Deltarune (1999 Sega Dreamcast release)

deltarune is a role-playing game released for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. The story follows a kid named Kris and his soon-to-be friend Susie travelling down to the Dark World and having to seal it's Dark Fountain along with characters like Ralsei and Lancer.

It released January 30, 2021, this time internationally the same day, unlike how UNDERTALE came out in Japan before USA.

Gameplay
(Information below is from the deltarune Wiki)

The game starts with the player creating a vessel that is abruptly discarded. Instead, they inhabit a vessel who they cannot choose: Kris. They are a quiet human teenager who lives with their mother Toriel and goes to the local school in Hometown. A tall reptilian student, Susie, threatens to eat their face. They are forced to team up and go to the school supply closet.

The duo inadvertently discover the Dark World inside. There, they meet Ralsei, a kind hearted Boss Monster-like Dark Prince, who reveals that the three of them are the heroes of the Prophecy, destined to restore balance to light and dark. During their adventure, they meet Lancer, a goofy bad guy. Susie leaves Kris and Ralsei for a time and teams up with Lancer. Susie's friendship with Lancer helps her become more compassionate. The whole cast ends up uniting into a single team of four. In the end, Lancer helps the trio overthrow his cruel father, King. Afterward, Kris and Susie say their goodbyes to the Dark World, and, using the power of Kris's human SOUL, they seal the Eastern Fountain.

Kris and Susie return to their world together, appearing in a room filled with toys and board games, representing the Dark World and the characters they met. Kris and Susie agree to return to the Dark World the next day. Kris can leave the school and explore Hometown.

Kris goes to sleep after exploring the town. In the middle of the night, Kris shambles out of bed, seemingly fighting just to walk. Kris rips out their SOUL and throws it into a birdcage, where it becomes trapped. A knife materializes in Kris's hand, and Kris looks at the camera with a menacing smile. The screen then goes completely black for a few moments before the credits play.

deltarune 2:

The second chapter, named A Cyber's World, begins with Toriel calling out to Kris. She then discovers a knife and acts shocked. However, it is soon revealed that Kris ate all of the pie she had baked the day before.

Later, Kris wakes up, goes to school and enters the Dark World again with Susie. They meet Ralsei and explore the Castle Town, which has been significantly improved by the addition of NPCs from Chapter 1. Eventually, Susie mentions they have homework to do, prompting Ralsei to banish them from the Dark World until their homework is done.

They go to the Library, where they find another Dark World, the Cyber World, awaiting them, and fall into it, this time with Noelle and Berdly. They hear talk about a Queen, who they soon meet and who acts as the main antagonist for this chapter. She captures Noelle, while Berdly switches to her side voluntarily. Eventually, Kris splits up with the other party members and rescues Noelle. In Kris's company, Noelle starts to learn to be less fearful, accentuating one of the game's themes of personal development. Later, after the entire party gets thrown into Queen's dungeon, Berdly learns to be less arrogant after failing to solve multiple puzzles. The final boss fight begins with both parties turning into mechas, and then combat proceeds in the style of a Punch-Out!!-esque fighting game. Kris seals the Dark Fountain of this world, and the Lightners all return to the Light World.

After walking through town, Kris goes home and Toriel invites Susie to spend the night at her house. She sends the pair to wash their hands. When Kris goes to the bathroom, they rip out their SOUL again and escape through the window, leaving the player to listen to a chat between Toriel and Susie. Eventually, Kris returns to the bathroom and puts their SOUL back in their body.

After Susie and Kris fall asleep while watching TV, Toriel calls the police to inform them that she saw something outside the house and found her car tires slashed. After that, Toriel also falls asleep in the living room. Then, in the middle of the night, Kris wakes up, and, with their knife, creates a Dark Fountain that envelops the entire room in black mist. The last thing that can be seen is the static television screen and a ghoulish smile on it. Then, the screen goes completely black for a few moments and afterwards the credits play.

(Information from deltarune Wiki ends here)

Gameplay
Gameplay is similar to UNDERTALE, just put in a more 3D style for the Dreamcast. There is also now running, multiple SAVE files, magic, and party members. Your only party members are Susie and Ralsei throughout the game.

Reception
deltarune recieved better reviews than UNDERTALE. It fixed the running problem, the SAVE problem, and the many funky glitches. Though, it still had some.

deltarune was yet again praised for the composition. Though, some complained in that it had less than half the amount of songs UNDERTALE did. UNDERTALE had 101 official songs while deltarune only had 40, from "ANOTHER HIM" to "Before the Story." Most songs, however, like "THE WORLD REVOLVING," "Don't Forget," "Friendship," and "Chaos King" were much better than a good chunk of songs from UNDERTALE, though "ASGORE," "Hopes and Dreams," "MEGALOVANIA," and "Battle Against a True Hero" from UNDERTALE still scored higher.

deltarune was big enough to get an eventual sequel, deltarune 2, following the story of Kris, Susie, Ralsei, Noelle, Berdly, Lancer, Rouxls, and more into a new Dark World, the Cyber World. The later games are presumed to be released at the same time.

