MEGALOVANIA
do you wanna have a bad time?
'cause if you take another step forward...
you are REALLY not going to like what happens next.Sans before his boss fight
MEGALOVANIA (/ˌmɛ.ɡə.loʊ.ˈveɪ.ni.ə/) is the 100th track in the UNDERTALE Soundtrack. It is a fast-paced track which plays during the final battle against Sans on the Genocide Route. Unlike almost all of the soundtrack, MEGALOVANIA does not contain any leitmotifs from any other tracks on the OST.
The word "Megalovania" is a combination of "Megalomania" and "Transylvania".
"Megalomania" is the boss theme from the game Live A Live, which served as an inspiration for "Megalovania". Though Megalovania does not directly quote Megalomania's melody, it has a similar feeling and structure. In real life, megalomania is the delusion of being vastly more important and powerful than one really is. The word Transylvania was jammed into the name to give it a feeling reminiscent of Halloween.[1]
"Megalovania" was originally composed for Toby Fox's hack of EarthBound known as "Radiation's Halloween Hack" which was a submission to Starmen.Net's 2008 Halloween Funfest.[2][3][4]
"Radiation's Halloween Hack" was about an alternate universe of EarthBound where the chosen four never returned, or simply put "bad rom hack with swears".[5] According to "The Making of Radiation's Halloween Hack", the track Megalomanía from Live A Live was originally planned to be used as the game's final boss theme instead. Toby Fox never got around to it, so he "yelled whatever [he] felt like into a microphone and copied it down", thus creating "Megalovania".[6] It took him an entire Sunday to create and implement the song in his hack.[7] Toby Fox has also hinted that Megalovania was also inspired by the SFC/SNES version of "Gadobadorrer" from Brandish 2: The Planet Buster, where the hack's protagonist originated from.[8]
Megalovania would later be reused for the webcomic Homestuck, as MeGaLoVania on the Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent album with guitars from Joren "Tensei" de Bruin. This version makes a brief appearance in the Trickster Mode of "[S] Past Karkat: Wake up." and then makes a full appearance in "[S] Wake." This track's leitmotif is reused in the Homestuck soundtrack, such as in a few of the tracks in the AlterniaBound album: The Blind Prophet by Toby Fox, She's a Sp8der, and FIDUSPAWN, GO! all contain the leitmotif. Ascend, from a later album, also contains the leitmotif.
It was directly mentioned in an interview with Toby Fox, as one of the songs originally composed for other projects. The others being Fallen Down, Ghost Fight, Heartache, sans., Nyeh Heh Heh!, Bonetrousle, and Another Medium.[9][10][11]
After its appearance in Undertale, a remix of the Undertale version appeared in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as paid DLC with the Sans Outfit for $0.75 released on September 4, 2019. This version also briefly features the leitmotifs of Heartache and Bonetrousle. The original Undertale arrangement also appeared in Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! for the Nintendo Switch in the Undertale DLC Pack.
A cover named Yeah It Is created by fellow Homestuck composer James Roach was released on April 4, 2020 and later officially included as Aradia Megido's theme in Volume 8 of Pesterquest.
A remix named Megalovania of the Empty Corse makes an appearance in Touhou Danmaku Kagura: Phantasia Lost, as part of the second collaboration between Toby Fox and ZUN.
MEGALOVANIA played during a general audience for Pope Francis in early 2022 as part of a circus performance.[12] This event gathered media attention.[13]
- The original version of Megalovania from Radiation's Halloween Hack was in the key of A in a minor blues scale, whereas the version found in Undertale is a pitched up, slightly faster and modified version in the key of D minor.
- Toby Fox's mother calls MEGALOVANIA "MEGALAVEGALA".[16]
- The 2019 remix of MEGALOVANIA was the first Super Smash Bros. track to be released with a Mii Fighter.
- Toby Fox has composed a 'sequel' to Megalovania dubbed Megalo Strike Back which was composed for the I Miss You - EarthBound 2012 album.[17]
- Toby Fox has stated that Megalovania - Clash with a Doctor, the version found in the MOTHER fangame "Cognitive Dissonance" (CogDis), was not made by him on his Twitter account.[18]
- For the remake of Live A Live, producer Takashi Tokita had Yoko Shimomura compose "GIGALOMANIA" to go "even further beyond" the original MEGALOMANIA, but Toby Fox said he would not use the name "GIGALOVANIA".[19]
- ↑ "Namewise yes, it is a direct reference to Megalomania from Live A Live. I've seen a few people pick up on that because that's cool. The chords are kind of similar but I wouldn't say it's a huge inspiration for the COMPOSITION of the song itself but it's TOTALLY attempting to be the kind of a badass song that might be suitable for a similar purpose. A little more in-depth: I originally made it for that Halloween EarthBound hack forever ago (and by forever ago I mean "back in high school") and people were ripping the song themselves from the game. I felt like maybe I should do a semi-official release ripped straight from the music editor program (the song actually lags in-game). I realized the song didn't have a name, so I took the inspiration for the track and the whole idea of the final battle (Megalomania) and just slammed some Halloweeniness into it (transylVANIA) and boom Megalovania."- Toby Fox. January 7, 2011. MSPA Forums.
