Game Theory - Game Theory: YOU Are The Final Boss Of Deltarune!

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Join Game Theory Host MatPat as he SOLVES the ending of Deltarune Chapter 2! *Credits:* Writers: Matthew Patrick, and Tom Robinson Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Warak, Alex "Sedge" Sedgwick, Pedro Freitas and Shannon (Bomb0i) Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

Hey, every! It's me! Everybody's favorite number one theorist. Matthew R. Patrick! If it isn't a loyal theorist. Hey, hey, hey, well, have I got a Delta Rune Theory? For you. This is your chance to be a big shot, a big shot, big shot, big, big... The internet, welcome to Game Theory, the show where everyone's a big shot! Loyal theorists, as I continued around on my time hosting the channel,

one thing that was really important to me was revisiting iconic theories from throughout the show's history, And perhaps no theory is as beloved as the Sands's Ness theory. Now, back in the day, this one was a bit controversial. Not exactly sure why, though. It seemed pretty obvious to me that this small boy from Earthbound was the same as this Tumblr sexyman from Undertale. People said I was crazy. And now, all these years later, I finally understand why.

You see, after all these years, Toby Fox finally decided to come online and set the record straight. Sending me this tweet in the wake of my announcement video, and suddenly everything clicked. Sands isn't Ness. Sands and Papyrus are nests. No wonder, you all were so frustrated about that episode. I am so sorry, and I feel so much better now. Thank you. Anyway, all that, ancient history.

What I want to talk about today is Toby Fox's latest game, Delta Rune. Specifically, the newest chapter, which just released in September of 2021. All right, so admittedly, I might be a little bit late to this one. And since it's been a hot minute since we last covered the franchise, let me just catch you up with where we stand right now. Off the bat, it's important to remember that Delta Rune is a spiritual successor to Undertale. Even though a lot of the same characters show up in both, they function independently from their first outing.

This time we play as Chris, a quiet, lonely, human child in a world of monsters, adopted into the family of Torio, Asgore, and Asriel. See, what I mean about the same characters repeating themselves? In Chapter 1, Chris gets paired up with the school bully Susie to go find some chalk, only to fall into the dark world, a fantasy realm of living cards and toys powered by something called a dark fountain. Along the way, they meet the dark prince named Rolsey,

whose name is an anagram of Asriel, just something to keep in mind. We quickly learn of a prophecy where Chris, Susie, and Ralsy are meant to restore balance to both the worlds of light and dark. After much ducking and dodging with our heart-shaped object, Susie learns to accept friendship. And together, the team defeats the evil king and escape back to the real world, where suddenly the pair find themselves in a supply room scattered with toys and games. It was all pretend, or was it? Either way, it's a happy ending, right? Well, it would have been if it hadn't been for Chris suddenly ripping out their heart, shoving it into a bird cage and then showing off their shiny new knife.

It was quite the twist ending, and it left us with a lot of... questions. Questions that we all hoped would be answered in chapter two, three years later. So what did we learn when chapter two finally released? Well, Chris used that knife to eat a pie. No joke, just ate a pie. And from there, chapter two follows a similar pattern to chapter one. Susie and Chris find a dark fountain in the library, which leads them to the cyber world. It's there that they find an evil computer queen in the process of capturing their friends. The shy Noel and the obnoxious know-it-all-birdly. Noel learns to be confident, Birdley learns to be more humble, and everyone teams up to defeat the queen in a final game of punching.

because that's exactly what you'd expect from a turn-based RPG. It's yet another happy ending, until Chris removes their heart once more, slashes their mom's tires, and then uses the knife to open up a dark portal in the middle of the living room. So what does this all mean? And doesn't it immediately find the face of that prophecy Rolsey gave us at the start of Chapter 1? It specifically sets up Chris, Susie, and Rolsey as the heroes of the story.

The ones who are going to restore balance to the worlds of light and dark, and yet here's Chris running around opening dark fountains, making it more unbalanced. Does that mean that the prophecy then is, bogus? Oh no, dear theorists. In fact, instead of breaking from the prophecy, I think Chris is actually in the process of fulfilling it. How? Well, best grab your pencil swords, my friends, because I believe that this single action is revealing to us how the game is gonna end. The truth hidden inside that prophecy, and who the final boss of the game is ultimately gonna be. So to start with, let's actually jump into the specific quote from the prophecy.

