{"id":1658084,"date":"2026-08-09T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eGZ9a43ERV7b2idbC9WoAm"},"modified":"2026-08-09T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:00:00","slug":"deltarunes-the-third-sanctuary-is-an-affront-to-time-signatures-and-also-one-of-my-favourite-songs-in-a-videogame-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/deltarunes-the-third-sanctuary-is-an-affront-to-time-signatures-and-also-one-of-my-favourite-songs-in-a-videogame-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Deltarune’s ‘The Third Sanctuary’ is an affront to time signatures, and also one of my favourite songs in a videogame ever"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Critical Hit<\/div>\n
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\"Critical<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Future)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Welcome to Critical Hit<\/a>, where Mollie (or someone else on the PC Gamer team) celebrate and lament all things videogame music, audio design, and the ways our favourite games make our ears tingle. This week I’m that “someone else”, and I’m here to talk your ear off about time signatures!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So I’ve recently given in and decided I won’t be waiting for Deltarune’s final chapter before I played it all in one go\u2014too many of my mates were talking about it, so I sat my butt down to get ahead of the invariable, accidental spoilers and chew through chapters one to five. <\/p>\n

You don’t need me to tell you that Toby Fox, developer of Deltarune (and Undertale preceding it) is an excellent composer. The dude made Megalovania, which has somehow survived being piledrivered into memedom, even by the Pope of all people<\/a>, and still, inevitably, slaps. But the rest of his discography is flooded with bangers. The man can work a leitmotif, lemme tell ya.<\/p>\n

Deltarune is no different, though for this Soundtrack Sunday, I want to focus heavily on one song from it: The Third Sanctuary, because this song might be one of my favourite tunes in a videogame ever. I cannot stop listening to this thing, even if it’s a nightmarish affront to rhythm.<\/p>\n

Spoilers for Chapter 4, if you’ve not played it yet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Third Sanctuary plays in Chapter 4 during the recreation of the church dark world, spawned from the hands of your good time pal and occasional chalk-eating high school dinosaur friend (I promise you this makes perfect sense if you play the game) Susie.<\/p>\n

This attempt at recreation is somewhat flawed\u2014see, a dark world in Deltarune is a reflection of the objects around it, who turn into its inhabitants, but it’s also a reflection of the person who created it. Susie is uncertain and conflicted for so many reasons I could write a whole other article on them.<\/p>\n

An uncertain, mysterious prophecy weighing overhead that Susie has sworn to defy. A realisation that her new mentor figure died years ago, his ashes scattered over a hammer in the next room over. The dark world she creates is a mirror to the one the chapter primarily takes place in, reflecting this\u2014and The Third Sanctuary represents this fragile ground by, well, just give it a listen.<\/p>\n

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