#deltarune speculation

[hollyrogerbay]

anyone else notice how Deltarune seems to be getting more advanced each chapter, diegetically?

chapter 2 introduces the Recruits system, and updates save points to show all 3 slots in-game. chapter 1 was not retroactively updated to include the feature - it's an in-universe change. (although i believe chapter 1 npcs are automatically recruited once the system is introduced.)

and is it just me, or does it almost sound like the soundtrack is getting more advanced, too?

chapter 1's soundtrack was almost all soundfonts, chiptune, more retro synths, etc. - and the same goes for chapter 2, mostly. (mostly except for Susie, notably. her and her maybe-synth, maybe-live distorted guitars.)

we don't have much to work with, so this may not be anything worth mentioning, but the three songs for chapter 3-5 we've gotten sound noticeably more "real," i'd say?

"Hometown Day" is definitely the least notable of the three in terms of this, but still sounds relatively "realistic"/live

"My Funky Town" was what gave me this thought in the first place. the more live-sounding guitar in the left ear, something about the drums i can't quite describe accurately, the electric piano being played/recorded live. of course, it's not entirely "live" sounding, notably the saxophone being straight from the Touhou soundfont. but still much more than anything in chapter 1 and most in chapter 2.

"Green Room" is an odd case in general, considering it's pretty much just a remix of "Hip Shop," unlike any other song i can recall. but, yet again, it does sound a lot less "digital," would you agree? more effects on pretty much everything, the spacey drums and electirc pianos, everything.

this may not go anywhere, but i figured it was worth noting. the idea of chapters becoming more and more advanced as each one is added could also definitely be theory-crafting material methinks

[paintedcrows]

Don't Forget as a lullaby Dess sang for Noelle is a thought that has haunted me non-stop for weeks now...

[uselesstaroth]

I think it'd be really funny if Gaster once again has little to no bearing on the story of deltarune just like he did in undertale

To be clear, I'm not saying to stop talking about him

It's just... y'know

[katapotato55]

DELTARUNE HOLEY SHIT I JUST REALIZED

????????????????

[springbloggy]

Mini Deltarune theories I have that are not quite big enough for a true post, but interesting to note. In order of most confident to least.

Ralsei is luring the lightners to the Dark World in order to trap them

In chapter 2, Ralsei creates rooms for Kris and Susie that "they can go to no matter what is happening outside". Unlike Queen's rooms, which are guesses based on search results, Kris and Susie's rooms are accurate to an unsettling degree. Not only is Kris' room identical to their light world counterpart, but it also has all of Asriel's trophies on their side of the room with Asriel's side gone, a reflection of their potential secret desire to no longer be under Asriel's shadow. Similarly, Susie's excitement on even having a room suggests that Ralsei could know what Susie's light world home life is like or lack thereof if she's homeless.

By creating these rooms, Ralsei is fulfilling the lightners secret desires and judging on his phrasing, wants them to go there in order to avoid whatever is happening "outside" the dark world. By doing so, he is effectively strengthening their desire to stay in the dark world so they can't escape.

Chapter 3 isn't going to be Undyne or Napstablook, it's Asgore

Chapter 3 taking place in Kris' home with the fountain being created by Kris suggests to me that the world may mostly involve whatever the Dreemur family drama entailed, which would include Asgore who was the former chief of police. Not only that, but the combination of Toriel having troubles calling the police and the station being closed in a preview for chapter 4 suggests to me that Mayor Holiday could have closed the station during the night of chapter 3 after they failed to catch the mysterious criminal wrecking Hometown, leaving Asgore as the only character left who might want to resume his policeman duties when Toriel's call is made. It is also more fitting for Toriel to kill Asgore in the hypothetical chance the Snowgrave route continues with her as she already dislikes Asgore and possibly blames him for Dess' disappearance. Speaking of...

Asgore really was involved

There's a lot of weird forshadowing on an "evil Santa". Lancer believes that "ho ho ho", a laugh associated with the mystical Christmas gift bearer, being an evil laugh. Noelle is also scared of Santa and it's revealed in Undertale that Asgore dressed up as Santa to give gifts to the monsters. All of this seems setup to me that Asgore really was somehow involved in letting Dess disappear, something that may be revealed during Chapter 3's Snowgrave route.

Dess is ruder than she appears

This is a more playing by expectations theory, however there's certain lines and implications that become interesting once looked under the lens of this theory.

