i really think "escapism" might be a better qualifier for what makes a dark world, rather than "entertainment", purely because religion is more escapism than entertainment and i'm pretty sure chapter 4's dark world will be in the church
A bunker is also a LITERAL form of escapism. Effectively the concept taken to a logical extreme of literally blocking yourself out from the rest of the world. The perfect culmination
A theoretical Sports-themed dark world would be the perfect setting for Jockington being a party member, to be honest. I do agree that it's doubtful we'll get one, but it would have potential, and could easily support the theory that Kris' other classmates will enter the Dark Worlds as party members at some point. Personally, I'd quite like that.
“That was fun! Are the rest of these dark worlds sports, themed?” “Uhhhh, no, that was…new” “Okay. I am not interested in seeing any more dark worlds” ＊(Jockington has left the party.)
@@il-dottore The idea of Jockington appearing in a Dark World only to want to leave immediately because it's not Sports themed is very funny and seems like something that could happen, it would make that part of Noelle's blog which you're referencing good foreshadowing as well!
bratty MUST be in dark world she has the most chances to tell us something new about kris(and id like to see her being a witch and performing rituals on darkners) while sacrificing them to whoever the fuck is the devil here(anyome but gaster please)
Wow, that's so cool that you have a career in theatre (UK spelling detected)! As a young person, it just seems so cool that plays are... a job you can have. Wow. You must be really talented.
10:42 another important part of Castle Town being able to contain any Darkner has to do with what that room is in the light world. See, it seems to me like Darkners turning to stone in other worlds isn't just about them not matching the themes of said worlds, but also to do with their physical objects not belonging in that physical space. You see a lone playing card in a computer lab, you're gonna have some questions naturally Then consider: what is Castle Town's Dark World? It's a storage closet! Literally designed to hold a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, anything can belong in a space like that
This!! It always has seemed to me that lightner/darkner stuff had a real-world connection like that. “Lightners give darkness purpose” because they play with them/use them. The objects lost to obscurity are the secret bosses. *The context of location,* thus, *would determine suitability in a dark world*
@@CipherionYT This is actually a piece of evidence for Ralsei being the horned headband that I rarely see talked about. According to Toriel, Kris used to wear it "everywhere", so if that's true it wouldn't be overly out of place anywhere, would it? Hence why he has no problems in other Dark Worlds (plus the whole pure darkness thing)- Idk, it makes sense to me
Another form of entertainment is puppets and puppet shows, which would technically fall under theater. However, churches will often include puppet shows for Sunday school and nativity recreation. Additionally, churches have choirs which would fall under music. Just a little thought.
I feel that "the bunker is small so its darkworld is small" is kind of innacurate. so far both the dark worlds we play are a single room. and chapter 3 might be the whole house. but I feel like the bunker would be at least as big as a small classroom
I think the Castle Town does have a vague theming to it. Consider that the dark fountain was created inside a storage closet, and that the Castle Town is where you 'store' Darkners after you recruit them. There's a parallel here between storing the objects the Darkners are based on and recruiting them.
It’d make a lot of sense if Castletown wasn’t just a castle and a town but like… a fortress? Like storing people and goods is a known use for both a closet and a fortress Also I do think we could easily end up back there for a siege in the midst of the Roaring.
The one form of entertainment I know of that you didn’t mention is traditional art. Painting, pencil drawing, sculpting, crocheting, knitting, sewing, etc. Spamton’s line “WE DON’T NEED [easels] OR [CRTs]!” potentially lends credence to it being a planned dark world theme. I was going to bring up comics, too, but you covered that.
If we do get a Dark World inside of Flower King, then that means she could be a perfect secondary character there alongside Asgore, ala Noelle & Berdly
I personally doubt there's going to be a chapter that takes place entirely in the light world. I could see one with a shorter DW and a longer LW segment, but I don't know how you could have an entire chapter set in the light world.
Also because all the assets would already exist and toby wouldnt need to code any bullet sections, it would probably be really quick to develop. Assuming it would be in chapter 5, why cut the chapter from the batch release? It would only really take a few extra months, right?
Your proposal for a book-themed Dark World is extremely compelling to me, as a Barnes & Noble employee- the way you talked about the different sections and genres, and how that could manifest in the Dark World, it makes me think of the book store I work at, and it's really fun! It could work so well- that idea has so much potential.
There is one more entertainment that you missed: art. Drawings, paintings, sewings, papier mache, clay, woodwork, metalwork, those tin foil constructions. You know, all that jazz. And there is actually prove that there will be an art dark world. Firstly, Spamton mentions at one point that they don't need easeles or CRTs. CRTs are most likely a foreshadowing to the TV dark world, so easleles might be a foreshadowing to the art dark world. Also, there just so happens to be a locked door in the school just west to the closet. Also, about music. It's interesting to point out that Onionsan reported a music coming from the dark deep waters, which was also foreshadowed by the river person in Undertale. Although idk how the gang would safely get underwater, so maybe that's where the bunker would eventually lead? Or maybe that's how the Knight decides to mass open dark portals: through the sewers? Idk, just pointing out some ideas.
i think "escapism" makes much more sense since there's likely going to be a church-themed dark world, and many people use religion as escapism. religion isn't really entertainment. plus, a bunker is LITERALLY escapism. like, people use it to escape physically and sometimes mentally. great video tho!
The way I see the "Problem" with how Ch2 is part internet part computer themed, is that the Internet is the main theme of the chapter, whereas the computers are the "subgenre" that helps back up the main theme. Chapter 3 could perhaps work the same way, with TV Shows being the main theme, but it also taking inspirations from the house as a subgenre to help back up the TV Show idea Chapter 4, too, with books and (maybe) religion?
ive always thought that since the house is the site of the fountain, there would be way more influence from that than anything else, even the tv. the dreemur family and all of its members are big components of the main story, so even though toby has said chapter 3 wont be very story heavy, there’s almost certainly going to be more background information about things that have happened and whats going on with the family dynamics. another thing i havent seen anyone mention is that toriel is inside the house when kris opens the fountain, so she will absolutely be part of the adventure through the dark world in some way just like susie
The house itself is gonna be a big part of chapter 3. The summer newsletter showed screenshots of the localisation process for chapter 3, one of which was the description for a gingerbread man cookie cutter enemy, showing that other parts of the house like the kitchen will be included.
I really like all of these theories, but I have a different idea for what might happen in Chapter 7. I do think that the fountain will engulf the whole town, but instead of the theme being amusement parks, I think the theme will be the past. All dark worlds are related to escapism, and different forms of escaping reality. Well, one of the biggest themes of the light world is nostalgia, the past. Kris misses playing with their brother, Noelle misses her sister and her father is dying, Asgore misses his (eggs) wife, Alvin misses his father, the list goes on. Even random NPCs, such as the bunny who walked her brother in Undertale, mentions how she's sad that she can no longer walk her brother now that he's grown up. The bunny in the diner talks to Kris about the past, and gives him a hot chocolate as a reminder of that time. The dark worlds entire purpose and existence is to please lighteners. So the final dark world creates a world that gives the lighteners exactly what they want,the past that has passed.
I have a theory called the "Project Teammate Thoery" So Noelle and Berdly are partners for the school project, and look who show up in chapter 2 TOGETHER. Jockington and Catti may appear in chapter 4 (if that is the church theme) since Catti looks like someone who wouldnt go to church, but Toby might find a way to make that happen. The quiet kid taking down the cool kid sounds extremely likely too. Catti might be the one to be manipulated into ending Jockington. Then the Snowdrake route💀
Hi there TheSoph, I believe I can provide some input! I believe that all of the future dark worlds will take place somewhere in Deltarune's "Hometown". Hope this can help you!
Toby seems like a passionate musician. I doubt he'd skip the chance to make a music-themed Dark World. 21:12 It could just be that area isn't made yet & it's easier to wall it off until they can spare the resources to make it, no? Anyway, interesting analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
My idea for the last dark world is a mix of both the bunker and the amusement park. The dark world transforms the entire city, including the bunker. And the bunker Esq location is under the theme park. This is inspired by the tunnels built underneath Disney world. Think about it, you never see people getting out of character costumes, janitors or trash collectors at Disney because there are quite literally like… gosh darn catacombs under it, and it’s the source of quite a few creepypastas. And would make for an awesome labyrinthian ending to deltarune
You know there's one question i rarely see asked. Who cut the Internet connection? Obviously it's just a plot device to justify why we aren't in contact with Asriel right now, but there must be an explanation.
