#Undertale (Music)

[undertale-ost-tournament]

Despite everything, it's still you.

It's not the first week of February, nor is it 10 days after April 20th, but the Undertale OST Tournament is back!

Please, spread the word, because Stage 2 is starting soon!

I will not be rerunning the previous 11 knockout-stage posts: Death By Glamour, Dogsong, Last Goodbye, Spear of Justice, Bonetrousle, Nyeh Heh Heh, Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap, CORE, Spider Dance, It's Raining Somewhere Else, and Metal Crusher are all moving on. I'll do the rest of Round 1, then we'll be onto Round 2, and so forth until the end of the tournament!

Then, we might finally be able to move on to a more complicated tournament. >;]

As I've said before, I'm no longer going to be doing propaganda, with some exceptions: I'll answer asks, and if you say something especially interesting I'll also reblog it. Otherwise, no tag sceenshots, no dedicated propaganda posts. They were a fun idea, but it just took up too much time.

[saturn-leia]

my very first undertale fanart. it actually needs some fixing but for now i like it as it is

edit: added some more atmosphere

[obscuretobyfox]

Recently discovered an unused version of Dating Start apparently included on the Undertale Vinyl!! I'm personally in love with this track.

[under-lore]

How much merit did "Star is Chara's theme" have really ?

The music of Undertale is quite renown for a number of things, from its quality to its abundant usage of leitmotifs.

However, there are a few tracks which went under the radar, such as the ones that went unused in the final release of the game.

One of such tracks was "Star".

This particular unused track found itself in an intriguing situation when it became the center of one of Undertale's biggest fully soundtrack-based theories of the early fandom.

The theory suggested that "Star" may have been an unfinished version of what could have been a Chara theme before the idea was eventually scrapped before mounting up to anything concrete.

That theory was based around the way Toby Fox makes his music and the way it correlates to his characters.

For instance, from its rhythm to its instruments and its intensity or even its fairly epic/heroic yet pretty chaotic & impulsive nature, Spear of justice has "Undyne" written all over it it countless ways. It isn't just an Undyne-associated song, the song literally feels like Undyne. It is a musical representation of Undyne and the situation she finds herself in at the moment. And that is how a lot of Toby's music is written.

Even someone who has never heard the song and knows nothing about Undertale, if given a description of each of the main characters and asked of which one was this a theme of, would easily find the right answer.

This particularity comes from a few things, such as the fact that Toby confessed that he actually often makes the music first and then creates the scene around it by taking inspiration from the music.

And so, in the case of character themes, it means that Toby Fox songs end up being filled with hidden details and tones that are relevant to a character's personality, backstory, psyche, etc... And thus makes the songs a lot closer to the characters.

Due to this, a number of fans tried to reverse engineer some of the unused songs using this technique in order to try and figure out what they might have been for, and "Star" was the one that stood out.

The reason why it stood out was because the fans did believe they were able to find such connections between "Star" and the first fallen human.

Some of the ties they proposed between the song and the character were :

The song starts out with a sad/depressing tone similar to grief or regret, seen as possibly alluding to how Chara's plan was a failure (that Flowey came to cruelly regret), and how it caused the kingdom to fall into despair after their death.

In addition, the song has a very strong "echo" effect, which is also often associated with the idea of death as well as that of the consequences of the past coming back to you. Two things that Chara as a character is also associated with.

But it soon begins to obtain an uplifting and hopeful undertone as the song goes on. This can be attributed both to Chara being seen as the future of humans and monsters, but also to their newfound "reincarnation" allowing them a new second chance at existence.

The combinaison of the previous two things makes the song feels somewhat confused before it finds itself a stable path. Which could also be tied to Chara's words at the of genocide. (but that one is a bit more of a stretch)

The song overall just has a very similar vibe to "his theme", Chara's best friend. As Toby likes to have musical similarities between themes of characters that are closely tied together.

The song is just long enough so that it could have fit to play during the chara flashbacks scenes at the end of pacifist if we were to add back the unused few more images that were going to be in there originally. (Side note : this being the case would give point n°3 a very toby-esque double meaning too. With Chara being there both in Asriel's memory and reincarnated)

Some claim that the instruments used in the song can tie it to the Dreemurr family, however my ear is not good enough to tell wether this point is actually valid or just a rumor.