Three heroes appear at World's Edge, a human, a monster, and a prince from the dark. Only they conceal the fountains and banish. The Angels Heaven, only then will balance be restored, and the world saved from destruction. Now this seems pretty cut and dry. We know who the heroes are, Susie, Chris, and Ralsy. We know that the Dark Fountains turn real-world locations into fantasy-like adventures. We also understand the concept to saving the world. It's video gaming 101.

But there's a line in here that I really want to focus on. One that's a lot more ambiguous. Banish the Angels Heaven. What? It's a weird thing to say. Like, what is an Angel's Heaven? And more importantly, why would we want to banish something like that? Normally, angels in heaven, they tend to be good things, right?

And my initial theories on this game, I suggested that the angel was Asriel, Chris's brother who's away at college, the one that broke Chris's spirit and left them all alone at home. In Chapter 1, we're told that Chris and Azriel made an angel for their youth group, only to waste time on giving it massive wings, just like Asriel's final form from Undertale. And given that we believed Azriel to be the one causing Chris to run away and hide in this fantasy dark world in the first place, it would make sense for the angel and Angel's heaven to be connected to Azriel. But then Chapter 2 came out and a second, The second challenger for the title of Angel came into play, Noelle.

We met Noelle in chapter 1, a young nervous little reindeer with a crush on Susie, and immediately her connections with angels are obvious. First, there's her outfit, a flowing white gown that looks an awful lot like the white robes that angels are depicted wearing in most religious artwork. During your encounters with various enemy characters, they refer to Noelle directly as Angel. Heck, Noel herself even says that she wants to turn into an angel. During a romantic Ferris wheel ride with Susie, she says, quote, I'd jump out the window. It's a dream, right?

I'd grow big angel wings and fly as far as I can, gazing back at it all. And then there's just a ton of Christ imagery associated with the character. At the end of chapter 2, she's in a Christ pose while being held captive. She can be equipped with a ring of thorns, much like the crown of thorns that Jesus is forced to wear during his crucifixion. Even her name Noel is a reference to Christmas in the birth of Jesus. Seems pretty darned obvious then, right? So, Noel being the angel, means that at some point she's gonna turn on all of us and we're gonna have to face her down in order to banish whatever heaven she's fighting for.

Open and shut case, right? But hey, that's just a theory and all that. Well, hold on a second, let's not jump to conclusions just yet. Way, way, way back in Undertale. Gerson the Turtle actually tells us the meaning of the Delta Rune symbol. Yeah, in case you forgot this one, Delta Rune is actually referenced all the way back in that original game. In it, he says that the triangles represent monsters down below, and that the winged circle in the middle represents, quote,

an angel who has seen the surface and will descend from above to bring us freedom. He also mentions that people have started to call the angel an angel of death. But obviously this is a prophecy that's only relevant to undertale, right? Asrael crossed over onto the surface, got attacked by humans and killed, only to then be resurrected as the vengeful Flawi, who dig evolves into the all-powerful god of hyper-death. Asrael's the angel, even as the wings to prove it, prophecy fulfilled, no need to worry about it here, right? Well yeah, that could be the case, but the prophecy also applies in the world of Delta Room. You see, at the end of chapter 1, you have the chance to walk around the town and

interact with people, some of which you recognize, others you might not. One of those unknown figures is Father Elvin, the leader of the local church that Chris attends. If you speak to him, he leaves you with these parting words. Let the angel's power light your way. The angel spoken of in Ralsy's prophecy is apparently worshipped in the Leitner world as well. This means that the angel's heaven is a force that transcends both worlds. Noel just doesn't exist on that plane of existence. Therefore, she can't be the angel. In fact, She goes to the exact same youth group and church that worships the angel from that heaven. So overall, it wouldn't make sense for Noel to be the angel that we hear about in the prophecy.

That said, that doesn't necessarily mean she's not a pivotal piece in this prophecy coming true. In Chapter 2, Noel becomes the focus of all the action. Not only is it revealed that the cyber world was created by the queen to try and make her happy, but the whole narrative hinges on Noel finding the strength to stand up for herself and ask for what she really wants. By teaming up with Chris, recruiting enemies and solving puzzles together, Noel gradually becomes more confident until the climax of the chapter when she's able to defeat the final boss simply by telling it to stop. Except that's not the only way this chapter can end.

