Deltarune Chapter 2 launched for free because the world is tough enough
Clearly everyone was rather revved for more
Unlike the cheeky surprise release of its first free chapter back in 2018, we got a warning about Deltarune Chapter 2. It's out now, also free, because creator Toby Fox says the world has been tough enough lately. The not-a-sequel-or-prequel-but-sort-of-related game to Fox's hit RPG Undertale is still a work in progress, but the newest chunk of story should hopefully keep fans busy chatting and hunting for secrets for a while yet. It may indeed be a while, once again. Fox plans to release chapters three through five as a paid release when they're finished but even he doesn't know when that will be just yet.
"Originally I had planned to release chapters only when all them are finished, but honestly, it's hard both for creators and fans to go a long time without a release. So, I changed my mind," Toby Fox says in an update post on Deltarune's status.
The next chapters are currently in development, which Fox says will all be released together. Seriously this time. They'll be a paid release. Also seriously this time. As for when, Fox doesn't know yet. And for how much? More than Undertale—which costs £7/$10.
Interestingly, Fox says that Deltarune Chapter 2 may actually be the game's largest. "I believe it's the biggest chapter in the entire game in many ways," Fox says. "The cutscene count is the largest, the story involves many characters, and there are many other aspects that made it a challenging chapter." Nice to get it for free, then.
"It was a really silly chapter," Fox also says, "and the next one is going to be super silly too!"
Likely thanks in part to that advance notice, Deltarune kicked down the door with over 100,000 concurrent players just on Steam when it arrived on Friday. That's well, well over Undertale's lifetime record on Steam. Concurrent players isn't a particularly vital stat in a singleplayer game but hey, still neat to see. Toby Fox's prior SNES-inspired adventure is still one of the best RPGs on PC, the RPS crew believes, so no surprise that folks were positively famished for more Deltarune.
Since Chapter 2 landed, it's already gotten a couple patches with fixes for crashes and controller issues. You can get the quick details on which softlocks were solved over here.
I gather that Toby Fox's games are things folks really like to experience firsthand. If you're in the mood for a tip though, Fox left a note at the end of the announcement post that you may find him sleeping at the bottom of a dumpster and to please not take his pillow. Whether that's a proper hint or just some quirky banter, you'll have to find out out yourself by downloading the Deltarune demo over on Steam or Itch. You can also nab the Chapter 2 soundtrack on Bandcamp.