I think that there will still be 7 chapters, because at the beginning Toriel said that Asriel would return in a week, and this is just the end of chapter 7, because each chapter = 1 day
I would think it makes sense to assume that radio would be a good theme for a secret boss of Chapter 3. The ones that were discarded and gained [Freedom]
Your microphone quality has improved dramatically. I feel a little peace knowing I'm not an insane person for thinking the theme of dark worlds was entertainment. If this is the case, then it feels like the game is hinting towards overarching story themes of confronting escapism.
I’m not sure why you’d think we can say chapter 5 would be a break that’s mostly in the Light World. It’s a bit well established that a lot of the Light World stuff we’ve seen for upcoming chapters, maybe all of it in fact, is from chapter 4. Besides, why would Toby release and charge money for chapter 5, possibly as the only solo chapter that’ll cost money, if it has no Dark World? On the same note, I think you dismissed a bit too many themes with “well that’s kind of covered by tv nowadays” and “who even engages with that today?” As if kids still play a whole lot of board games. They could totally do a Sports themed level, maybe where you interact with Catti and Jockington, or theatre and/or radio chapter with some of the older characters having the spotlight. Last weird conclusion of yours I want to touch on: “bunkers aren’t big so a bunker dark world wouldn’t be that big either” chapter 1 was a single class room and chapter 2 was a computer lab. Even if the bunker were a conventional bunker, it should still be as big as either of those. And if it were a multi-room facility with lots of secrets to reveal, then it’d be even more massive.
An additional book theme for the Church Darkworld (so that the theme isn't just "church") is a very exciting to me, particularly because I recently saw it pointed out to me how Asgore has been connected to the Beauty and the Beast fairytaiy twice (once by Rudy, twice by himself at the grocery store). The the person pointing it out argued that this would come into play at a Flowershop Darkworld, which we would explore with Asgore. But this video gave me the idea that, well at least to me a Beauty and the Beast theme and an Asgore-centric storyline would fit it into the the Church Darkworld better. And it's a bold claim, cause it feels like a no-brainer that if we're gonna get an Asgore storyline its gonna be within his own shop, ESPECIALLy if he's going to be given a Beauty and the Beast motif (cause yknow. roses). But I'm not just saying it to be contrary or cause I think it'd subvert expectations. The reason I'm saying it is because personally, I think exploring Deltarune's Asgore without other characters like Rudy and Toriel (and maybe even the Mayor) present, just wouldn't be as fun. It works for Toriel in the TV world as the most interesting things we can discover about her are all related to Kris, so giving them a more private one-on-one story together makes a lot of sense. But then doing that AGAIN with Asgore, exploring more or less the same themes of parenthood- feels redundant, SPECIALLY when there's a much more intriguing storyline to be found with his involvent in Dess's case and the falling out between Holidays and Dreemurrs. The coolest stuff we can learn about him can really only be learned through the Holidays. But while its more difficult for me to picture Asgore, the sickly Rudy and the distant Mayor just sort heading to Flower King randomly, at the same time, so they can be thrown into the Dark World together, I CAN see them all the church service taking place 'tomorrow', likely in Chapter 4. And with the arguments made in this video, it's also easy to see why a Church Darkworld would be a match made in heaven for exploring these themes and motifs as well, since medieval fairtales and fantasy books (such as TLoTR and Narnia) are riddled with religious imagery and gothic aesthetic, and like pointed out in the video, Gerson himself was an author. You'd get the exploration of the Holidays and Dreemurrs, you'd get payoff for previous Beauty and the Beast references, and you'd get to much cleaner connection between religion and religious texts with the motifs of entertainment and escapism (like a comparison between what our young protagonists see as escapism in fantasy and mythology vs what our adult characters see as escapism in religious texts and ideals) But to fully convince others that my line of logic makes sense (not convince them that it'd actually happen, since this sort of thing is always going to be speculation and to try to fully prove any of it with strong evidence is a fool's errand), I'd have to answer the question of like... well, so then what'll happen to the Flower Shop Dark World? Am I just disregarding it entirely as a possible dark world candidate? Cause if the Church played out like this, it'd be kind of redundant to then do a Second Asgore-heavy chapter. My answer to that is no, I still think that even IF the Church world played out like this, it doesn't mean the Flower Shop wouldn't or couldn't happen. There's another character such a Dark World could be themed around, one that has an even stronger connection to flowers in that /Asgore and Toriel's flower motifs are really just an extension of His/. I think it'd be cool if Kris explored a flowershop world with Asriel, and they went through a similar journey to the one Asriel and Chara did when Chara first fell into the underground. Just the simple idea of falling into chapter 6 or 7's darkworld like always, only this time we land in a bed of flowers golden flowers sends a chill up my spine. I think it'd be kind of badass...... but enough fanfiction for now.
Entry 17 is referring to a Dark Fountain. Negative photon readings mean a complete lack of light. Additionally, Gaster says that the darkness is growing, which is very similar to how the gateways to Dark Worlds are described. At the start of Chapter 1, during the Goner Maker section, we’re in a place that the files refer to as ‘The Depths’. The background texture used for The Depths is the exact same image used for the texture of Dark Fountains when we come face to face with them at the end of a chapter. Considering all of this, Gaster likely fell into (or willingly entered) a fountain he created, ending up in The Depths. Also, the narrator during the Goner Maker is 100% Gaster. The narrator uses the same typer values that Gaster did in Undertale, and has an identical speech pattern to that of Gaster. Not to mention their use of “Very, Very Interesting” during the twitter takeovers.
While i dont think a light world only chapter is impossible I kinda doubt it would be in chapter 5. Theirs no actual game mechanics in the light world so a chapter their i would imagine would be like on the shorter side and be using mostly already made assets. So I cant really see why a chapter like that would need to be cut off from the batch to save for time it seems like it should be more minor in the grand scheme of things. It would make more since to me if that was maybe chapter 4. Which is why initally toby wanted 4&5 to come out together but later he decided that he could make chapter 4 a good enough cliffhanger. This also fits with the fact chapter 3 is taking place in the middle of the night. Their wont be any lightworld stuff at the begining of the chapter and if were right on the church any lightworld at the end of chapter 3 would lead directly into that without a proper breaking point. On another note about the potential bonus 3 chapters while im not hard commited to this theirs a chance it could be for weird time loop schenanigans that get formatted as different "chapters" while in reality are very short. I bring this up because theirs another rpg that does this exact same gimmick called bravely default that has a whole 4 bonus chapters like this. If something close to jarus time loop theory is in play I would not be suprised to see some meta extra chapters like that for the finale. Or to bring up another example undertale basically does this already in true pacifist with going back in time for the date and true lab segments it just doesnt have chapter formatting
@@LiMe251 arent the images in hometown/ just castletown? I assumed a potential "lightworld chapter" could still involve dropping off the items from the last chapter their the main point was their just wasnt a new darkfountain.
@@ivanbackfromthecardshop8093 There are Hometown images and at least one Castle Town video/image, but I feel ch4 would still definitely involve the church.
I feel like basing the potential dark world locations around characters makes for better predictions. It also doesn't necessarily have to be the classmates - more likely, I think the ones that have face sprites in dialogue are going to be relevant. Chapter 2 had Noelle and Berdly, which were classmates, sure, but I think from what we've seen, Chapter 3 is not only TV themed, but primarily crime-drama themed. It's a theme that ties in perfectly with the characters that are likely going to be involved: Toriel (ex-wife of the former police chief), Undyne (the new police chief) and Napstablook, the deputy. Maybe Asgore will show up as well? One theme I haven't seen anyone mention yet is food. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with entertainment or escapism, but Hometown does have a pizzeria, which could involve Burgerpants, Catty and Bratty, who all have face sprites and are associated with fast food. It could also involve ICE-E as the foreshadowed cryptid stalking the dark world. There's definitely also a lot of creative and potentially scary imagery you could have with food, like for example, a cold storage where the meat is kept.
Doubt you'll see this but for me chap 4 is the church and well. There is that angelic symbol door in castle town which makes me think. Maybe castle town's castle isnt a castle at all. But a Church
Sorry but the idea that that you can't represent music visually is patently absurd: 🎵🎶🎹🎻🎼🎙️ In addition to all sorts of culturally significant iconography regarding notation and actual, physical instruments, there's an entire genre of video game based around music, and I could easily see Deltarune incorparating rhythm game elements in some really cool ways. Besides, the idea that Toby, someone who is equally prolific as a musician as they are as a game designer, would just skip music as a form of entertainment and escapism is kind of wild.
Someone may already have said this but regarding book themed church dark world, toby shared a darkner that consisted of a cup and feather, tools usually used to write in the past!
