Undertale "Asgore in Wonderland" 4:54

Square Enix Music just announced a 10th anniversary partnership with Undertale! What are they going to be tag-teaming up with Toby Fox on? Among other unannounced projects, there's gonna be a chill arrangement album dropping early next year, Undertale: Chitei de Chill! When we can, we like to celebrate gaming news in our own special way: timely themed ReMixes! Lucas Guimaraes once again chooses the chillsynth route for a villain's theme, this time smooving out Undertale's "Asgore":

"As a continued effort into following Synth Designer, I'm just focusing on chillsynth to up my production game. This one has *some* similar sounds to "Do Re Dedede", but I think it's interesting to take something and see how far I can push it.

Biggest thing that happened on this arrangement is I really like the melodies that Asgore's theme has, but I kind of wanted to see what would happen if I explored different sections. With some push, shove, and about 11 hours of editing later, we have a version of Asgore's theme that's very, very focused on having as much of Asgore's theme as possible, but kind of all over the place. Exploring the vibes. It's one of my favorite themes from Undertale too, so I figured it was finally time to do it.

It's actually funny because I'm noticing a lot of similarities with "Do Re Dedede", even linking Xaleph both tracks and having him go "Clean as heck, I'd listen to this." Still, it's always nice to get feedback from other experienced producers, as they usually give me angles that even I hadn't considered.

But talking more about the track: There's not really much else to say in terms of the production itself, but one thing I definitely enjoyed is just exploring the push and pull of this. Despite how crazy my arrangements are, I tend to be a pretty linear arranger with the source, so this one really let me out of my comfort zone. Maybe not enough messing with the rhythm as much as I'd like (something I'm aiming to explore more with material!), but it creates a sonic palette that makes you wonder what will happen next.

Oh, for the title, I went with a play on Alice in Wonderland. Undertale has a similar plot structure (person gets thrown into a strange land and tries to get out), so why not "Asgore in Wonderland"? Similar to that book (and, of course, the 1951 Disney adaptation), this remix will leave you wondering. Hope you all enjoy!"

Judge jnWake showed Lucas love for undertaking understated Undertale and rewardingly retaining his interest for its entirety:

"You really are in a big synthwave mood, aren't you? I dunno why of all themes possible you keep picking boss themes though!

Anyway, this begins with some nice pads and synths until a melody from the source enters around 0:21. We then get a thumpy kick that's very heavily sidechained, and a bit later we get snare, hihat and a cowbell-ish thing. Eventually another melody from the source is thrown into the mix. It's a nice soundscape really, especially when it's "full" (around 0:50 onwards). [...] There's a break at 1:11, I love the panning of the shakers (?). [...] There's another break around 2:47 with some ethereal pads. At 3:00 a source melody kicks in and then we get one of the main themes of the source on a crystal-ish synth. I enjoy that you changed up the kick and hat pattern for this section, adds some nice variety. Around 4:00 the melody from 1:35 returns on the most regular synth of the entire track so far! There's one final break at 4:24 and the track ends peacefully.

On arrangement this is an interesting track. I feel you nailed the mood you were going for and even managed to make it engaging for almost 5 minutes, a definitely bold length for a genre like this. [...]

On production this is very good, you did a nice job creating the various synth patches used in the track (or choosing presets, however you found the samples!). [...]

Overall, another fun track in your synthwave spree!"

Sounds to me like a great advertisment for Guimaraes's emerging chillsynth services. He oughta see if he can slide himself in as a bonus 21st track on Chitei de Chill. :-) We dunno if he sees a future in approaching more VGM enemy themes in this style -- we wouldn't wanna boss him around (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk) -- but Lucas is very clearly two for two with chillsynth, so one can't help but smell a viable concept album!