6.16.25 - deltarune ch4

Thoughts about the Gerson fight in Deltarune Chapter 4

Firstly, this fight is fucking incredible. It's a remix of the Undyne fight in all the best ways and perfectly balances difficulty with fun. It's a harsh but fair fight, and that's about all I have to say about that.

Now. The story? The dialogue? If this is hinting at what I think it's hinting at, then I think Toby Fox might just go down as one of the great American Storytellers in the same vicinity as Mark Twain and other legends. Undertale is wonderfully written and all, but does struggle with poor gameplay at points. Deltarune is far more polished, and while there are certain minigames that irk me--Game & Watch Chef I'm looking at you--the overall level of quality of gameplay is top-notch.
It doesn't stop there, though, because what Chapter 4 in particular shows is that Toby and his team can utilize gameplay to its fullest potential in not just comedy--such as in the Jackenstein fight, which is silly and wonderful in its own right--but in progressing the story and further hammering home themes explored through dialogue.

Toby is not particularly interested in hiding the messages of Deltarune. If he wants the player to know something, he often tells them outright. So, in order to stick the landing on his writing, he's gotta hit some damn good emotional beats, and he does! I don't know how but he does! This is what struck me during the Gerson fight.

Deltarune is as storybook a tale as tales can be. Deltarune is a hero's journey. Our hero, Susie, starts our story with few hopes or dreams, fighting for survival in what she perceives to be an unkind world with few kind people in it. She falls into adventure, and begins to experience friendship, compassion, love, and kindness for the first time in her life. She learns to reciprocate these virtues in turn.

The stakes rise. People are being hurt, and she cannot do anything to save them. Her healing is lackluster compared to her friend. The adult world will not believe her. Everything feels out of her control. Almost everything. Susie can, and does, fend off evil. She follows Kris to the end because they are her friend, but she can, and does, take charge whenever she desires.

And now, she has found her mentor, at the midpoint of her journey, who teaches her most important lesson:
Even prophecy can be rewritten. Fate is in her hands. The end does not have to be the end if she does not want it to be. All she needs to do is pick up her pen and write her new destiny. All she needs to do is wield her axe and fight for that new destiny.

Toby Fox will not release Chapter 7. Deltarune has been actively in development since 2018, but the idea spawn for this game dates a few years before, beginning with the end. I don't believe that Undertale was itself a meta-narrative setup to Deltarune. These two games are separate entities. Undertale is simply inspiration for Deltarune. Undertale Yellow is inspiration for Deltarune. Deltatraveler is inspiration for Deltarune. Every fangame, comic adaption, and alternate universe is inspiration for Deltarune, because the primary message of Deltarune is such:

Do not wait for the story to be written, or else it may not come at all. Write the story yourself. Make the game yourself. Film the movie yourself. Create the art yourself. Who gives a damn if it's unoriginal? Who gives a damn if it's amateur? If it's unpolished, cringe, or ugly? It is still worth making because you made it. You brought it to life. You have fulfilled the purpose of the materials around you. You have given life to what was once lifeless. What was once just a product of your imagination. Of the hallucinations in the dark.

And don't forget:
You are not alone in your creation. Your friends, your fellow artists, your supporters are all with you in the dark. They will assist you in bringing this vision to life. Not because they are beholden to your will. But because you care for each other. You believe in each other, and in the potential held in each other's ideas.

Write your own story. Let your friends help you. And the world, and your creation, will be all the better for it.