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Tear Jerker / Deltarune

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WARNING: Spoilers Off applies to Tear Jerker pages, per wiki policy.

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    General 
  • In a sharp contrast to a neutral/pacifist Frisk, who is generally liked by everyone... Kris's school life is definitely a pretty sad one. Dealing with bullies, or people in school and town being generally indifferent towards them, with their brother being off at college, it's perhaps easy to see why they're so melancholic looking.
  • A subtle detail, but check out Kris's bedroom. Asriel's side is full of decorations, pictures, trophies... exactly what you'd expect a young adult to have in the bedroom they had their whole childhood. But Kris, who has also (presumably) been there their whole life... has nothing but a worn-out wagon and a rusty birdcage, and their locker is also empty. This, combined with other characters commenting that Kris isn't very sociable, really does make you wonder if they had any friends besides Asriel, or even hobbies up until now.
    • The conversations with people in Hometown actually reveal that Kris has hobbies (piano, occultism and pranks to say the least) but their room doesn't reveal any of that, like if they were ashamed of their own accomplishments or didn't consider them worth showing in their private area.
    • Hammered home by their room in Ralsei's castle in Chapter 2, which is the same as their half of the room in the Light World, except it has all the decorations, pictures, and trophies.
  • Kris's reactions to certain objects at the start of the game also appear to show a more subdued mindset than Frisk's at the start of Undertale. Where Frisk's narration reacts to the mirror with a neutral "it's you" and whimsically remarks about the cactus being "the most tsundere of plants", Kris's remarks "it's only you" and says there's "nothing special" about the plant, coming across as older and more jaded than the sweet kid we remember. It's a small thing, but an early sign that things might not be all roses for our protagonist or their accompanying narrator.
    • To add to that, it's implied that Kris doesn't really think all that highly of themself. When talking about Asriel's side of their bedroom, the narration goes into great detail about things like the game console under the bed or discs under the desk. When talking about their own side of the room? The narration barely says anything, just leaving things off with a simple "your bed" and "your shelf". The added detail of a pristine game controller and a knockoff one doesn't help things.
  • Marshmallows come up more than once in the game, in addition to the Dark Candy tasting like marshmallows there's a pack of scented markers in Toriel's classroom where, if you choose to smell them, Kris outright huffs the marshmallow-scented one. If you choose to go to the diner afterwards the bunny waitress reminisces that Asriel and Kris used to come to the diner every Sunday and get hot chocolates and gives Kris a cup on the house after realizing that they really miss him. Checking the item in your inventory mentions that it's topped with home-made marshmallows, and drinking it gives you the message that it tastes wonderful and then mentions that Kris's throat tightens up, implying the taste of the hot chocolate reminds them of Asriel and how bitterly they miss him.
  • It's implied that Rudolph, Noelle's dad, is really sick, and he knows it, but he's downplaying it because he doesn't want to upset her. But if, Heaven forbid, whatever he has is life-threatening, he will have to tell her about it sooner or later. Imagine how Noelle will react…
    • To make matters worse, when you first arrive at the hospital, Noelle is telling Rudolph about how she's waiting to play a certain video game until he's home, so they can play together. Rudolph says she shouldn't wait. He quickly says he means that she should bring it to the hospital and so they can play it there, but the phrasing and the look on his face heavily implies that he was about to break the news to her, only to get cold feet at the last second. Which is an extremely understandable thing, but you just know it's only going to make matters worse in the long run, and Rudolph probably knows it, too.
    • Chapter 2 shows them playing the game together, but also has him talking to Kris more quietly afterwards that he practically admits this is worse than he's making it out to be. But Rudolph worries his wife might be too hard on Noelle and wouldn't exactly have a great time raising her as a single mother, so he simply has to get better. All this implies that rather than trying to come to terms with his condition, he blames himself for something outside of his control simply because it would hurt his daughter and thus would be his fault.
    • For an extra kick in the teeth, Rudolph's voiced laugh bit has him get a few chuckles out before coughing enough to stop. Chapter 2? His attempts at laughing immediately have only coughing.
    • Also in Chapter 2, one of the things Noelle admires about the dark world is how "anything can be healed with a simple spell". She's clearly thinking of her father, raising the possibility that she's already beginning to suspect the truth.
