Undertale/Deltarune Holiday Newsletter Overanalysis!

[@psychochief5090]

The susie one looks like she's sleeping on the dock shown in the previously newsletter to me.

[@PNats-fg4bw]

Makes sense! She fell asleep on the sofa, so it would make sense that she wakes up about to fall into the carpet thingys we saw in the previous newsletter screenshot

[@Hockeystick213]

​@PNats-fg4bw if the docks are the floorboards that wouldn't make as much sense though

[@CalamitasCalliope]

I'm not ready for Burgerpants and Ice-E to be relevant. Omega Ice-E grows more possible every day....

[@TheSkyGuy77]

PizzaKnight is coming soon 😂

[@trondordoesstuff]

23:55 The ampersand definitely seems to just be a symbol in the text engine and not actually a part of the text, so it'd read "Inferno, Inferno!" with a line break in between, so probably a battle line. I think it's another "Chaos, Chaos!" callback, like Tasque Manager's "Order, Order!" - maybe a hint to Chaos' elemental pairing?? -- fire does show up when chaos is mentioned in the Roaring legend 24:02 I would bet Lancer's "enhance my enclosure" is just a really wacky way of referring to his room in Castle Town.

[@RedactedAtlas]

Something to note about the wreath is that it shares three colors with the outside of the Town Hall, and the flowers are the same color as the trees. It also fits between the center pillars of the town hall almost perfectly This pretty much confirms that’s where it’s from, likely put up either in preparation for the festival or a jolly change in nature for the Mayor after the events of Ch 4

[@RedactedAtlas]

The small tree also shares colors with Kris and Asriel’s room, but I’m less sure what that could mean lol

[@trondordoesstuff]

yes, because before chapter 4 the mayor hates christmas..

[@CalamitasCalliope]

A very cool theory i saw was that the Berdly line is referring to Kris, but he only has that line if you gave him the plushie in the Cyber World. Sorta playing on the fact that we can kinda use Kris as a dating sim protag with Susie, Ralsei, and kinda Berdly with Noelle locked behind the Weird Route since she's really into Susie. Could be an interesting thing to do, but the more likely explanation is that it's directed to Susie, and it'll be a whole funny scene where Noelle beats him up again.

[@Vdxrps]

Ello! wanted to point out something out about the last newsletter, so basically the last chapter 5 news had a balloon and its color palette was literally the exact same as the posters of ice E in ice E's pizza and in this chapter 5 news burgerpants is relevant somehow. (sorry if the grammar is bad I was rushing this)

[@guiltyflygon]

Ice E's doing some get together during the festival would also make sense!

[@Cherryscentedcandle]

@@guiltyflygon I mean, FNAF does have a fall festival, so maybe Toby is doing a winter festival? Wonder if purple guy would be there?

[@Juniper413]

11:14 A cool and fun feature of the email version of the newsletter is that it replaces the word “you” with your name :)

[@d0ntwearit0ut]

More hidden underneath could just be her hidden potential both in the way queen saw her and in her hidden potential to do snowgrave

[@trondordoesstuff]

I think "to by, or not to by" is Seam -they do wacky stuff with pronunciation and spelling at times, like with their name -they own a shop, which we would see in Chapter 4 since we visit Castle Town (I could see this being just the generic Purchase menu dialogue this chapter) -they use the phrase "By the by," and I could see them quoting Hamlet They could also in theory be connected to Letterman, or.. to Toby Fox, since "to by" -> "toby" I definitely don't think the speaker here is the Letter Writer, since it's not written in all caps. (Though as an aside, my current theory as to the identity of the Letter Writer is that it's Eggman, who is a portion of Gaster's fractured consciousness.)

[@Cherryscentedcandle]

Toby, or not Toby

[@azureii_]

In the Japanese, it’s spelt “tobii” which reads as “toby”, (tohbee) rather than “to by” (tu/to bai), so this might be the intended reference.

[@Ghostmare_says_merry_notxmas]

That is the desstion

[@Icebrick2]

ED, E9 etc. are used to control the faces the text box has. If the speakers in the middle translation sample is Susie, Susie, Ralsei, Susie, the expressions line up, so 99% chance that's who's speaking in each line. I'd attach an image, if that was a feature in KZbin comments.

