OST of the Day #28: Undertale - ASGORE 🐐

Hey Steemit!

OSTs make up the majority of the music I listen to, and they're so underrated I just had to share them! Feel free to listen while reading. 😊

Man it's been a loooong time hasn't it. On the plus side, I'm getting back into art after not drawing in many many months, and I made my first reddit post on it!

https://www.reddit.com/r/AceAttorney/comments/bjufj7/getting_back_into_drawing_and_decided_to_draw_my/

It's not that great but I'm gonna work on some more pieces soon!

Anyway, today I chose a song from an amazingly punderful game, Undertale! heh. (I wish I could change the font to comic sans)

If you've never played Undertale before, it's an RPG created by American indie developer Toby Fox. You control a child who has fallen into the Underground, a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The player meets various monsters during a quest to return to the surface, mainly through the combat system; where you navigate through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent, and 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.
And what a story it is! There are 3 main endings to the game; Pacifist (if you spare everyone), Genocide (if you kill everyone), and Neutral (which is somewhere in the middle).

I finally finished playing Undertale after a loooong time of it just sitting in my steam library! Yay! 😄 After listening to my friends rave about the game for ages I decided to finally play it to completion (I've only done the Pacifist route tho). I first bought the game back in 2016 or smt and at the time, I did try it out but only until the end of the ruins. I guess the lack of time due to college and me not being too crazy about bullet hell games kinda fizzled my interest.

I did read that the soundtrack was phenomenal, so back then I listened to the entire OST while studying and I loved it! And I promised myself I would avoid all story spoilers and play it blind one day. I was kinda hoping to stream it blind but I just couldn't wait. Oh well, I'm so glad I finally got to finish it blind and I love the story so much!

It was extreeeemely difficult to choose just 1 song to write about because there are sooo many good songs! It's really hard for me to even pick a favourite. But I finally decided on this one:

This song is Asgore's theme, and it plays during his fight toward the very end of the game, regardless of which route you're on.
I chose this song because it was the most memorable for me when I first listened to the OST. I hadn't played the game and yet when this song came on, I was just whoa this is amazing.

Now that I've actually played the fight, this song is so much more impactful. Not to give it away too much, but the first part of the song with just the 8-bit notes lines up perfectly with the on-screen text; I love it.

After the starting sequence, the 8-bit notes are joined by supporting piano and hihats, and a few other instruments at the end of the section. The 'chorus' starts at 0:52, with just the 8-bit melody and timpanis. I love that the first melody of the song is quieter compared to the previous section; it's a good contrast since you expect a lot of epic songs to have a loud melody right from the start. Then you realise that it's gradually getting louder (or crescendo in music terms), as more instruments join in. There's so much going on in this section of the song; the bridge at 1:49 is fantastic as well, and the light piano in the background really adds another dimension to it, along with the drum beats of course. At 2:07 it gets a little quieter again, with just the piano this time, as opposed to the 8-bit synth notes carrying the entire song thus far. Then some chiptunes slip in to harmonise with the piano and lead the way towards the big finish.

This song always gets me pumped because of the tempo and fast drum beats. Super fitting for an epic boss fight imo. If you played the Pacifist run like me, I always thought the quieter portions of the song were Asgore having reservations of fighting the protagonist, like he still had a sense of morality left and was afraid to show his weakness of being a nice goat dad (although I didn't want to fight him either 😣). It felt like Asgore was just trying to show that he was tough by putting up a fight even though deep down he didn't want to. He was just a sad lonely guy who lost his family 😥 (woop spoilers).

Toby Fox did an absolute amazing job with this masterpiece of a game; story, characters, mechanics, music and all. I'm so glad indie devs like him and Eric Barone (who made Stardew) are getting the appreciation and acknowledgement they deserve.

Oh btw, here's an awesome cover of Asgore's theme with lyrics, written and sung by the amazing Adrisaurus!

If you're a fan of Undertale, I recommend checking out some fan games as well! There are so many great ones out there, and showcase many creative people continuing with Undertale's story. If you're interested, here's a playlist for Dusttale, played by Merg on YouTube. It's a little dark though, so be warned.

The game takes place after the events of an Undertale genocide route. Chara is now in control of the human, and has established a never-ending loop of genocide. Something now stirs in Sans, as he remembers the many previous consecutive routes of pain and suffering. Will you, the human, aid Chara in their quest for everlasting power, or is there a different way?

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://tacocat.vornix.blog/2019/05/20/ost-of-the-day-28-undertale-asgore-%f0%9f%90%90/

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Check out my previous post in this series!
OST of the Day #27: Hatoful Boyfriend - Anghel's Battle