  • For Undertale's fourth anniversary, Toby Fox released two new themes. The first is 'Welcome to the City,' a peppy, cheerful song. The second is 'Lost Girl (Noelle)', an incredibly solemn theme with an altered sprite of Noelle. Given the specific choice of name and the unusual focus on Noelle in Chapter 1, there is a lot of ominous foreshadowing…
    Toby Fox: (I said this was Noelle's Theme but it's actually the kind of song that gets used repeatedly all over the game, even when she's not around...)
    [...] Of course, that's not the only version of that song. Lots and lots of things happen. I just hope you can be friends with everyone someday.
  • As part of the Spamton Sweepstakes, a few pages from Noelle's blog were released. One of them describes a pre-Deltarune interaction after class between Kris and Susie, and it's pretty gut-wrenching after seeing how close the two become in-game. In the post, Susie threatens to bite off Kris's head and throws an apple at them, to which Kris only snickers in response. Susie then snarls that Kris's mother will get sick of them eventually, and someone might then make them disappear, and Toriel will then realize how happy she is without Kris. Kris whispers something back to this that Noelle doesn't hear, and it causes Susie to Freak Out and run from the room.
  • Another blogpost has Noelle reminiscing about how Kris used to come over to visit her nearly every day, and would eventually gain a "blank look" and go into the house to play piano. They would never play if they knew Noelle was watching, so Noelle would lie down on the couch, close her eyes, and pretend Kris was putting on a concert just for her. She wonders if Kris ever thought of her, or if they were only ever there to play the piano. It shows how close Kris and Noelle used to be as kids, and how far apart they've drifted by the time the game starts.

    Related to returning characters from Undertale 
  • Unlike Undertale, the Amalgamates here (unless they never became such in this world) are actually dead, with graves for them in the cemetery. This also holds true for Gerson, the tortoise shopkeeper in Waterfall.
    • It's bittersweet at least for the Amalgamates, what with Lemon Bread describing existence as a "special Hell".
  • After seeing Alphys go through all her Character Development and end up in a happy relationship with Undyne over the course of Undertale, it's a little sad to see that this incarnation is not only still a Nervous Wreck,note  but has never even met Undyne. Thankfully, they meet during the events of the second chapter.
  • The shut-in in the northern part of town is heavily implied to be Mettaton — and since he has yet to meet Alphys, he doesn't seem nearly as confident as he was in Undertale without his robot body…
    * ...Ah, you just wanted to talk to me...?
    * My apologies, beautiful.
    * I'm afraid I'm a bit of a nobody.
  • Papyrus in Undertale is this boisterous cheerful guy, who talks a lot and doesn't give up on anything because of his faith in himself. Here, you don't even see him one time. He doesn't answer the door. What happened that killed Papyrus' cheerfulness?
  • Even in the Deltarune Alternate Universe, Toriel and Asgore still had a falling out, with Asgore trying to get back into her good graces without success. But, at least there, he was still the beloved King of the Underground. In this world, the poor guy is so down on his luck, you'd swear this universe made the guy its Cosmic Plaything.
    • Asgore's living space. While Toriel has a comfy house, Asgore has a tiny flat above his flower shop with only an old TV, a rusty and almost-empty fridge, and an air mattress. A letter even says that Asgore's shop is close to failing because he keeps giving away his flowers for free.
    • Despite the divorce, Asgore still has his wedding photograph posted on the fridge, and is keeping all the flowers of Toriel's wedding bouquet in the middle of his flat.
    • There's a very easily missed and heartbreaking detail. If you inspect the trashcan in Toriel's kitchen, you are told it "somehow emits a pleasant floral scent". It is not until the epilogue where you learn that Asgore has a flower shop, that the two them are living apart, and he gives you a bouquet to take home to her. If you bring it home, Toriel gruffly states she'll "find a place for it somewhere", and inspecting the trashcan afterwards reveals that "somehow, its floral scent has increased". Even worse, if you drop the bouquet from your inventory, you might be stated to have thrown it on the ground "like the piece of trash it is", a phrase that accompanies every item's tossing in the game. Considering how in the original game, it took the death of their children and Asgore declaring war on humanity to cause their rift, it all really makes you wonder what on Earth must've happened here to have driven them apart.
