Deltarune Chapter 4 Nearing Completion, But Release Still Far Off

Deltarune’s Toby Fox recently shared an update on the development of the game. Read on to learn more about the game’s progress and what Fox wrote in his latest newsletter.

Toby Fox Shares Deltarune Progress UpdateDeltarune Chapter 4 Nearing Completion

Undertale creator Toby Fox has provided fans with an update on the development of Deltarune’s upcoming chapters in his latest newsletter.

Deltarune is Toby Fox’s second major project following the critically acclaimed Undertale. Fox confirmed in his Halloween 2023 newsletter that Deltarune’s Chapters 3 and 4 are slated for their upcoming simultaneous release on PC, Switch, and PS4. However, Fox revealed that while Chapter 4 is nearing completion, the release of Chapters 3 and 4 is still some ways off. The game’s first two chapters were released for free in 2018 and 2021, respectively, but even those required years of patience from fans during development.

The game’s Chapter 4 is currently being polished. All maps are finished, and battles are playable, but some adjustments remain. Fox mentioned that two cutscenes "need small improvements", one battle needs balancing and visual enhancements, another needs a better background, and "two battles are having their ending sequences improved." Despite this, Fox considers Chapter 4 "basically playable minus some polish" and has received positive feedback from three of his friends who have played through the entire chapter.

While Chapter 4 is progressing well, Fox emphasized the challenges of releasing the game on multiple platforms and different languages. "It wouldn’t be such a big deal if the game was free," said Fox in his newsletter. "but since this is going to be our first big paid release since UNDERTALE, we really have to take the extra time to make sure it’s perfect."

Before the release of Chapters 3 and 4, he outlined several essential "quests" that their team must undertake, including:

⚫︎ Testing new functions
⚫︎ Completing the game’s PC and console versions
⚫︎ Localizing the game to Japanese
⚫︎ Bug testing

Development for the game’s Chapter 3 is finished, according to Toby Fox’s February newsletter. While Chapter 4 still requires some adjustments, Fox mentioned that "a few people are going ahead and creating an initial draft of Chapter 5’s maps, working on bullet patterns, etc."

The latest newsletter didn’t reveal a specific release date, but it did offer fans a sneak peek at dialogue between Ralsei and Rouxls, a character description for Elnina, and a new item called GingerGuard. The three-year wait since Chapter 2's release left many fans initially disappointed. However, at the same time, they were excited by the game's growing scope. Toby Fox fueled this anticipation by stating, "Chapter 3 and 4 together are definitely longer than Chapter 1 & 2 combined."

While the wait for the full release continues, Fox expressed optimism about the future of Deltarune’s development, stating that the release schedule for subsequent chapters will be smoother once Chapters 3 and 4 are released.