To me, I think there will be 7 chapters only. They mention Asriel coming back “at the end of the week”, and a week is 7 days. It seems like each chapter is one day. It wouldn’t really make sense though, because the church is open tomorrow, which would mean it would be open in chapter 3. If the church would be a dark world, I think it would be accessible in chapter 4. Maybe after they close the fountain of the dark world in chapter 3, we get to walk around town again and end up in the church, where a dark world already has been opened, and the cliff hanger is Kris and Susie jumping in.
19:02 A music themed dark world could focus on: - Different genres and eras of music - Different singers + performers from the game - Concerts / Live Performances / Music Videos - Various Instruments - Vinyls + Records - Sheet Music - Singing, Choirs, Karaoke, I think there is a lot of ideas that can fit, especially since Toby Fox is a musician I have no doubts whatsoever he could pull a whole dark world out of music alone. There's also some interesting things you can look into. For one the Purple Soul ability obviously fits really well with the whole sheet music thing, there's also various character interactions like with Kris normally being good at piano when not being controlled.
I have really liked the idea of a book-themed Dark World inside the Church which is based around Lord of the Hammer and possibly Angel religion books for a while now. It would be a good way to find out more about Gerson, his family and the Angel religion all at once. Noelle creating a Dark World inside the Hospital so she can cure Rudy seems like it's being foreshadowed as well, and it involving both Dragon Blazers and hospital-themed stuff could be an interesting mix. The Angel Doll inside Rudy's room would most likely become a Darkner then. I had seen Black Chestnut's video already but still feel like yours is different enough to be worth watching. Everyone who's trying to predict DELTARUNE stuff are working off the same evidence so it's natural that some people are going to come up with the same ideas.
Oh my god! The merging of the theme of entertainment/fiction with the obvious double-door locations is brilliant! I could never figure out how the Hospital would make for a good exploration of creative works, but the Holidays are absolute gamers! The fact that they're playing on a hand-held at the end of Chapter 2 is genius foreshadowing! I was honestly expecting the Church DW to be purely about religion, but I realized that would be heavily topically constraining and perhaps too controversial, exploring a book-lover's shelf makes good enough sense. I can see the end highlighting Deltarune's Bible-equivalant revealing something important about or a parallel to the Dark World lore.
31:26 i could for sure see it, but i think it helps your theory, with the kitchen, a cooking show, with the door being open, it could be related to sports
Not sure about a break chapter without a darkworld. Looking at gameplay, I don't see how you could have an entire chapter without combat, new areas to explore. The darkworlds are the meat of this game. From a story perspective, Ralsei would be absent. He's one of the most important characters, it would be weird to just not involve him for a solid chunk of it. Maybe it introduces a way for Kris and Susie to easily switch worlds. Light characters could play a larger role, perhaps you'd need to collect certain items from the lightworld to progress in the dark one. Asgore's shop could work, keep the jungle/comic themed world.
I think Chapter 4 will end with chasing the Knight into a Dark World, Chapter 5 taking place in that dark world and finally defeating the Knight before the rest of the game is super meta and weird with Gaster and Goners and stuff I honestly think, either way, it’s odd that Toby is releasing Deltarune like this when I think it’ll be better for the story if 4 and 5 are together since Toby seemed pretty adamant on 3, 4 and 5 releasing together and has said that Ch3 won’t have much in terms of story i dunno, maybe he’ll feel as if people will be disappointed if a deltarune drop lacked much in the story
I actually have a theory about the chapter count, and it’s broke POINT 1 - WE HAVE TO REMEMBER WHO’S RUNNING THE GAME Over the years, we’ve been given confusing, seemingly contradictory information regarding the final game’s number count. - The game’s UI says 7 - There are titles for 1-10 - There are other sprites for 0-9 - Toby only ever mentions Chapters 1-5. He hasn’t ever acknowledged anything beyond that. However, it’s important to remember that all of this information has been given to us BY Toby, whether it’s in interviews or through the game. Toby knows we’re going to see all of this, and be confused by it. He WANTS us to be unsure about how many chapters are in the game! To me, this makes the idea of 7 chapters actually pretty unlikely. Why would Toby do all of these things to make us unsure of how many chapters are in the game if the answer is just the one most people will assume? Because of all this, I think there will be somewhere between 8-10 chapters. My personal prediction is 8, but that’s neither here nor there. POINT 2 - WE HAVE TO REMEMBER WHO’S RUNNING THE GAME (but like, in-universe) It’s important to remember how the demos have been released, and how they start. The game’s program itself is something created and controlled by Gaster himself (I think this is an insanely safe assumption), as a means to “connecting” us to this world. This includes the Ch1 save select screen (where he directly interacts with you based on your inputs) and the Chapter Select screen (it plays the same ominous music). We don’t know what Gaster is up to, or why he’s doing any of this, but if HIS chapter select screen says there’s 7 chapters, that means Gaster himself, is planning for 7 chapters. Everything that happens throughout Chapter 1-7 something he’s accounting for. If we break away from Gaster’s grand plan, perhaps fighting against him, it wouldn’t really make sense for that story to be in Chapter 7. It would make much more sense for it to be afterwards. [VAGUE PERSONA 4 SPOILERS. You’ll know what I mean if you beat it, but you won’t if you haven’t.] I think at the end Deltarune Chapter 7 we’ll see the main story of the game wrapped up. Mostly everything about the Knight, Noelle’s character development, The Prophecy with the Angel’s Heaven, MAYBE The Roaring. But something will still feel kinda off, and we’ll have a sort of “Persona 4 gas station moment)”, where the story really breaks open, with the true final chapter(s) being focused on all the Gaster stuff happening behind the scenes.
Really great analysis. It did get me thinking though, what if the festival was actually the chapter 7 location (and dark world?) like an epilogue after the chaos of the bunker/roaring from chapter 5 and/or 6. I think it might make sense considering how Toby wrote undertale with an epilogue of sorts after the asriel fight. In the weird route variant of this chapter, maybe the festival would be completely deserted and the chapter would consist of killing lightners and one more battle (although idk what could possibly be more difficult than a roaring boss battle)
TheSoph™: "Comic books are very different than Books" Also TheSoph™: "TV Shows, Sports, The News, Movies, Radio, and The Theatre are basically the same"
11:03 maybe the reason it’s a pure dark fountain is because it’s in a school closet. There could be anything in there! Perhaps the reason darkners do belong in Castle Town is because there isn’t any specific type of object that takes president over another in the closet.
So I've had a theory for a while regarding what the chapters are going to be like. There's obviously purposeful parallels to Undertale within Deltarune, and I think what the dark worlds might be are the inverse of Undertale's journey. In the first chapter, you're in the card kingdom (similar to new home) second chapter, you're in the cyber world (similar to the core) and in the third chapter we appear to be going into a TV world (similar to Mettaton's television segments in hotland) so my prediction would be chapter 4 might involve the lake somehow as a parallel to Waterfall, chapter 5 might involve the church, Noel's house, or the hospital to represent snowden, chapter 6 may be in the bunker to represent old home, and chapter 7 would then have to symbolize "the surface" maybe that means the town with the festival becoming a dark world and the roaring occuring, or the surface could be more metaphorical.
The Castle Town dark world is literally a closet, a closet is a room where you keep many various things that aren't even related to each other, so anything can belong there, like in a real closet i think that is the theme, a literal closet
something that would be cool is in the whole church themed dark world we meet a revisualized gerson made from either a diary or something that was very personal to gerson
The books themed dark fountain could be in Toriel's old classroom or that one classroom that's locked out. The town is kinda small so I can see a dark fountain going back to the same location
This isnt really unrelated but... that howard stern segment is like my favorite thing in TH-cam videos. Its derailment done in the best way, it always makes me laugh.
Tbh I love the radio secret boss idea. Toby could go many fun routes with it..which includes a possible reference to hazbin hotel. Now I know it’s a stretch but since Toby likes shitposting I wouldn’t put it past him to make a alastor parody
I guess to try and incorporate music into a potential dark world, you didn't address Onionsan at all, and their current plight has been this reccuring song that they are hearing so maybe there will be a music/ocean themed dark world and the final boss is a siren or something. I just think Onionsan's quest will probably have bigger implications than some might think. (Or I hope so lol) All in all, awesome theory, I think you did a really good job analyizing and explaining :)
It would be really cool if theres actually a Music Darkworld, and in this world, theres multiple groups, each one representing a song type (like, Metal being some Susie-like monsters), and theres a war between this groups, the Secret Boss could be inspired forgotten music style. And theres like, battles that uses their battle music as a mechanic
I'm surprised we had the same exact dark world predictions for the chapters! (Chapter 4 being book themed in the church and chapter 5 being video game themed in the hospital with ties to Noelle) EDIT: I know you said chapter 6, but still, i'm surprised we got the same idea for the dark world
i think gardening could be a possibility for the entertainment themed dark worlds, and more likely to appear than something like books, because of asgore's flower shop, rather than something vaguely hinted at like saying that the priest likes to read.