      • Even worse is when you realize that the alley where Alphys hangs out (analogous to the dump in Undertale) is filled with trash cans full of flowers, meaning that this process of Asgore attempting to give his former wife flowers is not a one-time or two-time thing, but a perpetual habit that is bankrupting his business, according to the letter you find in his room. He wants her so badly, and she's so mad at him. Asgore, what did you do?
    • Whatever Asgore did to become divorced from Toriel hits extra hard in Chapter 2, when an optional scene (and the only time he appears in the chapter) has him try to get into her good graces with a bad pun at his own ex-husband expense. Toriel doesn't want to tolerate his presence any longer than she has to, and is out of there in moments, while Sans doesn't even bother to really help him in any meaningful way afterwards.
    • Kris is implied to be just as upset with Asgore as their mother. If you throw the flowers away rather than attempt to give them to Toriel in Chapter 1, it will use the same flavor text that accompanies the tossing of every other item, unlike the exceptionally sentimental Ball of Junk. Kris will also refuse to read the newspapers at the police station in Chapter 2, stopping after they mention Asgore's removal from his position as the chief. One has to wonder what Asgore did to not only cause Toriel to want to divorce him, but also earn the ire of at least one of his children.
  • A more minor example, but this specific line from Susie in Chapter 1 may hit quite hard...
    * "You've got a good mother, it would be a shame to make her bury her child."
    • Considering that's exactly what Toriel did in Undertale.

    Chapter 1 
  • At the very start of the game, perhaps before you realize it is even a game, you're asked to create a "vessel". After taking some time choosing various body types and personality traits — maybe you even designed the character after yourself — and giving this entity a name, it seems like you'll get to do something with this vessel… only for the game to unceremoniously throw it away.
  • Upon meeting Ralsei, the dark prince explains to Kris that he had been waiting alone his entire life for them and Susie to arrive. Up until then, he was a prince of a kingdom with no subjects, having to wait all by himself. Fortunately, once you do meet Ralsei, it finally gives him someone to interact with, which doubly leads to heartwarming moments if you choose to be nice to him.
  • Dropping Ralsei's manual. Bastard.
    *(You tossed the manual hard.)
    (Its pages scatter in the wind.)
    Ralsei: ..............Umm...
    Th-that's OK, Kris!
    I can always...
    I'll just make a better one next time!
  • Seam the shopkeep, while affable and good-humored, just has such a despondent and depressed aura about them that it's hard not to feel bad for them. The stuffed cat genuinely seems to believe that nothing in life matters, no one is truly in control, and whether or not the Heroes of Light defeat the Spade King (or Jevil), nothing will ever truly change, simply inviting the heroes to share tea with them should they come to find the same futility that Seam has. Even before you learn more, it's apparent something went very wrong for this friendly shopkeeper.
    • Talking to them about Jevil reveals that the two of them used to be friends or that at the very least, Seam genuinely enjoyed spending time with him when they were both employed by the kings - they were the court magician while he was the court jester, with the Card Kingdom's theme implying Seam is the red Joker to Jevil's blacknote . Then something went wrong and Jevil went crazy, and Seam was forced to lock him away for good. So not only was Seam forced to witness a treasured colleague slowly lose his mind, but they then also had to violently subdue said colleague and lock him up, with both of them now living in isolation. Ouch.
      • Seam's reaction to the heroes inquiring about Jevil's cell is also a small moment of shock, with a rather wistful expression reaching their face once they know for certain who the prisoner is. With them musing that "Perhaps a little chaos might be fun.", it's easy to get the feeling that they miss their old colleague.
        * Eh...? What are you talking about...? A prisoner with an odd manner...?
        * ...
        * No, you couldn't possibly be talking about HIM...?
        * ... I see.
      • What makes this worse is that Jevil was free just long enough to pass on whatever the mysterious man responsible for his Sanity Slippage said to him to Seam. While it thankfully didn't corrupt Seam to the point of madness, his words stuck with the magician, leading to the cat becoming the nihilistic, lethargic person they seem to be in the present - they describe their worldview as having gotten darker yet darker with Jevil's words inside their cotton. Whoever the mysterious figure who influenced Jevil is, they didn't just ruin one life in doing so, but two.
