7 Reasons You Need to Play Undertale Before Deltarune

There are people out there who played Deltarune before Undertale.

It's surprising, right? Either you agree with me and your jaw just fell to the floor, or you're scoffing and saying "no" to your screen. If you just did the second option, you're exactly the person I'm writing about. It should be widely understood that Undertale is required reading for Deltarune.

You probably heard from a friend that Deltarune is just fine as a standalone experience. It is, but it's like having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without a top piece of bread. Or peanut butter.

What's that? That's just toast with jam? Sure, but... alright, look. Deltarune can be a good experience on its own, not be a sequel to Undertale, and still ask you to play Undertale first. I'll prove it.

7 Undertale is the Litmus Test For Liking Deltarune

A Good Game to Try Before You Buy

We can all agree on is that video games are becoming a much, much more expensive hobby by the day. We're dealing with games getting bigger, development cycles making it so we're waiting longer between games, and, of course, the encroaching reality of a potential all-digital future. With all this stress, both financial and literal, cheaper games are a godsend against any that push the price ceiling higher than it already is. Undertale is a great bargain in these hard times, often going on sale for as low as $2 on Steam at any given point.

At that price point, Undertale is a great gateway to the type of humor, sprite work, and gameplay found in Deltarune. Toby Fox's games are known and loved for being a bit on the quirkier side. They're also built for people who like the type of games he does, like the Mother and Touhou games. I've yet to run into a person who doesn't like Toby Fox's work, but his humor gets pretty self-referential in Deltarune. It's much better to buy Undertale and test the waters with it before making the several-hour-long $20 commitment to Fox's second RPG.

6 You'll Meet Everyone in Hometown For the First Time

And Learn About Monsters

Just like Deltarune invites you into plenty of fun environments to explore, Undertale's underground has six unique biomes of its own. After a war separated humans and monsters, the monsters were cast out to live under the earth. By making the underground their own, the monsters live in a vast realm that befits the classic story Journey to the Center of the Earth.

As you make your way through, you'll meet all kinds of monsters. Many of them are very nice. They'll tell you about their stories and how monsters live without prejudice. Almost every monster in Undertale returns in Deltarune, and they include you in Hometown like you've lived there your whole life. You'll be able to echo this familiarity back to them if you meet them in Undertale first, and Deltarune second.

5 Deltarune is Built to be Undertale's Supplementary Material

Don't Need to Explain if You Already Know

I really want to emphasize the importance of Undertale's monster lore. You're in a world of creatures that are different from you, yet oh, so similar to you that have lived through the conflict that trapped them. You'll feel and see how their banishment has left them with scars, and grow to understand their culture. When I say you'll be included in their day-to-day lives in Deltarune, I mean it. They'll treat you like one of their own, but that also means they won't explain key parts of what separates monsters and humans.

In Undertale, they'll explain it to you like you're five. Because literally, the character you control is five. Everything's explained to you in a nice, simple manner in a game that encourages you to react to everything with curiosity to learn more. Deltarune does its best to remind you of what you need to remember, but as you go along, chapters will mean less to you if you don't have the knowledge Undertale gives you under your belt ahead of time.

4 To Help Understand the Role You Play

Thrown Straight into A Big Undertale Conflict

I'm harping on how Deltarune makes you a part of Hometown a lot, but it deserves to be hammered into your head because you're literally part of the town. You play as the lone human in Hometown who has been adopted by two very important Undertale characters. You've grown up with them, but their connection mirrors what they went through in Undertale very closely.

As their child, they won't hide what happened between them. In Undertale, though, it's one of the bigger parts of its story. Playing Deltarune first essentially spoils it entirely within the game's first few chapters. Without playing Undertale first, there's no attachment to the characters you're meant to be related to, and it'll ruin a large part of Undertale if you go back to play it after Deltarune.

3 To Understand the Truth of Deltarune

We Have to Go Deeper

When I said that you need to play Undertale first to "help understand the role you play" in Deltarune, I definitely meant that in more ways than one. Deltarune is a bit more complex game than Undertale (also in more ways than one) and that shows by going a step further than what Undertale already accomplished with a meta-narrative.

I'm trying to be spoiler-friendly here, but I think everyone who's heard of these two games knows how Undertale deconstructs RPG battles and grinding. Deltarune does something similar about player choice. Right now, it's hard to tell just how deep Deltarune is planning to go with these ideas, but to a degree, it's even more personal than Undertale was. You, the player, are a character of your own in Deltarune, and I feel like it would be easier to deal with that aspect if Undertale already eased you into it first.

2 Undertale Teaches You Deltarune's Battle Mechanics

A Complexity That Only Grows

It goes without saying that Undertale is an incredibly unique RPG. Deltarune is the same as it follows that same general style while introducing more basic JRPG mechanics back into its systems. Deltarune also adds things like a full party and elemental mechanics in a way that's also unique to Deltarune. The only time I'd say being a fan of Toby's inspirations might help you is if you've played Bullet Hells frequently, but it would only take you so far.

Undertale is a fairly easy game because it's designed to be easy in many places. It only gets harder the more you want to push the game and see how far you can test its messages. Deltarune is, for the most part, still fairly linear. The second game's hardest challenges are optional, but after Chapter 4, it begins to increase in difficulty overall. There are mechanics in Deltarune that are brought back late, and Undertale will give you an easier environment to learn them in advance.

I know I'd do better if I played the games closer together, but alas. I've been a fan of Toby Fox since 2016, so it's a bit too late for me on that.

1 Because Toby Fox Wants You To

End of Story

Yes, at the end of the day, this entire list and everything you might've wondered about playing Deltarune before Undertale comes down to one undeniable thing. Toby Fox, the creator of both Undertale and Deltarune, wants Undertale to be experienced first. That's really all you should need to hear, but hey. My other reasons are still pretty good, too, right?

Deltarune still isn't a sequel to Undertale. Fox considers it to be a "parallel story," and while we don't know the intricacies just yet, that title still fits with what we've seen so far. Every official description of Deltarune calls it that, and the official FAQ for Deltarune outright says that it's designed for players who have completed Undertale.

So, if you want to play Deltarune, what are you waiting for? Go play Undertale! Be it 11 hours or 11 years, Deltarune will be waiting for you.