Let's cut to the chase, Deltarune is the prequel to Undertaleโ Just not in the way you think it is. *Sauce-ome intro theme!* Hello internet, and welcome to game theory! Where, if Sans is Ness, then you know Lancer is gonna be Lucas. I mean, the hair is a perfect match and the letters in both names are identical Provided you swap out two, and add one and mix them all up. Theory confirmed! And now that we've definitely proven that connection beyond a shadow of a doubt, A few quick announcements. First, holiday theory wear is still available. So, if you like soft, cozy over sized things with hoods and in the color black, well, boy howdy! Did we create something for you. Hats, coats, sweaterdresses, P.J. pants. Check 'em out. Link is in the description. And if you order in the next couple weeks, you'll get it in time for Christmas. You know the drill. But, don't wait too long because a lot of the items are selling out fast. In other, quite frankly more important news, you may remember that earlier this year we lost our longest running team member, Ronnie, to suicide. In his honor, on Monday, November 26, we're doing a 6-hour live stream to raise money for the Brain & Behavior research fund, which funds scientific research that is actively looking for better treatments, and potential cures for mental health issues-- like Depression, Anxiety, and Bipolar Disorder. It is a fantastic cause, and obviously one that hits close to home for the theorist family. So, if you even have the time to join us and potentially donate, please do so. We would be so, so incredibly grateful. We have a ton of special guests coming from all different corners of YouTube to be a part of this thing, so, it should be a long day full of a lot of fun, all for a cause that can benefit a lot of theorists out there. So, please, mark it down in your calendarsโNovember 26, starting here on the channel in New Pacific Time. Running for at least 6 hours, all for an amazing cause. Alright. With things out of the way, Let's figure out what's really going on in this game. In case you missed it, Deltarune came out of nowhere. One day, the Undertale Twitter account just started randomly going off about 'New futures', and 'connections', And then all of a sudden, here's a link to a sketch-tastic website that totally doesn't look like it's a virus waiting to happen. (quite suspicious) But after malware-checking the file, twice, You load it up, and, oh and behold, It's all our favorite faces from three years ago. Alphys , Toriel, Asgore, Undyne All on the surface. It's gotta be a continuation of Undertale, right? Well... Not quite. You see, it quickly becomes apparent there's something more than a sequel here. No one knows each other. Undyne has never heard of Alphys, and has both her eyes. Asgore isn't a king, he's the owner of a flower shop. Asriel isn't some twisted demigod out for revenge, but rather, your brother, who's away at college. And there's no talk of surfaces and underworlds, but rather 'Darkeners' and 'Lighteners'. It's like Undertale, but not quite. Everything is just... a little mixed up. Just like the letters in the nameโ Deltarune is an anagram of Undertale. In short, it is all the same pieces, but they're all... rearranged. So what's it all mean? Well, with only chapter one released of a game that, according to Toby Fox, May take up to 999 years to complete, We should probably try to figure out what the complete story of Deltarune is gonna be all about, since if we don't solve it now, who knows if any of us will live to the day that it's released? And once we have a grasp of what's really happening in this struggle between Lighteners and Darkeners, how does it connect to Undertale? Does it connect to Undertale at all? So working alongside Reddit user Whynne, on the Game Theorists Subreddit, I think the two of us have figured this thing out. Top to bottom, up, down, and sideways. Fun fact, by the wayโ Whynne isn't just an advanced theorist that I found on the Game Theorist Subreddit, he's also the creator of Trollface. Yeah, the Trollface So over the last couple of weeks, I have been in the presence of THE OG Memelord... It's pretty fascinating actually the Internet is a surprisingly small place Anyway, I digress today, we start to solve Deltarune with an interpretation that I predict will be pretty controversial. But have no fear, I plan to solve it a second (and likely less controversial way) in a follow up theory in just a few days. So, two, maybe even three theories for just this one chapter. I mean, we gotta milk this thing. Like I said, it's gonna take 999 years for it to come out. Sooooo, we should probably just enjoy theorizing about it now since it might go away, and we'll never see it again. The first thing we need to address is how this game deals with the element of choice. Or, more accurately, disregards the element of choice. Immediately upon starting up the game Deltarune catches players off guard by having then create a character, imbue them with seemingly symbolic personality traits, and then immediately throw it all away saying, This theme of non-choice continues everywhere. In the classroom, you can't choose your project partner, You're just assigned the class bully, Susie. You can't choose you dialogue options out in the hallway with Susie With her outright telling you, "Your choices don't matter." Then, once you two enter the Dark World, Susie tells you to lead the way and then immediately takes over. Your choice is removed. Later on in Chapter 1, you try to direct Susie in the prison hallways, and she just outright ignores you. Even in battles--I mean sure, there's