Player

THEN, THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS.

Voice, Chapter 1

The player is the real-world individual playing Deltarune by controlling the SOUL, and by extension Kris. The player can move Kris, navigate through the game's menus, make prompt choices, and select actions for the party during encounters. Most in-game narration that refers to actions taken by Kris are written in second person, stating that "you" are the one acting.

Numerous moments of separation between Kris and the player occur throughout the game, generally when Kris removes the SOUL from their body. Kris is also capable of using the SOUL to seal Dark Fountains, like the one at their home, without the player's oversight.

Main story

Chapter 1

During the game's introduction, a disembodied voice asks the player if they are connected. A moment later, a red SOUL appears. After verifying, the voice guides the player through designing a "VESSEL", then requests them to name the vessel before entering their own name. The process is interrupted by another entity, who states that the player's creation "Will now be discarded." The entity claims that "no one can choose who they are in this world", then seemingly assigns the connection to Kris. The game continues with the player inhabiting Kris's body.

One explicit moment of separation from Kris occurs at Card Castle, when the player follows Susie through the prison. When the player makes a selection for where Susie should go, she comments that she cannot hear Kris anymore, then goes left regardless of the player's input. Shortly after, Susie returns to Ralsei and Kris, with Kris retaking leadership of the party. It is implied that Ralsei had dialogue with Kris in the player's absence. However, the content of this dialogue is unknown.

After returning to Hometown, the player's final action is to put Kris to bed. At nighttime, Kris wakes up and forces their body to fall out of bed, then slowly moves on their own, tears the SOUL out of their body, and forcefully throws it into the birdcage near their bed. When the cage's door locks, the player can move the SOUL slightly, though Kris does not react. Kris pulls out a knife and flashes a wide grin at the camera, their eye glowing red in the darkness. The screen cuts to black, and Chapter 1 concludes.

Chapter 2

In the morning, the birdcage is empty, and its door is open. Toriel wakes Kris up, and it is implied Kris ate the entire butterscotch-cinnamon pie in the kitchen without the player's input. When inspecting the cage, the narration alludes to Chapter 1's ending. If Kris inspects the mirror in the hallway, the narration reads "(It's what they call "you.")"

Chapter 2 includes more instances of Kris reacting and talking independently. Kris closes their eyes when they open Asriel's room in Queen's Mansion, and stops reading about Asgore's firing at the Police Station. Partway through Queen's Mansion, Ralsei tells Kris to imagine what Susie could be doing. The game then focuses on a sequence between Susie and Noelle, during which the player is given dialogue prompts that have no impact on Susie's actions. When the scene returns to Kris and Ralsei, they are at the end of another unseen conversation. The entire sequence can be skipped if the player repeatedly chooses not to wonder about Susie despite Ralsei's inquiries.

When Kris returns home after exploring the Cyber World, directing them to wash their hands in the bathroom will instead result in them removing the SOUL and throwing it in the sink's vanity while the water flows. As they hobble to the window and leave, the camera is static. The player is only aware of Toriel and Susie's conversation as the duo make a pie before Kris returns and re-inserts the SOUL. It is only later when the player learns of Kris's actions from Toriel's phone call. She asks for the police to come over, who complies. Later in the night, with the TV off and Toriel and Susie asleep, Kris wakes up. They remove the SOUL again, open the door, turn the TV on, and seemingly focus on Susie. At the center of the room, they pull out a knife and plunge it into the floor, creating a Dark Fountain. Kris re-inserts the SOUL and falls asleep on the couch as the new Dark World forms.

Chapter 3

During Tenna's quizzes on TV Time, Kris will independently choose some answers by moving the cursor, covering the action with a cough. They tend to do this for questions that the player would have a hard time knowing, such as their favorite food or Asriel's favorite character in Super Smashing Fighters.

During the section of the Island Board in The Legend of Tenna where Kris and Susie's controllers are switched, the Ribbon or Pizza Deodorant (For Nerds) is given to Susie's character, causing Susie to complain about Kris making her wear it. Ralsei then repeats "M... Make you?" while looking directly at the fourth wall.

On the Sword Route, Kris will sometimes act independently of the player when controlling HERO_SWORD. Killing HERO_AXE and HERO_SCARF causes Kris to look off to the side, with their face taking on a distinctly pale tone. When approaching the in-game's replica of the shelter, Kris deliberately moves HERO_SWORD opposite to the direction of the shelter to impede the player's progress. After defeating the Shadow Mantle holder, when HERO_SWORD (whom the player controls) walks out of the Original Game, Kris will move their head to look at HERO_SWORD and back away if the latter comes close to them. Later, when Susie talks to Kris and HERO_SWORD re-enters the room, Kris will abruptly pull Susie away if the player attempts to attack her.

In the battle against the Knight, ACTs selected for Kris are always narrated in the third person as Kris rather than "you". Additionally, during the battle, Kris may independently cough, mirroring their behavior when selecting answers for the player during the quizzes. This will only occur if no damage has been taken by the end of the fight. This is notable in that Kris is rarely mentioned in the battle narration outside of ACTs.

Losing to the Knight after reloading a SAVE to fight it again will prompt the voice to speak directly to the player, with their dialogue varying depending on the number of losses, whether the player has obtained the Shadow Mantle, or if the party perished to the Knight's final attack. They give the player the option of retrying the fight, or continuing on.

Chapter 4

After Noelle invites Susie and Kris over to her house in Chapter 4, Kris searches for the shelter codes. However, upon finding the code in Dess's guitar, Kris removes the SOUL and hides it in the house's gift room. The player can move the SOUL around the house and overhear the caller talking to Kris on the phone. Before Kris re-inserts the SOUL, they delete their phone's contacts and recent dials.

