Undertale - Pet dogs and date a skeleton!

@Ery Thrismal

Spoiler: obliteration route

Well, there's actually a convenient save right before the Undyne the Undying boss fight. A save that doesn't appear in a neutral or pacifist run - it's there only in the obliteration route, simply because the Undyne fight happens on the bridge and thus the pre-boss save has to be before the bridge. That save point is actually a little weird/creepy as well, simply because it doesn't have a location name. So, instead of "Temmie Village" or "Undyne Arena" there's just...

A blank space.
(My brother suggested "GLaDOS". It's been one of the only humorous parts of this run.)

Since I already knew this save point existed, I really should have gone ahead even after the warning message, just to see what would happen, then doubled back and killed the last monster. But I was creeped out enough that I just went and did the last kill instead.

Other things I've noticed this run:
-If you murder Toriel and go back to Home, it's silent at first? But then if you go and turn the lights out in your room, then you can get slower/darker versions of the Home daytime and nighttime music to play.
-Also once you've killed Toriel and gone back to Home, there's one flavor text that changes: the stove says "Seems like there's no one to use this anymore" or something similar? (This may not be specific to the obliteration route; it may just show up whenever you kill Toriel :c)
-The books in the librarby are all the same, except for the most frivolous one - that one's description is replaced with, "(Some unfinished book.)"

In any case, I've now defeated Undyne the Undying, using the ballet shoes and cloudy glasses. It took me 12 tries.

 

Spoiler: 3:45 am clsspect thoughts

I thought about it a little in the weirdmaggedon thread, but I've come to rwalize Idon't like a lot od what I said before.

@IvyLB convinced me that Sans is probably a knight. He's got that facade he presents to the world as protection from greatest pain, a need to face despair and fear before he'll step up to what's needed, and a tendency to act in defense of others. I think I want him as Space player, since he can teleport around and he needs to be alive to avoid the bad end.

I want Frisk to be a Time player. Main character with reset powers. And I want the to be a Page, since we/they deciide what they become; writing the story on their blank slate.

Mettaton should be a Breath player, for his talking and singing, and his longing for freedom and self expression that had him leave his friends and old life behind. Not yet certain of class. Maybe Bard of Breath to be funny. Because he tend to break others dreams in order to live out his own. And Blooky and Shyren sure didn't improve in his absense (though for Shyren it's more because her sister...)

More thoughts later

Eta haha Chara could be Thief of Heart. Asshole child who pushes others boundaries and manipulates them and ultimately steals your soul in that one route

I tend toward Heir of Hope for Papyrus. Something about receiving/creating with his beliefs.

Not sure if want Life or Doom for Asgore. Maybe Prince of Life. The challenge to learn when to, and when not to, take them.

Maybe Undyne could have Blood. She's strongest when she's feeling the beat of everyone's wills (hearts and hopes and dreams) and she's doing her best to help them be real.

Alphys wanted to create things that would gain her positive attention from Asgore in particular... and dreaded Mettaton not needing her anymore... and hid in shame went everything went pear shaped, to point of possibly suicidal.

I keep liking mind for Toriel.

Gaster is/was/willbe void. Haha.


Eta 2
But i like the understanding of classpects as, like... the things they need to learn to overcome / accept / deal with. The stuff of themselves that they're swept along by, and need to lern to Choose what they're doing instead of inclination choosing for them. And I like when the clases and the apects have overlap, so you can choose the one with the most punny relevance. Like rosr in homestuck as seer of light seems silly at firstx si.ce she starts the game rushing aj impatient and gothy. But she is one who seeks illumination, one who looks into darkness to find light.


So considering Mettaton's neutrl end, Bard of Breath is pretty fuckihg great for him.

And he would totally make tue cod piece work, somehow.

Okay now leavingpursued by pillows

 

@IvyLB

Papyrus and Sans being perfect

 

how adorable :'D

 

hey everyone here has listened to the determination album right? if not oh my god listen to it please

 

@adisagestar I haven't yet but I meant to when a friend of mine posted about it on Tumblr, and then I forgot about it entirely, so I appreciate the reminder!

edit: OKAY DANG this is spectacular. I'm up to Nihilist and omg, I think I'll have to buy this album. I've really needed new music and this hits the spot.

 

holy jesus I am freaking out about this album too. Good remixes of Your Best Nightmare have become my Thing, and An Evening With the Unhallowed may make me cry if it continues being this good.

 

I think I like listening to this album more than I like listening to the actual soundtrack, these dudes are so talented. (also the actual soundtrack songs are usually a weird length because they're intended to loop :P) I'm definitely gong to buy this when I can.

