Jackenstein is a supporting character in Chapter 4: Prophecy of the 2018 episodic indie RPG Deltarune.

The Darkner manifestation of a battery-powered jack o' lantern decoration, Jackenstein is a reclusive monster who lives alone in the darkness, afraid of his own scariness. However, after his encounter with the Delta Warriors, he becomes less shy and even helps them in their journey.

Appearance

As per his namesake, Jackenstein appears to be a burly, humanoid Darkner resembling a cross between a jack o' lantern and Frankenstein's Monster with drab ivory skin. He has patches of orange skin stitched onto his shoulders and his chest, the latter possessing a skull-like pattern. He also has a small tail ending in an orange pom-pom. Jackenstein notably wears a jack o' lantern on his head with a screw on each side. His true face is a simple white tube with beady eyes and cat-like ears on the top. Jackenstein's eyeholes inexplicably glow orange in the dark.

Personality

Believing himself to be too hideous and frightening to ever be befriended, Jackenstein initially puts up an air of hostility, chasing the Lightners from his domain and demanding that they leave. However, it's soon revealed that he is, in fact, a kind-hearted but childish Darkner. Even when fighting the Delta Warriors, Jackenstein proves himself to be a rather polite and kindly person, gently asking them to leave. He is also quite generous, giving them his climbing gear despite the Delta Warriors fighting him not even minutes earlier. Jackenstein proves to be a helpful ally, directing the Lightners on the right path and even helping them ascend the pillars when the Knight attacks them. Interestingly, Jackenstein has numerous spelling and grammatical errors in his text, such as saying "YOUR" instead of "YOU'RE" and spelling scary as "scairy".

Biography

A shy and self-conscious Darkner, Jackenstein was apparently banished to the depths of the Dark Sanctuary for being too scary, only being allowed to emerge on festival night. This likely references the fact that his Light World form is a jack o' lantern that is stored in a storage closet until further notice, meaning that his "banishment" is just being stored away for future use.

While exploring the nearby libraries, the Delta Warriors enter a spookily dark area, where Jackenstein warns them to stay away. When they don't heed his warnings and keep walking forwards, he decides to confront them head-on, triggering his mini-boss fight. During his fight, he induces a stifling darkness that prevents the gain of TP from grazing attacks. Instead, the SOUL is summoned into a house-like maze where it must collect orbs to gain TP whilst avoiding spirit-like bullets that roam the area, eventually leaving the maze by collecting a key. They will also be chased by Jackenstein's pumpkin minion after reaching the key, who claims that they're "TAKING TOO LONG." Once sufficient TP is collected, Jackenstein can be illuminated via the Brighten ACT, allowing the SOUL to chase his pumpkin down and illuminate him.

Eventually, Jackenstein's shroud of darkness is dispelled, and he runs away in fear of his own scariness. He, however, hits a chandelier on the way and injures his head. Ralsei tries to heal his injuries, but to no avail, as he can't reach inside his helmet. When Susie tries to heal him, the Old Man walks in, and she misses and accidentally fires a healing spell right into Jackenstein's mouth, completely restoring him. He thanks the trio for helping him and presents them with some climbing gear he's too big to use. He will also show his real face to the trio, hiding it again before they can tell him he's really not scary at all.

Afterward, Jackenstein can be found in the Old Man's study, working as his cleaner. He will direct the Delta Warriors to the northeastern library to open the door the Knight left through and give hints to the location of the golden piano that unlocks the Old Man's secret boss fight. Jackenstein can also be complimented, causing him to blush and sweep the floor faster.

When the heroes are pursuing the Knight in the Third Sanctuary, they are stopped when the Knight cracks a section of a pillar, preventing them from climbing it. Jackenstein arrives and helps them by getting them to ride him as he climbs the pillar. However, it becomes unstable as he climbs, forcing him to stay very still to prevent the trio from falling off. If any Darkner was defeated with violence, the Sanctuary Darkners will not arrive to help. Jackenstein is attacked by the Knight as the trio dismounts, causing him to fall into the abyss. Susie is distraught and tries to reassure herself that he isn't dead, steeling herself to seal the fountain and save her friend.

However, if no enemies were defeated using violence, when Jackenstein falls with the trio still on his back, a stack of Cuptains, supported by all the other Darkners, catches him. They express that after seeing the mercy and goodness of the Delta Warriors, they were inspired to help them defeat the Knight and save the day. Thus, the trio are slingshotted up to the very top, where they continue their pursuit of the Knight.

Gallery

Jackenstein in shadow.

Jackenstein's jack-o'-lantern.

Jackenstein showing off his real head under his pumpkin helmet to the Delta Warriors.

Jackenstein's Light World form: a jack o'lantern kept within a closet at Hometown's Church.

Jackenstein helping the Delta Warriors chase the Knight by allowing them to ride on him as he climbs a pillar.

