Deltarune fans spent 2 years recreating Chapter 1 "in its entirety" inside SNES RPG Earthbound, which feels like the ultimate tribute to Toby Fox's romhacking start

Bound to the Dark World screenshot of combat with Kris and Ralsei — (Image credit: Chromadeline / Toby Fox / Nintendo)

Undertale and Deltarune creator Toby Fox tinkered with Earthbound romhacks very early in his game dev career, and that inimitable, SNES oddness went on to inform the RPG duo that so many fans know and love today. So it's only fitting for a crew of those fans to have spent two years painstakingly rebuilding Chapter 1 of Deltarune inside their own Earthbound romhack, which will be released for free this month.

Chromadeline, one of the eight developers of the upcoming Earthbound romhack Bound to the Dark World, shared the news on Twitter alongside the reveal trailer for the project, which will launch for free on Friday, October 31, for all your Halloween needs. It's apparently been kept under wraps since 2023.

BOUND TO THE DARK WORLD - Reveal Trailer - YouTube

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"A project 2 years in the making. A ROMHACK of Earthbound that recreates Deltarune Chapter 1 in its entirety," the trailer blurb reads. "Experience Deltarune as if it were made in the 90s."

Remaking (demaking?) Deltarune inside Earthbound feels like porting Stardew Valley to Harvest Moon 64, and if anything, the topline pitch might be underselling the effort here. "Every battle reimagined, every song remixed, every cutscene recreated, every sprite redrawn," the trailer boasts. "The hack of a lifetime" doesn't seem so far-fetched.

"Please do not ask about Chapter 2," the trailer concludes.

Here's the full list of Bound to the Dark World creators, per the reveal trailer:

Chromadeline
Isaiah Mark
CoolMikeHaha
Atlantixa
Nes_cade
Felix.rodent
NOLI_KISSES
PK HACK

Rather fittingly, Fox said in a recent interview that the "smart" way to make games is to reuse whatever you can, but he knowingly makes Deltarune the "stupid" way since "everything in the game is simply a container for a never-before-seen gimmick." Even Chapter 1 of the game is full of unique scenarios, so even if it isn't terribly long, to see it translated "in its entirety" to Earthbound with this romhack really is impressive.

17 years after it was released, I'm tracing Undertale and Deltarune's origins back to Toby Fox's spooky Earthbound mod.