- The Three Routes -
I maintain that the collection of the shadow crystals causes inconsolable differences with the story should they not be collected.
For DELTARUNE chapter one's initial release, Toby Fox, and the messaging of the game, had been very adamant about the lack of agency in the game. There would be one route, and your choices made within it are meaningless.
If you consider the struggle between the observer and Kris, this is an appropriate thematic choice.
However, I also understand that it is a necessary one for an adaptation like DELTARUNE. If there is a particular "end" it is desired that the player is shown, multiple routes don't make sense. The dream had only substantiated one ending.
This is no longer the case.
For reasons unknown to me, I believe that Toby Fox has deviated from his original plan for DELTARUNE to have a single route. There are reasons I can hope for, but none that I can prove.
Admittedly, this is not an idea I would have readily considered, but chapter two already introduces choice that make inconsolable changes to the story.
I have conjecture as to why.