it carries forward from Undertale or even the first chapter of Deltarune. It's where it sets itself apart, through what those differences mean to the game and its themes as a whole. Deltarune Chapter 2 feels li?ke it isn't just working with new ideas, but actively exploring them in ways that have me really excited for the chapters ahead.

Note: Spoilers about Deltarune Chapter 2 follow.

Deltarune was, at some level, always going to wrestle with the titanic shadow of its predecessor. Undertale was a phenomenon, on a scale that's not easy to understate. YouTuber Super Eyepatch Wolf looked into the depths of just how many f?an fictions, alt-universes, and fandoms grew out of the 2015 RPG, and unless you're already involved ?in them, I don't think you're ready for the scale of it.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFIs6LsV0a4

And Deltarune doesn't really ignore Undertale, either. Many, many characters from that game are in the world of Deltarune, either as cameo NPCs or even playing a fairly significant role in the story, like Toriel and Alphys. They're different, and the question of how and why is no doubt of interest to people who love to dive deep into Undertale lore and theories.

The second chapter of Deltarune keeps some of that alive, but it also lays out a promising vision of what's to come with future chapters. It's inventive, clever, twisting upon its own conventions, and most of all, establishes its own storyline that isn't totally separate from Undertale, but is able to stand on its own feet as well.

A lot of this feeling comes from how the battle system continues to evolve over the course of Deltarune Chapter 2. For most of the first chapter, it felt like an interesting twist on Undertale's formula: dodging attacks from enemies in bullet??-hell settings, and then using various actions to pacify enemies, or keep party member Susie from attacking them. (If you're playing a? non-violent route, of course. If not, then I suppose you just swing away.)

Deltarune Chapter 2 dives further into those in-party interactions, and this time not only through in-fighting and friction, but the camaraderie you've formed. One of my favorite ways to spare an enemy involved heating and cooling them all to the same color, identified by the shifting colors of their fancy suits. Each character can heat or cool, so it becomes all about working together to get the right enemies to the right shade. While player-character Kris is the primary user of the ACT command prior to Chapter 2, both Ralsei and Susie learn to ACT (somewhat) on their own ??here, and the crew has plen??ty of team-up ACT options as well.

The party unity is really felt in moments where these characters interact with each other in battle. One early Spare option involves either jostling a wire until it comes loose off the face of an enemy, or alternatively, Susie throwing Kris like a javelin to snip the cord. It's a little moment that feels ripped from the annals of the Mario and Luigi RPG series or Paper Mario, and it works incredibly well. Moments like when the crew decides to deliver some ??TLC and dresses up like hospital staff,? to attend to the "patients" (enemies), really sell the newfound unity between the three core party members.

Undertale wasn't a stranger to unique battles with their own mechanics either, though Deltarune Chapter 2's seem to escalate things even further. I mean, there are multiple Punch-Out!!-style fights in here. One boss battle takes place on a roller coaster, as you play bumper cars with your opponent. And some of the optional, hidden fights have fun rehashing of old Undertale mechanics.

A chilling twist

And then there's Noelle, a newcomer with her own moves and who ends up being a core component of Deltarune's hidden, chilling alternative route, currently referred to as the "Snowgrave" route. Roughly halfway or so through Chapter 2, your party swaps out to being just Kris and Noelle, the latter of whom is essentially a frost mage. The way Noelle fights and interacts with Kris is already interesting, but the way those abilities play into the Snowgrave route and its darker implications set a really interesting tone for Deltarune moving forward.

In Undertale, the route where you kill every monster (generally referred to by fans as the "Genocide" route) is intensive, requiring you find and take down every single one. It ope??ns up new bosses and interactions, changing the story en??tirely, but it is straightforward: kill or be killed. It is you against the underground world of monsters.

Which brings up what's so interesting about Snowgrave to me: choosing to head down the No Mercy route is a personal choice that you make, and it reflects your own actions. Bu??t in Snowgrave, you're opting to push someone else down a path. You're even doing so maliciously, knowing what it entails; Noelle believes she might still be in a dream, or at least hopes ?she is, but Kris—and you—are much more cognizant of the reality of freezing the entire world over.

And when it ends with Berdly encased in ice, Noelle walks off the battlefield, trying to figure out why she feels sick over what's just happened. Deltarune Chapter 1 touched on the idea of what in-party friction might feel like, if you're trying to prevent a party member from hurting others; but Chapter 2's Snowgrave route dives into what it's ??like if, instead, you encourage it.