The song starts off weak in intensity, but begins to grow stronger after a click that radically changes the song's overall feeling. (the same one that was proposed to be about their reincarnation.) This was suggested to be a reference to Chara's words about power at the end of the genocide route.

That the name of the song is "Star" in the first place, as there also happens to be a star named "Chara" not all that far from our solar System. On top of that, this particular constellation is known for having a top/northern dog star, and a south/lower dog star. Our Chara star is the lower dog Star, which could be interpreted as a metaphor for being a human yet living in the underground.

...Which isn't that for bad for a track that only lasts like 30 seconds.

So due to these reasons and to the fact that the song clearly seemed unfinished, it quickly became a popular theory that the song was supposed to be related to Chara in some way, with the flashbacks at the end of pacifist being a prime suspect for its intended scrapped use.

However, some time later, this screenshot came along :

The reliability of this screenshot is to be taken with a grain of salt, as there are many rumors that this screenshot may have been fake, and i have not been able to properly identify the source of these rumors. And besides, a private e-mail isn't something that can be easily verfied the existence of.

But all that aside, the e-mail seems to say that before it was scrapped, the usage of 'Star' was actually attempted for the fight against Madjick, a regular enemy from near the end of the game.

Although technically not fully disproving it (as the fact that Toby makes the music first & it not fitting Madjick much or just overall that regular enemies don't usually have such unique themes might let one argue that it was first made for something other than Madjick, then was used for Madjick before being removed.), the way that Toby appears to talk about it seems to imply that there isn't really more to the song than that, and thus that the theory would just be wrong after all.

Since then, the theory was pretty much left as is, slowly fading away in popularity over time.

Was this theory correct ? Whilst we will probably never be sure, the answer is most likely no. I wouldn't bet on it, at least.

However, no matter wether this was all ultimately just a coincidence or not, one thing which remains true is that the music certainly does sound quite close to how one would have expected a Chara version of "his theme" from Toby to sound like.

The same cannot be said for other fanon Chara associated themes, such as "Megalo strike back". While Toby did make this song, this was not the song's intended name and it didn't have anything to do with Undertale.

I find it unfortunate that people went fishing this far on Toby's archives for a song to make fanon Chara content around when Star was right here in the Undertale game files for the taking and would have been a more fitting choice overall.

By default of being an actual Chara song, Star still had everything one would need to build good Toby-like fanon Chara songs around at the very least. But this opportunity went surprisingly under-exploited under Megalo strikes back's shadow.

It doesn't mean there aren't any Chara fanthemes using Star, though.

For instance, Undertale bits & pieces made this Genocide Chara theme using the Star leitmotif among a couple others. I believe it is an example of using Star as an inspiration done well !

[skarrufeathers]

Thank you, UTY team

[townlizzardposts]

Some days i think that I might just be lying to myself about relating to certain characters because I want to relate to them, like in the case of Laios, i find him the most relatable character that I’ve ever seen in media.

Then i remember my animal I made back in like 6th grade

and suddenly I forget that feeling and realize that maybe that biology degree is a good idea.

[virtuosapickle]

So I was just looking through my files, and I found this remix from like 3 months ago of CORE from Undertale that I never posted anywhere I think

Which is weird cause it actually goes kinda hard?? But I prolly hated it when I made it haha

Anyway enjoy this wasn't very hard to make at all

[xxtha-blog]

Undertale Yellow Remix!! 💛

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 13/04/2024

Locked In The Underground

Season 4 Episode 2 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume C

Ripped by Jamangar

Whaaat? More Undertale?? Say it ain't so!!

Look, I lamented it a bit over on Logan Paul's Shop, and its something you can even see for yourself by viewing the Undertale tag on the blog archive. In terms of games to have been featured on the blog one way or another, Undertale/Deltarune are leagues ahead of the competition. And I am torn on this, still. Like on the one hand, I want the blog to cast a wide net of rips, to not just cover my personal favorites, but to cover as much of SiIvaGunner's history and growth. But on the other hand...Undertale IS a huge part of that history and growth, it has been since the very beginning, and as I discussed in Your Best Nightmario and Shiny Smily TALE the game's very DNA and themes is just a perfect fit for everything that SiIvaGunner stands for. Well, there's that - and there's how rippers like Jamangar just keep absolutely outdoing themselves with how much leverage they can get from this 9-year old game's soundscape. Its rips like Locked In The Underground that remind me of WHY Undertale rips are so prevalent on here.