Also dang it who do I have to fight to get RichaadEB to do a cover of Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans. It is my favorite but there are hardly any covers of it out there :U

 

Ahhh i like the lengths of the songs on the soudtrack but i'm hella weird :D
but gosh this album is so so so fuckin kickass

agreed oh my god STMPWYFS is so awesome

 

Well, I bought it, but Bandcamp insists there's something wrong with my internet connection and won't let me download it. :| I went through their whole troubleshooting page, and no joy. Considering I don't have trouble downloading from anywhere else on the Internet, I wonder if the problem is on their end. Anyone else having a problem?

edit: Tried it again just now and it worked. Maybe there was a problem between me and them, or they were having a problem, but literally nothing changed on my end, soooo...

 

also while we're on the topic of music, has anyone else noticed how similar Here We Are and Your Best Nightmare sound? Is there one of those melody comparison videos out there anywhere for them? I'm not just making this up, am I?

 

they aren't very similar from just a very brief listen
i'd have to do a full analysis on the sheet music to find out if some of the thematic material in YBN could be mirrored/reversed melodies from HWA...
i'm gona go to bed but if anyone has an idea of where to get sheet music (preferably slightly simplified piano arrangements, but i could try to read from full orchestra/conductor's version) or could just hand me links i could be back tomorrow with a halfway funded analysis of whether there is a thing here.

 

An interesting observation. The "Here we are" tune has more to it? Like, the start of Your Best Nightmare has those triads of notes, but HWA has 4-6 notes.

compare here

it's also hard for me to say since YMN is so much faster sounding.

 

Yeah, I don't think it's a leitmotif repeat the way some other tracks are, but it sounds like Toby took bits of Your Best Nightmare (which only has melody in short diced-up chunks anyway) and then messed with them and built around them until they didn't much resemble the original. They sound similar to me but I can't quite articulate how - something about the chord progression? Idk, I don't know much music theory. But I will go try to find the sheet music, there have been enough covers of these songs that it has to be out there somewhere.

 

Here is the only Here We Are sheet music a cursory google gave me (youtube video), here is Your Best Nightmare, here is a steam forum thread full of undertale sheet music including a version of Your Best Nightmare which I believe is slightly different, and here is yet another version of Your Best Nightmare with different instrumentation in case having the parts separated helps.

The steam thread also has Amalgam sheet music, which might be helpful since it is definitely related to Here We Are.

 

*CRACKS KNUCKLES* *CRIES BECAUSE CRIPPLE HANDS*
time to dust off my Music A-Levels then this might take me forever BUT since i'm actually helping to compose on a project rn i can use the practice

 

From a brief listen, the melody for the first part of Your Best Nightmare is Bb, A, C; Bb, A, C#.

Here We Are's initial melody is E, F#, G# A B; E, F#, B C# D.

While it's essentially impossible to make out a chord progression from Your Best Nightmare due to the lack of harmonic material (I'm of the suspicion that it uses more than one key signature at the same time, that's not totally unheard-of in weird modern music), there is a superficial similarity: both of them have the melody being the same thing repeated twice, with the second iteration having the last note (or few notes) slightly higher than the first.

I don't think this resemblance is more than superficial, though: Here We Are is actually using Alphys' theme.

 

from a brief look at the sheet music there is at least somewhat harmonic coherence in your best nightmare. A lot of the chords have the identifying parts cut out making for the sort of free floating scary thing.
and the only real stylistic similarity is that toby loves his bass lines very melodic and dynamic apparently. Both YBN and HWA have a bit of an atonal free floating harmonics thing going on.
but i think the biggest difference is that HWA is so blatantly 10/8 ad composed to be that measure. Which was what initially confused me a lot because there are parts that sound a bit like parts of the true labs section of soundtrack in floweys bullshit but if it is it's more of a stylistic nod than real thematic relations.
might be what you're hearing is the way that photoshop flowey's main motif sounds a bit like the very first three notes of the motif in Here We Are if the last of those was drawn out longer?

 

Spoiler

If there are thematic relations, that would be appropriate, since that's where Flowey came to be. So I'm sorta hoping there is.

 

Yes, this is definitely what I was picking up on! And there were other parts that also sounded similar for similar reasons but I can't quite pinpoint where atm. Also if you haven't already, you should have a look at Amalgam, it's in the same key as the beginning of YBN and I think its melody is more similar?

Yes I was thinking of this too! It would be kind of thematically satisfying if they were at least related.

Spoiler

And even more satisfying if Amalgam and YBN are related, because they're both themes for tragic abominations of science created by Alphys :)