Trivia

• Uniquely for a non-secret boss, Jackenstein has both a unique soundbite and voiced dialogue.
• The dialogue in Jackenstein's fight includes numerous refences to lines from Ganon in Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon that are notable for their use in YouTube Poops.
  • The line "YOU DAIRE BRING LAIGHTS TO MY LAIRE!?" is an almost verbatim quote from Ganon in his pre-battle cutscene.
  • The line NO!!! NOT THE LAIGHT!!! IT BURNS!!! and the flavor text Too dark to see near the walls. There's a pit here! reference Ganon's post-battle cutscene.
  • Jackenstein seems to be a homage to YouTube Poop culture as a whole, as seen from his humorous misspellings and spliced voice lines.
• Jackenstein's line "YOU SUDN'T COME HERE" is (mis)spelled almost exactly the same as a line in the famous video adaptation of the fanfiction Half-Life: Full Life Consequences.
• Jackenstein's attacks could be a reference to the Atari 2600 game Haunted House.
• The screams of fear used during the Unleash ACT, where your SOUL touches at the Jack-o'-Lantern, are in reference to Mario's "Mama Mia" from Super Mario 64.
• After the third maze, small, orange dancing creatures with pumpkin heads will begin appearing, sliding from right to left above the party's health bars. This is only cosmetic and does not affect the fight.
  • These creatures first appeared in a Bluesky post made by Toby Fox for Halloween 2024.
• Jackenstein appears to be a parallel to Napstablook from Undertale:
  • Both inhabit water-themed areas: Napstablook lives in Waterfall, while the Dark Sanctuaries Jackenstein live in have many water features.
  • Both are based off undead creatures: Napstablook is a ghost while Jackenstein is based off Frankenstein's Monster.
    • Both are also rather pale in colour, Napstablook being white while Jackenstein is mainly a drab ivory colour.
  • Both speak exclusively in one case: Napstablook only speaks in lowercase, while Jackenstein's speech is all uppercase.
  • Both have self esteem issues: Napstablook constantly belittling their own self worth and Jackenstein considering himsef very ugly, though both are helped by the heroes.
  • Jackenstein uses motifs from Napstablook's song "Spooktune" in his own boss theme "A DARK ZONE".
  • In addition to Napstablook, Jackenstein takes traits from two other characters in Waterfall, the Temmies and Mad Dummy: he has frequent spelling mistakes like the Temmies, and has miniature versions of himself like Mad Dummy.
• If the player backtracks to the area where Jackenstein is fought after defeating him, the jack o' lantern he uses in battle will be there, blocking the path. The player can choose to have Ralsei either "tell a joke" or "tell a story;" the former option causes it to simply "laugh before the punchline," while the latter causes it to frown, say "YOUR TAKING TOO LONG" and flee, allowing the party to proceed.
• The phrase "Too dark to see near the walls" that recurs in Jackenstein's flavor text is a reference to a line of narration from the video game Brandish. This line was previously referenced in Undertale when inspecting the walls in Alphys's lab before the lights are turned on. Though the line is rather generic, Legends of Localization Book 3: UNDERTALE confirms that the Undertale narration was specifically intended as a Brandish reference, meaning the similar line in this battle is almost certainly a reference as well. This referenced dialogue is from an area in Brandish named Dark Zone, which is also the name of the area Jackenstein is fought in.
• The phrase "Too dark to see near the walls. There's a pit here!" may be a reference to the Edgar Allan Poe short story, The Pit and the Pendulum.
• The mechanic/idea of a smiling jack-o'-lantern chasing you through a maze of bright neon walls for taking too long is likely a reference to the 1980 Stern Electronics arcade game Berzerk, in which an indestructible bouncing smiley face enemy named "Evil Otto" begins to pursue your character when you take too long to exit any given room. The reference is made all the more apparent in the "MR. VERY NAICE GUY" attack, wherein the first jack-o'-lantern's face strongly resembles that of Evil Otto.
• The line "YOUR TAKING TOO LONG" and the jack o' lantern could be a reference to the Strong Bad Email episode, "video games", in which Strong Bad imagines a video game featuring a red and black version of his face that speaks in similar broken grammar (i.e, "YOUR HEAD ASPLODE").
• The line "You can imagine Berdly in your head warning you about Grues" is a reference to Zork, an early text adventure game. It also appears only in the Weird Route with a 3% chance of appearing.
• Using the ScaredyCat ACT causes the jack-o'-lantern to instantly pursue the SOUL when triggered, using sped-up or shortened voice lines.
  • "YOUR LONG" gets reduced to "LO - NG".
  • The jack o' lantern near-instantly appears after the smiley-faced one, which can only announce "YOUR" before being obliterated, saying "YOUR TAKING TOO LONG" sped up.
  • "YOUR TAKING TOO TOO" gets reduced to "TUTU". It returning the tutu to the SOUL and leaving plays as normal, although the SOUL is fast enough to escape before being caught.
    • Interesting enough, the word "TUTU" here is spelled correctly, unlike "TOO TOO".
  • In the final maze, "YOUR TAKING TOO LONG" gets reduced to repeated "LONG"s. The small pumpkins immediately chase the SOUL.
• It is technically possible to beat Jackenstein without ever encountering the Jack-o'-lantern by waiting too long during the player's turn in the battle, as each turn automatically ends after 9.25 hours. The player can still gather "Treasure" to gain TP and progress with eventually sparing Jackenstein, but has to avoid picking up the key to not trigger the jack-o'-lantern's appearance.
• Curiously, outside of the Shadow Crystal holders, Jackenstein and Tenna are the only Darkners to not only have a unique voice bit and voiced dialogue, but no text box portrait as well.

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