This long elevator ride marks the beginning of Undertale’s final act New Home, and it faces quite a challenge. How do you take this absurd, fanciful game, turn it on its head and tip out some genuine human emotion? The answer, surprisingly, is with an acoustic guitar. Undertale certainly has a reputation that
precedes itself. As a love letter to JRPGs of the 80s and early
90s, it borrows from the era in its own game mechanics, story elements and music inspiration. But it also works as a piece of satire, with
every design choice made to subvert the genre’s tropes, in particular, combat. Undertale suggests that maybe violence shouldn’t
be the default means of conflict resolution. You are encouraged to talk with your so-called
“enemies”, peacefully defusing situations by understanding the monster’s motives and
desires, and the game reinforces your decision by rewarding you with a humorous battle. The core idea behind Undertale’s design
and story is that of empathy : sharing in the emotions of others. Now if I was being pedantic I’d argue that
the combat more evokes sympathy, understanding of others’ emotions. But how Undertale really hits you with true
empathy is through its music, specifically with that acoustic guitar .
The track is called “Undertale” , and it’s a worthy song to bear the game’s
title. Not only because it plays as the monsters
of the Underground tell us their side of the story. But it’s also the complete realisation of
the game’s themes, both musically and narratively. First, the musical themes. You can’t talk about Undertale’s soundtrack
without mentioning leitmotif: that’s when a single tune is used repeatedly throughout
a piece to represent a character or idea. Undertale’s soundtrack is riddled with leitmotif
– out of 101 tracks there are only 12 that don’t have a trace of any other music used
in the game. And most of these are either just short jingles
or ambient tracks. There’s a great write-up by Jason Yu detailing
the game’s use of leitmotif, it’s definitely worth checking out. The song “Undertale” itself contains two
different motifs. The first is called His Theme and it’s played
by the acoustic guitar. Up until this point His Theme has really only
been hinted at , but it takes full form in “Undertale” as this is when we learn about
who He is: He’s Asriel, the monster prince whose actions caused the events of the game,
which in turn led to the King Asgore wanting you dead. It’s not until repeated play-throughs does
Asriel begin to play a larger role, so this theme is deeply rooted within the game’s
story. The other theme in “Undertale” can be
heard in the piano line and should be much more familiar to the player. This is the main theme of the game, and Jason
Yu suggests that it elicits a sense of safety and comfort, as it is used in places of shelter
and rest such as the Hotel before the final area, and Toriel’s home at the beginning
of the game. The first time we hear this main theme is
in the opening prologue, in the form of the track Once Upon a Time. This fairy-tale beginning is an authentic
8-bit track, completely within the sound capabilities of the NES, and it’s also highly reminiscent
of the opening track to the original Mother game. So while the prologue is busy establishing
the narrative context of the game, the music is also already working to establish Undertale’s
context among games. This continues into the 16-bit era, with many
tracks using instrument sounds straight out of Super Nintendo games such as Earthbound
and Final Fantasy VI. Even through the soundtrack alone it’s obvious
that Undertale has a deep respect for these classic JRPGs, even if it does like to poke
fun at them a little bit. Being unshackled to the limitations of these
older consoles means Undertale can also use some modern, better sounding samples such
as the piano in Snowy and the acoustic guitar in Home. But these are still very obviously digital
instruments and stay in line with the soundtrack’s established tone. Maintaining a consistent tone is a great way
to create immersion, so by keeping the music consistent and to a certain extent serious,
it allows Undertale to run a little wild without breaking the player’s immersion. Arriving at New Home then is a series of breaking
that tone and immersion in order to reveal the game’s heart. Just seeing Toriel’s house again is enough
to remove the player from the moment and think back to the beginning of the game. And instead of the digital guitar sample in
Home, there’s now a real acoustic guitar being played by a real human being: Stephanie
MacIntire in this case. This is the only live recording of an instrument
on Undertale’s entire soundtrack and it takes the game’s absurd, fanciful tone and
brings it hurtling back down to Earth. When all you’ve heard in the entire game
is digital, an actual instrument stands out as something organic. The scene’s humanity is emphasised by the
subtleties possible in a human performance: the tiny imperfections in timing, the guitar
being slightly out of tune, the sound of the pick on the strings. These human elements all help to create a
personal atmosphere and ground the scene in the real-world to bring out its emotional
punch. New Home is the point that Undertale has been building towards: It’s when you finally
