| Undertale Soundtrack | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | September 15, 2015 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:10:28 | |||
| Label | Materia Collective | |||
| Producer | Toby Fox | |||
| Toby Fox chronology | ||||
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Undertale Soundtrack is a soundtrack album by Toby Fox, released in 2015 for the video game Undertale . [1]
The game's soundtrack was entirely composed by Toby Fox with FL Studio. [2] A self-taught musician, he composed most of the tracks with little iteration; the game's main theme, "Undertale", was the only song to undergo multiple iterations in development. The soundtrack was inspired by music from Super Nintendo Entertainment System role-playing games [3] —such as EarthBound [4] and Live A Live [5] — bullet hell series Touhou Project , [6] the chiptune band Anamanaguchi, [7] as well as the webcomic Homestuck , for which Fox provided some of the music. [3] Fox also stated that he tries to be inspired by all music he listens to, [8] particularly those in video games. [4] According to Fox, over 90% of the songs were composed specifically for the game. [9] "Megalovania", the song used during the boss battle against Sans, had previously been used within Homestuck and in one of Fox's EarthBound ROM hacks. [10] [11] For each section of the game, Fox composed the music prior to programming, as it helped "decide how the scene should go". [9] He initially tried using a music tracker to compose the soundtrack, but found it difficult to use. He ultimately decided to play segments of the music separately, and connect them on a track. [4] To celebrate the first anniversary of the game, Fox released five unused musical works on his blog in 2016. [12] Four of the game's songs were released as official downloadable content for the Steam version of Taito's Groove Coaster . [11]
Undertale's official soundtrack was released by video game music label Materia Collective in 2015, simultaneously with the game's release. [13] Additionally, two official Undertale cover albums have been released: the 2015 metal/electronic album Determination by RichaadEB and Ace Waters, [14] [15] and the 2016 jazz album Live at Grillby's by Carlos Eiene, better known as insaneintherainmusic. [16] Another album of jazz duets based on Undertale's songs, Prescription for Sleep, was performed and released in 2016 by saxophonist Norihiko Hibino and pianist Ayaki Sato. [17] A 2×LP vinyl edition of the Undertale soundtrack, produced by iam8bit, was also released in the same year. [18] Two official Undertale Piano Collections sheet music books and digital albums, arranged by David Peacock and performed by Augustine Mayuga Gonzales, were released in 2017 and 2018 [19] [20] by Materia Collective. A Mii Fighter costume based on Sans was made available for download in the crossover title Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in September 2019, marking the character's official debut as a 3D model. This costume also adds a new arrangement of "Megalovania" by Fox as a music track. [21] Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai noted that Sans was a popular request to appear in the game. [22] Music from Undertale was also added to Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! as downloadable content. [23]
Undertale's soundtrack has been well received by critics as part of the success of the game, in particular for its use of various leitmotifs for the various characters used throughout various tracks. [24] [25] In particular, "Hopes and Dreams", the boss theme when fighting Asriel in the pacifist playthrough, a run-through where the player avoids killing any monster, brings back most of the main character themes, and is "a perfect way to cap off your journey", according to USgamer's Nadia Oxford. [10] Oxford notes this track in particular demonstrates Fox's ability at "turning old songs into completely new experiences", used throughout the game's soundtrack. [10] Tyler Hicks of GameSpot compared the music to "bit-based melodies". [26]
The Undertale soundtrack had frequently been covered by various styles and groups. As part of the fifth anniversary of the game, Fox streamed footage with permission of a 2019 concert of the Undertale songs performed by Music Engine, an orchestra group in Japan, with support of Fangamer and 8–4. [27]
