ARE YOU THERE?
ARE WE CONNECTED?
EXCELLENT.
TRULY EXCELLENT.
NOW.
WE MAY BEGIN.The Voice speaking to the player
The Voice is an unseen character in Deltarune. They are the first person encountered during the game, as they are first heard during the Introduction.
They are one of the few characters to acknowledge the presence of the player, with whom they directly interact.
Profile[]
Personality[]
The Voice is a mysterious character whose goals are not known. They talk to the player and offer to create a vessel for them.
The Voice's dialogue is entirely uppercase. In the Japanese translation of Deltarune, the Voice's dialogues use a mix of kanji and katakana, an unusual writing style that is not used by other characters.
The Voice's text displays more slowly than text for other characters, suggesting that the Voice speaks slowly.
Main Story[]
Chapter 1[]
The Voice greets the player during the game's introduction, asking: "ARE YOU THERE? ARE WE CONNECTED?"
After that, the SOUL appears on the screen, to which the Voice asks the player to create a vessel. The vessel is shaped after a human looking like Kris, with options for its head, torso and legs, as well as its personality.
Once the vessel is done, the Voice asks for the vessel's name, then the player's name. Once done, a different voice says that the creation will be discarded because "no one can choose who they are in this world." This voice is about to say the player's name when the scene cuts into Kris's bedroom, and Toriel shouts their name.
Upon getting a Game Over in Chapter 1, the Voice speaks to the player similarly to how they did in the intro, saying they appear to have reached an end and asking them if they want to try again. If the player chooses to continue, the Voice tells them the future is in their hands, after which the screen fades to white and goes back to normal gameplay. Alternatively, if the player chooses to give up, the Voice tells them that the world was covered in darkness, followed by the screen turning black and remaining that way while "Darkness Falls" plays in its entirety. In the original Chapter 1 release the game then closes, and in the rest of the releases the game returns to the chapter select screen.
If the player closes and reopens the game, they are presented with a load menu. If Chapter 1 has not previously been completed, the menu narration is implied by the word choice and capitalization to be the Voice.
Chapter 2[]
In Chapter 2, there is a proper Game Over screen and Ralsei or Susie speaks instead, urging the player to not give up. If neither are in the party, nobody speaks and the player immediately gets the option to continue or give up. Choosing to continue has the screen fade to white and return to normal gameplay, and choosing to not plays out the exact same as in Chapter 1 (with the Voice returning as well), although on PC, the game returns to the chapter selection screen instead of closing.
Other Appearances[]
Chapter 1 Pre-Release[]
Leading up to the announcement of Deltarune, the UnderTale and UndertaleJP Twitter accounts had their names and avatars blanked out, and began to tweet cryptic messages. These messages are written in-character, but for an unknown character.[1][2] This character speaks in all capital letters in English, and in a mix of kanji and katakana in Japanese, which are the distinctive writing traits of the Voice.
In the first sequence of tweets, posted October 30, 2018, the unknown character notes that the reader has been looking for them, and that they likewise have been looking for the reader. They then say that they have something to show to the reader, but that it is not complete, so the reader should return in "[24]" hours. They mention that they intend to use the reader's responses to "approach its realization," possibly a reference to the vessel creation process in the introduction.
In the second sequence of tweets, posted October 31, 2018, the unknown character thanks the reader for their patience, noting that they both have been waiting a "very long time," but are excited now that they and the reader are on the "verge of connection." They comment that they are looking forward to creating a new future with the reader, then link to the Deltarune website.
At the time, the Deltarune website included a message in same font and writing style as the voice, which advised the reader to read the warnings below, then "take it in [their] hands."[3] The website included a download for a file named "SURVEY_PROGRAM," which was the installer for Deltarune Chapter 1.
When running the installer, instead of containing a license, the license text in the license agreement of the installer simply says "YOU ACCEPT EVERYTHING THAT WILL HAPPEN FROM NOW ON."[4] This likewise is written in all caps, indicating that this message was written by the voice.
Chapter 2 Pre-Release[]
After the announcement of Chapter 2, the UnderTale and UndertaleJP Twitter accounts once again tweeted in-character in the lead up to Chapter 2's release, in the unique style of the Voice. The voice noted that it had been a long time, and proposed that they could make a second connection.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
Trivia[]
- The name of the music track playing during the introduction is titled "ANOTHER HIM" in all capital letters, similar to how the Voice speaks. Several other songs in Deltarune's OST follow this pattern.
