From the creator of Undertale comes the strange, alternate-universe story, Deltarune.

When I first downloaded the game, I knew I would be getting something humorous and quirky, as much of Toby Fox’s fare is like this. However, Deltarune surprised me, even though I should have expected a dark turn.

Right in the beginning, the game chooses to tell me that none of my choices matter. This lies in stark contrast to what Undertale was about. Touted as “the game where nobody has to die,” many choices in Undertale led me to different endings, whether that was enforcing cruelty on the citizens of the monster world or aggressively becoming friends with every monster I met. Here, Deltarune asserts that I am just a player in this story, or at least have far less say than it appears to give me. It doesn’t matter what kind of hair or clothes I gave Kris. The game even ridicules me for attempting to name the main character after myself. How rude.

Regardless, I found myself drawn in. The game feels cruel from the start. There is a sense that there is something a little off about Kris, and many NPCs treat the character with disdain or disrespect. The earliest interactions with Susie reinforce this. As the school bully, she’s mean, but she doesn’t use physicality entirely to make Kris feel small. She demeans him with words and a threat that purposefully remains empty: to bit Kris’s face off.

From here, a series of events takes place that leads to falling into the Dark World. I noticed I felt a lot more uncomfortable here, akin to the vibe I got from the True Lab in Undertale, with the dangerous mounds and unfamiliar landscape. I also felt like I knew very little about Kris. It’s possible I’ll learn more about him in the future, but I only got up to the fight with Lancer.

Lancer seemed a lot like a Sans knockoff, perhaps like the little blue Sans that people draw for that alternate universe version they’ve made up. His personality was slightly grating. It seems I can’t play a game without some character being just a little annoying. It’s also entirely possible he’ll become a lovable stupid friend, but that remains to be seen. For now, he will be That Character–the Bowser Jr., the Scrappy Doo, the Bubsy. And believe me, I really don’t feel like getting traumatic flashbacks of Bubsy’s stale jokes.

The combat feels fresh to me. I like the combination of traditional JRPG stylings mixed with Undertale‘s prior use of bullet hell-like fighting elements. I like both of those genres (though I’m especially inclined towards bullet hell because of Touhou.) I’m definitely not far into it, and it’s been difficult to get the time to play lately, but I have high hopes for what will come next. If even the first battle feels promising, that has to be a good sign.

So far, so good, Toby! I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of situations Susie, Kris, and Ralsei get into as the game progresses.