It's revealed that Dess once beat Kris with a wiffle ball bat for scaring Noelle by telling her that ICE-E "eats kids". This puts a precedent that Dess has at least somewhat violent impulses in order to protect her sister, even in situations that don't need it. It's also a bit odd that unlike Asriel, no one in the hometown mentions Dess after her disappearance except for Noelle. Even Berdly, Noelle's best friend, doesn't bring her up. It could be that the hometowners may not want to hurt Noelle by reminding her of the disappearance, however since she's so open about talking about Dess to even new kid Susie it may be another reason why the hometown doesn't mention her. It's possible that the simularities to Dess and Susie (both are horror loving, somewhat violent, tomboys) are deliberate and are setting up the reveal that Dess is/was actually a bully and a future scene with Noelle may parallel the scene in Undertale where Asriel reminisces that Chara wasn't that good of a person.

Gaster blasters are named after Gaster, but not created by him

If you spare Papyrus in Undertale after an aborted Genocide run, he will say this.

The most common theory is that the "Special Attack" would be a Gaster Blaster. What's interesting to me is the phrasing "my Special Attack", which suggests that Papyrus owns this attack and it could have been unique to him before Sans or the annoying dog stole it. If Gaster Blasters are really his unique attack, it could mean that Papyrus created the Blasters and named them after Gaster, rather than the fandom interpretation that Gaster made the Blasters then gave them away.

There might not be a singular "Knight" because anyone can dream

At the end of each chapter, the characters ask if the dark world adventure they had was some sort of dream. Since anyone can fall asleep and dream, it's possible the game is setting up that trying to seal the fountains is impossible because anyone can dream and thus become their own "knight".

[gigraini]

Deltarune Gaster Idea

Okay so last night I had like a stroke of genius big brain galaxy thought that beamed itself into my head and I just need to get it out there.

What if Gaster's dialogue is fully voice acted, in the same voice as the robotic one that says "DELTARUNE" in the title screen?

So like, we're all 99% sure that Gaster (or like, the Deltarune universe version of Gaster) will show up and is the one who's behind the secret bosses acting quirky.

When you think about it, the secret bosses have both so far played around with the idea of voiced lines. Jevil has little voice clips he uses and Spamton's battle themes have lyrics to them. If the other secret bosses keep this trend, I think it'd make sense for Gaster, the ringleader of them all, to have dialogue that's fully voiced.

The Deltarune start up logo is also seemingly tied to Gaster (very loosely I'll admit) with its file naming conventions, as all the assets for it are in all caps and follow the naming scheme that the goner maker assets use (objects being called DEVICE, sprites being called IMAGE, etc).

Also, assuming Gaster still types in the wingdings font, I feel like it'd be kind of annoying to have to translate everything he says, right? This was fine in Undertale, because the only dialogue Gaster had was very optional, out of the way and had no relevance to Undertale's main plot. But Gaster is VERY much important to Deltarune's plot so far.

The only way around this that I can imagine is if he just doesn't have that much dialogue or... his dialogue is translated in game. Perhaps, by being voice acted.

THAT'S MY IDEA AT LEAST I don't think this is like, 100% real and gonna happen but I think it'd be cool.

[tatdritt]

my theory is that, if Ralsei is Kris’s red horns, then Kris got them taken away at school because they were ramming people and the teacher just… put them in the closet because- I guess that’s just where they put confiscated stuff lol? Also ralsei’s horns are pink because Kris wore them alllllll the time and they faded in the sun.

[ace-spadespoken]

so has anyone else noticed this yet or

It's the same eye, too.

The same eye and the same flash sprite, as well as being in the same type of room.

Interesting.

[silicon14blog]

Hey, is it me, or do the graphics for the Chapter 2 Game Over screen seem kind of out of place?

This has been on my mind for awhile, but we have never seen this art/graphic style elsewhere in the game. We have never seen this font (or a font similar to this) elsewhere. What is with the two black lines going through the letters, why are they there? Are they there to separate the grey top and white bottom from the middle? On the topic of that, why is it colored/shaded like that, why does the middle part of the letters have grey shading along the bottom edge? What is with the border flourish, it feels like it's supposed to be something or a specific design (to me, anyways) but what exactly?

Thoughts?

[deirdre00101]

Just hear me out on this one...

[ragtimeunder]

Some thoughts on how I think deltarune's Dark worlds function

[hollyrogerbay]

here's something Very Very Interesting™

so in deltarune chapter 2, these two sounds are used...Somewhere. i don't exactly recall, but i'm fairly certain they're specific to snowgrave. take a listen:

some sort of wind sound effect

very strange sounding rock sample. i specifically say "sample" because the audio sounds slowed down already, and if you listen closely to the little key change, you can hear it's not actually baked into the audio so to speak, but just the one sample repeated and slowed down in post the second time - interestingly enough, pitched down by just one note specifically.

but, here's what i wanted to point out that i haven't seen anyone else mention. you may have noticed, despite these being straight from the files, i just labeled them "Audio 1" and "Audio 2." because, the thing is -

The filenames for these are "w.ogg" and "d.ogg". W.D. No other audio files are just a single letter. It's just W and D. And another thing, with the guitar sample -

It plays for one bar, and then plays again, pitched down by one semitone/note. This is exactly how Gaster's Theme is structured. (Although, you could say Gaster's Theme goes down after a whole measure, but, same difference. It's fucking weird.)

