Of every announcement to get me locked into my screen, it had to be Toby Fox’s Deltarune trailer.
This is a shorter article, but I wanted to cover something that had nothing but pure joy and love behind it. While articles I write often want to discuss specific complex topics or issues I have, I wanted a time to simply put something wonderful onto a pedestal and praise it. That thing is the Nintendo Switch 2 trailer for Deltarune, revealed on April 2nd to give us the release of chapters 3 and 4—June 5th, 2025.
For the unfamiliar, Deltarune is the second game by Toby Fox, the video game developer and composer that was the genius behind the indie RPG Undertale. Deltarune’s first chapter was released in 2018, the second in 2021, and now with two more available later this year. The game follows 3 heroes saving their world and another from various mysterious forces—an adventure full of laughter and mystery as things continue to unravel. I’d say more, but this paragraph was intended for those of you who haven’t played it. If you’ve yet to experience Undertale or Deltarune, please take today to begin installing and playing the game. It’s ok, this article will be here for when you come back.
For anyone following Toby Fox, I’m sure you’re as excited as I am. Which is why I audibly screamed while watching a small white dog scamper onto screen on a black background during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. While learning a release date was obviously an exciting moment, I want to highlight the beauty in the trailer’s design that moved me beyond anything I’d seen in recent memory.
We all have trailers that we hold dear to our heart—gripping memories or powerful imagery that, regardless of the game’s final release, we find ourselves returning to. For those curious, mine are (in no particular order) the staple Dead Island Official Announcement Trailer, the Destiny 2: Lightfall Launch Trailer from the Playstation State of Play, and the Bulletstorm: Full Clip Launch Trailer that introduced me to the music artist Krewella. Of these, I failed to play 2 of these games and the last was a tonal contrast to the love I had from the trailer. With this new Deltarune trailer joining the ranks of these 3, I’m excited to finally have a touching trailer for a source material I will enjoy thoroughly.
I mean, I did end up enjoying Lightfall. It’s pretty solid. People are just haters.
The Deltarune trailer follows a similar theme of simple pixel art and black background with simple describing words, but even here there’s a deceptively unique detail going on. As they introduce us to Kris, Suzie, and Ralsei, the trailer shows us an animation that, I believe, is not present within the games as we know it (I don’t say this with confidence because even now, 7 years later, people forget that the party joining jingle I use as a stream notification was present in the first chapter). Kris lifting Suzie up from her hand is a powerful vision that reminds me of their slowly growing friendship from bully and victim turned party members. As it isn’t mimicked with Ralsei, a character’s origin who is still shrouded in mystery, I can only imagine that this animation will be seen as the two continue to work together in the coming chapters.
As the music hits the chorus, we see gameplay that swaps from familiar to unfamiliar with old memories and new fights. As scared as I usually am with spoilers pertaining to these games within trailers, it’s hard to not notice the same love being poured into these chapters as the previous work Toby Fox has put in. The unique gunslinger costumes they’re put in as the player is seemingly aiming for an ACT minigame, the wonderful 4 frame animation of Suzie banging on the drums, and all the new minigames and different playstyles we’re seeing that transcend anything we’ve seen before all give me hope for a new level of incredible storytelling and humor. The shift in my emotion that brings this from a great trailer to one of the best is in the final moments—as the chorus approaches an ending, a small music shift I only noticed on my second watch switches from the standard familiar theme to an orchestrated rendition that immediately captures my attention whether I notice it or not. We get another reminder of where we’ve been—A scuffle with King and a showdown with Queen in chapters 1 and 2. With each beat, we move forward—A look at the static-y foe coming to chapter 3 and a rather non-committal scene for chapter 4 (which I appreciate, spoilers in trailers are lame). It finally ends with a beautifully animated cutscene of our heroes facing off a cliff towards the climactic words of the trailer—”Deltarune is waiting.”
I don’t have any fancy college-educated analysis for the trailer and why it’s so good. It just feels good. It is emblematic of the love and joy that comes from indie creators as they show off the best facets of their work and deliver to their fans a beautiful product. There’s no fancy graphics or performance reveals—it’s simply a story of friendship and humor given to us in a satisfying way, leaving us with a 2 month wait for an exciting continuation of the fantastic work from Toby Fox. Once again, there’s no meaning to this article—it’s just appreciation for a beautiful moment in gaming.
And the game isn’t even out yet.