MatPat: Three Episodes, Two Games, One Truth that unites them both.
We've waited long enough, now, it's finally time for this Undertale-Deltarune trilogy to-
GasterPat: Dark.
Darker.
Yet darker.
The darkness keeps growing.
The shadows cutting deeper.
This next episode,
promises to be
very,
interesting.
[Intro music]
MatPat: Hello Internet!
Welcome to Game Theory!
Where last time we covered how Deltarune is an alternate universe of Undertale,
Where you have many of the same characters, events, and places, only with everything slightly rearranged.
It's actually all reflected in the name.
Deltarune is an anagram of Undertale;
The same pieces just reordered a bit,
Which just makes me fear for the *other* other alternate universe.
You know, the one named Nude-Alert.
Check it: Nude-Alert is also an anagram of Undertale
Just saying the third installment of Toby Fox's series is gonna get real awkward.
So, as we covered last time,
There seems to be plenty of evidence in Deltarune
To suggest that it is, in some way, connected to the world of Undertale,
A path that splits off in the main timeline,
Sometime before the monster-human war that served as our inciting incident for the first game.
But is that really enough?
I mean, with all the dimension-hopping characters in Undertale, like Sans and Flowey,
if there were some other world connected to theirs,
Don't you think they'd know about it, make some sort of reference to it?
You would expect there to be a hint at Deltarune's existence in Undertale...
And wouldn't you know it, there is.
In a piece of text that'll be very familiar to you, loyal theorists out there.
Entry Number 17.
As a reminder, since it's been a few years,
During the endgame of Undertale, you're tasked with exploring an area called 'The True Lab'
Where we start to learn the details of Alphys' determination experiments.
In the hopes of breaking through the barrier to the Underground,
she injected human souls into monsters.
Buuuuttt...
Things didn't go quite so well, creating these horrific creatures
That are only slightly less terrifying than watching late night hosts do Fortnite dances.
This story is revealed to us via lab entries found across panels on the walls, entries numbered 1 to 21.
Except one of these entry numbers is missing, Entry 17.
In fact, playing through the game normally, the lost 17th entry is nowhere to be found,
Making it seem like it was just a simple miscount at the hands of Toby Fox.
But it's not.
Hidden in the game data, there are two 17th lab entries.
The first just kind of tells us what we already know:
Determination caused the monsters to melt together into the amalgamates.
Old news, thank you, next.
It's the second one that matters, an entry written in wingdings
that makes it clear that this was left behind by the original Royal Scientist of the Underground:
W. D. Gaster.
It's a passage that I, and many other Undertale fans, have spent a lot of time poring over trying to decipher,
since it's pretty darn cryptic.
But now years later, it makes a lot more sense in light of the plot of Deltarune.
Or should I say in dark of the plot of Deltarune?
GasterPat: "Dark. Darker. Yet darker. The darkness keeps growing. The shadows cutting deeper.
Photon readings negative. This next experiment seems very, very, interesting
...
What do you two think?"
MatPat: Whatever experiment Gaster was running as he wrote that entry,
It involved growing darkness and light particles, photons, dipping into the negative.
Concepts that don't directly connect to anything in Undertale's story or the horrific events of the True Lab.
But their connection to Deltarune is suddenly obvious.
The entire plot of the game involves Kris, Susie and Ralsei
Fighting to correct an imbalance between darkness and light that threatens to end the world.
It sure sounds like Gaster might be talking about Deltarune here.
And before you start typing about how Undertale came out in 2015,
And how there is no way it could be referencing a game that would demo three years later,
You don't have to take it from me,
Take it from Toby Fox,
Who on Twitter made it very clear that the story of Deltarune predated the creation of Undertale.
Quote: "Third of all credit for the designs of Lancer, Rudinn, Clover, Hathy and Jevil goes to @kanotynes.
In 2012, I saw her designs for some playing-card inspired characters on Tumblr,
And decided I wanted to make a game featuring them.
It didn't end up going anywhere,
but the idea of 'I want to make an RPG stuck' with me.
The idea of 'I want to make an RPG' turned into Undertale,
And the playing card idea I had transformed into Deltarune
As I was making Undertale." End quote.
And shortly after Chapter One's release,
He posted concept art of Kris, Susie and Ralsei, dating all the way back to 2014.
So it's likely that the core plot points of the game,
including the imbalance between light and darkness,
were already in Toby's mind way back then.
But that's not all.
Deltarune itself makes a direct reference to Entry 17.
if the player uses their cellphone in the Darkner World,
They hear this eerie music:
*Mus_Smile/Entry 17 Theme*
That song is Mus_Smile,
The same sound that plays in Undertale when you find the hidden room that allows you to read Entry 17.
*Entry 17 Theme/ Mus_Smile*
Also in Deltarune's epilogue,
you can find a mysterious red door south of home town.
And when you stand near it this unsettling sound begins to play:
*LOUD SLOW MOANING FROM THE RED DOOR OF DOOM*
Which when you speed it up sounds like this:
*Oh, look. It's Entry 17/Mus_Smile*
It's the same sound again.
It sure seems to me like Deltarune is intentionally trying to point players towards Entry 17 with its music.
But now, like the opening of Deltarune,
I present you with a choice,
And unlike Deltarune, here your choice does matter.
At this point, I've prepared two different paths for this theory to take.
Two entirely different universes, if you will, separate from the parallel.
Do you follow the path of Gaster, in a quest to unmask his identity?
Or do you turn back and instead side with Kris, our misunderstood protagonist?
Links are on the screen and in the description,
And each will affect where the theory goes from here.
Two entirely different directions, two entirely different theories,
But whichever path you choose and even if you choose both,
I think you're gonna find something
GasterPat: Very, very,
Intresting...
Now click.