[yooka-kazooie]

Wait, am I the only person who thinks Ralsei is a reflection of Kris and not Asriel???

Like, it's super obvious to me, so I don't actually know what people think

[jugularbeat]

Deltarune/Brandish similarities

!!OBVIOUS SPOILERS FOR UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE AND THE BRANDISH SERIES!!

Making this post because HOT DAMN there are a lot of similarities when you look at them side by side.

But why Brandish? Because 1. It’s mentioned in the UNDERTALE artbook that Toby was inspired by Brandish about the whole ‘falling into a hole and going underground business’. There are also other parallels here, such as the first area of the game being named the Ruins (that’s the only thing specific to UT as far as I’m aware). And 2. The protagonist of Radiation’s Earthbound Halloween hack is Varik, which is the localized name of Ares, who is from Brandish.

Other than pointing at the stuff that inspired UT/DR’s creation, this post also serves as potential theoryfuel for whatever may occur in deltarune’s future. With that being said, let’s begin.

---

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Kris is based off Varik/Ares.

Both have a weird shadow above their face, use a sword and shield in-game, have a red-ish cloth thing around their neck, have exposed forearms and fell into a darker place along with some chick who wants to kick their ass. Another thing to note about the eyes is that, because of the game’s weird turning mechanic, we never see Ares/Varik’s face in-game, even in cutscenes. But Kris is, albeit rarely, sometimes portrayed with their eyes, right? Well, those eyes are red, same as Dark Ares’ eye color. (sidenote: Dark Ares uses ice magic in one of his attacks...) Another interesting tidbit is that Ares/Varik is sometimes portrayed with brown hair in official content and cutscenes, or blue hair in-game. Both hair colors were incorporated in Kris’ light world and dark world designs, respectively.

But wait, there’s more! Even beyond physical similarities, the few personality traits that Ares/Varik displays add up with Kris’ behavior. In the first Brandish game, at the end, there’s a choice to save your bounty hunter mage rival, Dela Denon/Alexis, or kill her. While you can choose whatever, in the later games, she’s still alive, so it can be argued that the option to save her is canon. Ares/Varik also saves her regardless of what you do in Brandish 2... So both Kris and Ares/Varik end up saving/defending the chick who wants to beat their ass in the end.

Another thing about these playable characters’ hidden personalities is the miniscule amount of trickery they engage in. It’s common knowledge at this point that Kris is a fan of pranks, but Ares/Varik also enjoys a good trick or two, as evidenced by his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smile after giving Dela Denon/Alexis a broken sword instead of the Planet Buster.

Besides that are even more similarities in other parts of the games. For starters, both games start with a cutscene about the darker world. There’s also this.

About that cutscene, by the by, there are two interesting tidbits from Brandish’s cutscene that were pretty obviously a source of inspiration for some of deltarune’s plot points.

In the center of the kingdom, piercing the sky itself,

stood a tall, majestic tower which symbolized this land.

I don’t think I need to explain what this inspired.

Doomed to an eternity of darkness…

Same as before. In that cutscene, there’s also a heavy focus on ‘the’ titles. The Protector, the Dragon, the King, a similar pattern to the Knight. In Brandish, the eyes of the King and army are also obscured similar to the heroes of prophecy in Deltarune’s opening cutscene, but the Dragon’s eyes are exposed. The only other exposed eyes in a stylized cutscene like that in Deltarune are the Titans.

From Brandish 2: The Planet Buster, after Bundevia falls (i think)

So Bundevia shares Vittovia’s fate…

You sure bring calamity wherever you go.

That last line is very interesting, since it’s reminiscent of how every fountain the deltawarriors visit is eventually sealed, excluding the grand fountain. (Speculation Warning) I wonder if future chapters will touch on the morality of opening a fountain, beyond how it can end the world, since you’ll have to seal the fountain eventually and the way you got to that point will be kinda messed up either way. You’re taking many Darkners from their homes to castle town while separating them from their friends who chose to stay if you decide to recruit anyone, or you’re beating everyone up so you can sever the connection between that dark world and the light world/destroy their home. Toby has a record of utilizing game mechanics that one might not expect to matter too much. We already saw how Undertale deconstructed many RPG tropes, but it’s also noticeable in Toby’s earlier works like the Halloween hack, where you have to press the B button to continue, and where running away from the desperate survivors is treated as the ethically better choice. (even though there’s nothing that really highlights that as an option)

Wait, so you’re King Bedorrer? But you’re just a feeble old man!

