a (first but not last) review of undertale soundtrack by toby "radiation" fox

THIS REVIEW IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: comics to steal / @comicstosteal

 

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INTRODUCTION

 

Where were you when the towers hit? Well, me, I wasn't even in my father's balls yet. But I was there for the worldwide phenomenon known as "Undertale", a Post-Homestuck, Post-Yume-Nikki quasi art game that dared ask you to think of the slimes you were slaying in Dragon Quest. Undertale was the first internet bandwagon I was old enough to jump on thus it holds a special place in my heart, even if I fundamentally disagree with a lot of its design ideas. The most interesting about it nowadays, to me, is the fact that it was made by a bloke who was primarily a musician.

Following in the footsteps of Touhou Project's ZUN, Toby Fox (aka Radiation) was notable first as one of the composers for Homestuck, who despite not being responsible for the best songs in the series, was talented enough to eventually build his own little project inspired directly by Earthbound, Yume Nikki and, less directly, Cave Story. This is all stuff that I'm pretty sure you've heard about a billion times already, but indulge me just a little. I'm a fellow musician who sometimes dabbles in game development, and unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on who you are - Toby's music helped build a lot of my soundtrack composition habits.

 

The thing is, after I was comissioned to review this album, I realized I could genuinely write an entire book about it. Analysing each song in detail, interviewing Mr. Fox, etc. It's one of the only subjects I could do that to. This is the reason behind the review's title. I expect to, later in life, write an actual book or long review about it. For now, let me tell you what I think about this whole thing. 

 

THE ALBUM

 

 

So... A lot of people hate this soundtrack, and Toby, and Undertale. Even fans of this might tell you that Megalovania is overrated (it is), or that the leitmotif use is annoying (it is), but pretty much any hyper-popular thing out there will have its detractors. I fall in the middle. I can't deny the influence it had on me, or how much I like most of this, but as I grew older and more critical of the things I liked as a kid, I noticed a lot of cracks in it. For the record, most of the things I don't like about the Undertale Soundtrack aren't in the Deltarune Soundtrack (from what I've heard).

Toby's influences in this are clearly Shigeru Suzuki (from Earthbound) and Nobuo Uematsu, the latter being clearer in the "filler" tracks and in moments like Mettaton's "Oh! One True Love" scene which is a direct reference to Final Fantasy VI. The Earthbound influence is felt in the eclecticness at show, the different genres and extensively varied instrumentation. Toby uses classic MIDI soundfonts, square leads and most importantly, samples directly from Earthbound. Despite being so varied it doesn't stop feeling like video game music, which is what I like.

Some stuff here is what I'd call Millenial Quirktastic (a term you could also use to describe Mr. Fox himself). Stuff like Spooktune, sans. and Temmie Village sound like wholesomechungus heckerinos, which can be funny/charming or stupid depending on who you are. I think it's charming! This isn't surprising given Toby's sense of humour, which I also find charming.

The more notable tracks are the Tobyest, you can't pinpoint a direct influence the way you can with others, it's all pure Radiation, and their status in pop culture tell you all you need to know. Whether you like them or not, they're instantly recognizable and became internet staples. 

The infamous leitmotif use is, and I have to agree with some of the haters on this, kind of too much and unecessary at times. It's really hard to make me hate hearing music, so I do enjoy it, but as a critic, it is kind of nonsensical in a conceptual and technical level. Leitmotifs are supposed to bind themes and concepts together like glue, but most of the songs don't really have any connection. It does sound good, but it's just plain silly in a technical sense; It ends up feeling like Jacob Collier flexing his "technical" skills on top of us. Toby would later learn from this when making Deltarune, but that's a story for another day. I do admire some of the bending, which is something I can rarely do myself. One interesting leitmotif tidbit is how the track "Oh! My" references one of my favourite Homestuck songs, Killed by BR8K Spider, a Radiation classic.

One track I have to mention is the title track, Undertale. It is not only a great collection of the more notable leitmotifs but one of the most beautiful songs in here. It's as beautiful as "Three in the Morning (RJ's I Can Barely Sleep in This Casino Remix)" which is my favourite Homestuck song, but while that one is more introspective and uncertain, Undertale is painfully nostalgic and whimsical. Childlike wonder at its best.

I also have to mention Your Best Nightmare, which had the potential to be a great creepy boss track, but it's ruined by the poorly mixed and poorly implemented amen break. The overall mixing in this track is shitty compared to the rest of the soundtrack, I don't know what happened here but it sounds like a fanmade track in a way the rest doesn't.

Actually, a lot of the soundtrack seems like it's being held back be it by a lack of experience or simply the instrumentation choice. The production itself is pretty good and makes everything sound more profissional than your average RPG Maker game, an upgrade from Toby's time in the Homestuck music team, but it doesn't change the fact that at the end of the day he was working with decades-old soundfonts and sometimes poor MIDI pianos and drums. It does work in context, but it just feels like it could be much better.

Anyway, here's Megalovania. 

 

LET'S TALK ABOUT MEGALOVANIA

 

It's hard to take Megalovania seriously 10 years removed from the discovery of the Genocide Route. Megalovania isn't a dramatic climax anymore, it's a punchline. If you're too young to have been there at the time and you just found out about Undertale, I assume you'd find this song awesome as hell, but if you're my age or older, I'll bet it lost its wonders to you. Don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty great piece, but to me, in the big 2026, it works better as a base for mashups. You're not convinced? Well, may I present to you Offtopic's (legendary mashup artist and Megalovaniamaniac) masterpiece, a track that completely changed the way I sang All Star for years: 

 

Or what about my own creation, 'Nickelvania'?

 

The point is that this one song transcended its origin, a bit like FNAF's "Circus" or the Flinstones theme being Silvagunner running gags. If you were alive and on the internet in 2016, if you play D2 > D2 > D3 and > A2 consecutively, people will recognize it instantly.

Yet, I don't care much about it! It's certainly better than the Homestuck version, but I like the Halloween Hack one more (though it's waayy simpler). It's to no fault of the song itself, it just became victim of what many a pop song goes through: overplay. It can ruin even your favourite catchy choruses! I suppose that speaks more about the cultural place of the song rather than the song itself, but since works of art don't exist in a vacuum, it's impossible to not factor this in.

Tangent over. 

 

CONCLUSION

 

Relistening to the soundtrack for this review I had to come to terms with the fact that it's not that good. Some of the highlights are great works, but since the last time I listened to it in full, I played many games with much better soundtracks, and it put into perspective how this one just doesn't stand against them. It can be argued that Deltarune's soundtrack is more impressive, but I haven't listened to it in full yet nor played the game. What I know is, some of the tracks here are great for what they are, but only a couple of them are truly outstanding. To me those tracks are Undertale, Hopes and Dreams / SAVE the World and Asgore. The rest are comparable to SNES soundtracks like FFIV and Super Mario World, soundtracks that are great as game soundtracks but not necessarily great pieces of music in themselves.

 

Favourites: Fallen Down, Undertale, Asgore, Hopes and Dreams + SAVE the World, Battle Against a True Hero

Honorable Mentions: Home, Shop, Dating Start, It's Raining Somewhere Else, Death by Glamour, Spider Dance

8/10