Deltarune Chapter 4: Almost Done, but Not Out Yet

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

Toby Fox Shares Deltarune Progress UpdateDeltarune Chapter 4 Approaching Completion

Undertale creator Toby Fox has given fans an update on the development of Deltarune’s forthcoming chapters in his recent newsletter.

Deltarune is Toby Fox’s second significant project after the acclaimed Undertale. Fox confirmed in his Halloween 2023 newsletter that Deltarune’s Chapters 3 and 4 are planned for a simultaneous launch on PC, Switch, and PS4. However, Fox disclosed that while Chapter 4 is almost finished, the release of Chapters 3 and 4 is still some time away. The game’s first two chapters were released for free in 2018 and 2021, respectively, but even those needed years of patience from fans during development.

The game’s Chapter 4 is currently being refined. All maps are complete, and battles are playable, but some fine-tuning remains. Fox mentioned that two cutscenes "need minor improvements", one battle needs balancing and visual enhancements, another needs a better backdrop, and "two battles are having their concluding sequences improved." Despite this, Fox considers Chapter 4 "essentially playable barring some polish" and has received positive feedback from three of his friends who have played through the entire chapter.

While Chapter 4 is advancing well, Fox highlighted the difficulties of launching the game across multiple platforms and in various languages. "It wouldn’t be such a significant issue if the game were free," said Fox in his newsletter. "but since this is going to be our first major paid release since UNDERTALE, we really have to take the extra time to ensure it’s perfect."

Before the release of Chapters 3 and 4, he detailed several crucial "quests" that their team must accomplish, including:

⚫︎ Testing new features
⚫︎ Completing the game’s PC and console editions
⚫︎ Localizing the game into Japanese
⚫︎ Bug testing

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

The latest newsletter didn’t reveal a specific release date, but it did offer fans a preview of dialogue between Ralsei and Rouxls, a character profile for Elnina, and a new item called GingerGuard. The three-year wait since Chapter 2's release left many fans initially disheartened. However, concurrently, they were thrilled by the game's expanding 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 persists, Fox expressed optimism about the future of Deltarune’s development, stating that the release schedule for subsequent chapters will be more consistent once Chapters 3 and 4 are released.