In this scene before fighting God Bedorrer, Dela Denon/Alexis underestimates him by calling him a ‘feeble old man’ and later says:

You sure talk the talk, but to me you’re just a shut-in hermit living in a smelly old cave!

The King later calls her a strumpet, turns into a monster and fucks her shit up. But anyways, this may or may not be a possible clue as to who deltarune’s final boss may be: someone who we/the characters might not expect? But speaking of turning into a monsters, both King Bedorrer and King Berebus turn into a beast, Berebus, less willingly.

Berebus, unable to control the Dragon’s furry-filled power, was cursed. It

transformed him into a wretched beast… one that matched his evil nature.

Possibly a hint for the Titan Ralsei theory??

Misc.: Both games have a sound test room and dimensional boxes. And I can’t believe I got this far without mentioning the shop screen similarities. 

(accidentally added the Seam pic at the beginning, would’ve made for an interesting introduction lol)

Lastly, there are some fascinating pieces of dialogue in Brandish that I wanted to highlight.

The labyrinth layout is so complicated that when you tried to examine it closely, you got dizzy and decided not to look at it anymore.

Inspiration for the description of Ralsei’s manual?

That town, the rocks, this whole world is just an illusion.  This place is nothing more than a nightmare.  You’re in it, and so am I.  There’s no way out.  See look at this.  My feet have turned to stone.

We all saw what happened to Rouxls Kaard and Lancer in Chapter 2.

“How many seasons have passed since this, our land, was swallowed by the earth?  There is no one left that can answer that now.  Our beloved land, along with the cursed King, will spend eternity forever in darkness.  We wait.  We wait for the one that will free us, free us from our cursed fate…”

Seems important, doesn’t it? [SOURCE]

---

If you got this far, thanks for reading! Feel free to add anything I missed or even got wrong.

[katapotato55]

Deltarune theory: Kris, Noelle, and Ralsei (Kris may not hate Ralsei THAT much) and other misc theories.

obviously spoilers for Deltarune up to chapter 2 and some of the Spamton sweepstakes. play the game it's free on steam. also this is a little bit long and contains a lot of screenshots. Not a huge amount of text walls I am just crazy. more info after the cut.

(credit to the deltarune wiki for these screenshots) So a common theory is that the health gained from the tea represents how close emotionally characters are to each other. If a character does not know someone else, the tea appears as nothing, such as Noelle having no reaction to the Ralsei tea, since at that point in the game they never met. People often use this as an implication that Kris does not like ralsei very much. but here is the thing that gets me:

Kris seems to get damn near the same amount of HP from Noelle as they do Ralsei. and that is confusing... because aren't they supposed to be childhood friends? meanwhile Susie used to bully Kris as implied by the Spamton sweepstakes... and yet Susie's tea gives Kris the MOST health out of all of them. not to mention Noelle seems to share the same amount of health return, but doesn't hate the tea either. What on earth is going on here?

The Theory (s?)

The unfun theory: The health means absolutely nothing. Personally I don't like this theory if you couldn't tell already. The spicy friendship theory: Kris doesn't hate Ralsei THAT MUCH, they are just uneasy about them. Alternatively: Kris probably just gets along better with someone like Susie than someone like Ralsei. The climax in every children's movie ever theory: before the events of Deltarune, something happened that made Kris upset at Noelle and it harmed their relationship. (possibly something to do with Des) The BFFSBSROFL (no that acronym does not stand for anything) theory : kris actually gels SO well with susie that they are basically best friends, making Noelle and Ralsei look pathetic in comparison. Alternatively, Kris and Susie have a much deeper history that the Spamton Sweepstakes left out. Alternatively: it could also be that Susie is the first strong friendship Kris has had in a very long time and they are in the honeymoon phase of their friendship. The shippers wet dream theory: Kris has a thing for Susie after the events of ch 1 and is jealous of Noelle. (I claim no financial responsibility for whatever the fuck the shipping part of the fandom may do with this potential bit of information.) The "my parent's friend's kids" theory: Kris never really was that close to Noelle to begin with, Its just that the Dreemur family and the Holiday family go way back and Kris being a kid was just in the middle of it. These are the theories I have so far, let me know if you guys have anything more interesting.

