______Undertale - Music Analysis______

Undertale is a pixel-art indie RPG made by Toby Fox.

You control a child which fell down into the underground and is now trying to escape from here. On his journey, he meets countless new friends who appear as different kinds of Monsters, who just go on about their lives.

Meanwhile the so called king named Asgor, is trying to get everyone out of this Underground and up to the surface. For this he needs to open a barrier, which he can only open with seven human souls and there for he sends his warriors to catch the only human left, which is you.

Toby Fox was always curious about why in games, only if you choose to not kill the General or any other higher character, which is important for the story, that you are called a hero, after killing countless of npcs! 

Therefor he added the Spare mechanic! 

Now you may think "what does this have to do with music?" 

In Undertale due to the spare mechanic you get so much more music and atmosphere that is added to the game.

One of the mayor parts I am talking about, is the beginning of the game.

I will talk about the fall briefly at the beginning, then go further to Toriel, the first Monster you will encounter.

After landing in the underground,  a dark cave surrounds you. You have no idea where you are and how you got here and so the first music after the intro of course, starts playing.

The Soundtrack is called Fallen Down and is played trough the piano, bass and strings, in between 109-110 BPM.

It awakens curiosity and even if the player is alone in this dark cave, he does not feel scared, rather excited to find out what lies further ahead.

As we now go further trough the door, soon a Monster finds us, she takes us in and starts taking over the mother role.

She shows us around the ruins and soon, we make it to her home.

Warm music starts playing, the speed is not much different to the Soundtrack "Fallen Down".

In this case it is around 113 BPM, as well as 4/4, but because it only uses the guitar and not more instruments, it is not too chaotic in comparison to the "Fallen Down" Soundtrack.

The guitar also uses every string which leads to him playing the song in A Major. Using Major also leads to a more happier song, which fits the warmth it is already giving us.

Therefore it gives us a calmer atmosphere, which also makes us gain the feeling of being safe and sound.

This is very fitting considering this is the home of our mother and therefore a place which is similar to the home were the player grew up, or at least the atmosphere lets us compare it, as we feel nostalgic trough this scenery.

We may choose to stay for a little while, but if we want to go further in the story, we do need to get past her.

Story wise, Toriel wants to safe the child from the World outside and therefore doesn't let us go back and try to get out of the underworld without a fight. She wants to make sure the child will be strong enough for the world, which lies beneath the door in the basement.

There are now two possible out comes.

As I said before, we now have the mechanic to spare!

As we fight Toriel, we can spare her as often as we can, choosing not to fight her! She soon gives in and tells us to go further and further until we finally reach an exit, but she also warns us.  As we see how beaten down she is and sad, she tells us to never come back.

After she leaves us in front of the door, we can go back upstairs one final time.

As we go back up, the music plays as before, yet this time it slowed down a bit. Giving us a feeling of longing. 

Because it is still the same music, the warmth is still there, but if we look around, Toriel is no where to be found. In combination to the music and the scenery, which is the same house and nothing has changed, except for Toriel not siting in from of the chimney, we get the feeling of having lost something, of this only being part of a memory.

Yet there is a difference between sparing her and actually killing her.

If we replay this fight and not spare her, but instead constantly attack her, until she tells us to stay save with her last breath, before she turns to dust, there will not be any music playing, which gives us the feeling of uncertainty.

Now reaching the home, which used to be so warm and calm, we find it in a lonely state.

Slowly music starts again, but this time it is not "Home".

You can barely hear it, but it is there (and for my part, I had to turn up the volume a lot to really hear it).

The Soundtrack which is playing is "Fallen down" , but slowed down a lot, the music is so quiet that you can barely even hear it.

Suddenly the atmosphere has shifted and the combination of the Soundtrack and the knowledge, that Toriel will never come back again and make one of her pies is stuck with you. Even if you would leave this place, she is gone and the music is underlining this.

Especially, because even on the other route, if you spared her, her music is still playing, because you know she is still going to be living here, but now that you killed her, this place seems lonely.

Music can do a lot for games, it changes the atmosphere depending on your actions and places you go, it makes the whole game feel more alive.

Therefore music is very important and I think that Toby Foxs Undertale is a good game to show of what music can do.

I also recommend playing the game!

!Thank you for reading my Analysis!