By Toby Fox, with guitar by Stephanie MacIntire

If you haven’t played Undertale, skip this song for now. Trust me. If you can, go pick up the game: it’s only ten bucks on Steam. You only have to play through it once to hear this tune (though I suspect afterwards, you’ll want to try out some of the other game routes too). It’s worth it to go in unspoiled.

Undertale is an apt title for the song itself. In an interview Toby mentioned that this was one of the few songs that went through multiple iterations, and the extra effort shows. This track fits the game as a main theme better than any other, and it’s my favorite song on the album.

Its two main melodies are teased early on as a motif for two important characters. It’s no accident that this is the bit you have to tap out when the piano puzzle comes up. It’s Chekov’s melody: the puzzle baits you into memorizing the song to open a locked door, but that reward is just window-dressing. The purpose of the puzzle is to plant the memory of that song in your head. And you’ll inevitably associate those first eight notes with a sad, cold monument, devoid of life, deep in the underground.

So when that same melody comes back along, the contrast is jarring: it’s warm, cheery, and full of life. It’s the same song, but before something terrible has happened. And your prior encounters with other characters make you all too aware that the approaching end will require a good person to die.

Like many, the first time I heard it was in-game. And the scene floored me. It’s been a long time since a piece of fiction has had that sort of effect on me. At that moment in the game, the storyline hits a superb, sad climax, and this song makes it all the more shattering.

The soundtrack to Toby Fox’s game Undertale can be purchased from Bandcamp.