There's another route through Chapter 2 known as the Snowgrave route. And this one is also about making Noel stronger in a very different way. You see, in this route, instead of working together with Chris to solve puzzles and rekindle their friendship, Chris instead forces Noel to attack in battle, kill enemies. They push her into buying expensive items against her will. They force her to wear that ring of thorns that I mentioned earlier, an item that's constantly ticking down Noel's HP. And through it all, Chris is gaslighting Noel into believing that all of it's for the best,

that it's important for making her stronger, and that being stronger is the most important thing. It all culminates in the mini-boss fight against Birdley, where Chris must repeatedly push Noel to cast the spell Snowgrave, a spell that Noel's not familiar with or comfortable with. After resisting for a couple turns, eventually Noel relents, casting a massive ice spell that freezes Birdley solid. A spell that, at the end of chapter 2, he doesn't seem to be able to wake up from.

Noelle has become stronger. In fact, she's much stronger now. Her personality back in the light world has once again gotten more direct and controlling, but the journey to get there took a very different tone. So what does any of this have to do with the Angels Heaven and the final boss of the game? Well, I gotta be honest with you. I lied a bit when I was describing how to get that Snowgrave route. Because while Chris is the character on screen, gaslighting Noel and forcing her into all these uncomfortable situations, Chris isn't the one doing it. It's us the player. And the game makes it very clear that it knows it's us. At the end of Chapter 1, when Chris rips out their heart and throws it into a cage, we are still able to move that heart-shaped object while Chris pulls out their knife. At this moment, the game is making it crystal clear to us that Chris and the player are two separate entities.

But in Chapter 2, there is much more emphasis put on us and our role in this story. The only way the Snowgrave route can happen is if we pick very specific dialogue options. Options that Noelle explicitly says are very out of character for Chris. She becomes even more aware of us when we respond to her internal monologue, something that again Chris should never have been able to hear. At yet another point, she mentions that the voice she hears doesn't sound like Chris's. Our involvement is starting to be noticed and commented on. Back in Chapter 1, the only real person to make any sort of reference to the player was Sands,

who makes a joke about us haven't never met before and then winks, the same way he always did back in Undertale when he was pretending not to know about other timelines and universes. He knows that Chris isn't the one in control here, But now other characters are starting to become aware that there's something or someone else at work. These aren't their choices, there are choices. And you see, that's hugely important for this game. The Snowgrave ending stands out not just because of how dark and uncomfortable it is to achieve, but also because it's the first time a player gets to do the very thing they've wanted to do since Undertale.

Make a choice. You see, Undertale was all about player choice. Taking a pacifist route, a genocide route, or something in between yielded vastly different gameplay experiences and ending. Your choices mattered a lot. But in the opening minutes, Delta Rune, you're immediately told that your choices don't matter here. The game literally kicks off by asking you to create a character, only to then throw it out the window and present you with Chris. It's a moment that instantly beats you over the head with the message that your choices don't matter here. Except clearly they do, or at least seem to.

In the Snowgrave route, we are literally forcing Chris and Noel to bend to our will, which yields a completely different flow for the chapter. Birdley's frozen and maybe dead. Noelle is emotionally shaken and suspicious of Chris, heck, we don't even end up fighting the Queen as the final boss of the chapter. The characters are literally our puppets on strings, acting out the decisions that we're forcing upon them. Speaking of puppets, no one knows what it's like to have their strings pulled better than everyone's favorite salesman and secret boss, Spamton.

This whole boss battle in Chapter 2 is about trying to achieve freedom where you win by cutting his strings. That already sends a pretty powerful message about fighting for control in your own life. That said, if you continue down the Snowgrave route, Instead of meeting the queen at the end, you fight Spampton Neo as the final boss. And it's here that he gives you some very interesting lines of dialogue. Quote, you think making frozen chicken with your side chick is going to let you drink up that sweet, sweet freedom sauce? Well, you're right.

Obviously, he's referring to specific events from the Snowgrave route, like the frozen chicken being Birdly and the side chick being Noel. But what's more interesting is how he refers to Chris. If you fight Spampton during the normal route, he refers to Chris by their name. But in the Snowgrave fight, he never does that. He only refers to Chris's character as you. Now, I don't think that's because Spampton just decided to be less personable. I think it's because he's not talking to Chris.

He's talking to us. He's breaking the fourth wall. Later on in that fight, you have to call your friends for help. And every time, it says, Chris called for help. But when you call out to Noel, it suddenly changes to, you whispered Noelle's name. Noel suddenly answers when everyone else has been silent because that's the voice that's been leading her throughout the snow grave ending.

