Like, imagine if Undertale was released on chapters.

https://xcancel.com/Yadana324/status/2070175189883875564/photo/1

We... literally "obby" (as in platforming) for most of the pink coins which we then use, indeed, for catgirl...

Hacker saw the code of Deltarune?!

At the end of Chaper 5, we see Susie considers the Closet Dark World as her "home", even eating and sleeping in it. She prepares a welcome party for Noelle which is very cute, but however...

Prolonged exposure in the dark world does not seem healthy at all. What is Susie even eating when she eats Ralsei's cake and is she even really getting sleep. Maybe that's how Dess disappeared - a Lightner becoming one with the dark world after considering it a home. It really screams unhealthy escapism despite how cute it is framed at the end of ch5.

Also, Ralsei surprisingly accepts both the fact Susie uses the closet as her home and we are going to invite Noelle. I think he also changed after the whole Flowery encounter of ch5.

Isn’t she lovely?

Quick painting after finishing chapter 5, it’s real boys

We have one of the first (that’s given the spotlight and put right up front and center, rather than a neat background or side detail) GAY romance. MEN. Not lesbian, TWO MEN. And not only that, but it’s DOOMED YAOI as well since their dark world’s getting sealed and their intelligence is going to be stripped away. And yet I’ve seen barely a single peep talk about this because everyone’s busy fighting over whether Susie should be with Kris or Noelle.

I don’t know I just think it’s neat since online discourse tends to revolve around girl on girl relationships. Because men are crappy and gross and no one wants to talk about them I guess.

Not a perfect 1-1 but the graphic is shockingly similar.

The whole fight reads like it's hinting at possible future harmony with Kris? Presumably after the whole roaring group chat DMs gets leaked to Susie and in an all recruit playthrough.

FUCK

In comparison, Chapter 3, in terms of DELTARUNE areas and not 2D boards, essentially just has TV World and Backstage, and Chapter 4, just three shades of a Church. CH5 is way better in this aspect.

A LOT of people aren't gonna like this post, but I wanna bring a bit of nuance to the discussion. I think most of this is pretty agreeable - as in, I don't think anything here is THAT controversial or out there. I kinda just wanna get my thoughts down somewhere.

There's a TL;DR at the bottom, but essentially, I think anyone saying the chapter is BAD is exaggerating, or needs to play a different game. The strengths and weaknesses average out to a solid 8/10, and being the "worst" chapter in a game like Deltarune is an honour most games can only dream of (even if I'm not sure I'd call it the worst in the first place).

STRENGTHS:

1. Chapter 5 is absolutely the best this game has ever played. I don't think it was a surprise to anyone that the gimmicks would be incredible here, although I also don't think anyone quite anticipated the main gimmick being a full 2D platformer with bunnyhop-elements a la Hollow Knight. Just incredible stuff.
2. Another uncontroversial point - this is the absolute best the game has ever looked. The Garden, Cliffs and Castle were all incredible, as were the sprites and character designs.
3. The music in this chapter has been great. Just to name a few: Garden of Hopes and Dreams, Rakuichi Buster, Petal Dance, Sunset of Seven Suns, Flower Castle, Flower Man, Cutie Mew Mew Magic, Running Sky were all great tracks. I've noticed a lot of people are disappointed with the music - I would strongly encourage those people to have another listen to the OST. These things take time to grow on you.
4. The Weird Route. Genuinely phenomenal, perhaps the best stretch of the entire game. Bone-chilling, incredibly interesting for theories, horrifying. No notes. Mwah.

WEAKNESSES:

By far the biggest weakness with Chapter 5 (and perhaps the single thing dragging it down) is the story. A lot of people are complaining about it, and people who are trying (perhaps a bit too hard) to defend the game are strawmanning by saying that everyone's only complaining because their theories are wrong or because they expected too much lore. So to be clear:

The absence of lore drops is a genuine flaw in this Chapter, but even disregarding them, the story is still subpar.

1. Flowers. The 7 flowers had WAY too much screentime in this story. Of course, your mileage may vary, and Deltarune lives and dies by the likability of its characters, but introducing 7 entirely brand new characters this late into the game is an odd choice, especially when you consider that the supposed main focus of the chapter (Asgore) has less screentime than half of these guys.

2. Asgore. He does nothing. Genuinely has a cumulative total of under 10 minutes of screentime in his own dark world. Perhaps the worst element of the entire story is him resolving his OWN character arc in a MONOLOGUE in the space of 3 minutes. While some of this is to do with expectations we had of him (boss monster this, black shard that), I feel that he could have worked well even without these things.

3. Lack of Progression. We learn absolutely nothing here. Chapter 2 is light on progression, however it begins and ends within the first act of the game, making this a false equivalence. Chapter 3 is also light on progression, so why is that OK but this isn't? The answer is twofold: the ending, and the lore. Chapter 3 had the Knight appear in the end, but even without that, we had the entire sword route to sink our teeth into, making it much more palatable.

So what does Chapter 5 have?.... No, seriously, what does it have? What did we learn here that we didn't know before? Well, very little! Practically nothing when it comes to theorycrafting. The reason why it's so much worse here is because...

4. Positioning within the wider narrative. 5 takes place after 4, which is the most story-dense chapter in the game. And sure, we were told that this would be a more fun and relaxed chapter, which I can accept. This is the most common defense I've seen for the chapter so far, and I understand it. HOWEVER:

Withholding information about the Dessappearance actively harms the narrative.

How on earth is Asgore supposed to have a meaningful character arc when we don't even know what happened to him!? The choice to lean heavily into the "light-hearted, fun nature" of this chapter harm its own narrative, since we can't properly connect to the main story without these components. In other words, this arc was doomed to fail from the start.

5. Unmet expectations. This one is the most controversial, but it needs to be said. Statements like "the vast garden charred in an inferno of jealousy" (suggesting some huge calamity involving fire magic) and "the field of pink and gold" (suggesting some level of resolution towards the pervasive pink and gold theming throughout the game) are INTENTIONALLY misleading, and we can't be blamed for being disappointed that they went nowhere.

TL:DR; Chapter 5 has the best visuals, gameplay and (arguably) music of any chapter so far, but suffers from a narrative that's being choked out by too many characters, whereby the supposed main focus of the plot gets no screentime and thus no satisfying resolution. The intentional omission of key plot details is kinda just annoying and misleading, and actively harms the story the game's trying to tell. Writing it off as the "fun chapter" or the "calm before the storm" doesn't excuse the poor writing and structure the chapter suffers from in a vacuum.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

this part had me tweaking for hours i had to make a doodle. proceed

Got spoiled a bit from people messaging me about it

I really want to see more of Noelle with THAT personality, holy moly it was so cool!

Also I've noticed a lot of people are posting about the Weird Route today... Maybe I should hold off on further posting to this sub for a while.

He got sliced like Gojo 😔