  • While Jevil is primarily creepy,note  there is a hefty dose of tragedy to his situation. While his claim to be the only free one while everybody else is locked away can be taken humorously or as just nonsense from a madman, it can also be read to be very, very deep denial, an attempt to deal with the loss of both his sanity and his freedom. After the introduction of fellow Shadow Crystal holder Spamton, this impression may hold even more water.
    • Jevil openly admits that he's lonely in his cell. Judging from how out of the way it is and how nobody but Seam ever even mentions him, it's safe to say he was more or less abandoned down there to die alone. Despite how dangerous he is, the fact that apparently no one tried speaking to him or even helping him ever again after his imprisonment is… harsh.
      I GROW LONELY IN MY LITTLE FREEDOM.
    • Even Jevil's battle theme, the bouncy and fast-paced "The World Revolving", fits his character in a way that isn't all fun and games. Beneath being a fast-paced romp, there's almost a hollow feeling to its upbeat and victorious tone. As a comment on one upload of the theme to YouTube details:
      axooli: It almost feels triumphant, however there's still a hint of insanity and denial in it. Given by the accordian, mainly. The part at 0:40note  always punches me in the gut though, because it's the musical form of "look! I've won! I'm free!" then it goes to a much low tune. A more, "in order to cope with what's happened to me, I've had to twist my world view." The theme is absolutely perfect for Jevil, someone who's been through terrible things, yet still looks at their world as a game. Or, more fittingly, a carousel. A constantly spinning world that never stops, but always stays the same.
    • The fact that Jevil wasn't always this way, but was slowly driven to madness by a mysterious being, seemingly for no reason at all. Before that he was, by all account, just a friendly court jester. But whatever Jevil appeared to realize, it seemed to rob the clown of his happiness and sanity, and he started to treat the world itself as a game where the people around him were simply participants with numbers that can drop to 0.
  • Lancer's a total goofball of a "villain", but he opposes the heroes because he knows that if they try to seal the fountain, they'll inevitably have to fight his father, King, which could quite possibly result in someone dying. This culminates in Lancer joining up with the heroes, only to betray them and throw them in the dungeon in the hopes that they won't be able to fight if they're locked away forever.
  • The fight between Susie and Lancer that results from the above. Just hours ago, they were laughing and playing together like good friends, something that neither of them ever seemed to have before the events of the game. Now, Susie is trying to kill Lancer, while the player can only dodge, as Susie cannot be controlled in battle and only attacks over and over. Lancer's attacks actively avoid the SOUL if you either can't dodge his attacks well enough, or try to get Susie KO'd too early (a Call-Back to another tragic moment in Undertale).
    • There's also how absolutely tragic this moment is when considering how Susie must be feeling. In the Light World, everyone showed either distrust or outright disdain towards Susie for being a bully, and as a result, she responds by being abrasive and mean to just about everyone. When Susie meets Lancer, she feels happy that for once, she can trust someone that likes her for who she is. So imagine how utterly heart-shattering it must be for her to be betrayed and locked up by her own best friend. When Susie confronts Lancer and learns of this, she at first pretends to not be affected by it, only to then get enraged and violently lash out at Lancer.
    • The battle theme is named Vs. Susie: while it sounds like a black metal track, it is also a mashup of both Susie and Lancer's themes which ends up being a Sad Battle Music; it is also telling enough that the "battle" was more internally in Susie's mind over her conflicted emotions than Lancer himself.
    • You can tell that Susie is really conflicted between her anger towards Lancer and her desire to let him live when you notice that the damage she deals is nearly doubled from her normal output and it slightly increases for every turn... yet purposefully misses so that she doesn't have to kill him.
      • And that's with Susie's weakest weapon in the game. The only way her attack could've increased that much is if her Killing Intent increased, something that you only get in Undertale by either killing more monsters or if the protagonist really hated an enemy. Susie never killed anyone, yet she's so incredibly pissed off that if she didn't have a Hidden Heart of Gold, things would've ended very, very horribly.
