Last night, I attended the Undertale Determination Symphony concert in Kansas City at Kauffman Center. It was pretty fun! A lot of people came donning very good cosplay, the audience was enthusiastic and respectful, and the music was nice. I’ve voiced quibbles with these sorts of concerts before, namely around how musicians don’t seem to be given enough time to rehearse them, and I did hear a bit of that this time too. But by and large it was a really pleasant experience. I was delighted to see how into “Megalovania” the conductor, who I don’t think has ever experienced Undertale prior to this, was. That dude was jammin’.
However, I’m sorry to say I’m here to complain again. Not about the music, which was enjoyable and well-arranged and well-played. Rather, about the lack of certain musics. I want to speak to whomever it was that programmed this thing; the person that picked the songs for this concert and then put them in the order they were in.
Hey, Person Who Did This: please explain yourself.
I don’t want to be mean! This concert was lovely! But the song selection and order left me extremely confused. It started off fine! “Once Upon a Time,” ‘Your Best Friend,” “Fallen Down,” “Ruins,” “Home,” “Heartache,” “sans,” and “Snowy” all proceeded in the order one would expect them to. Chronologically, through the game.
But then, things started to get a little goofy. We skipped absolutely everything to do with Papyrus and went straight to “Snowdin Town,” then “Waterfall,” then “Memory” for some reason. There was a fantastic rendition of “Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap,” followed by “Dummy!” and, inexplicably, “Temmie Village” and “Spooktune,” two songs that did not need to be played by a symphony orchestra for any reason. We did get “NGAHHH!!!” and “Spear of Justice” in roughly the right spot, but then we leaped over the entirety of Hotland to do “Spider Dance” and “It’s Raining Somewhere Else,” then straight over Core to the finale of the game: “Undertale,” “Small Shock,” “Bergentruckung,” and “ASGORE” to close Act 1. I won’t detail Act 2 in the same way but it was similarly chaotic, reaching back to the parts of the game missed before in a rather scattered way before the True Ending boss battle music kicked in. It ended, correctly, on “Megalovania,” thank God.
There were probably good reasons to put songs in the order they were in. For instance, if you try to do the soundtrack in order, there’s not really a good, clean finale for Act 1 of a concert, nothing huge to end on. So I respect putting “ASGORE” there, it was a great end to the act. I can get over the wonky ordering. And I can also get over the idea that certain songs were inevitably going to be left out, because we cannot sit here for three hours and play the whole thing. But the choices of what to skip were baffling. Several songs were not played at all that I am completely floored did not appear, when stuff like “Temmie Village” and “Spooktune” and the not-even-in-the-game “Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans” made it in.
Here’s a list of 11 songs that were not in Undertale: The Determination Symphony, in increasing order of how bewildered I am that they did not make it in.
Can You Really Call This A Hotel, I Didn’t Receive A Mint On My Pillow Or Anything
I assume this wasn’t included because it has the same melody as a bunch of other songs in Undertale (it’s literally just the main Undertale theme), so I’m not really upset by it, but I just love this jazzy remix and if you have room to play “Memory,” which is just a music box version of “His Theme,” you have room for this.
Stronger Monsters
Again, I’m not too hung up on this; it’s the battle theme for “Hard Mode” which is literally just some enemies in the Ruins and doesn’t encompass the full game. But it’s a cool, perky little theme, and would have gone well as a bumper to “Enemy Approaching” (more on that shortly).
An Ending
I promise this is the last one I don’t feel super strongly about, but I do think this key-changed, piano version of “Ruins” would have made a fantastic segue into a proper finale encompassing the true ending songs.
Reunited
This is one of the longest songs on the soundtrack and is such a nice come-down after “Hopes and Dreams/SAVE the World.” I assume it’s the length that got it excluded, because we cannot be having three-hour symphony concerts. Again, I know, I know we can’t fit in every song, but not doing just a straight run of “Hopes and Dreams/SAVE the World/His Theme/Reunited/Bring It In, Guys!/Last Goodbye” to end act 2 is so confusing to me!
Quiet Water
This would have slotted in so perfectly right after “Waterfall” or between “Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap” and “Dummy!” It’s only 32 seconds long. There are shorter songs they made a meal of for this symphony!
Here We Are
Okay, now we’re hitting the stuff I’m genuinely confused about. This is the first of two major map themes that the concert did not include, and I would have loved to see what an orchestra did with this haunting theme. Even could have paired it with “Amalgam” for some really unsettling stuff.
Start Menu/Menu (Full)
I think this should have opened Act 2 and should have slowly escalated from the first menu theme, adding instruments each time, until it was the final, full theme with the whole orchestra.
Bring It In, Guys!/Last Goodbye
I assume the game’s two excellent credits themes were not included because they didn’t know what to show on-screen while these were playing and probably didn’t want to show the game’s credits and Kickstarter backers. I am, nonetheless, annoyed by this choice. That final piano melody in the recording was played live by Toby Fox for the game version and it gets me every time.
Another Medium
All right, now things are just getting a little silly. “Another Medium” is not only a fantastic piece of music, it’s the entire theme of Hotland, which is a huge section of the game. I’ve been able to rationalize every other omission in my head up to this point, but I genuinely don’t understand why this wasn’t included.
Battle Against a True Hero
This concert should have ended on the credits music, and we should have gotten this and “Megalovania” back-to-back as an encore. Undyne was done dirty, this is one of the best pieces on the soundtrack.
Enemy Approaching
THIS IS THE GAME’S BASIC-ASS NORMAL BATTLE THEME AND IT WAS NOT PLAYED AT THE CONCERT.
