Undertale is a game that took the internet by storm, becoming a sleeper hit on the scale
of AAA.
It's sold millions copies, and in the first six months it sold over 1.3 million copies--putting
it in the same category of sales as games like Life Is Strange and The Witcher 3.
Of course, The Witcher 3 cost $81 million to make, and Life Is Strange racked up over
$6 million in cost.
Undertale was a $5000 kickstarter.
It was wildly successful, to the tune of over $50000, though really that's still not even
1% of the total budget of Life Is Strange.
To call it a successful game would be an understatement.
If this were a AAA game, there would already be a sequel or a series of DLCs released to
capitalize on its success.
Instead, this past week, Toby Fox--the creator of Undertale--released Deltarune Chapter One.
This is not spoiler free, though neither is it spoiler-heavy.
If that's something you care about, Deltarune is free and takes about three hours to complete
depending on the pace you set.
It's important that I mention these spoilers, because they're designed to subvert your
expectations--especially for people who played, and enjoyed, Undertale.
And these spoilers will quickly become something the entire internet is talking about--you
won't be able to escape them for very long.
Already, major gaming websites have some of the earliest spoilers right in the titles
of their articles.
See, this is a game that's not designed for a new playerbase, and that's because
it isn't a game at all.
This is a proof of concept, a way to test the waters, and a recruitment device.
You see, what better way to solicit applications for a new development team than to release
the first chapter of a new game and then tell everyone that they'll never see the rest
of it because you need a development team.
Undertale was a multi-year project that was essentially built by two people in their spare
time--not to disparage those others who did contribute, but their contributions in relation
to the whole was smaller.
And Deltarune is intended to be much much bigger.
At least right now.
Big enough, in fact, that Toby Fox expects it will take seven years to finalize.
That's not a short development cycle, considering Duke Nukem Forever took 14 years.
And so, Chapter One of Deltarune is released, essentially as an ad to build interest in
building a team.
But, what is Deltarune?
That's a question that, again, is best answered by simply playing the game, but (in short)
it is not Undertale.
And this is emphasized immediately when the game subverts your experience with Undertale
by throwing out every choice you make in a character customization screen.
It states very simply that this is a world where you do not get to choose your history,
or your path.
That alone sets it apart from not only it's own predecessor, but also from the JRPG genre
that it exists in.
The experience is probably best described by its title, one of the few times when you
can tell the content by the cover.
Deltarune is, of course, an anagram of Undertale, with a similar and familiar style--but all
jumbled up.
That follows into the game as well, where you'll see similar graphics and familiar
characters, but they're not quite the same.
The gameplay will be comfortable to anyone with Undertale under their belt, but completely
different at the same time.
It's not the same game, it's not a sequel, and it's not meant to be.
Of course, since it's a game that might not come out for many years, it could be completely
different when it does.
The Undertale Demo that was used to promote the Kickstarter, for example, had several
differences in just the two years it took for the game to finally release--as it started
adding gameplay features and tying into the overall plot.
It's important that people who play Deltarune understand this is likely to occur again.
The demo you play today is highly unlikely to be the final product that is released.
In fact, with how Toby Fox is playing with subversion, it may not even be a part of the
actual game.
Assuming, of course, that Fox builds his team and actually delivers a finished product.
This Chapter represents years of work, and the full title is expected to be much larger.
This demo is already half the length of the average playthrough of Undertale.
There are now expectations, and fans of the series have demands and wants.
It's no longer a $5000 kickstarter where the developer can essentially produce whatever
he wants and people will be mostly happy with it.
This almost certainly is why there will be no pre-orders or Telltale-esque installments,
but instead a full product released for a single cost later on down the road.
Deltarune has to live up to Undertale, and that may explain why Deltarune is so much
different.
It's nearly impossible for AAA games to successfully deliver a follow-up to a major
hit, while also managing to keep a reactive world together.
That's even harder when you have tens of thousands of fans scouring over every pixel
looking for clues, years before the release of a final product.
This may be the sole most compelling reason for why there aren't multiple endings planned
for Deltarune.
It's easier to design a game where the choices don't matter.
What is your experience with Undertale?
I never really played it.
It fell into the same category as FNAF, for me.
I'm interested in the story and the world, but not that interested in playing the game
itself.
Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear your story.
If you want to see a playthrough of Deltarune, instead of playing it yourself, check out
this video by ArinAnimates, in the description.
If you enjoyed this video, please consider sharing it.
If you didn't, then don't, but if you did you can watch another video in the corner
right now, and as always we'll see you on the next one.
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