a violent and non-violent way to end every confrontation in the game But no one actually dies, they just run away. And sure, the dialogue for the ending changes slightly, But, the evil king still survives And you still get back home to rip out your heart and show off your cutlery Kris is Yuri confirmed! Now, this all could be a theme of the game and probably is to a certain extent, that in life, you do actually have to sometimes fight battles I mean, even if you don't fight the king at the end of the chapter, the conversation about having to still fight him still happens. But, I don't really believe that's the only reason all this is in there. I think Toby Fox included this theme so strongly in Chapter 1 to set up the audience expectations for what Deltarune is, a "normal game", it's "a normal game." Remember, Toby Fox is coming off of Undertale. A game that was revolutionary in its game play. One that reinvented the way we see RPGs and violence in video games, and one that was built on the principle that every decision would affect the outcome in some way. Subtitles by Cassandra Koh
from a narrative perspective i absolutely love this theory it tells a really sad really interesting story of a lonely child and a broken home and i really want to read a fanfic based on this idea, from a theory perspective i'm not convinced, there's just too much cross over between the dark world and the real world for it to be completely imaginary, not to mention susie's dialogue just doesn't match up with it all being a game
Has anyone managed to solve the wingdings during the intro? I'm trying my best right now, but if you'd like to give it a try, change the speed to 0.25. it makes a big difference.
EDIT: Nevermind... don't do it... it's just a rickroll... god dammit Matthew
However after the main "Mario running after Sonic" bit of the intro, there's more text during the "do a barrel roll" section and the logo screen. The barrel roll part says "GASTER I think you will find this very, very interesting" then the opening just says "the smartest show in gaming"
For this theory to be plausible, Susie would have had to buy into Kris' imagination wholesale at the beginning. Personally, I just don't see her going into the closet with them and being like "Okay, this totally real and not in my head!", And her dialogue seems to reflect that she thought it was real.
Though, I suppose it's also plausible that Kris is just convinced everything that happened was real (seeing as 90% of the game is from their perspective), and they were, in reality, just goofing off in the closet for a few hours.
For a while now, I've wondered if we don't see Suzie's house because she lives in that side alley where Alphys leaves the milk out for the cat. The fact that Alphys has never actually seen the cat opens up the possibility that there's some other creature drinking the milk, and a lot of Deltarune is spent establishing that Suzie's always going hungry.
Well, even if she doesn't live in that alley, she might still be the one drinking the milk.
Jevils free, and when you step into his cell, so are you. You have a choice when you step into his cell, and this choice yields two different outcomes. Either you pacify him and he gives you Jevilstail as a token of his appreciation, or you fight him and he joins the party as Devilsknife. Everything in Deltarune ends the same no matter what, in the grand scheme of things, your choices do not matter. Jevil however is the only thing that starts different and stays different, based on how the fight ends.๏ปฟ
I think is half true,why?Because it WAS the place where Kris and Asriel played in the past,but now is somehow brought into a form of reality.Because we have the egg(is given to you by someone behind a tree in a secret area,probably Gaster),which confirms that deltarune is real,because you can carry the egg into the regular world.Also we have the ending,which was Chara-like and in the beginning if you name yourself Gaster,the game crashes/if you name your creation Gaster,the game restarts,so yeah Gaster is probably the one who made the dark world a TRUE WORLD,not just the imagination of Kris,who is probably possessed by Chara or something similar.Plus we have the secret door in the regular world.
Edit
The secret messages in the video (you can find them in the comments of the post),I believe are a teaser for the next theory that Gaster does link deltarune and undertale,but I don't know what Mat and OGtrollface came up with.
I do see the points in this theory, but I personally dislike it because I find the "it was all in your head/a dream" narratives very cliche.
I also find it hard to believe that Susie would go along with it all and change her tune due to befriending Lancer.
Big mistake mr MatPat, here's the deal: when Seam explained when Jevil went crazy he says that it was when he met a strange someone. It's in no way implied that it was the Knight, only that it was a person that knew they were in a game. And secondly, come on, is obvious that if this is false, no way Frisk is conscious about it. When both return to the real world Susie doubts if it was real or nor, implying that she wasn't sure if what was experienced was real or not. Chances are what they lived was made to be real for some reason.
Let me remind you this: other characters notice how Kris is acting weird, as if it wasn't themself, and it is implied that we, the player, is controlling them.
This theory sounds nice, but leaves behind a lot of critical information.
What was with the random switching of pronouns? It was distracting juggling between she/he/they. He should have just stuck with 'they'.