If you've been reading for a while or just kept up with SiIvaGunner in general to the degree I have (or are from the team!! hi team!!), you may well recognize Jamangar's name. Much like ShonicTH with Trial of the Heart and many others on the channel, Jamangar has carved out her own very specific niche in terms of what she contributes with. That niche is the same one you'll hear in World Out There and Story of Undertale: There are few SiIvaGunner contributors who have as much expertise in ripping Undertale as Jamangar. Yet all of these three rips feel quite different from one another - Story of Undertale is a magnificent journey throughout just about the entire Undertale campaign with instruments changing along the way, wheras World Out There was an incredibly resonant mashup/melodyswap, a full-on shot of nostalgia on all the senses. Indeed, Locked In The Underground follows their footsteps in quality, yet is excellent in a subtly different way - its just a flat-out banger.

I don't know what it is about Bruno Mars' music that makes it work so incredibly well in mashups. Perhaps I have BotanicSage to thank, with Pokemon GSC Is What I Like and 16BIT Magic both permanently etched into my soul ever since I first heard them - but Locked In The Underground takes on the very same challenge, and in my eyes passes with absolutely flying colors. I mean, it only takes a few seconds for the rip to sell you - as soon as you hear Mars' "oh-yeah-yeahs" followed by Undertale SFX playing to the beat, you KNOW Jamangar's made far more than a mere mashup here. It helps, of course, that CORE is already one of the most stand-out songs in the game, much like Colress' battle theme was to Pokémon Black & White's soundtrack in Light! (Potentialseeker Colress) - its hard NOT to get excited seeing a CORE rip knowing just how distinct of a sound any take on the track will have, due to the pure quality of the track underneath.

So much is done to have Locked In The Underground truly fit together. The melodyswap is fantastic on its own, having CORE's lead instrument play in tune with Mars' vocals yet rising high in volume to the song's chorus, and CORE's synthetic backing paired with the drums of Locked Out Of Heaven create such a unique soundscape to boot. But beyond that, there are tons of little flourishes - small segments where CORE's original melody peeks through in the backing, Undertale sound effects sprinkled in to censor expletives or punctuate key moments of the song...like Semi-Charmed All Star, you get the impression that Jamangar GETS both of the songs used, that she's "studied" how Locked Out Of Heaven works in order to have the mashup work so perfectly.

Really - Locked In The Underground is the kind of rip that just feels like a shoe-in for the blog, as one of the most popular rips made during 2020. Funny enough, beyond the obvious combination of Locked Out Of Heaven and Undertale, you could even read the rip's title itself to be referencing the feeling all of us had during the pandemic - sort of reframing its pleas and shouts, in a way. But then Locked In The Underground also isn't the kind of rip where I'm desperate to know more about its possible lore and inner workings: I know Bruno Mars, I know Undertale, I know Jamangar, and she made one of the season's cleanest bangers by doing what she does best. That's awesome.

[imqshley]

had the thought of "what would flowey's theme sound like if he was completely innocent and didn't have any ill intentions throughout undertale", so i decided to make a song for it! :3

[toastereno]

happy undertale day!! this game had a huge impact on me, so i figured i should show appreciation for it somehow. here's a short cover from me of the shop theme :'^)

[undertale-ost-tournament]

ROUND 1: MATCH 12

Undertale vs Temmie Village

[r0adrunner]

“enemy retreating” is the absolute hardest banger in undertale yellow better than apprehension, a mother’s love, and trial by fury change my mind

[a-otter-appears]

What Your Favorite Undertale Song Says About You!

(All this is done for fun and laughs! So don't take anything said too serious.)

(DELTARUNE CHAPTER 1 LINK)

Once Upon a Time: You love diving into new stories, fantasy is escape from your life. (Also see: Home, Snowdin, Hotel, Fallen Down (Reprise), Hopes and Dreams)

Your Best Friend: It's okay I hate dealing with most people too!! (Also see: Your Best Nightmare)

Fallen Down: You yearn back to the time of your life when you were happy, careless, and free. You're pretty nostalgic about most things.