6:52 One thing about that dialogue that puzzles me is the date. It's from the end of Chapter 2, the evening of a school day. & Kris's family used to go to Church on Sundays, though I don't recall any such info for the Holidays. So was this school day somehow a Saturday, or do the Holidays just go to church on Saturday? The latter seems more plausible, for what it's worth, I guess.
Love your final conclusion but I am humorously concerned you can see the difference in Novel books and Comic books but cannot see the difference between Movies and LIVES THEATRE SHOWS?! I understand it’s a scripting mechanic because there’s zero evidence for a theatre themed dark world (bar Metatons existence) but you gave Radio the time of day. Imagine a dark word like the new princess peach game all set on the same stage. Room transitions can have stage hands come on and swap the props for a new scene, that could lead to amazing jokes where susie tries to stop the room mid transition. This also has an obvious secret boss opportunity in an intern that you can only find by sneaking backstage. There’s opportunities there.
Actually another thing, we don’t know the three extra select icons are for chapters. I could see a 4th wall braking moment in a later chapter where the chapter select gets tampered with like the opening in the omega flowey fight. The roaring only happens when multiple dark worlds are opened. If we assume there is one dark world for each chapter, a chapter with multiple for the roaring to occur could be three “mini” chapters under the “Chapter 6/7” umbrella?
Examples of music themed levels can be found in Rayman 1’s music land and Sonic advance 2s music themed world. Typically means a lot of rainbows and brass apparently
The final Dark World being carnival themed kinda makes a lot of sense because there are a lot of those themes in Chapter 1. And Jevil could come back as the final secret villain to bookend it
The internet theme in the dark world with the software based darkners are trying to find the desires and whims of the lightners, as shown in everyone’s custom tailored rooms. These rooms based off people’s search histories are the escapism and entertainment the queen thinks are what they want to be entertained by
My personal theory is pretty similar Chapter 3=TV and stuff Chapter 4=Books and religion Chapter 5=bunker Chapter 6=Games Chapter 7=amusement parks If 10 chapters then it is: Chapter 3=Tv world Chapter 4=Fantasy book world Chapter 5=Flower king Chapter 6=bunker Chapter 7=amusement park Chapter 8=Dreaming dark world/DEPTHS Chapter 9=hometown/The roaring Chapter 10=ANGEL'S HEAVEN/Undertale based dark world. I even made secret bosses.
I think there will be 10 chapters. But not really, it'll be a meta thing, like the save file from undertale. You'll probably be fighting the final boss or trough chapter 7 and the boss will tease you with your/Kris' want for escapism and artificially create mini, warped darkworlds to delay/tempt you but each time you get teleported into one the game displays it as if you're playing a new chapter. But they'll be super weird and probably only a room or 3 long. Maybe it won't be exactly this but it might be something like this.
i extremely hope this theory is not true, and to be honest i would be surprised if it was. i think limiting the themes to be about entertainment would severly constrain what would be in the game. some of the theme ideas just seem incredibly weak; i can't really imagine how you would make "amusement parks" an interesting theme for an entire chapter. i also don't understand what point toby fox would be trying to make by making every single chapter about entertainment, as that seems to be totally irrelevant to the general themes i've gotten out of the game so far. and yeah, as you mentioned in the video, claiming that chapter 2 is about the internet rather than about computers in general is a bit of a stretch too. in my opinion, the theme of the dark worlds will just be general categories of everyday objects, since that leaves a lot more room for creativity.
I imagine "amusement parks" would also contain like, carnival midways and circuses as well. I think there is a lot you can get out of that. As well as the fact that amusement parks cover everything from Disney World to stuff like Six Flags/Alton Towers, Water Parks, Halloween Horror Nights and everything in between. There's a ton of potential there.
I think the dark worlds THEMSELVES represent entertainment, so the themes and areas dont have to be revolving all around it. I think it'd be extremely hard to make unique enemies and entire chapters out of these as they would start to blend together.
Thanks for the subtitles! English is not my main language, so the subtitles help a lot to understand the video Also, great video! I discovered your channel last month and I'm loving your content
Also worth pointing out that the TV being teased for chapter 3 has antennae, which haven't really been a major feature for televisions since like the early 90s. I think if Toby wanted to do a radio world he'd probably do it, but might have the same problem they mentioned with music.
I think the extra chapters probably serve some purpose, but not as a playable chapter, but something else, something purely mechanical. However, given how deep this game goes with it's meta narrative, I wouldn't put it past Toby for those chapters to have some relevance in that greater meta narrative. It could even be that by "banishing the angels heaven" whats actually happening is we are being banished and those last chapters are not available to us because we are no longer able to access the world. But it could also just be like a test area to try out ideas before putting them in the game to avoid any programming conflicts or breaking stuff, but then might also llay a role in the meta narrative similar to the Goners so who knows.
kinda feels like it'd be easier to make a bunker dark world fill a whole chapter, than make a chapter with no dark world gameplay, especially if it's a chapter 5 that isn't being released with chapters 3 and 4 handling all the bullet-rpg gameplay
I'm gonna fight for Music being the theme for the Church chapter, you can't have a Dark World set in a church without putting any focus on Gospel music!
No ill will, but Toby's probably releasing chapter 5 alone, and it wouldn't make sense to have a standalone release where very little/nothing happens. There's also the inability to save in the light world, but that can be solved by saving in castle town (though that would be a little inconvenient)
im pretty sure the festival is explicitly mentioned multiple times in chapter 2 to be happening tomorrow, which is why school will be cancelled for the day. so the festival will take place in chapter 3.
I think you're on the right track but I don't think ENTERTAINMENT is the overall theming, I think it's escapism, which opens the door to other forms of escapism like different hobbies, religion, etc.
i really think "escapism" might be a better qualifier for what makes a dark world, rather than "entertainment", purely because religion is more escapism than entertainment and i'm pretty sure chapter 4's dark world will be in the church
agreed. escapism also contributes to existentialism, a common theme of the secret bosses
Yeah, mostly cause it will be more interesting. Like Deltarune already has themes of fiction as escapism. So why not continue those themes
A bunker is also a LITERAL form of escapism. Effectively the concept taken to a logical extreme of literally blocking yourself out from the rest of the world. The perfect culmination
agreed that's exactly what i was thinking
For sure
A theoretical Sports-themed dark world would be the perfect setting for Jockington being a party member, to be honest. I do agree that it's doubtful we'll get one, but it would have potential, and could easily support the theory that Kris' other classmates will enter the Dark Worlds as party members at some point. Personally, I'd quite like that.
“That was fun! Are the rest of these dark worlds sports, themed?”
“Uhhhh, no, that was…new”
“Okay. I am not interested in seeing any more dark worlds”
＊(Jockington has left the party.)
@@il-dottore The idea of Jockington appearing in a Dark World only to want to leave immediately because it's not Sports themed is very funny and seems like something that could happen, it would make that part of Noelle's blog which you're referencing good foreshadowing as well!
bratty MUST be in dark world she has the most chances to tell us something new about kris(and id like to see her being a witch and performing rituals on darkners)
while sacrificing them to whoever the fuck is the devil here(anyome but gaster please)
TH-cam filho da puta, só me notificou agora
Don't forget that jockington has a dialog picture!
when i’m 76 and my 2nd great grandson tells me toby fox has completed chapter 10 of deltarune and is now working on NudeAlert
The town exploring images are actually labeled "CH4", presumably chapter 4.
I was just about to say this 😂
I love the idea of a book themed dark world, and a chill exploration chapter focused more on exposition and dialogue sounds great
I always see you in Binyots comment section.
@@In.New.York.I.Milly.Rock. Glad to see you here as well!!
binty pls
"When was the last time you went to see a fucking play?"
Me, with a career in theatre and who works at one: :^(
Great vid!!
Burned class
@@furvekan370lol
deltarune: tears of an actor
Yeah, I was like “just today actually”. Felt called out
Wow, that's so cool that you have a career in theatre (UK spelling detected)! As a young person, it just seems so cool that plays are... a job you can have. Wow. You must be really talented.
10:42 another important part of Castle Town being able to contain any Darkner has to do with what that room is in the light world.