[@Squeerxblrg]

10:55 Hey thats me :D It was on the Fangamer site for a while, and I believe Toby announced the merch drop on Bluesky previously? I also find the merch itself really interesting. Its on both the Deltarune and Undertale stores, with the same description... Hmmm... In both Undertale and Deltarune and have the same description... Wonder if that has anything to do with the "important person" :3 Especially interesting with how Deltarune hasn't brought up LOVE (Level of ViolencE) yet, its tracked in the stats but nothing effects it. Also I CALLED THE VALENTINE'S LETTER GUY NOT BEING GASTER OHHHH YEAH LETS GO!!!

[@5sparks]

It's plausible the Lancer Enclosure thing is that Lancer had his own hamster cage built to match his dad's between chapters and this is the dialogue we get when checking on it in castle town. Maybe Queen put him in there as part of her mom-dad duties. Feels like the right kind of gag.

[@guiltyflygon]

That would make sense

[@imrat6415]

with the idea of noelles home being a darkworld, the "Susie i wike you" made me instantly think of a darkworld enemy that is some kind of representation of noelle herself. or perhaps any darkworld enemy that comes from noelles home likes susie just like noelle does.

[@imrat6415]

also the enclosure made me think of noelles digital pet? I forgot the name, but the whole "egg" and pet left home because of happiness

[@CalamitasCalliope]

What if the theoretical Valentine Card secret boss was a card Noelle planned to give to Susie, but she lost the nerve and threw it away.

[@guiltyflygon]

I like it!

[@tobysinbad]

I love the newsletters so much. Each is wonderfully written and illustrated, even when they have little to say. This one had a lot to say!

[@shayavit]

reading with my extremely limited japanese knowledge, ralsei is mentioned in the "what's with you, making me feel better" line so susie is most likely talking to him. also the elnina line in japanese reads "hey... the moon is beautiful" which is an common indirect way of saying i love you. with this in mind i think the english line might be a play on common english pick up lines(? not really sure)

[@guiltyflygon]

It's definitely close to "did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" Which is a stereotypical pick-up line... I'm just not sure what the moon part is about, lol.

[@hyparpax]

@@guiltyflygon probably because lanino's head is shaped like a crescent moon

[@In.New.York.I.Milly.Rock.]

@@guiltyflygon The Japanese term is unrelated to the pick-up line notion of the english version. It is not meant to be a direct translation it's a localization that forgoes the original line for the sake of finding a culturally relevant pun. The term is an euphemism and is typically used by young people who are shy and don't want to commit. It is flirtatious, but not overt like the original.

[@goomylife5403]

To by or not To by is very likely just a play on Toby's name, since the Japanese version says トビー (tobii), you're probably not supposed to read it as "bye/buy"

[@Ongle_Spongle]

13:52 Something that i think is a little weird about this is that the background is specifically *Gray.* At least as far as i know, these kinds of things usually have an either white or black background, but i think this is the first time where ive seen something thats gray instead, maybe its symbolic? Or maybe it just has to do with the theme of snow? No idea!

[@feli3583]

I can hear all the theory crafting with this newsletter

[@Wailbouzidi242]

the christmas stuff in the chapter 4 section could just be a red herring, the newsletter has a christmas theme so it would make sense if toby decided to show things that are related to christmas, we could visit noelle's house at the end of the chapter. as for the dark world i highly think it will be the church just because of rudy going to the church on the same day chapter 4 is supposed to take place, as well as the cup darkner and Alvin mentioning that there is juice in the church. edit: so it appears that inferno means hell, or atleast fire, and if the holiday mansion is the chapter 4 dark world it wouldn't make sense for a fire enemy to be in a place whose residents like cold, especially mayor holiday, however it makes total sense for it to be in the church based on the religious meaning of the word.

[@doommustard8818]

I read the berdly thing as being his response to being told to Flirt with the act menu. but a ton of people seem to think it is berdly asking Kris out. either way Berdly is a partner

[@fizzycherrycola3559]

19:18 It could maybe be both? My town has a festival that celebrates a local Catholic holiday (summer though, not winter). It starts with a church service and religious procession, followed by standard carnival stuff like rides and street vendors. So it could easily be both, especially if Hometown is a heavily religious town.

