Story-rich RPG and all-round indie darling Undertale celebrated its fifth birthday this week, with a full orchestral performance of the game's soundtrack among the festivities. Of course, with most musicians still in lock-down along with the rest of us, the concert wasn't live. Instead, a recording from May 2019 was streamed to YouTube, along with some new material; so, if you somehow missed your invitation to see the original performance in Tokyo last year, now is an excellent time to get caught up.
Japanese orchestral group Music Engine performed the concert, which was streamed with their permission to the UNDERTALE Official YouTube channel yesterday. Kota Kawai was responsible for arranging the game's original chiptune soundtrack for a full-scale orchestra; and Toby Fox, the creative triple-threat developer/writer/composer behind Undertale, performed some additional pieces himself on the piano.
Undertale's soundtrack was very well-received upon the game's release, with critics citing it as a driving force behind the game's success. Celebrating this milestone birthday with a concert feels very appropriate, then; as well as being a nice opportunity for music fans to replicate the live orchestral experience that many will have been missing in recent months.
Fox also took the opportunity to give a detailed update on the progress of Deltarune, his follow-up to Undertale, which has been quietly in development since its surprise announcement with the release of the game's first chapter on Halloween 2018. Despite no official word yet on when Chapter 2 will be out, Fox now describes himself as "very confident" that it will release before the end of 2020.