  • The King, for his part, is a neglectful and abusive parent toward his son Lancer, at one point threatening to throw him off the castle roof just for trying to befriend the heroes. No wonder Lancer was so eager to get out of the house.
  • After you return to the real world, the only item you'll have in your inventory is a strange ball of things that is implied to be all of the things Kris acquired in the Dark World, as it will smell like marshmallows if you had any Dark Candy, which tastes like marshmallows, in your inventory when you left. If you select the item and choose to 'use' it, a message appears that says Kris looks at it fondly. However, if you choose to drop it, you get an oddly reluctant response saying that 'you didn't really want to throw it away' and asks again if you want to drop it. If you again choose to drop it, it describes in detail how Kris's hand shakes as they toss the object on the ground and it shatters. note 
    You felt bitter.
  • Chapter 1's ending. While initially terrifying, some players can be left with a deep sense of sadness once the shock wears off. You've journeyed through the Dark World, meeting all these lovable characters before returning to Hometown to find all your old friends there (different though they may be). You're then treated with a scene where the main character you may have grown to care about violently rips the SOUL from their chest and throws it into the birdcage in the room. Then you realize that SOUL is you as Kris turns to the screen, knife in hand, with a sinister grin on their face… all before the game fades to the credits, while the mournful "Don't Forget" plays. It all just feels like a betrayal. Why would they do that? Was Kris possessed by something else? Evil All Along? Or do they just hate you for interfering in their life?
    • While the thought later got subverted due to the start of Chapter 2 revealing Kris just wanted some pie to eat, the idea still returned by the end of Chapter 2 anyway.
  • The song that plays over the credits, "Don't Forget". It gets even worse if you connect it to Sans' picture of some unknown people back in Undertale, with a note that reads "don't forget". We don't know if there's a definite connection there yet, but that knowledge, combined with the lyrics and simple, sad melody, hits hard.
    Don't forget, I'm with you in the dark...
  • The emotional track that plays over the File Select screen after having completed a chapter once. It is called "Before the Story", and it is one of only two appearances of the "Once Upon a Time" melody (the main Undertale Leitmotif) that appears in Deltarune. Whether it strikes you as heartwarming, nostalgic, ominous, or bittersweet, it is bound to hit you right in the feels.

    Chapter 2 - Normal 
  • Throughout this chapter and the previous chapter, the player/SOUL can pull various cases of Video Game Caring Potential towards Ralsei… however, Kris themself is implied in this chapter to not be all too fond of the little goat boy.
    • If you get teas, the party members will have different reactions depending on what tea they're made to drink. If they drink their own, they'll only get 10 HP and say it tastes like nothing. Similarly, Noelle and Ralsei only recover 50 HP from each other's teas, since they're strangers. Former childhood friends Kris and Noelle will both receive 70 HP from drinking each other's teas. Ralsei, meanwhile, gets 120 HP from the Kris Tea… and Kris will only get 60 HP from drinking the Ralsei Tea. From this, we can interpret Ralsei being little more important to Kris than a mere stranger.
      • This implied neutrality towards (if not outright dislike of) Ralsei is only made more apparent when one remembers that Kris gets far greater HP gains from the Susie Tea. Likewise, you may recall how in the previous chapter, if you threw away Ralsei's manual, Kris is described as throwing it away hard.
      • This may have something to do with the implication of Kris being the Roaring Knight, while Ralsei seems very intent on preventing The Roaring.
      • It's also possible this has to do with Ralsei's sheer resemblance to Asriel. To Kris, it might be hard to not see Ralsei as a walking, talking, and very constant reminder of someone they miss terribly.
      • Toward the end of the chapter, Susie can ask Kris who they'd bring to the festival, to which the player can pick her, Noelle, Ralsei, or nobody. If you pick Noelle (who is a former childhood friend) or Ralsei, Susie will note how confused Kris sounds at this. While Kris's confusion towards Noelle is justified given their history, the fact that they're confused at the idea of taking Ralsei speaks volumes about the bond being more between the SOUL and Ralsei than anything to do with Kris.