- In Undertale's files, Gaster's Theme is labeled "
mus_st_him
", indicating a connection. The two songs also share a similar melody. Additionally, both songs utilize Chrono Trigger's soundfont of the piano instrument and have an interval of 1+ 7+ 7- 1- suggesting a shared leitmotif. - Most in-game assets regarding the Voice or the Introduction are also internally referred to using all capital letters.[17]
- The songs that share this stylization are "THE WORLD REVOLVING" and "THE HOLY" for Chapter 1; and "A CYBER'S WORLD?", "WELCOME TO THE CITY", "HEY EVERY !", "NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A", "KEYGEN", and "BIG SHOT" for Chapter 2.
- "Gallery", "Darkness Falls", "Before The Story", and "Faint Courage" are stylized this way in the game files, but not the soundtrack.
- In Undertale's files, Gaster's Theme is labeled "
- There are many similarities between W. D. Gaster and the Voice, implying that they are probably the same:
- The typer value used in the Introduction of Deltarune is "666" and "667," the latter also used for the Game Over sequence. The typer value used for ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN in room_gaster in Undertale is "666."
- In the properties for the SURVEY_PROGRAM's installer, its file and product version numbers are 0.6.6.6 on the details tab.
- The use of all caps and odd spacing between sentences and words are also similar to Entry 17.
- In the lead-up to Chapter 1's release, the Voice stated they had something to show that they believed the player would find "VERY, VERY, INTERESTING."[18] This paraphrases the content of the inaccessible Wingdings ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN in Undertale.[19]
- The aforementioned use of "HIM" mirrors Gaster's Theme,
mus_st_him
. - The Vessel created during the introduction is called a "GONER" in the files. Similarly to Goners and Gaster followers, the Vessel mostly uses the color grey for its sprites. In Undertale, Goners share many similarities with Gaster followers.
- Leading up to the announcement of Deltarune, the UnderTale and UndertaleJP Twitter accounts had their names changed to six blank characters. Gaster also has six letters in his name.
- When the vessel is discarded, the voice's text suddenly changes to using standard capitalization instead of all caps, implying a different character is speaking.
- In Japanese, the second voice uses a mix of kanji and hiragana instead, different from the distinct writing style of the previous voice. Additionally, the second voice uses the second-person pronoun "omae," whereas the first voice uses "anata." This quirk is shared with Chara in the Japanese translation of Undertale.
References[]
- ↑ UnderTale Twitter (November 1, 2018)
- ↑ UndertaleJP Twitter (October 31, 2018)
- ↑ Deltarune website (October 2018)
- ↑ Deltarune Chapter 1 - Part 1: SURVEY_PROGRAM - YouTube
- ↑ HOW LONG
IT HAS BEEN. - @UnderTale on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ ONCE MORE
I THANK YOU
FOR YOUR PATIENCE
IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES. - @UnderTale on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ YOU HAVE DONE
EXCELLENTLY
TO PERSEVERE. - @UnderTale on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ DELTARUNE
GLOWS BRIGHTLY
FROM YOUR HOPE. - @UnderTale on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ NOW.
SHALL WE ?
SHALL WE GO AGAIN ? - @UnderTale on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ THE SECOND FIELD.
THE SECOND CONNECTION.
deltarune.com - @UnderTale on Twitter, September 18, 2021. - ↑ アレカラ
ドレダケノ
時ガ 流レタデショウ。 - @UndertaleJP on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ 再度 感謝シマス。
コノ 困難ノ ナカ
アナタハ 辛抱強ク
待チ続ケマシタ。 - @UndertaleJP on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ アナタハ
ジツニ ヨク
耐エ忍ンデ キマシタ。 - @UndertaleJP on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ DELTARUNE ハ
アナタノ 希望ヲ 受ケ
燦然ト 輝ヤク。 - @UndertaleJP on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ デハ。
参リマショウ。
再ビ。 - @UndertaleJP on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ 第2ノ "場"。
第2ノ 接続。
deltarune.jp - @UndertaleJP on Twitter, September 17, 2021. - ↑ gml_Object_DEVICE_CONTACT_ch1_Step_0 script
- ↑ SOMETHING
I THINK YOU WILL FIND
VERY,
VERY,
INTERESTING - @UnderTale on Twitter, October 30, 2018. - ↑ THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT
SEEMS
VERY
VERY
INTERESTING
...
WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK - Wingdings Entry 17 (Undertale)