Howdy folks!

It’s been over 24 hours now so I think I can discuss Deltarune here freely, right? We’re all aware of what it is? We’ve all seen the game? Okay good.

I uploaded my blind reaction to Deltarune on my YouTube channel (which you can find the link to on my profile by the way), and so those who have seen it will probably know I really enjoyed it. It’s breathed a lot of new life into the community again, which is really great to see. It feels like having your expansive family come back together again after spending such a long time apart, y’know? It’s a nice feeling.

So today I’d just like to discuss what I really liked about Deltarune, and how it affects the future of Don’t Forget going forward. There will be minor spoilers ahead, so don’t say you haven’t been warned!

To start, I love how Toby has handled Gaster’s presence so far. It very obviously feels like he’s there and has some type of influence on the world we’re in, but it’s not diving into his backstory (YET), which I personally love. The thing I like so much about working with Gaster’s character in Don’t Forget is that he has an established setup in Undertale, being this creepy entity that watches you from the darkness and was once the royal scientist, but nothing else is known about him, so I’m free to go wild with his origins and how he became what he is. It’s so much fun to experiment with his character. I’m very glad that so far Toby has still kept this aspect about him alive, while still establishing his presence in Deltarune.

Another thing I love is how this game seems to be a canon AU to Undertale (presumably related to Gaster), and could mean that somehow every fan-created AU can fit within Undertale’s world, since AUs are now an established part of the lore. So I guess every fan-game ever is canon to Undertale now! (Not really lmao.) But seriously, this is an extremely interesting way to continue expanding the world of Undertale, since everybody anticipated a prequel if we ever got anything else, and so this is a complete surprise.

I also love the new battle system. It’s amazing how it combines Undertale’s unique bullet-hell battle system with more traditional RPG elements to give a lot more possibilities with how battles can play out. I hope Toby experiments a lot more with it in the upcoming chapters.

Other noteworthy things I’d like to mention are the OST, which is absolutely god-tier, and the characters, which are surprisingly really engaging and fun. Lancer is an immediate favorite. I thought he was going to be a bootleg Sans at first, but he turned out to be really funny in his own way. I can also get behind the chapter scheme Toby has decided to go with for this game. It’s nice to let the community actively experience things together as chapters release, as we all wonder and speculate what could happen next, and be filled with determination knowing that more content is to come. It’s just nice to have everyone back together again.

Playing through Deltarune made me rethink a lot of things about Don’t Forget. So much so, in fact, that I’d like to propose some major changes I want to make to the game here in this post to see what you guys think.

I’ve created a few strawpolls, which are linked below, and I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to answer them. Before you answer them though, please read my explanations for each major change written under each!

1) https://strawpoll.com/d2hk8hey

• “Would you be okay with the plot being rewritten while keeping the gameplay the same?” One thing I really like about the current DF is its gameplay, I’m a huge fan of collectathons where you can explore unique worlds and interact with fun characters. As such, I have no intention to ever change this aspect. However, I am willing to change the storyline behind the game, since I believe it could use a bit more improvement.

2) https://strawpoll.com/3wp3631g

• “Would you be okay with Frisk no longer being the player character?” With changing the story, it begs the question whether or not Frisk should be reused as the player character again. I personally feel that there’s a lot more opportunities with creating a new player character than reusing Frisk, as they can interact differently with the cast and create new and interesting relationships with them, rather than going with their same predictable tropes. A new character would also have new abilities, and as such, new ways to battle.

3) https://strawpoll.com/5few6rd9

• “Do you prefer the game releasing all at once or in chapters?” There was once a time when I was anticipating to release DF in chapters, with each new timeline acting as its own chapter, and I’d once again like to consider using this format, as I personally like games that release chapter by chapter, as long as the chapters are satisfying to play multiple times while I wait for the next one. With the way that DF centers around collecting things, I feel that a chapter approach could work really well with it, and unlike Deltarune which doesn’t seem to care if you try to go pacifist or not just yet, I am still including multiple routes the player can go on, allowing for replayability in each chapter. You as the player would basically be able to play the game as its made, which means less wait time for you to be able to dive into it!

4) https://strawpoll.com/2h66ybpd

• “If the game were to release in chapters, this would mean the game would become a bit more linear and less like a sandbox. Is that okay?” One of my main inspirations for DF’s gameplay was Super Mario Odyssey, a collectathon sandbox game where you could traverse different kingdoms as you please. DF currently uses this same concept with the machine allowing you to go to whichever timeline you want to start collecting SOUL pieces in. However, with chapter releases this mechanic wouldn’t really work, and as such the game would need to become a bit more linear. Not completely linear, since you can still collect the SOUL pieces in whatever order you want and do sidequests at any time, but linear in the sense that you have to traverse the timelines in a specific order. I personally think this would work fine with the new storyline I have in mind, but I’d like to make sure that this is okay with you guys.

Phew! With all of that being said, I’m eager to see your responses to my proposed changes, and I hope that now that the spark in the community is back, we’ll all have a great time exploring Undertale’s world together, in whatever form it takes. I’ll post another devlog sometime soon once I’ve gone over your answers and officially decided where I’d like to take Don’t Forget from here.

I will say, though…
The future is seeming to be
very
very
interesting.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: Toby has confirmed that Deltarune will not release in chapters, but instead you’ll have to buy all of the chapters at once. I’m a bit disappointed by this, but I can understand his reasoning behind this decision. Regardless, I’m still considering releasing DF in chapters as suggested, since I think it’s a great way to see the community’s reactions and tweak things accordingly while I make the game, while also keeping interest in the game going while progress is made.