The party dynamic is played up so much in Deltarune, which tracks as it's a major defining point of separation from Undertale. Chapter 2 takes it further: spared enemies are recruited to your world, ACTions with other teammates become more involved, and the final battle acknowledges the friends and allies you've collected on your journey. And yet, in its darker route, it also acknowledges that you are still the person with the most agency in this world: you can die and live again. You can SAVE and reload. You persist, not just through in-game death but through multiple game states and worlds. And now, you can not only choose to go down a more gruesome, stomach-churning path, but doing so will mean taking others there wit?h you.

Deltarune Chapter 2 feels like a strong statement of what Deltarune can be, separate from its own legacy. There's a mix of wariness and eagerness, I think, in trying to explore a world again; I felt it going into this year's NEO: The World Ends With You, and I felt it again with Deltarune. As much as I enjoyed the first chapte?r, it concluded with a fee??ling of wonder what would be next, and what it would look like.

I'm still curious now, but the second chapter sets a much firmer stance: it is its own story, with its own characters. It's not a rehash of what made Undertale great, and it's not wholly separate from Undertale either; it feels like an exploration of what these choices and themes?? can become, especially as its scope expands outwards and into more chapters, more characters, and more locales.

Different routes and scenes only lead me to wonder what Deltarune will do moving forward. How far across this game will these choices extend, and how drastic will the differences become? But it's a pretty exciting feeling to not just be excited for Deltarune as more from the extended Undertale universe, but as a story in its own right. Toby Fox and the team he's assembled as part of bringing together Deltarune are crafting a really intriguing story, both on a raw narrative level and in what it's doing with the expectations of an Undertale follow-up. And now that I'm finished with Chapter 2, I can't wait to see what's around the?? next bend.

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The cold never bothered me anyway

The second chapter of Deltarune dropped Friday, and over the weekend, a lot of people logged on to see what's next for the Undertale follow-up.

But it's possible that most folks who played through it missed the optional route it held, one fans are calling the "Snowgr?ave" route. It isn't just a little tough to find, but it's got some big departures from the "usual" route.

The route was reportedly found by Discord user "Great Brandini," and the methodology of getting to it—and what transpires therein—has been archived in a Google Doc here. I'll say here and now, you should probably beat Deltarune Chapter 2 before checking this guide out. The odds are high that you won't stumble upon this naturally unless you're prone to backtracking, but even describing how to get there entails some mild spoilers. And it feels like an alternative route too; it's already being compared to the darker route of Undertale where? the player kills every monster, often referred to as the "Geno?cide" route.

Note: Deltarune Chapter 2 spoilers to follow. Don't read on if you want to stay unspoiled!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQjf7Ym4V5g

The Snowgrave route of Deltarune, as fans are dubbing it, can kick off once you've split off from the main group and met up with Noelle. This side character becomes a prominent part of Deltarune Chapter 2's story, but here in the Snowgrave route, we see what happens if we go down a darker path. Rather tha??????????????????????????n killing every monster, you can use Noelle's power to freeze them all, making her more powerful in the process.

By using Noelle's ice powers to freeze everything, you start to radically shift the world, much like killing the monsters in Undertale did. As you keep winning and freezing everything in sight, everything comes to a head in the Berdly fight, which has a much different ending if you follow the guide. Once you see it through, you're locked into the Snowgrave route, and things only get darker from there. A new boss, new scenes, and some pretty dark implications of what's transpired—and your?? role in it—make for a pretty different route to the finale.

I'll refrain from elaborating further, in case you want to experience it yourself. I haven't yet played the route myself, though I've skimmed some playthroughs and guides to verify it. And well, if you thought Deltarune has been a little too cheerful for the time being, the Snowgrav??e route migh??t just be for you.

Deltarune and Undertale developer Toby Fox has confirmed that his team is working on at least three more chapters of Deltarune. And while these first two chapters are free, it will eventually be a paid product. I'm really curious to see how decisions like these might carry forward into later chapters, or if I'll even want to carry an outcome like this forward. But another part of me is curious... so maybe I'll keep a Snowgrave clear file arou?nd, just to see where it goes from here.

Lead image via YouTube/NintendoProductions.

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