On October 17 and 18, the Manila stop of UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony World Tour was held at the Proscenium Theater, Rockwell. Under the baton of Maestro Thanapol Setabrahmana, the 25-piece Filharmonika Orchestra performed the soundtracks of the critically acclaimed video game. Presented by Film Concerts PH, the concert garnered four sold-out shows in total.
Prologue: Pre-Show
Released in 2015, Undertale has become one of the most popular indie video games, with downloads well exceeding 10 million across all gaming platforms, and its influence enduring even after a decade since its release. The mastermind behind it is a man called Toby Fox, who created and coded the game, wrote the story and composed the music.
The role-playing game, featuring SNES-adjacent pixel art and purely textual dialogues, has captured millions of hearts and imagination of people over the years. The plot goes: You (a human child / the player) fall into the world of monsters called the Underground. In order to find your way home, you travel across different places, struggling with the overarching conflict between humans and monsters. Therein lies your options: you can choose to eliminate or to spare whoever crosses your path. Your choices will lead to lasting consequences which will then affect the ruminations and the trials of your character. The game itself has layers of scenarios and endings, depending on the route you take.
Minutes before the show, throngs of fans gathered at the theater lobby, wearing their most creative impressions of their favorite characters . Some were handing out freebies like stickers and pins with their personal artworks. Many were excitedly talking about their costumes and taking photos together. At the heart of it, the fandom felt like a community of familiar friends who met up to watch the show together.
The CORE: The Determination Symphony Highlights
The concert, in its 1.5-hour runtime, felt like one big, undulating adventure. While the Filharmonika Orchestra played, the video snippets of the game played in the background in almost the same progression as the game. It began with the opening notes of “Once Upon the Time” which plays during the introduction sequence, progressed to the song at the start menu and meeting Flowey aka “Your Best Friend”, and so on.
Maestra Thanapol Setabrahmana welcomed the crowd to the concert, encouraging them to cheer for their favorite characters while the show went on. The orchestra proceeded to play tracks from the different stages: The Ruins, Snowdin, Waterfall and Hotland.
Experiencing UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony live was definitely a unique concert experience. It was as if the entire audience was playing the same game at the same time, as if we were all gathered to re-immerse ourselves in the best aspects of Undertale. “Cozy” would be one way to describe the concert. Whether you started playing Undertale 10 years ago or yesterday (or even if you had not played it at all), you would still feel welcome enough to enjoy the concert from your own perspective.
The concert elevated the game’s music – what used to be lo-fi, 8-bit songs were transformed into a grand symphonic spectacle, making every minute of it more intense. Fans cheered passionately when a new character appeared (special acknowledgement goes to Sans, Papyrus, Mettaton and Undyne), their thematic songs playing in the background. The calming melodies of “Home”, “Snowy” and “Waterfall” were comforting to listen to, its tender piano reminiscent of the game’s introspective silence.
Undertale’s quirky humor also had their moments in the show. When “Oh! One True Love” played, the Maestro Setabrahmana signaled to the crowd, and right then and there, the audience began to sing “oh my love”, and the song took a life of its own. In the game, the song was played during Mettaton’s mock opera performance to taunt the player, its sarcastic lyrics flashing loudly on screen.
The Filharmonika Orchestra turned up the brass and the strings when the battle themes like “Dummy”, “Spear of Justice”, “Spider Dance”, “Death by Glamor” and “ASGORE” played. People in the crowd were bobbing their heads following the pulsing and thrilling beats while the visuals on screen thoroughly reminded them of the stress induced by the incessant bullet-hell mechanics. Sniffles and soft sighs were heard during the sequence of the conclusive battle with Asriel Dreemur leading up to the ultimate, happy ending.
For the encore, the ever popular “Megalovania”, in its intensified guitar-heavy glory, was just about the perfect closer to the electrifying show. At its last beat, the crowd rose from their seats to give the orchestra a much-deserved standing ovation.
For fans, UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony was an impeccable way to re-experience the game with the special addition of a live orchestra – a great way for them to celebrate the game’s best moments as a fan community, as shown by their collective cheers, sighs, gasps and laughter. The show was so evocatively good, that at the end of it, fans of the game were filled not only by determination, but an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and satisfaction.
Special thanks to Film Concerts PH!
by Sandra Mae Laureano
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