Coming from a household where my parents grew up around only the Atari, video games had a persisting stigma around them in more traditional art spaces, often being perceived as “wastes of time” or a brainless and lazy way to wantonly fire dopamine with no real impact. What the determination symphony represents to me is that video games are art, that this very sentiment is only growing with time, and that fills me with joy. Video games have insane potential as an art medium, with every piece being afforded the opportunity to explore its own art direction, story genre, game design, and of course, soundtrack.
When Undertale was released in 2015, it almost immediately garnered a massive following and received mounds of praise from both its swiftly massive fanbase and varying critics. Releasing in the same year as games like Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Undertale entered an already saturated market. What set Undertale apart was the passion that went into its development, the simple yet incredibly endearing writing of its world, its powerful artistic messaging, and its superb brevity, with playthroughs taking only 6-10 hours. Ultimately, Undertale serves as a beautifully meta exploration of video games as an art form and how a player’s relationship with a game can make them feel deeper for it.
Attending Undertale: The Determination Symphony was in itself a pleasure. Seeing people floating around the venue, some in cosplay, feeling a connection with strangers stronger than what I would form with most acquaintances was powerful. Knowing that at some point, everyone around me had understood the same feelings I did. As I got seated and watched the musicians take the stage, I wondered how many of them felt the same way.
The first part of the performance went through the first area of the game and was beautifully evocative. The expression that a full orchestra is able to encompass is, needless to say, greater than the original retro-console sound style of the original game. But the music’s composition translates well to being expanded upon by a full chamber orchestra. It makes the music feel new but still familiar. It’s a rare dynamic that makes the music feel comfortable and awesome in exquisite tandem. After the first blurb, the symphony broke off from linearly progressing through the game and broke off into playing different tracks from different sections.
I’m not going to bore you with saying “and then they played this and it was awesome” over and over. My singular complaint about the symphony is that it opted to arrange the music to be played in an order that preferred fan favorites over progressing linearly through the game. Generally though, the experience of the determination symphony did allow me to relive Undertale in a way that felt fresh and let me really relish the emotionally rich experience all over again. Everyone can relate to the idea of living through something that they loved and wanting to do it for the first time again. To get to graze that feeling is a distinct privilege, not wasted on me.
What Undertale represents, especially through Undertale: The Determination Symphony is a growing sentiment that accepts video games as an art form. Undertale is a game that places a very special emphasis on the idea that the only way a video game’s story progresses is directly through a player’s input. That their individual choices matter, and that in many ways, they are just as important in the unfolding of the narrative as the creator. The events of the story are experienced by the person going through the game as much as they are the main character. To think that millions of people’s individual support is what allowed Undertale to evolve into a franchise big enough to sell out the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, is brilliantly poetic.
I was, and am, immensely happy that Undertale: The Determination Symphony exists. In times where forms of art like live orchestra are often underappreciated, an ambient fear of their decline lingers. Having played cello for eight years throughout middle and high school, I have a deep admiration for the time and effort that musicians take to perfect their craft. Performances like this prove that there is not only still demand but also that modern works of art can continue to create demand in the modern day.
They prove that with enough individuals’ love and support, pieces made by tiny teams can explode into worldwide fandom. At the end of the day, it’s just nice to be reminded that something that brings me so much joy makes others feel the same way. I left the show much in the same way I finished Undertale, emotional, brimming with joy, and with renewed and unwavering faith in the integrity of the human soul.