See, it seems to me like Darkners turning to stone in other worlds isn't just about them not matching the themes of said worlds, but also to do with their physical objects not belonging in that physical space. You see a lone playing card in a computer lab, you're gonna have some questions naturally
Then consider: what is Castle Town's Dark World? It's a storage closet! Literally designed to hold a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, anything can belong in a space like that
This!! It always has seemed to me that lightner/darkner stuff had a real-world connection like that. “Lightners give darkness purpose” because they play with them/use them. The objects lost to obscurity are the secret bosses. *The context of location,* thus, *would determine suitability in a dark world*
@@CipherionYT This is actually a piece of evidence for Ralsei being the horned headband that I rarely see talked about. According to Toriel, Kris used to wear it "everywhere", so if that's true it wouldn't be overly out of place anywhere, would it? Hence why he has no problems in other Dark Worlds (plus the whole pure darkness thing)- Idk, it makes sense to me
@@hbudson1248 I've seen lots of people believe that theory. It makes a lot of sense.
Another form of entertainment is puppets and puppet shows, which would technically fall under theater. However, churches will often include puppet shows for Sunday school and nativity recreation. Additionally, churches have choirs which would fall under music. Just a little thought.
Oooo I like this!
I feel that "the bunker is small so its darkworld is small" is kind of innacurate. so far both the dark worlds we play are a single room. and chapter 3 might be the whole house. but I feel like the bunker would be at least as big as a small classroom
If there’s a dark world in Rudy’s room, i bet the little Angel figurine will be important
I feel like it will be related to the goner you make in the beginning of the game in some way
If there will be a book themed dark world, it would be a great opportunity to finally find out what is written in "History of Humans and Monsters"
I think the Castle Town does have a vague theming to it. Consider that the dark fountain was created inside a storage closet, and that the Castle Town is where you 'store' Darkners after you recruit them. There's a parallel here between storing the objects the Darkners are based on and recruiting them.
It’d make a lot of sense if Castletown wasn’t just a castle and a town but like… a fortress? Like storing people and goods is a known use for both a closet and a fortress
Also I do think we could easily end up back there for a siege in the midst of the Roaring.
The one form of entertainment I know of that you didn’t mention is traditional art. Painting, pencil drawing, sculpting, crocheting, knitting, sewing, etc. Spamton’s line “WE DON’T NEED [easels] OR [CRTs]!” potentially lends credence to it being a planned dark world theme. I was going to bring up comics, too, but you covered that.
if we know tenna's the TV.... then who's the easel?
Probably Swatch, as he represents a drawing software@@autisticTreadmilleater
@@autisticTreadmilleater maybe easel = screen? Just thought.
@@Limetheartist that does make sense, but if a major character was LITERALLY like, azzy's old easel or something that would be hilarious
@@autisticTreadmilleater Azzy's old graphic tablet, maybe? And yes it would be indeed funny :3
29:24 If I remember correctly in chapter one Alphys mentions that she lent Asgore some comic books, so that's why those are there.
If we do get a Dark World inside of Flower King, then that means she could be a perfect secondary character there alongside Asgore, ala Noelle & Berdly
@@dataexpunged4784Would be a good counterpart to Toriel and Undyne in the Dreemurr House.
I personally doubt there's going to be a chapter that takes place entirely in the light world. I could see one with a shorter DW and a longer LW segment, but I don't know how you could have an entire chapter set in the light world.
Also because all the assets would already exist and toby wouldnt need to code any bullet sections, it would probably be really quick to develop. Assuming it would be in chapter 5, why cut the chapter from the batch release? It would only really take a few extra months, right?
Your proposal for a book-themed Dark World is extremely compelling to me, as a Barnes & Noble employee- the way you talked about the different sections and genres, and how that could manifest in the Dark World, it makes me think of the book store I work at, and it's really fun! It could work so well- that idea has so much potential.
Honestly a book/library theme dark world can really be its own game
Please don't open a dark world in Barnes and noble
please DO open a dark world in barnes and noble, thatd be sick (just dont do no mercy, we don't want any shredded books after it goes back to normal)
@@blankcanvasstudios3463 Kris, Susie, and Ralsei would be cooked.
There is one more entertainment that you missed: art. Drawings, paintings, sewings, papier mache, clay, woodwork, metalwork, those tin foil constructions. You know, all that jazz. And there is actually prove that there will be an art dark world. Firstly, Spamton mentions at one point that they don't need easeles or CRTs. CRTs are most likely a foreshadowing to the TV dark world, so easleles might be a foreshadowing to the art dark world. Also, there just so happens to be a locked door in the school just west to the closet.
Also, about music. It's interesting to point out that Onionsan reported a music coming from the dark deep waters, which was also foreshadowed by the river person in Undertale. Although idk how the gang would safely get underwater, so maybe that's where the bunker would eventually lead? Or maybe that's how the Knight decides to mass open dark portals: through the sewers? Idk, just pointing out some ideas.
i agree about the art classroom and think that there is definitely something going on with the song from the sea
deltarune underwater level
We don't actually know how long the Bunker is or how far down it leads, so there is a possibility that it extends under the lake
A radio darkworld would ironically, fit really well amongst the themes of being forgotten and abandoned
*Alastor noises*
i think "escapism" makes much more sense since there's likely going to be a church-themed dark world, and many people use religion as escapism. religion isn't really entertainment. plus, a bunker is LITERALLY escapism. like, people use it to escape physically and sometimes mentally. great video tho!
The way I see the "Problem" with how Ch2 is part internet part computer themed, is that the Internet is the main theme of the chapter, whereas the computers are the "subgenre" that helps back up the main theme.
Chapter 3 could perhaps work the same way, with TV Shows being the main theme, but it also taking inspirations from the house as a subgenre to help back up the TV Show idea
Chapter 4, too, with books and (maybe) religion?
ive always thought that since the house is the site of the fountain, there would be way more influence from that than anything else, even the tv. the dreemur family and all of its members are big components of the main story, so even though toby has said chapter 3 wont be very story heavy, there’s almost certainly going to be more background information about things that have happened and whats going on with the family dynamics. another thing i havent seen anyone mention is that toriel is inside the house when kris opens the fountain, so she will absolutely be part of the adventure through the dark world in some way just like susie
The house itself is gonna be a big part of chapter 3. The summer newsletter showed screenshots of the localisation process for chapter 3, one of which was the description for a gingerbread man cookie cutter enemy, showing that other parts of the house like the kitchen will be included.
I really like all of these theories, but I have a different idea for what might happen in Chapter 7. I do think that the fountain will engulf the whole town, but instead of the theme being amusement parks, I think the theme will be the past. All dark worlds are related to escapism, and different forms of escaping reality. Well, one of the biggest themes of the light world is nostalgia, the past. Kris misses playing with their brother, Noelle misses her sister and her father is dying, Asgore misses his (eggs) wife, Alvin misses his father, the list goes on. Even random NPCs, such as the bunny who walked her brother in Undertale, mentions how she's sad that she can no longer walk her brother now that he's grown up. The bunny in the diner talks to Kris about the past, and gives him a hot chocolate as a reminder of that time. The dark worlds entire purpose and existence is to please lighteners. So the final dark world creates a world that gives the lighteners exactly what they want,the past that has passed.
I have a theory called the "Project Teammate Thoery"
So Noelle and Berdly are partners for the school project, and look who show up in chapter 2 TOGETHER. Jockington and Catti may appear in chapter 4 (if that is the church theme) since Catti looks like someone who wouldnt go to church, but Toby might find a way to make that happen. The quiet kid taking down the cool kid sounds extremely likely too. Catti might be the one to be manipulated into ending Jockington. Then the Snowdrake route💀
If jockington dies what would be the point of going on :(
Hi there TheSoph, I believe I can provide some input! I believe that all of the future dark worlds will take place somewhere in Deltarune's "Hometown". Hope this can help you!
Toby seems like a passionate musician. I doubt he'd skip the chance to make a music-themed Dark World.
21:12 It could just be that area isn't made yet & it's easier to wall it off until they can spare the resources to make it, no?
Anyway, interesting analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
My idea for the last dark world is a mix of both the bunker and the amusement park. The dark world transforms the entire city, including the bunker.
And the bunker Esq location is under the theme park. This is inspired by the tunnels built underneath Disney world. Think about it, you never see people getting out of character costumes, janitors or trash collectors at Disney because there are quite literally like… gosh darn catacombs under it, and it’s the source of quite a few creepypastas. And would make for an awesome labyrinthian ending to deltarune
You know there's one question i rarely see asked. Who cut the Internet connection?
Obviously it's just a plot device to justify why we aren't in contact with Asriel right now, but there must be an explanation.
