Creating music first can be a useful way to figure out the identity and tone of a boss or scene. However, ideas and characters change, and those initial ideas don't always end up working out…
So, here's some rejected tracks from the second chapter!
Power of NEO Unfinished
After creating UNDERTALE, one of my goals for DELTARUNE was for players to finally be able to challenge a "real" version of Mettaton NEO that didn't just end in one turn. For that purpose, I actually created a few music mockups for an extended version of Power of NEO.
There's even another one from 2016 (lol)
… Unfortunately, try I might, I could never create a full-length version of the song that I was satisfied with. Eventually, the boss concept evolved to involve Spamton, and with that, the music changed as well.
I still like the last half of the song. The guitar section was inspired by Brandish's song "Ending 2". All of it is pretty placeholder though.
It's still fun to imagine fighting something to this... Though, if I was given another opportunity to extend POWER OF NEO, I would probably do something different.
Power of SPAMTON older / Power of Spamton
Unfinished tracks. The drums are especially placeholder.
Once Spamton's presence in the NEO battle became solidified, I realized the original track wouldn't fit anymore. So, I tried to work in some more sinister and creepy feelings... That idea became this.
The two tracks are nearly identical, but the "newer" version has different drums and more elements of Spamton's theme in the intro. (It's also even more unfinished...)
Spamton battle forgotten
Apparently this was the first concept I came up with for Spamton's battle theme. To be honest, I have absolutely no memory of this. When I found it in my files I was quite surprised. (Maybe Spamton made it himself...)
By the way, originally I was planning to have Spamton's intro song, "HEY EVERY !", also be his shop theme. It was planned that it would slowly drop in pitch the longer you stayed in the shop until it was unrecognizable. But, that ultimately did not match the tone of the dialogue, so I ended up using Dialtone for that.
Giga Queen Old
The song that plays when Giga Queen first appears is actually…
A slowed down version of the original battle song I had created for her!!!
Though the instruments are placeholder, I actually think this song isn't half bad. Just, it didn't really sound much like a boxing match. After I created the Thrash Machine power up sequence beforehand, I decided to instead make a song based on that.
Castle town unfinished
Originally I wanted the Castle Town to sound very upbeat, but something about it reminded me of like… That one Gotye song.
The melody of the initial parts ended up a bit too repetitive for me. I really like how the song sounds from 0:45.
The song is completely unfinished past 1:27.
Rouxls Battle
I actually showed this one before. But the truth is that I had made it for Chapter 2 and not Chapter 1. The song was way too serious though, so I had to make a goofier battle theme later.
Queen battle original
I think this is my favorite of the unfinished tracks... At least, it's the one I listened to the most when I was working on the game.
Back when Queen looked more intimidating, I wanted to use this as her boss theme. Personally I still really like it, and I even wanted to try to use it for Berdly's battle instead... but the issue was that it just didn't match either of the theme melodies I had already created for those characters.
Bizarrely, I seem to have made this after already making her theme song, as an early version of her theme song is inside of the project file.
1:30 onward (piano only) is totally unfinished.