Deltarune Chapter 4 nears completion, release remains distant

Deltarune's Toby Fox Provides Development Update: Chapter 4 Nears Completion, But Release Remains Distant

In his latest newsletter, Undertale creator Toby Fox offered fans an encouraging update on the progress of Deltarune's upcoming chapters. While Chapter 4 is nearing completion, a simultaneous release of Chapters 3 and 4 on PC, Switch, and PS4 remains some time away, despite the announcement in his Halloween 2023 newsletter.

Fox confirmed that Chapter 4 is essentially playable, pending final polish. All maps are finished, battles are functional, but several refinements are still needed. These include minor cutscene improvements, battle balancing and visual enhancements, background adjustments, and improvements to a couple of battle ending sequences. Despite this, early feedback from testers is positive.

The multi-platform and multilingual release presents significant challenges, especially given that this will be the first major paid release since Undertale. Fox emphasized the need for meticulous attention to detail to ensure a polished final product. Before release, the team faces several key tasks: testing new features, finalizing PC and console versions, Japanese localization, and thorough bug testing.

Chapter 3 development is complete, according to Fox's February newsletter. Interestingly, pre-production on Chapter 5 has already begun, with some team members sketching out initial maps and designing attack patterns.

Although a concrete release date remains elusive, the newsletter included tantalizing previews: snippets of dialogue between Ralsei and Rouxls, a character description for Elnina, and a new item, the GingerGuard. While the extended wait since Chapter 2's release has caused some initial disappointment, the promise of Chapters 3 and 4 being significantly longer than the first two combined has maintained high anticipation.

Fox expressed confidence that the release schedule for future chapters will be more streamlined once Chapters 3 and 4 launch. The journey continues, but the destination—a complete Deltarune—is steadily coming into view.