I think that there will still be 7 chapters, because at the beginning Toriel said that Asriel would return in a week, and this is just the end of chapter 7, because each chapter = 1 day
the picutres of susie and kris hanging out are from chapter 4 lol
I would think it makes sense to assume that radio would be a good theme for a secret boss of Chapter 3. The ones that were discarded and gained [Freedom]
Your microphone quality has improved dramatically. I feel a little peace knowing I'm not an insane person for thinking the theme of dark worlds was entertainment. If this is the case, then it feels like the game is hinting towards overarching story themes of confronting escapism.
this video is 100% correct, toby told me in a dream
I’m not sure why you’d think we can say chapter 5 would be a break that’s mostly in the Light World. It’s a bit well established that a lot of the Light World stuff we’ve seen for upcoming chapters, maybe all of it in fact, is from chapter 4.
Besides, why would Toby release and charge money for chapter 5, possibly as the only solo chapter that’ll cost money, if it has no Dark World?
On the same note, I think you dismissed a bit too many themes with “well that’s kind of covered by tv nowadays” and “who even engages with that today?” As if kids still play a whole lot of board games. They could totally do a Sports themed level, maybe where you interact with Catti and Jockington, or theatre and/or radio chapter with some of the older characters having the spotlight.
Last weird conclusion of yours I want to touch on: “bunkers aren’t big so a bunker dark world wouldn’t be that big either” chapter 1 was a single class room and chapter 2 was a computer lab. Even if the bunker were a conventional bunker, it should still be as big as either of those. And if it were a multi-room facility with lots of secrets to reveal, then it’d be even more massive.
An additional book theme for the Church Darkworld (so that the theme isn't just "church") is a very exciting to me, particularly because I recently saw it pointed out to me how Asgore has been connected to the Beauty and the Beast fairytaiy twice (once by Rudy, twice by himself at the grocery store). The the person pointing it out argued that this would come into play at a Flowershop Darkworld, which we would explore with Asgore. But this video gave me the idea that, well at least to me a Beauty and the Beast theme and an Asgore-centric storyline would fit it into the the Church Darkworld better. And it's a bold claim, cause it feels like a no-brainer that if we're gonna get an Asgore storyline its gonna be within his own shop, ESPECIALLy if he's going to be given a Beauty and the Beast motif (cause yknow. roses). But I'm not just saying it to be contrary or cause I think it'd subvert expectations. The reason I'm saying it is because personally, I think exploring Deltarune's Asgore without other characters like Rudy and Toriel (and maybe even the Mayor) present, just wouldn't be as fun. It works for Toriel in the TV world as the most interesting things we can discover about her are all related to Kris, so giving them a more private one-on-one story together makes a lot of sense. But then doing that AGAIN with Asgore, exploring more or less the same themes of parenthood- feels redundant, SPECIALLY when there's a much more intriguing storyline to be found with his involvent in Dess's case and the falling out between Holidays and Dreemurrs. The coolest stuff we can learn about him can really only be learned through the Holidays.
But while its more difficult for me to picture Asgore, the sickly Rudy and the distant Mayor just sort heading to Flower King randomly, at the same time, so they can be thrown into the Dark World together, I CAN see them all the church service taking place 'tomorrow', likely in Chapter 4. And with the arguments made in this video, it's also easy to see why a Church Darkworld would be a match made in heaven for exploring these themes and motifs as well, since medieval fairtales and fantasy books (such as TLoTR and Narnia) are riddled with religious imagery and gothic aesthetic, and like pointed out in the video, Gerson himself was an author. You'd get the exploration of the Holidays and Dreemurrs, you'd get payoff for previous Beauty and the Beast references, and you'd get to much cleaner connection between religion and religious texts with the motifs of entertainment and escapism (like a comparison between what our young protagonists see as escapism in fantasy and mythology vs what our adult characters see as escapism in religious texts and ideals)
But to fully convince others that my line of logic makes sense (not convince them that it'd actually happen, since this sort of thing is always going to be speculation and to try to fully prove any of it with strong evidence is a fool's errand), I'd have to answer the question of like... well, so then what'll happen to the Flower Shop Dark World? Am I just disregarding it entirely as a possible dark world candidate? Cause if the Church played out like this, it'd be kind of redundant to then do a Second Asgore-heavy chapter. My answer to that is no, I still think that even IF the Church world played out like this, it doesn't mean the Flower Shop wouldn't or couldn't happen. There's another character such a Dark World could be themed around, one that has an even stronger connection to flowers in that /Asgore and Toriel's flower motifs are really just an extension of His/. I think it'd be cool if Kris explored a flowershop world with Asriel, and they went through a similar journey to the one Asriel and Chara did when Chara first fell into the underground. Just the simple idea of falling into chapter 6 or 7's darkworld like always, only this time we land in a bed of flowers golden flowers sends a chill up my spine. I think it'd be kind of badass...... but enough fanfiction for now.
Entry 17 is referring to a Dark Fountain. Negative photon readings mean a complete lack of light. Additionally, Gaster says that the darkness is growing, which is very similar to how the gateways to Dark Worlds are described.
At the start of Chapter 1, during the Goner Maker section, we’re in a place that the files refer to as ‘The Depths’. The background texture used for The Depths is the exact same image used for the texture of Dark Fountains when we come face to face with them at the end of a chapter. Considering all of this, Gaster likely fell into (or willingly entered) a fountain he created, ending up in The Depths.
Also, the narrator during the Goner Maker is 100% Gaster. The narrator uses the same typer values that Gaster did in Undertale, and has an identical speech pattern to that of Gaster. Not to mention their use of “Very, Very Interesting” during the twitter takeovers.
it's not called the depths in the code, there background is just called IMAGE_DEPTH which could mean something else
While i dont think a light world only chapter is impossible I kinda doubt it would be in chapter 5. Theirs no actual game mechanics in the light world so a chapter their i would imagine would be like on the shorter side and be using mostly already made assets. So I cant really see why a chapter like that would need to be cut off from the batch to save for time it seems like it should be more minor in the grand scheme of things.
It would make more since to me if that was maybe chapter 4. Which is why initally toby wanted 4&5 to come out together but later he decided that he could make chapter 4 a good enough cliffhanger. This also fits with the fact chapter 3 is taking place in the middle of the night. Their wont be any lightworld stuff at the begining of the chapter and if were right on the church any lightworld at the end of chapter 3 would lead directly into that without a proper breaking point.
On another note about the potential bonus 3 chapters while im not hard commited to this theirs a chance it could be for weird time loop schenanigans that get formatted as different "chapters" while in reality are very short. I bring this up because theirs another rpg that does this exact same gimmick called bravely default that has a whole 4 bonus chapters like this. If something close to jarus time loop theory is in play I would not be suprised to see some meta extra chapters like that for the finale. Or to bring up another example undertale basically does this already in true pacifist with going back in time for the date and true lab segments it just doesnt have chapter formatting
The images kinda have to be from Chapter 4, their file names literally say ch4.
@@LiMe251 arent the images in hometown/ just castletown? I assumed a potential "lightworld chapter" could still involve dropping off the items from the last chapter their the main point was their just wasnt a new darkfountain.
@@ivanbackfromthecardshop8093 There are Hometown images and at least one Castle Town video/image, but I feel ch4 would still definitely involve the church.
agreed. i'm a little skeptical about timeloop theory but there's enough evidence where i do see it as a possibility
I can’t believe Alastor the Radio Demon is going to be the secret boss of Deltarune Chapter 3
I feel like basing the potential dark world locations around characters makes for better predictions. It also doesn't necessarily have to be the classmates - more likely, I think the ones that have face sprites in dialogue are going to be relevant.
Chapter 2 had Noelle and Berdly, which were classmates, sure, but I think from what we've seen, Chapter 3 is not only TV themed, but primarily crime-drama themed. It's a theme that ties in perfectly with the characters that are likely going to be involved: Toriel (ex-wife of the former police chief), Undyne (the new police chief) and Napstablook, the deputy. Maybe Asgore will show up as well?
One theme I haven't seen anyone mention yet is food. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with entertainment or escapism, but Hometown does have a pizzeria, which could involve Burgerpants, Catty and Bratty, who all have face sprites and are associated with fast food. It could also involve ICE-E as the foreshadowed cryptid stalking the dark world. There's definitely also a lot of creative and potentially scary imagery you could have with food, like for example, a cold storage where the meat is kept.
Doubt you'll see this but for me chap 4 is the church and well. There is that angelic symbol door in castle town which makes me think. Maybe castle town's castle isnt a castle at all. But a Church
Sorry but the idea that that you can't represent music visually is patently absurd: 🎵🎶🎹🎻🎼🎙️
In addition to all sorts of culturally significant iconography regarding notation and actual, physical instruments, there's an entire genre of video game based around music, and I could easily see Deltarune incorparating rhythm game elements in some really cool ways.
