badcomet

i didn’t actually know this until recently but if you skip one of the shadow crystal fights, you don’t need to start your run over from that chapter. so if you beat pink in chapter 5 but didn’t fight the knight in chapter 3, you don’t need to do chapter 4&5 over again - just do chapter 3 again on the same save slot & the shadow crystal+ black shard will become obtainable in castle town in chapter 6. so there’s really no reason to choose aqua knife bc black shard is just better.

if the purpose was just to hammer home the point geno route was trying to make about the PLAYER being responsible for their actions by giving us a vocal victim we force to do violence with noelle, it achieved that already in chapter 2 alone. casting snowgrave on berdley could have been the conclusion, with the game returning to a mostly normal route afterwards. that could have been chilling in it’s own way, if berdley just remained in a coma, noelle thought it was just a dream but ultimately the game proceeded to it’s single ending.

I do like how weird route is this alternate creepy horror story right now and i’d be fine with it staying that way as opposed to “rewarding” the player for being evil with weird route actually being the way to unlock the true ending or something. But I think we’re kinda past needing a “kris i remember your snowgraves” moment. noelle saying that casting snowgrave made her feel powerful and she feels bad saying it but it’s true is way more interesting.

I guess i feel like if just guilt tripping the player for trying to be evil in the game where enemies run away from you when attacking them is the point, then ch4&5 weird route is a bit pointless? and im trusting that theres more to it. i want people to be more open to the idea of it being part of the full story of the game.

meanwhile weird route is a bit different. there are a lot of ‘abort’ moments with special dialogue. it’s really ambiguous what has happened to the darkners you froze or to berdley, and that doesn’t just get undone after aborting. noelle has special dialogue at the ferris wheel if you aborted before chapter 5 which is fascinating because her attitude is totally different from if you either continued the route or were never on it. on weird route she tells you about how she feels stuck on a set path, and there are times on the normal route where she hints at the same depression. but here she can say “you aren’t making me do anything”.

that’s so weird and different!! but now that I think of it maybe it is kind of like that neutral ending where after sparing mettaton, alphys steps up and evacuates the rest of underground. you normally don’t see her develop like that but in this one specific instance she can. in a specific instance in deltarune, noelle can want more than her set path but reject the player because she (rightfully) sees them as a threat??