Deltarune Ch. 2 Secret Boss + Spoilers

You might’ve noticed there’s one character in particular I neglected to mention in the main review, and that is, of course, Spamton. I understand that the character has ascended to meme status thanks to the community, but I genuinely believe that Spamton is one of the best characters that Toby Fox has ever written. He’s perfectly executed in every regard. From the moment you first encounter him, as well as throughout all of his appearances, he’s extremely unsettling and completely alien compared to everything else in Chapter 2, to the point where you just can’t help but write him off as a freak. It isn’t until you defeat him when he takes on the role of this Chapter’s Secret Boss and becomes Spamton NEO, that you get a glimpse of what it is that Spamton was fighting for, as well as an opportunity to learn the tragically relatable series of events that led to his downfall. Defeating Spamton NEO also gives some interesting insight regarding Kris and their current circumstances as well…

Spamton is an Addison, one of the salesmen of the Cyber World, who was terrible at his job. Compared to every other Addison, he was the absolute worst, and it was almost impossible for him to make any sales whatsoever. It wasn’t until he received a phone call from a mysterious stranger that things started to change for him. Spamton’s fortune was quickly reversed. Soon, he became Cyber World’s most successful Addison, and was even invited to stay at Queen’s Mansion. This made his fellow Addisons jealous. Then, one day, the mysterious stranger stopped calling. Spamton couldn’t get in touch with them anymore. Then he lost everything. He wasn’t able to make sales like he used to anymore, and was subsequently kicked out of Queen’s Mansion. He became homeless, forced to live in a dumpster in Cyber City amongst garbage, and his fellow Addisons did absolutely nothing to help him. He became alone.

While Jevil didn’t really provide a whole lot of narrative substance to comment on, Spamton conversely gives a TON. I really like how Spamton was handled. Unlike Jevil, Spamton is introduced during the main story of Chapter 2, making him impossible to miss. If you don’t visit him at the Junkyard after your first boss battle with him and just complete the rest of this Chapter’s story, then you’ll be leaving a very big hanging plot thread upon its completion. As opposed to Jevil, who you pretty much had to stumble across, Spamton is a very loud, very clear indication to players that there’s something more going on than just the primary events of each Chapter.

Like Jevil, Spamton addresses one of Deltarune’s core topics: freedom, specifically, the fatalistic attitude towards freedom. It makes me wonder if this is the role all future Secret Bosses in the game will share. At some point, Spamton must have learned the same secret knowledge that Jevil learned, and like Jevil, his mind was bent and twisted beyond repair upon learning it. Instead of taking Jevil’s perspective of this knowledge and embracing the fact that nothing is in his control, Spamton very much makes it clear he does not want to be a puppet on strings with a fate that’s predetermined for him. When Spamton becomes Spamton NEO, if you take a close look at the puppet strings that are keeping him suspended, they kinda resemble vertical lines of code (at least to me), which makes me think that the knowledge that Jevil and Spamton both learned is that the world of Deltarune is a video game, and isn’t real. It would also explain why after slashing all of Spamton NEO’s strings, he simply falls to the ground like a lifeless doll. You’ve separated him from the code that allows him to function.

Defeating Spamton NEO also leads to an interesting scene with Kris. After listening to Spamton’s mad ravings about being free and witnessing his failure to grasp the freedom he desperately wanted, when Kris is asked if they’re alright, you’re given the choice to reply with Yes or No. If you say Yes, Kris will respond in a very strained manner that makes it clear they don’t mean what they say.  If you say No, Kris will actually turn away from the camera and yell until they’re comforted by Ralsei and Susie. It’s clear that Spamton’s situation really disturbed Kris, as it mirrors their current situation of being controlled by the player. It is enlightening, depressing, and horrifying all at once.

The fight with Spamton NEO itself was not NEARLY as tough as the one with Jevil was. While Jevil took me several hours, I beat Spamton NEO on my fourth try. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time though. It’s definitely my favorite fight in the game so far. Yeah, Jevil is harder, but I’ll be honest with you, I’m not really a bullet hell enjoyer. I find them to be way too overstimulating visually, to the point where I get a headache. While I can handle Deltarune’s combat fine for the most part, Jevil reached a point where I felt like it was a bit much and I had to take a number of breaks while trying to beat it. I loved the new Big Shot mechanic during the projectile portion of combat. Something that had me raise my eyebrows was the fact that the soul changes colors from red to yellow during this fight, and this is the only instance of that happening in Deltarune so far. It’s… interesting. Makes me wonder if the soul will change colors and get new abilities with each Secret Boss we encounter in the future.

Aside from Spamton, another thing about Chapter 2 I wanted to discuss is the Weird Route, aka the Snowgrave Route as dubbed by fans. Like I said in my review of Chapter 1, Toby Fox made it clear that this game will only have ONE ending. However, if you look at the FAQ page on the Deltarune website, when asked whether the choices made during the game matter if there’s only one ending, Toby’s response is “There’s something more important than reaching the end.”. I think that the presence of the Snowgrave Route makes it crystal clear that Deltarune’s story is capable of diverging in major ways. Even if the ending remains the same, the journey taken to get there can be very different. Very, very different.

Accessing the Snowgrave Route is similar to the Genocide Route in Undertale. The main difference is that when Noelle joins your party, you need to force her to kill enemies with her ice spells. Once you reach the second boss fight with Berdly, you can force her to use the Snowgrave attack to encase Berdly in ice. Berdly does not appear for the rest of the Chapter’s story, and when you return to the Light World at the end of the Chapter, Berdly is non-responsive. He appears to be asleep, but given what happened to him in the Dark World, it’s also entirely possible that he’s actually dead.

I didn’t do the Snowgrave route myself. I can’t bring myself to, especially after having played Undertale. However, I did watch it, and it is genuinely very unnerving to me. It feels so wrong to bend the will of a girl as sweet and innocent as Noelle to murder not only a number of people, but even her own classmate. Sure, Berdly is definitely annoying at times, but he absolutely did NOT deserve to die. If the implications that Kris is conscious of your actions as the player after you defeat Spamton NEO are true, then that would mean if you did the Snowgrave Route, you forced Kris to take control of their childhood friend and turn her into a killer. It. Is. Fucked. Up. The Snowgrave Route is extremely effective for what it sets out to achieve. While I am interested in how the Snowgrave Route affects the story, it plays second fiddle to what I assume is the Normal Route and I’m only going to be keeping up with the story of the Snowgrave Route out of morbid curiosity.

One last thing I’d like to briefly discuss is Noelle’s sister, Dess. The game places great emphasis on her mysterious disappearance, and points out that whatever caused her to vanish is extremely traumatic for Noelle. When you’re in the Light World, if you check the wall in the Police Station behind Napstablook, you can find a report on Dess’ disappearance. It's highly likely that whatever happened to Dess is what led to Deltarune’s Asgore being kicked off the police force, divorcing Toriel, and souring his relationship with the Holiday family despite being such close friends with them in the past. On September 17th, 2022, Fangamer held a Spamton Sweepstakes, where you could donate money to charity for the chance to win a ton of limited edition Deltarune merchandise. There are links on the website for the sweepstakes (which is still up, and has even been updated recently) to a bunch of different webpages with hints, teases, and previews of Deltarune’s upcoming Chapters. One of these webpages is named “dess”, and the only thing that can be found on this page is a red guitar that plays an acoustic version of Lost Girl, which is track #30 from Chapter 2’s Soundtrack. It’s honestly pretty haunting, and I wonder if we’ll actually be given a chance to try and “Find Her”.