understand the monsters’ true motives and desires, and you begin to feel compassion
for them. But it’s far from a happy, harmonious moment
as you’re about to meet the big baddie Asgore, who wants to use your Human soul to break
the spell trapping the monsters underground. When Toby Fox first wrote the music for this
scene, it sounded quite different. This version feels sad and mournful, with
a heavy bass and some really dark chords. Compare that to what was eventually used in-game,
which to me feels almost hopeful: a positive mindset moving forward. Positivity in the song’s major key , giving
it a more optimistic tone. And forward momentum through its steady beat
and heavy use of predominant chords. Check out Ongaku Concept’s video on Hopes
and Dreams if you want to know the music theory behind that. But this scene at New Home isn’t hopeful
at all. It’s the opposite: you’re a dead man walking,
about to meet your executioner. Surely the sad and mournful piece of music
would be more appropriate for scoring the player’s emotion. Well that’s true, but it’s not the point
of this scene. It’s not about the player or the protagonist’s
emotions – it’s about the monsters. They’re excited and happy because they’re
about to be set free. They’re hopeful in their King’s promise
that your arrival will finally mean the end of their suffering. The music is scoring the monster’s emotion
rather than your own, and this forces a change in your perspective, allowing you to feel
how they do. And that’s empathy. That’s what Undertale is all about: understanding
and sharing in the feelings of others, even if you’re at odds with them. Toby Fox understands that music is a powerful
way of conveying emotion, but instead of using it to draw out what the player should already
be feeling (assuming the writing is doing its job), he uses it to make us feel how the
other side does. A sense of safety, and humanity, and hope. It would be so easy for this moment to come
across as clichéd, or contrived or saccharine , but it just doesn’t thanks to the music. It totally hits home. Hey, thanks for watching! And thank you to these people who helped me
in various ways, their channels are all linked in the description below. And of course a huge thanks to all my patrons. The following special people are the top-tier
supporters.
I've said it once; I'll say it again: Sound makes or breaks games.
Be it a gunshot or an overture. Undertale wouldn't be half the game it was without its gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, rip-at-your-very-soul soundtrack. The writing is good. The characters are better. The story makes you care.
But that soundtrack... Makes it real.
The entire soundtrack is incredible. Megalovania, Battle against a True Hero, Death By Glamour, Bergentruckung/ASGORE, and Quiet Water are my personal favorites.
The youtuber mentions it in his video but I highly suggest reading Jason Yu's article on Undertale Leitmotifs. It is a great read and has a ton of examples that you can actively listen to, and if you are keen on reading music then actual sheet music to show the differences throughout songs.
Toby Fox interview extract:
Q: Why do I find it so amazing when a game uses motifs? Like, Final Fantasy X created a main music theme and then had variations of it throughout the game.
A: I like how your question is, "Why do I find this so amazing?"
Well, I feel like you must really like it too. Since you did it!
There are a few reasons to do them. One reason is: you do a melody in one context, then you do it in another context, and you remember it from the first time, and so it gains more and more meaning the more contexts you use it in. And you sort of grow more and more attached to it. The melody itself has a weird sort of character development. When you hear a song over and over again, you gain this sort of nostalgia, this memory of it. Your relationship with the song grows. That's one good reason to do it.
The second reason is that it's easier to reuse themes. *laughs*
When you use variations on a previous theme, you get to dredge up all the emotions from when the song was first used, and add more on top of it.
It's a shame there's such a stigma surrounding this game, the whole experience is extremely well-crafted.
When you hear Undertale you just feel your adventure come to an end. The entire song is slow and soothing and gives you a sense that it is time to go home. Or in some cases when it isn't the full version that someone needs to come home
There's so many songs in that game that give me goose up but "Undertale" takes the cake, especially the music box version in the cave. I believe it's called memory
Man, this guy is one of my favorite Youtubers. Deserves way more views and subs than he currently gets. I recommend everybody check out the other videos on his channel!
I would say that the song "Ruins" is when I fell in love with not only the soundtrack, but the game itself. The emotions that this song takes me through really captured and brought me into this game and world 100%.
After this, it just got better with more music, along with the great characters and story. Still one of my favorite RPGs I've ever played.
Undertale's soundtrack is freaking awesome, buying it when it released on Google Play and then buying the CE PS4 Boxset that comes with the sheet note music and pendant <3