    • Related to the above, it's implied that Kris genuinely likes Susie, but can't act much on it as whenever they're together, the SOUL/the Player is in control. In the previous chapter, Kris will jump in front of Susie to protect her of their own free will. In this chapter, Noelle can refer to Kris as "the Susie expert", implying Kris is quite involved with her. If Kris drinks the Susie Tea, they get a whopping 120 HP back.
    • Essentially, the Player/the SOUL may be forcing Kris into an unwanted friendship with Ralsei, while unintentionally preventing them from getting closer to the person they really like, Susie.
  • Berdly's a Smug Snake, Insufferable Genius, and performs a Face–Heel Turn when the Queen promises him the ability to use the Dark Fountain's power to create a new world tailored to his wishes. However, two boss fights and being shown up by Kris in a series of puzzles later, Berdly breaks down and admits that he's never been the prodigy he presents himself as. In his backstory, he was a total nobody (although smart enough to be at the finale of a spelling bee), until he lucked out and won a spelling bee when Noelle choked up on the last word. The recognition he got from that spurred him to get tutoring from Noelle, so he could keep presenting himself as a genius. However, expectations are so high for him now that he's afraid of what'll happen when life takes him and Noelle in separate directions.
    • Alongside the sad music, this scene requires to read between the lines. Berdly talks about his success at this spelling bee as the greatest day of his life because of the attention he obtained, thinking that love can’t go without praise. It makes his interactions with Queen much sadder than they appear: he’s not (just) a nerdy boy having a crush on a robot lady, but a lonely child desperately craving for attention from an indifferent adult who cares for someone else.
    • Paying attention to what the word is reveals why Noelle probably choked on it: December. The reasons why may be tied to what she says as you progress through the keyboard letters puzzle with her where they incidentally spell out the same word, which she seems oblivious to as she reminisces about her childhood and repeatedly mentions her sister Dess. Dess has only ever been referred to in the past tense and exclusively back in better days of childhood where it was her, Dess, Asriel, and Kris. In the context given, it sounds like her name is likely December, so what happened to her to make the word into a Trauma Button? She may have looked for her since that day and only found things related to the final month of the year.
      Queen: "Noelle... Then Who Will Help Her? Her Strange And Sad Searches, Who Will Answer Them?"
  • On the Pacifist Route, Noelle tries to reason with Berdly when he mistakenly thinks that Kris has her under their control and tries to "rescue" her. She says that she called a truce with Kris, and there is no reason for them to fight. Then Berdly attacks her and causes damage. Noelle says with some shock and Et Tu, Brute? that her friend "hit me in the face with a tornado."
  • Spamton being a down-in-the-dumps spambot is already sad enough, but his backstory (which you can only find if you backtrack to his place after defeating his NEO form) is pretty heartbreaking. He was an ad-bot salesman just like the other salesmen you encounter in the City, but nobody would buy what he was selling. Desperate, he made numerous phone calls until he encountered one person — though it's also implied that he was found by that person — that helped him greatly, allowing him to become the "BIG SHOT" salesman he always wanted to be, even gaining him a suite in the Queen's mansion. However, this caused his friends to abandon him out of jealousy. One day, the person helping him out seemed to have disappeared, which caused his sales to drop back to zero and led the Queen to evict him out of her mansion. On the day he was supposed to be evicted, he abandoned his room, leaving behind a landline still hanging, spewing out garbage noise.note 
    • After his dialogue option for The Knight is forcibly locked out, you can bring up the topic of friends. He looks really sad and asks "ME? ... FRIENDS?", as if the very concept of him still being able to make friends is completely foreign to him.
    • One of the battle texts during Spamton NEO's fight talks about Spamton begging the audience to stop taking the furniture out of his room. This sounds like nonsense during his fight, until you realize it's referring to how he was about to be evicted by Queen.
    • In the middle of his NEO boss theme "BIG SHOT", while faint and hard to make out within the music, Spamton can just barely be heard begging someone to "answer the phone", as if desperately trying to reach his mysterious benefactor who's long since abandoned him. Two other commonly heard lines are "I think it's coming for me" and "I can't explain until you're all alone" - combined with the "KNIGHT" dialogue option from his shop in which he tries to speak to Kris on their own before desperately pleading with something as if he wasn't supposed to do that and just how much he projects onto Kris with the parallels between them, it almost feels like a cry for help, or at least an attempt to warn the fellow puppet about something that he knows.