In the Dark Sanctuary, while Susie is alone with the Old Man, if the player repeatedly refuses to think about Susie, Kris can close their eyes to think about the Knight. Before Kris can picture the Knight's face, they try hard to picture Jockington instead, possibly to conceal the Knight's identity. After the SheetMusic has been obtained, the player can attempt to play the grand organ piano. If the entire piece is played correctly, Kris will fail the last note. After leaving the piano interface, Susie will state that Toriel told her Kris was good at piano. This prompts Kris to play the piano on their own.

One of the prophecy illustrations in the 3rd Sanctuary, referring to "THE ANGEL", is not visible to the player. The entire party including Kris, however, is able to see it.

When Kris is alone with Ralsei in Castle Town, Ralsei will ask whether a Darkner like himself should develop his own opinions, desires, and fears. If Kris is directed to say "Of course not", they will cover up the last word with yawning to make Ralsei hear "of course" and encourage him to have his own feelings. Similarly, when Susie finishes telling Kris her own story about playing piano after the Dark Sanctuary, Kris can be directed to respond "I'll never play [piano] again", but they will cough so that Susie does not understand their words.

After sealing all Dark Fountains in the church, Kris and Susie may sit down at the lake. When Kris is prompted to say what is on their mind, they talk with their mouth closed.

In the Chapter's end credits, the voice once again talks directly to the player. If no trophies were obtained on the PS4/PS5 versions of the game, the voice addresses the player by the name chosen for the creator in the introduction.

Chapter 5

This Chapter begins with the player and Kris separated. Kris returns to their bedroom through the window, with ashen skin and an unstable posture. They crawl to the cage before putting the SOUL back in their body and beginning the chapter's Hometown segment.

During the cutscene with Susie and Noelle at the Lake, Kris falls asleep but the player is still able to view what Susie and Noelle do.

After the lake cutscene, Kris tears the SOUL out of their body and puts it in a nearby trash bin so they can enter Flower King from the back door and create a Dark Fountain.

At the end of the chapter, if the player refuses to walk Susie back to Castle Town, Kris will walk off-screen to tear out their SOUL, put it into a balloon and walk Susie back anyway.

Weird Route

If Kris is DOWNed during the fight with Berdly on the Weird Route in Chapter 2, Noelle will nevertheless note that she can hear "their" voice and protest against the command to use the SnowGrave spell, suggesting that the voice she is hearing is not Kris's. The battle against Spamton NEO also seemingly alludes to the distinction between Kris and the player by referring to Kris in third person when calling out for Ralsei and Susie, but referring to "you" when calling upon Noelle. While visiting her father at the hospital, Noelle thinks about the commands she heard, describing the voice that gave them to be "unlike Kris's" and "terrifying", indicating a noticeable difference in inflection between Kris's normal voice and their voice under the player's control. In Chapter 4, it is further revealed that Kris's voice sounds like it is "on speaker" while they are controlled by the player.

When pursuing the Weird Route in Chapter 4, after Kris removes the SOUL while inspecting Dess's guitar, it is possible to eavesdrop on a private conversation between Noelle and Kris. She recounts that Kris visited her at night to comfort her in an apparent attempt to remedy the events of the Weird Route in Chapter 2. During this interaction, they also removed the thorn stuck in her finger - the ThornRing's Light World counterpart. She remarks that she was happy to hear Kris's "deadpan, mumbly" voice again, then asks if she can say something else, giving the player a choice between "Proceed" and "Please don't". If the latter is chosen, the SOUL remains trapped in the vents outside the room and Noelle remarks that Kris did not say anything. Conversely, if the player chooses "Proceed", the SOUL is placed inside the room, allowing the player to guide it back into Kris. If the player lets the SOUL idle inside Noelle's room without re-entering Kris's body, Kris eventually notices the SOUL and grabs Noelle to flee the room.

If the Weird Route is not aborted, Kris stabs the ThornRing back into Noelle's hand. They subsequently enter the house's bathroom, remove the SOUL, throw it into a trashcan and repeatedly kick at it. After the SOUL is put back into their body, Kris's own HP is set to 10 due to their violent outburst.

After sealing the Dark Sanctuary Fountain, Kris has the option to interact with a collection of candles in the church's lobby. If Kris is directed to pray for Noelle, they break the candle with a sudden kick instead. Later, after Susie relays her story about playing piano, if Kris is directed to respond "I'll never play [piano] again", they will bite their own hand as opposed to coughing, causing them to take 1 HP of damage in the Light World.

At the beginning of Chapter 5's Weird Route, Kris refuses to get out of bed. They also walk very slowly, and no narration is provided upon interaction with objects until they leave the Dreemurr residence with Susie in tow.

After Noelle's monologue, the player is given the option to "Stop" or "Proceed". Choosing either progresses through the scene as scripted with Noelle backing into the lake, however, choosing "Stop" prompts Noelle to tell Kris to stop pretending and that she knows they remember. The "Stop" command is replaced with "Proceed" after choosing a few times. The player is prompted to select "Proceed" over and over again as the screen fades to white and both Kris and Noelle descend further into the lake.

If the Weird Route is aborted in Chapter 5, the player has the option to tell Susie not to get in between Kris and Noelle, but Kris will dive into a pool before they finish the sentence.

Trivia

• The Rudinn in front of Party Dojo mentions the player's written name as part of Castle Town's name.
• While Kris is referred to as "Boss" by recruited enemies, two Darkners refer to Kris separately:
  • Jigsaw Joe does this during the "Jigsaw Joe" Challenge.
  • Swatch greets with the word "boss". However, the "Recommendation" for Kris starts with the line, "For the young human".
• The vessel created at the beginning of Chapter 1 does not seem to be entirely discarded, as all of the data associated with it remains in the player's SAVE file.