The track "Megalovania" has seen extensive use in Internet memes [28] and was already popular among the Homestuck fandom, as another version of the song was associated with the characters Vriska Serket, Jack Noir, and Aradia Megido. In January 2022, the song was played in a circus performance happening during a weekly public audience with Pope Francis. [29] [30] [31]
All tracks are written by Toby Fox.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Once Upon a Time" | 1:28 |
| 2. | "Start Menu" | 0:32 |
| 3. | "Your Best Friend" | 0:23 |
| 4. | "Fallen Down" | 0:57 |
| 5. | "Ruins" | 1:32 |
| 6. | "Uwa!! So Temperate" | 0:56 |
| 7. | "Anticipation" | 0:22 |
| 8. | "Unnecessary Tension" | 0:17 |
| 9. | "Enemy Approaching" | 0:56 |
| 10. | "Ghost Fight" | 0:56 |
| 11. | "Determination" | 0:50 |
| 12. | "Home" | 2:03 |
| 13. | "Home (Music Box)" | 2:02 |
| 14. | "Heartache" | 1:48 |
| 15. | "Sans." | 0:50 |
| 16. | "Nyeh Heh Heh!" | 0:32 |
| 17. | "Snowy" | 1:44 |
| 18. | "Uwa!! So Holiday" | 0:30 |
| 19. | "Dogbass" | 0:06 |
| 20. | "Mysterious Place" | 0:44 |
| 21. | "Dogsong" | 0:37 |
| 22. | "Snowdin Town" | 1:16 |
| 23. | "Shop" | 0:50 |
| 24. | "Bonetrousle" | 0:57 |
| 25. | "Dating Start!" | 1:56 |
| 26. | "Dating Tense!" | 0:26 |
| 27. | "Dating Fight!" | 0:35 |
| 28. | "Premonition" | 1:01 |
| 29. | "Danger Mystery" | 0:18 |
| 30. | "Undyne" | 0:45 |
| 31. | "Waterfall" | 2:06 |
| 32. | "Run!" | 0:26 |
| 33. | "Quiet Water" | 0:32 |
| 34. | "Memory" | 1:15 |
| 35. | "Bird That Carries You Over a Disproportionately Small Gap" | 0:25 |
| 36. | "Dummy!" | 2:25 |
| 37. | "Pathetic House" | 0:38 |
| 38. | "Spooktune" | 0:23 |
| 39. | "Spookwave" | 0:25 |
| 40. | "Ghouliday" | 0:12 |
| 41. | "Chill" | 0:56 |
| 42. | "Thundersnail" | 0:42 |
| 43. | "Temmie Village" | 0:57 |
| 44. | "Tem Shop" | 0:45 |
| 45. | "Ngahhh!!" | 1:22 |
| 46. | "Spear of Justice" | 1:55 |
| 47. | "Ooo" | 0:14 |
| 48. | "Alphys" | 1:25 |
| 49. | "It's Showtime!" | 0:46 |
| 50. | "Metal Crusher" | 1:03 |
| 51. | "Another Medium" | 2:22 |
| 52. | "Uwa!! So Heats!!" | 0:33 |
| 53. | "Stronger Monsters" | 1:03 |
| 54. | "Hotel" | 1:27 |
| 55. | "Can You Really Call This a Hotel, I Didn't Receive a Mint on My Pillow or Anything" | 1:01 |
| 56. | "Confession" | 0:42 |
| 57. | "Live Report" | 0:17 |
| 58. | "Death Report" | 0:47 |
| 59. | "Spider Dance" | 1:46 |
| 60. | "Wrong Enemy!?" | 0:58 |
| 61. | "Oh! One True Love" | 1:24 |
| 62. | "Oh! Dungeon" | 0:32 |
| 63. | "It's Raining Somewhere Else" | 2:50 |
| 64. | "Core Approach" | 0:12 |
| 65. | "Core" | 2:46 |
| 66. | "Last Episode!" | 0:07 |
| 67. | "Oh My..." | 0:14 |
| 68. | "Death by Glamour" | 2:14 |
| 69. | "For the Fans" | 1:47 |
| 70. | "Long Elevator" | 0:20 |
| 71. | "Undertale" (guitar by Stephanie MacIntire) | 6:21 |
| 72. | "Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans" | 1:02 |
| 73. | "The Choice" | 2:12 |
| 74. | "Small Shock" | 0:14 |
| 75. | "Barrier" | 0:31 |
| 76. | "Bergentrückung" | 0:21 |
| 77. | "Asgore" | 2:36 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 78. | "You Idiot" | 0:34 |
| 79. | "Your Best Nightmare" | 4:00 |
| 80. | "Finale" | 1:52 |
| 81. | "An Ending" | 3:28 |
| 82. | "She's Playing Piano" | 0:18 |
| 83. | "Here We Are" | 2:06 |
| 84. | "Amalgam" | 1:20 |
| 85. | "Fallen Down (Reprise)" | 2:30 |
| 86. | "Don't Give Up" | 2:02 |
| 87. | "Hopes and Dreams" | 3:01 |
| 88. | "Burn in Despair!" | 0:21 |
| 89. | "Save the World" | 1:53 |
| 90. | "His Theme" | 2:05 |
| 91. | "Final Power" | 0:18 |
| 92. | "Reunited" | 4:44 |
| 93. | "Menu (Full)" | 0:32 |
| 94. | "Respite" | 1:54 |
| 95. | "Bring It In, Guys!" | 4:12 |
| 96. | "Last Goodbye" | 2:15 |
| 97. | "But the Earth Refused to Die" | 0:34 |
| 98. | "Battle Against a True Hero" | 2:36 |
| 99. | "Power of "Neo" " | 0:30 |
| 100. | "Megalovania" | 2:36 |
| 101. | "Good Night" | 0:31 |
| Chart (2016) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Independent Album Breakers (OCC) [32] | 19 |
| UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC) [33] | 25 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) [34] | 21 |
| US Soundtrack Albums (Billboard) [35] | 5 |
A leitmotif or Leitmotiv is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of idée fixe or motto-theme. The spelling leitmotif is a partial anglicization of the German Leitmotiv, literally meaning "leading motif", or "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity".
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Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface, although some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.