- ↑ "Okay, finally finished. After wayyy over 140 hours (I spent hours every day since 9-12, yeah some days I didn't do stuff but some days I was up until 12 since after school) I have finished my hack. Eeeeek." - Toby Fox. November 1, 2008. Starmen.Net.
- ↑ "This is the censored version of my hack. Technically they are exactly the same except for some swears near the end, but if you don't mind or are judging, I highly suggest you play the version provided at the following URL: http://forum.starmen.net/forum_attachments/0007/0301/radiationhalloweenhack.zip Otherwise, this hack is NOT appropriate for you." - Toby Fox. November 6, 2008. Starmen.Net. Halloween Funfest 2008.
- ↑ "Today is Halloween, so it's a good time to post some Halloweeny stuff! So my obvious choice was Radiation's Halloween hack of EarthBound from last year." - Mato. October 31, 2009. EarthBound Central.
- ↑ "I guess I should just accept "bad rom hack with swears" as part of my eternal legacy" - Toby Fox. February 9, 2016.
- ↑ "This is it, the final boss theme. I wanted to put Live A Live's Megalomania in here but I didn't get to so I made my own last boss song. I pretty much just yelled whatever I felt like into a mike and copied it down. Yep. Took forever, but it was superkickass-worth-it. Total embodiment of final bossitude." - Toby Fox. The Making of Radiation's Halloween Hack.
- ↑ "Even as I got better, songs took a hell of a long time to make. I know that the last boss song took me an entire Sunday to do, just because I had to code every single slide, every single fade-in, every single instrument change, every single NOTE... seriously. When you play my hack, just appreciate every single note and pixel I had to make. It took forever, okay!?" — Toby Fox, "THE MAKING OF RADIATION'S HALLOWEEN HACK".
- ↑ "also, the last boss music was a little inspired by brandish 2's, see if you can catch the similarities" - Toby Fox on the making of Radiation's Halloween Hack.
- ↑
There's an arrangement of a song from a previous project here, as well. People are well aware of this one.
— INTERVIEW: TOBY FOX OF UNDERTALE (Feeld, Julian, August 10, 2015.) Existential Gamer. - ↑ UNDERTALE 10th Anniversary Stream - Day 1 (01:17:14) on YouTube
- ↑
This song wasn't made for Undertale either. It (and bonetrousle) were the main battle themes of an RPG game I was working on before Undertale, based off a dream I had. However, I didn't plan it very well, so the project fell apart before I accomplished a single room. "Sans" was also a song in the game called "Muscles," and "Heartache" was a song called "Joker Battle." Anyway, I always mess up playing this song on the piano, so if you can't play it, it's not a big deal. Since it's Papyrus, it's OK as long as you try your best.
— @dailytobyfoxtrivia on Twitter, March 08, 2024. - ↑ Udienza Generale 05 gennaio 2022 Papa Francesco (01:04:38) on YouTube
- ↑
We are only six days into 2022 and the year is off to an absolutely delirious start. Thanks to a flamboyant circus troupe, we can now say with complete certainty that Pope Francis himself has listened to "Megalovania," the iconic track from Toby Fox's hit game, Undertale.
— The Pope listening to Undertale's 'Megalovania' is already 2022's weirdest video (Diaz, Ana, January 06, 2022.) Polygon. - ↑ "guys one of the songs in my hack is so intense that although EBMused and ZSNES can play it alright, snesamp actually slows down trying to play it because it has so many channels going at once" — Toby Fox. October 04, 2008. Starmen.Net. Archived from the original on January 31, 2009. Retrieved February 02, 2026.
- ↑ "Just to help you understand why it took me a while to make GOOD music, here's a picture of the music editor:" — Toby Fox, "THE MAKING OF RADIATION'S HALLOWEEN HACK".
- ↑
mom: "So the song that everyone likes... Megalavegala or whatever?
— Toby Fox (@tobyfox) on Twitter, October 22, 2015. Archived on August 29, 2017. - ↑
It's also a reference to Megalovania, the other boss song I made using EarthBound instrumentation for a ROM Hack I created during my junior year of High School.
— fwugradiation on Tumblr, March 18, 2012. - ↑ "the version of megalovania in cognitive dissonance is not by me it's a fansong (?) by this guy:" — Toby Fox. September 22, 2015.
- ↑ "Supposing I ever had to write a piece that would go “even further beyond”… Personally, I do not think I would use the name “GIGALOVANIA”." — Toby Fox. "LIVE A LIVE: a conversation between Yoko Shimomura and Toby Fox - part 3". Square Enix Blog. May 26, 2023. Archived from the original on June 08, 2023. Retrieved March 09, 2026.