It's the voice that she obeys. It's the voice that she's afraid of, our voice. The use of the word you hear is directly addressing the player because we're the one breaking away from the main pacifist route in the game in favor of a more violent path, a path that forces our choices to be obeyed. And as Spampton says, we're right to do this because choice equals freedom. Quote, this power is freedom. I won't have to be a puppet anymore. Just like the angel from Undertale's prophecy, we're bringing freedom to these characters.

We're allowing other options for their story. In short, we the players, we are the angel. We're the ones who are able to transcend both the light world and the dark world. We're the ones able to control the characters and light their way. We're the ones coming in from on a high and bringing them a form of freedom. Except obviously, it's not real freedom. They're just subservient to us now, bending to our choices. We are the angel and our reality is the angel's heaven.

But if that's true, then we are the villain of Delta Rune. Think back to chapter one, it was actually quite fitting that the world revolved around chess pieces. Chris and their friends are basically pawns in our little game. We're controlling everything they do. But just like in the dark world, these pieces have real characters, thoughts, feelings. And here we are, just playing with them for our own entertainment. We are the thing that needs to be banished from Chris's body, from the lives of their friends.

And that loyal theorists is how Delta Rune is going to end. Just like the prophecy said, Chris, Suzy and Ralsy are going to banish the Angels heaven, which means they're going to work together to reject us one final time. Kick us out of the game. Chris will rip us out of their body. and suddenly we're gonna have to face them as the final boss of this whole thing. And from there, Toby Fox will either force us to lose or we'll be given a final choice. A chance to choose whether we fight for domination and control over these characters that we've grown with over the last seven chapters,

or if instead we're gonna respect their autonomy and let them live their own lives. But hold on, doesn't this conflict with the opening of the game that our choices don't matter here? Seems to be the thesis of Delta Rune. Oh, here's the thing. Looking at the Snowgrave route, our choices didn't really end up matter. We see it throughout chapter 2. The endings are basically the same regardless of whether you play it normally or choose Snowgrave. Noel gets stronger regardless. In both routes the Queen's defeated. She becomes good, we escape the dark world and we go to see Noelle with her father in the hospital. Noel's still playing her video game and she's more confident than she was at the beginning of the chapter. Sure, Birdley might be dead, but it's more likely that he's passed out.

Regardless though, the ending doesn't change in its essential components. But by doing the Snowgrave route and changing Noelle's journey to be one full of trauma and abuse, the dialogue options and relationships change. Nuel is more aggressive and doesn't want to give up control of the game. She's scared of Chris rather than seeing them as a friend. She is literally traumatized by what Chris, or more specifically, what we, did her. Sure, the decisions we make, like Snowgrave, might not affect the events that we see play out at the end of the game, but the journey is going to be different.

And that journey is going to change things, like subtext and the emotions underneath all these actions. In the end, we are absolutely going to get booted out of these characters' lives one way or another. Our choices can't affect that. But the journey is ultimately going to dictate how painful that process is going to be. Spampton even warns us of this during the Snowgrave Neophyte. He talks about our paths to freedom but follows it up with, quote, Well, don't blame me when you're crying in a broken home wishing you let your old pal Spampton kill you. Makes it sound like freedom is going to leave us sad and alone,

not feeling fulfilled like we won some sort of a game. And that, that's the whole point. By making these choices, by exercising freedom, we're actually dooming these characters to a more miserable life. And eventually, they're going to fight back and banish us for good. Once Chris separates themselves from our control, they'll all have their freedom back, and the events of the ending may stay the same, but the context behind those events is gonna be different. Susie, Birdley, Noel, they may all still hang out together, but are they gonna be hanging out because they're friends? Or are they gonna be hanging out because they're afraid of Chris and the things that we made Chris do?

Dobby Fox used Undertale to prove that humanity was overall good, breaking away from the cycle of violence that RPGs force players into. But in Delta Rune, as soon as the opportunity for a new ending showed up, we showed our true colors. We were willing to throw these characters, and their lives aside if it meant that we got more of that sweet, sweet juice content. So despite what we've been told, I'm convinced that we do have a choice in this game. Are we going to be kind and give these characters the best possible ending? Are we going to be a monster like Asriel? The final boss that leaves them all broken and with nothing, all so we can get that sweet, sweet sense of completion.

But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.