Ruins: Pretty tired eh? You're kind of a wanderer these days. (Also see: Waterfall, Don't Give Up, An Ending)

Uwa!! So Temperate: You are delighted by the simple things in life. :)

Enemy Approaching: I see you Pokemon fan. (Also see: Dogsong, Temmie Village, Tem shop, Stronger Monsters, Amalgram)

Ghost Fight: You just really need a break. (Also see: Dummy!)

Determination: Overthinker. (Also see: Asgore)

Home / Home (Music Box): You're either pretty homesick, or just wish to have as loving and safe a place as Toriel's. (Also see: Once Upon a Time)

Heartache: You're stressed for yourself, your friends, and pretty much everyone's future.

sans. : I don't know how you still manage to have any sort of energy after all these years.

Nyeh Heh Heh! / Bonetrousle: Very obsessive about your favorite things.

Snowy: Winter REALLY is your season, you enjoy staying inside and working on many projects through the winter. (Also see: Snowdin)

Uwa!! So Holiday: You carry your own special magic. :)

Dogsong: ... Get away from me /j, you're pretty goofy and funny. (Also see: Enemy Approaching, Temmie Village, Tem Shop)

Snowdin Town / Shop: Like Snowy, just with less seasonal depression, more friendly, and a lot more love for the holidays. (Also see: Snowy, Once Upon a Time, Reunited)

Dating Start!: Bubbly and fun! You're a wannabe online influencer. (Also see: Snowdin, Dating Tense)

Dating Tense!: You need to stop looking so deeply into things, they don't hate you. (Also see: Dating start! Spear of Justice)

Dating Fight!: You're late to everything.

Undyne: You scare me, if I saw you walking down the street I would back away.

Waterfall / Quiet Water: You have such wonderful thoughts and ideas, you just need to give yourself the push to actually work on them. Go get some rest. (Also see: Ruins, Another Medium)

Memory: You have given yourself to others without them returning the favor to many times. (Also see: His Theme)

Dummy!: You are sick and tired of EVERYTHING. You will fight your way through this life if it means you don't have to be treated like trash anymore. (Also see: Ghost Fight)

Pathetic House: Your room is VERY bare. Please put something up, even if it's a sticky note. (Also see: Ghost Fight, Spider Dance)

Spooktune / Spookwave / Ghouliday: You're the kid who people think listens to "edgy" and "dark" songs on their headphones. But really, you jam out to the most weird things. (Also see: Metal Crusher)

Chill: You can barely keep your eyes open, you're very sleepy.

Thundersnail: 1# weird dancer.

Temmie Village: Very hyperactive! Please take a moment to breath! (Also see: Dogsong, Tem Shop)

Tem Shop: LOUD (Also see: Dogsong, Temmie Village)

NGAHHH!! / Spear of Justice: Sweet Jesus you scare me with those anger problems. You say you could take on anyone in a fight, but you would lose everytime, or actually WIN everytime. (Also see: Undyne, Asgore)

Alphys: Nervous and unsure, you have no idea what you're doing most of the time, but you just... go with it anyway. (Also see: Amalgram, Here We Are)

It's Showtime!: You show your love by annoying people to death. (Also see: Live Report, Death by Glamour)

Metal Crusher: How the hell do you get your work done so fast?!? You type at the speed of light. So focused... (Also see: Spooktune, Death by Glamour)

Another Medium: Imaginative and hardworking, you probably take long walks while listening to music. (Also see: Waterfall, CORE)

Uwa!! So HEATS!!?: You get sick a lot.

Stronger Monsters: You look all put together and calm, but you get so easily offended when someone doesn't agree with your opinion. (Also see: Enemy Approaching)

Hotel / Can You Really Call This a Hotel I Didn't Receive a Mint on my Pillow or Anything: You LOVE having the house to yourself, being alone is when you can get the most done. Or you just enjoy being able to relax alone. (Also see: Once Upon a Time)

Live Report / Death Report: Stressed VERY easily. But you hide it behind a smile. (Also see: It's Showtime!)

Spider Dance: You are MISCHIEVOUS, you love to mess around with people, scare them, whatever! (Also see: Dummy!)

Wrong Enemy: No sense of direction, you barely know your left and right.

Oh! One True Love! / Oh! Dungeon: T h e a t e r k i d, you also might sing ballads in public bathrooms just for the acoustics.

