Ah yes, Deltarune, my latest obsession when it comes to video games. The epitome of “It came to me in a dream” that turned into one of the games that broke Steam’s purchasing system when it released last year. I still remember raging for half an hour because Steam’s backend kept dying, while trying to process the DDOS that was the Deltarune fandom. And now, with the release of Chapter 5, I may finally bless (or curse) your DEVICE_PERSONAL with my personal thoughts about this game. Also, spoilers ahead.

The Ups

The soundtrack

People keep praising Toby Fox’s soundtracks and it makes sense. All individual tracks practically tell their own story alongside the main narrative with the heavy use of motifs, helping lore nerds find more information about each specific character. Besides that, they simply just slap. I have lost count of the amount of times I listened to It’s TV Time, Hammer Of Justice, Second Sanctuary or Dark Zone. Last but not least, I like the inclusion of other artists’ work in the game. Flower Man and Cutie Mew Mew Magic are genuinely a pleasure to listen to.

The overall story

While there are some creative choices that I find slighty weird, the overall story is very much to my liking. There is quite a lot of dumb humour, which I do find funny. (I mean, my nickname is a pun, so I am definitely biased.) On top of that, there were a few moments that genuinely made me look like this:

But by far, the biggest “WTF” moments were all connected to the Weird Route, with the latest chapter REALLY delivering on that front.

The difficulty

I suck at bullet hells. I am just going to say this upfront. Which is why I personally find it nice that the developers make certain mandatory encounters slightly easier after dying to them many times. Not everyone shares this sentiment. But for someone, who needed many, many tries to finally beat the Chapter 3 Secret Boss, this is a welcome change.

The Mids

The chapter release cycle

Yes, yes, I know. Making something great takes time. Which makes this review terrible, because it did not take me too long lol. People obviously would love to see Deltarune tomorrow, present company included. But even when I am in pain, because Toby Fox says that a chapter will enter testing for an unspecified amount of time, I still prefer this scenario than getting a broken mess of a game. On a more personal note, the fact that this game is being released in chapters is, at least for me, a blessing in disguise. The reason I say this is because I cannot accidentally spoil myself the entire game. Which regretably I am very prone to.

The Downs

Some bullet patterns feel too unpredictable

The best example of this I can think of is that one bomb pattern from Chapter 5’s secret boss. I know I am not singled out in this belief. This is one of those few bullet patterns that I cannot see myself consistently no-hitting. Emphasis on consistently. There were instances during my playthrough when I managed to not get hit by this and a few other patterns like this one, but doing no-hit runs is likely never going to be an option. Not that it ever was, given the fact I suck at bullet-hells.

EDIT - 06-08-2026 Well it looks like the issue has been resolved. Now I can… go and suffer with the harder version to get the bonus cutscene. Pain.

I feel like Chapter 5 is not resolving enough things.

In terms of an individual story, Chapter 5 is fine. In terms of the whole game though, I feel like it’s not trying hard enough to start wrapping up the story, considering we are about to most likely get the penultimate chapter. A couple of vague hints about Ralsei, a vaguepost about Asgore that most lore nerds have already predicted and 2 whole plot twists, with the former being good and the latter leaving me mildly confused. On top of that, I feel like FRIEND is not given enough treatment, while being almost definitely lore-relevant. Also yes, this is written after that patch that introduced extra dialogue referencing said character.

Final thoughts

I love this game and I am very much looking forward to the next chapters. I am going to take a shot in the dark and say that the next chapter will finally reveal the true identity of the big bad of the series, the Roaring Knight. I don’t think it would make sense to reveal it in the last chapter, so my bet is on Chapter 6. I think that this reveal will either be a critical hit to the player or a complete miss, depending on whose face is behind the helmet. My bet is on Carol. But I guess that for at least a year, us fans are going to be left in the dark about this one.

EDIT - 06-08-2026 The 2026 summer newsletter says that “one thing will be clarified, whether you are ready of not”. I have a feeling that it’s going to be the Knight. I am hyped already.