Verdict
Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 offer more of the extraordinary boss battles, mind-bending minigames, and side-splitting dialogue you’ve come to expect from Toby Fox. There are some frustrations, especially if you want to see all the possible endings and uncover all the secrets, but for the most part, I had a great time dealing with the Dark World’s latest dilemma.
After what feels like the longest wait in the world, Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 are finally here, extending the narrative of the simultaneously traumatizing and tantalizing episodic epic. It's still not game over completely, with another three chapters to come, but this pair of fresh installments continues to raise the stakes while also offering more of that classic off-the-wall dialogue I've come to expect from any game with Fox's involvement.
For those who don't know, Deltarune is the work of Toby Fox, the mind behind cult classic indie game Undertale, and his regular collaborators, including artist Temmie Chang. If you've played Undertale, you'll feel right at home in Deltarune, with a very similar art style and battle mechanics, as well as some friendly faces. It's important to note, though, that this isn't a sequel to Undertale. At least I don't think it is. Honestly, it's hard to tell, but I'm going to take Fox and the legions of online fans at their word and assume it takes place in some sort of alternate universe.
Trying to explain the core narrative of Deltarune in a couple of paragraphs is almost impossible, but I'm going to give it a go. You play as Kris, who, along with school-bully-turned-friend accomplice Susie, ends up going through a portal from their home in Hometown to the Dark World. That makes the surface the Light World. Okay, keeping up?
In the Dark World, the pair encounter the third party member, Ralsei, making up the trio. From here, the heroic adventure truly begins to seal the dark fountains, the Dark World's source of power, as nefarious forces are opening up new ones. To cut a long story short, if too many dark fountains emerge, the apocalypse comes to both the Dark World and the Light World, and nobody wants that to happen. Well, almost nobody.
Your quest sees you run into the likes of Lancer, Queen, and countless other new Deltarune characters. Oh, and there's Noelle. Like our protagonist pairing, Noelle is another character from the Light World, a Lightner, who has somehow found themselves below the surface. While Noelle might not be a part of the core trio, she's a vital part of the story, as becomes evident the further into the quest you get.
The joy of Deltarune is in its cast of characters, who never fail to delight. From their designs to their dialogue, all of the residents of both the Dark World and the Light World feel incredibly fleshed out, and having completed the fourth chapter, I feel like I know Susie and Ralsei better than I know myself. The dynamics between the characters are also fantastic, and if Toby Fox ever gets bored of making great games, he could easily start over again as a slice-of-life writer.
I don't want to get into the narrative arcs of Chapters 3 and 4 too much here, just in case you're still trying to avoid spoilers, but I have to commend Fox again for the way he manages to eschew expectations when it comes to where the story might go next. Given the dramatic conclusion of the second chapter, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what might follow, but I was only partly right. I did not anticipate a whole chapter dedicated to a talking TV, that's for sure.
Having not picked up Deltarune since the arrival of Chapter 2 back in 2021, I'd forgotten how much the battle mechanics force you to lock in. It doesn't take long for the game to remind you how punishing encounters can be, though, especially if you're out of practice. The bullet-hell-style combat, which more often than not sees you navigate a heart-shaped cursor while avoiding enemy projectiles in a square box, is tricky. Sometimes it even feels slightly unfair, but there's something so engaging about it that makes you come back time and time again, even when a boss is routinely handing you your ass on a plate.
Fortunately, while Deltarune's battles can be tough with a capital T, they're also pretty funny, and Fox's penchant for throwing in random mechanics from different genres keeps things nice and fresh. One minute, you're dodging bullets at the corner of the screen; the next, you're playing a Guitar Hero-inspired minigame to a track that sounds a lot like Undertale's iconic Megalovania. This mix of gameplay is a great way of keeping on your toes, and while it might get just a little samey during Chapter 3 - more on that later - it's riveting for the most part.
It's no secret that Toby Fox's musical talents are a highlight of his games, but there's a moment toward the end of the fourth chapter in Deltarune where the combination of the haunting music, existential lore, and eerie visuals all combined to make me feel things that I'm not sure any game has ever made me feel before. It's a sort of beautiful horror. What's happening is terrifying, and Fox is not one to pull a punch, but simultaneously, it's brave and bold, defying the narrative playbook at every juncture. As someone who daydreams about creating a fictional world one-tenth as engaging as that of Deltarune, I can't help but admire that.
Not only is the scoring fantastic, but the visuals of Deltarune are wonderful. I've already mentioned how much I love the character designs, but the world itself, both the dark and light versions, is incredible. I thought that the game might have peaked with Chapter 2's Cyber World quest, but I was very happy for the third and fourth installments to prove me wrong. From the use of color in the Dark World to the understated but gorgeous Hometown, it's a lovely game to look at when you're not cursing at a boss battle for taking you out for the third time in ten minutes.
I think it's pretty clear from this review so far that I love Deltarune, but I do have some frustrations. For a start, things can get a little repetitive, especially in Chapter 3, and if, like me, you realize you've missed the requirements for the secret boss at a certain point, you basically have to start the chapter all over again. Don't get me wrong, it's worth it, but much like in Undertale, there's little signposting in Deltarune to suggest that you're missing out on some of the most exciting content. It's a slightly irritating recurring theme that the best parts of the game are hidden away, forcing you to rely on guides to make sure you don't miss a thing.
Fox's game also has a touch of TV thrillers such as Severance or Lost about it, in that just when you think you're about to get an answer to one of the game's core questions, more mysteries pop up, kicking the big reveal further down the road. I get that this is part of the attraction for a lot of Deltarune and Undertale fans, who eagerly await updates so they can discuss theories online, but combine this ongoing mystery with Chapter 3's veering slightly from the narrative path, and I'm starting to lose my patience just a little. It's very much a me-problem, and I suppose it has me even more excited for the next installment, but it also serves as a reminder as to why only certain developers, with cult-esque followings, can get away with the episodic approach.
Still, despite a couple of complaints, there's no questioning that Deltarune is a fantastic adventure. The storytelling, the score, the animations, the bending of the fourth wall to the point where it feels it might snap and all reality might cave in on itself - this game has it all. If Undertale was Fox's magnum opus, the final version of this game, when it eventually arrives, could be the thing that transcends the developer from cult cool kid to auteur, joining the fabled likes of Hideo Kojima and Yoko Taro in a pantheon that most of us mere gaming mortals can only aspire to peek into.
Not everyone will get Deltarune, but for those who do, it'll feel like Fox has cracked open your cranium before taking a ladle to the pools of existential dread and paranoia that fester there and serving it back to you to gulp down eagerly. That might not sound like a good thing, but it is, for me at least, and the occasional sugary sweet moments make up for the growing feeling that all might not end well. Still, like I said, if anyone can smash your expectations, it's Toby Fox, and I already can't wait to get my hands on Chapter 5 to see where this story goes next.
There you have it, our review of Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4. For more Switch 2 games, be sure to check out our Mario Kart World review and Cyberpunk 2077 Switch 2 review while you're here. Or, if you're looking for something new to play, see our guide to the best Switch games.