Robert F. "Toby" Fox is an American video game developer and composer. He is best known for developing the role-playing video game Undertale, which garnered acclaim and has received nominations for a British Academy Game Award, three Game Awards and D.I.C.E. Awards. He is also the creator and head of the ongoing development of Deltarune, which contains many characters and features from Undertale, and has also garnered significant praise.
The 2009 webcomic Homestuck, written and drawn by Andrew Hussie, currently holds a soundtrack consisting of 30 digital albums. Besides static images, Homestuck makes use of flash animations and games, which often involve background music. The music of Homestuck is composed by fans, but is published by Hussie through his Bandcamp page under the What Pumpkin record label. Hussie established a small "Music Contribution Team" for the webcomic, which is coordinated by Toby Fox.
Asgore Dreemurr is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale developed by Toby Fox, and its 2018 spiritual sequel Deltarune. The king of the Underground, he is a special type of creature known as a Boss Monster and serves as the penultimate boss of the game. Having previously killed six other humans as part of a plan to break an ancient Barrier created to entrap the Underground's denizens, he intends to take the protagonist's soul as the final one, freeing the monsters and getting revenge on the humans for killing his son, Asriel. He was created by Fox, with support from artist Temmie Chang.
"Megalovania" is an instrumental video game song composed by Toby Fox. It was first composed for the Radiation Halloween Hack, a ROM hack of EarthBound, developed for a Mother fansite's competition in November 2008. Inspired by "Megalomania" from Live A Live and the final boss music of Brandish 2: The Planet Buster, the track was intended for the ROM hack's final boss battle, and was developed by Fox screaming "whatever [he] felt like" into a microphone and copying it down. The name itself is a combination of "megalomania" and "Transylvania", the latter of which intended to tie into the project's Halloween theme. Years later the track would be remixed for the webcomic Homestuck's soundtrack as "MeGaLoVania" with help from Joren "Tensei" de Bruin, and Fox would use another rendition as the final boss theme for the "genocide" route in his 2015 video game, Undertale, when fighting the character Sans.
Toriel Dreemurr is a character introduced in the 2015 role-playing video game Undertale, acting as the first area boss. A motherly figure created as an embodiment of excessive video game tutorials, she is a member of the monster race with hanging ears, small horns, white fur, and a purple robe. The player can choose to kill her or convince her to stop fighting, which affects the way the story plays out. She also appears in Deltarune in a different role.
Deltarune is an episodic role-playing video game developed by Toby Fox as a follow-up to his 2015 video game Undertale. In the game, the player controls a human teenager, Kris, who is destined to save the world together with Susie, a monster, and Ralsei, a prince from the Dark World. During their quest to seal the Dark Fountains prophesied to end the world, the group makes both friends and foes. The combat system is turn-based and uses bullet hell mechanics. Similarly to Undertale, enemy encounters can be resolved peacefully or through violence.
Sans is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale. He is the brother of Papyrus and initially appears as a friendly NPC with an easy-going, laid-back personality. Sans is also featured in the 2018 video game Deltarune, where he can only be found at his shop, which is a remodeled version of Grillby's Diner from the original game. Sans was created by Toby Fox with support from the artist Temmie Chang. The character's name is based on the Comic Sans font, which is used for most of his in-game dialogue. This sans typeface was replaced with a "cutesy irreverent typeface" in the Japanese version of the game.
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W.D. Gaster, or simply Gaster, is a character from the 2015 video game Undertale who was the previous "royal scientist" for the game's underground kingdom of monsters before he vanished mysteriously. He cannot normally be encountered in the game, and is never discussed directly as part of the game's main narrative. Players can only encounter events related to him either by luck or by modifying certain game files. A sprite from one of these events, internally named "Mystery Man", is generally used to portray W.D. Gaster, though the sprite's connection to the character is not confirmed.
Alphys is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale and the 2018 video game Deltarune. She is a bisexual reptilian monster who serves as a scientist under the leader of the Underground, Asgore, and is a fan of anime and manga. She is also a friend to Mettaton, a robot, and the captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne, who eventually becomes her girlfriend. She suffers from social anxiety, depression, and self-harm tendencies, and the depiction of her struggles with these have been the subject of praise and commentary by critics. She watches the player-character throughout the game, offering guidance at some point, though with limited benefit. She is revealed to have dark secrets, including ones that relate to experimentation. She also appears in Deltarune in a different role as a school teacher.
Papyrus is a character introduced in the 2015 video game Undertale. He is a skeleton with a large ego who aspires to join the Royal Guard, and also the brother of Sans and friend of Undyne. He is eternally optimistic, and despite wanting to capture the human to prove himself, finds himself befriending the human instead. He does not appear in Deltarune, but has been alluded to. He was created by Toby Fox with support from Temmie Chang. He was originally envisioned as a creepy person who wears a fedora and has no redeeming qualities, though Fox did not like this idea, so he scrapped it. His character communicates with the Papyrus typeface, which had to be changed to a "faux hand-drawn vertical script" when translated into Japanese.
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...the way I arranged [Hopes and Dreams] in game is inspired by the band Anamanaguchi