      • "BIG SHOT" in general, while as explosively popular and subject to alteration as the character it's tied to, is hard to argue as a desperate sounding battle track. Around halfway through, the familiar chorus melody from "The World Revolving" kicks in, but compared to in Jevil's battle where it at least has a veneer of chaotic fun, this iteration of it sounds downright mournful. It isn't helped by a direct sample of "The Power of NEO" blaring explosively in the background, a melody many fans will recognize from Undyne and Mettaton's determined final stands in the darkest route of UNDERTALE, driving home just how desperate this junked salesman really is and that he's pulling out all stops to reach [[Heaven]], whatever exactly that is. And no matter how you're fighting him, by the time Spamton has gone NEO, there's no outcome left where things end okay for him - either his body itself stops working on him the moment he's set free or he gets put on ice presumably permanently. Given that the above-mentioned distorted dialogue kicks in halfway through this exact point of the song, too, it's very easy to take those muffled words as a remnant of Spamton's sanity Fighting from the Inside.
    • Even his shop theme, "Dialtone", is melancholic when taken with everything else, being a slowed-down Dark Reprise of "The World Revolving" that almost sounds like it's trying to be cheerful, but failing horribly. Not only does it underline how utterly lost Spamton is, it also sets him up as Jevil's sad reflection, someone who knows he is indeed trapped, out of his mind, and as far from free as it gets. Not to mention the song sometimes stops for the ringing of the background phone… Fittingly enough, it plays for his last words, too.
    • If you chose to resolve the fight the peaceful way and cut Spamton's wires, instead of getting angry, Spamton gleefully thinks that Kris and co. are giving him the freedom he's always wanted and proclaims he can be free with the help of his "friends" as the final wire fades away… only for him to drop to the ground, motionless, and thus ending the fight. You even have to prop him back up with vines just to hear his final words…
      Spamton: It seems after all I couldn't be anything more than a simple puppet. But you three… you're strong. With a power like that… maybe you three could break your own strings.
    • Even after the battle and walking out of the basement, Susie calls out the fact that the entire fight was pretty damn weird… and then she notices that Kris has goosebumps. If the player answers 'Yes' to Susie asking Kris if they're okay, she remarks that they said it with an unconvincing and clear strain in their voice. If the player answers 'No', Ralsei will step in and worriedly tell Kris (and the player) that they had yelled. Suffice to say, even Kris was shaken up by the events that happened. One wonders if they felt something akin to fear, or even sympathy, at the sight of Spamton practically dropping dead after the team literally cuts him free… or maybe deep down Kris saw an uncomfortable familiarity with Spamton and his strings, and the relationship they're shown to be aware of with the SOUL literally puppeteering their body.
    • If you backtrack to the Trash Zone after defeating Spamton NEO, all of the Addisons will be there, refusing to make eye contact with Kris/the Player. Listening to their dialogue implies they all feel immense guilt at how they treated their old friend, and now they will never have the opportunity to apologize or even know what happened to him.
      • Though, Fridge Heartwarming applies when you take into consideration that Spamton is still living on in the form of his Puppet Scarf/Dealmaker equipment. So by going back to talk to them, you can give Spamton the comfort of knowing his friends never forgot about him, and deeply regret the way they treated him after he became a big shot.

    Chapter 2 - Weird Route 
  • By following a complex string of events, you have the ability to kill Berdly. After making Noelle freeze a bunch of enemies in a way uncomfortably reminiscent of Undertale's Genocide route (with an extra side of gaslighting and emotional abuse), you can purchase a ring for Noelle which gives her the power to use "Snowgrave". Once you confront Berdly (who's terrified by Kris and Noelle by this point), Noelle will refuse to use the spell until you ask her to use it multiple times, in which she casts it without knowing what it does. The result? She launches a spire of ice through Berdly, freezing him solid. She doesn't know what she did at first, but when she finds out, she abandons Kris and leaves them and Berdly behind. Once everyone comes back to the real world, Noelle points out that Berdly is "sleeping", and trying to talk to him states that "He doesn't seem to be awake." Berdly might be dead. He may have been a Smug Snake Academic Alpha Bitch, but he was still just a kid and Kris's classmate. While not outright stated… he might be gone for good.