Besides, the idea that Toby, someone who is equally prolific as a musician as they are as a game designer, would just skip music as a form of entertainment and escapism is kind of wild.
Someone may already have said this but regarding book themed church dark world, toby shared a darkner that consisted of a cup and feather, tools usually used to write in the past!
To me, I think there will be 7 chapters only. They mention Asriel coming back “at the end of the week”, and a week is 7 days. It seems like each chapter is one day. It wouldn’t really make sense though, because the church is open tomorrow, which would mean it would be open in chapter 3. If the church would be a dark world, I think it would be accessible in chapter 4. Maybe after they close the fountain of the dark world in chapter 3, we get to walk around town again and end up in the church, where a dark world already has been opened, and the cliff hanger is Kris and Susie jumping in.
19:02 A music themed dark world could focus on:
- Different genres and eras of music
- Different singers + performers from the game
- Concerts / Live Performances / Music Videos
- Various Instruments
- Vinyls + Records
- Sheet Music
- Singing, Choirs, Karaoke,
I think there is a lot of ideas that can fit, especially since Toby Fox is a musician I have no doubts whatsoever he could pull a whole dark world out of music alone.
There's also some interesting things you can look into. For one the Purple Soul ability obviously fits really well with the whole sheet music thing, there's also various character interactions like with Kris normally being good at piano when not being controlled.
19:28 too late to the party but
a RICK ROLL Dark world may come in 2025 aprill fools
I have really liked the idea of a book-themed Dark World inside the Church which is based around Lord of the Hammer and possibly Angel religion books for a while now. It would be a good way to find out more about Gerson, his family and the Angel religion all at once.
Noelle creating a Dark World inside the Hospital so she can cure Rudy seems like it's being foreshadowed as well, and it involving both Dragon Blazers and hospital-themed stuff could be an interesting mix. The Angel Doll inside Rudy's room would most likely become a Darkner then.
I had seen Black Chestnut's video already but still feel like yours is different enough to be worth watching. Everyone who's trying to predict DELTARUNE stuff are working off the same evidence so it's natural that some people are going to come up with the same ideas.
That was a great video! I really liked that theory! I'm gonna watch Black Chestnut's video, also!
Oh my god! The merging of the theme of entertainment/fiction with the obvious double-door locations is brilliant! I could never figure out how the Hospital would make for a good exploration of creative works, but the Holidays are absolute gamers! The fact that they're playing on a hand-held at the end of Chapter 2 is genius foreshadowing! I was honestly expecting the Church DW to be purely about religion, but I realized that would be heavily topically constraining and perhaps too controversial, exploring a book-lover's shelf makes good enough sense. I can see the end highlighting Deltarune's Bible-equivalant revealing something important about or a parallel to the Dark World lore.
31:26 i could for sure see it, but i think it helps your theory, with the kitchen, a cooking show, with the door being open, it could be related to sports
Not sure about a break chapter without a darkworld.
Looking at gameplay, I don't see how you could have an entire chapter without combat, new areas to explore. The darkworlds are the meat of this game. From a story perspective, Ralsei would be absent. He's one of the most important characters, it would be weird to just not involve him for a solid chunk of it.
Maybe it introduces a way for Kris and Susie to easily switch worlds. Light characters could play a larger role, perhaps you'd need to collect certain items from the lightworld to progress in the dark one.
Asgore's shop could work, keep the jungle/comic themed world.
I think Chapter 4 will end with chasing the Knight into a Dark World, Chapter 5 taking place in that dark world and finally defeating the Knight before the rest of the game is super meta and weird with Gaster and Goners and stuff
I honestly think, either way, it’s odd that Toby is releasing Deltarune like this when I think it’ll be better for the story if 4 and 5 are together since Toby seemed pretty adamant on 3, 4 and 5 releasing together and has said that Ch3 won’t have much in terms of story
i dunno, maybe he’ll feel as if people will be disappointed if a deltarune drop lacked much in the story
I actually have a theory about the chapter count, and it’s broke
POINT 1 - WE HAVE TO REMEMBER WHO’S RUNNING THE GAME
Over the years, we’ve been given confusing, seemingly contradictory information regarding the final game’s number count.
- The game’s UI says 7
- There are titles for 1-10
- There are other sprites for 0-9
- Toby only ever mentions Chapters 1-5. He hasn’t ever acknowledged anything beyond that.
However, it’s important to remember that all of this information has been given to us BY Toby, whether it’s in interviews or through the game.
Toby knows we’re going to see all of this, and be confused by it. He WANTS us to be unsure about how many chapters are in the game!
To me, this makes the idea of 7 chapters actually pretty unlikely.
Why would Toby do all of these things to make us unsure of how many chapters are in the game if the answer is just the one most people will assume?
Because of all this, I think there will be somewhere between 8-10 chapters.
My personal prediction is 8, but that’s neither here nor there.
POINT 2 - WE HAVE TO REMEMBER WHO’S RUNNING THE GAME (but like, in-universe)
It’s important to remember how the demos have been released, and how they start.
The game’s program itself is something created and controlled by Gaster himself (I think this is an insanely safe assumption), as a means to “connecting” us to this world.
This includes the Ch1 save select screen (where he directly interacts with you based on your inputs) and the Chapter Select screen (it plays the same ominous music).
We don’t know what Gaster is up to, or why he’s doing any of this, but if HIS chapter select screen says there’s 7 chapters, that means Gaster himself, is planning for 7 chapters. Everything that happens throughout Chapter 1-7 something he’s accounting for.
If we break away from Gaster’s grand plan, perhaps fighting against him, it wouldn’t really make sense for that story to be in Chapter 7. It would make much more sense for it to be afterwards.
[VAGUE PERSONA 4 SPOILERS. You’ll know what I mean if you beat it, but you won’t if you haven’t.]
I think at the end Deltarune Chapter 7 we’ll see the main story of the game wrapped up. Mostly everything about the Knight, Noelle’s character development, The Prophecy with the Angel’s Heaven, MAYBE The Roaring.
But something will still feel kinda off, and we’ll have a sort of “Persona 4 gas station moment)”, where the story really breaks open, with the true final chapter(s) being focused on all the Gaster stuff happening behind the scenes.
Okay but decoding those words off of stray lines the box didn't cover was hella smart
Really great analysis. It did get me thinking though, what if the festival was actually the chapter 7 location (and dark world?) like an epilogue after the chaos of the bunker/roaring from chapter 5 and/or 6. I think it might make sense considering how Toby wrote undertale with an epilogue of sorts after the asriel fight. In the weird route variant of this chapter, maybe the festival would be completely deserted and the chapter would consist of killing lightners and one more battle (although idk what could possibly be more difficult than a roaring boss battle)
TheSoph™: "Comic books are very different than Books"
Also TheSoph™: "TV Shows, Sports, The News, Movies, Radio, and The Theatre are basically the same"
11:03 maybe the reason it’s a pure dark fountain is because it’s in a school closet. There could be anything in there! Perhaps the reason darkners do belong in Castle Town is because there isn’t any specific type of object that takes president over another in the closet.
I LOVE SEEING OTHER DARK WORLDS ACK
So I've had a theory for a while regarding what the chapters are going to be like. There's obviously purposeful parallels to Undertale within Deltarune, and I think what the dark worlds might be are the inverse of Undertale's journey. In the first chapter, you're in the card kingdom (similar to new home) second chapter, you're in the cyber world (similar to the core) and in the third chapter we appear to be going into a TV world (similar to Mettaton's television segments in hotland) so my prediction would be chapter 4 might involve the lake somehow as a parallel to Waterfall, chapter 5 might involve the church, Noel's house, or the hospital to represent snowden, chapter 6 may be in the bunker to represent old home, and chapter 7 would then have to symbolize "the surface" maybe that means the town with the festival becoming a dark world and the roaring occuring, or the surface could be more metaphorical.
The Castle Town dark world is literally a closet, a closet is a room where you keep many various things that aren't even related to each other, so anything can belong there, like in a real closet
i think that is the theme, a literal closet
something that would be cool is in the whole church themed dark world we meet a revisualized gerson made from either a diary or something that was very personal to gerson
The books themed dark fountain could be in Toriel's old classroom or that one classroom that's locked out. The town is kinda small so I can see a dark fountain going back to the same location
This isnt really unrelated but... that howard stern segment is like my favorite thing in TH-cam videos. Its derailment done in the best way, it always makes me laugh.