It's Raining Somewhere Else: Philosophical, you might be seen working/studying at the local cafe/library, or overthinking/napping in your room. You should really get a real night of sleep instead of powering through with 2 hour naps and coffee. (Also see: sans.)

CORE: I get the feeling you had an intense space phase as a kid. Kind of nerdy, you don't stop until you get the answer to whatever you're looking for. (Also see: Another Medium)

Death by Glamour: THE BADDEST BITCH IS HERE! You're truly here for a fun time, not a long time. You have this unique charm that just makes people want to be by you. Some may think you're annoying, but you grew enough skin not to care about that anymore. (Also see: CORE, Another Medium, It's Showtime!)

For the Fans: Due to terrible/unexpected life events, you had to step away from what you love, you really want to go back to when you were better. (Also see: Oh! One True Love)

Undertale: Oh boy... I can tell you lost someone dear in your life; whether it was by growing apart, or death. You hold on tight and dear for the time you had with them, wishing you spent more time together. But you also remember, (and hopefully smile) that you got to know this person at all. You still carry on through life, the memories, with a tear in your heart. (Also see: Once Upon a Time, Hopes and Dreams, His Theme)

Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans: You're a jokester. (Also see: Sans, Bonetrousle)

Bergentrückung / Asgore: You deeply regret the actions/words you caused/said. You find no mercy in forgiving yourself. And well I'm not the one to say if what happened is worth being forgiven... maybe you'll find peace one day. (Also see: Heartache, Determination, Spear of Justice)

Your Best Nightmare: Who even are you???? I think if you were a drink, you would be a green Monster. (Also see: Your Best Friend)

Finale: Truly the only and best word to describe you is determined. (Also see: Your Best Nightmare, Your Best Friend, His Theme)

An Ending: Very, veeeeeery close to just quitting whatever it is you do. (Also see: Ruins)

Here We Are: Anytime you get out of your room, your parents will always make comments about it, leaving you to quickly hide away again.

Amalgam: You like experimenting. I won't say with what. (Also see: Enemy approaching, Here We Are)

Fallen Down (Reprise): Despite yearning back, you march forward, not staying stuck in the past or thinking of the future, you stay exactly where you are, in the moment. (Also see: Fallen Down, Once Upon a Time, Hopes and Dreams)

Don't Give Up: Maybe on the outside you look like a walking corpse. But on the inside? You still try to hold on, no matter what, cause you believe it WILL get better soon. (Also see: Ruins, An Ending)

Hopes and Dreams / SAVE The World / Last Goodbye: you... YOU! You are a light in the dark, the warmth in the snow. You try to make people's lives, and this world's better. Even if you don't like most people, even if you give more than you should. You hold on, dream, and work for a better future, a better life, for everyone. (Also see: Undertale, Your Best Friend, Once Upon a Time, Snowdin)

His Theme: You cry a lot (not in a bad way!) Your emotions guide you more than your mind. You look back and ask yourself if you have done enough. (Also see: Memory, Undertale, Reunited)

Reunited: People make fun of you for believing every story has a happy ending. But you don't mind. You hold on deary to the people who made your life better, who stuck through it all. You know even in the happiest times there's saddest, and in the saddest, there's joy. (Also see: Once Upon a Time, Hopes and Dreams, His theme)

Respite: You made it, through the worst days/weeks/months of your life, you pulled through, and are still standing. (Also see: Ruins)

Bring it in, Guys!: You couldn't pick just ONE song.

Battle Against a True Hero: the MAIN character, you would throw yourself in any danger to protect those you love. You'll defend until your last breath. (Also see: Ruins)

Power of -NEO-: You're still mad Mettaton NEO didn't get a actual fight. Please let it go.

Megalovania: *sighhhhhh* But actually, you're pretty intimidating. Maybe it's because of how loud you are, or the tense energy you radiate. I wouldn't want to get in your way...

BONUSES:

Mad Mew Mew: Cute and bitter! People think they can walk over you, but quickly learn that they SHOULDN'T at all. (Also see: Dummy! Spider Dance)

Gaster's Theme: PUT THAT GODDAMN THEORY DOWN

[glitchthedemon]

ok was anyone gonna tell me there was a Once Upon a Time (Undertale) leitmotif in Before The Story (Deltarune) or was I just supposed to find out myself

[spiritgenie]

so heres the concept of altered alphys theme, hoenstly am kinda proud of this