    • This isn't even getting into the sheer psychological damage this inflicts on Noelle. The sweet Shrinking Violet who always tries to remain helpful and positive, regardless of the circumstances and that the entire chapter is dedicated to detailing? You can effectively Corrupt the Cutie, breaking her into an almost emotionless state of following your orders to kill Darkners since the game otherwise prevents you from doing so. She at least protests the Berdly-kill attempts, but egg her enough and she snaps, before walking off in a hollow daze after realizing what she did. This lasts after returning from the Dark World, where she's ridden with guilt, paranoia, and horror over whether it was All Just a Dream or not, making the optional hospital scene even worse. You can even attempt to hammer the nail in further to try to convince her she wasn't just dreaming. In summary: forget killing indiscriminately, you can give Noelle a nightmarish sense of PTSD and try to shatter her own sense of identity, solely so that she follows only you… Bastard.
      • A small moment following the hospital scene, after a horrified Noelle runs away from Kris after Susie interrupts them. Susie mistakenly laments that this means Noelle is still afraid of her.
    • After reuniting with your usual party on this route, Ralsei and Susie immediately pick up from Kris's expression that they are in total distress at what just happened to Berdly. Even though Kris is mentioned to have low empathy and prone to mean-spirited acts without being piloted by a SOUL, rips it out nightly to soullessly commit crimes, and may or may not be moonlighting as the Knight opening new Fountains, seeing what Noelle did to one of their classmates at your urging has clearly left Kris just as emotionally tormented as Noelle. Good job, player.
    • What's worse is that your actions in this route make Noelle's experiences completely antithetical to her normal route: instead of becoming stronger and making her own decisions, you take away her ability to choose and then turn her into a weapon.
  • Even in the Weird Route, Spamton NEO has his moments during the desperate part of the battle, after he trades his firepower for defense and all you can do is call your friends' name. When you know his past, some dialogues, while still creepy, imply he's still projecting on Kris, as his harsh comments about friendship seem to be destined to Addisons who gave up on him and the benefactor who used him in the past:
    Spamton NEO: WHAT!? YOU'RE CALLING FRIENDS!? YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME WITH YOUR FRIENDS' [Magic]!? GO AHEAD, [Kid]... CALL ALL YOU WANT! NO ONE WILL EVER PICK UP.
    GO AHEAD AND [Scream] INTO THE [Receiver]. THE [Voice] RUNS OUT EVENTUALLY. YOUR [Voice] THEIR [Voice]. UNTIL YOU REALIZE YOU ARE ALL ALONE
    THERE WILL BE NO MORE [Miracles] NO MORE [Magic]. YOU LOST IT WHEN YOU TRIED TO SEE TOO FAR... YOU LOST IT...
    YOU MAKE ME [Sick]! MUTTERING YOUR [Lost Friends] NAME AT THE BOTTOM OF A [Dumpster]! NO ONE'S GONNA HELP YOU!!! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR [Beautiful Head], YOU LITTLE [Worm]!
  • If you didn't get many recruits when you return to your Castle Town at the end of the chapter, Queen is initially happy about being in this new place... until she realizes nobody from her world came with her.
    Queen: So This Is Your "Castle Town"
    It's
    Magnificent
    The Population Density Is So Wonderfully Low
    I Bet The Swatchlings Will Love This
    Where Are The Swatchlings Anyhow
    Or Tasque Manager
    Or Even Regular Tasque
    (Beat)
    Hey Kris Where Is Everyone Else
    Trashy: Don't worry Queen! I'm here! Me, and only me!
    Queen: ... Well I Guess I'll
    "Go To My Room"
    Ha Ha
    (Queen slowly walks away)
    • When you check on Queen in Ralsei's castle, she'll stand by the doorway to the third floor, saying that Ralsei will make her a room and follow her demands... then lamenting that even with all that, her subjects aren't here for her to command upon.
    • King will call out the trio as well for abandoning the people from the new world, just like they abandoned his own. (Yes, you read that correctly. King calls you out for what you did.)

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