Battling
Battling has a couple of options. You can FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and SPARE as Kris, and for monsters, instead of ACTing, they have MAGIC.

FIGHTing deals damage to the opponent, ACTing makes the opponent SPAREable, ITEMs let you use items, and SPARE recruits the enemy.

In deltarune, the battle is at a diagonal view, where you can see the Lightners and the opponents lined up. The menu is at the bottom.

In deltarune 2, the battles are similar to later Pokémon games, with different camera angles.

OST
deltarune:


 * ANOTHER HIM, plays on the part where you make your vessel in the beginning.
 * Beginning, play when driving to school with Toriel.
 * School, plays during school.
 * Susie, Susie's theme.
 * The Door, plays when Kris and Susie find the door leading to the Card Castle Dark World.
 * Cliffs, plays in the Unknown / ?????? location.
 * The Chase, plays when Rudinn Rangers chase Kris.
 * The Legend, plays when Ralsei tells Kris and Susie about the legend.
 * Lancer, Lancer's theme.
 * Rude Buster, the fight theme for Darkners.
 * Empty Town, plays in Castle Town. Also present in deltarune 2.
 * Weird Birds, plays when going past the Great Door, and also when walking with Susie and Lancer into the Card Castle.
 * Field of Hopes and Dreams, plays in the Field.
 * Fanfare, plays when someone joins the team. Originally from an old game from the 80's called Rose of Winter.
 * Lantern, plays slowly in Seam's shop.
 * I'm Very Bad, plays when Lancer interrupts the team in Great Board.
 * Checker Dance, K. Round's fight theme.
 * Quiet Autumn, plays in peaceful parts of Forest.
 * Scarlet Forest, plays in Forest.
 * Thrash Machine, plays when building the Thrashing Machine for Susie and Lancer.
 * Vs. Lancer, Lancer's fight theme.
 * Basement, plays in the prison in the Card Castle.
 * Imminent Death, plays before Susie goes against Lancer.
 * Vs. Susie, Susie's fight theme.
 * Card Castle, plays in Card Castle.
 * Rouxls Kaard, plays when finding Rouxls Kaard.
 * April 1995, plays in the Club room.
 * Hip Shop, plays in Rouxls Kaard's shop, also plays in Swatch's shop in deltarune 2.
 * Gallery, plays when King threatens to kill Lancer and the team. Also plays when Queen says Berdly has been plugged in deltarune 2.
 * Chaos King, King's fight theme.
 * Darkness Falls, plays if you don't persist on a game over.
 * The Circus, plays on Floor ?????? where Jevil is.
 * THE WORLD REVOLVING, Jevil's fight theme.
 * Friendship, plays when Kris on a Pacifist route says bye to the Darkners going home.
 * THE HOLY, plays when standing in front of a Dark Fountain.
 * Your Power, plays when Kris seals the Dark Fountain using his SOUL, then leaving.
 * A Town Called Hometown, plays in Hometown.
 * You Can Always Come Home, plays in Toriel's home. Originally from UNDERTALE, called Home. Also present in deltarune 2.
 * Don't Forget, plays during credits. Performed by and orchestra and choir.
 * Before the Story, plays on the menu when you have beaten deltarune at least once.

Songs not present in the deltarune OST:


 * Thrash Rating, cut, but likely for the Thrashing Room.
 * Noelle, an early cut version of Girl Next Door for deltarune 2, but there was no purpose for Noelle in deltarune. Replaced by Girl Next Door.
 * WELCOME TO THE COUNTRY, a faster and more instrument-oriented version of WELCOME TO THE CITY. Replaced by WELCOME TO THE CITY.
 * Placeholder, a placeholder static sound that sounds familiar to the appearance of Mike at the end of deltarune 2.
 * Checkerboard, a scrapped song made for Great Board.
 * Character Joined, a scrapped song for when someone joined the team. Replaced by Fanfare.
 * King Boss, a scrapped fight theme for King because it was deemed unfitting. Replaced by Chaos King.
 * No Legend, a scrapped version of The Legend that was gone because the intro wasn't fitting the atmosphere. Replaced by The Legend.

deltarune 2:


 * Faint Glow, plays on the title screen.
 * Girl Next Door, plays when Noelle finds Kris and Susie near the closet.
 * My Castle Town, plays in Castle Town.
 * Ohhhhhohohoho!, plays when first encountering Queen.
 * A CYBER'S WORLD?, plays in Cyber Field.
 * A Simple Diversion, plays during the Arcade game, the Annoying Mouse Room 3, and the puzzle when catching 20 mice.
 * Almost To The Guys!, plays before the battle with Sweet Cap'n Cakes, while avoiding Sweet's bullets.
 * Cool Beat, plays after avoiding the bullets but before the battle with Sweet Cap'n Cakes.
 * When I Get Mad I Dance Like This, plays when K_K appears.
 * Cyber Battle (Solo), Sweet Cap'n Cakes fight theme.
 * When I Get Happy I Dance Like This, plays when you finish the Sweet Cap'n Cakes battle.
 * Sound Studio, plays in Sweet Cap'n Cakes' shop.
 * Berdly, plays when encountering Berdly.
 * Smart Race, Berdly's fight theme.
 * Faint Courage, game over theme.
 * WELCOME TO THE CITY, plays when entering Cyber City. A distorted version plays in Snowgrave path.
 * Mini Studio, plays in Cyber City Music Shop.
 * Holiday Studio, plays in Cyber City Music Shop after talking to Cap'n.
 * Cool Mixtape, plays in the car with Queen and Noelle.
 * HEY EVERY !, plays before fighting Spamton.
 * Spamton, plays after Spamton gets out of the trash.
 * NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A, Spamton's fight theme.
 * Elegant Entrance, plays in the first couple of rooms in Queen's Mansion.
 * Bluebird of Misfortune, plays when Berdly reveals he isn't smart.
 * Pandora Palace, plays in Queen's Mansion.
 * KEYGEN, plays when Spamton talks abut the KeyGen item.
 * Acid Tunnel of Love, plays on the boat in the acid tunnel.
 * It's Pronounced "Rules," Rouxls Kaard's fight theme.
 * Lost Girl, plays when Susie and Noelle are in Noelle's Mansion room, as well as at the end of the final Queen battle.
 * Ferris Wheel, plays after you escape her room.
 * Attack of the Killer Queen, Queen and Berdly's fight theme.
 * Giga Size, plays when Queen's giant form is shown.
 * Powers Combined, plays when the Thrash Machine is being built.
 * Knock You Down !!, Queen's giant form's fight theme.
 * The Dark Truth, plays when Ralsei reveals The Roaring.
 * Digital Roots, plays in the basement of Queen's Mansion.
 * Deal Gone Wrong, plays before Spamton NEO'S fight.
 * BIG SHOT, Spamton NEO's fight theme.
 * A Real Boy!, plays before cutting the last string of Spamton NEO.
 * Dialtone, plays in Spamton's shop and after Spamton NEO's fight.
 * sans., plays in Sans' store in Hometown.
 * Chill Jailbreak Alarm To Study And Relax To, plays when Napstablook accidentally lets out prisoners.
 * You Can Always Come Home, plays in Toriel's house. Originally from UNDERTALE, called Home.
 * Until Next Time, plays during credits. Remix of Don't Forget.
 * Before the Story, plays on the menu after beating the chapter.

Songs not present in the deltarune 2 OST:


 * Faint Menu, an earlier version of Faint Glow. Replaced by Faint Glow.
 * Spamton's House, a distorted version of Digital Roots. Replaced by Digital Roots.
 * Epic Rouxls, a scrapped version of Rouxls' battle theme. Replaced by It's Pronounced "Rules."

Songs not present in both OSTs:


 * School Alt, an earlier version of School that contained the main theme leitmotif. Replaced by School.
 * Fountains, a scrapped song that played when sealing a fountain. Replaced by Your Power.
 * Piano Theme, a piano sketch of the main theme revealed in an interview with the team behind UNDERTALE and deltarune.
 * Rejected Bluebird, a rejected version of Berdly only found in files and some releases of the OST. Replaced by Berdly.
 * Lost and Unfound Girl, an alternate old version of Lost Girl. Replaced by Lost Girl.

Trivia

 * Probably one of the weirdest things about deltarune is that it's sequel was released in a same gen console, the GameCube. This was because the sequel wouldn't fit for the Wii's Wiimote, or else the game would be too different, so the GameCube was the best fit.
 * If you named your vessel certain names, or you named the creator certain names, like names of characters in deltarune (Kris, Susie, Ralsei, etc.) and UNDERTALE (Frisk, Sans, Alphys, etc.), then different dialogues from the mysterious man will show.
 * deltarune, along with UNDERTALE, are one of the few '90s games to feature LGBTQ+ characters. Noelle has an affection for Susie, and they are both female, representing lesbians. There are other LGBTQ+-related instances in the game.