Toby Fox’s Undertale, the 2015 JRPG-inspired indie hit, turns four this week. Like many folks who like to write words about games, Undertale hit me hard at precisely the right time in my life. Its cast of lovable characters, motif of perseverance in the face of seemingly impossible odds, and even the very idea of trying to mend the injuries of the past with conversation instead of fighting turned me into a sobbing mess when I first played through it. It also marks one of the first games I played after many years of simply not playing video games at all.
When I was a kid, I played bass guitar in a couple of punk and indie rock bands. I have a lot of fond memories attached to that period; I also have a lot of trauma associated with that time in my life as well. Particularly, I was in the throes of my deepest depressive episode when Undertale was released, directly as a result of some of these traumas. It’s been a long road from there to here, and I’m not completely “better,” but I like to think I’ve improved in some ways.
Undertale’s soundtrack has been essential listening for me in the interim. Of any other video game I can think of, Undertale’s soundtrack has been covered extensively. On this fourth anniversary (and with Deltarune on the distant, distant horizon), I wanted to celebrate some of the best Undertale cover albums out there. And also cry a lot.
Podskazka: Undertale Covers, by Lenich and Kirya
Opening with a rousing folk rendition of “Bonetrousle,” Podskazka takes the melodies and harmonies of the original soundtrack and fully transplants them into rowdy Russian renditions worthy of a rousing ruckus. Everything is (more or less) acoustic, and many tracks feature a simple mix of complex guitar fingerpicking and soulful accordioneering.
What I love about this album is that it sacrifices exactly none of the power of the soundtrack or even some of the harder cover albums in its acoustic play style. This shit still rocks, and it will stir your heart — even if you’re a monster without one.
There’s even a Polka cover of “Metal Crusher” in here, and if you don’t think that’s rad as hell I don’t know what to tell you.
If you’re looking to get real deep in your feels, listen to the “Asgore” cover. It’s real sad, in a way I don’t think even the original managed to hit. There are so many quiet, desperate moments in the song that tears well up every time I hear it. I’m crying right now, in fact.
Live at Grillby’s, by Insaneintherainmusic
Hey, do ya like jazz?
Trick question, of course you do. And YouTube creator/jazz wizard Insaneintherainmusic has you covered with Live at Grillby’s, a seriously impressive collection of Undertale covers that fully allows the artist to flex their musical muscles. It’s a single musician, playing every instrument, using jazz as a weapon to fully transport us to the Underground in the classiest way possible.
Honestly, if I had to classify this album, it would be “Undertale, but played by the local mall PA system or late at night in a good restaurant during the holidays.” It’s so incredibly chill and evocative of that specific time of year that I wanted to put on a jacket and drink some hot cocoa despite it being nearly 85 degrees outside my house right now.
The one aspect that cools me on this album is each song’s length. In individual YouTube video format, Live at Grillby’s is pretty digestible, but when everything’s in album form, each song needing its own separate stage to shine, you get some tracks feeling like they overstayed their welcome. Still, some songs, like “A Date with Demise (It’s Raining Somewhere Else)” were made for jazz, and I love them.
Not every song on the album is straight jazz, either. “Lights, Camera, Action (Death By Glamour) [feat. The Consouls]” is funky as hell.
Ultimately, this is great music to have on in the background if you want to play video game music but have nobody who might otherwise hate video game music yell at you to turn it off.
Undertale Kazoo’d! By Tsuko G.
This album, on the other hand, is basically hand-crafted to make your friends in the car go “what the fuck” at you when you play it. It’s a fantastic series of covers done (almost) entirely with kazoos. It almost sounds like a joke, but it very much is not. Kazoos are legit, and when you have multiple kazoos all operating at different octaves, there’s a kind of directed chaos happening that sounds amazing to me.
That said, most of the covers are basically faithful covers to some of the principal music in Undertale. I once tried editing the game’s music files to play this album, but it didn’t like that and crashed my computer. Woulda sounded good as shit, I bet.
Some of the standouts: “Megalovania,” “Spear of Justice” and “Bergentrückung.”
Determination, by RichaadEB and Ace Waters
Probably the piece-de-resistance of Undertale cover albums is the metal-electronic album Determination, by YouTubers RichaadEB and Amie Waters. These are some of my favorite covers of the game’s soundtrack, in many ways taking the emotional core Toby Fox gave to his music and dialing it up waaaay past 11. These covers manage to ride the line between sincere and flourishing perfectly, never once getting “too serious” nor “too goofy” (like a lot of metal covers of Undertale I’ve heard can sometimes be). It’s been four years, and RichaadEB is still (stuck) recording new Undertale covers; he just re-released his “Megalovania” cover for something like the seventh time.
What’s great about this album, though, is not individual tracks per se. It’s how both artists play the songs that play to their individual strengths. Each “side” of the album has roughly 12 songs; RichaadEB mostly plays the battle instrumentals on the “red” side, and Amie Waters plays music you hear when you’re walking around in the Underground on the “blue” side.
Of course, there’s no end of collaboration on Determination. RichaadEB enlists other YouTubers, like ToxicxEternity, FamilyJules7x (who just did some of the music for Cadence of Hyrule), ThunderScott, and our friend, Tsuko G.
One thing that surprised me about this album was the inclusion of some of the songs from Undertale’s infamous “Death” run, where your character kills everything in the Underground. “Desperation” leaps out in front of you in an album of bangers, emulating its eponymous emotion pretty well. I could (and have) listen to “Desperation” on repeat before. From there, it doesn’t relent. “Wrath and Cowardice” is a roaring rendition of “Asgore/Bergentrückung” and RichaadEB’s collaboration with Ace Waters on “An Evening With the Unhallowed” is a truly terrifying cover of “Your Best Nightmare.” By the time you get to Amie Waters’ “blue” side, you NEED a break.
There is a reason why this cover album is one of the few fanworks-turned-“official” Undertale merch. It’s essential listening. Also check out The Purple Side, an entirely separate album that more fully synthesizes RichaadEB and Ace Waters’ work.
Undertale: Fragments of a Heart, by Laura Platt
I just found this album tonight, as I was collecting my thoughts for this article. I don’t think I can describe how I’m feeling right now. It’s like I’m replaying the game, but without all the baggage of years. There’s no gimmicks, no particular genre flourishes, just nice moments from the soundtrack, lovingly composed and arranged. Laura Platt is a member of the Materia Collective (who also did an Undertale album), but she really shines here by herself (and a few friends).
Probably the most affective song on the album for me is “Battle Against a True Hero.” There’s a little moment toward the end where it’s just Laura playing some notes on the piano alone, with no other accompaniment, and like some of the moments on Podskazka, it just really hit me.
The album’s cover is a smiling, happy Frisk holding a heart above their own, and I think the music inside does a really good job of embodying that. If you’ll excuse me, I’ma cry now.
Undertale still has an effect on me, four years later. It’s not completely associated with good thoughts, but it’s still one of the best games I’ve played, top five all-time. Its music is a big part of why. There might not be any further mysteries to unravel in the game (Gaster be damned) but I will always have time to play it.
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