jonOS's review of Deltarune: Chapter 2.

Deltarune Chapter 2 is pretty solid; Toby Fox’s music and writing means that his games always will be, and he also continues to show that his new combat system is a solid improvement in terms of actually enjoying combat. I do think that this chapter demonstrates some of Toby’s best writing and some of his worst. He’s conjured yet another set of iconic characters seemingly out of nowhere. While some of the behaviours are awfully familiar (as great as she is, Queen is behaviourally quite similar to Papyrus), they distinguish themselves excellently due to the composition of the cast and how well they interact. But on the other hand, I found Toby’s obsession with the relationships between non-player characters frustrating. I don’t find his building romance plot well written, and the cast of Deltarune is quickly building towards a catastrophe through its sheer size. At the rate it’s going, the full games cast will be filled with 7 games worth of characters in one. That would throw the pacing right off in a singular experience, which I do think is an important thing to consider. No matter what, I think I’ll find some kind of critique for Toby Fox’s 4th wall breaking stuff, just because it’s so painfully expected that he’ll do it. It made Chapter 1’s 4th wall stuff (outside the opening) kind of lame on revisits, because it’s so clearly a response to expectations. It's hard then, because to subvert expectations he’d have to reinvent the bloody wheel to catch people off guard. So I’m really happy about Chapter 2 being a lot more casual about it, and using it to more clearly signal and foreshadow the themes of the game going forwards. It’s more present, but less in your face. I like it. So yes, Deltarune still good, but unless Toby manages his ambitions it might go off the rails a bit. Which isn’t the worst possible thing, but I would prefer it to remain focused.