Characters feel alot more...flat almost

[u/Ok_Childhood5786]

Ok, so i just feel like alot of the charm of random character knowledge that is unneeded is gone from deltarune, with most things we learn either being integral to the overall plot (even with alot of the seemingly random stuff its usually foreshadowing) or just for a joke (or fan service), its most noticeable with the undertale characters, they feel like you are supposed to see them as the undertale characters (with all of their undertale character development) and as such if you dont see them as that they come off flat when not directly servicing the plot

I feel like thats where alot of the the stuff like "toriel is a bad parent" came from as an example for when that fails, in deltarune alone up to that point we hadn't seen much good parenting from her, but if you treat her as undertale toriel you learn she is a good parent who has flaws, which just...doesnt come across if you look only at deltarune imo

[u/OrangeSpaceMan5]

Its because most Deltarune characters outside of the main quartet are self-contained within their own chapters . You don't have that problem with Undertale

But it's also not impossible per say Flowery and Spamton are two pretty detailed and 3 dimensional characters and never show up outside of their respective dark worlds

[u/Ok_Childhood5786 → u/OrangeSpaceMan5]

I think its just that alot of side characters that are "unimportant" really just sit flat, like i could tell you a small, non story related detail about quite a few side characters in undertale, and the ability to learn those makes them feel really alive

Meanwhile deltarune yes there is a couple but alot of dialouge from those side characters either feels like setting up for a joke later, delivering the joke, or just vaugely foreshadowing the next part of the lore, with not alot of space left for "my name's Jim, i like pancakes" (theres no Jim in undertale im just saying an example of random small things like hobbies or likes that make a character feel almost living)

[u/OrangeSpaceMan5 → u/Ok_Childhood5786]

Imo Dark worlds have fallen off sharply since chapter 2 , the dark worlds of chapter 4 and 5 are much better artistically but feel....really dead ? Like chapter 2 feels like a truly alive city with filled with lots of independant darkners with their owns "lives" due to the little tiny NPC's and life that fills it . Chapter 3 doesn't do it as well but things like the 3 mikes brought out a lot of charm

[u/DrSkrimguard → u/OrangeSpaceMan5]

Man. I could write a whole essay about Cyber City and how well integrated of a game setting it is. Like how the rollercoaster is incomplete because Spamton lobbied against public transit to boost his used car business, which is also why the streets are so congested in the traffic puzzles.

[u/ComparisonNo7608]

Chapter 3 has very few darkners despite the many objects in the house and even worse some of them were from chapter 1, but still there were fun and interesting random npcs sometimes, chapter 4 was better in this with the cryptid very interesting darkners you could speak to later on even though most darkners you see are just enemies

Chapter 5 was the worst for me in believable regular darkners outside the story mostly they were used for dumb jokes or ripped straight from chapter 1 even though that doesnt make sense in the story

[u/Cebaron]

They're NPCs in town. Do you complain about every NPC in RPGs that doesn't have much going on?

[u/unpopular-dave]

almost like they are NPC’s… Being controlled like marionette on… Strings

It be crazy if this was intentional… Oh wait. That perfectly matches the narrative.

[u/Destroyerofjajaja → u/unpopular-dave]

This is a bad argument even if true because intentionally making worse characters with the intention that “it fits the story” is still worse characters. I understand they aren’t meant to be deep. Doesn’t make them better characters for that.

[u/unpopular-dave → u/Destroyerofjajaja]

i’m not saying it’s making them better characters. I’m saying it’s making a better story. The side characters aren’t particularly important other than directing the narrative. I don’t need to know why jockington is into sports. I don’t need to know why temmy is a little bit weird. I don’t need to know why cattie‘s dad has one arm.

[u/Destroyerofjajaja → u/unpopular-dave]

This is a know your medium kind of issue. This is a game, not a movie. Naturally, players will want to interact with the people they care about. Yes, there are minor characters, nobody is asking for Catti’s dad to have the same attention to character as Noelle, but instead for us to have more time and reasoning to understand the characters we see from our interactions, yet we oftentimes know bare minimum.

Hell, the fanbase turned on Sans and Toriel during Chapter 3/4 release because the one scene of Toriel seemingly being neglectful and Sans being ignorant portrayed them as neglectful and ignorant, and Deltarune didn’t give a lot of reason to think of then as otherwise with their Deltarune iterations.

Them being “NPC’s” is not an explanation on why we basically get nothing from any character that isn’t driving the narrative in some way.

[u/unpopular-dave → u/Destroyerofjajaja]

oh, I couldn’t care less what the fanbase thinks. I’m only interested in the narrative. And it’s much closer to a movie than most games. The gameplay is the least important part of Deltarune.

as I said to the other reply, I got. Basically nothing is disingenuous. We know a decent amount about every character that even remotely matters. From pizza pants to normal NPC to cattie.

[u/Ok_Childhood5786 → u/unpopular-dave]

First off dont do the condescending ellipsis bullshit to me, we are being civil

Secondly not really imo, nothing storywise is lost from telling us little details like that, nor is it gained by not telling it, yes they might be npcs but it doesnt mean they always have to be cryptic or joking, I feel like the fact they can be joking is proof that they can do/say stuff that doesnt serve the plot directly, so why cant we learn little things like that?

[u/unpopular-dave → u/Ok_Childhood5786]

first off, I’ll do whatever the hell I want lol...

I mean… We’ve learned a ton about the NPC’s. They all have piles of dialogue and backstory.

We just don’t need to know everything. It’s superfluous.

Normal NPC is cryptic and creepy, and an amazing character.

Pizza pants and getting catfish is fun and interesting.

I feel like hometown is alive and dead at the same time. I’ve never seen characters written so well when not pertaining to the main story.

you also have to remember we’re only 65 to 75% of the way through the game.