The creator of Undertale and Deltarune, Toby Fox, gave an update recently on the progress being made for Deltarune Chapter 4 through the Undertale/Deltarune newsletter. The full text of his statement can be seen below, but the highlights are that Chapter 4’s release won’t be any time soon, that Chapters 3 & 4 together are longer than Chapters 1 & 2 combined, and that some of the team has been busy working on Chapter 5.
“Hi everyone! DELTARUNE Chapter 4 is making great overall progress.”
“As [of] the time of writing this (7-23-24)…”
“All the maps are done. All battles are playable. Only 2 cutscenes need small improvements. One battle needs to be balanced and the visuals need to be completed. One battle needs a better background. Two battles are having their ending sequences improved. There’s still some things to fix and places to polish.”
“Three of my friends were able to play through the entirety of the unfinished Chapter 4. All of them liked it and didn’t have any major criticisms. Phew! (Except for one friend, who kept mentioning that I should name all of the chairs because the existence of ‘Chairiel’ implies that all the other chairs should have names as well… I’m probably not going to do that…)”
“I’m not sure if Chapter 2 is still the longest chapter, but Chapter 3 & 4 together are definitely longer than Chapter 1 & 2 combined. Thinking about that is kind of crazy…”
“Initial development of Chapter 5 is also progressing steadily. Most of the team is still focusing on Chapter 4, but a few people are going ahead and creating an initial draft of Chapter 5’s maps, working on bullet patterns, etc.”
“So What?”
“Chapter 4 is basically playable minus some polish!! So, it must seem like Chapter 3&4 are going to come out really soon, right!?”
“…”
“Actually, the release is still far away!!! We’ve gotten 3 months closer, but it’s still far!!!”
“Why!? How does that horrible, despair-inducing, teeth-gnashing-fact that keeps me up at night, make any sense at all!? I want them out NOW!!!”
“Well… I’ll tell you!”
“What’s left before release?”
“That’s right!!! CREATING the chapters is only the first step!”
“RELEASING the chapters… is a whole other ordeal.”
“It wouldn’t be such a big deal if the game was free… But since this is going to be our first big paid release since UNDERTALE, we really have to take the extra time to make sure it’s perfect!”
“Our goal is… simultaneous console and PC release, in both English and Japanese!”
“So… what do we have [left] to do?”
“Well… It’s long, so click below if you’re curious!!!”
The link at the bottom then leads to a page outlining all of the tasks the developers have left to complete until the two chapters are ready for release. Toby Fox has previously said that they want to release Chapters 3 & 4 simultaneously- which would explain why the team has divided their efforts between chapters instead of zeroing in on Chapter 3.
While they wait for its continuation, fans can revisit Deltarune Chapters 1 & 2, which are free on the Nintendo Switch eShop.