Tbh I love the radio secret boss idea. Toby could go many fun routes with it..which includes a possible reference to hazbin hotel. Now I know it’s a stretch but since Toby likes shitposting I wouldn’t put it past him to make a alastor parody
chapter 5 would probably be the holiday mansion, where there'd be stuff like dragon blazers (and by extension the ice palace)
I could see radio maybe being referenced in a tv world just to make the obvious "video killed the radio star" joke
I guess to try and incorporate music into a potential dark world, you didn't address Onionsan at all, and their current plight has been this reccuring song that they are hearing so maybe there will be a music/ocean themed dark world and the final boss is a siren or something. I just think Onionsan's quest will probably have bigger implications than some might think. (Or I hope so lol)
All in all, awesome theory, I think you did a really good job analyizing and explaining :)
It would be really cool if theres actually a Music Darkworld, and in this world, theres multiple groups, each one representing a song type (like, Metal being some Susie-like monsters), and theres a war between this groups, the Secret Boss could be inspired forgotten music style. And theres like, battles that uses their battle music as a mechanic
I'm surprised we had the same exact dark world predictions for the chapters! (Chapter 4 being book themed in the church and chapter 5 being video game themed in the hospital with ties to Noelle)
EDIT: I know you said chapter 6, but still, i'm surprised we got the same idea for the dark world
i think gardening could be a possibility for the entertainment themed dark worlds, and more likely to appear than something like books, because of asgore's flower shop, rather than something vaguely hinted at like saying that the priest likes to read.
>if it takes too long I'm going to be 30
matt damon aging.gif
6:52 One thing about that dialogue that puzzles me is the date. It's from the end of Chapter 2, the evening of a school day. & Kris's family used to go to Church on Sundays, though I don't recall any such info for the Holidays. So was this school day somehow a Saturday, or do the Holidays just go to church on Saturday? The latter seems more plausible, for what it's worth, I guess.
Castle towns theme is "I TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK"
The Alastor vs Mike deltarune will be crazy
Alastor vs Vox= Spamton vs Tenna
If this video didn't make me sub instantly, this part certainly did (16:40), perfect voice for a voice actor
Love your final conclusion but I am humorously concerned you can see the difference in Novel books and Comic books but cannot see the difference between Movies and LIVES THEATRE SHOWS?! I understand it’s a scripting mechanic because there’s zero evidence for a theatre themed dark world (bar Metatons existence) but you gave Radio the time of day.
Imagine a dark word like the new princess peach game all set on the same stage. Room transitions can have stage hands come on and swap the props for a new scene, that could lead to amazing jokes where susie tries to stop the room mid transition. This also has an obvious secret boss opportunity in an intern that you can only find by sneaking backstage. There’s opportunities there.
Actually another thing, we don’t know the three extra select icons are for chapters. I could see a 4th wall braking moment in a later chapter where the chapter select gets tampered with like the opening in the omega flowey fight. The roaring only happens when multiple dark worlds are opened. If we assume there is one dark world for each chapter, a chapter with multiple for the roaring to occur could be three “mini” chapters under the “Chapter 6/7” umbrella?
Examples of music themed levels can be found in Rayman 1’s music land and Sonic advance 2s music themed world. Typically means a lot of rainbows and brass apparently
The final Dark World being carnival themed kinda makes a lot of sense because there are a lot of those themes in Chapter 1. And Jevil could come back as the final secret villain to bookend it
The internet theme in the dark world with the software based darkners are trying to find the desires and whims of the lightners, as shown in everyone’s custom tailored rooms. These rooms based off people’s search histories are the escapism and entertainment the queen thinks are what they want to be entertained by
My personal theory is pretty similar
Chapter 3=TV and stuff
Chapter 4=Books and religion
Chapter 5=bunker
Chapter 6=Games
Chapter 7=amusement parks
If 10 chapters then it is:
Chapter 3=Tv world
Chapter 4=Fantasy book world
Chapter 5=Flower king
Chapter 6=bunker
Chapter 7=amusement park
Chapter 8=Dreaming dark world/DEPTHS
Chapter 9=hometown/The roaring
Chapter 10=ANGEL'S HEAVEN/Undertale based dark world.
I even made secret bosses.
Manga is literature!!!
I think there will be 10 chapters. But not really, it'll be a meta thing, like the save file from undertale. You'll probably be fighting the final boss or trough chapter 7 and the boss will tease you with your/Kris' want for escapism and artificially create mini, warped darkworlds to delay/tempt you but each time you get teleported into one the game displays it as if you're playing a new chapter. But they'll be super weird and probably only a room or 3 long.
Maybe it won't be exactly this but it might be something like this.
i extremely hope this theory is not true, and to be honest i would be surprised if it was. i think limiting the themes to be about entertainment would severly constrain what would be in the game. some of the theme ideas just seem incredibly weak; i can't really imagine how you would make "amusement parks" an interesting theme for an entire chapter. i also don't understand what point toby fox would be trying to make by making every single chapter about entertainment, as that seems to be totally irrelevant to the general themes i've gotten out of the game so far. and yeah, as you mentioned in the video, claiming that chapter 2 is about the internet rather than about computers in general is a bit of a stretch too. in my opinion, the theme of the dark worlds will just be general categories of everyday objects, since that leaves a lot more room for creativity.
I imagine "amusement parks" would also contain like, carnival midways and circuses as well. I think there is a lot you can get out of that. As well as the fact that amusement parks cover everything from Disney World to stuff like Six Flags/Alton Towers, Water Parks, Halloween Horror Nights and everything in between. There's a ton of potential there.
I think the dark worlds THEMSELVES represent entertainment, so the themes and areas dont have to be revolving all around it. I think it'd be extremely hard to make unique enemies and entire chapters out of these as they would start to blend together.
About the Church DW: it could also be music-related, since choirs and whatnot. Plus, religion is quite the music-based medium, after all.
25:19 carnival (multiple definitions) & a festigal!
27:35 maybe the knight could be making fountains and then goes to hide in the bunker and we follow him and have the big final boss fight
Thanks for the subtitles! English is not my main language, so the subtitles help a lot to understand the video
Also, great video! I discovered your channel last month and I'm loving your content
"Radio, who the fuck listens to it anymore?" Have you ever been in a car before? Near everyone listens to dumb radio while driving.
Also worth pointing out that the TV being teased for chapter 3 has antennae, which haven't really been a major feature for televisions since like the early 90s. I think if Toby wanted to do a radio world he'd probably do it, but might have the same problem they mentioned with music.
I think the extra chapters probably serve some purpose, but not as a playable chapter, but something else, something purely mechanical. However, given how deep this game goes with it's meta narrative, I wouldn't put it past Toby for those chapters to have some relevance in that greater meta narrative. It could even be that by "banishing the angels heaven" whats actually happening is we are being banished and those last chapters are not available to us because we are no longer able to access the world. But it could also just be like a test area to try out ideas before putting them in the game to avoid any programming conflicts or breaking stuff, but then might also llay a role in the meta narrative similar to the Goners so who knows.
kinda feels like it'd be easier to make a bunker dark world fill a whole chapter, than make a chapter with no dark world gameplay, especially if it's a chapter 5 that isn't being released with chapters 3 and 4 handling all the bullet-rpg gameplay
Incredible video, please continue to make more! ❤
17:40
...less than a week ago, as of writing this. Like, was that line really necessary?
Good theory overall though.
No, seriously. Stage plays and musicals are still incredibly popular. They do that shit in schools all the time.
I live for these prediction videos
I found your point about the bunker being small quite interesting. Maybe chapter 7 is just the bunker and it's really short, like act 7 of homestuck.
I also hope we get to see a Book themed dark world in chapter 4 taking place in the church!
Personally, i think that there will be a dark fountain in the carnival, and the shelter will do just that.
I'm gonna fight for Music being the theme for the Church chapter, you can't have a Dark World set in a church without putting any focus on Gospel music!
No ill will, but Toby's probably releasing chapter 5 alone, and it wouldn't make sense to have a standalone release where very little/nothing happens. There's also the inability to save in the light world, but that can be solved by saving in castle town (though that would be a little inconvenient)
What if the pure darkness is secretly a theme of some kind? We just don't have enough information to fully pin point exactly what it would be.
im pretty sure the festival is explicitly mentioned multiple times in chapter 2 to be happening tomorrow, which is why school will be cancelled for the day. so the festival will take place in chapter 3.
I feel like a food themed world in the restaurant could be possible
I think you're on the right track but I don't think ENTERTAINMENT is the overall theming, I think it's escapism, which opens the door to other forms of escapism like different hobbies, religion, etc.