Other things to mention

The Laser prank. During that scene with Noelle with chapter 2, the player finds a switch that requires the player and Noelle to press a button and let each other through the laser barrier. as a player you can suddenly jump off the button before noelle passes as a joke. however, if you go too far and do it right when Noelle is too close to the laser:

you almost hurt Noelle (but she is ok) and then she pulls the same prank on Kris. then:

If you don't go too far with the prank, Noelle simply says "nice teamwork" and you continue on. This is interesting to me for many reasons. here is a few theories I have listed: 1-Kris actually was hurt (unlikely because their HP was not lowered and the player did not touch the laser) 2- Kris actually DOES care about Noelle and is horrified the player almost hurt her 2.5- Or perhaps Kris does care about Noelle and is horrified she did the prank back at them as serious as the laser was. Perhaps Kris has weird feelings about abandonment and self love considering their parents divorce and all that has been going on in this game 3- Kris is just being petty and immature that they got pranked right back. 4- Kris is potentially mis-reading the situation thinking that the player and Noelle are somehow against Kris, when in reality both the player and Noelle are just playing around. Remember that Kris is a young teenager going through a rough patch at home, so it makes sense they are on edge about this kind of thing. 5- I am reading way too deep into this bit.

The Boat Picture with Ralsei listen man. Its no secret Ralsei resembles Asriel. hell there is a STRONG implication that Ralsei is actually Kris's childhood red horns headband considering Ralsei also has red horns.

here is the bit that gets to me sometimes: Later on in Ch 2, you are on a boat ride with ralsei and a photo booth. you have the option to Hug Ralsei, show a peace sign in the wrong direction, or commit cultural appropriation against Berdly in particular (my favorite option yes i am very mature)

why does this sit with me? well-

First: daawwww asgoooooreeee second: what does this mean- there are so many implications, Again i am just going to list theories and speculation: 1- Kris does not appreciate the gremlin that looks suspiciously like their older brother and how said gremlin may be crushing on them, along with the player pushing that along. enough said. 2- Kris is OK with hugs, they just don't like it when their dad gives them a massive cuddly bear hug. 3- kris is being an angsty teen acting like they are too good for hugs. 4- Again I am probably overthinking it and Kris actually does not hate hugs (or hugging ralsei) that much. Overall, I think Kris Kross Applesauce's real problem is less about the hugging and the pranking of Noelle, but rather something deeper. behold!

THE OMEGA THEORY

Kris just wants agency over their own life. It isn't that deep really. It is implied that Kris... honestly doesn't like themselves very much and doesn't like being human. The fact they never grew horns growing up and wore plastic horns all the time was probably the first time Kris felt like an outsider, and all they wanted to do was to be like their family. and now their parents are divorced Their older brother has been off for university and can only come back on certain occasions Sans Undertale is probably fucking their mom (or sans is just messing with you because sans is a hilarious asshole) Kris probably has trauma from whatever happened to December Holiday (which has not been revealed yet other than Spamton sweepstakes hinting) And now, Kris appears to be possessed by SOMETHING. and who the hell knows what and who is posessing kris. it could be you the player doing that or perhaps the player IS kris and that the thing possessing kris is what threw the player in the cage or more. we don't know yet But the thing i know most is that all Kris just wants is to have more control over their own life. Hell considering the implication that Ralsei is the manifestation of Kris's childhood headband, perhaps Ralsei represents a part of who Kris wishes they were. either way It doesn't matter if the player messes with Noelle or hugs Kris's friend that uncomfortably resembles their brother Kris just wants it to be THEIR decision rather than the decision of an omnipotent god that has a strange affliction for hyper-analyzing their life to make an overly-produced Tumblr post. thank you for reading my crap.

[uselesstaroth]

Finally doing a deltarune speculation post, what took me so long

Anyway, spoilers for deltarune and weird route speculation

So I listened to this

Susie as final boss of the Weird Route

Incredible concept, love it to bits

To make it different from Sans, I thought

What if Susie is actually unbeatable?

"How does that happen" I wonder

I had an idea I thought was neat where she interrupts your attacks with "Rude" Buster so you can't attack her, like Sans but Susie

And then I watched a video about Ultimate Heal

And then this narrative formed in my head:

Susie is the one who catches on first that something's wrong with Kris.

She's the one who take steps to stop us in the final hour

And one of the things that entails is practicing in secret until Ultimate Heal lives up to its name

So Susie is unbeatable. Because remember

deltarune only has one ending.

Susie is why

Bonus silly:

Looks like we beat Susie, she winds up for what looks like a last, wimpy swing, when suddenly

+99999

"Heh. Kinda wish you could control Kris' face right now. I wanna see the look in yours."