[@fizzycherrycola3559]

Sorry just had another thought. The festival in my town celebrates (to my understanding, because I’m not Catholic) a local saint. Imagine if there’s a festival celebrating the angel, which leads to the creation of the angel’s heaven…..🤔

[@BlulesBlue]

imagine working for a big company and having them using your work as an example for what they want, you won man, btw the sega game is for arcades only in japan, this is why we don't hear about these games

[@_Five_Knights_]

Honestly, it's probably bc I've been back into Zelda recently that I took the moon falling sentence to be a nod to Majora's Mask lmao, but in all actuality, it's PROBABLY def a pickup line or smthin' playing on the fact La Nino is a.. moon JHGFSFHJ (or is it El Nina... I actually forgot whoes who lol)

[@randomtree7295]

I'd argue that the Christmas theming in this newsletter might not be as significant as one might think, its not too unlikely that its that way simply because this is the December newsletter

[@gretchling5012]

i don't think we can necessarily say that the secret valentine author is the same as the "To by or not to by?" person, given that the latter isn't in all caps like the letter was. it's still possible, but so are a lot of other things as far as the snowman being a torso that looks like a head... maybe that ties in to gaster's weird lower body that looks like a face?

[@nicopico8408]

The whole Important person’s shirt section makes me think the shirt belongs to Asriel or something and Kris is wearing it in some attempt to emulate him. You could interpret “their love will be yours” as meaning “the love they receive will be yours” and since it seems like Asriel got a lot more attention, maybe Kris is kinda jealous

[@silverdragon2137]

7:45 Toby or not Toby (Fox)

[@MrMetal-xe8lg]

Oh shit, didn't get the email for this one

[@hi-ougidemonfang]

I hear by or not to by and think telemarketers

[@TheSkyGuy77]

Pizza Knight is looking ever more likely 😂

[@thevioletskull8158]

Yeah maybe Cammy is right

[@KittyCalibur]

Translation takes a decent amount of time. Theres no way its going to come out this year. Itll probably drop around the earliest middle of next year unless the console releases go REALLY well with minimal bugs. Thats just how it goes when the developers don't have a ton of personnel and are insistent on teleasing on every platform simultaneously. Realistically we would be talking about a chapter 6 or even 7 release date by now if it was a PC exclusive instead of going to all platforms at once.

[@Cawziiku]

this newsletter destroyed me wtf

[@brastionskywarrior6951]

best vtuber avatar ever

[@freshnewcungadero]

I get that game development is hard and all, and its important to not rush creators.. But Toby has been saying that "translation issues" and "console transfers" are all that remain for the last year now. It's starting to get frustrating. Clearly, Deltarune Ch 3 + 4 won't be releasing anytime soon with how dead Toby's team has been playing. Might as well just give up and set your alarm for 2027 or something.... It's honestly getting ridiculous at this point.

[@azureii_]

Is that accurate though? The largest hurdle in the past year always seems have to been the new Gamemaker feature. It took Gamemaker longer than expected to release it, and then they had to refix a ton of issues. They can’t do console transfers before all of native issues are fixed. We also know that a team has been working on Chapter 5 this whole time, and that the team has substantially expanded since work on Chapter 3 began.

[@TheSkyGuy77]

This wait period was the longest one we'll probably have.

[@guiltyflygon]

There was 3 years between chapter 1 and chapter 2, so if you factor in that two chapters are releasing this time 4ish years should actually come in below what should have been our expectations! Of course, the team has grown substantially since then, but so has the scope. As Toby said in the summer newsletter, "Chapter 3 & 4 together are definitely longer than Chapter 1 & 2 combined. Thinking about that is kind of crazy…"" But there's something else at play that makes the wait feel unending, and that this is... These very newsletters! We didn't used to have a look into development like we do now, and yeah, testing a game takes just as long if not longer than making it. (especially if the testers have to play the game multiple times to check every different dialogue tree in multiple routes.) Add on top of that how many different operating systems they have to account for and the time balloons like crazy. (And that's not even considering how Covid shook things up) This is also why a lot of indie and kickstarter games seem like they're making great progress and then suddenly grind to a halt for years on end. If Toby wasn't being so open with us we wouldn't be on the edge of our seat waiting so much. An apt metaphor would be Christmas presents! Knowing there's something awesome sitting wrapped inside your house can be agonizing because you know it's within your reach, but you can't have it! But, in some cases, you may have waited several months for Christmas to come without as much agony. So, what I'm trying to say is... It can be hard to be patient, but it'll be worth it! (Also, on the topic of the team being "dead" to questions about the game's progress... That's likely Toby's design. It's best to have the team focused on making the game full time rather then having to play PR manager for half of their time. That's what the newsletters are for after all.)