Toby Fox vs Yoko Shimomura

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A good video game soundtrack sticks with the listener long after the game has ended. It will hit the victorious moments with jubilant chords, and deepen the emotional moments, with unsettling strings and melancholy melodies. Everyone has a game soundtrack that rings in their mind and is always there to comfort them with nostalgia.

For this round of blog posts, we distributed a poll, and decided to each take a category to write about. Which brings me to my dilemma; for my category (video game soundtracks), there was a tie. Both Kingdom Hearts and Undertale won with three . So, what better way to commemorate both memorable games than with a comparison of the artists, and their history developing music.

Toby Fox

Toby Fox's white dog persona from Undertale; a white, pixelated dog, with a big grin and an upright tale.

Toby Fox’s White Dog Persona From Undertale. It is Frequently Used as A Stand-In For his Actual Face.

Toby Fox is well known in pop culture for his first game, Undertale, and for it’s sequel, Deltarune. Both are wonderful entries into the indie genre and have stirred hearts across the globe. In the beginning, Undertale was just a proof of concept, as he was testing his abilities with game development before he moved on to truly create the game of his dreams. Fox created the game from the ground up, developing each song on the soundtrack, designing the characters, and marketing the game as it was completed. After launch, the game was picked up by a ton of Let’s Players, who ran through the game and helped popularize it, praising it for it’s unique encounters and storytelling. To this day, the game is embedded into pop culture.

However, Undertale is not the first soundtrack Fox worked on, and Megalovania, it’s most iconic number, did not originate in Undertale.

Prior To Undertale

Long before The tale, Fox debuted (at 15) with an ill-advised ROM hack of EarthBound, suitably named the “EarthBound Halloween Hack.” It was a disaster of writing, and something that Fox has come to regret. The thing that piqued interest in it, however, was that Fox either remixed or wrote entirely new pieces for the soundtrack. Most notably, in the final fight, a now-familiar tune, in it’s earliest form, can be heard. Megalovania.

The SBurb Beta Logo of Homestuck, from the early entries of the series. It's a green house, subdivided into several smaller squares.

The Sburb Beta Logo from Homestuck, often signaling earlier entries in the comic.

Then, a new project presented itself before Fox; Homestuck, an online webcomic presented with interactive elements and musical backings. For several years, Fox composed a ton of works (115 songs for the original comic, and 188 unreleased, unofficial or spin-off songs) for the comic. His leitmotifs would then be incorporated into related songs by different producers, and he was instrumental to the musical landscape that scores Homestuck.

One more thing: Megalovania once more appears in this work, remastered and renamed MeGaLoVania.

Yoko Shimomura

In the same vein as Fox, Shimomura is a masterful giant in her field, composing works for 71 soundtracks and arranging pieces for 12 more. She is best known for her work during her time at Square Enix (think Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario RPG), but she began her career at Capcom.

Before Kingdom Hearts

The Capcom Logo, which says Capcom in yellow all-caps lettering. Each letter has a blue outline around it.

Capcom Logo

In 1988, she began working at Capcom right after graduating from a prestigious college. Her parents were originally dismayed; they had paid for her education and were hesitant for her to go into video game music, which was less respected. However, she was inspired by video game music, and especially Heavenly Flight from Dragon Quest 3, and had become determined to compose music of such quality. She accepted the job despite their concerns and went on to publish a ton of popular soundtracks, most famously Street Fighter II, Final Fight, and Samurai Sword.

The Square Enix Logo, which has the words Square Enix written in all caps, thick lettering. The middle line in the uppercase "E"s are red.

Square Enix Logo

However, in 1993, she got tired of the arcade style she had been writing at Capcom and needed the change. More interested in a classical sound, she began working at Square, the company that would become Square Enix, and started off her career with a hit; Super Mario RPG. During her time at Square, she wrote some of her favourite soundtracks for Live A Live, Final Fantasy VII, and Secret of Mana. Then, she worked on what would become her best-known work, Kingdom Hearts.

Midiplex

After the release of Kingdom Hearts, Shimomura left Square Enix for maternity leave and never went back, instead going into freelance. She has since worked on every Kingdom Hearts game released, as well as a ton of music for Nintendo (the Mario & Luigi series primarily), and Capcom.

Conclusion

Both artists have seen huge success, though their rise to stardom was incredibly different and difficult. Toby Fox’s beloved game and characters pair to his stellar songwriting, while Shimomura’s signature melodies and soundtracks are a staple in most gamer’s inventories.

In a final note: A really interesting tid-bit about Megalovania itself is that it’s inspiration comes from none other than Yoko Shimomura. Shimomura’s track, Megalomania, from Live A Live was incredibly impactful for Fox, who sought to replicate it for the Halloween hack. However, he found it too difficult to remake, and instead, chose to compose a version inspired by it, instead. Thus, Megalovania (Halloween – Vampire, Transylvania, etc.) was born.

When Sarah isn’t hostage to her cat’s snuggles, she can often be found playing Stardew Valley or Minecraft. Raised on the Nintendo Wii, she’s had a life-long love of video games and hopes to express this passion through her writing. Some of her favourite games include – Paper Mario (N64, 2000), Super Paper Mario (Wii, 2007), Mario Galaxy, Hollow Knight, and Undertale.